Here’s the thing, I know I should feel beautiful. My head is full of empowering knowledge. I know that women have been their own worst enemies for too long when it comes to their self-worth. I know that the media often presents a skewed image of what beauty is. I’m aware that the world is not filled with supermodels and that beauty comes in all shapes, sizes, and colours. I’ve read the books, watched the documentaries, and got the memo.
I like to think that I’m a very tech savvy mother. I know where to look in social accounts for security flaws, I research apps before I allow my children to have them, and regularly check all their social accounts and followers. I know all their passwords and have access to their phone 24/7. They also must hand their phones over to me at 8:30 Sunday night and they cannot have them back until Friday morning. Until today I felt confident in my abilities to manage my children’s access to media.
160 days. That’s all I have left to train for Disney’s Tower of Terror 10 Miler. Eeeesh, when I put it that way panic starts to set in. I mean 10 miles is 16 kilometres, and 16 kilometres is almost half a marathon!
This winter has been cruel. I like to think that I've handled it with grace to this point, but I will admit that the last couple of weeks have elicited some strong reactions from me. It can best be described as a grieving process. Grief over the spring that refuses to join us.
The last couple of years have been nothing short of eye-opening for me. I *thought* that kids were expensive when they were first born. I mean, what could compare to cost of diapers and bottles and baby food? Let me tell you. The tween years!
In the last few years my daughters have picked up two expensive sports as extracurriculars—cheerleading and skiing. Then, the other night, they were discussing starting golf with us this summer. My wallet wept.
I’m taking a big step today. I’m a little afraid, because my addiction has become bigger than anything I could have imagined, but today I am quitting Buzzfeed. And Upworthy. And Trendify. And all other similar crack-like websites. Am I being glib equating these sites with crack cocaine? No, I don’t think so.
There was a time, in the not too distant past, that when you wanted to know what someone was doing, you had to ask them. The reality was that you could go days, weeks, even months without knowing that a friend had been to Hawaii, or met a superstar backstage, or got invited to that really cool thing you knew absolutely nothing about. Now, of course, that's simply not the case. You need only pull you up your favourite social media app to find all your friends, family, and strangers doing way more exciting things than you in real time.
I’m not sure why I’m so jaded when it comes to Valentine’s Day, but it’s right up there after Halloween as my least favourite holiday of the year. As someone who lives in the social media realm, the content passing my way the last month has been a steady barrage of pink and red and sexy Valentine’s tips, and on and on and on. As a content creator, I get it. You gotta give the people what they want.
I live in Ottawa. You might say that I live in museum central— we have 14 national museums to choose from alone. We're very lucky to have such an amazing choice of museums in our own backyard.
I love all of these incredible museums for three reasons:
One, they very often offer a hands-on learning experience for my kids—and for me too.
Two, they are a great way to spend a day interacting with my kids instead of staring at a screen and not talking.
Until recently, I thought United got a bad rap in the land of public opinion. I’d flown with them a few times and since there were no hiccups, I had no reason to complain. That all ended Saturday.
On our way home from Orlando, we checked in within five minutes and it seemed as if it would be clear sailing to Ottawa. To our credit, we were at the airport three hours early and were the first in line. Still, I gave the credit to United in a Facebook post. Happy travellers give rave reviews.
When I first met my future step son, his father told me all about Alex’s severe allergy to peanuts. So severe in fact, he was anaphylactic and constantly had to carry an EpiPen Auto-Injector with him. It was a strange and scary new world for me. Suddenly, I had to be hyper-vigilant where he was concerned. Reading food labels became a matter of life and death. Making sure that adults whose care he came under were aware of his allergy became a full-time job.
Books, books and yet even more books. This house is full of books. My oldest daughter is a voracious reader and I literally have a hard time keeping up with her appetite for reading. It is a luxury, that I am grateful everyday, we can afford. Odd, thinking of books as luxuries, isn't it? In many parts of the world though this is the reality with books. They are a rarity when the real issues of the day are food and water.
Until this morning I had never heard of Elan Gale. So it's funny to me that a mere half hour after hearing about him he became my hero. God, I love the internet. Thanks to my friend Nadia from ChildMode, I was tipped off this morning about the "funniest thing she ever read" and forwarded this exchange.
I am ridiculously excited to be sharing this Passports with Purpose prize with my YummyMummyClub readers and travel enthusiasts from across North America, because it's in Toronto! *waves jazz hands*
Oh America, I love you. I really, really do. From a very early age I've loved you. After all, as your neighbour, I've watched your television shows, spent thousands of dollars cross-border shopping and spend time every year visiting and touring your wonderful country. I love your amazing little idiosyncrasies and how your accents can change within blocks of each other. I adore your generous spirit and go get 'em attitude. You are my friend.
I had the pleasure of joining Experience Kissimmee recently to learn about all the area has to offer visitors. As a frequent guest to the area, I already knew that Kissimmee was an ideal family vacation spot. Meeting up with good friends and making new ones on this trip though brought about a very fresh perspective for me.
Kissimmee is the also the ideal place for a girls' getaway.
In a few short days my birthday will be here….again. Funny how that keeps rolling around, isn’t it? I think birthdays are a good time for reflection and as I turn forty-four in a couple of days I thought it was a good time to check in and ask myself what I now knew for certain.
Stress is a killer, or an almost killer. Be mindful of what your body tells you.
When my youngest daughter started walking, life suddenly got messy. Really, REALLY, messy. With two daughters under four, my dreams for a Martha Stewart-ish type home were destroyed. Totally and utterly decimated.
Stress is a killer, or an 