Posts Tagged ‘Family’

Will you be packing a bag for your pet for this year’s family vacation? If so, the checklist for your perfect accommodations just added another box: is the hotel pet friendly?

While a hotel’s website may indicate who’s welcome, call and talk to someone directly before booking to know exactly how welcome your pet will be. Here are some questions you may want to ask when deciding if a hotel is right for every member of your family.

Photography: The McClouds

What types of animals are welcomed?
Some places may welcome only dogs, while others may roll out the welcome mat for far more members of the animal kingdom. Hotels may also have restrictions based on the size and age of an animal.

Will we be charged extra for our room?
You may be charged anything from a small fee to help cover cleaning costs to a refundable damage deposit to a nonrefundable deposit. TIP: If your pet is used to being allowed on the furniture at home, pack a sheet to cover the beds and chairs to keep the room a little cleaner – and less furry.

What rooms are available to pet-toting families?
You don’t want to be saddled with an older room with torn curtains and carpet peeling from the floor, or if you’re a non-smoker, a room that’s usually reserved for smokers. And think about asking for a room on the ground level. Much easier to get in and out for those early morning walks and late evening bathroom breaks.

Let me grab a catnap before seeing the sights (photography: Eugene0126jp).

What's the area around the hotel like?
While a selection of restaurants and a mini putt nearby are lovely, if you’ve brought along your dog, you’ll need somewhere to walk him. Is the hotel in the middle of a busy city street, or is it a little off the beaten path with a park and other green spaces just a few minutes away?

Does the hotel provide any pet amenities?
You can save baggage space if you don’t have to pack food and water bowls. But you may want to bring along some comforts from home. The transition to a new place – even a temporary one – may be easier (not to mention less stressful) on your pet if he has his own toys and blanket.

Can I leave my pet alone in the room?
This is a firm no at some places, even if your pet is crated, due to concerns over barking, scratching and other disruptions to fellow guests (and the worry of what may come of the room). At places where the answer is yes, be sure to leave your pet in his crate (for the safety of cleaners or other hotel staff who may enter). You may even want to hang the Do Not Disturb sign on the door.

Are there extra services available for pets?
At places where your pet must be supervised at all times, a pet-sitting service would allow the family to check out local attractions without one person always staying behind.

Is my pet permitted to roam the grounds?
Taking a dip in the pool is probably a no-no, but what about other common areas?

Do I need to bring my pet’s vet papers?
Some hotels may ask you to bring your pet’s paperwork and proof of shots, as well as his ID (collar, tag, etc.).

Do your family vacation plans include your pet?

In my last post, I wrote about birth order and how it defines who we are. It got me thinking about the little people I brought into this world and how I see them.

They're kinda like my cake.

My oldest – she is the cake batter. The beginning. She awakened a whole new part of my soul that I didn't even know existed. I love her best because she started this whole family thing and made me yearn for so much more. A wonderful introduction to this thing called parenthood.

My only son – he is the freshly baked cake. The so very necessary delicious centre. He is the continuation on this journey of ours. I love him best because he introduced me to all things "boy" and helped me see the world through a whole new lens.

The cake batter, the freshly baked cake and the icing.

My youngest – she is the icing on the cake, complete with cherries and a dollop of whipped cream. She is the sweet ending to our little group. The final addition. I love her best because she completes this little family of ours with a bit of fancy flair.

I couldn't satisfy my cake-loving sweet tooth if I didn't have them all. Something just wouldn't be right. Something would always be missing.

It just couldn't be.

I've been reading quite a bit on birth order lately.

I have learned that first-born children have stronger personalities than their siblings and are natural leaders. First-born children often take the place of their parents when the adults are not around, making them decision-makers. They are also known to be very family oriented and protective of their siblings. First-born kids tend to be unselfish and caring.

Last-born children are usually the smartest. They have seen the rights and the wrongs of their siblings and have learned from them. They also tend to be a little more mature for their age. Because parenting may be a little more lax and discipline reduced, last-born children are often confident and strong willed.

So far, so good. All pretty good traits and some very positive characteristics.

Now, the traits of middle children are a little underwhelming. Middle children are the peacekeepers by default. They are the mediators between their siblings are are sometimes associated as "people pleasers." Because they are in the middle, they do not receive as much attention as their siblings and can develop low self-esteem and lose confidence.

Ouch. That's a hard pill to swallow. Not only am I a middle child, I'm also the mother of one. And we're stuck with all of these negative personality traits simply because we happened to be born neither first nor last?

But, let's take a closer look, shall we...

I steer clear of arguments and bow down in the face of conflict. Growing up, I was always second-guessing myself and, frankly, I still do. To this very day I am unable to confidently express myself in a room full of people. So, even though I cringed as I read the traits of the middle child, I would have to agree with most of them.

As for my son...

