This is a longggggggggggg one, bear with me!! I have been triple blessed by being nominated for THREE new blogger awards. I am blown away. I love writing, but the fact that OTHERS love my writing, well its difficult to put into words how amazing THAT is!! A humongous thank you to all three wonderful bloggers that nominated me!

Kallia from Kallia’s Everyday Talks (https://free52174.wordpress.com/) who nominated me for The Sunshine Award. From Kallia’s post, this award is given specifically to bloggers that make our lives a little more fun and bring sunshine with their personalities and their positive attitude.

Kah Choon has nomiated me for the Liebster award. Kah Choon is someone whose blog has recently come to my attention (https://kahchoonblog.wordpress.com/) and he’s a research assistant, studying culture and languages, two of my very favorite things. He writes about wonderful, happy things, such as: finding your place in life, being happy, and living a good life.

Finally, I was nominated for the Blogger Recognition Award, by Garma at GRae Area (http://gamarae.com/). This is a new blogger, which is really exciting to me. I didn’t start all that long ago and helping someone else who is just starting out is just awesome to me! She’s big on things that make you go hmmmm…. (thanks 80s).

I look forward to sharing my nominations and I hope you all enjoy them as much as I have. Each award has different “rules” so, instead of three different posts with similar info, I am going to try to amalgamate all three into one post.

For the Liebster award, you list 11 random facts about yourself, answer 11 questions, and nominate 11 other bloggers. For the sunshine award, there are 11 other questions to answer so I’m going to answer them at the end, but without further ado: 11 random facts!

11 random facts: I love to read. I have four kids (they range in age from 40 to 11 lol), I love science and medicine in all its forms. I’ve recently become really interested in politics. My dad says my mouth works faster than my brain (haha!). I am Jewish (by culture) and Pagan (by religion). I speak four languages, but I can curse in about 15. I am a BIG supporter of cannabis, medical or recreational I don’t really care. I love theatre, TV, music, and pretty much all forms of artistic expression. The beach is my happy place.  My favorite saying is, “You learn something new every day!!” because you do!

For the Blogger Recognition Award: The Rules.

  • Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to.
  • Write a post to show off your award! Give a brief story of how your blog got started, and give a piece or two of advice to new bloggers. Be sure to thank the person that nominated you!
  • Comment on each blog and let them know you’ve nominated them. Provide a link to the award post you created.
  • Provide a link to the original post on Edge of Night. 

Where Dr.Ruth came from…..

I began writing a book a few years ago. As I began looking for an agent, I found that having an “online presence” made a huge difference in finding an agent. Finding an agent provides a huge boost in finding a publisher and actually selling books. I can self-publish like thousands of other writers have, but I found that it is often difficult to gain an audience and following. I don’t necessarily want to become “famous.” That’s not why I started this whole thing, but as I started to write, I realized people seem to enjoy what I have to say and why and how I say it. I sincerely hope that I can do something with this thing because I really think and I really hope I can make a difference. Marriage has become a thing that we enter into but don’t really expect to “stay” in and that, in my opinion, is not the way to enter into a marriage. I hope to do my part to change that. I’m in a forever relationship, not a disposable one. My dream is that everyone enters into something forever. We worked so very hard for marriage for everyone, but the idea of marriage has changed and not for the better. I hope we can make forever marriage the norm, not the exception.

 

My advice to new bloggers is part of the best advice I myself received: First, be sure to comment on and like other bloggers work. Spend some time finding new blogs, use the lists and look up tags that interest you. It seems like such a small thing, but you’ll be amazed at how many new likes and follows and comments you get when you spend a bit of time doing this. The second bit of advice I got that really helped was to write 250-400 word blogs. Writing long blogs may seem easy (when telling a story or, like me, having a medical/scientific/school background), or it may seem necessary, but honestly people get tired of reading a thousand words. Split long blogs into 2,3,4 parts. When I followed these easy few pieces of advice, it really helped. I may not have hundreds of followers right now, but they’re growing every day. (THANKS TO ALL THE FOLLOWERS OLD AND NEW BTW!! YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!!) Thirdly, try to post every day. It’s hard and it’s time consuming, yes. But, I have found my blog is growing more quickly by following these few tips, so obviously, they work! Lastly, don’t go crazy with the tags. Tag important stuff. Stuff you think people will search for (significant other, marriage, relationship, sex, love) NOT a billion things. Tags are there so people can find you amongst other areas or interests they are looking for. A 500 word article with 150 tags is just crazy talk.

