It started five or six years ago when I learned about The Homeschool Blog Awards.  I stumbled across them during the nominations and spent hours going through the blogs in the 20 categories. I saw what homeschool blogs could be like; how they could help people and how they could be more than just a biannual entry saying hello to the internet universe. I found most of my homeschool blogging friends during that year.

Petra School was nominated in 2010, 11 and 12. It was a great feeling and made me feel like my blog was a real blog and not just an online journal written to my family out of town. Being nominated among the the blogs that I admired was a highlight for sure.

So last night when The Homeschool Post announced the winners, I was shocked when I saw – 9.  Best Homeschool Nature Blog – Petra School

I’d like to take this moment – to just say – WOW! It really feels good to win! I was truly glad to be a part of Handbook of Nature Study as they won the last few years, but this feeling is pretty fantastic. I just want to thank you all for voting and reading this lil blog!

So in honor of Nature – I’ll share a couple of views from my chair today:

We have had a mallard named Goldie that has been here the last couple of years – I’m not sure that this is her, in the twilight of dawn. I’ll be excited to see. She really likes Jon and swim nears to him.

This is before the sun hit our side of the lake. We have a pretty tall hill to the east. Around 9:30 or so the sun peeked out and lit up the white frozen dock. The sun also turned these rafts of little black dots into beautiful multi colored different birds!

Again, Thank You! Now that my Crew year has simmered down, I hope to have time to type up more of our Nature and Field Trip adventures with you!