Project Holt

NEW BLOG POST! Hey Santa! Start Playing By The Rules

It’s that time of year again. The time where everyone is so busy shopping for Christmas gifts that no one actually has any time to spend with loved ones. Or at least that’s how it feels. Stores are packed, bank accounts are empty and social engagements are hard to plan.

I don’t mean to sound bitter. I’m not. I just think the holidays are meant to be shared with friends and family, not spent at…

NEW BLOG POST: No money, No Problems

Value Village blankets for the win.

Once upon a time I used to make my own money. I brought home a decent pay cheque, helped pay our collective bills and then had a glorious luxury called spending cash. Then I went on maternity leave and suddenly the dollars coming in were the same as the dollars going out. I often lamented about how, if we had given birth to our kids one at a time, the…

NEW BLOG POST: Lessons from Vegas

Sin City in all it’s noisy glory.

Every year my husband takes a trip to see the Blue Jays play with a buddy of his (who, ironically, also just became a twin Dad). And because everything in our household must be even and fair, I also took a trip this year. I really didn’t have anywhere I was stoked to go but I knew if I didn’t book something I wouldn’t go anywhere. So I spontaneously booked a solo…

To My Kids On Your Second Birthday

I want you to know how lucky you are. I want you to know it deep down in your soul and feel it in the whole of your heart. I want you to always know it and forever feel it.

Put enough icing on anything and it tastes good.

You guys turned two today. Not a milestone birthday by any means, except maybe for me and your dad. You see, we never expected to meet you. We never thought you’d be here. But…

I’m want to be just like you, only I don’t

Aren’t you supposed to know who you are by the time you hit your 40’s? Isn’t peer pressure supposed to be a thing of the past by now? Shouldn’t confidence, self-assurance and a who-gives-a-fuck-what-anyone-thinks attitude be the best part of middle-age? If so, I’m doing something wrong. And I only have a few short months to turn this bus around. Visualizing the future I became a mom two almost…

Tackling the Terrible Twos Lying Down

My kids are almost two and those stereotypes about two-year olds are starting to rear their ugly heads. Specifically in my little man. My lady baby is pretty chill. She likes to cuddle and suck her thumb and generally sit quietly. Her time will come in about eleven years. It’s a hard knock life. This morning my little man had an epic breakdown. He woke up pissy. They both did but I suspect that…

From Me to Mom and Back Again

Nothing like a prairie sky. We just got back from a two week family vacation in southern Saskatchewan visiting doting grandparents, loving aunts, silly uncles and curious cousins. We also got our rock on at the 12th annual Gateway Festival in my husband’s home town and once again, the organizers put on an amazing show under the beautiful prairie sky. I was going to write all about how lucky my…

NEW BLOG POST: To Grandma's House We Go

I haven’t written in awhile, mainly because my mother-in-law was visiting for a few weeks but also because I’ve been binge-watching the latest season of Homeland on Netflix. If there’s any hope of making this fucked up world we live in better, Mandy Patinkin is it. One day he and I will sit down in a small cafe, sipping coffee, and discussing the human condition. It’s a bucket-list thing. One…

NEW POST! How to Make Supper With Toddlers Enjoyable

I actually don’t know how to achieve this. I’m just desperately hoping some magical person will leave a comment below that will change my life forever. But in case that doesn’t happen, let’s think this through. What are the problem that arise when trying to get toddlers to eat something that isn’t Goldfish Crackers or whatever I’m eating at the moment? And why is suppertime, of all meals, an epic…

NEW BLOG POST! Post-Partum Friendships

This is a difficult post for me to write; partly because of the truth behind it and partly because of the sadness that truth sometimes brings. Call me lame but these two are my best friends. A close friend and I were talking the other day about our post-partum friendships and how all of them have changed. Some for the better, like hers and mine, and some for the worse. She and I rarely see each…

Up Next: Lunch and a Little Self-doubt

Well, we’ve recovered from barfageddon. Our house smells like disinfectant, all the laundry has been sanitized, I’m wearing proper pants and our sleep schedules have returned to “normal“. I feel like I can breath again for the first time in weeks. My husband is even home to help with the kids, if only for the night. Having gone through a very difficult few weeks, it got me thinking about our…

New Blog Post: Barfageddon

It’s Wednesday. It’s only Wednesday. But it feels like a year from Wednesday because it’s barfageddon in our house. A full-on barf factory, complete with child labour. My husband is working out-of-town all week and the twins (yes, “the twins” – I will continue to call them that until they’re old enough to tell me otherwise) have been puking since Sunday. And here I am, the only adult in the…

NEW BLOG POST! The Kindness of Seniors

They see me rollin’, they hatin’ I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but I have twins. Tiny, helpless, cart-me-around-all-day-because-you’re-my-lackey, twins. Part of my job involves hauling around a big-ass double stroller. As opposed to a wider side-by-side, we opted for a stadium-style stroller which essentially means one kid can’t see anything and one kid has front-row seats. It also means…

Thirteen Ways You’re Nailing This Parent-Thing

I am so sick of coming across Internet articles titled “How to be a better mom” or “Seven things you’re doing wrong as a parent“, although not enough to stop using Pinterest apparently. Every parent I know beats themselves up on the daily about one thing or another. Why can’t my kid locate his nose when asked? Did I ruin his chances of getting into college by letting him watch eight episodes of…

Cry-baby (me, not my kids)

Have you ever been watching a TV show (or Netflix show or whatever show you’ve illegally downloaded) and found yourself crying without realizing? Me either. Except that I have. Like, a lot. It’s such an unusual phenomenon to be watching a program I have happily invited into my life only to realize there are suddenly tears streaming down my just-smiling face and I don’t know why. He loves her but…

Hold up, we can’t both go this direction. As a mom of twins I’m often asked how I do it. I’m assuming it means manage two kids, who have just learned how to run but still don’t know how to listen on my own. I always have to smirk and say I don’t really have a choice. Because it’s true. If I don’t do it, Child Protective Services will do it for me. So, when a friend of mine dropped by the other…