Once upon a time, I was an adventurous girl. I travelled with a backpack, I slept in forests unknown, and brought big souvenirs home from countries that I loved (my hubby!). I look back at photos from those times and I don’t recognize that girl at all. Not one bit. If I look around, I can see that most of my fellow [...]
Archive for the ‘Family’ Category
August 21st, 2010
A Conversation with my Grandmother
Me: Hi Gram! I got a new car! Gram: Oh, that is good, dear. What colour is it? Me: Black. Gram: *crickets* Me: You don’t like black? Gram: No. I don’t like black or green. Me: Really? Those are my two absolute favourite colours. Gram: I like red. Me: Yes, Mom has a nice red colour car, doesn’t she? [...]
August 16th, 2010
Some fellow travel bloggers I’d like you to meet!
I’m really thrilled to be hosting a guest post tomorrow by Julie Henning of Road Trips for Families! But let me back up a little in order to introduce her … While I was at BlogHer, there were “Birds of a Feather” lunches that we could join. I dropped into a seat at the “travel” table and met some really cool [...]
August 9th, 2010
BlogHer Swag: baby & toddler giveaway packages
Edited to Add: The New Mother & Baby package had a total of 5 entries and the winner via Random.org was Tracy! The winner of the Toddler package had a total of 14 entries and the winner via Random.org was Judy! Congrats to you both and thanks to you all for participating in the fun! I got back from the [...]
July 25th, 2010
Postcard from Jonesport, Maine: Are Fishermen Lonely?
We had had only one criterion for our holiday: an ocean view. So I simply searched the internet for all cottages that met this criterion and then booked the one at the best rate, which happened to be in a small fishing town called Jonesport … [to read more, please click here to read the full post on Life As [...]
July 18th, 2010
When will he learn?
We’d hardly cut into the long drive ahead when my hubby asks if we could pull into the Canadian Tire he’d spotted. I knew what he wanted. “Oh, come on,” I pleaded, “We really don’t need a bike lock. Your bike is the only one worth anything and we can bring it into the hotel room if we have to.” [...]
July 7th, 2010
Here’s how you can tell if a working mom has a big report due the next day
If you were a fly on a wall, you’d easily be able to tell whenever a working mom has a big day ahead of her in the morning. This is what you’d see: 11:30 pm: Shutting down computer after putting some finishing touches on a report. 1:00 am: Youngest child wakes up. Mom makes sure everything is okay, puts in [...]
July 3rd, 2010
Camping lesson #1: If there’s no nature, it’s not worth it
In an attempt to bring ourselves back into the camping spirit now that we have children, we bought a pop-up tent trailer this spring. I admit that we swallowed our pride when we parked it in our driveway. It really put a damper on our camping “street-cred.” Just as we defiantly swore we’d never buy a minivan just because we [...]
June 23rd, 2010
Who wears short-shorts?
Do you dare wear short-shorts? If you’re my age and can pull off short-shorts, all the power to you. If you’re a young woman with long tanned legs you want to show off, all the power to you. But please — let’s not dress our young girls in short-shorts. {click here to see why I’m such a prude about [...]
June 21st, 2010
Commercials are bad for my mental health
Lately, I have found myself watching commercials more consciously. And it seems that pretty much everything about me is simply not good enough — not my skin, my body shape, the way my house smells, or even my own role in my family. This constant barrage of criticism can’t be good for my mental health, can it? Even though I [...]
June 18th, 2010
Stuff that happened this week
I didn’t get around to posting anything on my blog this week because my husband has taken to making these beautiful after-work drinks called Brandy Lime & Soda. Mmmm… they are such a refreshing summer drink. But trust me that you will lose any desire to be productive after having one (which isn’t such a bad thing of course, but [...]
June 9th, 2010
There are some things I wish she hadn’t had to learn
For a recent grade 2 project, my daughter was to create a poster. In my era, this poster would have been along the lines of “Don’t be a Litter Bug!” or “Help Smokey the Bear and be sure to put out your campfire!” You know, that kind of thing. The title of her poster reads: “Oil Spill: Sea Animal Nightmare” [...]
May 31st, 2010
What I learned about Ottawa this weekend
This weekend I had the good fortune of attending the Odawa Festival of Aboriginal Culture. I’d like to learn more about Canada’s Aboriginal cultures, so I jumped at a suggestion from a friend to attend with her and her family. (Everyone — Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal — is welcome at these events.) One of the first things I learned is that Ottawa has [...]
