I was dropping my 16-year-old daughter off on her first day at her co-op placement and she was understandably nervous. As grateful as she was to have found this placement (thanks to a family friend) during the pandemic days of COVID, and as excited as she was for the opportunity, her nerves were jangling –…
I suggest the scientists hired to get to the bottom of the mysterious crop circle phenomenon in the US put a temporary pin in their investigation and head on over to my house – as there are hella strange occurrences happening in our household. Spoons for one – strange and mysterious spoons – most of…
I’m a strong advocate for teenagers retaining their privacy. I believe everyone’s entitled to their secrets – and so long as it doesn’t harm anyone – this goes for teenagers too. But not everybody feels this way – as somebody in my household just recently discovered. So while my husband and I do not feel…
I received a very interesting letter the other day. To be fair, it was actually an email – but it had been carefully crafted and written with a precision that I imagine took some time and effort. Reading this letter gave me pause, it made me rethink some of my previous actions and more importantly…
You ever been alone with a duck? I mean really alone? Just you and duck – you’re actually holding said duck – looking into its beady eyes – which by the way – close from the bottom up. If you’ve ever been alone with a duck staring into its beady eyes – you’d know that.…
I’m not going to mince words: I live with two fussbudgets. At least when it comes to food, that is. My son and husband are both very picky eaters, and while I wouldn’t say that my culinary tastes are super diverse, I beat the heck out of them in that department. When it comes to…
Grape, pink, the ever elusive banana. Those were the popsicle flavours that defined my sticky sweet childhood summers. Windsor summers got so hot that as soon as you stepped foot outside of Chuck’s – the corner store at the top of my street (I still call it that even though Chuck is long gone and…
I am living two lives. One is slow and quiet and enjoyable. It’s the one where I get to relax at home and spend time with my kids – time I’ve never had before. And time I’ll probably never get again. The other one is cloistering and overwhelming and frankly quite horrible. This one keeps…
One of the major themes in my middle grade/young adult novel, The History of Hilary Hambrushina, is mother-daughter relationships. Like several of the other young characters, Hilary has a turbulent relationship with her mother. Writing this book has caused me to reflect on my own relationship with my mother and its evolution. With the exception…
Once upon a time, I thought staying at home with nothing much to do but read and watch movies all day was my idea of Heaven. And while I still do (to a certain degree) – the kids and I are going a tad stir-crazy. Just like everybody else. We’ve been watching a movie per…
