Back when the kids were in elementary school, my favourite fundraiser – even considering my eight solid years running the Scholastic Book Fair twice annually – was the magazine fundraiser. I loved choosing magazine subscriptions and I loved the getting the happy little surprise in the mail a couple times a month. The mail! Sob. […]
Nicole’s Favourite Things: The Trick or Treat Edition
October 17, 2024 by 58 Comments
I never really understood Anne Shirley’s feelings on October until I moved here. It is so beautiful right now, I can barely stand it. The colours are gorgeous, and every day is a little bit different. I’m becoming slightly unhinged, talking about leaves to my family every day. I mean, I am stopping perfect strangers […]
Nicole’s Favourite Things: The Cheap Trick Edition
September 19, 2024 by 52 Comments
It’s sunset season! I know what you’re going to say: sunsets occur on the daily. This is true – sunrise, sunset – but since I retire so early I don’t generally see sunsets from May to August. Sunrises, I see those every day. But sunsets? No. I really do believe that The Best Things In […]
Long and Winding Road
September 2, 2024 by 72 Comments
I was walking with a friend downtown toward my favourite bookstore when I recognized a woman passing us. Isn’t it funny that when you see a person out of context, it can take a moment to place them? Usually for me it’s someone I see from the dog park or the walking path; the person […]
Nicole’s Favourite Things: The Zucapocalypse Edition
August 29, 2024 by 58 Comments
August was a bit of a wild ride for me: I took an epic road trip to a family reunion, my husband and older son were gone for three weeks, the garden went completely rogue, my pretend sister came for a visit, I spent lots of one-on-one time with my younger son, and, just recently, […]
Waisting Away
August 26, 2024 by 60 Comments
Over a year ago, I noticed something that I had literally never noticed before, and that was that every single woman over a certain age that I knew, or even encountered in a casual way, sported a thickened waist and a soft tummy. I first noticed it in one of my classes, and that was […]
Nicole’s Favourite Things: The One Year Anniversary Edition
July 18, 2024 by 48 Comments
Exactly one year ago today, I loaded up the car and drove eight hours solo, with only Rex and a queue of podcasts for company, to move from Calgary to Kelowna. The entries from my one-line-a-day journal from this time last year are kind of nuts; frantic descriptions of packing, cleaning, and purging, interspersed with […]
