Seven Secrets Week - Secrets 9 & 10

TGIF and my last day of telling secrets (thank heavens) and passing out awards. Before I get started, I'd like to wish you all a fine Memorial Day weekend. Do something to honor those who have sacrificed so that we can live free.

Now on with The Versatile Blogger Awards. And the last two secrets. The Versatile Blogger Award rules:

Rule 1: Thank and direct other bloggers to the person who gave it to you.

I received the Versatile Blogger Award from Shelly at The Life of a Novice Writer. Thank You!! Anyone who hasn't been over to her blog really must visit.

Rule 2: Tell some secrets about yourself. Seven to ten.

Secret 9: I'm a grown woman; 42 years-old, with a home and family and career.

BUT, to this day, my mama can work a southern daughter guilt trip on me without ever saying a word. And I don't know why I keep letting myself fall into that trap. I don't even know if she really means to do it anymore. Actually, I suspect sometimes she does it on purpose just to make sure she still can. But most of the time I doubt she's even aware of her power.

 

Secret 10: My public stance on exercise is that I get mine going up and down the stairs in my house several times a day.

BUT, privately I ruminate on being one of those cute, pony-tailed women addicted to running. Yesterday, I bought a pair of running shorts and a sports bra at Target and hid them under my bed. Please don't tell my husband. He might want me to wear them and sweat.

Rule 3: Award it to fifteen others.

Friday's recipients are:

Always Learning

The Pennywise Chick

Banned Library

I urge you to click on these links, as well as the ones for Monday's, Tuesday's, Wednesday's and Thursday's award winners, and check out these fun, versatile blogs. Leave a comment. Follow. Get inspired.

Seven Secrets Week - Secrets 7 & 8

I'm devoting this week to paying it forward. In early May my blog received The Versatile Blogger Award. Now I'm taking time to recognize 15 of my fellow bloggers who also deserve this award.

A versatile blogger:
1) Provides variety in his or her posts.
2) Entertains, informs, inspires, and intrigues readers.
3) Continues to grow as a blogger.

As with most good things, acceptance of the award has a few requirements, which I'm taking the whole of this week to fulfill.

Rule 1: Thank and direct other bloggers to the person who gave it to you.

I received the Versatile Blogger Award from Shelly at The Life of a Novice Writer. Thank You!! I'm honored. Anyone who hasn't been over to her blog really must visit.

Rule 2: Tell some secrets about yourself. Seven to ten.

Okay, I'm confidentially spilling the beans to you. Thus, as my friend, you must close your eyes, tap your left shoulder twice, and promise to never tell a soul what I'm about to reveal.

Secret 7: I am a third generation graduate of the University of Georgia; which, by the way, just happened to be named the 2010 party school of the year, an honor it hasn't received since my college days. That aside, I swim in a sea of red and black and have pledged an oath to despise all things Florida, Auburn, Clemson and Tennessee.

BUT, I love the color orange. Some shades look really good on me when I have a tan. Various orange paint chips cry out to me when I'm in the hardware store. I live in fear that someone will catch me fondling the orange throw pillows at Target. I lie in bed at night vexed and wondering what's wrong with me. If my daddy ever finds out he's going to cut me out of the will.

Secret 8: I'm not perfect

BUT, I have an awful habit of expecting perfection. It leads to a great deal of disappointment.

Rule 3: Award it to fifteen others.

Thursday's 3 recipients are:

Blount's Folly
Eternal Moonshine of a Daydreaming Mind
The Write Soil

I urge you to click on these links, as well as the ones for Monday's, Tuesday's, and Wednesday's award winners, and check out these fun, versatile blogs. Introduce yourself. Leave a comment. Follow. Get inspired.

Seven Secrets Week - Secrets 5 & 6

I'm devoting this week to paying it forward. In early May my blog received The Versatile Blogger Award. Now I'm taking time to recognize 15 of my fellow bloggers who also deserve this award.

