It’s been a crazy week/weekend here at The Frugal Farmer!! First, on Friday, my dear blogging friend Hayley over at Disease Called Debt nominated me for the Versatile Blogger award. What a fun treat that was! The goal, it seems, of the Versatile Blogger Award is simply to spread the word and share some love about other bloggers that have impacted you. As are the rules of the award, first, I’ll tell you 7 random facts about me, and then I’ll nominate my own 7 bloggers for the award. Here are my 7 random facts:
1. I was an incredibly shy, awkward kid. A far cry from my current self, who probably cares far too little about what others think and am anything but shy. 🙂
2. I HATE mushrooms. They’re evil, and I will never eat one again. I think it’s the texture; that and the fact that really, people – they’re a FUNGUS!! Eeewww!! When I was young, my dad would routinely try and “hide” mushrooms in meals so that he could secretly get me to eat them.
3. I’m this weird combo of drill sergeant/mushy wimpy mom with my kids. On one hand, I shower them with lots of hugs/kisses/words of encouragement, often so much that I send them running. But they are so awesome that I just can’t help myself! Then there’s the drill sergeant side of me that let’s my kids get away with very little and pushes them to be and do their best always. I’m sure they think I’m Jekyll/Hyde some days. 🙂
4. I couldn’t care less about fitting in. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. One of the great things about getting older is that it helps you to realize that it really doesn’t matter what others think, but instead, that you can truly live with yourself and look yourself in the mirror each day. For me, that has a lot to do with whether or not my actions would be acceptable to Jesus Christ, and it’s now the only gauge I use when it comes to fitting in.
5. I have a dry, sarcastic, silly sense of humor. If you peeked through our windows, you’d often find me singing loudly or quoting movie lines that fit in with our conversations, and I’ve taught our children to do the same. Sometimes this is witty and funny, other times it’s a bit awkward, but I’d rather laugh than be serious. It’s more fun. 🙂
6. Even at 47 years of age, I wouldn’t hesitate to beat the crap out of someone who threatened my children’s safety. The kids have now, after so many years, gotten over the embarrassment of me chewing some lady or guy out at Walmart because they drove too fast in the parking lot and put my kids in danger. 🙂 I am fiercely protective of them.
7. I love you – I really love you!!! My growing relationship with Jesus Christ has put an immense love in my heart for the human race. Even if I don’t know you, I love you and pray for you often, that you would have a blessed and awesome life. I have a serious empathy and compassion for the human race.
And my 7 nominees for the Versatile Blogger Award? I”m picking some “newbies” because there are so many awesome newbies out there:
1. Deb and Al at Saving the Crumbs
2. Amy at Debtgal
3. Myles over at Myles Money
4. Taylor at Tipping Scales
5. My friend C over at Romania Experience
6. Steven from Even Steven Money
7. Raquel from over at Practical Cents
If you’ve already been nominated/completed your tasks for the Versatile Blogger Award, you can simply ignore my heartfelt nomination. 😉
Now, onto my other BIG news: Saturday night, as the fam and I sat around, eating our grilled sirloin steaks (farm-raised, grass-fed, for the low, low price of $3.50 a pound, I might add 🙂 ) and homemade chocolate mousse, I stopped in the office to check email and found that my Twitter account had been inundated with messages.
Turns out our little piggy here at The Frugal Farmer won the Plutus Award at FINCON for Best Green/Sustainability PF blog!!!! I cannot tell you how happy that made me, and how blessed I was by not only the nominations and the win, but by all of the well-wishes from those keeping up with these types of things. It truly made my entire weekend. Thank you so much, to all of you for reading and supporting our efforts here.
Fall is on its way, officially as of tomorrow, which will be followed by winter. So soak up some sun and play outside before the next Polar Vortex sets in!
Congratulations Laurie! That’s awesome and well deserved!
Thank you so much, Tonya!!
Congratulations on the Plutus award!
Thank you, Leslie! 🙂
I love mushrooms and my boyfriend hates them. It puts quite the damper on some of my recipes haha. Sometimes kids grow out of their food preferences but it seems like this one really stuck for you! Thanks for sharing all this – it’s so fun to learn more about other bloggers.
LOL, Rick likes them too. Yeah, I grew out of my hatred for cream cheese and sour cream, but can’t stand mushrooms to this day. 🙂
I was SO excited when I heard that you won the Plutus Award Laurie! I wish you were there so I could have given you a big hug, but you will just have to accept my virtual hug instead. I hear you on the protective mom instinct. I am not a violent person; however, I think crazy violent things when I think about someone hurting my son. One time we were at a gas station and this guy was behaving really strange around us. I thought to myself, that I would douse him with gasoline and light him on fire (didn’t know where I would find a lighter) if he got any more strange. I told Will this when we drove away and he giggled and told me I was ridiculous. At the same time, I think it meant a lot to him to know that I felt that way. One of the few things I remember from my college psych class was that the maternal instinct is the strongest instinct we have, beyond hunger, thirst or anything else, and I believe it.
