Hallowe’en is my favourite. Without the pressure (and now grief) of Christmas, the whimsy and fun captivates every sensibility in me. I remember in grade 2 getting my tonsils and adenoids out and having to miss it. DEVASTATED. But each kid in my class made a huge envelope filled with cards because they and the teacher felt so sorry for me.
Happy Chinese New Year! While we may celebrate with lanterns and coins, there are also a few free, family-friendly ways to share the love and embrace the new year! If you’re an Apple aficionado like we are, there’s lots to share from your iPhone, iPad or Mac. Our fav is, of course, the iMessage special effects, just like when you type ‘Congratulations’ or ‘Happy Birthday’. The iOS red envelope and lantern emojis are also high on the list!
Growing up in Nova Scotia, I always spent Thanksgiving at our farmhouse built in 1763. The dining room has an exposed log wall and harvest table. Each of Norman Rockwell’s ‘Four Freedoms’ are framed in the room, making it a magical place to give thanks. Though I won’t be at the Farm for this year’s Thanksgiving holiday, I’m going to take a lesson from the Freedom from Want print. I will not only plan our festivities early but do my shopping for myself and my home in a stress-free way at Costco!
I am thrilled to be hosting a fabulous shopping event for Moms on Wednesday, September 26, 2018 at the Downtown Vancouver Costco Warehouse from 9:30-10:30am.
I love Marvel movies, Game of Thrones, and House of Cards, but in a world where every day brings a new natural disaster, cultural conflict, or some other heartache, it can be hard to find entertainment aimed at adults that doesn’t push the emotions to the extreme.
So a smart, grown-up, comedy aimed at women who have been around the block a time or two (or three)? I’m on board, basking in the warm glow and loving the refreshing breeze.
Families can be complicated. We love them, but they can drive us crazy sometimes/often/always. It’s nice to take solace in a Netflix marathon of families that make your family look relatively normal in comparison to whatever drama you’re currently dealing with. These are some great options if you are trying to get over the family get together blues:
I love to travel, but occasionally I have to stay home. When I get the travel itch and I don’t have any trips planned, I know I can always retreat to my Netflix flicks and find a new adventure. These are a few of my favourites to pass the time until I get the next stamp on my passport:
Well, hello there.
I have to say, it’s thrilling to finally meet you. More to the point: it’s thrilling to finally narrate one of these stories! I’m lucky to be getting away with it, I suppose, but then, Anastasia’s been busy lately, hasn’t she? What with the kids and the marital demands – and I do mean demands – there isn’t much time to pay attention to her once-ubiquitous Inner Goddess. Not that I’ve been bothered by my newfound freedom. On the contrary, I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit. You could say I’ve come into my own.
When I was fifteen years old I met my future husband at band camp. We were married five years later and as we approach our 20th anniversary (yes—you mommy math whizzes—that makes me 40), and I prepare to send my own kids to camp, I find myself reminiscing about that momentous summer. And being pretty freaked out about what my kids are about to do.
Like many parents, as I read about how Rio De Janeiro has been preparing for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, I can’t help but think of my children.
Their dreams, yes. Their aspirations and opportunities, of course. But more specifically, as I find myself staring at a photo of Guanabara Bay, which bbc.com captioned a “stinking mass of sewage, household rubbish and industrial pollutants,” and depicts a Disney backpack floating among piles of fabric and filth and plastic things that I do not recognize—I see a very strong similarity to their bedrooms.
In fact, as I drink my coffee from a mug that has “World’s Gre test om” lovingly inscribed on the side, by a company that hawks them to school children at book fairs across the country, I realize that there are many crossovers between the Olympics and raising children. Except that with parenting, no-one really goes home with the gold.
So it’s National Lipstick Day, which really just means that some of the style magazines I follow on Facebook are posting pics of beautiful models with gorgeous lips done up in the decadent shades of the summer. When suddenly I realized that I haven’t worn lipstick for a really, really long time. And here’s why…
Lipstick doesn’t go with baby barf
I figure, if I don’t have time to wash chunks of baby food out of my hair, and if, let’s be honest, I haven’t even noticed that there’s a poo smudge on my forearm, I probably don’t have the wherewithal to apply lipstick on my mouth to look more beautiful.