Is life overwhelming sometimes? Ever feel the need for a refuge? Want one small space to call your own? If that sounds like you, sister, you might need a ‘she-shed’, a detached one-room bungalow with the sole purpose of providing comfort, privacy and serenity. Start planning, and before you know it, you’ll be gently closing your door on the rest of the world.
As your child gets older and more independent, the summer break takes on a whole different vibe. Your now-teenager has successfully navigated middle school, some of high school, and possibly even completed Drivers’ Ed (eek!) At this point, they’re likely pretty entrenched in their daily routine: getting to class, completing assignments, attending practice, and (hopefully) doing their chores. And then summer arrives and it all falls apart. Your once busy teenager suddenly has hours and hours of time to play with and no direction creating a situation that can quickly escalate out of moms control—so here are some summer tips for moms with teens to help nip it in the bud right from the start.
When we think about nourishment, most people know how to balance a good meal and many can also afford a few spinach leaves here and there. BUT… there are millions of people all over the world who can’t. Pacific Foods has always been one of the most socially-conscious companies in Canada. Their employees volunteer hundreds of hours, they have a zero-waste target that has almost been reached, and the company has always followed sustainable practices to ensure kinder treatment of people, animals, and the planet. They also just treated the public and a local charity to a fun and nutritious pop-up. The Pacific Tasting Kitchen was a public “soup-kitchen” in Yaletown, where for every sample of mouth-watering soup given out, another sample was donated to The Dugout, a local soup kitchen in the YVR Downtown Eastside. The charity provides a free soup breakfast every morning to 200+ people in the neighborhood. I feel so very lucky.
While tax time makes you do a hard look at your spending habits and swimsuit season can help us realize we’ve been light on kale servings, there has been little impetus in my family to check our technology usage. A bank balance or a scale can provide some hard data to allow us to analyze and then change habits, and now, the Shaw BlueCurve Gateway modem and Home app allow us to do this with device usage. It just can’t make you eat more veggies!
The school year is drawing to a close and summer will be here in a minute, with it the buzz of schoolkids ready to burst from the confines of their routine and be free. Never fear: a successful summer transition is within your reach. The change from classroom to summer setting need not be jarring—for you or your child (or your teen). Doing a bit of prep before summer’s arrival will ease you all into this change and set you up for a summer of grand memories and structured good times.
Summer! The time of year that we take a dip in a clear, cool swimming pool and grill burgers and wild asparagus on fired-up barbecues. It’s also the optimal time to get the freshest ingredients to make refreshing summer cocktails! There are so many delicious options!
If you are planning a summer event and you want to treat your guests to more than basic beer and wine, a few signature drinks are cool and memorable. You’ll also keep the headache of in-the-moment prep to a minimum by choosing drinks that can be prepared ahead of time with multiple servings, have similar or complementary ingredients, and will work with a variety of appetizers. Set yourself up for entertaining success! For those who prefer small gatherings with a few close friends (or just you and a good book!) fruit-based summer drinks are still the perfect choice.
There was a time when Ella sang, “Summertime and the livin’ is easy,” and I believed her. Growing up in the 80’s summer was always about watching movies at the outdoor movie theatre, playing outside late into the night, and of course popsicles, lots and lots of them. And then I became a mom and my priorities shifted. To be honest summer didn’t change for me in the first few years of motherhood. I was working full-time, and if there was vacation, Yay! Otherwise there was always day care! And then I had my second little pumpkin, we moved to Toronto and I decided to work from home. That’s when reality hit me like a ton of bricks: moms hate summer.
We are supposed to be working while balancing the shuttling of kids to and from camp or letting them be free and active in the yard. I’m not feeling the ‘easy breezy summer’ quite yet. I think it must indicate that I need a break – maybe a vacation for the first time in what feels like ages. (Or more Pokemon GO and fewer invoices deadlines!) Maybe some perfect fresh summer cocktails would help ease me into the guise of a vacay at least! I’ve got some delicious ideas to bring the feeling of vacation to your backyard.
Camping with the kids can be a beautiful experience; sleeping close to your babies under the velvet sky and bright moon, wrapped in the warm summer air. Or, it can be a tough night out in the rough embrace of the wild. You never know how a child will handle a new situation until they’ve experienced it, so planning a camping trip with children without a test run could equal disaster. That’s where a backyard camping trip comes into play.
A backyard campout will give you all the joys of camping—including sleeping in a tent and roasting marshmallows over a campfire—all within a few steps of home in case one of your littles doesn’t quite feel the whole “sleeping under the stars” thing.
My day starts with checking the uniform cleanliness status, the color coded calendar on the refrigerator, and my supply of coffee and coconut milk creamer.
Because I’m a Sports Mama.
I have four extremely active children. On any given day we potentially have three softball games in three different cities in the Metro, a volleyball game somewhere in the school district, a football game up to four hours away, dance rehearsal and a dad and mom who may be coaching any of those things…..well, not the dance or football. That’s just the fall season.