I know – I wish I could’ve been there too to enjoy the conference with all of you, Shannon. Funny and you and Will and the guy at the gas station – it’s amazing the things we will do to protect our babies. 🙂
Congrats Laurie! I was so excited to hear you won the Plutus Award- well deserved! Have an awesome week!
Thank you so much, Dee – I appreciate your well wishes!
Great job Laurie – deserving and we are very proud of ya!
You are part of this amazing team, Aaron, along with Charlie, who helped us win this, Aaron. Thank YOU! 🙂
Many congrats on the Plutus Award, Laurie! I was so excited to see that you’d won! Well deserved 🙂
Thanks, Mrs. FW!!! I was so excited to share with you in the celebration via twitter Saturday night. 🙂
I’m so happy you won an award! Your blog truly deserves recognition!
We’d get along fine in real life – my natural form of communication is sarcasm. I have a hard time going more tha 10 minutes without using it. I also have hated mushrooms for years – the sliminess. Ugh! Ick! But I found I don’t mind raw ones on top of salad. They are firm and don’t have much taste at all. My daughter will steal them out of the fridge and eat a whole pint if I’d let her (much like grape tomatoes).
LOL, I have no doubt we’d get along great IRL. SO funny about your daughter and the mushrooms: that would be like my worst nightmare – something people could use to torture me. 🙂
Congrats on your win, Laurie! You deserve it!!
Thanks for the nomination and for sharing some fun things about yourself. I love your style – except mushrooms are my favorite pizza topping. 🙂
Mushrooms have no place on pizza – or anywhere else for that matter. 😉
Congratulations Laurie! Well done!
Thanks, Brian!
Well you know how happy I was to hear your name called as the winner! I’m with you on the mushrooms, cannot eat them at all but I’m salivating at the thought of a juicy well done sirloin steak! Getting older really has it’s benefits because of what you said, not letting the perception of others affect you. Congrats again Laurie 🙂
Oh I wish I could’ve been there to celebrate with you all! Well, Kassandra, when we finally meet IRL, we’ll have to go out for steak dinner. 🙂
Congratulations! You really deserve it. I also hate mushrooms and really any food that is squishy like that, even though they don’t really have much of a taste.
Thanks so much, Kim!! I really think it’s the texture thing with the mushrooms – so squishy!!!
Congrats Laurie!!! You totally deserve this award and I am truly just so happy for you 🙂
Also, I hate mushrooms too! Bleh…
thanks so much, my friend! Yay – another mushroom hater! We should start a club. 🙂
So true that when you get older, you tend to care less and less about fitting in and about what others think of you. Ahhh if we only could learn that when we were younger. Congrats on the Plutus award! That’s pretty awesome and well deserved.
That is, I think, what I love most about getting older. Having wisdom is much more important to me than all of the other things we chase after when we’re younger. 🙂
Congrats on your Plutus Award win!
I HATE mushrooms too! They are nasty. I’m so excited for you to have won a Plutus Award, that’s awesome!
Woohoo! Another one for the mushroom-haters club. 🙂 Thanks Kayla – we appreciate your support!
Congratulations on your Plutus Award, Laurie! Very well-deserved! And I’m with you on #4. The older I get the more comfortable I get in my own skin, which is pretty common. I am who I am. And like her and you too!
Yeah, I truly love that about getting older. 🙂 I think I’m awesome, extra poundage, wrinkles and all. 🙂
Yay! congrats on your award!
I’m not a mushroom fan either!
Thanks, Kara, and go, mushroom haters! 🙂
Congratulations on the award! Well deserved, Laurie.
thanks, my friend!!! I appreciate it. 🙂
Congratulations on the award 🙂 thoroughly deserved!
Thank you, Nicola! 🙂
Congratulations on the award! I love reading your blog, and I´m glad others do, too!
Big woot on the Plutus Award, Laurie! Very happy for you! Love #7 of random facts but I do love mushrooms. Do you still love me? 😉
LOL, of course I still love you (see #7)! But you can’t join our mushroom haters club. 😉
Congrats on winning the Plutus Award! There was certainly a lot of cheering from the crowd when that happened. I have to echo Shannon and say I wish you were there so I could have given you a hug! Hopefully next year. =) I am 100% on board with your thoughts on mushrooms. My dad and boyfriend love them, my mom and I hate them. The texture just looks too strange.
Thank you so much, Erin. I so wish I could’ve been there with you all to party and hang out. I’m secretly praying that PT will hold it in MPLS next year. 🙂 Agreed about the mushroom texture – yuck!
Congrats on the award! Well deserved 🙂
Thank you, Michelle – that means a lot coming from you. You were one of the first bloggers that I came across and you’ve inspired me so much.
Wow! Thanks for the nomination and congrats on the Plutus Award!
Congrats on the Plutus award! Thanks for the heart felt nomination, I gotta get going on this one.
You should, Steven – we all are eager to know goofy and random stuff about you! 🙂
Congratulations on the awards!!! So exciting!!! I can totally relate to #1 and #4! Looking forward to watching your blog soar!!!
