One of my favourite family traditions at Christmas time is our yearly drive to look at all the Christmas lights. Hot chocolate in hand, (except for the driver!) we are amazed every year at how creative and fun some of the Christmas light displays are.
The best part is that every year it's different. Different displays, different houses, different ideas. And if it's been snowing, that's even better; Christmas lights are always gorgeous against a snowy backdrop.
There are two words that every Canadian adult dreads every April: Tax Time.
It’s not fun, is it?
First of all, you have to keep up with things like deductions and tax credits that the government has changed since the last time you filed. Then you need to have your finger on the pulse of everything to do with your own personal financial situation that happened in the last year—because you made careful notes regularly every week in 2013 about your finances, right?
If you ask parents how many times they’ve had to take their kids in to the hospital or emergency clinic, most of them will probably answer along the lines of “more times than I care to remember.”
Like me. That’s what I would say to you.
We are incredibly fortunate to have two happy kids who are constantly active. Unfortunately, sometimes being so constantly active results in constantly visiting the local hospital to see if a bone is broken.
When you think of LEGO, the words “tidy” and “free” aren’t usually words that come to mind. Personally, I’ve spent a small fortune on those little bricks and as for tidy well…. let’s just say there is a room in our house called “LEGO Land.”
Seriously, it’s like the pieces multiply overnight and spread themselves all around our house. The little clear bricks like to take root right by my side of the bed, so I can find them easily first thing in the morning with my bare feet.
In March of 1989, a British Computer Scientist, by the name of Tim Berners-Lee, created an information management system, which involved communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocal (HTTP) client and server. Thus, the World Wide Web was born.
Now it's 25 years later, and when we’re madly typing in a url, sometimes we don’t even bother typing in the “www.” nevermind the “http,” because we don’t need to.
But can you imagine what our lives would be like if the World Wide Web hadn’t been invented?
My family is nuts about the Olympics. Doesn't matter if it's the winter or summer games, every event we’re interested in always has to be watched live.
We’re crazy that way.
Watching live was fine in 2010 when the Winter Olympics were actually here in Vancouver and we were in the same time zone. Even in 2012 when they were in England, the 8-hour time difference was manageable.
By the way, Canadian/English trifle is perfectly acceptable for breakfast on just such an occasion.
Show of hands, anybody frustrated by Facebook? Me too.
It seems that I keep seeing the same posts by the same people, who happen to be the ones I interact with the most. Same goes for pages - the ones that I click “like” or comment on are the ones that pop up in the newsfeed most frequently.
Even though I am a big user of Facebook lists, even they seem to be failing me right now.
Technology is such a large part of our lives, sometimes we don’t even realize just HOW far reaching it is. For kids today, they have access and are exposed to streams of technology that we ourselves never could have imagined as kids.
When I was little, high tech communication was the telephone, that was about it. Walkie-talkies were for SERIOUS tech geeks with lots of money.
The thing about best friends is that sometimes you can’t imagine life without your best friend, and other times you wish they’d never shown up. Best friends build you up, bring you down, make you feel awesome and give you a shot of reality.
That’s kind of why Pinterest and Christmas go so well together.
Every day my social media feeds are filled with photos and videos of Christmas perfection. Food, decorating and crafts that would make Martha proud.
And then there are people like me, with photos of something entirely different.
I was raised in a household where certain events, dates, times had a Welsh superstition attached to it. I’m not talking about your basic walking under ladders kind of superstition, I’m talking about much more than that.
I watched a video this morning that made me smile and simultaneously cry. I hate it when that happens, but at the same time, I want to share what made me feel that way with the world so we can all do the ugly cry together.
A few months ago, YMC helped Dove spread the word about their “Unstoppable Moms for Unstoppable Girls” program. They wanted to hear messages of unstoppability from Moms to help inspire girls to reach their full potential. Why? Because six out of ten girls avoid activities because they feel badly about the way they look. And that’s six girls too many.
Once upon a time, this used to be me when a new gadget, gizmo, or in this case, iPhone/iOS came out:
"I MUST HAVE IT FOR MYSELF AND BE THE VERY FIRST PERSON IN THE WORLD TO HAVE THIS AMAZING NEW THING!"
It took a while, but I’ve learned my lesson.
Along with the iPhone 5S and 5c, iOS7 was released last week, and I’ve been really quiet about it. Why? Because I waited this long to download it and give it a test run.
I love cars. I love technology. Whenever my two loves meet, it’s a win-win situation for everyone. When I was invited to take the new Dodge Grand Caravan for an extended spin, I jumped at the chance.
Since we’re currently experiencing the seven-year itch with our current minivan, I was excited to find out what kind of technology this minivan had to offer.
There are so many awesome things about going to a conference like BlissDom Canada, but there is one drawback… mobile devices with dead batteries and laptops that need power.
Remember almost a year ago when I painstakingly explained how to properly run a Facebook contest?
Forget everything I said.
Facebook has again changed its promotion & guideline rules, effectively turning upside down what everyone has dutifully done on the Facebook pages for quite a while now.
