Change and Boredom

My daughter turned two this summer. That’s right – I blinked and suddenly a toddler has entered my world. She’s a firecracker, who’s testing her limits as a typical “terrible two-year-old”, as we so affectionately say at this age! As I write this, I can hear her rumbling around in her room, determined that, today, …

Walking me home

Three years ago, on the September long weekend, I left my Junior Tribe Member at the West Coast. I’ve written before about how I had dreaded the beginning of university for my youngest JTM. It might be irrational, but I felt that after a decade of being a single mom, I was feeling like I was …

An Oak Tree, Planted

  Husband and our youngest Junior Tribe Member and I planted an oak tree yesterday. A wee baby oak.  I’m taller than she is, and I’m not tall. We picked her out at the nursery on Friday. On Saturday, I went to get the dirt while Husband and JTM dug the hole.  Twice as big …

Connection: Family Meal Times

We are wired for connection. We do better when we spend time together with other people.  The first in a series… Family meals are challenging these days. In fall, sometimes seemingly impossible between music lessons, sports teams, parental work demands.  With each family member having a different but full schedule, figuring out how to get …

Controlled Separation: A Marriage Coma

The ideas in the article were included in my book, as a part of my passion to help people make their marriages better. Finding ways to change destructive patterns are important…sometimes, small changes can make a big difference.  Sometimes, a big change is required to open space for the important shifts that are needed. For …

The lunch that started something beautiful

I will always remember Sunday lunch of the August long weekend with special fondness. It was the start of a somethin-somethin with Husband and I…though it wasn’t nearly the start of our romance. Husband’s wife, Car had died in late winter. In the months leading to her death, I had asked Car’s sister of how she …

Word Inspiration

I love words. My 15 year old self would not believe my current love of words to be real. I knew how to get a near perfect math mark because equations just worked.  English was frustrating to me because of its subjectivity…how does one write a perfect essay? Words annoyed me in ways numbers didn’t. …

Introducing Ellie Jack and Ruth Shantz

Change…Hard and exciting.  New opportunities and challenges. We like stability and routine, and knowing what to expect. Change is unpredictable, but creates unknown possibilities for new goodness! Change brings grief for that which we knew and loved and let go. Shifts brings excitement for things that are now possible that previously couldn’t happen. Two years ago, …