• Cornerstone Music Cafe, Calgary AB

    Entering the Tween Years or How Can I Stop Time?

    17/07/2018 - By 

    My daughter has become a tornado of ideas and emotions, seemingly overnight. Her favourite sentence is, “I know that already!”. We have officially entered the “tween” years. And here I thought I had more time. I believe she is raging with hormones already and it won’t be long until we have a full-fledged tween/teen monster on our hands. She is combative, competitive and bossy. She uses sass like no other. If there were an Olympic medal for back talk, she would earn it. There has been yelling and tears- on both sides. She always has to be the first and…

  • My Daughter’s Confidence.

    01/02/2018 - By 

    My daughter is amazing. She is smart, fiery, caring and forward-thinking. She is a champion of causes and a voracious reader. She can be opinionated and is quick to anger, but those propel her forward instead of letting her give up. A professional once told us she is, “Highly attuned, highly sensitive and impulsive” and was quick to point out that these are GOOD things, when that energy is directed properly, which we agree with. My daughter also struggles. She struggles with trusting her instincts. She has a lot of negative self-talk that stems from her perfectionism. She has high…

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

    19/10/2017 - By 

    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…

  • My Daughter Inspires Me

    29/08/2015 - By 

    When was the last time you thought of a bigger goal than your own comfort? When was the last time you took time to protect your wellness and mental happiness? My daughter did each of those in two days straight and inspires me more every day. My daughter turned 7 years old yesterday. We threw a party for the Morison side for her, since her grandma was in town. We could reconnect the family and celebrate my daughter turning 7 years old. SEVEN. Six sounds so small and child-like still, but 7 years old sounds incredibly old. Little lady sounding.…

  • Learning To Read

    10/03/2015 - By 

      My daughter is learning to read and is busy reading EVERYTHING. Packages, sign posts, lost posters, books, brand names…she sees, she reads. Yesterday she asked me what the word ‘bounding’ meant. The snow leopard went bounding through the snow. She wanted to know how to do that too. It makes my brain work in new and wonderful ways to explain words that I know the meaning of and take for granted. I find myself reaching far in my brain to bring out words that she will understand. Sometimes defining one word leads me to defining five more words within…