Who taught you to be so negative? Where did you learn to say, “You can’t, you will look like an idiot, don’t even bother”? I ask this of myself frequently. Time and time again, I let a potential job opportunity slip away, or watch the shadows change on my wall, the night easing into morning… Read more »
Dear Barb: I am the mother of a thirteen-year-old daughter and an eight-year-old boy. I am about halfway through my degree at AU and I work part time, so I am very busy trying to take care of everything. My husband is great; he helps out with the kids and does most of the cooking. … Read more »
Are you spending Christmas alone? Well, you may spend the season alone, but not lonely and heartbroken, aching for a Christmas kitten. Instead, ward off weekend and holiday blues—with a plan. But first, let’s study the blues. My elderly landlady felt stricken with loneliness. She huddled over her garden and trimmed her apple trees, but… Read more »
Surrounding yourself with people who are doing what you aspire to do is a worthwhile endeavour on the path towards success. I didn’t give much thought about why I admired certain individuals and felt negatively toward others until I came across a book that suggested writing down all the people you looked up to—whether famous,… Read more »
Can you make words dance—like letters gyrating, Elvis-style? Growing up, I wrote songs, danced, and stage acted. These tasks demanded a sense of rhythm, or at least of timing, for mastery. But no fine art compares, not at all, to tying rhythm into writing. Today, I sprinkle less rhythm, more rhyme, into writing. Author Barbara… Read more »
Dear Barb: I have three young boys in public school. We live in a rural community in Ontario. Yesterday morning I received a phone call from the principal at my children’s school because my son had arrived at school at 8:50 am rather than 9:00 am. Ten minutes! I was enraged! I have had several… Read more »
Hope blew in the day Cuddles nicknamed me “Nicee.” Names spark hope and sometimes save necks—but always pep up writers’ pens. So, observe—and name—the whatchamacallits of the world, says author Barbara Baig (2015). To master names, buy kids’ encyclopedias. While reading an encyclopedia of science, I learned makeup comes from petroleum—yes, grease á la ground—ooze… Read more »
Do you get heebie-jeebies from 100% dark cocoa? Grossed out by sewage-lips from Buckley’s cough syrup? Cross-eyed from steaming showers? These things might not feel good. But are they healthy? I believe the best gauge of health is sickness. History’s healers surely studied health while sick. Why? Sore tummies make us sensitive to foods, heat,… Read more »
For an essential and versatile ingredient found in nearly every meal you’d think we have better ways of cooking the yolky contents. But when it comes to eggs, we resort to the mundane poached, scrambled, or pan-fried varieties. Occasionally we might treat ourselves to an eggs benedict, but few of us have experimented with making… Read more »
For most of us the ability to travel by air is a treat and a blessing. We’re not required to do so for high-powered careers or trans-continental love affairs. We’re usually heading out on vacation and already in a good frame of mind. Oh, sure we get ticked off by the high ticket prices, the… Read more »