Archive for the ‘Tales’ Category

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It’s Friday, Friends. Let’s Shoot for the Stars!


Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is just so darn cool that he has my kids shooting for the stars. I love it because it gives me an excuse to remind them to study hard in their maths and sciences if they want to be an astronaut.

p.s. Is it just me or are you secretly developing a crush on him too?


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Mother’s Day Play-by-Play (Or alternatively titled: Read, Nap, Repeat.)


1. Wake up, but pretend to keep sleeping so I don’t ruin the breakfast-in-bed “surprise.”

2. Start to develop caffeine headache while pretending to be asleep, consider ruining the “surprise.”

3. Surprise breakfast-in-bed arrives! With pancakes made by Stella herself.

breakfast in bed

4. With it, a sweet little face handing me a handmade card and a flower he has been growing at school.

5. Also, a sweet little face handing me a diamond ring. Oh, actually, I meant at dime-in-a-ring. (Get it? snort!)

dime-in

6. Eat breakfast in bed while joking around with facebook and twitter friends on my new kewl phone.

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Saturdays with Stella: The Sizzling Cheese Balls


I’m going to tell you right of the bat that I’m not exactly the best cook. Don’t get me wrong, I love to make food.

So awhile ago I tried to make cheesy chick biscuits. I started by mixing all the ingredients in the bowl and the likes, but after that it all went down hill.

I rolled the batter out and it stuck to the wax paper I was using.

Then I realized that we didn’t have any cookie cutters, so I just said “cookie cutters are like SO sixty-five million years ago.” And that’s how cheesy chick biscuits turned into cheesy blob biscuits.

I then sprinkled them with grated cheese (most of which I’d all ready eaten) and put them in the oven.

A while after that mom told me to check on them in the oven. So that’s what I did, and when I opened our magical box of domesticated fire, all the cheesy blob biscuits were sizzling, hence the name sizzling cheese balls.

Despite the horrible appearance, they tasted pretty good.

Stella is my 10-year-old daughter and on Saturdays, I let her rent this space from me because she thinks blogs are cool. It is her hope that her writing will appeal to kids her age as well as to the adults who read here too. (For the intro to Saturdays with Stella, click here.) 

(Keep reading if you’d like to try this recipe yourself …. )

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20 Dollars of Cheer


It’s March 22nd. The snow is heavier than ever. It’s getting me down. We Canadians get really quite desperate for Spring and I think I’ve hit that desperate phase.

So I treated myself to 20 dollars worth of flowers from my local grocery store. They have a variety of blooms that go for 3 for $20. I picked some yellow tulips, pink tulips, and some pretty white flowers that I don’t know the name of.

I spread the flowers out so that I could have a little bit of fresh colour in each of the main floor rooms of the house. I can’t even tell you how much this little addition has cheered up the place! And every single person in the family noticed them as soon as they walked in; I guess we’re all feeling a bit needy for some cheer.

In the television room, I popped some pink into a hand-painted coffee mug:

In the dining room, I put a few in a small bud vase:

In the front entrance hall, where I tend to do (highly amateur) vignettes, I put some in an over-sized beer jug:

And then on the coffee table in the room that I dream of making into “the library,” a burst of yellow all on its own:

This was 20 dollars well spent for my psyche. Do you have any inexpensive ways to cheer yourself up? Do tell!


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With Apologies to my Husband on Valentine’s Day


Dear Hubby,

There’s no easy way to break this to you. I thought the heart-thumping joy when seeing his face would fade, but alas, it’s been four years now and I need to accept that my love for him is simply far stronger than even I could have imagined. (That’s right, I’m telling you that I’m in love with another man via my blog. If being in love with another man doesn’t have you running for the door, that surely will.)

While I’ve always fallen for a kind of handsome that is tall and dark, and that of course includes Don Draper you, this man is fair-haired and, well, he’s significantly shorter than you. You have those seductive chocolate brown eyes, but his sparkle like a clear blue ocean on a sunny day.

I know you’ve always felt secure in your role her at home because, without you, you’re certain we’ll all succumb to scurvy. But recently, my little man has taken quite a shining to cooking. And where he lacks in talent, he makes up with creativity. In particular, he has a real flair for pasta.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking — “I’m not just a great family cook, I’m dedicated to outdoor pursuits and without me, the family would probably never leave the house in the winter!” But like me, he’s learning to love winter sports. And his sense of humour always warms me up.

Are you starting to feel panicked now, darling? Don’t torture yourself. You are a wonderful cook, a wonderful guide to the world outside our doors, and well, yes, you do certainly fix a lot of things around here and even make some wonderful things too (you won’t mind if I keep the dining table in our settlement agreement, will you?). He has his own talents … uncommon talents that are tied to a brilliant mind. I’m not exaggerating dear. Honestly. Because he’s the thing: he makes robots. ROBOTS!

It’s not that you’ve been neglectful, no not at all, sweetheart. It’s just that when he looks at me all sleepy-headed, presses his chubby cheeks into my face, and asks “I sweep wif you?”, it’s beyond my control.

Love Julie xo

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