Although he is definitely a "people pleaser," I believe there are always exceptions to the rule. Can I divert his path on this road? I certainly hope so. After all, being the only boy has got to count for something, right?

What about you? Are you the first born, the baby or somewhere in between? And do you agree with the personality traits linked to your birth order?

Sometimes inspiration is right under our noses and we don't even know it. We could be living with it every day and get so accustomed to it that we don't appreciate how much more richer our lives are because of it. And then I started to think, is it an it?

If I'm honest, I'd have to say it's the people in my life like my son Jon (he's the one in the green shirt) who inspire me! Even more than chocolate chip cookies, rainbows and baby anythings. Photo: Caitlin Barr

It's not my MacBook (although I do love it); it's not my smartphone (but it is pretty clever); it's not my big-screen TV (haha that's seriously and definitely not it, I don't even have one)!

I'd have to say it's my son, Jon. When he was small (he's 22 now), I wanted to inspire him. And so I did all kinds of things. I read to him a lot, even if I did get tired of Seuss’s A Fish out of Water every night and wanted to snag that Otto fish on a hook myself and throw him onto a hot grill.

I took Jon to the museum, to movies, to the ballet, to Disney World. I even went camping (once), even though I'm not really a sleep-in-a-tent kind of girl.

And then, just like Otto, he grew and grew and grew. And now, he is a young adult. Who does things like trip over a bag of garbage at the front door instead of taking it out, who likes to ask me if I have an extra subway token when I'm already late for work, who leaves articles of clothing around the house - and dishes and coffee cups, too.

But he’s also the kind of person that’s not afraid to be different (see the green shirt in the photo). Who gets excited over political science courses, the kind of person that bought me an iPod one Christmas so I could listen to music at the gym after I started exercising after years of doing nothing. He's the kind of person that supported his friend Taylor who was injured in an accident when they were at high school, and he’s the guy that stepped in to tell a few strangers at a bar to calm down when they started arguing – and was injured himself when one of their friends decided to break a beer bottle over his head.

When his dad said, "I told you never to get involved,” he said he already knew. “It was just instinct, I wanted stop it before anyone got hurt.”

But, still, all this pales in comparison to how he has handled a chronic disease. Diagnosed at 11 years old with Diabetes Type 1, he never stopped to feel sorry for himself, and I've heard him say there are many worse things he could have.

Watching a kid check his blood sugar four to six times a day and inject insulin sometimes just as many was hard as a parent because I couldn't protect him from that. He manages the diabetes 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and he did whatever he had to to continue doing everything he loved – from playing hockey to going out for pizza to going on trips.

Diabetes is a horrible disease that can do tremendous damage to a body over time if it isn't managed properly. But he feels that there will be a cure in his lifetime – and I believe it, too, with some amazing organizations out there fighting hard to make that happen – from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to Diabetes Hope Foundation. And a new one just launching, the Canadian Stem Cell Foundation.

My point is this: It's hard to live with a chronic disease, but it is also tremendously inspiring to watch someone accept something he cannot change and not become a victim. And inspiring to be inspired from someone I used to inspire.

How about you? Does anyone in your life inspire you?

Wills.

"La la la...I can't hear you...la la la"

"I don't have much, so there's nothing to fight over"

"I'll only need a will when I'm older"

No more excuses.  You need a legal will now.

You might not like to talk about death, tragic scenarios and heart-breaking possibilities but in order to protect yourself and your family, please make sure your wishes are fulfilled, with no error for misinterpretation and future challenges.

Step 1: Meet with a trusted legal advisor  who will make the process easier. Save time and come prepared with questions, documentations and options.

Do your homework

Image via Wikipedia

On your list, should be (if applicable):

• Naming a guardian for your children. First choice?  Backup?
• Choosing an executor. Will it be your spouse? Appoint someone else as co-executor?
• Organ donation and funeral service.  Any specific type of memorial or service you wish for yourself? Location? Trust me, this makes it easier for your children to know that they are doing as you wish.
• Keep a list of the names and contact information of your professional advisors and bank information such as; physician, lawyer, accountant, financial account numbers and institutions.
• Think about how would you want to divide your estate, with different possible scenerios. If only your spouse survives, if only your children survive or if no immediate family survives.

There is so much to think about. If you need some help to get started, use the Will Planning Guide offered by RBC . It's a good step. I'm filling my forms in now.

Take good care.

O.

Do you already have a will?

This week's blog is a guest post from Wendy Graves, our senior Life editor.  – Teresa

Who has time to sit down for a family dinner anymore?

Between two busy working parents and kids running off to hockey practice one night then piano lessons the next, how often is the entire family even home at the same time?

So eating a meal together? At the same table? Even a couple times a week? That’s crazy talk.

Family dinners aren't as common as they use to be (image by Nordiska museet via Flickr).

