The Smile Stone Award

Introducing…

The Smile Stone Award.

The wha??

Let me back up a little. Actually, to right here, January 23, 2008.

I was talking to my daughter about a post I wrote on that day. I’d reached an interesting milestone in the blogosphere and wrote a little post about it. After listening to me blabber on about number of visitors, blah, blah, blah, she quickly reminded me that I’ve always said to her that I wasn’t concerned about how many people read my posts, rather, I was more interested in providing good content. I was trying, I always told her, to disregard the stats and to focus on the substance. Well…then the conversation went something like this:

DD: “But Mom, I thought the number of visitors was not your main concern…”

BMG Mom: “Right. Well, it’s not, really. It’s just that I happened to notice it and thought it was interesting, so I wrote a post about it.”

DD: “Oh. Okay. Whaddya call it?”

BMG Mom: “This Milestone Fills Me with Gratitude.”

DD: “What smilestone? What is a smile stone? And why would it fill you with gratitude?”

BMG Mom: (chuckling) “Nooooo….milestone…it’s a milestone…it’s…hey, wait a minute…that’s a great idea!!”

And the Smile Stone Award began to bloom.

She found it so amusing that she set to work to help create it. She found the clipart, filled in the taglines and voila! Here it is:

For me, it really is about the people who take the time to read my posts and comment on my (often wacky) observations, ruminations and ideas. It’s about the ones who seem to care, who make me laugh, who give me support just when I need it and encourage me when I feel discouraged. I’ve learned so much in these five or six months from people I’ve known for a shorter period of time than my kids’ gestation periods. So, this is my way of showing my gratitude and providing a little something to (I hope) make them smile, too.

And now…

Without further adieu, I present the first group* of Smile Stone awardees:

Jim at The Busy Dad Blog

Deb at Missives from Suburbia

Dan at Cafe Leone

Lotus at Sarcastic Mom

Piper at Bliss in Bloom

Ann** at A Nice Place in the Sun

Pete at My GPS Camera Phone

Kim at Jogging in Circles

Momo at MomoFali’s

Tara at If Mom Says Ok

Chuck at D is for Dad

and

Ellen at Positive Communication.

Thanks for making the world (or at least the blogosphere) a better place.

_______________________

**Ann gets a special mention for providing inspiration – she gave me an award called the You Cheer Me Up award. Thanks again, Ann!! She’s been an inspiration in many ways and is a generous, talented blogger who spreads loads of sunshine and happiness.

*Please realize you don’t have to do anything except accept the award. I just wanted to do something fun (arguably a little wacky, maybe even cheesy) and recognize some outstanding blogs, each of which offers something quite different to the web.

Note: I somehow lost the last half of the group, but have added them back now (sorry about that!!)