Crafty Imagination – Easter Masks

Is anybody else dealing with some seriously crazed kiddos lately? I’m hoping there’s something in the air and our tiny person hasn’t gone completely bonkers because she’s more than a wee bit wound up these days.
Normal, relatively quiet crafting that would normally take place around our house is not even an option at the moment. [...]

Family Fitness – Safety Keeps You Fit on the Trails

Editor’s Note: Good Morning. Today we’re hanging out with Equilibrium Lifestyle Management owner Sarah Seads as she gets us geared up for long Spring days out on the trails or at the beach.

After this crazy Winter, I know I’m totally excited to get back out there and spend some quality time working out and [...]

Sunday Morning Walk – Time to Tide Pool

The starfish are calling. I’m totally serious, they’re wondering where all of the humans are. They’ve finally come up for some air after a long, chilly Winter under water.
So, it must be time for us to dig out the wellies and head for the waves…or at least the low tide line.
This is the time of [...]

Parent Health – Managing Blasts From The Past

Many of my clients express confusion and concern about the new complexities of human relationships Facebook and other websites that have resulted from the advent of that make you easily accessible to the world, including people from your past.
I, personally, took myself off of Facebook after about two weeks precisely for this reason.
Clients often [...]

Green-e-ology: Hanging Laundry = Big Savings

Showing up at my house unannounced on a laundry day during Winter months has people wondering if they’ve entered some type of laundry house.
Clothes are hanging to dry ALL over.
Shirts, jeans, socks and underwear are in plain view.
[that’s right, even underwear]
I make good use of my wooden drying rack and the four dining table chairs.
When [...]

Growing Children with Song

Editor’s Note: This morning, Comox Valley Children’s Choir Director Carol Anne Parkinson has stopped by to talk about the wonderful ways song can help your children grow strong.
Music was a huge part of my childhood. It gave me the space to be that could be found no place else.
Enjoy!

From my very earliest memories, I [...]

Fostering A Community Without Hunger – LUSH

Food security is a hot topic these days and one enterprising local non-profit is putting the Valley on the map when it comes to sustainable practices.
The folks at Lush Valley Food Action Society are seriously committed to the health and well-being of us Valley folk by offering a whole load of fun and encouragement when [...]

Local Youth, Helen Austin Create “Island Home”

So, a while back the Shape The Future Comox Valley folks invited me to give a quick talk to the crew at their meeting of local residents focused on developing a sustainability plan for the Valley.
While I was there to talk to the adults, I was totally wowed by a crew of Huband Park Elementary [...]

Crafty Imagination – Cardboard Cameras

If there’s one thing our daughter could spot a mile away, it would be a camera lens. For the last 3.75 years, she’s had that thing in her face nearly non-stop without much complaint at all.
In fact, for most of that time, she barely noticed the thing constantly hanging around mommy’s neck. Unlike most kids [...]

Get Away – Planning for April Family Fun

It’s official. We’ve passed that critical point in every year when getting out of town is required by the necessity of maintaining good mental health during the dark days of Winter.
Spring has sprung – and that also means that the Comox Valley begins to spring to life as warmer days mean lots to do close [...]

Mom-P-Inc. – Boundaries vs. Balance

Editor’s Note: Karen McKinnon is dropping by today to offer up her insight into life as a mom in business for herself.
If anyone can lend a hand in working the kinks out, it would be Karen. With her busy house, growing business and warm sensibility, she’s mastering the art of learning how to say [...]

Book Review – Art Science & Messy Math

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a kid who wanted to move her life to one centrally scientific and seriously fun location – Science World.
Somewhere between the dinosaurs and Lego land, her brain engaged the science universe (or at least the serious fun universe) and now there’s no turning [...]

All Maternity Leave Is Not Created Equal

Sometimes I think people who stay in one place for long periods of time are the smartest people I know. There is wisdom to just being happy where you are.
I have been bouncing around the world over the past decade and although we are broke and exhausted, there were some advantages. You gain some serious [...]

Parent Wellness: Rejuventating Power – Girls Night

As a little girl, I can remember the delight of falling asleep to the chitter-chatter of four women, my mom among them, who met weekly under the guise of playing bridge.
Don’t get me wrong, these four women, known endearingly as the “Bridge Ladies,” do gather to play cards.
They even have an annual trophy ritual – [...]

Family Eats – Kitchen Tools 4 Family Cooking Fun

My kiddos each have a preference for certain tasks in the kitchen. Wearing their aprons and standing on their designated stools, they have mastered many duties and discovered their kitchen karma.
My youngest, E, loves to peel, cut and stir literally everything.
My oldest, K, is a precise measurer and is the self-professed best recipe finder. She [...]

Crafts for Boys – Marble Mech

Just call him the gadget man. If there is one thing Ken has always loved, it’s figuring something out. He’s not a guy who gets under the hood of a car or hides out in the garage building things. But, he digs figuring the science of things out – especially when it looks a little [...]