Researchers at the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University in New York City have studied the importance of family mealtime extensively. Here are just 2 of their rather sobering findings:
• Teens who have fewer than 3 family dinners per week are nearly twice as likely to report receiving mostly C’s or lower grades compared to those who have 5 to 7 meals a week.
• Teens who have fewer than 3 family dinners are twice as likely to have used tobacco, nearly twice as likely to have used alcohol, and one and a half times likelier to have used marijuana.

And at least two other studies have shown the nutritional benefits of eating together:
• Families eat more healthfully, regularly getting higher intakes of calcium, fibre, iron and vitamins B6, B12, C and E (Archives of Family Medicine).
• Children eat more fruits and veggies and less unhealthy snack foods (Journal of American Dietetic Association).

One study has shown that kids who have dinner regularly with their family eat more fruit (image by Rick McCharles via Flickr).

And even without scientific studies we know that family mealtime will:
• Give kids the chance to talk with their parents and siblings, which will not only expand their vocab beyond what they’re learning in school but also teach them about the give-and-take of conversation.
• Give parents the chance to keep up to date on their kids’ activities, who they’re hanging out with and whether their moods or behaviours are swinging like a pendulum.

Here are 5 ways you can make family mealtime easier for you and yours:
1. Turn Sunday into Family Cooking Day. Double a favourite recipe or two and set yourself up for quick, hot meals later in the week. Get the kids involved as well – they’re more likely to eat something they had a hand in preparing (pizza, anyone?). Here are a few of our favourite family meals.

2. No time to spend the whole day in the kitchen? Why not take advantage of Supperworks, a meal-preparation service that allows you to put a healthy and delicious meal on your family’s plate. In two hours you can prepare up to a dozen freezable entrées, all with fresh and nutritious ingredients. The Bring Your Child Sessions allow you to make it a family affair. Best of all? Somebody else does the dishes. While Supperworks locations are currently only in Ontario, they can deliver anywhere in Canada.

3. On nights when your son or daughter has hockey practice, pack up the meal (it can be as simple as sandwiches, veggie sticks and fruit or yogurt) and have a picnic at the arena.

4. Teach your teens a handful of easy recipes – something simple that doesn’t even require the stove – that they can make when they get home from school so everyone can sit down together once you're home from work. Or have the kids assemble the ingredients of an easy one-pot dish (our online food editor, Colleen Tully, suggests this delicious Roasted Vegetable Pasta Bake) that you can pop in the oven when you step in the door. (It's never too early to encourage your kids to be active in the kitchen.)

5. Pick up a serving or two of the prepared but nutritious food, such as a roast chicken, at the grocery store. Serve some mixed veggies as a healthy side.

Do you have a secret to making mealtimes easier for your family?

Here's a great guest post by Lisa Fielding, the copy chief at Canadian Living and a new mom to nine-month-old Archie. After filling out Archie's baby book, Lisa wanted to find out more about her family roots. Here's a little of what she learned. – Wendy

When I started to research my family history, I was skeptical that it would be very interesting – all I thought I’d find was a bunch of names, dates and places. It became clear, though, once I started digging, that it wasn’t just about compiling a list of basic facts: it was about uncovering the day-to-day details of our ancestors’ lives, piecing them back together to make a wonderful story.

I connected with a distant cousin, Gail, through Facebook, and she sent me a few old photos of my great grandpa. Long before I was born, he had lost his hands working on hydro lines in Ontario – and one of the photos Gail sent showed him before the accident. If I had never asked my family to dig into their photo albums, I might never have seen it. It was wonderful to think of him as a young man, working to build the province into what it is today.

There are lots of little details I discovered once I started to really read some of the documents I found online. WWI draft papers showed that many of my ancestors were farmers by trade (which I knew), and that many were Methodist (which I didn’t).

Census records not only noted who lived in each house and their ages, but who their neighbours were as well. When someone got married, the certificate had the witnesses’ signatures, sometimes another couple they were friends with; birth records showed the father’s occupation (machinist, telegrapher), though not the mother’s. So I got a sense of not only the major life events, but also what my relatives did for fun, who they hung out with, what their daily lives were like. It made them more real.

Researching your family history can be a massive undertaking if you really want it to be – or it can just be fun to poke around on the Internet and see what’s out there. I’d like to keep working on it and one day compile a huge scrapbook for my son and future generations, so that they might know not only our names, dates and places, but what we did for fun on a Friday night as well.

Here are some links to get you started on your search.
• Ancestry.ca – their resources include the Canadian census (as well as English, Welsh and Scottish ones), passenger lists, and birth, marriage and death records
• Globalgenealogy.com – they sell various genealogy resources, including books and e-books, as well as family tree charts and magnifiers
• Library and Archives Canada – their resources include immigration and land records, as well as birth, marriage and death records

Have you checked out your family’s roots online? Did you discover something new about your family?

