-
Grief Finds You in the Card Aisle
It hit me hard in the card aisle. Grief. Such a sneaky emotion. Tricking you and then hiding behind obstacles in the open. Like a thief hiding behind doors and in alleys waiting to pounce out and holler. Friday was my Mom’s birthday. The first birthday we haven’t spent together and also the first birthday since she passed away. It rained a lot here and it was, without doubt, the hardest day I have had since she left us. Way harder than Christmas. Grief Finds You in the Card Aisle One week ago I was standing in the grocery store when it hit me. I stopped to buy a card…
-
Why I am Relieved: On Autism, #Special Needs and Hate
Sometimes I wonder how does hate help anyone? It is a horrible vile and debilitating feeling to carry around as a human being. And it doesn’t help anyone in a minority community, not that hateful people consider that. How is hate allowed to fester? Of that, I have no clue, but it is in fact more prevalent in neighbourhoods and institutions than you’d ever believe. This week we saw that with this horrendous letter that circulated on the news and on line. My daughter last year. Sometimes this is what special needs looks like. By now you have all heard of the horrid hateful letter sent from a neighbour to an…
-
Losing a Parent: Every Day is a Gift, Just Not Tomorrow
Every day is a gift. But today I would gladly trade tomorrow in if I could. June 5th marks a month since my Mom passed away. I can barely type that without crying. One month of sadness and anger and frustration and forgetting and movement and tears and heaviness and guilt and devastation, and heart-stopping pain. One month ago I had no idea grief felt like a stone in your chest weighing you down with sad. This weekend, I attended TBEX, travel blogging conference, and it was the first time I really felt like I had smiled and kicked back since my mother passed away and for a few moments…
-
But I Am Not Done with You Yet
In the end, you think about the many times she danced through the living room holding the cat, with those tiny cat antlers it used to hate. The times she dressed at the vanity in her room draping jewelry on and your eight-year-old eyes thought it was magic. You dreamed she was beautiful and then wished years away so you could grow fast forward. You asked her to twirl. She did and spun you around. She held your hand and said I love you and then she gave you a kiss before heading off to the dance with a friend. The grief fills you with an overwhelming sad stone in…
-
This is Who She Will Be #tweens
I am always proud of my kids. Every day from the second they joined our home, their tiny hearts beating in sync with mine. I love them beyond measure, like many Moms the world over, and yet, sometimes parenting is dull. It is magical – ephemeral – a little unbelievable – and then it is exhausting. Draining. Bone weary hard work. The older they get, the further and faster they speed away from you. Daily. You can see it when they wake up and walk down to make their own cereal. And it is good and welcome and even a positive force most days and then, comes a day when…
-
14 Things You Must Have on a Family Road Trip
Heading out on another family road trip which means I have some packing to do. Since we started this great foray into family travel my husband and I – well mostly I – have learned a few things about the tricky business of travelling with tots in tow. My first tip for travelling with children is planning, planning and then planning some more. When we flew to Disney last year it was my daughter, Ainsley’s first flight. She was four and, for those of you who don’t know, she has sensory processing disorder, which means life is often too loud, too bright, too fast and etc.. you get the idea.…
-
Brownie Camp and Where Have Seven Years Gone?
Well one week worth of packing and running around hunting for labels for my daughter’s belongings and Brownie camp appears to have gone smashingly. We dropped my seven-year-old off at Brownie Camp Friday night together. The whole family gave her a send off and wished her well, even if it was only for a very short weekend away. There’s a small camp site just outside London, close to St. Thomas that the local Brownie camp uses every year just outside London. She has been looking forward to this for weeks, so we worked hard to make sure it would happen and then gave her the big family send off yesterday.…
