• A Gratitude Practice My Daughter Will Actually Do

    28/11/2016 - By 

    The idea of acknowledging and extending your gratitude is everywhere. Suddenly it is a buzz-worthy trend. I see articles about starting a gratitude journal or jar everywhere. I’ve tried to keep up a gratitude journal so many times but I’ve only made it happen two days in a row and a gratitude jar is neat but once I had a few papers in there, I never added to them, and I never looked at them. I know it is a good idea to focus your mind on the positive rather than the negative, but I hardly find time to work…

  • I Am A Fitness Hopper.

    23/11/2016 - By 

    I took a fitness break to declutter using the Konmari method and, while it was worth it and a workout in itself (so many squats and lunges involved if you let it), I am not where I was at with my workouts. My ab workout today proved it. I wasn’t able to do the moves as controlled as I could before. I used to beat myself up over that but this time I didn’t! My mindset has completely changed….mostly because I have picked better role models to follow. Their positivity is contagious! Today my thoughts bent more towards, “I will…

  • When Schedules Change

    21/11/2016 - By 

    Hello friends. How are you this Monday? Over here, we are still adjusting to the new schedule. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but my husband just got a new job (yay!!), and he started last week. It turned our whole schedule upside down. Our weekend was super busy so it was harder to jump back into the new (ish) routine that we had started last week. Especially for the kids. Every time someone asks me about Josh’s new schedule I say, “Oh, it’s good. An adjustment” and Izzy shouts, “Terrible! We never see him anymore!!” We were spoiled…

  • When We Open Presents

    02/11/2016 - By 

    Hunter had 3 birthdays to go to this month. It made me think of a switch in how we do things at ours, that I thought we would share, in case you wanted to try it, too. Birthday parties have changed a lot since the ’80’s. When I was little, you went to birthday parties and they were always the same. You would show up at their house in a nice dress or good pants and greet the birthday girl or boy. Then, everyone would play some games like pin the tail on the donkey or guess how many sweets…

  • Isabella the Future Hockey Star

    27/10/2016 - By 

    My daughter, Isabella, is her own person. She needs things to switch up a lot, is naturally fidgety and is very vocal and competitive. She doesn’t put up with any long-term B.S. – in fact, we have been called a couple times to the school when things have gotten physical between her and someone teasing her (almost always a boy). I recently bought a pair of pants for Hunter that were a bit too big for him, so Isabella wears them now and they are her fave pants because they have the most pockets for collecting rocks and specimens to…

  • Decluttering and Unexpected Emotions.

    25/10/2016 - By 

    When I begin my decluttering journey, it was more about the effort to find the things I need more quickly and not feeling as if I was drowning in “stuff”. How many times can one person trip over a laundry basket of “things to be sorted later” before they feel frustrated? (Answer: Once past ‘too many times’). Even the amount and assortment of clothing I had was starting to annoy me. (You can read about that here). I took a test in a magazine that pointed out I am a “sentimental clutterer”. I keep things because, once upon a time…

  • A New Book Discovery and A New Parenting Strategy.

    05/10/2016 - By 

    As I sit and write this, I can hear my cat out on the open balcony, playing with leaves. He is pouncing and chasing. I can hear the patter of his feet and the rustling of the leaves as he attacks and bats at them. The fall light streams in through the window in a golden glow and the air smells of cinnamon and pine. My kids are at school and I sit hear and sip coffee, researching ideas and writing to you. If you are an aunt, a sister or brother, a lover of art, a fan of quirky…

  • The Meow Foundation Adopt-a-thon: Interviewing Some Very Special Cats.

    20/09/2016 - By 

    On Saturday, September 17th, I was thrilled to be invited to the Meow Foundation’s new location to interview cats at their Adopt-a-thon. I am a huge cat lover and one of my favourite felines, Thorin, is a rescue from their foundation.     Meow Foundation is no-kill cat rescue center in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. An acronym for “Make Each One Wanted”, it was founded in 2000 by 11 people who wanted to save stray or abandoned cats. It is a cage-less environment that allows the cats and kittens to play, stretch out, relax, and really be themselves. I chatted with…

  • The Damaging Sentence I Will Stop Saying to My Kids

    12/09/2016 - By 

    Welcome Autumn, I missed you.   Is anyone else surprised that the leaves are changing “already”. I am. This is the time of year that change in nature is physically evident and I get antsy about changing things in my own life. One of those things I want to change is the way I word things, especially when it comes to parenting. A potentially damaging sentence I say a LOT is, “What’s your problem??” Every time I say it, I cringe. But, seriously, it is the first thing that runs through my mind in a lot of situations. Hunter is…

  • Royal Canadian Circus Weekend

    06/06/2016 - By 

    Sometimes weekends fly by. This one did. We were very busy, it seemed, which is unusual for us. Normally we try to keep weekends low-key. We all need the time to become hermits and recharge. I never regret saying no to weekend plans. That sounds awfully anti-social, doesn’t it? I think we are just so in tune to how we work now and, with the weeks being so busy, it is our only time to reconnect as a foursome. My little tribe of 4. I love us. As a result of our busy weekend, though, I can’t help thinking- “Monday,…