Baking Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies for The Holidays

Lovely winter is just around the corner and there's nothing I love more during this time of year and through the holidays than comfort food. What better comfort food than homemade chocolate chip cookies? They’re chewy chocolate goodness when paired with a glass of creamy milk make you feel all happy and warm inside. Yes I’m depending on food for emotional happiness, it happens.

Working Moms Work Harder in Flu Season

I don't know how I missed this (I must have been working), but in September a U.K. study came out with research that the children of working mothers lead unhealthier lives.

Hallowe'en Street Cred for Parents

Dear fellow parents, I want to let you all know how impressed I was when I dropped my kids off at school today. I saw some pretty amazing costumes: a bishop, a terrifyingly bloody baker, a stunningly beautiful angel.

Family Friday: Weekend Divorce

I have a friend who recently became divorced and she has been sharing this experience with me. Don't worry, I'm not about to turn around and put her intimate details on the Interweb, but I had a sort of epiphany while we talked about how her life has changed. One of the few upsides of such a difficult situation seems to be that you get the occasional week or weekend off. Of course, this depends on your child custody arrangement, but for her, she has the kids one week and her husband has them the other week.

Family Friday: Healing Au Naturopathic

I love my family doctor. She's only the second doctor I've had in my life: the first was the doctor who delivered me (and she'd been MY mother's doctor since she was a child) and then my current doctor, who is equally wonderful.

Don't Cheat... Just Sleep Around

So this couple gets together and never bothers to talk about monogamy. It’s the only way to do things, after all. And then... surprise! Someone gets a mysterious STD and things fall apart. Maybe kids or property is involved, or maybe just broken hearts. Drama ensues, and all the friends and family are shocked and appalled even though humans have been stepping out on each other since always.

Family Friday: How to Kill an Education

Are pageants akin to child abuse?

I was flipping channels the other night and came across a show about a children's beauty pageant. I was transfixed. It was a visual assault of teased hair, garrish makeup, and every pastel shade of sateen known to man.

To Flat-Screen or Not Flat-Screen?

To get me in the spirit of selling our current home and buying a new one, my hubby and I watched a lot of House Hunters on HGTV. Real estate reality television is one of my favourite forms of entertainment.

Vacationing with Toddlers (15 of Them!!)

Despite what you might automatically think, this is not a spin-off of Jon & Kate Plus 8, but a real -life mom with an unforgettable experience.

Family Friday: Is marital fidelity really that hard?

Sometimes, people do stupid things. For instance, why would a man who had everything throw it away for an extra-marital affair, as 2008 Presidential hopeful John Edwards did? Was his affair with New York party girl Rielle Hunter really worth it? Not to say he had a chance against Barack Obama in his run for president, but defeat would have been better than being paraded around the talk show circuit by his wife, Elizabeth.

Movin' up

We're in the midst of selling our house. Crazy times. I've always been worried about how we would keep the house clean for showings but, with all the showings, we're never home to mess it up. It's surreal having strangers walking around in there and seeing videos of our bedrooms on the Internet. For some people, that might be normal, but I think it's strange.

The Highs and Lows of Modern-Day Parenthood

Today on my Food for Thought blog on FoodTV.ca, I talked about frantically shopping at 10pm on Monday night because I had nothing to prepare for the kids' lunches the next day. Now, that could just be bad planning on my part, but more often than not, I find we're running around on the day's second shift trying to catch up well into the late hours of the evening. If we collapse on the couch by 10:30, we're doing well.

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