A number of years back we found ourselves sitting together on New Years and having this conversation about how we wanted to raise our family. What things did we want to do with our three small kids? What things did we want to teach them? What kind of character did we want to nurture in … Read more
Last Christmas I was strolling on Instagram and came across a post by a mom. She had created a ‘choose your own adventure’ book for her kids to do just that, choose what they wanted to do as an adventure. This free ticket to family escapades was in place of a tree skirt full of … Read more
So we have a new tradition this year. Adventing (oh yes, in this house it’s a verb). This year I had felt overcome by the meaning of Advent. Suddenly the weeks leading to Christmas seem so precious to me. Give me ten years max and I will become ‘that weird Christmas lady’ because I am … Read more
Traditions are the bonding goop in families. They are ‘understood’ by the family, like an inside joke or secret handshake. They are a constant to rely on, a marker for special events. Traditions are a display of family pride, like team colours or an anthem. And the BEST thing about traditions is that they can be aaaaannnnything … Read more
We are coming off a year of ‘giving experiences not gifts’ so I’ve been approaching this Christmas with a smaller shopping list and big plans on how to ‘do things’ with our kids. We have told the kids that for Christmas we will take them to a hotel and go swimming. Their reaction has … Read more
Originally Posted: 2016 Updated: Nov 2020 Whether or not we realize it, we are all ‘influencers’. We are all sharing stories, pictures, articles, life and advice on a daily basis from our phones to ‘our people’. We are all wired to ‘live out our days’ with this online component and the grand scheme of all … Read more
I am all for being passionate about ANYTHING you do in life, from mindfully dicing seventeen onions, to studying for your doctorate, to getting up and putting on the clothes you LIKE each day! Where there is passion, there is hope, drive and ultimately (hopefully) joy in the end result. Passion doesn’t always come … Read more
It was a full month before I confessed to anyone else…. I told my sister in law that I forgot to buckle my son into his high chair and he flopped right out, the worst damage done was to my mom pride. She laughed at me. Soon, these mortified moments of parenting became the hushed … Read more
A couple years ago we became ‘minimalists’ and I have been decluttering our entire house. Along with the process, we have babies and toddlers who are constantly adjusting how they use their spaces. After shuffling three kids around two rooms on our main level, we were settling on giving my daughter her own room. This … Read more
Alternate Title: Go On Road Trips, They Said! It’s Fun, They Said! I thought I should check in with the ‘lists‘ we made of how we wanted to parent our kids. We set some clear ideas on things we wanted to do from the mundane to the epic. We wrote out qualities we wanted our kids … Read more