Paperback Writer - Sharing My Work Featured On Other Sites

I wear many different work hats when I'm not parenting the minions.  I work as a freelance writer, editor, ghost writer, and web writer.  Here is some of my non-parenting related writing for your reading pleasure. Please read and share any of the links that interest you, and as always, if you have any article ideas for me for the blog or anything else shoot me an email or a comment! Enjoy!

Body Positivity

via The Daily Dot

Let It Go: From Diet Culture to Body Positivity With Kristina Bruce

Finance/ Real Estate

How To Transform From A Renter To Super Saver To Home Owner

Dating & Relationships

via Single Girls Rock

Modern Dating Interview With Dating Expert & Matchmaker Carmelia Ray

Canadian Women Profiles

Profile Future Female - Meet Kristine 

Real Life Behind Your Favourite Shows

via Giphy

15 Lesser Known Facts About Johnny Galecki And Jim Parsons' Off-Screen Friendship

15 Little Known Facts About Kit Harington’s Private Life

16 Pics Of Melissa Rauch That Change The Way We See The Big Bang Theory Star 

15 Rumors Oprah Wishes Would Quietly Disappear

Marvel Universe

via Tumblr

15 Facts Tom Hiddleston Might Want To Keep Private

A Deep Dive Into Celebrity Couples & Friendships

via Pinterest

15 Sweet Facts About Anna Kendrick And Justin Timberlake’s Friendship

15 Sweet Facts About Alex Trebek And His Wife, Jean

Celebrity Break-ups & Relationship Gossip

15 Lesser-Known Facts About Charlie Sheen's Ex, Denise Richards

15 Facts About Ryan Reynolds And Scarlett Johansson’s Relationship That Have Recently Surfaced

Blasts From The Past

via Giphy

15 Unflattering Facts About Tara Reid’s Past

10 Celebs Macaulay Culkin Is Close To (5 He Stays Away From)

The Other Pitt

15 Lesser-Known Facts About Brad Pitt’s Younger Brother, Doug

Crying

We had a rough day with Jack on Easter. In fact, we've had a rough few days bordering on a week now.  He's been stubborn, inflexible, defiant, pushing limits, hyper, over-reactive, sulky, picking fights with all of us, and weepy.  This paired with us all being inside a house in self-isolation for an unknown quantity of time has been trying. Add in a whole lot of chocolate and you have a recipe for disaster. After his third reprimand that day, and the second time he went into his room in hysterical tears.  

The first day back at school for virtual learning, there were two outbursts about his journal assignment when I had him change all of the random capital As placed in his journal entry into lowercase ones.  When he was reprimanded for his freak out, he came down hard on himself, using absolutes (I'm stupid, I suck, etc.) and it took another 15 minutes to get him calmed down and back on task.  Jack sometimes acts out when he's in the middle of a growth or developmental spurt, but the past week or so has been next level emotional.  It's impacting everyone.

via Wiffle Gif

Recently I logged onto Facebook and stumbled upon an article about parents who feel like failures, parents who wonder if their children are always this difficult, and perhaps whether their end of the year teacher gifts should be much more generous.  These outburst, regressions, and acts of defiance are our children responding to the stress of the times.  I'm trying not to see this as a failure or take it personal, although some days it can be hard not to.

This past weekend we opened up the schedule for the kids giving them a lot more free time. Unfortunately for a kid like Jack, this meant four days without structure, a welcome change for Molly, not so much for her brother.  Things are already unpredictable enough for him and we just made it worse. The lack of schedule totally bit us and then some.  

My other major frustration is that I don't have the answers for my kids that they need.  I don't know when they'll get to go back to school, get to see their friends, or hug their grandparents.  I know how much this stresses me out and I'm not a child with even less control over what's going on. I need to keep reminding myself that they're eight, this is hard for everyone, and that we aren't alone in our struggle with this all.

via Tenor

This week I am going to try and be patient, take it slow, and stick to a schedule (all while getting my own work complete).  I am so used to having alone time which isn't happening much right now and my patience is thin.  I'm going to set aside time for locking myself in my room for some reading, solo walks with the dog, and 'me time' so I am better equipped to attempt to  parent my way through this.  Deep breath, rant over.

How are you all coping?

Realm of the Fairies - Urban Hiking in Magwood Park

Last week we ended our self quarantine and are now able to get out for daily exercise in our neighbourhood provided we practice social distancing in the face of COVID-19.  Thankfully there are a lot of great places in our neighbourhood to stretch our legs, including a short trail that my friend E told me about near Jane and St. John's road in Magwood Park.

The special thing about this trail is that kids from all over the neighbourhood have made fairy houses and distributed them in tree branches and the wooded area to help bring some magic to this stressful and challenging time.

Today we explored the trail together and Molly added her own house to the collection of Fairy Magic along this short urban trail in the west end of Toronto.

A colourful fairy house nestled in the base of a tree.

This is an easy trail that is off of Pasadena Gardens, just outside of the more crowded ravine adjacent paved path.  You could probably even take a large wheeled stroller on this path if you wanted to.  We walked the short trail about 2.5 times while looking for fairy homes, giving us a half hour walk on the trail.

The kids followed all of our rules to keep safe and germ free 1) No touching any of the fairy homes (even if the wind had knocked them over) and 2) if you pass anyone on the trail move over to one side to give them plenty of room to get by. We only saw three other families on the trail at the same time as us and everyone was behaving as they should keeping a wide distance, save for one family who decided to let their dogs off leash.


Molly brought and hung her own fairy home in a tree for other people to spot and enjoy on the trail. Spring is officially here as purple flowers had begun to pop up along the trail.  We will be back in a couple of weeks to explore more, see how many other fairy homes have been added, and to add another home to the collection.  Today we counted more than 40 fairy homes!

Molly's Fairy Home

Along the path

Spotting our first set of fairy homes 

This one was Molly & my favourite one because of it's nature inspired aesthetic

 If you decide to visit Magwood park make sure to practice social distancing and avoid crowds.  Stay healthy and active everyone!

Things My Kids Said As Posted On Twitter

During these times, celebrating the small moments can be especially important. Not everything my kids say or do warrants a blog post.  This is why I like to share this roundup and snippets of recent conversations I've had with M&J as shared on Twitter.  This has been especially interesting given the introduction of homeschooling into our lives.  Enjoy!

via Narcity 

Today in #homeschooling C: okay so how can you tell that this coin is a toonie? J: because it’s the one with the Komodo dragon on it. C: umm. Err. That would be cool but that’s a polar bear #parenting

J: sometimes the cat reminds me of Bill Skarsgård when he plays Pennywise cause sometimes she acts like she wants eat my head

So apparently according to my son, the rest of his family are that coworker who keeps eating his snacks #SelfIsolation #parenting

Working on acrostic writing, continuation from school Me: Let's start with Spring. J: Spring, S is for Spring. Me: You can't use the same word twice, pick something else. J: nods, completes assignment. Me: Now do your name, Jack. J: Jack, J is for Jack #facepalm #homeschooling

J: Mom do you know why puppies are so cute?  It's because they have really big eyes. Just look at them aren't they adorable? #perspective #parenting

via Giphy

It took a full 5 days of #homeschooling before I made someone cry about clock math. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner #winning #SelfIsolation

Day one of home schooling and self-isolation led to a lengthy debate over whether a #pterodactyl is a #dinosaur or a flying reptile.

Things I’m saying to my son on day 7 of #SelfIsolation ”please do not, under any circumstances, use the bathtub to demonstrate the damage of a tsunami” #parenting

via Tenor