Taking Care of Important Blogging Business Before Lent Begins...

My mother always told me (or she would have if it had actually ever come up) that it's impolite not to accept and acknowlege and show gratitude for an award as soon as a girl possible can.  So, here we are, and I know there are a lot of important things I really need to do before Lent starts tomorrow -- like, figure out if there's really anything meaningful I can do with my blog over Lent....  But, first, I have to thank a very sweet (and very busy!) fellow Mom-blogger-of-Many for the following award.
Check it out.  The Versatile Blogger Award. But versatile...

Moi?  Versatile? 

Let me think about this for a minute...
The dictionary says "versatile" means:

1. with many uses: able or meant to be used in many different ways

2. moving easily between tasks: able to move easily from one subject, task, or skill to another

3. changeable: subject to rapid or unpredictable change

So, well, hmmmm...  Yes.  Decidedly.  If I'm anything, I guess I'm versatile -- particularly if you look at defintions #1 and #2.  A Jack (actually, a Jill) of all trades and a master of none, I'm:

1. a short-order chef, who hasn't ever knowingly poisoned anybody

    (I make a mean meatloaf and the kids all like my soups. But, you'll notice -- like cutting curly hair, there's a lot of room for error in my specialties...)

2. a seamstress, who can sew a seam but not much else

    (I'm great at curtains, but don't ask me to tackle anything using a real pattern... I like to "wing things" and take shortcuts -- so the real seamstresses out there know just how accomplished I am...)

3. an artist with just enough ability to illustrate "to do" lists for her children

    (I made a stab at commerical illustration, but found out that I don't have the technical skills you need to make a go of it.)



4. a singer with just enough musical ability to annoy the real musicians in her family



"Mommy, will you please not sing?"

    (I sang soprano in our church choir before I had children, but my voice is lower now, and I don't have the musical ability to sing harmony, so I sing the melody lower than the the rest of the girls and sound really stupid.  They think I don't notice them trying not to cringe....  Hmph.)

5. an extraordinarily accomplished laundress

    (Well, yeah.  Not to toot my own horn.  But, Laundry. Laundry I'm good at.)

6. a tidy, if not an obsessively clean and disinfectant-weilding housekeeper

    (But all bets are off even the "tidy" part when the whole gang is home. Those ten pairs of socks and ten pairs of shoes constantly kicked hither and yon would have Monk throwing up his hands.)

7. and a writer with barely enough focus to avoid being called ADD.

    (My blog posts in the past week or so have swung wildly from deep and penetrating subjects like "Crank Calls" and "Coffee Quizzes" to debating the merits of e-books, to cookie recipes, to maybe the only post of worth recently, the story of the first visit of Our Lady of Lourdes in St. Bernadette's own words.)

So, um, yes...  Versatile.   I guess I do jump around a bit with themes on this blog.  You should hear my husband complain about trying to follow me in a conversation with girlfriends!  But it's not that I have ADD so much really, as that I have wide and varied interests!  Really.  That's what it is.  And sometimes I get a little punchy.  I admit it.

Many thanks and {Smiles and Waves} to Neen at All This And Heaven  for including me in this award!  I think any Mom of nine or ten children is probably versatile (and a little punchy) --  because we have to be --  and Neen, who has nine blessings and is expecting twins, is a kindred blogging spirit.  It's so nice to have met her through this award!

But, now it's my turn!  Here are the rules for passing the honor along:

Recipients are asked to remember the award giver in a link on their acceptance, as well as:

~ Listing 7 things about themselves
and
~ Picking 15 newly discovered blogs to give the award to

* Because it's Shrove Tuesday and I have pretzels to make, I am submitting 10 instead of 15 (which I certainly hope is OK -- and which I hope I'm not presumptuous in encouraging my Awardees to dolikewise, if they find themselves also limited for time!  Just introduce us to as many as you like -- and it's good!

New blogs I've recently visited -- written by folks I think I'd like to know better:

1. Dad with Noisy Kids at Scorpion Stalking Duck
2. Gae at Cherished Hearts at Home
3. Rachel at Thoughts from the Hearth.
4.  Suzanne at Classically Catholic
5. Lisbet at Joyful Chaos Homestead
6. Brandy at Marathon Mom
7. Julie at Moo-berry Farm
8. Virginia at Meet Virginia
9. Shiloah and Dawn at A Homemaking Journey
10.  Anchor Mama at Cold Anchor Farm