Liebster Awards and the blogs that I love!

Posted by TakingItAStepAtATime

Last night I was notified that I had been nominated for a “Liebster Award” by Autism Mom. First and foremost I’d like to thank Autism Mom for including my blog in her list of nominations. I enjoy reading her blog everyday and I am honored that she takes the time to read and comment on mine.
I had never heard of this award before, so after a little bit of searching, I did come across the award and the rules – but many different variations of the rules. Becoming rather confused, I decided to link to Autism Mom’s explanation of this award (here) and follow the rules that she used in her piece. – Yes… I took the easy route…

It is wonderful of course to receive recognition from other bloggers – especially since until a year and a half ago, blogging was the farthest thing from my mind – and from what I have read, this process will and does help to share your blog and the blogs that you love with the rest of the blogging community.

Having received a nomination, it is now my turn to come up with a list of my own nominations.

This is the easy part.

Autism-Mom – (If it is allowed. Autism-Mom would have been on the top of my list even if she had not nominated me. I will assume she will not be required to go through this whole process again.) “Sharing Autism ideas, news, strategies and tools, and lessons learned from one mom with one child and one experience on the Autism spectrum.”
Mother O’ Jim – “Mother o’ Jim, a blog about and with her son James, a wonderful young adult on the autism spectrum, who is searching for the path and tools to be independent.”
Wendy Jane’s Soul Shake- “One white woman’s curious obsession with race. Follow my quest to connect across color lines.”
One Loco Mommy – “Balancing Life, Love and Autism in the Great Suburban Outback”
Baby Boomer Bubbie –  “Baby Boomer Woman, Creative, Mother, Bubbie, ex-wife, curious, future, past, concerns, fears, hopes”
Sassy Aspie Mom - “A little blog about my life as a wife and mom raising two boys (one who has Asperger’s Syndrome).”
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Next step is to answer the questions listed by the blogger that nominated you (each nominator should some up with a set of questions for their nominees to answer as an introduction to other bloggers and readers).
Autism Mom asked and I answered:
      1. How is blogging different than how you thought it would be when you started?
I can’t really say that I had any expectations when I started at all. I suppose the support from other bloggers was surprising.

2. What is your favorite blog post that you have written?

Mother’s Day update
But one would have to read “Mother’s Day and the Macaroni Necklace” to understand the update.

3. What is the most surprising thing that you have blogged about, that you never thought you would blog about?

Ha Ha! That would be toilet paper under the code name of “paper towels”.

4. Where is the strangest place you have blogged (e.g., typed on your computer, wrote down blogging notes, etc.)?

I suppose it would have to be in the car – passenger side – I do not blog and drive.

5. Which blogger would you most like to meet?

That’s a tough one. I really would like to meet them all.
I do know Wendy from Wendy Jane’s Soul Shake, but I haven’t seen her in (mumble, mumble) years. I really would love to meet the rest. Although, coffee/Dr.Who Experience in London with Autism Mom would have been right up there on THE top of my list if it had turned out that we would both be in London at the same time (We won’t be. It was close, but no cigar)
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The final step is to list a few questions of your own for the blogs you have nominated:
So, Autism-Mom, Wendy Jane, Mother O’ Jim, Loco, Baby Boomer and Sassy these are for you:
1. What first inspired you to blog?
2. Has your blog changed direction in any way since you began?
 3. What is your favorite post (borrowing this question just because I like it)
4. What is your favorite movie?
5. What is your favorite television show?
Thank you again, Autism Mom for the nod and of course, thank you for reading.
I am heading directly to her list to check out the blogs I haven’t read before.
Hope you all will check out the blogs I have nominated! They are all totally worth your time!

#WhatsYourSuperPower...... Proofreading, it is NOT!

The latest instagram Hashtag #WhatsYourSuperPower,  really has nothing to do with the content of this post. The hashtag did get me thinking about the Superpower that I sorely lack – Proofreading……
As is probably apparent to anyone that reads my blog, I have a hard time proofreading. I mean, I proofread until I can’t stand the content anymore, but still I can’t seem to get it right.
I realized that one of my problems with proofreading is that as I am “reading”, I am not really reading the words on the screen, I am “reading” in my head what I know the piece is supposed to say, instead of really paying attention to the words that I actually typed on the page. I know I do this, but still halfway through I realize that I really haven’t paid a lot of attention to what I typed, so I start again and again, and again…..
It had to be about 10 years ago when I began to realize that my fingers are not typing what I am spelling in my head. The biggest offender is the word “because” – I do not know why. I reverse the letters, every single time. Knowing this, I make a conscious effort to spell it out in my head while typing but it makes no difference, it comes out “becasue”. There seems to be some sort of disconnect between my brain and my fingers. I do this with many words. Fortunately, spell-check will pick up words like “because”, but what about the reversed letters in words that are also words when reversed – like “Trial” and “Trail” (yes, I found that one after the post was published)? Spell-check does not help me there.
-Let’s talk about the anxiety of writing a post entitled “Because, Because, Because, Because………BEEEE CAUSE” – what was I thinking???
I believe I have always had some sort of disconnect in the spelling area. As a kid and still to this day, I can not spell out loud. In school, I always did very well on spelling tests, because I was writing the words, not spelling them out loud. When DC asks me to spell a word for him, if it is more than 5 or 6 letters, oftentimes I must write it. I seem to just lose my place when spelling out loud.
Then there are the little mistakes that drive me crazy – yes I do know the difference between “to” and “too”, but one might never know this after reading one of my posts. I am continuously going back and correcting things when I re-post or re-read a post. I tend to find them more easily in older posts because I haven’t just written them and I can read the words on the page instead of reading the words in my head. Also, when I decide to change a sentence or two while proofreading, there always seems to be a word from the original sentence left in the text. - sigh
There are many other blogs that I love and as much as love them and the content, I often find myself looking for their typos just to make myself feel better.
I have yet to find any……
Annoying……..
One might wonder why, with all of my typing, spelling and fleeting attention span issues, I would choose blogging as a hobby. Just another thing to drive myself crazy? Maybe. But I really do enjoy it and I hope that you can overlook the typos, missing words and letters.
Due to the fact that my mother does not like to go on-line, I put all of my posts into a photo book for her (you know, the books you can make through Snapfish or Photo Book Pop). I am technically just copying and pasting the text into the text areas of the page. The type is so small that I can not really read what is going in there, word-wise, I just hope for the best.  Finding a typo in an old post that has already been added to one of the books, just makes me crazy! My initial reaction is to correct it and reorder the entire book, but that could begin to get really expensive, so …….
there they will stay, forever in print – mocking me………