coffee with Julie » Activities

Sundays are just so lovely, aren’t they?

Julie — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:51:13 +0000

Smuggs — here we come!

Julie — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:04:43 +0000

Our family didn’t downhill when I was growing up, nor did Hubby’s. We’d like to introduce the kids to downhill while they’re still young. You know … before that fear factor sets in. Fear stops a lot of people from doing a lot of things. But when you start young, or at least have a little introduction to something when you’re young, it always seems to make a difference. Like learning to swim as a kid versus an adult, or a new language, or sport — you name it. Our adult minds can put so many barriers in front of things that youthful zeal simply doesn’t allow for.

I don’t even really care for downhill skiing though. It’s just an experience that I’d like my children to have. But when you visit a ski resort for a weekend, it is a HOLIDAY! And I love holidays. So I am so excited that we’re going to visit Smuggler’s Notch, or “Smuggs,” as it’s often called.

I’ve heard about Smuggler’s for ages and the thing that really caught my attention was the stellar reputation of their kids’ programs. The resort has invited my family to visit for a three-night stay this winter season. To help us learn more about the resort and plan our stay, we were sent a package, which arrived this weekend.

Wow, this is no ski hill and a few restaurants. This is like a winter Disneyland — there is so much to do!

We watched the DVD that came in the package on Sunday evening. Stella, who’s nine, is particularly excited about the zipline and the arts & crafts programs. Max, who’s three, is interested in the skiing with other children. And Hubby, who is snow-crazy, is excited that not only can he ski and snowboard, but he can also go ice-climbing.

As for me, I’m looking forward to having a proper ski lesson (normally I just point my skiis straight ahead and hold my breath down the green hills!) and taking part in a guided snow-shoe trek. But I’m also hoping that if the kids’ programs are as great as they are reputed to be, that I can grab a bit of “me time” while we’re there as well. Is that so wrong?

What is the appropriate way to celebrate 15 years of marriage?

Julie — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:47:32 +0000

Last week, Hubby and I passed a pretty major milestone — 15 years of marriage.

When we celebrated our first anniversary, we went to a bed and breakfast in Kingston. Although it sounds peaceful and romantic, and that was certainly the intention, it really wasn’t. A couple staying above us came in really late and made a whole lot of racket laughing and stumbling around drunk, which was followed by some other, ahem, “noises” that kept us up half the night.

But after that first anniversary, it all starts to get fuzzy and mostly involves me forgetting what the actual date was in January (thank goodness Hubby had the date engraved on his ring or we’d never remember!). We did, however, manage to pull out all the stops for our 10th anniversary. Hubby asked whether I’d like a special piece of jewelry or a trip. I said “trip!” And off to Cuba the three of us went (Stella was 5). We had a fabulous time!

Now, it’s 15 years. That’s a biggie sort of anniversary, isn’t it? In the morning, Hubby gave me this beautiful card:

I looked up what the traditional gift is supposed to be for year #15 and this is what I found:

“Crystal is the primary material for the fifteenth anniversary with glass as the modern material and watches as the alternate modern choice. Beautiful crystal jewelry, crystal flowers, or a figurine would make a nice gift. The crystal anniversary is also a great opportunity to invest in a feature piece of decorative crystal or art glass for your home.”

So in case Hubby was feeling a bit lost, there is some definite clear guidance out there on what is considered the appropriate gift for celebrating a 15th wedding anniversary. Being a man of unique tastes, he instead opted to give me this. He explained that this gift, with its ability to increase the effectiveness of our interpersonal communications, could certainly get us through the next 15 years.

What can I say? The man is genius. GENUIS! I tell ya.

Happy anniversary baby! xoxo

2011: The Year That Was (Part 2 of 2)

Julie — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:32:45 +0000

In continuation from yesterday ….