A versatile blog is one that smoothly and adeptly deals with a variety of topics, themes, stories, or writing styles. And it does this in an entertaining way. The versatile blogger enriches the Internet experience.

As with most good things, acceptance of the award has a few requirements, which I'm taking the whole of this week to fulfill.

Rule 1: Thank and direct other bloggers to the person who gave it to you.

I received the Versatile Blogger Award from Shelly at The Life of a Novice Writer. Thank You!! Anyone who hasn't been over to her blog really must visit.

Rule 2: Tell some secrets about yourself. Seven to ten.

This is the hard part. These are secrets and I'm putting them out into cyberspace. But getting rid of these secrets cleans the slate so I can come up with all new ones.

Secret 5: I believe in the place of place; that where we live helps make us who we are. Putting down roots and making a real connection to where we live creates stability and happiness.

BUT, this belief and connectivity to my sweet little town make me feel hemmed in. I keep claustrophobia at bay by reveling in the idea that I could, if I wanted to, pick up and leave any time; go somewhere else, be someone else, live a completely different life. It's the kind of thought process that makes a person's family try to get her to go in for a psychological evaluation, which is exactly why I keep it a secret.

Secret 6: I love to flip through the food and entertainment sections of glossy magazines and imagine large dinner parties on my front porch. The delicious foods, twinkling lights, candles and wine play in my head, while I turn each page.

BUT, I despise cooking. My heart leaps for joy when I get a dinner party invitation and the host or hostess says I don't need to bring anything. Being asked not bring something would hurt the ego of any other southerner - we believe we can't arrive at even a stop sign without some type of food offering - but not me. I'm simply shameful.

Rule 3: Award it to fifteen others.

Wednesday's recipients are:

Live Laugh Blog

Cheap Therapy
My Mind Wandered

I urge you to click on these links, as well as the ones for Monday's and Tuesday's award winners, and check out these fun, versatile blogs. Leave a comment. Follow them. Get inspired by them.

Seven Secrets Week - Secrets 3 & 4

As the dust settled from the April A to Z Challenge, I flicked on my computer one morning to discover that my blog had received The Versatile Blogger Award.

According to Dictionary.com, versatile means capable of turning easily from one to another of various tasks. Yes, my adult onset ADD shows in almost everything I do. I see something shiny and off I go on yet another tangent.

As with most good things, acceptance of the award has a few requirements, which I'm taking the whole of this week to fulfill.

Rule 1: Thank and direct other bloggers to the person who gave it to you.

I received the Versatile Blogger Award from Shelly at The Life of a Novice Writer. Thank You!!

Rule 2: Tell some secrets about yourself. Seven or ten.

I'm telling 2 a day over the course of the week. Thursday and Friday are bonus days.

Secret 3: Like I confessed yesterday, commitment is constraining to me. I avoid saying a full-out "yes" or a full-out "No." "Maybe" leaves options open. Plus, I know myself. If I say for sure that I will do something, I will get it done, come hell or high water. So I'm careful about going all in.

BUT, I'm a calendar curmudgeon. Once something goes in the Blackberry calendar, I guild a wall around it and protect it from change. Last minute reschedules agitate me to no end (unless, of course, I'm the one making them).  I can't do anything that hasn't been on my calendar for at least two weeks. It takes me that long to adjust to the idea that I've actually committed to something.

Secret 4: I live 35 minutes from the Georgia-South Carolina border, one of the hottest, most humid places on the face of the earth. In the summertime, women glisten and glow to avoid the unseemly condition of sweating like a pig.

BUT, I am both cold natured and cheap at the same time. Give me the hum of a fan in the window and the night sound of crickets calling over the roar of conditioned air. I flat-out despise air conditioning. One of my greatest thrills is to open my power bill and see that my actual charges are under the budget billing charge. It gives me a psychological rush.

Rule 3: Award it to fifteen others.

This averages out to 3 a day if I take a week to give out the awards.

