What a week I am having! All thanks to BeaFreitas-she was kind enough to nominate me for the Blogger Recognition Award! Do you know that BeaFree has over 1000 followers now? One thousand people can’t all be wrong! There are many great reasons why she has a small city following her blog. Check it out if you happen to be one of the few who haven’t yet! We will all be able to say “we knew her when”!

Here are the rules for accepting this award

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
• Write a post to show your award.
• Give a brief story of how your blog started.
• Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.
• Select 15 other bloggers you want to give this award to.

Comment on each blog and let them know you have nominated them and provide the link to the post you created.

How my blog started:

I started my blog as a way to take back some control in my life. After my kids went to college (and yes, if you haven’t experienced it yet, the “empty nest syndrome” is real!) I found myself floundering. I was disillusioned with my career, my purpose had grown up and my husband, well, he was dealing with his own mid life crisis (also a very real thing!). I needed to reconnect with my life, the world and myself. Once I realized that I had basically disappeared I wanted to get back some of the fire that I once had. After all, I had managed to get both a bachelors and a doctorate degree, raise two amazing young people and teach some pretty hard subjects at the college level for 20+ years, but where did that woman go? Starting this blog was one of several steps I have taken to connect to others in my situation. In the process, I have met far more people, of varying backgrounds and ages and am thrilled to be able to hear their stories and share ideas with them. I had no idea how much these connections would mean to me only two short months later! Thank you for your support and comments, I hope to meet more great people in this blogosphere!

Advice to new bloggers:

I feel a bit disingenuous offering advice, as most of you are probably more seasoned bloggers than myself! But here goes! A piece of advice I received was, “don’t compare your start with someone else’s middle”. I think this is a wonderful sentiment and can be applied to anything you are starting. Be it exercise, a diet or a new job. Someone will always have more experience, talent or, in this world, followers! We all have to start at the beginning of everything! If you are passionate about it then learn from those folks and embrace your beginning. You don’t get to have 5 years of experience on the first day of anything!

The second piece of advice is more from an observation. The blogs I see that are doing well and, have a genuine feel of authenticity, seem to be those written by people who are not looking to make a fortune. Money may come down the line but you will never have more of an opportunity to connect on a personal level than you do right now. If you get rich later, that’s great but if it’s your passion then enjoy it now!

I nominate the following bloggers for this award:

Sunnydaysinseattle

Inkowlme

bake my day

Don’t give a jam

Living lighter in Atlanta

The critiquing chemist

Marioness

Pretty baking

A dirty dish

Mrs. Twinkle

Natttblog

Cooking with a wallflower

Eat yourself skinny

Flavia the bibliophile

Ivy cottage baker