July 2011: By this time, our family had moved into a new home while simultaneously welcoming overseas family to Canada for the first time. It was busy, but we had fun! We shared as much of our area with them as possible, including Canada Day in downtown Ottawa and a visit to Toronto. A sense of relief was also felt by Hubby and I as we settled into our new neighbourhood and adjusted to the change. In total, I published 6 posts in July.

August 2011: Making hay while the sun is shining, I spent some time in the Land O’ Lakes with girlfriends and our family took a camping trip to Algonquin Park. August is also Stella’s birthday month and we celebrated her 9th birthday with friends and family. Last year before she hits double digits! In total, I wrote 10 posts.

September 2011: We managed to decorate Stella’s bedroom in the new house — as per the promise we made her before moving. (The rest of the house remains fairly untouched to this day! *sigh*) I did some mild ranting about the Back-to-School push to buy-buy-buy as well as what I saw as the declining state of Canadian Business magazine. And last but least, I hatched a crazy idea for my 40th birthday called “Month of Me.” In total, I published 9 posts.

October 2011: This month was a wild ride! My 40th birthday was going to take place in October and I decided that the entire month should be a fun, guilt-free time where my priorities and desires would always come first. I didn’t have the time to write about everything that happened in October, but it included a ton of lunches with girlfriends, two blogging conferences, a trip to New York City, time with my Hubby, a massive Thanksgiving dinner outside with all of my family, and a messy celebration at 4 Cats Art Studio! Phew! In total, I wrote 11 posts.

November 2011: This was a busy month catching up on all the things I neglected in October! But I did manage to write a few snippets from the New York City trip and share my new-found love for home decor. In total, I wrote 10 posts in November.

December 2011: No surprise that of the 11 posts I wrote in December, 6 of them were related to Christmas. Surprisingly, the most popular of these was the first Christmas gift guide that I’d created for Coffee with Julie. (A lot of people do gift guides, so I wasn’t sure how it would be received.) But mostly I think I just succeeded in annoying a lot of faithful Ikea folks. Oops.

And now we’re here — 2012! — a whole year has passed. The easiest, but sometimes tear-inducing, way for me to see the passage of time is to look at my children. They have grown so much in the past year. My son Max went from a quiet toddler who was slow to speak to a great big boy who is now happily chatting away to us, while my daughter Stella never ceases to amaze (and amuse) us with the depth of her kindness and intelligence. Both occupy our days (and sometimes our nights) endlessly, and yet they are the source of a type of joy that makes life worth living.

Hubby and I know that the universe has been kind to us, and we are very grateful for the happiness and health of our family. We do not take this for granted, but rather we often look at each other before we go to sleep and say, “We are so lucky.” (Happiness doesn’t come easy to me, but I practice gratitude every day.) I sincerely hope that you can also share in this kind of “luck” in the year ahead, in whatever form that might take … an ignited career passion, adventures in forests, or a hobby that lights your heart.

From our family to yours — Happy New Year! — and may the days of 2012 treat you well. xox

2011: The Year That Was (Part 1 of 2)

Julie — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 13:55:56 +0000

I’m going to be self-indulgent here and look back at the year that was on Coffee with Julie … perhaps I’ll learn something or perhaps I will learn that I need to learn something in 2012!

January 2011: The new year started on a very high note when I found out that Coffee with Julie had placed 2nd and 3rd in two Canadian Weblog Awards. Then I started a thread of posts on over-consumption (I had so many other posts I wanted to write about on this topic, but never seemed to find the time to piece them together), that included a fabulous guest post by Pam Dillon. By mid-month, I had already faltered on some of my New Year’s resolutions. And finally, I gave up all pretenses of not being a social media geek and instead proudly announced this with a new piece of jewelry. In total, I wrote 12 posts that month.

February 2011: My grandmother turned 87 in this month, and I wrote about the passage of time. The nostalgic themes continued with a post on my first kiss, and a few other ramblings. In total, I wrote 7 posts in February.

