• zucchini-recipes
    family - Food

    8 Delicious Zucchini Recipes Everyone Will Love

    September 17, 2015 - By 

    Zucchini is one of my Go To Favourite Family Vegetables. We have typically grown zucchini in our garden every year but when we moved here to this new neighbourhood we lost that opportunity. Our backyard is a pool and large deck so don’t feel too bad for me. My garden space is very limited and so I gave up the massive zucchinis that the garden used to produce every year at this time. But I refuse to give up zucchini recipes and I have been visiting many seasonal food markets to load up on this versatile vegetable. [tweetthis]What is your…

  • martial arts
    Health

    Frustration and No Answers Yet on This Ankle #health

    September 16, 2015 - By 

    I am frustrated! With a capital F. One of my daughters is still in pain and we have no clarity as to what exactly is going on. Her ankle pain waxes and wanes a bit. Remember when I mentioned that months ago we thought she could have juvenile arthritis? There are brutal days where she limps a lot and days where it seems less obvious. She had two great weeks at end of August where camps were over and her ankle didn’t hurt much. But this week it was a mess again. In July, it swelled up like a football after…

  • layover
    active family travel - Travel

    Six Tips to Conquer the Layover #Travel

    September 15, 2015 - By 

    Layover. If you travel by plane at all, that word strikes fear into your heart. The literal definition of layover is waiting at the airport for the next plane. The effective definition of layover is the 10th circle of Hell, where you wait in a seemingly endless purgatory. How to Conquer a Layover A layover is the bane of every air traveler’s existence. You have at least an hour if not more of just sitting around. It can be a torturous nightmare. But it doesn’t have to be. There are ways to make a layover more fun and less, “OMG!…

  • XBOX-one-games
    family - Technology

    Five Fantastic New Family Games for XBOX One – XBOX One Media Showcase

    September 14, 2015 - By 

    A couple short weeks ago, before school started up again, I was invited to a Toronto event called XBOX One Media Showcase. I was interested to see which of the new game launches would be appropriate for families. Happily I found quite a few and I spent a few hours testing some out. There were dozens of great games for adults and the new Halo was a huge draw. But I was more interested in the likes of Skylanders Superchargers. These are my Five Favourite New Family Games for XBOX One Platform. (shown clockwise.) Plants versus Zombies – GW2 -(Garden Warfare…

  • chocolate pie
    family - Food

    10 Indulgent Chocolate Pie Recipes to Try

    September 13, 2015 - By 

    Well I don’t know about you, but this is the time of year when I start to feel like baking again. The temperature dips and I get hungry for a pie or cake. Chocolate pie is just the ticket. Ten chocolate pie recipes For the time being, I am still baking and eating gluten free, but the rest of my family is content devouring wheat. So I am kind of making two versions of some dinners and desserts. I personally feel better without the gluten, but not everyone in my family has bought into this diet. Can’t say I blame…

  • white chocolate raspberry recipes
    family - Food - parenting

    8 White Chocolate Raspberry Recipes

    September 11, 2015 - By 

    8 White Chocolate Raspberry Recipes Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, sugar free? Do you have a favourite kind of chocolate? I’ll pick white chocolate any day. Oh now I know white chocolate isn’t really chocolate – I get that spiel every time I grab some at home. I know and yet I don’t care because it’s just that good. I think these 8 White Chocolate Raspberry Recipes prove my point. White chocolate is versatile and melt in your mouth yummy. When you combine it with raspberries you’ve got a truly refreshing and tasty dessert. Plus white chocolate is a yummy treat all…

  • family - homes - parenting

    Our Teenage Girl Room Transformation – #ColourMeHappy

    September 10, 2015 - By 

    I have always been afraid of colour. I like my clothing black and tan and white. Neutrals are easy to grab, dress up and go. Occasionally I love a hit of red or coral or pink. But I rarely stray far. Same can be said of my home decor choices. I LOVE it when the colour choices are made for me. So when we moved to our new house 18 months ago I was extremely relieved to see that everything had been painted in pleasing greens, and browns with a palette of vanilla accents and a lot of clay shades. Easy…

  • high school
    family - Health - parenting

    Decision Time – Our High School #BTS Update and What We Decided

    September 9, 2015 - By 

    Remember back in August when I wrote about how torn we were in deciding which high school my daughter would attend. We had always planned for her to attend the local French immersion public high school that everyone from her elementary school goes to. Well, almost everyone. We did all the preparation and she did the weekend sleepover event there too. She registered and we were waiting on her schedule to arrive when I realized that a smaller Catholic high school that is closer to our house also offered French immersion. So late last June we raced over there and…

  • empower_your_child
    active family travel - family - parenting - Travel

    My Beach Entomologist #WordlessWednesday

    September 8, 2015 - By 

    Have you ever met a teenage girl that’s fascinated by bugs? Well I live with one. It’s true. This is my girl at the beach last month. It’s normal to find her picking bugs up out of the pool before they drown. It’s also completely normal to find yourself on the receiving end of a conversation about arachnids and all the various trivia facts she has ever collected about them. Just this weekend we were sitting watching a movie together when I spied a tiny spider spinning a web in front of me. She naturally put him in her hands…

  • family - Health - parenting - Parenting - special needs

    These Five Things I Hope For You The Night Before School Starts #SpecialNeeds

    September 8, 2015 - By 

    It is not the most wonderful time of the year. It’s the night before school starts and frankly that means many of you, my friends, the people I know who parent kids with unique needs, will not be sleeping well. I know you. I see you tweeting and posting and worrying quietly behind closed doors whether this will be the year your child will be understood. Has the IEP been read? Will your child even be able to get into the school physically? Will he cling, or cry, or wave happily. I know you are worrying yourself sick the night before…