Elegant Blog Award

THANK YOU, to my dear bloggie friend, Dianna, from Joyful in His Presence, for blessing me with the Elegant Blog Award. 

Dianna is a person who, I think if we lived near each other, would be very close friends. We would be, what Anne of Green Gables referred to at "bosom friends." But I am in Ohio and she is in West Virginia, so we keep in touch as we can. One of the ways I keep up with her is by reading her lovely, elegant blog.

So, having won this sweet award herself, she blessed me by nominating me for that same award. Thank you, again, sweet Dianna.

As part of receiving this award, I need to answer some questions to help readers know me a little better . . . 

1) What made you want to start blogging?

• I was the Ohio coordinator and a contributing writer for The Old Schoolhouse magazine ~ the largest homeschool magazine in the world; while I wrote for them, they created Homeschoolblogger.com (now Homeschoolfamilies.com) and requested that I keep up an Ohio homeschool blog for them, at that time I also started my own blog, BuckeyeBlog, on the same site. I REALLY enjoyed it. Since the magazine was quarterly, the blogs gave me a daily out-let to write. The TOS publishers soon started another blog site, Homesteadblogger.com (no longer available), and there I had another blog, WannaBeASteader, where I started writing about home remedies, frugal living, etc. After we graduated our youngest from our homeschool, in 2009, I ceased writing for TOS and writing their Ohio blog and I decided that I wanted to condense my other blogs into one on a blog site where I could be a little more creative in it's design and over-all look . . . enter Blogger.com. My dream is to open a bulk food and home remedies store and I want to call it Marmee's Pantry, this blog has always been meant to be a fore-runner to the store so that's how it got it's name.

2) What is your fashion style?

• My mom managed the "high-end-she-she-foo-foo department" at a local high-end department store for MANY years, I modeled from the time I was 9 years old until I married at 25, and also combined into some of that time I was a make-up artist for 17 years ~ so ~ it's safe to say that I grew up in the fashion industry. And NOW . . . you would NEVER know it! lol. I often say that I have rebelled against high fashion ~ I lived that life and it is all fluff, smoke and mirrors and envy. Once I became a Christian, at age 23, I found REAL life and REAL purpose and decided that being a REAL person was all God wants of me. Not to say that I don't like to look presentable or wear make-up, because I do, but if my dear husband, THE Man, still thinks I'm pretty and I don't shame the Lord or him ~ then that's all I need. 
• Also, my mom recently passed from Alzheimer's related problems that were complicated by her feet which had nearly been destroyed by YEARS of wearing high fashion high heels during all her retail career. In the end, her brain and her feet competed for circulation ~ her feet lost and literally died, which basically killed my sweet mom in Sept. 2011. She suffered GREATLY and, having worked so many years on my feet (as I still do at the health food market) I DO NOT want to suffer as she did and I am determined to take care of my feet. So, I have forever traded in high heels for Earth Shoes (just like we used to wear back in the 70's and 80's ~ see a pair of mine, below), Birkenstocks, and the occasional Tom's shoes.

• My over-all fashion style is quite eclectic ~ mostly jeans, roomy shirts, tanks over-layed with "drapie" sweaters and over-shirts (comfortable for  bending, stretching and reaching at work), jean skirts, long prairie or flow-y skirts. In the fall and winter I LOVE cable-type sweaters, cardigans, turtle-necks and hoodies.

3) What is something your readers don't know about you?

• I am a night owl who desperately wants to be an early bird.

4) What are your blogging goals?

• To glorify my Lord Jesus Christ and to draw the world to Him
• To bless others with the encouragement to KNOW that they CAN homeschool AND they CAN take care of their families by cooking wholesome foods and using various supplements, medicinal tea blends, home remedies, etc.

5) What is your favorite place to shop?

• Hmmm . . . that could be several different types of shopping . . . 
• Food: I buy most of my bulk (flours, sweeteners, pastas, noodles, herbs, spices . . . ) at a little bulk food store which is the "model" for my Marmee's Pantry, I get my milk and brown eggs from an Old Order farm (they live like the Amish), I buy other herbs and spices and some things at the health food market I work at and most everything else comes from Kroger or Wal Mart.
• Clothes: Kohl's, Wal Mart, the fantastic Good Will in Troy, Ohio, Elder Beerman dept. store.

6) What would be your ideal amount of blog followers?

• As many as possible :-) EVERY ONE is a blessing that they would stop by and read something written by little ol' me.
• I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the Cluster Map I added (bottom of page) in May (2013) and seeing where people from all over the world stop by. WOW. What a blessing, what a thrill to see. 
• THANK YOU, ALL!

7) What are your talents?

• I hope that I can be an encouragement to families everywhere who want to do more for themselves. To encourage families to know that if you can parent you CAN homeschool; if you have the "want to" you CAN live a healthier, more frugal life.
• On another level: I sing, play hammered dulcimer, flute and Irish penny whistle. THE Man and I have done the music at over 100 weddings and have sung back-up and played on several CDs, and we have been on the praise and worship teams of every church we've attended since we've been married (1984).
  
• I love to make people laugh and smile, so I think I have a good sense of humor.
• I want to draw others closer to the Lord with my writing.

8) Are you a leader or a follower?

• As much as I don't want to be many times, I usually end up being a leader.

9) What is one of your favorite quotes?

• An encouragement my Daddy once said to me: ""Can't" never did anything."

10) Do you have a favorite book or book series?

• Obviously, I love the Bible.
• Anything by Jane Austin ~ mostly Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. 
• Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness ~ they will change your prayer life.
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. ("Marmee" is the mother character in the story)

11) Out of all the synonyms for elegant, which would you describe yourself with (smart, stylish, dressy, graceful, dainty, fine)?

• Sputter, sputter, cough, cough! That's funny.
• OK . . . when I Googled "synonyms for elegant" this came up as one of the definitions: "Pleasingly ingenious and simple" . . . let's go with pleasingly simple. :-)

12) What is your favorite flower?

• Black-eyed Susans and the coneflower of Echenacea.

13) Recommended blogs who have blessed me that I now honor with this award . . .

• Dear Dianna at Joyful in His Presence
• Healthy Homesteading
• Amy and Kate at Homestead Revival
• Carrie at Farming on Faith
• Nancy (Nanny Dearest) at A Christian Mom
• Suzanne at Chickens in the Road
• Ree at The Pioneer Woman
• Dalyn at Muckboots 'n Aprons
• Kerrie at Sea Cottage

• Karen at Homespun Simplicity 
• Pam at Pamela's Open Window
• Debbie, my beloved publisher of The Christian Woman's Voice magazine, Writin' 4 Him Cafe

There are so many more who have blessed my heart but this is a great place for you to start.

Hope you enjoyed this look into little ol' me. Thanks, once again, to Dianna for the award.

Blessings from Ohio . . . Kim<><