March 2011: In this month, I had my first piece published in Parent & Child magazine and it was based on a birthday post from Coffee with Julie. I also shared a really spooky ghost story and jumped on the bandwagon to comment on “The Tiger Mom” concept embraced by Amy Chua. In total, I wrote 9 posts.

April 2011: This was a busy time for our family because we were getting the house that we’d lived in for 14 years ready for sale. I wrote a semi-pathetic sort of rambling letter to my blog explaining my lack of posts. And we were all quite shaken from witnessing our neighbour’s house go up in flames. In total, I wrote 8 posts.

May 2011: This was a fun month because I was given the opportunity to attend Blog World & New Media Expo in New York City for my work. I didn’t write much about it but did manage to share the trip via tweets. But my absolute favourite post from this month was “A conversation about Twitter and DH.” I wrote a total of 5 published posts and 1 still in draft titled “Misery thy name is OUTDOOR bootcamp.” (Related: I quit Bootcamp in May.)

June 2011: With the end of the school year came the bi-annual conundrum of what kind of teacher gift is appropriate (if any). I also wrote about QR codes and LinkedIn, but in the background we had sold our home — the first home and the only one our children had known — and I had anxiety about change on the mind. Oh, and Stella got a buckle fracture on her arm from rough-housing around outside. In total, I wrote 9 posts and 2 additional posts are still sitting there in draft format (poor neglected things!).

With each year, time passes more quickly. And that’s why this blog is so special to me … it is a chronicle of my life and looking back through the first 6 months of 2011 has brought back all sorts of great memories. Tomorrow, I’ll look at the final 6 months of 2011. Thanks for joining me on this trip down memory lane! Happy New Year to us All! xox

Christmas Gift Wrapping

Julie — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:30:25 +0000

I never would have thought of using paper doilies for anything except snowflakes (remember making those as a kid?). But I happened to have seen Guilia’s wrapping and then happened to see red doilies in the dollar store. So here is how I’ve wrapped Stella’s teachers’ gifts this year. I love how they turned out!

If you want to try it, you’ll need:

Brown paper bags (Michaels)
Paper doilies (The Dollar Store)
Glue for sticking the doilies on the bag (The Dollar Store)
Ribbon (Michaels)

I had the day off as a vacation day to attend Stella’s Christmas Concert at school, and since it got cancelled with the freezing rain, I got some wrapping done and watched season one of Californication on Netflix. I was bummed out about missing the Christmas concert, but it turned out to be a nice relax.

Multi-tasking is the bane of my existence and also my life bread

Julie — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 22:17:26 +0000

It’s all the rage these days to talk about how multi-tasking isn’t really a good skill to apply anymore. That you are better off focusing all your attention on one task and in doing so, you will actually get it done quicker. In other words, you’ll save more time and get more done if you just line all your tasks up in row and knock them down one by one.

That, my friends, is not how multi-tasking works. As any mother knows, multi-tasking is not about getting things done quickly or more effectively by doing more than one thing at once. In fact, we’d love — more than anything! — to be able to devote all of our focus on one thing at a time.

Multi-tasking is not a choice. It is something that one must do, if one expects to actually get anything done at all.

As Exhibit A: My work day is now done and this is how my evening is going to play out …

Supervise a short homework period with one child (nagging as needed)
Drive over with above noted child to my Gram’s residence and pick her up for dinner
Drive over to Swiss Chalet, because both Gram and child will eat there
Drive over to Chapter’s where I have a meeting scheduled with out daycare provider at 7pm
Deposit Gram and child into Chapter’s. Let them browse for an hour.
Discuss other child for one hour with daycare provider to share tips and sync-up
Re-group with Gram and child and drive Gram back to her residence
On the way home, stop at drugstore to pick up some face cream and toothpaste
Arrive home, usher child into bedtime routine (nagging as needed)

Now, why am I doing all this at once? Well, because I had scheduled a meeting with my daycare provider for this evening. But I am also long overdue in taking my Gram out for dinner and she is in the same neighbourhood. I also promised child to a new book, and this is in the same neighbourhood too. And I also promised my face that I would finally get a refill on skin cream since the last one has been sitting empty for too long.

