• Quiet Mornings

    I didn’t sleep very well last night- kept waking up randomly. I finally gave up an hour before my alarm goes off at 7:30 am this morning. My husband looked like he had seen a ghost since I am NEVER up at the same time as him. I know a lot of you probably get up at 5 am( or earlier) and I feel you- I used to have to get up super early, too. In fact, when I worked at Starbucks, we were opening at 4:30 am for awhile! A bunch of movies were being filmed and we wanted…

  • Memories of Getting the Mail With My Mom.

    We are under a winter snow warning! This has been the snowiest winter I’ve seen in Calgary since I moved here in 2007. A lot of the snow has gathered on our trees and mailboxes, as you can see here, in the blue early morning light:     A lot of people hate that we don’t have door-to-door delivery anymore and have these central boxes instead, but I like it. It’s not waiting at your door for a person to steal but is carefully locked away. It is fun to walk to the box in anticipation and unlock it to…

  • Ghouls Night Out 2017: A Favourite of Ours.

    If you live in Calgary, have you heard of Ghouls Night Out at Heritage Park? Have you ever gone? It’s a fun little Halloween event put on by the park and is great for all ages. We have gone for a few years now…I want to say four or five years in a row, since Hunter was really tiny. My kids look forward to it all year! We make sure to have their costumes ready and they dress up for it. It’s really fun to walk around the park and look at all the guests dressed up, from adults to…

  • Almost Two Months Since We Moved.

    It has been almost two months since we moved from the other side of the city. I didn’t think it would feel very different, but it has, and that has shocked all of us. It is different in a lot of good ways. Our street is quieter, for one. Before, we lived on a very major road that everyone seemed to use for commuting. We were just off a highway, so cars would forget to slow down and would roar through our street, forgetting to look for kids, despite the fact that we lived four blocks away from a school.…

  • The One Thing I Do With My Kids to Make Them Happier and More Confident.

    Whenever I speak to my friends who don’t have kids yet, they relate to my stories about my kids by sharing stories of when they were a kid. We start to talk about fond childhood memories and I find that one type of memory always sticks out. That is the time we spent with one parent and had their full attention; no technology, no distractions, nobody interrupting. The memories are all different, of course, but they all have the same feel. Whether it was baking cookies, reading together (even quietly and beside each other rather than to each other), throwing…

  • Monday Feels

    Today feels like….   We had such a busy weekend that I’m having trouble getting back into the groove. I hope everyone had a happy Father’s Day weekend, whether it was celebrating with one or in memory of one. Our family had a great time. We went to The Hangar Flight Museum all day Saturday and then Heritage Park on Sunday, followed by (amazing!) sushi at Momoyama Sushi here in Calgary. But now, exhausted. I cannot have caffeine since I am still doing the Gut Makeover meal plan, so strong herbal tea smells will have to revive me. Have a…