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For someone who did not grow up with pets (Julius Augustus Caesar – our short lived parakeet, bought to fulfill a Girl Guide badge requirement – does not count), I sure do love my animals. I have: two horses, two donkeys, 1 beagle and 3 egg-laying hens. As my partner says, pets are life enhancers. […]

Decisions, decisions, decisions….We make many decisions every day. It starts the moment we wake up (what to have for breakfast, what to make the kids for lunch, what to wear to work) and picks up a rapid pace from there. So we know we make a lot of decisions each day, but did you know […]

Happy Mother’s Day Moms and Stepmoms! We love you and appreciate all you do for us! So, remember the days of the TV show Leave it to Beaver when families were made of up of one Father, one Mother, one boy and one girl and a dog named Spot? Well, whether that was a true […]

Were you mad about Mad Men, the ultra-stylised TV show centred on an advertising agency in the 1950s and 60s? There were so many jaw-dropping moments! But what shocked me most – more than the non-stop drinking and smoking in the white male-dominated working world – was a picnic scene. That’s right a picnic! Don […]

You can picture it, can’t you? Little party hats and plates, each set in front of a pillow, intended for the four legged pet guests to sit on. Yes, it’s a birthday party for your dearest FurKid. The cookies are all homemade, meat flavoured, and bone shaped. The water dishes are all read to be […]

It’s funny how you spend so much time getting your kids to say their first words. MA-MA. DA-DA. And then when they do start talking, boy it seems they will never stop! They even say things you don’t want them to, like telling everyone when they went potty or your age. And then – just […]

The great Albert Einstein is quoted as saying: “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” Reading to your kids – especially when they are very young is good for so many reasons. It helps you bond with […]

Is your excitement for the coming of spring dampened not only by “April showers that bring May flowers” but also by the annual tradition of doing a good “Spring Clean”?  I don’t know about you but I am not a fan. And talk of it is everywhere!  I could barely believe it when I settled […]

What is that expression? If you want to keep the peace, never talk money, politics or religion. That might be a good rule for the work place and parties although if you are not talking about these things at home then where are you talking about them? But as the number of “interfaith” relationships increases, […]

Do you remember when the first of your siblings had a baby? My older sister was the first in my family and her pregnancy was a wonderful time. We rallied around her as a family as she prepared for her new arrival and my parents excitedly settled on their new names: Nana and Papa. What […]

Remember that book from the 1980’s called All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? If you are not old enough to remember it (cough, cough), it was all the rage and essentially said that the world would be a much better place if we remembered some of the basic things we learned […]

Over the past hundred plus years, Nana and Papa have gotten farther and farther away. In 1916, grandparents were very likely to live in the same area, if not the same home, as their grandchildren. In 2016, grandparents are not only not likely to live in the same home as their grandkids but might not […]