Several days ago I spoke with friends Sharon and Jen about resolutions, making changes and the idea of choosing one word as a framework for our goals and aspirations for the coming year.

There were many words that came to mind; peace, thoughtful, happy, strength, commitment. These are potent and valid, but somehow didn’t…

Candlelight flickered and cast a warm glow inside the old log house. Dinner was long finished and the remnants tucked away for another day. The children were scrubbed clean, cozy in their pyjamas and eagerly awaiting the arrival of St. Nick. A candle burnt too low, stuttered and went out. “Maman, you have to find another candle.” The mother, prepared for this eventuality, placed a fresh candle to join the flickering lights of the others on the Christmas tree.

A pine tree. With…

Like many of you I feel raw, tender, and I don’t know when that will change. Thinking of lost lives and dreams and all those fractured families in Connecticut has left me a bit broken inside.

We haven’t spoken to our eight year old about the horror, but did with Bou. He’s 13 and there will be a lot of talk come Monday morning at school. D explained the magnitude of the loss, but it is incomprehensible to any mind let alone someone so young. He warned Bou that we can’t allow the…

I don’t know what the numbers are, but there are 1000s of new books released every year. The ability to put pen to paper with focus and persistence is quite wonderful, particularly when all the pieces click. Books are the catalyst for conversations, bring joy, offer new viewpoints or fresh eyes on a situation and provide a needed escape to different worlds. And it is a human necessity. Take a look through history; fireside tales, mythology, art and music, these are present in every society…

Day 2 of the Great Cleanup of 2012 is set to begin in 5-4-3-2…. did I tell you about the time I procrastinated so much that …………………….

Oh, right – housework. Why don’t I just self-flagellate while I’m at it? It’s clear how I feel about cleaningand it’s spelled f-u-t-i-l-e.

The Cleanup looks to be a long and bloody campaign (I broke 6 nails yesterday and…

There is nothing as supportive as a group of women.

That’s an idea you don’t hear bandied about regularly. Usually the snarking, backstabbing, and mean girl behaviour gets the airtime. Yet women are the best at supporting one another, and the others (who are in the minority) get attention simply because they snarl loudest.

When I began running it was women who were quick with words of advice and pompoms out ready to cheer. Last year I blindly and clumsily launched myself…

Today’s experiment:

Spend a few hours working in a coffee shop.

Conclusion:

I am incapable of turning off my inner spy.

Some clarification…it didn’t really go too badly.

I finished the translation project I was working on. Once that was out of the way – and half way through a triple shot latte, but before the caffeine jitters set in – I began the daily commitment to the …

Public toilets are the bane of my life. Truth is I’m afraid of them and I have just cause.

As a child, parental reminders to, “cover the seat and don’t touch anything,” when in questionable places became, “BEWARE! Danger lurks around every rim!” Since sitting on public toilets was the equivalent of taking a dip in plague-infested swamp water, I didn’t. Sit. Or crouch. Or anything. Not even at school.

A school day is long and the 40-minute bus trips home on gravel roads became a…

She perched on the edge of the chair, hands poised over the keyboard, watching the seconds crawl by until her fingers could fly. After having refreshed the screen six hundred and eighty-three times, the numbers of the clock clicked over and it was GO. With a blur of motion the details were entered and submitted. Moments later the hoped for and unexpected answer appeared – Congratulations. You’re in.

She exclaimed to the room at large, “Yay! I’m doing the CN Tower Edge Walk,”…

I am a makeup minimalist. And by minimalist I mean that I have no idea how to apply it, in what order, nor the patience to do it. My regimen consists of eye concealer (no one wants a close up of what another late night has wrought), a swipe of mascara, and lip balm.

What? Lip balm counts.…

Two years ago I went to a friend’s cottage with a few other women. While I didn’t know all those invited, it was … nice. That was the first and only time I’d gone away without family, D, or the kids since university in Wales. 

The cottage weekend was good, yet I long for something different. Less calm, more … well, more something. Strictly in a non getting-arrested-and-living-with-regrets-for-the-rest-of-your-life way. Nothing as extreme as a ‘What Happens in Vegas Stays…

Happy Thanksgiving

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I’m thankful that PG finds joy in what she does.

Her first love…

Nobody told me hot yoga was code for torture. Every muscle in my body aches and I’ve only been four times. Granted 4 times in the last 6 days, plus my runs…..because if you can’t completely and insanely overdo something, where’s the fun?

Last Wednesday night my sister-in-law L sent me a text’ “Hey, let’s do hot yoga tomorrow. Class is at 10:00 AM.” Naturally I said yes. How hard could it be? I run.

I was instructed to drink lots of water beforehand,…

As parents there is nothing that has us smiling prouder than our precocious young’uns learning to talk.

He said, “Iside down.” Isn’t that sooo cute?

Of course, our physician says she’s quite advanced and has the vocabulary of a child at least 2 years older. We’re mulling over her post-grad options.

By the time they’re expressing themselves with ease and eloquence we realize that for every yin there is a yang, and mastering one or more languages is not…

Most children make friends within 15 minutes of arriving someplace. They are uninhibited, and even if shy; sure in the knowledge that other kids will want to play with them. The notions of ‘not wanting to impose’ and ‘maybe they won’t like me’ are adult ones. Or perhaps ones they’ve overheard and been subject to, but these are unlikely to have emerged intact without some outside influence.

As we age, our circle of friends becomes smaller. In part due to changing tastes – not…

The subject is overlooked. Experts are free with their advice about the latest IT fashion each season, but how does this translate to normal life? A life that doesn’t take place on fashionable strolls, along boulevards dotted with fashionably faded cafés where the fashionably pouty drink café noisette from oh so fashionable vintage cups.

I like to stay as fashionably savvy as the next mom. And by that I mean that my kids have stylin’ clothes whereas I still wear an…

I. Am. Pissed. Off.

If listening to me rant is not your thang then please focus on this soothing image:

Just focus on this

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Or maybe this is more to your liking:…

If you had told me, in my twenties, that an afternoon such as the one I’m having would bring me such a measure of happiness, I would have scoffed (maybe even sneered – I was that kind of girl) and figured that you had zero concept of who I was.

And yet today is the epitome of a happy day for me.…

Right then, on with it.

Ahem…remember that this does not make me less Canadian.

And I’m a good person.

Don’t judge me.

I don’t like pumpkin pie.

I can’t be the only one. There are others like me out there, hiding in the corners, afraid to admit this very un-Canadian, un-American trait. We need to stand united and demand a better option.

It’s the texture *shudder*. And the lack of any flavours other than the…

Last week I put the word out that someone had located and pilfered my chocolate stash – not a random someone passing on the street, but someone(s) who live in this house and should know better. The stash is untouchable. If I wanted to share it, which in theory could happen, it would be in the treat drawer. It wasn’t.

That evening I was left wanting. No sweet square of bliss to…