Pay It Forward contest entry (and NOT last minute woohoo!!)

Having fallen off the Steemit wagon somewhat when the Husband went out of town, I've been slowly picking the pieces back up. Here's a piece going back into place--participating in @thedarkhorse's weekly Pay It Forward curation contest, featuring 3 bloggers!

Random and totally not relevant photo of us racing the rain to get potatoes planted, just so this post preview won't be blank haha

Without further ado, here are my choices this week! (Apologies--I'm on mobile and can't copy bloggers' photos to make this post all pretty, so I'll edit it at home later to spiff it up).

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@artemislives

Originally from Holland, @artemislives now resides in Thailand. I find her posts about Thai food, "Thai time," and her reflections on life (and death, as in her post about Thai time) to be truly fascinating and wonderfully refreshing variety in the Steemit world. Visiting her blog feels like relaxing with a beautiful, restful, wise soul.

Her latest post was in answer to @ecotrain's Question of the Week, "To What Extent is Negative Media & Media Bias Responsible for Depression?" @artemislives reflects,

My greatest teacher is always my garden. Whenever I am faced with deep philosophical challenges and the seeming contradictions of life, I grab a drink...and I wander. I observe, I look, I inhale deeply, I try NOT to think. I try to open my wiser, witchy, intuitive self to the inherent wisdom of Mother Earth. I try to let the answer come to me.

And so today, this late afternoon here in Chiang Mai after a rain shower, I wandered and found my self gazing at this.

What was it, and what did it show her about the media and depression? Head over to her blog to find out! ;)

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@daywoo0311

A Marine Corps veteran who is now a wildland firefighter for the Bureau of Land Management, @daywoo0311 was very recently introduced to Steemit by @derangedvisions and although he's only written 3 posts, I believe he is a blogger to watch. He hit the ground running with @curie love for his post "One Foot in the Black" (which is paying out later today) and he most recently made a "short and sweet" post about fishing that captures the longing to go do something simple and relaxing after hard work!

I can’t sleep. All I can think about is the fishing trip I have planned for tomorrow. Every time I close my eyes all I see is my fly line whipping back and forth as the sun peaks over the horizon and hits the glassy waters in front of me.

What adventure will he post about next, I wonder?

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@homespun

I just found @homespun today thanks to @mountainjewel's curation account @the-hearth! Thanks @mountainjewel for hooking me up with a kindred spirit and new blogger to follow!! In her introduction post, @homespun, who lives on a farm in Idaho, says:

Part of the reasoning behind this blog is to challenge myself to look at the things I do and enjoy through a different perspective. Doing chores, cooking and parenting often feel like work but I am blessed to be able to do these things. I want to focus on the joy in daily life rather than the mundane. My hope is that taking the time to document and photograph everyday moments I will see more of life's simple joys.

Amen to that!

She had me dying laughing in a more recent post about weeding, because I'm EXACTLY like this:

Five feet into the first row I considered a break. Ten feet in I was leaning towards quitting. As I approached the halfway point of the first row, along with my delusional thoughts of despair I wondered if I left the weeds with the plants if maybe the plants would grow faster and choke out the weeds.

Did she beat the weeds? Go find out! :)))

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Thank you to @thedarkhorse for starting this initiative, and to all the wonderful Steemians who are volunteering their time to judge!