• siblings
    family - Health - parenting - Parenting

    Seven Ways to Carve Out Time With Siblings of Special Needs Children

    May 3, 2016 - By 

    Having a child with special needs impacts family life in many ways. There can be extra financial and emotional stress. A Canadian study called PALS notes clearly that the mother in a family with a child who has a disability most often is required to adjust her work schedule to care for the special needs child. Finances and health are impacted, and so is marriage. But what about the siblings in families with special needs on deck? There are many rewards to parenting children with special needs, but there are also undeniable challenges, emotionally, financially and physically. Where there are other children in…

  • world_vision_water
    Health

    World Vision Canada Water Challenge Twitter Party REMINDER Tuesday May 3 #worldvisionwater

    May 2, 2016 - By 

    Join us this week as we discuss World Vision and their amazing work bringing clean water to areas of the world that struggle without access to this basic resource. On Tuesday, May 3rd we will be talking about some of the incredible work World Vision Canada does around the globe. We will talk about the World Vision Clean Water challenge and we’ll take a few minutes to chat about some of the ways we plan to have fun with water this summer too. We have 3 Visa Gift Cards to give away with World Vision Water bottles. $25 Visa Gift…

  • water_parks
    active family travel - family - parenting - Travel

    Four Water Parks Near Detroit, Michigan #Travel

    April 25, 2016 - By 

    My family and I love going to water parks. There’s really nothing like them. Water parks offer fun in the sun, water play, family togetherness, and memories that last a lifetime. You might think you have to travel to Florida or some other sub-tropical U.S. Destination to find a great water park, but I’ve got a list of water parks for you that are actually close to my Ontario, Canada home. These water parks are near Detroit, Michigan. 4 Water Parks Near Detroit, Michigan All of the water parks below are wonderful destinations for family fun, and they’re all within a 4…

  • clean_water_challenge
    family - Health

    Join World Vision Water Challenge Twitter Party May 3 #WorldVisionWater

    April 22, 2016 - By 

    How often do you think about water? Do you wake up wondering where it will come from today? Do you worry about leaving your family to walk for miles to collect a bucket of water for all of you to use? Does your heart hurt thinking that your child will never be able to attend school if he or she has to walk to collect water for your family? Do you consider whether you will have enough water to cook dinner, wash hands, clean clothing, bathe? I didn’t think so. I rarely thought about water here, until World Vision Canada…

  • school_lunches
    family - Food

    Five Fun School Lunches

    April 21, 2016 - By 

    I am a proud MOM of a tween and teen. Most of the time they make their own lunches. Most of the time. Not always. The youngest is still bit hit and miss, but that’s okay. They are both pretty good at packing a balanced lunch, but on occasion we have all been guilty of packing boring school lunches. Anyways, a decade of packing lunches, or supervising kids packing lunches, I have learned a few pointers to pass on and motivate them to build some good habits. Let’s face it lunch can be a totally boring meal. It’s the one I am most…

  • active family travel - Travel

    Viamede Resort is a Gem in the Kawarthas

    April 18, 2016 - By 

    I’ve been dancing around this post for a couple of weeks trying to decide what is Viamede Resort? Is it a family resort? Is it a romantic weekend getaway? A summer cottage destination? Conference centre? It’s all that and more. The beauty of Viamede Resort is that it becomes pretty much what you want it to be. On Easter weekend my family and I were invited to visit Viamede Resort, a gorgeous spot on Stoney Lake with a world class fine dining restaurant that is on its own entirely worth the four hour drive. You can read more about The Inn…

  • multi_generational_travel
    active family travel - family - parenting - Travel

    5 Benefits of Multi-Generational Travel #travel

    April 12, 2016 - By 

    Listen to me closely. If you are in your 30s and 40s and thinking why on earth would I want to take my children’s grandparents along on a trip with us, there are a few things you need to know about multi-generational travel. Both sets of our parents have passed away and I wish more than anything that we had had the time and money to include them on our big annual trips together to see the world. My husband and I both always managed to go to the cottage together with our respective families and that was one sort…

  • medicine_cabinet
    Health

    Managing Your Medicine Cabinet To Stay on Top of Health

    April 7, 2016 - By 

    Your medicine cabinet. If you’re anything like me, it’s a mess of bottles, outdated vitamin supplements and children’s products. I hate to say it, but my medicine cabinet is where old prescriptions sometimes go to die. This post contains affiliate links.  Organizing our medications and our medicine cabinet could be a full time job here almost. As a Mom with complex health care needs, and a parent to kids with some unique needs and diagnoses I find the task of staying on top of everyone’s medication extremely challenging! I have forgotten to renew meds, which is bad considering that everyone in…

  • easter_facts
    family - Food

    6 Easter Facts You Might Not Know

    March 24, 2016 - By 

    Easter facts you might not have heard of is the name of the game today. I love trivia, and holidays have no shortage of it. Easter is no different. There are all kinds of interesting Easter facts that many of us probably don’t know. Read on and see if you knew any of these interesting Easter factoids. 6 Easter Facts From Obscure to Amazing It’s Easter trivia time. Yay! Whether it’s the world’s largest chocolate egg or the most expensive Easter egg ever, there are some unique facts out there that most of us  have probably never heard of. I…

  • save-money
    Food

    Seven Easy Ways to Save Money on Your Groceries

    March 14, 2016 - By 

    If you want to save money on groceries, it’s not as difficult as you think. A lot of people think they have to sacrifice what they love, but the reality is that there a few simple things you can do to save money on groceries without adopting austerity tactics for the pantry. Save Money on Groceries with These 7 Easy Approaches Saving money on groceries is less difficult than a lot of folks think it is. In fact, when you read these tips, you’ll see that they’re mainly exercising common sense and using what you have to your advantage. That makes…