you like me! you really like me!

The lovely and talented Wendy over at Transform Your Chronic Life turned a bad day into a good one when she gave me the One Lovely Blog Award. Thank you so much, Wendy!

To receive this really awesome honour, the recipient must:

• Accept the award and post it on your blog with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link. √
• Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered (if possible). √
• Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award. √

So, finding 15 blogs to recommend — that hadn’t already been done by Wendy or some of the previous recipients of the award — was really hard, but here’s what I came up with:

1. Lindsay over at runlindsayrun writes really touching and funny posts about mommyhood (her daughter is the cutest little kid I have ever seen!), chronic illness and life in general. I feel like I know her because her blogs are just so personal and lovely, even though I’ve never met her. Plus, she’s a fellow Canadian, so I’ve got to give her some love.
2. Jodi of Jodi McKee Photography takes portraits of people with chronic illness. I love that I see myself in so many of those she photographs. She was recently featured in Arthritis Today. Go Jodi!
3. Assiya at For A Fairer Today writes about all kinds of things, like being a student with chronic, daily migraines, ableism and her love/hate relationship with her body. She’s sweet and funny, and I really enjoy reading her blog.
4. Sharon at After Gadget is an amazing writer. She blogs about life after the death of her service dog Gadget; about Barnum, the puppy she’s training to become her service dog; and life with chronic illness. The entries about Gadget brought me to tears.
5. TiredGuy and TiredGuysWife at Feeling Better Yet? blog about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and its effect on every aspect of life. I love that they blog about it from each of their perspectives; it helps me get a glimpse into what my own husband must go through watching me deal with PsA.
6. I love Rheumatoid Arthritis Guy.  This superhero, with his swanky blog and funny comics, writes really great and often practical blogs about living with RA. Even though I don’t have RA, there is plenty to like about his writing style and his advice. Plus, he’s convinced me I’m kind of a superhero, too. And who doesn’t need that in her life?
7. Arthritic Quaker is a lovely mix of the practical and the ethereal — with a hell of a sense of humour. LOVE.
8. Amanda at All Flared Up is hilarious and poignant and someone I wish I knew in real life. Her blog — about life and RA — is definitely a must-read.
9. Pollyanna Penguin’s RA Blog is quirky and fun and lovely. She’s trying to look on the bright side of things, a gentle reminder I could definitely use every now and then.
10. Helen at Pens and Needles, another fellow Canadian!, is my age-ish, living in my old city and works in media. We could be doppelgangers. Seriously. Also, her blog name is so good, and I wish I would have come up with it.
11. Mariah at From This Point. Forward. gets it so spot on all the time that I sometimes feel I should just post links to her blog and call it a night. That’s how awesome she is.
12. Skye at Struck At 21 With RA; Coping With It reminds me of myself when I was that age and first diagnosed with PsA. It’s a bit like reading an old diary, but she is so much stronger and fiercer than I was back then.
13. Robyn at “How Are You?” writes about weird advice and all kinds of stuff. Like the rest of us, she may not blog every damn day, but when she does, it’s a good one.
14. Laura at A Time To Heal writes about her daughter’s journey with CFS. Among many, many other reasons, she’s awesome because she posted that episode of the Golden Girls about CFS, which is great.
15. She hasn’t posted in a long, long time, but Jenny at Understanding Psoriatic Arthritis is a God-send. She live-blogged her first Remicade infusion and has lots of great articles posted about PsA.

Whew! That was hard, but fun. Now, I just need to notify everyone about this. I can’t wait to see who they post about!