Ah, shucks. I’m speechless!

Nancy Shuman of The Breadbox Letters has kindly given me the Liebster Award. It’s given to up-and-coming bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers.  Liebster is German for “sweetest,” “valued,” “endearing,” “welcoming,” etc. Thank you, Nancy! I think you’re pretty sweet to give it to me.

Here are the “rules” for The Liebster Award:

So, 11 things about me you may not know:

1.  I spent 2 years after college as a lay missioner in Japan.
2. I have 7 brothers and 3 sisters. (One of each died in childhood.)
3. I almost left the Catholic Church in my 20s.
4. I grew up in a Charismatic family.
5. I have zero hand-eye coordination. Zero.
6. I am fascinated by history.
7. I’m only 4’11” tall.
8. “Enchanted April” is my favorite movie.
9. I have a B.A. in Elementary Education and Modern Foreign Languages (2/3 Spanish, 1/3 French).
10. I love doing genealogy.
11. I used to dream about being headmistress of a girls’ boarding school. (God’s humor.)

Now, the questions from Nancy, with my answers:

1.  If you won a free trip to anywhere, where would you go? Scotland.
2.  What is your favorite childhood memory?  Our family vacation at the Oregon Coast.
3.  What’s your favorite season? Autumn.
4.  Favorite kind of music? Classical.
5.  If you could spend tomorrow with one canonized saint, who would it be? St. Francis de Sales.
6.  What is your favorite Scripture?  (either chapter and verse, or a whole book) Romans 12:1. (Go look it up!)
7.  If you were dressing up for an elegant evening out, what would you wear?…. Black velvet.
8.  …. and where would you like to go? The symphony. (If I lived near one.)
9.  Who has modeled the Christian life for you, or taught it to you, in an inspiring way? My brother, Fr. Michael Mary, M. Carm.
10. What is your favorite poem?  (if you don’t have one, pick a favorite anything-else!) Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 is my favorite romantic poem. Here it is, dedicated to my Valentine:

“Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.”

11.  How do you like to relax and wind-down? Put my feet up, read a 19th-Century British novel, and sip Chai Latte–alone. (And the last time I did all that at once was before I had kids!)

As for nominees, most of the blogs I read either have more than 200 followers, or were just nominated by someone else. But one blog that I think deserves more readers is:

A Catholic Reader by Dr. Lisa Nicholas. Please check out her site.

The questions for Lisa are:

1. What is you favorite painting or sculpture?
2. What is your favorite book of the Bible?
3. What was your worst subject in school?
4. Which modern convenience would you find it most difficult to live without?
5. What is the farthest you have ever been from the place you born?
6. What is your favorite day/season of the liturgical year?
7. What virtue would you most like to be remembered for practicing?
8. What one word would your friends use to describe you?…
9. …Would you describe yourself the same way?
10. Do you speak any language other than English?
11. What is your favorite novel for adults?