Some people have expressed distress that I might see fit to recognize their blogging achievements. They, like me, fear baring their souls through confession. Now that I have started, however, I assure everyone, confession cleanses the soul of long harbored secrets and makes room for the storage of new, even darker ones. It's a rejuvenating process.

Tuesday's recipients are:

One Funky Woman

(Not) Just Another Writer

Older Mommy, Still Yummy

I urge you to click on these links, as well as the ones for Monday's award winners, and check out these fun, versatile blogs. Leave a comment. Follow them. Get inspired by them.

Seven Secrets Week

At the beginning of May, The Life of a Novice Writer kindly presented me with two awards for my blog.

The first is the Liebster Award, given to blogs with fewer than 300 followers. Receipt of this award requires that one pass it forward to three other bloggers.



Today, I wish to award the following blogs with the Liebster (drum roll, please):

Kiwi's Life

Pocketful of Playdough

Wool 'n' Nuts

I encourage you to check out each of these blogs, as each is creative and has its own distinct voice and perspective. All three are entertaining and at times wildly humorous.

The second is The Versatile Blogger Award,



This award also comes with requirements for the recipient, who is chosen, obviously, because of his or her versatility in blogging. According to Dictionary.com, versatile means capable of turning easily from one to another of various tasks. Responsibilities upon acceptance include:


Rule 1: Thank and direct other bloggers to the person who gave it to you.

I received the Versatile Blogger Award from Shelly at The Life of a Novice Writer.

Rule 2: Tell some secrets about yourself. Seven or ten.

This averages about 2 a day if I do it over the course of one week. Now, you must know that I don't really like to tell secrets on myself because, naturally, it defeats the purpose of having a secret. But, I'm also a consummate rule follower, despite my better judgment. I simply can't help myself. I feel entirely too guilty if I break a rule. So, two secrets about me:

Secret 1: I live in a 100+ year-old brick Victorian house on an in-town neighborhood street surrounded by typical southern architecture. My home is filled with ancestral antiques, leather sofas, oriental rugs, taxidermied animals and other traditional decor presumed fitting for a small town southern girl. I'm not allowed to have it otherwise.

BUT, I prefer sleek, modern, minimalism. (Don't tell my Mama. She's taped my name to the bottom of her dining room set. I'll never hear the end of it, if she has to go rip it off and put one of my sibling's names in its place.)

Secret 2: I've been married 18 years and we have four children together.

BUT, I lack the fortitude for commitment. This is not the stuff of tabloids. I'm not talking about marital infidelity. What I mean is that my favorite phrase is, "Maybe, I don't know." Don't confuse this with wishy-washy. It's not that I can't make up my mind. It's that I don't want to lock myself in, but I'm too polite to hurt anyone's feelings. I might feel like having lunch with you tomorrow, but I might not. I don't want to say either until I've made up my mind for sure.

Rule 3: Award it to fifteen others.

This averages out to 3 a day if I take a week to give out the awards. Monday's recipients are:

Pocketful of Playdough

The Writing Pad

Rub Some Dirt on It

I urge you to click on the links and check out these fun, versatile blogs. Leave a comment. Follow them. Every blogger needs an attaboy.

Why Lucy has Four Children

This one podcast explains it all:

Pony Tricks

This is me, my older brother - you can tell he's my older brother by the way I've got my arm around his neck in a death grip - and my dad with Sunday the pony, back in the spring of 1972. My daddy looks so annoyed because his own father, who had a new hobby every time Wednesday came back around, at this particular time facies himself a photographer and is taking, and re-taking, this picture, with a lot of directions and instructions and orders for us models.

I suppose I look so happy because I'm completely oblivious to what is about to happen to me. If we could fast forward this picture to 10 minutes in the future on that lovely spring day, it would show me sitting in the Georgia dust crying.

Recently, on assignment from Augusta Family Magazine, I wrote about my mother and my father and the life lessons I learned from them. It included an unfolding of the events of the day pictured above.