Product Review – Daisychain Maternity Support Belts

Good morning. I’m still feeling mighty sluggish and a bit dazed after a weekend across the (tiny) pond battling hordes of Spring Breakers at Science World while trying to cram in some relax time and catch up with pals.
Getting over to Vancouver is totally fantastic. But, I always feel like we never get the chance [...]

The Making of a Mom Entrepreneur – Voice

I had NO IDEA what I was doing when I first started Comox Valley Kids.
That’s not entirely true. I’d been writing professionally for about 17 years – a serious bonus. But, really, it wasn’t about the writing for me. The trick came with figuring out what “I” sounded like. It seems a little silly, since [...]

Get Away – The Brant Wildlife Festival

Good Morning! With Spring Break upon us it seems like the perfect time to scramble for something cool to take the company to or get the family together for.
Easier said than done.
I’ve said it probably way too much. But, Spring is one of the most amazing times of the year on Vancouver Island. [...]

Kids Health – The Pros of Probiotics

Nature provides us with a bundle of resources that help heal our bodies.  There are definitely a handful that I couldn’t operate my practice without, one of which is probiotics.
Probiotics, also known as good gut bacteria or acidophilus, are receiving more attention for their impact on health.  The literal translation is “for life” as it [...]

KidSports – Our Hockey Preschooler

How could I forget that day two Octobers ago when Ken and the tiny person hit the ice for the first time.
It was love at first sight – for both of them.
The trainer skates we’d picked up for our daughter seemed the perfect way to start her off easy. But, she’d have none of this [...]

Go Old Skool (and delicious) at DeeKayTee Ranch

Ah, how I live for Saturday mornings. It’s become a necessary ritual to indulge in some “me-time,” and my favorite way to cap off yet another busy week is to set out to explore what’s fun on the farm market scene in our beautiful little corner of the Earth.
My latest discovery is DeeKayTee Ranch, [...]

Home Learning – Life Cycles for Preschoolers

OK, so there are a couple realities to working on “learning” projects with a preschooler:
1. Attention span that generally amounts to nanoseconds
2. The constant reminder that 37-year-old mom obviously knows far less than 3.5-year-old child
3. Permanent mess syndrome
4. Sitting at the dining room table is the LAST thing on anyone’s mind when the sun is [...]

Mom Poll – Tips to Sneak In Food Kids Won’t Eat

It’s the ultimate parenting dilemma – how to get your kids to eat healthy foods.
There’s always the theory that if you never give things like candy and cookies, pizza and McDonalds to them that kids will never know what they are missing – until a friend of yours catches your kiddo in the corner [...]

Mom-P-Inc. – Wendy Johnstone of Solutions for Seniors Eldercare Planning

Motherhood, it changes you.
While there’s a whole list that involves sagging and wrinkled, exhausted and emotional that can be wrapped in there, for many women becoming a Mom takes life to a whole other level.
It brings out our genuine loves, forces them into places creatively and personally that reveal talents and ingenuity unrealized until that [...]

An Interview with BC Kids Book Author Scott Higgs

Good morning. Today we’re checking out the charming tales of Haley & Bix, two best friends who are sweet, caring and totally cool.
Our daughter and I picked up the first in the series: Haley & Bix, Best Friends No Matter What, a while back and totally loved this easy reader.
So, we jumped at the chance [...]

SPROUTS – Early Spring Kid Gardening Fun

Brrr, it’s chilly.
On those afternoons when the bright sun makes it tolerable, I stroll aimlessly around my garden with hopeful ideas of planting.
My daughter and I sample a bite from a patch of oregano as it pokes its head out of one of my veggie gardens.  In the front yard we marvel over little yellow [...]

Moms in Need Seek Affordable Fitness Trainer

As parents, we will do almost anything to ensure that our children are healthy and well cared for.
We do whatever it takes to get them to eat their veggies, give them creative/ play time, and make sure they get adequate sleep and exercise each day.
Our priority is to give them the best possible start, all [...]

Restaurant Review – Cumberland Village Bakery

When we discovered, much like the rest of us around here, that our daughter is wheat intolerant, I personally mourned the loss of the bakery.
Yes, it had been at least a couple of years before that when muffins, cookies and crusty bread went the way of the Dodo for me after I discovered that wheat [...]

Preschool Craft – Marble Painting

Editor’s Note: While we usually run our homeschooling column this first Tuesday of the month, we are trading Tuesdays in order to welcome our newest OBE partner – Let ‘Em Loose Play Land.
This fun family-friendly, energy releasing indoor play land in Campbell River has re-opened to the public full time and we are excited to [...]

Monday Morning Mom Poll – Toilet Paper

Seriously, I kid you not, today we are talking TP. If there is one thing that I struggle with EVERY time I put it in the grocery cart, it’s toilet paper.
Ummmmm, not going to go without it. Can’t think of a way to make me think I’m doing something eco for the universe by using [...]

Sunday Morning Walk – Pt. Holmes Beach

Editor’s Note: Parents, one of the lasting legacies we can leave for our kids is the way our communities are allowed to develop today. Preserving parkland, ensuring smart, green development, making use of land in a way that nurtures nature as well as inspires a thoughtful business community is crucial.
We as parents now have an [...]