An Award! For Me! From TWO People!

I got this lovely award from TWO people, which is both amazing AND humbling. So a HUGE thanks go out to Tammy over at My Life and Kristin at JilliJava and the Garden of Eden. Not just because I got another award (this makes TWO, yay for me!), but because I think both of these women are really amazing, and I love to read their posts. Tammy makes me laugh, and takes awesome photos, and always responds to my posts with thoughtful comments. Kristin is a fellow woman in recovery, and it never fails to astound me how similar our life experiences are-both as drunks AND as women in recovery.

So I am supposed to pick five people to bestow this lovely award to, and my list is as follows:

April at It's All About Balance. This wonderful woman and I met through another online community (you know, the one where I was practically booted out for being an opinionated, Christless bitch. Yes, I am still bitter), and found out that we are, in fact, very similar creatures. Not just due to our single mom status or the fact that our ex-husband's MO are markedly similar, but also in the way we think, the way we parent, who we are. April and I have become real friends, despite the fact that we have not yet met IRL. I think it safe to say that we are a real support for one another, and have helped each other through a whole lot of bad and cheered one another on through a whole lot of good. She is so great I don't have the words.

Laura at Every Path. She is a first time mom to a very, very adorable little guy, and she is so honest and open about the trial and tribulations of being a parent. I love that she writes about her fears and insecurities, because they seem to mirror some of the same feelings I had both as a first-time mom at 19 and an older, unexpected mom at 34. Thanks for your honest, Laura, and it is so refreshing to see someone who is willing to admit out loud that this parenting stuff is often really hard and confusing and overwhelming-yet also gratifying.

Lynn at At Peace With It All. She just recently got a new look, which is very cool and seems to fit her personality perfectly. I like to read Lynn's posts because, again, they are so real and honest. I am constantly amazed at her thoughtfulness, her willingness to examine herself and her life, and to be honest about those parts of her that are less-than-perfect. It humbles me to think that she would consider us similar, because I think she is both strong and brave and very, very beautiful.

Jillian at Petite Gamine. This woman is fucking incredible. She has had several different varieties of crap thrown at her hard over the last few months; she has used blogging (writing as therapy) to share these bits of herself with people, and I find that inspiring. Her recent post about her father was raw and powerful and also thought-provoking, which is one of my favorite things about her blog. She makes me THINK, and that is no small thing.

Single Working Mommy - and no, I don't know her real name. This is a woman who is also honest about her struggles and her triumphs. One thing I really love about her is that while hers is, in fact, a Mommy blog, she writes about her feelings as a woman as well, not "just" a mommy. I have long believed that we aren't just moms, but so much more, and she embodies that well.

This was really difficult for me, because there are so many really great bloggers out there whom I love! Still, there you go. And ladies, don't forget to pick five people, and also link to the Arte y Pico site. Them's the rules, so there!

***For those who are concerned, the weekend at home was uneventful. In the sense that I found some evidence in the form of two beer cans hidden in the weeds by my garbage can where Crazy Stalker Guy was apparently watching my house, in the sense that the cops have been patrolling every 10-15 minutes and have told me that yes, they think he will come back, in the sense that they are also really examining the ex-husband's whereabouts and drug connections. How comforting, right? Still, better than the alternative, that is is some random freak who, for whatever reasons, has picked me. And yes, the cops have also said that they believe I am the target, NOT my daughter. They have also begun patrolling Steve's neighborhood AND the daycare, because they want to know how much he knows. A whole fucking lot, I would say, or how would he have known that my door happened to be unlocked that ONE night? Anyway, we got through, and things feel a little better at home.***