Today marks the start of one of my favourite weeks of the year: the Rogers Cup tennis tournament. For the first time, the men’s event (this year in Montreal) and the women’s event (in Toronto) will be played simultaneously.

I am a huge tennis fan (well, a huge sports freak fan in general). My family didn’t get a lot of TV stations when I was younger; we were at the mercy of the reception from the large TV aerial outside my bedroom window. But every summer I could always count on watching Canada’s pre-eminent tennis tournament.

Aleksandra Wozniak, from Blainville, Que., will be playing in Toronto this week. (Image via Wikipedia)

I can’t say for sure if I started playing tennis because I liked watching it, or I started watching tennis because I was playing it. Either way I still have fond memories of hitting the ball against the fence next to the house and against the wall at one of the local public schools while my brother played his weeknight soccer game.

Learning to play against a fence and wall served me well once I started playing tennis competitively in high school. My playing “partners” never missed, which helped turn me into a human backboard of sorts. Being barely five feet tall, I certainly wasn’t going to overpower you, but I would run down and return anything you sent my way!

I have even fonder memories of my dad and I grabbing our racquets, driving to the local community college and playing a set or two a few times a week.  We were a little erratic when we first started playing, just as likely to hit the ball over the net as we were to hit it over the fence behind the court. (Being an active baseball player as well, I would give those shots my best home run call.)

Tennis, anyone? (Image via Wikipedia)

As my dad and I spent more time playing together, we not only got better (my dad lobbing the ball over my head as I stood at the net now being intentional, not an oops) but also more competitive (I loved getting him running from side to side, although I’d usually start laughing and end up losing the point).

A lot of our father-daughter bonding moments revolved around sports: playing catch outside the house; Dad coaching my softball team; and him and another dad leading a chant of “We Will Rock You” at one of my volleyball games.

Was there something that always brought you and a parent together? Do you have a favourite summer memory of time spent with your mom or dad, or  with your own kids today?

Three summers ago, after yet another weekend of “what do you want to do today?” “I don’t know. What do you want to do?” my boyfriend and I drew up a to-do list. We named it “Our Summer ’o Fun.” We wrote down more than a dozen activities and hung the list on my fridge. By the first week of September, everything had been crossed off.

The tradition lives on. Here are just five things on this year’s version of "Our Summer 'o Fun."

• Pillage a pick-your-own. I crossed this one off the list this past weekend by picking about five pounds of strawberries. I think a return trip is in order, but this time for some fresh veggies. The potatoes just became available and I’ve been meaning to try my hand at making potato soup.

Delicious summer strawberries (Image via Wikipedia)

• Picnic in the park. I have a portable griller that is begging to be used. We’ll marinate some chicken souvlaki, cut up some fresh veggies and throw a couple of ice-cold bottles of water into our cooler and head off to the Toronto Islands. Now all we need is a shady space to lay our blanket.

• Hit the tennis courts. I used to play quite regularly; now, it’s more of an annual event. This is an early morning activity for sure. Any later in the day and the heat will likely cause me to curl up in a ball beside the net and settle in for a nap.

• Enjoy a ball game. No, I don’t mean the Blue Jays (although that’s fun, too). I mean the Toronto Maple Leafs, our local entry in the Intercounty Baseball League. As a child, I loved to bike down to the local diamond and take in a game. Now, I can ride the subway a few stops and check out these semi-professionals from across Ontario.

• Take a day trip. A yearly favourite is Niagara-on-the-Lake. A stop at Kurtz Orchards, where you can sample pretty much any of their jams, jellies, sauces and butters, is a must. This year I plan on visiting St. Jacobs for the first time. The village is known for its beautiful hand-crafted furniture and I’ve been looking for a end table, so who knows?

My list is far from complete so help me out. What should I add to it? What are your favourite ways to have fun in the sun?

You know what.

I'm tired of hearing everyone say how busy they are (myself included).

Everyone is so insanely busy that friendships are taking a backseat. It shouldn’t be this way. Our lives should never be so full that we can’t make time for family and friends.

Busy shmizy.

I want to bring the fun into busy and the active into friendships and I think I may very well have figured out a way to do it.

Ready for it...

SOFTBALL. (or soccer or volleybal or dodgeball or bowling etc. etc. etc.)

No joke.

We put a softball team together.

We called up a few family members, old friends, new friends

And voila...

Team ADRENALINE was born.

Over the past few weeks, we've been getting together to practice our mad skills (or lack thereof), which easily leads to laughs and good times. Our kids come along and play at the adjoining playground or (if they prefer) become our little "ball boys and girls" and our fans.

Go ahead. Give it a shot. I'm sure once you start, you'll be wondering what took you so long.

We're making time for family and friends and we're having fun.

Take that...BUSY.