Okey, Dokey...ARTE Y PICO

Up until recently we had a WONDERFUL FAMILY that lived across the street from us. We knew when the landlords put a for sale sign in front of our neighbor's house that our time with them that close was limited. We didn't get together as much as either of us would have liked, but we did share some good times. Sharon made some exquisite cakes for our daughters' birthday party one year. She and her Mister came over for fireworks one Fourth of July. Things like that. I know that it was a good move for them to be closer to the Mister's job AND they own their own home for the first time in their wedded life. I still miss their quiet presence across the street. I miss Sharon's face at church much of the time. I am thankful for the internet so we can still be involved with each others' lives. Sharon awarded our blog the ARTE Y PICO AWARD. In honor of her I am taking the time to pass on this lovely award.

Here are the awards. I have many blogs that I get an incredible amount of encouragement and insight from. I cannot list them all so here are the requisite five.

I must give the first award to my first blog friend ever: Valerie at Bound by Grace. We connected on a weblog a couple of children ago. She was brave enough to send me her e-mail. She then got a blog. I had never seen one by an average person only those gnarly ones that people pay money for others to design for them. If it hadn't been for this wonderful lady on the other side of the country I would probably still not be part of the blogasphere.

Number 2 needs to go to Carmon Friedrich. My friend, Valerie (mentioned above), recommended this lovely lady's blog. She is the woman that enables me to not delve into controversial subjects too much. She is so very intelligent. She seems to always be very mindful of the Biblical reasons for the way she lives her life. She graciously disagrees with her opponents. I can only remember one time, out of all the years I have read her blog, that she let her ascerbic wit get "a bit out of hand." She then apologized to the one on the receiving end. As an aside, I thought she showed great restraint even in that situation. I thought the woman deserved it, honestly. She probably could have used the dictionary Carmon offered her as well:) So if you want a look into a wonderful mom's life (one that has even more children than I do as well as more brains) check out her site.

Even though she is on a blog break I still have to honor the Engstrom Mama. I met her online through Carmon's blog a few years ago. Then I checked out her blog. THEN I recognized her youngest girl (so far) at a Desiring God conference almost two years ago. We met face to face. It was so fun. That summer her family took a chance and hosted our family for the Love and Respect conference their church did. Unfortunately, PapaPyro was detained on business so we didn't get to see him that trip. We did get to stay with some other wonderful people. We have since then gotten to visit them a few times. They are neat people with a down-home hospitality that says CHRISTIAN. MamaK inspires me quite a bit.

Okay, number four...I will have to do the next logical blog...
Looking Through the Lens. This young lady is a beautiful person inside and out. If you look at her pictures on her blog you can catch her artistic eye. She has some photos (okay, some of them are of MY kids) that made me cry from sheer beauty. Check it out, I think you will be impressed too.

Last, but definately not least...
I am going to award Frugal Granola. I have been acquianted this lovely lady for a while. It has been through the blog world that I have gotten to actually know her. She is very transparent and inspiring with her posts. Her love for the Lord, her family and simple living is beautifully displayed on her blog. Everything on it is tranquil from her music to the lovely layout. Take time out to add her blog to a ritual in your life, you won't regret it.

Rules:
1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award, be it through creativity, design, or interesting material, and that also contributes to the blogger community, no matter the language.
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award.
4) Award winners and the one who has given the award have to show the link of "Arte y pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) Show these rules.

One down.................