Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is just so darn cool that he has my kids shooting for the stars. I love it because it gives me an excuse to remind them to study hard in their maths and sciences if they want to be an astronaut.
p.s. Is it just me or are you secretly developing a crush on him too?
So far, my “cosmetics quest” (an effort to minimize the number of toxins I willingly apply onto my hair and skin each morning) has been a combination of hits and misses. The two most challenging items I’ve been trying to source to date are deodorant and hair dye.
As you can see in my blog photo, I like to keep my hair red. But not long ago, I liked to keep my hair blonde. And before that … well, you get the picture. I’ve liked changing up my hair colour since I was a teenager. I’ve had pretty much every colour under the sun. Twice. What can I say? I just find my natural hair colour boring and want to add a little oompf to it.
For most women my age, colouring hair becomes a “must do” because they don’t like the look of their grey hair. So it’s a topic worth digging into a bit. The first time I had ever heard of hair dye as a health concern was when one of my book club friends said that research was starting to tie brown hair dye to cancer, so she was going to bite the bullet and go “au naturel.” Personally, I think it’s a great choice — grey hair has a real flair to it, I think.
But for those who insist on “needing” to colour our hair, Gillian Deacon, author of There’s Lead in Your Lipstick has some bad news for us:
“Permanent dyes last the longest and contain the most serious toxins. The semi- and demi-permanent colour rinses often avoid some of the troublesome chemicals, though not all. No matter what, if you’re going to hide your age with hair dye, you’re signing on for a chemical bath.”
1. Wake up, but pretend to keep sleeping so I don’t ruin the breakfast-in-bed “surprise.”
2. Start to develop caffeine headache while pretending to be asleep, consider ruining the “surprise.”
3. Surprise breakfast-in-bed arrives! With pancakes made by Stella herself.
4. With it, a sweet little face handing me a handmade card and a flower he has been growing at school.
5. Also, a sweet little face handing me a diamond ring. Oh, actually, I meant at dime-in-a-ring. (Get it? snort!)
6. Eat breakfast in bed while joking around with facebook and twitter friends on my new kewl phone.
It feels strange to put the words “blogging” and “business” together. But that’s what it has turned out to be in many ways. It’s a labour of love since I put far more effort and energy in than I get out in dollars and cents. But there are dollars and cents involved now (you can read details here, I try to keep things as open and transparent as possible) and that means, by definition, that it’s a business.
Like all businesses, there are some basic tools or equipment required. For a grass-cutting business, a lawnmower … for a seamstress, a sewing machine … but what does a blogger need?
First things first, I don’t enjoy games. I think it’s because I’m too impatient … I don’t like the time involved in reading through all the rules, nor do I like it when a game drags on and never ends (I’ve been known to lose on purpose just so a game would end!).
My daughter, who is almost 11 years old now, has a mild interest in games. And since this interest is mild, I only feel mildly like a bad mother for not engaging her more in them.
However, my four-year-old son seems to have developed a very strong interest in games. He wants to play and learn new games all the time. In fact, he was feeling so game-deprived, that he added “a game” on his Christmas list this year. Needless to say, I feel obliged to at least play some games with him.
So, in the interest of helping any other parents like myself who would rather pluck their eye lashes out one by one than play a long family board game, I thought I would share three games which both my son and I find to be fun.
Welcome to my coffee break!
Here’s where I chat about whatever is percolating in my brain on a given day … silly family anecdotes, travel tips, a new movie or book, or just life in general.
