Adoption and Family
Parenting by adoption is bigger, louder, and often harder to start with. From the assessment and waiting process to the adoption probation period, it can seem endless and like it will never happen. Then you get the call and your life changes forever in a miraculous way. But what next? Sure there is often a honeymoon and parenting is a blessing no matter how you get there. It is a new adventure every single day. AND also adoption comes with numerous other ups and downs.
Find Your Supports Early and Stick With Them
Very often there's minimal support for adoptive parents and families after they leave the courthouse finalizing their adoptions. Consider this your supportive honest space where we share what's worked, what doesn't work, and all the challenges in between. Share your stories, learn and grow together.-
Rocky’s Reels – Helping Us Take Better Care of Our Pool
Rocky’s Reels is helping us take care of our pool with our new easy to use pool reel. As you might recall, we recently got a new solar cover for our pool, but we really needed to replace our old pool reel too. Just like our old cover, our old pool cover reel had seen better days. We inherited our old reel from the prior owners of our house. It was cheap plastic, rusty and heavy, and made it awkward to roll up our pool cover. I’m excited to say out with the old and in with the new pool reel from Rocky’s Reels to complete our pool care makeover…
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University Student Care Package Essentials #ChurchandDwight #Giveaway
With one daughter well into high school it won’t be long before we are preparing to launch her to university or college. Like many parents we want the best for our kids. And no matter how old your kids get, you never stop being their mom or dad. So naturally, when that bittersweet milestone finally becomes a reality we will be sure to equip her with several essentials and a student care package to help everyone here sleep better at night. After all it takes more than books and money to succeed as a young adult living independently. There are some life skills that are vital for your students too.…
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Limeapple Back to School Packs on Sale
My girls are active girls. If yours are at all like mine then you know that the quest to find good quality, age appropriate athletic wear is a challenging one. Finding affordable athletic wear for girls is almost like spotting a LIVE unicorn flying over a rainbow. But, it doesn’t have to be quite so impossible with Limeapple’s Back to School sale. Affordable and adorable high performance girl’s clothing is available now, for two days this week only Friday August 18 and Saturday August 19 at Limeapple.com. I have shared posts previously about Limeapple and why I love their clothing for my girls. Right now though Limeapple has their Back to…
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Five Things You Need to Know About A Solar Eclipse
A Solar Eclipse happens on August 21, 2017, and people are abuzz! While a solar eclipse is not an uncommon event, we won’t see another over Canada, the continental United States, and North America until 2024, so that’s a big deal. TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE FACTS: If you’ve never experienced a total eclipse, there are things you’ll see and feel that may be a bit unsettling. Understanding what’s happening and why will make viewing the solar eclipse all the more interesting. Anxious children might benefit from knowing what to expect in advance. The sky may look like it has a hole in it. When the eclipse reaches totality,…
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Getting on Track with Sharpie and Paper Mate #SpreadJoy #Giveaway
I have partnered with YMC and Sharpie/Paper Mate and have received compensation for this post. All opinions in the post are my own. Getting on track for the school year is especially important when the kids hit junior high and high school. Every year is important, but it seems like time is starting to run out when your kids hit high school. Grades, volunteering, extracurriculars – are all incredibly important for college and university admission. This year it’s crucial the kids have everything they need to stay on task. Sharpie and Paper Mate offer tools that make getting on track and staying on track easy. Getting on Track with Team Payton…
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Cute Kid’s Dinosaur Word Search
Make way for a dinosaur word search! Dinosaurs provide such rich learning opportunities. Our dinosaur library of books has been large since my kids were toddlers. Diplodocus. Ankylosaurus. T-REX, and Pterodactyls!! How can you resist? Kids of all ages love Dinosaurs. There’s so much history and so many facts to be learned from dinosaurs. When my kids were small they would read endlessly about dinosaurs. There’s something about dinosaurs that captivates people even still and sparks the imagination. Do your kids love dinosaurs as much as mine did? Then they might enjoy this fun free dinosaur word search. Words puzzles and games are some of my favourite ways to destress…
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Tremblant International Blues Festival – All the Shades of Blues
The village at the base of Mont-Tremblant is awake in a riot of Blues, Purples and Golds. Spotlights, instruments, televisions, bleachers decorate the pedestrian village. Crowds of all ages fill the streets and common spaces between restaurants and shops. Here the sights and sounds of the International Blues Festival wake you up and lull you to sleep in the middle of the month of July at gorgeous Mont-Tremblant in Quebec. On the 24th ever occasion of the Festival International Du Blues De Tremblant I am visiting with a group of travel writers. Together, we are experiencing the best of all the activities that Tremblant has to offer in the summer…
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How to Make The Most Of The Last Days of Summer
This post is sponsored by Bayer. To make sure these products are right for you, always read and follow the label. Summer always flies by much too fast. July, my favourite of all the months, slides by at a maddening speed. It is a quicksilver month. If you don’t squeeze a lot into that short little window it vanishes right before your eyes. Hopefully you had some great weekends, or a vacation at some point there. August brings with it a sense of urgency almost. I mean at some point in August everyone starts counting down the days left until school starts. That always makes me sad. Summer should be so…
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Water Safety – Keeping Kids Safe While They Have Fun
Water safety is something that should be in the forefront of every parent’s mind. Whether you have a pool, love the water park, visit the beach, or go swimming in your local lake or river, being safe on and near the water is crucial. All it takes is a few seconds for a tragedy to happen. Parents and caregivers can keep kids safe by making sure we practice proper water safety at all times. Why Water Safety is so Important Our kids were babies when we began swimming lessons through the Red Cross Canada program. Swimming is a lifeskill that is not negotiable for me. I was a late swimmer…
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Goat Milk Triple Berry Smoothies for Back to School #BornOnTheFarm
Goat milk was not on my radar until my daughter started having allergy issues when she was little. We took her to the doctor for chronic ear infections, among other things, and he suggested we switch her over to goat milk. So we did for a couple of years, and we saw a vast improvement. These days, we’ve started using it again occasionally for lunches, as well as for before school and after school snacks. It’s normal for us to have several different kinds of milk in the fridge at all times. For us, Goat Milk is a handy and healthy addition to the routine all year round. It helps make a…