Let’s start with this. Covid kicked my ass. You may have noticed that the page has gone a little quiet over the last few months and it is directly related to the mental drag that the pandemic brought with it. We’ve spent so much time as parents trying to keep our kids from suffering that I’m guessing I’m not the only one who had to fight through the fog. Not all was bad, though. After the first few months of having takeout on a daily basis, I decided to use my newfound home time to learn how to make actual meals for my family. It was also necessary to help battle the…roundness I was developi ..read more

If this pandemic has been good for anything, it has allowed me to explore what has been going on in the world of television. With all the running around between work and the sports my kids take part in, there hasn’t been much time to just sit and space out with a good show. As it turns out, I was further behind than I thought and have been slowly catching up ever since. I partnered with Hisense Canada, and using their 4K Android TV I have created a list of the Top 5 shows I have been watching while we were stuck in lockdown. In fact, Hisense Canada are so cool that after finding out that I w ..read more

As mentioned in my previous post about our journey through the Coronavirus pandemic, we have been trying to keep some form of schedule for ourselves. One of the items on the schedule is creative time for the kids. We told them that we don’t really care what they did, as long as it had nothing to do with TikTok, TV or video games.  Most of the time they spend it separately, however there have been a couple times now where they decided to team up on a project. After one such day, they came running into the living room claiming to have built an escape room in their bedrooms and we HAD to c ..read more

Have you ever asked a 12 year old a question about anything? It generally goes a little something like this.  “How was school today?” “Good” “What did you do at recess?” “Played” “Do you have homework?” “No” “Do you want anything specific for dinner?” “Pizza” There are hundreds of other amazing one word conversations just like this one and they are all equally as exhilarating! Unfortunately, when Endy asked me to get thoughts on his first 100 days with his new Endy mattress, the conversation went exactly as expected.  “I need to write about how you like your new mattress. How are y ..read more

I know it sounds strange to talk about putting your lawn to bed as if it were a child, but that’s exactly what it’s like if you really think about it. Spring and Summer are very busy times of year for both my kids and my lawn. They both need food and water to survive, they both need endless care and support, plus, oftentimes neither one of them does what I want them to do. See, they are exactly the same… That said, it is incredibly important to prepare your lawn for the cooler weather by following just a few simple steps. While I’m not an expert yet, my year long lesson in lawn maintenanc ..read more

In a summer of many ups and downs, I managed to find quite a bit of joy in working on my very neglected yard. In partnership with Fertilizer Canada, I was able to do a lot of research into what makes a lawn healthy and I have seen some amazing results in a short time. I mean, there was really nowhere to go but up, right?? Here are some Before and After photos. While the improvements have been amazing, it hasn’t come without a few challenges. I seem to have replaced the dandelions with a different type of weed that has been making itself at home on most lawns in my neighbourhood. That said ..read more

It seems hard to believe but 6 months after schools abruptly closed, it is almost time to get the kids back into the classroom. With that, comes one of the underrated joys of school for parents; the school picture! That’s right, picture day at school is one of the few memories from those early days that lasts forever. I love going through my old school photos whenever I visit my parents’ house. It also serves as a helpful reminder to my kids that the style choices they make as preteens and teenagers can either bring them great amounts of pride, or in my case, hilarious shame as they get olde ..read more

I have lived in my current house for 10 years and haven’t really put a solid effort into my lawn, well, ever… You can only imagine my excitement as I have watched my lawn go from a mix of dirt and very dead grass to an almost entirely green and thick patch! Yes, we are still working at it and isn’t perfect but it is still green and growing! Because of our late winter this year, and, you know, the virus, my 2nd of 3 fertilizer treatments didn’t go on until late June but that gave me plenty of time to dig out my neighbour’s weeds and to get our garden in order. Even though these are the first 2 ..read more

We’re trying, I promise. We even created a fancy, colour coded schedule in the early weeks that we were definitely going to stick to, with no exceptions! At least 3 hours of that schedule was dedicated to making sure the kids focused on learning and it absolutely worked…for a while at least.  To your credit, you held up your end of the bargain. Zoom classes, website subscriptions and enough work to keep them busy but not so much that they were drowning in it. For that, we are grateful. The thing is, as we got deeper into this and the sun started shining brighter each day, the days start ..read more

I think using the term “novice” to describe my knowledge of gardening/lawn maintenance may even be a slight over exaggeration. I have tried in the past and had some success, only to have life’s hectic schedule get in the way of continued growth throughout the year. Laziness may have played a very small part as well. That said, Fertilizer Canada asked if I wanted to learn more about lawn/garden maintenance, which has always been something I’ve struggled with, so I gladly said yes! Since that time I think I have done more studying than I did at the end of my time in college… I started in ea ..read more