And if I didn’t multi-task all of this into one evening, then I would still be feeling terrible for not taking Gram out in ages and not fulfilling my book promise to child and having dry, uncomfortable skin! There is simply not enough time to not multi-task.

Please tell me this is normal. In the meantime, I will try to get a half-dozen things done ineffectively and check back for your answer.

p.s. Despite all the practice I get at multi-tasking, I still fail at it. Frequently. Case in point: The day got so busy that I forgot to do the draw for the $50 Mark’s gift certificate. So you now have until 10 am tomorrow to enter!

“Month of Me” post #11: Time with My Hubby

Julie — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 23:46:47 +0000

When this whole crazy “Month of Me” concept started to solidify, I started to consider “what exactly would I want to do if there was no one else influencing the decision?”

At first, it was easy: I would accept an invitation to She’s Connected even though that would mean booking time off work that I wouldn’t be spending with my family and even though my only real reason for wanted to go was curiosity and a bit of “fun factor.” Same for the Blissdom Canada conference: sure, I love blogging, but how could I possibly justify two blogging conferences in one month, requiring time off work and time away from family? But then I remembered that I shouldn’t need to justify how I wanted to spend my time.

And the easiest part of all was New York City. I adore visiting New York — the buzz, the broadway, the shopping! Even before the wine-infused idea of “Month of Me” took form, Hubby had already suggested that I take a trip to NYC for my 40th. And without my knowledge, he had secretly squirreled away money from the family budget to help make it happen. Then, when Kerry mentioned she was heading to New York, it just all fell together.

But there was something big missing from all this excitement — my Hubby! It was possible that I could book off a day or two from work on my own, but it was impossible for us to take a trip as a family during October. So I set about trying to find a way for us to get some “couple” time. Camping, since it had been our first love, seemed like the perfect thing for us to do together. My mom and dad offered to take the kids overnight, so it was booked and put in pen (“Camping with my Honey!”) on the calendar for Saturday, October 22nd.

But on Friday, October 21st, we still didn’t have any plans for where we would go. We had been running like mad this autumn season. And frankly, the thought of packing and un-packing again after I’d already done so three times already in the last couple of weeks made me droop.

Then I remembered, it’s “Month of Me” — me! No guilt and no justification was part of the deal I had made with myself. So I told Hubby that we weren’t going to go camping. Instead, we’d have some adult time to ourselves, doing things we love and just plain enjoying each other’s company. With the decision out of his hands, his shoulders visibly lowered.

So instead of camping (which would have made a far more interesting blog post), this is what we did:

Hubby dropped the kids to my parents’ house in the morning
He then went out for a long mountain bike ride
I painted my toe nails
Stripped the bed and laundered the sheets
Popped a bag of popcorn and watched a movie on the couch in broad daylight
Then we both drove into Hintonburg and had a coffee
After that, we meandered around a collection of antique dealers’ wares
From there, we drove to the market and had dinner, courtesy of a birthday gift certificate (thanks B & J!)
On the way home, we stopped into the local movie rental place
Laid in bed with glasses of red wine and watched a silly movie
Slept-in on Sunday morning

And? It was fabulous.

“Month of Me” post #10: Splatter Paint Party at 4 Cats Art Studio!

Julie — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 17:37:09 +0000

Photo Credit: Andrea Tomkins

The Invite:

I’m turning 40 in October, but I sure didn’t get here alone … each of you gorgeous women has played a special part in my life and as a little thank-you, I hope you can join me for a fun get-together!

We’ll be literally be partying like it’s 1984 since we’ll be acting like big kids as we do a SPLATTER PAINT PARTY!

Details: You need to wear old clothes AND shoes! There is a refreshment room so if anyone is up for bring potluck snacks, go for it. Absolutely no gifts, please.

