Liebster Award and more good things to come

News of good cheer has dwindled low in the last few months, not that they have been cheerless by any means, to the contrary there have been many wonderful memories made in the last 5 months but they have certainly been toned down by the ever present stress of where and when we will find a home.

I remember before we left College Place, Washington, a fellow Facebooker said she was too busy to meet as she was busy moving, I mentioned that we too were moving the following week. She went on to tell me she was moving to the opposite end of town and was finding it rather stressful. I wholeheartedly agreed, moving is stressful, very stressful.

The wonderful thing about down times is they make you enjoy the good times, it adds some prospective and spice to what would otherwise be a rather dull life. One such "good time" reached me this week in the form of a comment from a reader, informing me she had nominated me for a Liebster Award. I was unfamiliar with the award, but Meg was kind enough to write a description, which you can read about here on her blog.

Part of the idea behind the Liebster Award is you answer some questions posed to you by your nominator, and in turn you nominate other writers with the award and some questions. So here are Meg's questions and my accompanying answers:

• What would you like to be acknowledged for? My sheer terrier like capabilities, when I make up my mind I'm a woman on a mission. 

• What three things does the world need most, right now? Empathy from us, towards not only each other, but also to the planet itself and the other inhabitants we share it with. More bicycles. Less cars.

• Who is someone in your life whom you feel doesn’t understand how much you love and appreciate them? What would you like to tell them? My son Jack, that little guy has no idea how much I adore him, it is simply unfathomable for a child to realize how much love a parent can bestow on them. I tell him everyday, but I think that's the easy part, showing him in actions, like trying to be a healthier example to him are much harder.

• Honesty is always the best policy, no matter what. True or false? Why? I'm almost certain it is, but there have been times when I have wished I had lied and times when I've wished I had been honest, both with myself and others.

• Name one woman and one man, people whom you have never met, with whom you would like to spend one day. What would you say/do/ask?  This is the hardest question so far. I guess for the woman it would have to be Ellen DeGeneres, I just think she is hilarious and I could do with a good laugh! For the man, it would be Nicolas Kristof, he is an amazing humanitarian and his work with the Half the Sky movement is brilliant.

• What are three things on your bucket list? To really get to know my family in Australia, to go on an extended cycling holiday and to own a horse (or more!) again one day. I'm pretty low key.

• With whom might you like to trade places for a week? I really have no idea, why is this one so difficult? I think a week is too long, I'd miss my family unless I could take them with me and then it would alter the concept of the question.

• What is love? Love is brilliant and extraordinary, a complex set of emotions and chemicals that bind us together in ways that would be impossible without it.

• What is truth? I think truth is something that is always adapting and evolving. Even things we consider universal truths, like gravity on earth, will change one day.

• What does a world that works look like to you? It has bike paths, lots of gardening and parents that have the ability to stay home and raise their own children if they choose to.

• What is one habit you would like to kick? What stops you from kicking it? Eating late in the evening, it is disruptive to my sleep and health. I haven't found a decent habit to replace it with yet. 

Thank you again to Meg for the nomination, which is the award in itself. It certainly provides writers with a chance to share their appreciation for fellow bloggers. Here's my nominations-

Family Ride I'm pretty sure Family Ride has far too many followers to meet the criteria of a Liebster Award, but that's something I'm willing to overlook if you are? It's an excellent blog from the Pacific NW, check it out!

Tiny Helmets Big Bikes Elle started her blog a few months after mine in 2012, she is pretty much a warrior woman who can do 500 miles in a month from her saddle with or without 2 kiddos attached! But more than that, Elle is a genuine human with a good deal of likeability and I'm thankful for her.

A Simple Six Another bikey mum, Stacy makes minivans look so boring, I'm sure she too has far too many followers to be officially nominated, but once again, do we really care? Stacy has a busy, busy life right now so I'm hesitant to add to her load with lots of questions, but I had to nominate her anyway- she can ignore the questions just as long as she knows how much I appreciate her blog.

That's about it from me for the day, as I'm working on a few large projects, that I hope will be of great interest to my readers. 

One involves some short interviews with cyclists who live here in Amsterdam, it seeks to uncover their opinions in regards to cycling infrastructure here and abroad. Almost everyone involved has cycled extensively in other cities and countries, like New York, Edinburgh and London.

The second project is something even more exciting in my mind, it's a video recap of how we came to be living in The Netherlands right now, it deals with the hot-topic of Immigration as it relates to our lives and he lives of tens of thousands like us. It's very low budget, a little entertaining and will hopefully answer all the little pieces of information that put a puzzle together. 

As I was sitting here writing this last paragraph, I noticed a passing cyclist stop and adjust her load of 3 toddlers in her bakfiets, she then paused a moment to look up at our building, quickly produced a camera and snapped a picture. That small series of events reminded me of two things.  Firstly, we're in The Netherlands now and I can stop admiring every single bakfiets I see, as it's getting quite exhausting. Secondly, it reminded me that we have found ourselves living in an amazing space and I should share a picture of it here. It's only a temporary home that we're basically house sitting for a short time and I sure wish we could stay, it has been an awesome experience nevertheless.