Sunshine Award

I've been nominated by a blogger friend (hi Kasey!) for a blogging award.  

It's a chance to answer some questions and nominate other bloggers to do the same.

Here's how it works:

1. Include this icon in your post-

2. Link to the blogger who nominated you-
Kasey at Powers Full Life

3. Answer 10 questions about yourself.

4. Nominate 10 other bloggers to answer 10 new questions.

5.  Tell the people that they've won.

Q & A:

1. If you could try out any  job for a day, what would you like to try?
I would like to be a geologist. In another life, that's what I would have been. And I would have loved to teach geology in a college. So if I could try anything, I would probably do that.

2. Do you wear socks to sleep?
I wear socks to sleep pretty often. I like to put on really thick lotion before bed, and slip socks over it, so my feet soak in lotion all night long.

3. What's your favorite book as a child and/or adult?
My favorite book as a child was The Best Little Monkeys in the World by Natalie Standiford
My favorite book as an adult is Sea Glass by Anita Shreve.

4. What is your greatest accomplishment to date?
My three children & the family life I've created with them.
It's all I ever wanted, and I love it.

5. What state/area of the world do you live in?  Have you always lived there? Are you happy there?
I currently live in rural Alaska in a tiny village of about 350 people along the Yukon River.  There is snow on the ground about eight months of the year, and temperatures in winter can reach sixty below.  We are off the road system and our only mode of travel is bush plane.  This is the third school year we have been in Marshall.  We moved here so my husband could become an elementary school teacher and I could finally be a stay-at-home mommy.  We plan to be here at least five years total, but also know that God might have different plans.

This fall has been really challenging (as you know, if you've been reading the blog lately) and I have struggled with severe anxiety, panic attacks and a touch of depression. But to tell you the truth, I think I would have faced these struggles anywhere.  It's in my family to suffer with these mental health issues, and honestly, I am grateful that I'm not the only one who has been through what I've been through.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that even though it's been a really difficult few months since we got here, I would have to say that, yes, I'm happy here. I love my husband, I love my kids and I love my life as a stay-at-home mom and homeschooler.  Getting my emotions back on track (thanks to modern medicine, journaling and some self-help books) I find that my joy is even richer now than it was before I had suffered this way.

6. If you could live anywhere in the world for one year where would you choose?
I think it would be fun to try a year in Hawaii.
Just to see how it compares to Alaska.

7. Best Christmas movie?
The Holiday

8. When do you decorate for Christmas/ or count the Christmas season as started?
I decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving every year.
But Christmas music goes on as soon as Halloween is over!

9. What is your #1 goal for the next 5 years of your life?
My number one goal right now, and for the immediate future, is to pay off our debt.
In the next five years we'd like to buy a house (!!!), and I'd like to figure out if we're meant to have another baby or not.

10. What is your favorite blog, or what blog should I add to my blogroll? 
Enjoying The Small Things
Nie Nie Dialogues
Barefoot in the Kitchen
The Small Things

People I've nominated:

Holly @ Adventures in Alaska
Roxanne @ The Tuck Show
Annie @ Annery at Home
Joleen @ Beauty and the Beef
Samantha @ Life As We Know It
Liz @ Smelly Moose Family
Tabitha @ Team Studer
Rebekah @ Treasuring the Little Things
Megan @ Hurray! It's Megan
Allie @ The Kirby Way

My Questions:

1.  What is your favorite TV show?
2. What makes you happy when you're grumpy?
3. What is your favorite childhood memory?
4. Who is your best friend? Why?
5. What's your "feel good" movie?
6. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
7. What inspires you?
8. What is your favorite book?
9. Who is your favorite author?
10. What is your favorite song?

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