Just one week after I posted the photo of the nest of baby bunnies, those bunnies have all matured and hopped away to new adventures – well, except for one straggler.  Every family has one:

A little timid, but she hopped away as soon as I took the photo.

Wouldn’t it be great if human babies grew so quickly?  Just imagine – no terrible twos, no teenage years.  You’d pop them out and four weeks later, they’d be off on their own!

But, of course, then you would miss that first step, the first day of kindergarten, the family holidays, and the high school graduation.  Maybe humans have it right, after all.

Anyway

Now that I’m no longer distracted by baby bunnies and new fences, I can catch up with my blogging friends.

A few weeks back, Wendi of Simply Chronically Ill nominated me for the Blogger Recognition Award, which I am happy to accept.

The rules are simple, and few (which appeals to lazy people like me):

• Write a post to show your award.
• Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
• Give a brief story of how your blog started.
• Give two pieces of advice for new bloggers.
• Nominate 6-12 bloggers who you believe deserve to be recognized. Comment on their blogs, to let the nominees know they have been nominated.

The first two have been accomplished by means of this post.

I started my blog with the help of my oldest daughter, who already had a blog of her own (Cordelia Calls It Quits).  Knowing I had dreams of writing, she encouraged me to guest post for her.  I remember lying awake the entire night before that first guest post was published – would anyone read it, would they like it, would they just think I’m a silly old lady?  I cried when I received my very first comment from a non-family member, and the second comment soon thereafter launched me on my blogging career.  After a series of guest posts for Cordelia, I decided to spin off my own blog.

And the rest is history.

My best advice to new bloggers would be this:

1. Don’t stress over statistics.  I can’t emphasize this enough.  No matter how good you are, no matter how long you blog, there will always be other bloggers with larger followings and more comments – and there will always be other bloggers with newer sites and less followers.  It doesn’t matter.  Whether you have thousands of followers or none (other than your mother, who feels obligated), so long as you enjoy blogging, that is enough.  Maybe you’re blogging to show off your writing or artistic skills, maybe you’re blogging to vent your frustrations  – whatever the reason, do it for you.
2. Following close on the heels of the first advice – don’t let your readers define you.  Write or post what you want, when you want.  There will always be those who think you should write something else or who think you’re writing too little or too much.  Again, just do it for you.

As for nominations, there are just too many good blogs for me to choose from.  I’ve found the following sites fairly recently, and I only follow blogs that appeal to me, sometimes because of the writing and sometimes because of the photography or art work.  If you don’t know these blogs yet, hop on over (sorry for the bunny reference) and check them out:

Basic AF

Not That You Asked

NickClaussen.com

Chasing Unicorns

Tool-school.com

Inspiring Images

Robby Robin’s Journey

Another happy Friday, folks!  Very hot here in Buffalo, New York, so Puppy Cody and I are staying in (no more baby bunnies for her to eat, anyway, thank heavens).

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I love to hear from my readers. You may comment on this post, comment on my Facebook or Twitter pages, or email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com

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Photographs by Cordelia’s Mom; origin of Blogger Recognition Award logo unknown.