Getting in Touch with My Feminine Side
(and a Game to Play While We are Away)

While doing some last-minute blogging this morning I stumbled across a noteworthy accomplishment that that we weren't even aware of. It seems the nice ladies at Just Mommies have checked our place out and voted A Work of Art one of the Top 100 Mommy Blogs of 2007! Ours was included in the Special Needs category coming in at a sweet #75. I'd also like to give some props to our blog buddies, Redneck Mommy (#3) and Moosh in Indy (#27), for being included as well.

As far as I can tell we were the only non-mommy blog included. That is a good thing, right? I mean I've never really questioned my gender before, at least not to all of you fine readers in the Blogosphere. I have been feeling a bit cranky lately and these cramps are really getting on my nerves...

We do appreciate the recognition and thank all of you mommy bloggers who voted for us!

Ben is feeling much better so he and I will be leaving for the beach in just a few minutes. Before we head off to the land of sand & surf we'd like to leave y'all with a fun bit of homework, which we sometimes like to do. This one is pretty easy and anyone can play along as often as you'd like. I will begin by naming a song title and the artist(s) who performed it. In the "critique/comments" reply by taking a word from the first title and then listing another song with the same word in it. If you truly get stumped then name another song by the artist.

Here's an example: "Stop Dragging My Heart Around" by Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty. You could use "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey or perhaps "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys. Use any musical genre you like.

When I return next week I will award (by family vote) the person who comes up with the most obscure/interesting/odd/humorous addition to the list a set of note cards featuring art by me and Ben! Have fun with it and good luck!

Here's the first song: "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith.

And the Winner is....

The results are in for this year's Name That Woolly Worm contest. We have to tell you gals and guys that you didn't let us down. I knew y'all would come through with some clever names that we'll be using next October.

The Committee had a difficult time deciding the winner. After much heated debate and realizing that we were about to miss dinner hour last night we decided to award three first place prizes. In fact we'll be mailing out a couple of smaller honorable mention prints as well!

In no particular order, the winners are:

Emily for Boxcar Woolly
Jessica for WoolMart
Mete for Stormin' Worman Schwarzkopf.

Each of these folks will receive an 8" x 10" giclee print of their choosing.

Honorable mentions go to:

Gretchen for Woolly or Won't He
Chasity for Worman Munster
Mete for A Perfect Worm.

You all will receive a 5" x 7" giclee print of your choosing. All of you need to e-mail me (benwaddell@bellsouth.net) with your snail mail addresses. I'll do my best to get them to the post office ASAP.

Just for the record, we eliminated any of the names that were used over the weekend. Surprisingly only three names were tossed out by the judges: The Worminator, Woolworth, and Woolly Bully. You all were much more clever.

The Thinking Bloggers Award!

When I started this blog I had no intentions to use it to boost my ego unless you wanted to tell me how awesome my son or my family or my art was. Zero competition was the word in this blogger's mind because there's just too darn much of that in the real world. And yes, I had done my research and saw those little buttons on the sidebars of my future fellow bloggers' pages. They seemed as frivolous as a modern day beauty pageant.

Awards like that are meaningless to me for a simple reason. How do you judge someone to be Miss America or Miss Possum Kingdom (yes, there is a community nearby that goes by that name) or Miss pick-your-location by how she looks in a bathing suit? Or is it the popularity type contest you had in high school which you chose "Most Likely to Succeed?" Where is the depth of discovering what that individual is about? What makes that individual special besides good looks or a huge blog roll? Are they seriously wanting world peace or just another memory to clip out and paste to their scrap book?

Well today I was "tagged" so to speak. Kyla chose me as a recipient of The Thinking Bloggers Award for this post from a few days ago. When I read the reasoning behind it I began to understand that this particular award had much more meaning than "Best Blog of the Day" or "Best Humor Blog of South Carolina 2006." There is some incredible depth in being chosen by an individual fellow blogger.

Don't get me wrong. The awards most bloggers receive are justified and well-deserved. After all we all know how tough it is to spill our guts on a regular basis to readers we've never met and have them comment back as to how that spewage is received. And I'll be honest that my self-worth got the best of me last month when I asked one of the folks mentioned a bit later to literally critique this blog.

So I am humbled by this particular accolade. It was this story that moved Kyla enough to "nominate" me. I truly wish I could nominate her back because she and her husband's journey (a well-named blog) are an inspiration for our journey. the best part of this is that I get to introduce you readers to 5 more blog posts to receive the award. In fact these are the rules:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

I must say this was extremely difficult because there is so much written within the pages of my blog buddies that would be worthy of the challenge. But the rules say I can only choose five. So here are my Thinking Blogger Awards (in no particular order):

1. The wonderful writers at Original Man challenge me daily. They are a "family" of African-American bloggers that I've grown to love and admire a great deal. They pull no punches in regards to living as life as black Americans and stereotypes they still face. There is honest judgment and discussion of their own (past and present) culture but more importantly the bloggers write about issues that face ALL of us like the Sun King Poet's Dust in the Wind. I just cannot say enough about this blog. It is imperative reading for me.

2. I find Casey, the writer of Moosh in Indy , to be a terrifically funny writer. She's the mother of the The Moosh who is toddling quite well and the attitude to prove it. Her husband is currently in law school which presents some unique financial challenges. Casey recently wrote a very poignant piece entitled Meet Aunt Cheryl that proves just how important it is to look beyond someone's out appearance to find the real person inside.

3. Cynthia is a middle-aged mother of an adopted 2-year-old boy. Tsukismom Speaks shares her thoughts in raising her son as a single mom and along the way she posts some of her brilliant poetry. Oh yeah, she is white and her son happens to be black. Race and Adoption reveals one of the most frustrating aspects of their journey.

4. If you've read the blog for any length of time you'll know why I have a deep respect for and connection with Redneck Mommy. The poor lady regularly backs into snow drifts, does her house-cleaning with a shovel, and occasionally keeps dead livestock around just for the thrill of it. She wants you to believe that she is the Lucy Ricardo of The Great White North. What you may may not know is that she harbors a heavy heart. Choosing one of her more "thinking" entries was most difficult (there are so many) but Invisible Man seemed to be the obvious choice here.

5. And last but definitely not least I had to find something of Jeni's. She began An Editorial of Life about the same time I started blogging and her posts are a must read for me each day. Let's just say Jen tells things like they are which is to say she's a sassy young mommy with and attitude. The Mamas & the Papas is an humorous look at a motherhood experience that my wife really identified with.

So there you have my choices for receiving The Thinking Bloggers Award. I'll very interested in seeing and reading who you all have chosen.