• Birthday Girl’s Royal Treatment

    I’ve always found that birthdays are overrated.  We spend all this time planning how we want to celebrate, and then most of the time our plans don’t live up to our jacked up expectations.  Not to mention, the phone doesn’t stop ringing, and the messages just keep building up on your wall and inbox, from all the family, friends, frenemies, acquaintances, exes, and social media strangers, all eager to remind you that you’re no longer a spring chicken.  Well this year was no different.  My birthday fell on a thursday, and I was anticipating being depressed all day while my hubby was at work, and another regular day just passed…

  • Why My Muskoka Will Never Be The Same

    My parents bought our cottage (for next to nothing) in a little known cottage country two hours north of Toronto, the summer that I was born.  This year will be our 33rd season on Lake Joseph.  For the first ten years or so, we had pristine views, unobstructed by any neighbouring cottages.  Muskoka was a hidden gem; quiet, peaceful, and all natural.  All of our neighbours respected the woods and the lake, and built their cottages at least 100 feet from shore (a law at the time), and you could barely even tell they were there, because they were shielded by the beautifully majestic hemlocks and cedars.  I can remember…

  • Make the time to play – A Poem to your child by Fisher Price

    Recently, I had the honor of being chosen for a Fisher Price video with my one year old, Alonzo.  As our first mama + baby commercial appearance, naturally, the experience was fun and exciting… but it was also nothing I could have expected.  When it was our turn on set, we were asked to just sit and play and enjoy each other with the toys they provided.  Simple enough.  Zozo’s fave was the timeless stacking tower that we all grew up on, and he instantly recognized from his own collection at home.  But then, I was asked to read him a poem, and that is when the emotions started to…