just percolating...
If you are a parent, let me ask you this: When was the last time you went to see live theatre? (Do I hear *crickets*??) Yeah, I thought maybe that was the case. Because that is pretty much the case over in this household. Actually ... correct that: I DO manage to catch some wonderful theatre, but I rarely ever manage to do so with my husband. Instead, I take along a girlfriend and hubby stays home with the kids. We have just never really … [Read more...]
Dragons A Poem by Stella Sometimes I see something that makes me think: "Was that a dragon or a blue bellied skink?" Some people say they are not real. But when I see something like that, it's not the way I feel. Maybe when I grow up, they will be known. But right now, as I said, many people think they're dead! … [Read more...]
In the March issue of Scholastic's Parent & Child magazine, you'll find an article inspired by a blog post of the old fashioned party games we put on for Stella's birthday! It's a fabulous magazine and I feel really honoured to get a few of my words into ink for such a top-notch publication. So if it's in your home or you see it on the news stand .... check me out on page 12! … [Read more...]
I've been more of a scattered mom than usual lately. The kind that forgets doctor's appointments and perpetually arrives late or unprepared for the kids' extra-curricular activities? Yeah, er, that's me. This life with young children, and work, and household maintenance ... it really does feel like a hamster wheel sometimes, doesn't it? Everyone TALKS about how to achieve balance, but I'm pretty sceptical about it being even possible. So, for … [Read more...]
I was driving into work a little later than I normally do a few days ago and the CBC radio show "The Current" was discussing reader feedback to a piece they had aired. In the piece, a "famous marshmallow test" was discussed. I had never heard of this test, but it is really interesting and directly related to my post on giving my kids the gift of anticipation. It was an experiment conducted by Stanford University in the 1960s with children on … [Read more...]
The excitement in our house is really building ... My 8-year-old daughter is a believer and my 2.5-year-old son doesn't really know who Santa is but he sure likes all the sparkling lights and chocolate! Is it the same at your house too? I've been thinking about why kids love Christmas so darn much and I've decided it's really not the gifts. It's the anticipation of the gifts. This and a few other thoughts are being shared over at Life … [Read more...]
Kids and poetry -- do they go together? Or is poetry something that can only first be properly absorbed during the emotional highs and lows that start in the teenage years? I know that as a teenager, I sure wrote my own share of poems on unrequited love for the older boy next door! It was also that time that I was able to start to appreciate how a few words strung together could evoke so much. But I'm also starting to realize that at the … [Read more...]
This year is Stella's first year in Brownies. And so far, it's the only organized activity she's really shown an interest in. I have to say, I can't blame her! The programming for Brownies really is fantastic because every week is something new. So far, the girls have had an evening of sewing, of speaking with a Canadian Air Forces pilot, and most recently, a visit to a fully automated dairy farm. It was the last visit -- the farm -- that … [Read more...]
If you don’t have children, the title of this blog post may seem unreasonable. But, here, a true story courtesy of my friend J. J: Did I tell you about C’s birthday party?? Me: No, what? J: Well, it got really complicated because there are 20 children in his class and we didn’t want to leave anyone out, but 20 … well, we weren’t going to have 20 children at the party. Me: I hear you. I would never have 20 kids over to my house. J: … [Read more...]
You know how after all the participants on the Survivor television come together and reunite for the final show and you can barely recognize them because they have showered, brushed their hair and gained the weight back from the lack of food on the island? That's how I feel right now. Except for the brushed hair. Oh, and the losing and gaining weight thing. Other than that, I look exactly like a Survivor finalist. And that's because this … [Read more...]
Call me crazy, but there's something almost soothing about packing children's lunches ... all the little containers, and bite size bits, snugly tucked into a brightly coloured lunch bag. And yet, this does not translate at all to the act of actually packing a lunch for myself. There are countless good, solid reasons for me to pack a lunch: there is no convenient lunch spot near my work, buying lunch is expensive, I need the time to work-out … [Read more...]
I've told you about this year's birthday pinata (here goes the mighty angler fish!), but I have yet to tell you about the actual party. Generally, birthdays around here have gone like this: one casual gathering with the family over a BBQ plus one birthday party just for the kids. I don't know about you, but I'm not all Martha-Stewart-let's-have-a-birthday-party kind of gal. In fact, I am all for forking out large sums of money to avoid having … [Read more...]
In the tradition of Bradgelina (the nickname given to the celebrity couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie), jeggings (a pant that combines the fit of leggings with the look of a jeans) and tweeps (your “peeps” on twitter), we now have “glamping.” Glamping, or glamorous camping, is where one pays the equivalent of a 5-star hotel rate to sleep in a tent. Are these people mad? Maybe ... but I'm one of the converted! Find out why I'm willing to pay … [Read more...]
Photo credit: Jean Tanguay I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but winter is just around the corner. My husband thinks this is fantastic news indeed and has already equipped the kids with snowsuits and good hats and mitts. You might recall that I, on the other hand, am not quite as fond of winter. In fact, I spent most of last winter trying not to hate it. And although I still don't love it, to say the least, I did find that joining in … [Read more...]
Okay, so! My trip to Northern Quebec! There is a lot to tell; I almost don't know where to start. But I guess the beginning is always a good place ... I was invited by Quebec's Ministry of Tourism to attend a press trip which would share with me six different family travel ideas from the Saguenay--Lac-Saint-Jean area. But in reality, the trip was so well-organized and the area has so much to offer that I've come home with countless things that … [Read more...]
The pinata is a bit of a birthday tradition around here. Each year, Stella gets to pick a favourite creature and then she and her Dad create a pinata in its likeness. I'm not sure if we started making them because that's just the way Hubby likes to do things or if it was because we could not find pinatas that appealed to Stella's eccentric unique taste. Either way, this year we have The Angler Fish. Apparently, this is now Stella's favourite … [Read more...]
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 women who run really clever blogs. These included (and please let me know if I've forgotten someone!): Traci from Go BIG or … [Read more...]
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 A Human] … [Read more...]
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 had children (and, for the record, we still have not succumbed ... yet), we also swore to never "car camp." Our first … [Read more...]
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 a campground smack in the middle of the suburbs, and this is where the festival was … [Read more...]
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