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Holiday interruptus
I’ve been basking in some unexpected holiday time this Christmas season. It’s allowed me to spend some extra time with my family, do some extra baking, and sing way too many cheesy Christmas songs at the top of my lungs with nobody around to hear. It’s also given me some peaceful moments to simply relax, reflecting on the past year and making plans for the new one. I’m far more calm just days before the big holidays than I usually am. Sounds great, eh? But there’s just one little catch. Unfortunately, I have one of those jobs that you can’t just… Read more…
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Woman’s best friend
They say that dog is man’s best friend. I think they’re wrong. In my house, dog is woman’s best friend. An exhausted puppy snoozes a decade or so ago. My mixed-breed Maggie joined our household almost 11 years ago. Ostensibly meant as a companion to my youngest child, who was about to be “abandoned” by her brother as he joined my eldest boy at school full time, the whole family knew that cold-nosed squirmy bundle of energy was really for me. While she is partial to my daughter, mine she started and mine she stayed. A decade later, despite the fact… Read more…
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A yarn of a different kind
Snow arrived in my part of Ontario almost two weeks ago, and as it fell softly on my newly-raked lawn (just in time, phew!) I found myself picking up my knitting needles for the first time in a long time. I’m not sure what made me put them down in the first place, but I discovered a couple of three-quarter-finished projects at the bottom of a bag of yarn. So, with a cup of steaming tea at my side, I settled down to finish them up. A young colleague at work had recently picked up needles for the first time.… Read more…
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The post I almost didn’t write
Disclaimer: I almost didn’t write this. In fact, I started it twice, deleting it each time. The third time around, I almost didn’t hit the publish button. I worry it may be a bit self-absorbed, self-critical and may come across as attention-seeking. It’s not meant to be. But I realized that not going ahead just contributes to the silence that needs to end …. *** Three weeks of Jian Ghomeshi and other harassment stories. Three weeks learning things I wish I could unlearn. Three weeks of words painting pictures in my head, that I want to erase. Two weeks of… Read more…
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Pirates of Bobcaygeon
Once upon a time, in the tiny Ontario town of Bobcaygeon, there lived a pirate gang. A friendly gang, to be sure, but pirates none-the less. Let me back up a bit. For about a decade, my parents ran house-keeping cottages in a picturesque little town on the Trent-Severn Waterway. Their waterfront property had several self-contained cottages, a tiny little beach courtesy of the sand my father had trucked in every year, and docks for the kayaks, canoes, peddle-boat and small rental fishing boats available for their guests. It was a great fishing spot. You could dangle a fishing rod… Read more…
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Adventures in teenage miscommunication
“Mum, my friends and I want to cook meat in the forest,” said my son one night. “Is that OK?” Now what you have to understand is that near my house, we have a fabulous ravine. Great unofficial trails that my kids and I have walked along with Maggie the dog for years – since my youngest could toddle along without falling over tree roots. We scramble down ravine banks, throw sticks for Maggie to chase, look for wildlife (scat searching was a big hit when the boys were young!) and generally have a great time in this special piece of nature that… Read more…
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One down … my son’s new chapter
Like many, many of my friends, this weekend marked a big, gigantic first – the first time leaving my firstborn child at university. Photos of new dorm rooms have been popping up on my Facebook feed all day to mark the occasion. I first wrote about this then-upcoming event in March, and now, a little over 1,300 km later, my boy has been collected from a summer camp counselling job, unpacked, repacked and unpacked again to begin the next exciting chapter of his young life – university. And you know, it wasn’t as hard on dear old Mum as I thought it… Read more…
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Celebrating gold
For the last couple of weeks, anyone who knows me on Facebook has been subjected to a barrage of posts and photos of my daughter’s choir, which picked up both a silver and gold placement at the World Choir Games. To say I was a proud “choir mum” was a bit of an understatement. But today, my family is celebrating a different golden accomplishment.Fifty years ago today, my Mum and Dad tied the knot, back in England. My parents won’t let me throw them a lavish party – or any party at all – and they don’t want gifts. But… Read more…
