Tag: Life

  • Of Potatoes and Fond Memories

    One of the things I love about my Facebook community is how other people are so willing to share their own stories there. When I posted this picture on my Facebook page the other day, one reader told me about how her father tried (and failed) to convince her and her siblings that potatoes were treasures…

  • The Muddly Month of June: Reflections on Joy & Sorrow

    June is a bit of a muddly month for me. Yes, I know muddly isn’t an actual word, but it’s the one I came up with that best encompasses the muddled muddiness I face at this time of year…a time that brings with it both great celebration and profound sadness. You see, twenty-three years and…

  • Life Without a Cell Phone

    My name is Linda, and it has been 19 days since I last texted. Life without a cell phone wasn’t actually that bad for the first few days after inadvertently killing my Apple account. In fact, there was a certain sense of adventure that came with heading off into the world without the safety net of perpetual…

  • How NOT to Update Your iPhone (A Tale of Technological Woe)

    So last Friday morning, there I was, blithely swiping away through Facebook on my iPhone while avoiding getting out of bed, when a notification popped up reminding me that I still hadn’t updated to the latest iOS. “Huh,” I thought. “I have a few minutes to spare, I’ll do that now.” So I plugged in…

  • Treasured Sweater Memories

    I have a treasure in my office. It hangs on the back of my chair for whenever I need it–which is most days, because my office is in the basement and it’s freezing down here! It’s miles too big for me, but that doesn’t matter. It’s also showing its age a little bit (it has all…

  • Breaking Barriers: Getting out of the Comfort Zone

    So last night, I did something new to me: I met with a family of Syrian refugees that I’m going to be tutoring in English. It’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like this, and I have to admit that I was hesitant about the idea. Meeting new people is awkward for me to…

  • The Elephant on Social Media: Deciding what to post about in 2017

    So here’s the thing. I’ve spent the past few weeks struggling to wrap my head around what’s happening in the world right now. I’ve been remembering how I learned about all those wars during my school years. I’ve been thinking about how many times I’ve heard the phrase “Never again.” I’ve been wondering how in freaking…

  • Two Writers and a Cottage: Adult Supervision Required

    So this week, I’m on a writer’s retreat with Marie Bilodeau. We both have novels to finish and deadlines to meet, and so we’ve holed up in a rented cottage, pumped and raring to go. Marie and I being who we are, however, things haven’t gone quite as smoothly as expected. Here’s a snapshot–and remember, this…

  • The Summer Bucket List

    Have you ever noticed how summer tends to speedy by, leaving you puzzling, as you shovel the driveway in January, over where the heck the time went and why you didn’t seem to get in any of the things you’d wanted/intended/planned to do? Me, too. But things are going a little differently at my house…

  • All Grown Up Now

    It’s quite the eye-opening experience, seeing your “baby” function as an independent adult in her own environment. I’ve just spent the last three days in Toronto, where my youngest has been going to school. While I’d visited with her before, we had more time to spend together this trip, which gave me the opportunity to participate…