11 Questions to answer: (From the Liebster award)

  1. What is your favorite book and/or movie? ~ Lightening or Watchers= Dean R. Koontz (Movies would be much harder, but I would say The Breakfast Club and Empire Records are the tops!) 
  2. Who has been the biggest influence in your life? ~ My father- whom passed away in 1983- David Elliot Levenson
  3. Where do you hope to be in 5 years time? ~finished with my PsyD, on the beach, perhaps with a new book! 
  4. Describe your ideal Autumn. ~ 7o ish degrees, a nice breeze, lots of trees with lots of color. 
  5. Describe yourself in 5 words. ~ funny, nice, generous, flawed, and opinionated. 
  6. What is the best piece of advice you have ever received? ~Wait, and the universe will give you the answer. 
  7. Zombie attack or alien invasion, if one had to happen, which would you prefer? ~Zombies- as a scientist, maybe I could find a cure. 
  8. How long have you been blogging? ~ 6 months on wordpress, 1 year total. 
  9. Do you have any goal for 2016? ~Buy a house and car.
  10. Do you have any regrets for 2015? ~ Not a one! Things seem to finally be going my way!
  11. What did you want to be when you were little? Something in the medical field. 

11 questions to answer from the Sunshine Award-

  1. What is your last thought every night? What do I need to do the next day!
  2. What inspires you? My kids, to be someone they’re proud of.
  3. What is your greatest achievement? My kids and my marriage. They are the best of me and it’s hard to ask for more than that!
  4. What is your favorite book? Anything my Dean R. Koontz, Charlaine Harris, Ken Follett, Sandra Brown, or PC and Kristin Cast (you won’t be sorry!)
  5. What is your favorite destination? The beach
  6. How much time of your day do you spend blogging? Writing and Researching, maybe a couple of hours. Reading other people’s stuff, another couple of hours.
  7. What are the three things you cannot live without? Chocolate, my family, coffee
  8. What makes you unique, in your opinion? Someone said to me once I was one of a kind. That’s the biggest compliment one can get! I’m unique in every way! I don’t know if you can put a finger on it, but I’ll sure make you smile!
  9. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween!!!
  10. What is your favorite memory? Omg, so many. My wedding day to the hubbs was pretty amazing. My other two kids were there, 8 and 10, so everyone I loved was there (and the 11 yo was a honeymoon baby soooooooo) It was a pretty great day!
  11. If you could write a letter to your younger self, what would you say in one sentence? Don’t spend time on what if!

Such good questions!! I just gave the advice not to make a post so long and here I go!!

11 Questions for you to answer!!

  1. What inspires you?
  2. How much time of your day do you spend blogging?
  3. What is your favorite holiday?
  4. What is your favorite memory?
  5. How do you handle stress?
  6. What was your favorite subject in school?
  7. Where are you from? Where do you live now?
  8. 5 words that describe yourself?
  9. Tell a funny store or your favorite quote.
  10. Where do you see yourself in five years?
  11. What do you hope to accomplish by blogging?

Last, but definitely not least, the bloggers who deserve to be recognized. Here follows 11 amazing bloggers you should check out immediately! These are bloggers I have not (15 others are on Oh happy day! https://annalevensonpsy.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/oh-happy-day/) recognized previously, except my bonus, who deserves her own nod.  I hope you like them, as much as I look forward to seeing what they have to say as well.

  1. Deena Byrne (http://mywordvom.com/) My younger cousin who, I’m ashamed to admit, I forgot to nominate the first time! She writes about everyday things with a lot of comedy thrown in. Check her out. You won’t be sorry.
  2. 60 shades of purple (https://60shadesofpurple.wordpress.com/) Unapologetic about her desires, which is unconscionably and inherently sexy
  3. Mark Bon0 (https://markbono.wordpress.com/) at open eyes= open minds= opportunity has some great thoughts on life.
  4. chelseenel (https://thewannabestarvingartist.wordpress.com/) whose motto Eat, Food, Paint sums up her site. You can really tell she wants to bring creativity to everyone.
  5. Sex is my new hobby (https://sexismynewhobby.wordpress.com/) I love the fact that, even though she’s not a teenager, she is finally learning that sex is fun!
  6. Man Vs. Mommy (https://manvsmommy.wordpress.com/) Being a mom in NYC and humour too!
  7. Lessons from the End of a Marriage (http://lessonsfromtheendofamarriage.com/) because hindsight is 20/20.
  8. That One Woman (https://thatonewoman.wordpress.com/) Well rounded and done with humour, a necessity for me!
  9. Auntie BS (https://auntiebs.wordpress.com/) She writes about “insane laws and society stupidity” so I’m doubting she’s going to run out of material anytime soon! lol
  10. Kannatopia Blog (http://kannatopiablog.com/) New blogger. Part cannabis news, part personal musings, all fun.
  11. Sarah Johansson (http://problemswithinfinity.com/) Confessions of a Delusional Maniac. Everyday situations with humour (as you can tell one of the most important things when it comes to blogs for me! lol).

As this post ended up being like FIVE times as long as I usually post, I hope some of you can even get to the end and see the wonderful folks I nominated as well. Thank you everyone SO SO very much for nominating me for these awards. I feel totally honored and I wish everyone the very best. Blessed be friends!!