If a mom sneezes when her kids are too busy playing outside to hear her, does it make a sound? Spring and summer are great opportunities to get out and play with your kids. It’s no fun if sneezing leaves you on the sidelines. They only want to play with you for so long before we become “embarrassing” and “no fun ever.” Take advantage while you can. Make hay while the sun shines, so to speak Speaking of hay, how about that hay fever, eh?









As a little girl growing up in East Coast Halifax, I used to glorify the United States. Why couldn’t Canada have outlet malls and Dr. Pepper? It never seemed fair, and Americans openly expressed the notion that we lived in igloos. Many didn’t realize that we shared the longest unprotected border in the world. I couldn’t find many Canadians who ‘made it’ on Broadway or in Hollywood. Was there a future for the little girl who wanted to be a musical theatre actor more than anything? I was as embarrassed as I was insecure.
Born in Creston, BC, Pascale Hutton studied fine arts at the University of Alberta. A mother of two young boys, Hutton has a huge amount of passion for nature, and constantly models a love of nature for her two boys, ages 6 and 2. On today’s Facebook Live, I talked about the interview and how I plan to do small things to help the environment with my kids in order to get rid of the helpless feeling I have since the USA pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord. It seems that Pascale and I are on the same page!
Families can be complicated. We love them, but they can drive us crazy sometimes/often/always. It’s nice to take solace in a Netflix marathon of families that make your family look relatively normal in comparison to whatever drama you’re currently dealing with. These are some great options if you are trying to get over the family get together blues:
If a car could tell a story about real life for a family it would be the Honda Odyssey. Like the story of the day your baby came home from the hospital and you were so nervous you shook. And the time you accidentally drove through a red light and managed to avoid the accident that almost killed everybody in the car. That family road trip to the coast where your daughter confessed that she had fallen in love. And the morning you drove your child and her jittery friends to their graduation ceremony.
Since the vehicle is so versatile and timeless, it becomes the one constant that follows and facilitates all of those real family moments. This minivan could tell 1 million stories, because a family is going to want to keep it for a very long time.
I love to travel, but occasionally I have to stay home. When I get the travel itch and I don’t have any trips planned, I know I can always retreat to my Netflix flicks and find a new adventure. These are a few of my favourites to pass the time until I get the next stamp on my passport:
I love to run and where I live that means running on country roads. I’ve written about my love of running in the past and also about my desire to be safe while running. Being safe can mean a lot of different things – making sure someone knows where I’m headed on my route, or at least has an idea of the general direction I’m headed – being aware of my surroundings in case drivers aren’t aware of me – even knowing where the cows are out to pasture so I don’t startle them which WILL startle me.
I’ve been fortunate enough to return from all of my runs safely. Now I’ve got some added protection – in case I have a problem.
Actors have many roles, and for mother of two Sara Rue, being an activist in today’s political climate is as important to her as any theatrical performance. With her daughters in tow, Rue recently participated in the climate march from where she was filming, setting an inspiring example for her kids. A celebrated actor on stage and screen, you have probably caught her as Carmen Ferrara on Popular, and as Claude Casey on Less than Perfect. As a huge sitcom fan, I loved her performance in The Big Bang Theory, playing Leonard Hofstadter’s physician girlfriend Dr. Stephanie Barnett for three episodes.
Literacy is as much a parenting priority as ensuring our prodigy are well fed. Some lessons, like teaching them not to bully or washing behind their ears are simpler parenting goals than others. While instilling compassion can be done on a tight budget, not every child has access to the plethora books that are required in order to develop a passion for reading.
At 70, Fred Penner’s beautiful hands strum his guitar like it’s an extension of his fingers. The twinkling eyes we remember shine out from an older, but no less appealing face, framed with the most welcoming smile—a smile that five decades of kids have loved and trusted.