• Health - infertility - Parenting

    Explaining Why #OHIP4IVF #onpoli Makes Sense

    September 9, 2012 - By 

    Some of my readers and followers will have noticed I am on a new mission here lately _ one that involves championing the needs of families as usual, but from a slightly different perspective. Lately I am tweeting with the hashtag #Ohip4ivf because I have joined forces with a group called Conceivable Dreams. Conceivable Dreams is an advocacy based grassroots organization that started with the passion of two parents bent on educating public and government about the needs of parents in waiting, parents seeking to become families through the help of a process known as in vitro fertilization. I typically…

  • family

    Big Time Rush Concert #WoohooLondon

    September 6, 2012 - By 

    Several months ago I spied a great Groupon deal for tickets to see Big Time Rush. Now, to my girls, Big Time Rush is kind of like oh I dunno Bay City Rollers were to me. So that was a no brainer. I bought the tickets and put them away for my oldest daughter’s eleventh birthday. That was my very first Groupon purchase and let me tell you it was a learning experience. I had no clue I was supposed to print out the voucher and bring it with me to reimburse for tickets. Be warned: do that first. Anyways,…

  • family

    Bras to Back to School Shopping – All in a Week #sandgen

    September 1, 2012 - By 

    From bras, to brakes, to back to school shopping. This was one of those marathon weeks in the life of me, when life became achingly exhausting. Deadlines mounted, a magazine article was due and then back and ready for edits that needed to be done yesterday and then of course brakes on my mini-van needed an unexpected service and eight paid jobs were due and so on and so forth. Oh, and somehow in there I am supposed to squeeze in massive dental restorations and back to school shopping – Huh?!  Anyways the life of a sandwich generation Mom is…

  • family

    Summer Night Easy Entertaining

    August 29, 2012 - By 

    Outdoor movie night at my sister-in-law’s house. It was a great way to spend a late August night. A sheet hung off the patio set outside, a projector that is borrowed and a DVD from the library. Use your computer to connect with projector. Add some treats, some family members and enjoy. Also very economical. Wordless Wednesday is a photo meme, hosted by many. Tara’s View of the World is where I usually link up. I hope the rest of the days of summer are good to you and your family.

  • family

    Old El Paso Makes Dinner Fun #Giveaway #LMDConnector

    August 21, 2012 - By 

    Who doesn’t love taco night? Seriously. We spent a week at the cottage recently and the fridge was bare when we got home. Imagine that, no little magical fairies exist that do my shopping when I am away. Luckily a truckload of boxes at my front door revealed this great Old El Paso Family Fun Kit. I was thrilled to crack it open and have a Mexican – themed evening. The kit contained one Old El Paso Extra Mild Super Tasty Hard Taco Kit, a container of salsa, jalapenos, refried beans, and a family-sized container of Old El Paso Hard…

  • adoption_at_camp
    Parenting

    Adoption and Camp: Realities of #adoption

    August 12, 2012 - By 

    My daughter left for sleepover camp tonight. I raced back from Blogher in New York City to drive her down a gravel laneway ever closer to her grownup self. It is a little thing for some, developmental grains of sand slipping through a timer. But, I have learned, as a speaker, an adoption advocate and most of all an adoptive parent, there are very few little things when you are adopted. Everything is amplified. Everything is different. How does adoption at camp differ than any other camp experience? In a lot of ways actually. From separating from parents and understanding…

  • Parenting

    I’m Having Their Baby – on Oxygen – Review

    July 30, 2012 - By 

    In the course of under one hour watching this second episode of I’m Having Their Baby, I cycled through pretty much every emotion on the spectrum for human beings. After being amazed, I cried and then was a bit angry and sad, the horrified, upset and eventually totally grateful for the experience of viewing this incredible show. I received only one episode of the show, the second one. In episode two, two pregnant moms, Claudia and Mary, are seen making the decision to place their child for adoption or raise their child themselves. Claudia is a young woman, herself adopted…

  • family

    Wordless Wednesday: Summer Shadows

    July 24, 2012 - By 

    I was shooting quick pictures of my daughter having fun at a trailer park where friends were staying recently when I spied her shadow. For some reason the image caught me as symbolic.  Wordless Wednesday is a regular photography hop. I like to link up at http://www.tarasviewoftheworld.com/

  • family

    I Am A Sandwich Generation Superhero #sandgen

    July 24, 2012 - By 

    What a difference a year makes. Readers of thriftymommastips.com know all about this journey we have been on with my mom. It started one year ago and led us down a really rough path for a long period of time. It was tragic, drastic, devastating emotionally and financially, and it has left us all changed. Last summer, my Mom spent the greater part of two months in London hospitals as we tried to figure out what was going on. She was hallucinating and she was confused. Meanwhile her symptoms escalated. It was a sad and exhausting time _ one I…