This past week, my blog had the good fortune of some other much more notable bloggers smiling down upon it.  Some fresh new readers, both of the public and lurking variety, dropped by to visit.  Welcome to all of you because nothing helps a mother to survive the ups and downs of motherhood better than the knowledge that she’s on a team of like-minded others fighting the same battle.  There are some readers here whom I have never met, but who have managed to read many of my long-winded posts and survive, and I consider them dear friends.  In trying to decide if that makes me some kind of weird Internet delusional, I concluded that I really do believe that some of you would show up at my funeral if I croaked, so I’m probably not living in a fantasy world.  Given the overwhelming mess that is in my home right now, my chances of death are quite elevated so I would recommend that you start saving for plane tickets now.  In the words of Monte G. Brough,

“I believe true friends not only make life more enjoyable, but they help each other become worthy of the greatest friendship of all [with the Savior]… —to bring out the best in each other and help each other live righteous lives.”

So thank you to many of you who help me do just that.  The whole purpose of this blog is to recognize and remember the divinity in motherhood, and it’s so much easier to do when a whole army of good people join in the conversation together, acknowledging our collective goodness, and encouraging our continued improvement.  Yep, thank you.

So, I created this lovely little award– kind of like a prize ribbon, if you will.  I hope it travels its way around BlogWorld and makes people feel good about what they’re writing.

I know what you’re thinking:  How did you ever come up with such a clever name for a prize? I know. I know.  Some of us just have a gift for all things imaginative and witty.  (I’m also thinking about making a little book for Natalie about her first year and calling it “Natalie’s First Year.”  See?)  Anyway, there are no weird prize rules for this award.  You don’t have to do a viral tag  of 8 people or make a monumental display on your homepage about it (unless you want to).  Here’s all you do:

1.  Accept it.  You can do this in the tearful silence of your own computer desk or by writing an emotional acceptance speech in my comments.

2.  Pay attention in the next week or so to the posts that you read elsewhere and if you find a favorite (or two or three), then pass the award along to honor the blogger who wrote it.  You can either do a post like this where you announce it (and which I will probably continue to do on occasion), or you can email them and let them know or whatever.  You’re smarter than me; do what you want.

So without further ado, I want to honor these posts I’ve read in the past week or so:

Lara at Overstuffed recently moved to Michigan and wrote a lovely post about how one can feel at home even when they’re not where they expected to be.

That Girl (formerly from Brazil) wrote a very cool post over at Pensievity that encompasses the immeasurable value of us moms.

And Helen, at Dal, Hel, and Bel, put up these darling pictures of her daughter at family prayer and I just can’t help feeling all warm and fuzzy inside when I look at them.  They’re that cute.

Ladies, take your glamorous post-it note of fame and treasure it always.

And either I created the lamest poetry contest ever, or the one or two of you who entered so far have superpowers that are keeping others from writing a lullaby, thereby guaranteeing your world domination.  Step up, readers.