Thanks so much, Jayleen – your support means so much to us!
Congratulations Laurie! You really deserved it!
Thanks Kate, I appreciate it! 🙂
Congrats on the win! I was a finalist the past two years for best blog for young adults, but I have yet to win 🙁 I think if I ever want to win that category I will have to do a little campaigning.
LOL, you’ll get there, DC. You have an awesome blog. 🙂
Congrats, Laurie, on your Plutus award, I completely agree with you winning it! And thank you so much for your nomination, it’s the first time that I get nominated for something like this, so it really made my day!
Gladly, C! You are one of those bloggers who inspires me every day. Thank you for that. 🙂
I was following along with the Plutus Awards facebook page as they were posting the winners live….I smiled extra big as both you and Peter Anderson (also a MN blogger) took home awards. We Minnesotans know blogging. Maybe that should be our state motto. 🙂 Congrats my friend!
That’s awesome that Peter won too – yay!!! Yeah, we rock here, even if the weather does suck six months out of the year, LOL. I need to get a better attitude about winter like you have. 🙂
Congratulations Laurie! How awesome!
I am totally on board with your mushroom aversion. YUCK! I refuse to eat them and I won’t even touch them. In college, I tried to face the mushrooms by helping a friend clean them before she ate them. I touched one for maybe 5 seconds and I had a straight up panic attack. Not my finest moment! Down with the Mushrooms!
EEEEEWWWWW!!! I know that sounds wimpy – but I can’t even imagine!!! We have them in the yard here sometimes, and I have to let Rick and the kids handle them. 🙂 Welcome to the mushroom-haters club, Kate. 🙂
Congrats Laurie!
Thanks, Alexis!!!!! I appreciate you stopping by. 🙂
Congratulations!!! I am so proud of you!!! You deserve it. You are such an inspirations. I kind of was like “oh no! She’s a mushroom hater!” My heart broke for a minute. Haha! JK
LOL, so sorry that you can’t be in our club. 🙂 Good thing you have so many other awesome traits to counteract liking mushrooms. 😉
Congratulations on your Plutus Award, Laurie! So cool! And well-deserved! Although I’m not sure if we can still be friends since you don’t like mushrooms! I love those little suckers, although I used to hate them. Because you know – weird looking. And I still don’t like cream of mushroom soup. It kind of weirds me out. But fresh mushrooms are yummy in my tummy! LOL! Hope you’re having a great week!
That is so funny that you don’t like cream of mushroom soup!!! I like the taste, but always pick out the little tiny bits of mushroom. 🙂 Maybe one day you’ll come over to our side and start hating those yucky things again. But if you don’t, I’ll love ya anyway. 😉
Those were 7 fun random facts! Was that a response to the nomination for most versatile blogger? I find it easy to believe the drill sergeant/mushy mom combination : ) But I come to the defense of mushrooms – which are delicious! And when you say “I love you,” it is remarkably believable. Clearly we all love you too. That’s why it was such a pleasure to see your contributions acknowledged with the award.
LOL, Prudence, down with mushrooms, girl!!!! Thanks so much, seriously, for the congrats. Your friendship and the friendship of all of the other blogging peeps inspires me every single day. Hugs!
You deserve it Laurie. Congratulations! I am so happy for you.
Thank you, Jayson! I appreciate your kind words. 🙂
Congratulations Laurie, hopefully there are plenty more awards on the way 🙂
Great job on your award at FinCon! That is so awesome!
Thank you, Holly! Hope to meet you guys there next year. 🙂
Congrats again on the win Laurie, it’s much deserved. Lol on the mushrooms. I’ve never been a fan of them myself and think it’s a texture thing for me as well. If I have to, then I’ll get up the gumption to eat them. My mushroom is the tomato. I hate them with a passion! 🙂
LOL, our son hates tomatoes too!!! They’re so yummy – you don’t even care for them on a nice burger??
I have a love/hate relationship with mushrooms. Sometimes I want them, other times I can’t even look at them. However, I DO love this site, always, so CONGRATULATIONS LAURIE! You are a blessed woman and you are a blessing to us all! 🙂
That is so weird about the mushrooms! I’ve never heard that one before. SO glad you love the site – I feel the same about yours! 🙂
I was squealing like a pig next to Shannon when I found out you won! I’m so proud of you and happy for you. You SO deserve it. I also don’t like mushrooms — I’m a texture based eater, and if it feels weird, nah! I’m good.
Oh, I SO wish I could’ve been there with you guys, my friend!!!! It sounds like it was an awesome time. Thanks for your constant support – you are a blessing! 🙂
A super belated CONGRATS on winning the Plutus Award, Laurie!! I can’t think of anyone more deserving – rock on with your homesteading self! 😀 I can totally relate to being the shy, awkward kid, too – I’m still shy and awkward, but now it’s more adorkable. 😉 Have a funtastic weekend!
Thank you SO much, Anna!!! LOL, adorkable – I’m stealing that one. 🙂
Awesome – congrats!
Thank you, Katie!! I appreciate the comment. 🙂