Live in the sunshine

"Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air ..."
                           -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Just before I went to CA, I was notified by one of my favorite bloggers, Juggling Eric, that I had received the Sunshine Award for my blog!

The Sunshine Award: The Sunshine Blog Award is awarded to bloggers

whose positivity and creativity inspire others in the blog world.

First, let me say that I was not positive that positivity was a word ... it just sounds made up ... but positivity IS a word, and I know because GIYF.  However, my Google-fu over the last week has not been strong enough to find a link to the origins of this award.  Win some, lose some.

Second, let me say that bloggers giving bloggers awards feels kinda weird to me.  On one hand, I'm incredibly honored that someone thought of me when they saw this.  Heck, I'm thrilled by comments and followers, by the people who care enough about what I write that they even read it, that I'm surprised as hell to be getting an award for it!  On the other hand, it feels just a little like we're all drinking the Kool-Aid (do I have enough links to the Urban Dictionary today?).  On the gripping hand, I think my best option is to just roll with it and have a good time!

So ... apparently I'm positive and creative.  I must admit that there are days I don't feel either of those, but I guess it means I've been honest in representing my stated blog goals, which were to keep an upbeat attitude and try to focus on the good stories as much as I can!  All credit for creativity goes to my family for putting me in some of theses situations ... I swear, I couldn't make this stuff up!

The rules, according to Eric, are:

1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post
2. Pass the award to 5 bloggers
3. Link the nominees within your post
4. Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award
6. Share 5 things about yourself

So, with the logo above, I have to pass the award on and talk about myself.  I'm having trouble narrowing this down to 5, so in classic kool-aid fashion, I'm going with 6 ;-)  It'd be seven, but Eric would have been on the list, and since he gave me the award, I'm not just sending it back.  Seriously, though, among the 30ish blogs I subscribe to, these are the blogs I go read first thing in the morning, before work, no matter what.  They deserve everything they can get!

1. THIS DADDY'S BLOG: This dad has 4 kids ... which gives you an incredible sense of humor no matter what.  His posts are witty and always bring a smile to my face.
2. Life of a Father of 5: Between Scouts, procrastinated home improvement, and kids ... I find Father of Five's posts to be close to home ... often!
3. Mothers of Brothers: Emily and Jennifer are great!  They are spot on to make me smile, or cry, or get mad, or emote some other way with practically every post.  They are the ones who, when I first started this adventure, encouraged me to start writing my stories down.  There are days I feel I owe my sanity to these wonderful ladies!
4. First day of the Rest of My Life: Terry is raising her boys near where I grew up.  Not only do I love reading her posts and being a voyeur into the lives of her and her boys, I love pouring over her posts looking for references to places I used to go when I was younger!
5. Just One Foot: Terry recommended this blog to me early on when I started blogging.  I'm really glad she did.  Judy is not only one of the bravest people I've ever read about, she has some incredible life stories to tell!
6. No End in Site: This mom posts about her large, young family.  I really enjoy reading about their adventures and outings, their ups and downs.  Her posts are among the first I read when I hit my blogroll in the morning before work!

I'll go notify all these people in some comment somewhere after my afternoon meetings.  First, though, you get five things about me.  Some of these, if you read my older posts, you already know.  Some you may not.

1. I have too many cars.  We only have 3 licensed drivers living in our house, but we have 5 cars.  One extra I can understand ... two I don't.  At the same time, I can't think of any of them that I'd be willing to give up, so ...
2. My house constantly looks like a tornado hit it!  Let's just say that I didn't marry my wife for her housekeeping skills.  With 9 (10?) kids the place can go from spotless to trashed in about 34 seconds, so keeping up with it can be quite daunting.
3. Before we started fostering, we took in families that we knew who were going homeless.  We've taken in 4 families in the last 10 or so years.  Even when fostering gets difficult, it's easier than taking in a family, because with fostering we ARE the parent, and we DO have the final word ... When you take in a family, it's harder ...
4. My kitchen cabinets don't have doors.  Seriously.  We took them off to redo them a couple years back, and got caught in the procrastinator's hell ... but I've discovered I honestly like my kitchen open.  Things are easier to get to, and I don't slam my head into cabinet doors (a real danger when you're 6'4" tall).  Sure, you can see the clutter ... get over it.
5. I can't stop shouting "Yahoo!" ... I'm incredibly excited to land a job there, and look forward to going back to being a full-time remote employee and being home with my family!

So ... I survived interviewing ... and I survived blog awards ... Yahoo!

        aka: goofdad