Here's how the story begins:
When I was 12 my mother came in my bedroom where I was parked in front of the mirror closely inspecting my personal appearance, like self-absorbed adolescents do.


“My neck is too long,” I pouted.

My mother’s multitudinous options for response borderlined on the billions. She could have told me to stop with my vanity and clean my room. She could have tried to assure me that no one else would ever notice the length of my neck but me. She could have coddled me with empty compliments and told me she would always love me anyway. She could have ignored my petulant whining and walked out.


Instead, my mother said, “Long necks are elegant.” Just that, nothing more.

I had probably caught her fresh from reading the recent National Geographic featuring tribal women who elongate their necks by gradually adding one ring after another. I’m sure her tone intimated at my good fortune of being born naturally giraffe-like.

Still, that one statement, regardless of its inspiration, changed my entire perspective. I learned I could metaphorically walk around the circumference of anything, everything, until I found the best angle. If “too long” could so effortlessly and believably be transformed into “elegant,” then the world was mine to define from that point forward.

Read the rest here.

The Goods on Good Sportsmanship

I'm hanging out at The Mom Tini Lounge today sharing my thoughts on good sportsmanship and how we can teach it to our children. As parents we have to remember that youth sports offer our children the opportunity to master the skills of winning with poise and losing with composure.And they watch how we react to both situations for cues as to how they should as well.

The full article has a funny little story about my youngest son as well as several tips for keeping sportsmanship at the focus of all sports Check it out:

http://momtinilounge.com/health-safety/healthy-kids/good-sportsmanship-youth-sports

One Lovely Blog

To be honest, after the high of finishing the April A to Z Challenge, I hit May at top speed, slamming into it as hard as I did that sliding glass door when I was 10. With both eyes focused on the elusive catching-up-to-do, lest it sneak out of sight, I never saw the hard sheet of glass right in front of me, until it abruptly stopped mt momentum, my nose and cheeks sticking to the pane, dragging up as I slid down.

Okay, it's not all that tragic; just a dramatic way of saying I'm looking a lot of deadlines hard in the face and trying to deny their looming presence. Meanwhile, back in the happy land of blogging, my new friends continue to cheer me on.

Brianna, at A Pocketful of Playdough, a new friend I met through the A to Z Challenge, and a dynamic blogger, has generously awarded me the One Lovely Blog Award:

Brianna writes:

"What can I say about Lucy’s blog, except that it’s just plain awesome? I love how she handled blogging literary terms from a-z. It was educational, engaging, and entertaining! I loved the story of Netty, a southern lady with sass! I encourage everyone to settle down with a nice cup of tea and read Lucy’s A-Z posts from start to finish."

It is such an honor to receive this award from another blogger whose work is outstanding. I encourage you to visit A Pocketful of Playdough and read Brianna's well-written, inspirational posts. You'll be reading a book by her someday. Mark my words.

And now to peel myself off of the sliding glass door, open it, and walk through to a delightful May day.

Ahh. A to Z Over. Awards In.

Big news. While under the strain of the April A to Z Challenge, my blog received, two awards from The Life of a Novice Writer. It is quite an honor to receive recognition from my blogging peers. Thank you so very much.

The first is the Liebster Blog Award:

The Liebster Blog Award was created to bring recognition and exposure to small blogs that have less than 300 followers. Recipients are asked to pass the award on to three more blogs meeting that criteria.

The second is The Versatile Blogger Award:

This award also comes with requirements for the recipient, who is chosen, obviously, because of his or her versatility in blogging. According to Dictionary.com, versatile means capable of turning easily from one to another of various tasks. Responsibilities upon acceptance include:

Rule 1: Thank and direct other bloggers to the person who gave it to you (See link at the top of the post).

Rule 2: Tell some secrets about yourself. Seven or ten.

Rule 3: Award it to fifteen others.

Stay tuned. It looks like May will be the month of secrets.

And a third award, just in, from Elizabeth Mueller:



Thank you, Elizabeth, there's satisfaction in survival.