Shocked, honored, and humbled...

That's how I feel right now. Well, all that in addition to excited and just plain giddy! I am still in shock that Counting Coconuts won "Best Crafts, Plans & Projects Blog" in the Homeschool Blog Awards! I am beyond honored to be given such an award and I'm incredibly humbled to have been chosen when there were so many others in my category that are much more deserving of this award.

At the risk of sounding proud, I want to say a few thank yous because without everyone mentioned below, I wouldn't be receiving this awards in the first place!
First and foremost I thank God for planting in my head the idea of starting this blog just a little over a year ago and for helping me with it along the way. I have to admit, I have had times when I wasn't sure I wanted to continue blogging and it's through prayer and His guidance that I am still here sharing with you.

A HUGE thank you to my sweet, patient, and incredibly supportive husband, Paul. Never once have you given me grief about the amount of time blogging takes. Quite the opposite, in fact! You give me space to write, encouragement about ideas, and you're always generous with your faith and confidence in my abilities. Thank you, Love.

Of course I need to thank my little muse, James, for blessing me with his existence. If it weren't for his enthusiasm and his insatiable desire to learn, I wouldn't be creating any of these activities in the first place! Thanks, Peanut, for inspiring mama.

Thank you to The Homeschool Post for hosting this event - I can't imagine the time and effort it took to organize it all. Not everyone in our lives realizes just how big blogging is and just how hard us bloggers work at posting our thoughts and ideas. I think it's extremely important that we give our thanks and support to one another since we're all in this together. Blog awards are a wonderful way of doing that.

I also want to say a special thank you to my dear friend, Susan, who I met through blogging. Thank you for being there for me through my ups and downs, for helping me see the obvious when it's not so obvious to me and for being the wonderfully kind person you are. You're proof that true friendship can most definitely exist in the cyberworld.

And last, but definitely not least, thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you for voting for me and for your constant support - your kind and encouraging comments and emails mean so very much to me. You don't know how moved I am by the stories you share with me and how often I shake my head in disbelief that you find my ideas useful enough to implement in your homes and schools. Truly, I can't thank you enough.

Sheesh - I sound like I've won the Oscars or something, don't I?! I guess I'm just feeling really grateful. :)

Please join me in congratulating all of the winners. The Homeschool Post has shared links to the nominees and winners here.