Confidence This is my daughter Ainsley. On the weekend she graded to a brown advanced belt. This picture is just before the grading. She has been doing martial arts for three years now. We walked into the studio one day when she was four. On a Saturday morning when she had been playing with my eyeshadow (a nasty shade I couldn’t scrub off my daughter’s face) I asked if we could take a peek at a class. A fabulous instructor asked my then really hyper girl whose special needs and diagnoses had yet to be completely fleshed out if she…

Hey gals and guys who link up, I have a special favour to ask of you. My story Detour, by Paula Schuck has been nominated for a reader’s choice award Tales of Bliss at Canadian Family.ca. The prize is a mystery basket of goodies. I would love for you to read the story and vote for me please. The link is here: http://www.canadianfamily.ca/2012/01/tales-of-bliss-story-competition-vote-for-readers-choice/

Last week we were inspired by the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.So we tried to replicate their Kid Clusters with M and M’s Welcome to my new feature. I am so excited to be running a new linkup called Cooking with Kids. I hope you will all take part and grow some new friends while having fun in the kitchen with your children. Children don’t need a whole lot of complicated ingredients, or big epic turkey dinner recipes from Epicurious. They love to keep it simple and if, yours are at all like mine, they love cracking eggs, beating up a…

This is our favourite restaurant in London. It’s a little Japanese restaurant called Tanakaya at Covent Garden Market. This is my daughter who uses chopsticks better than I do. (My skills are improving and at least I am willing to try) And although my beautiful sister in law is Japanese I can never for the life of me remember what the heck these are called in Japanese. I think it might be Hashi.

How happy is this girl? My daughter wanted a bubblegum machine for Christmas. It was the top of her list. And it was the one thing that she jumped for joy over when opening. See, it combines two of her favourite things – money and gum. It cost Santa about $12 from Sears and it has brought her more joy than a toy that might have cost me $200. Sometimes simple things are so worth it. (Side fact – did you know that gum and the act of chewing is an organizing activity for your brain. True – it helps…