See you there my friends …

The Invitees:

In attendance at the party were women who have all played a special role in my life — from our daycare provider who has kissed countless boo-boos, my first boss (turned forever friend) in the field of marketing, my bloggy-mentor and good friend, and my current marketing colleague who puts up with me daily …. to my “baby” sister, my friend turned sister-in-law, my mom, my nine-year-old daughter Stella, and my faithful friends who in addition to sharing laughs over the years have propped me up and helped me get through some of my toughest times as a mother and woman.

Getting the Party Started:

As I shared in an earlier post, the 4 Cats Arts Studio parties were initially designed for kids’ parties.

But on Friday night, once the last of the scheduled children’s parties was complete and cleaned up, my gang of gals descended upon the place.

Located in an area of Ottawa (1107 Wellington Street) that I’d hadn’t been in for while, I loved the vibe of Hintonburg. To me, it felt like this neighbourhood was really coming together, with lots of groovy little boutiques on either side of the 4 Cats Arts Studio. Also, for future reference, if you’d like to do a party at 4 Cats, a gorgeous new restaurant called Burnt Butter has just opened right across the street from the studio — perfect for a pre-party dinner!

Before the party started, Emaly, our host and Hintonburg studio owner, passed around a sign-up sheet for those who might want to receive the 4 Cats Hintonburg Newsletter. At the top of the list, I am referred to as “the birthday child.” I’m okay with that.

And, The Party!

I think these photos speak for themselves.

Photo Credit: Andrea Tomkins

Photo Credit: Andrea Tomkins

: Photo Credit: Andrea Tomkins

Photo Credit: Andrea Tomkins

The Thank-You:

Thank you to the girlfriends who made it out, and love to the ones who couldn’t. Thank you to my fun twitter friends who followed along and cheered us on. And big, huge thank-you to Emaly Green, owner of the 4 Cats Arts Studio for inviting and hosting this party.

Because, oh, my, did we have fun!

Photo Credit: Andrea Tomkins

“Month of Me” post #09: It’s my party, so I’ll wear sweats if I want to

Julie — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:57:56 +0000

“Month of Me” is a little ol’ wild and crazy concept: In October, the month I celebrate my 40th birthday, I will do a whole slew of things that I love. Just because. You can read the kick-off post here.

Hubby: Sweetheart, it’s your 40th. You should have a party. How about I organize a party for you.

Me: Uh, remember, I don’t do fun.

Hubby: But, it’s your 40th.

Me: I’m having an entire “Month of Me,” so it’s not like I’m depriving myself or anything.

Hubby: Oh yeah. But are you sure?

Me: Yes.

Hubby: Okay, well, while I’m away camping this weekend, why don’t you think about it.

Me: But I said I was sure.

Hubby: If you gave me a list of names, we could have a cocktail party here.

Me: I don’t like adult parties.

Hubby: But it’s your 40th.

Me: I prefer kid’s parties. You book a place, you show up with a cake, there is an activity, a host to herd people around, and then after 2 hours, it’s all done and everyone goes home.

Hubby: *sigh* Okay, well, just think about it while I’m away, will you?

Me: Okay, I will.

******************
Hubby: So, did you think about the party thing?

Me: Yes.

Hubby: And?

Me: It’s all organized.

Hubby: What? I was supposed to organize it for you.

Me: Er, yeah. But it’s all organized — all done.

Hubby: Okay, what is it?

Me: You know that place I told you about for Stella’s 9th birthday party: The 4 Cats Art Studio?

Hubby: Yeah …

Me: Well, I talked to the owner Emaly and she said she’d be happy to host me and my girlfriends on a Friday night.

Hubby: Oh. Okay …

Me: It’s gonna be sooo cool! We’re all going to show up wearing sweat pants and old clothes on and have a splatter paint party!

Hubby: You know it’s your 40th, right?

Me: Don’t remind me.

To be continued …..