• Preparing for Our First Camping Trip (In Over a Decade)

    07/07/2014 - By 

    We have had no time for anything except preparing for our vacation. Thank goodness the medicine I took for the infectious colitis I suffered seems to have nearly worked, and I can almost function normally and eat properly again. That was rough. Now to focus on the next thing ahead! We are going to visit friends and then we are camping for a weekend before coming home. I should specify! In this day and age there are a lot of people who go camping with portable houses basically (“glamping” or “glamour camping”) and then there are those with RVs or…

  • Infectious Colitis and Nightmares

    29/06/2014 - By 

    So it has been a hard week or so. Josh’s 30th Birthday went by quietly. His mother showed up for a surprise visit and we went out for dinner Thursday night, Vietnamese. I felt bloated, nauseous, crampy,  and awful that night and most of the next day but ignored it. Friday the 20th was Josh’s birthday. We played games and watched the World Cup. That night my Mother-in-law stayed to babysit and we went out for drinks with a couple true blue friends. One of my fave people, Shanna, came too. We talked each other’s ears off until after 1…

  • A Poem About My Daughter

    24/05/2014 - By 

    When I was 14 I used to write a poem or two or ten every day. I have notebook upon notebook. Just those plain black coiled notebooks. Most of it is TERRIBLE. I was never formally trained so they have no rhythm and I couldn’t tell you what type of poem any poem is- of mine or anyone else. I grew up completely enamored with Lord Alfred Tennyson and E.E. Cummings and read their poetry over and over. Growing older I realized some song lyrics are very much poetry as well; such as everything by Leonard Cohen and Hawksley Workman’s…

  • The Two Person Book Club Continues!

    23/05/2014 - By 

    As I blogged earlier, my Husband and I have a two person book club. We are both avid readers but we found, once we had two little ones running around, we have less and less time to read. My Husband works at a job where he has the drive to a client, the drive between clients during the day and the drive home to listen to music or the radio. He decided one day to use that time to finish a book on tape. I found the same book in our library and started to read while the kids ate…

  • Children’s Books We Currently Love

    29/04/2014 - By 

    We have started to frequent the library again. The kids love the library! Both of them pick out any books they want and then check them out with their own cards. Here are three we keep going back to….. 1. We have taken this one out twice in a row and my kids don’t want to take it back. Inside this book, the Dinosaur versus everything from spaghetti to talking grown-ups to tooth-brushing.  It is a really fun read and the kids love helping out with the roaring. I have even used this one to convince them to do other…

  • Why Rewarding Expected Behaviour In Your Kids Is Wrong

    25/04/2014 - By 

    I was on Pinterest today. There were so many pins and boards dedicated to motivating kids to do chores. A lot of the pins involved crafts to set up punch cards or checklists for chores, and at the end the child would receive a reward. I was thinking a sticker, or a family bike ride, a movie night,  or something similar. I was wrong and when I started to read the comments I realized this quickly. Many of the parents posted “Oh this works so amazing. At the end of the list I give him $20 and he has to…

  • We went to a Superhero Themed Wedding and It Was the BEST

    17/03/2014 - By 

    We went to our friend’s wedding. They hosted it at the zoo which meant we got a free zoo pass during the day. We had fun for two hours at the zoo and then went to the reception. Best wedding ever.  There was mini golf, mini games, table hockey, a bouncy house and hoops. There was great music and dancing and superhero cupcakes. The bride wore Batman and the groom wore Star Trek. My kids danced til midnight! Literally. We got home at 12:30 am. The next day was a huge yummy brunch at the Westin hotel with great food…

  • The Two Person Book Club

    05/11/2013 - By 

    My husband and I have started something interesting. I recommend it. It happened almost by accident. My Husband had downloaded a book on tape, Steig Larsson’s “The Girl Who Played With Fire” for a road trip. I finished my book while he was away and started to read the same book. When he came back it turned out we were in about the same spot in the book, but he was a bit ahead of me. Since I read at lunchtime while the kids eat, and Josh listens to his book on tape while driving to different clients all day,…

  • Respect for a Squirrel

    26/10/2013 - By 

    I have a confession to make. Well two I guess. I don’t really like squirrels. But I have a lot of respect for one. I dislike most rodent-like or rodent animals. There are exceptions. I had a school friend who owned a large white rat and when I looked in to her pink eyes, I fell in love. She used to crawl up my leg, make a circle around my waist and then settle on my shoulder while resting her nose in my ear and fall asleep. Or more often than that, she would crawl in to my pocket and…

  • A Saskatchewan Vacation to Visit Friends

    17/10/2013 - By 

    So I grew up in Saskatchewan and during University I ended up needing a place to stay and found a townhouse with a friend. Well, really, if I’m to be honest, a frenemy.  BUT she was living with this fantastic girl that was destined to become one of my bestest friends ever. And this summer we had the privilege of staying with them on their farm for part of August… which I adored. The minutes and hours and days were too quickly eaten up with laughter and fire pits and eating and talking (non-stop between Melly and I for days.…