Sunshine Blogger Award

This is kind of fun and exciting, guys. I’ve been nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award less than 2 months after going live with The Bossy Brunette. I have been working my tail off on trying to connect with people and provide good content, so it makes me happy that it hasn’t gone unnoticed.

I was nominated by Carolyn, the creator of The Starving Artist Blog, which is full of lovely posts about living your best life (and frugally!). I would highly recommend checking out her blog, as it is full of great tips as well as being visually beautiful.

The Sunshine Blogger Award is an award given by bloggers to other bloggers they find creative, talented, entertaining, positive, inspiring, etc. First you answer 11 questions from the blogger that nominated you, then you write your own 11 creative questions and nominate up to 11 additional bloggers that need to do the same.

So, first of all, THANK YOU to Carolyn for the nomination, and here are my answers to Carolyn’s questions:

1. If you had unlimited funds, what would you spend them on?

Besides making sure my kids would never have any student loan payments, I would use my money to travel, and in style! We love to travel, but I already feel like I am getting too old for these long flights. I bought compression socks for our last flight to London, and I have no shame or regrets!

2. Who inspires you?

As much as she drives me crazy, the woman I owe it ALL to is my mom. Not only did she go through medical school, internship, and residency with two VERY little kids, but she supported me and my sister all through our schooling (college, law school, and masters programs for BOTH of us) and has been my biggest role model. She worked (still works) like crazy and always had dinner on the table and lunches packed. She is the reason I always say, “NO ONE loves you like your mom.”

3. Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging because I feel like we, as women, are always treading water trying to hold everything together. I wanted to create a space where people could come for tips and help with all the things we do – whether it’s parenting, trying to look good, getting meals on the table and families fed, keeping our homes in order – without having to reinvent the wheel every single time. I wanted to share the things I’ve learned along my way and to learn from other women while I’m at it.

4. If you could go back in time and tell a younger version of you one thing, what would that thing be?

I think I would tell the younger Serena to stop trying to be a good sport. This is something I’d like to write a post on soon, but I spent too much time during my youth trying to be a good sport – doing things I really didn’t want to do just because I didn’t want to be a party pooper. I’ve realized as I’ve gotten older that I don’t LIKE roller coasters, and I don’t LIKE haunted houses, and I don’t LIKE staying up late and going to loud parties. I’m very proud that my kids say “Mommy is our party pooper!” I sure am, and I have NO problem with that anymore.

5. What’s the most valuable piece of advice you’ve ever given?

Many, if not all of the, women I know suffer from some kind of anxiety, self-doubt, pressure to be perfect. I tell friends when they are having a hard time or beating themselves up about something, “Treat yourself like you would treat someone you really love.” Would you be so hard on a friend in the same situation? Or your child? Not bloody likely. So treat yourself with the same compassion.

6. What advice would you give to a new blogger?

Blogging is such a time consuming process in ways that you aren’t thinking of – writing is maybe 20% of it. So my advice would be to make sure you have WAY more free time than you think you need LOL.

7. What animal do you feel best represents you?

Ah, as I like to say, I am neither a morning lark nor the night owl, but rather an always-exhausted pigeon. That is definitely kind of tongue-in-cheek, because I am definitely more of a morning person as I get older – I cherish my early mornings before the kids wake up and start their daily nonsense. But I think there is something to being a mom and a lawyer, traveling as much as we do, trying to keep everything together, that just makes me a little tired all the time.

8. Beach or mountains? Why?

I would say beach for sure even though I don’t really like to swim at all. I think the reason I enjoy the beach is because my kids are so happy on the beach. I am always happiest when everyone around me is having a good time, whether or not it’s my favorite activity or not.

9. What thing are you the most proud of?

It’s hard to think of anything I am more proud of than my babies. Noah and Sophie are so smart, so funny, so everything. I could go on forever and forever and forever about them, so I will leave it at that for now.

10. If your life were a book, what would be the title of this current chapter?

The Broken Foot: A Lesson in Gratitude. So, at the moment, my foot happens to be broken. As much of a pain as it has been, both literally and figuratively, I have felt so lucky to have so much support around me. My mom came and stayed with me for several days after it happened and brought a chair up to my bathroom counter, kept wandering around behind me picking up stuff I dropped and couldn’t pick up, checked on Sophie at 2 a.m. for several nights in a row because she was running a fever and it was so hard for me to check on her every couple of hours. My assistant and friend Brenda has been driving me around ALL over town – to pick up the kids, take them to their activities, taking ME to ortho and dentist appointments. Jeremy, of course, has been pretty much just getting me anything I point at. I am fortunate that I was able to afford to just buy myself my handy little scooter on Amazon when my awful insurance denied it. There are SO many things that I have to be thankful for that make this less-than-ideal situation mostly tolerable.

11. If you had to choose between a tame pet dinosaur or the ability to turn invisible whenever you wanted, which would you choose, and why?

Invisible all the way. I think that would be even better than changing my name to “Dad,” which is what I currently threaten to do when I’ve heard, “MOM!” fifty-seven times in the course of a 7 minute care ride.

My nominations. . .

In no particular order, here are bloggers that I nominate for this award:

1. A Marvelous Family – great tips on parenting, finances, and organization
2. Love Coco and Bean – super pretty lifestyle, crafts, and motherhood blog
3. Because She Can – a travel blog about traveling within the USA with lovely pictures and tips
4. At Home With My Kiddos – down-to-earth blog about managing life as a stay-at-home-mom
5. Girl Takes Charge – 22 years old and trying to take charge of her life – I love it!
6. Dirty Toes and Mommy Prose – Christa is a super relatable mom talking about ALL the mom stuff – the good and the bad
7. The Bossy Librarian – a fellow bossy, who will tell you all about what you should read next
8. Southern Dakota Mama – Michaela blogs about life with her adorable little girl, and you need to check out both her posts AND all of her gorgeous pictures – she is so talented!
9. The Minted Life – a gorgeous blog with lots of great ideas about 2 of my favorite things – travel and gifts!
10. The Gutz Life – Snarky stay-at-home-mom Tamara, who does a little bit of everything.
11. City Toast to Southern Tea – Kelly doesn’t just have LOTS of amazing content for fellow moms, but she is super supportive of other bloggers wanting to connect, and I love that about her.
12. Bonus nomination: Ok, I don’t know if this is cheating, but I made my list and then realized I forgot to put Simply Bethany Megan on here. I really love her blog – she is a working mama like me who is also in the process of building her own house (something Jeremy and I know about all too well). Well, I couldn’t very well boot anyone else off my list, so that’s that!

My questions to these lovely ladies:

1. What are your top 3 blogs that you look to for inspiration?
2. What is your next goal/milestone for your blog?
3. What hobby would you start up if you had the time/money?
4. How do you fit blogging into your daily routine?
5. Who in your family or group of friends is the most supportive when it comes to your blogging?
6. Where was your last vacation, and would you recommend it?
7. What is one product that makes your life easier, i.e. something you would not want to live without?
8. What is your favorite thing to do when you need a little “me” time?
9. Tell me about a time when you experienced a stranger’s kindness.
10. How did you decide on your blog’s name?
11. What is something that you want to do in 2020 (not related to your blog)?

If you’ve read this far, it’s likely that I’ve nominated you for this fun award. So – tag, you’re it!