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OUR LATEST POSTS
The Feed
Honest writing about the messy, beautiful, complicated stuff.
FEATURED POST
Why We’re Fighting for the Same Drugs Our Neighbors Have in Canada
My daughter is 15 years old. She keeps rescue medication in her backpack. One dose. Donated to us, because without that generosity, she would have none at all. If she uses it, there is no more.
YOUR STORIES
Unedited Voices
Real stories from real people. Named or anonymous, every voice deserves to be heard.
Men's Mental Health: Redefining Strength
June is Men's Mental Health Month, a time to talk about something many men struggle with but few feel comfortable discussing openly. For much of my life, I believed that strength meant handling things on my own. As a soldier, I was trained to push through difficult situations, adapt to challenges, and keep moving forward no matter what. During my military career, I completed two overseas deployments, one to Afghanistan and another to Iraq. Those deployments meant leaving behi
Unedited Voices
5 min read
There Are Single Parents, and Then There Are Lone Ones.
It's 2:00am and the thoughts just keep swirling & swirling... water, utilities, mortgage, sport fees. Literally impossible to manage everything solo. But that's exactly the expectation for a single parent. There are single parents, and then there are lone ones. I fall into the latter category. It was never in my dream book, or even in my childhood journals, to manage life with kids completely on my own. I wanted partnership, friendship, a love that drops it all to just simply
Unedited Voices
1 min read
When I Finally Let Go, That's Exactly Where I Ended Up.
I walked down to the Police Station that day… slowly, my head hung the lowest of the low. Feelings of extreme sadness, anger and shame flooded my mind. I was just building my career in Social Work. My professional reputation mattered. But everything was seemingly crumbling behind closed doors. How can this even be my life, I thought. Things like this just don't happen to me. I had been separated from my ex at that time for a substantial amount of time. I had primary care of t
Unedited Voices
2 min read
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FROM US TO YOU
Currently
What we're into, avoiding, overthinking, and pretending not to notice.
Currently in the great move vs. garage debate
Do we find something new or just build the garage and accept this is our house now. Every week the answer changes. This week it's the garage. Ask me again Saturday.
Stacy & Amanda
Currently watching The Cleaning Lady
Started it because I needed something easy. Now I'm emotionally invested in people I probably shouldn't be. No regrets.
Stacy
Currently still thinking about Paradise
Finished it. Still in it a little. Highly recommend.
Stacy & Amanda
Currently reading two books at once
My Friends by Hisham Matar and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. One makes me feel like a serious person. The other has me reading at midnight with my brightness all the way down. Both excellent.
Stacy
Currently overthinking every decision I made in 2019
It's 2am and my brain has decided now is the time to revisit every conversation I've ever had. Doing great. Totally fine.
Stacy & Amanda
Currently pretending laundry doesn't exist
The laundry will get done. When I run out of the good underwear.
Stacy & Amanda
BROWSE EVERYTHING
ALL POSTS
There Are Single Parents, and Then There Are Lone Ones.
It's 2:00am and the thoughts just keep swirling & swirling... water, utilities, mortgage, sport fees. Literally impossible to manage everything solo. But that's exactly the expectation for a single parent. There are single parents, and then there are lone ones. I fall into the latter category. It was never in my dream book, or even in my childhood journals, to manage life with kids completely on my own. I wanted partnership, friendship, a love that drops it all to just simply
Unedited Voices
Jul 81 min read
Just Be You
Have you ever had verbal diarrhea where you realized you just told somebody your entire life story… and all they did was ask you for the time? If not, you might not relate to this. But me? I’m an over-sharer. Always have been. Probably always will be. Open book, no hidden pages. You ask a simple question, and suddenly you’re getting chapters, backstory, and a full breakdown of how I got there. And if you ask my opinion? Well… buckle up. Because I’m not holding back, I can’t.
Stacy
Jun 302 min read
When I Finally Let Go, That's Exactly Where I Ended Up.
I walked down to the Police Station that day… slowly, my head hung the lowest of the low. Feelings of extreme sadness, anger and shame flooded my mind. I was just building my career in Social Work. My professional reputation mattered. But everything was seemingly crumbling behind closed doors. How can this even be my life, I thought. Things like this just don't happen to me. I had been separated from my ex at that time for a substantial amount of time. I had primary care of t
Unedited Voices
May 272 min read
Is It Ever Enough?
We got back from Toronto about a month ago, and I'm still thinking about it. Blue Jays games, the CN Tower, the zoo, the aquarium, Casa Loma. Five days of doing all the things. And somewhere in the middle of it, I caught myself wondering if we were actually taking any of it in. The kind of trip you plan for months and talk about for years. Good food, big city energy, the kids seeing things they'd never seen before. It cost a lot and it was worth it and I don't regret a single
Stacy & Amanda
May 204 min read
Well… That Happened
We were in Spain. One of those picture-perfect trips. Me, my husband, my two sisters, and their husbands. Sunshine, beautiful streets, wine, laughter. The kind of vacation you dream about. The girls decided to go tour a palace while the guys went off to find a motorcycle shop. Fair trade. Now, if you’ve been to Europe, or are lucky enough to live there, you know washrooms are not always… simple. You either pay, or you go on a hunt for the free ones. And being the thrifty Cana
Stacy
May 122 min read
When You Realize You Don’t Want the Dream Everyone’s Selling
I recently attended a live event in the online coaching world. The kind of thing that’s supposed to light you up, expand your mindset, and connect you with “your people.” But it didn’t feel like that for me… like at all. Instead, I walked away with this heavy, unsettled feeling in my chest. Something felt off. On paper, it was everything I should’ve loved. The lights, the energy, the big names, the “we’re all in this together” vibe. Everyone there looked successful, confident
Stacy & Amanda
May 63 min read
Christmas in Room 214
By Donna Simard Christina watched snowflakes drift softly from the sky, turning the world outside the hospital window into a quiet winter postcard. Normally, snowfall during the Christmas season filled her with joy, but this year, joy felt far away. Instead, she felt fear, uncertainty, and the hollow ache of not knowing what came next. She turned toward her eight-year-old daughter, Bella, lying in the hospital bed with IV lines and monitors gently beeping beside her. Bella wa
Donna Simard
Dec 23, 20254 min read
What Funerals Teach Us About Life
We went to a funeral recently. You know the kind where you walk through the church doors and see faces you haven’t seen in years. Family members you only get to hug when someone dies. The ones you grew up with but now only meet again in moments of loss. There’s something strange and sacred about that. About standing shoulder to shoulder with people who once filled your childhood, brought together again by grief. We grew up where funerals were a familiar part of life. From as
Stacy & Amanda
Dec 3, 20254 min read
More Than a Moment of Silence
Every year on November 11th, we stop for two minutes of silence. The world seems to still itself as voices fade, movement slows, and the sound of bagpipes carries through the air. It’s a beautiful thing, that shared moment of gratitude. But this year, when we stop and bow our heads, we’ll be thinking of someone close to home, our brother-in-law Rick, who served for 26 years in the military. Two tours overseas. Countless days and nights away from his family. Training, courses,
Stacy & Amanda
Nov 11, 20254 min read
Maybe This Year Everyone Gets a Microwave
My husband left early one morning this week, and I slept in. Which meant one thing: my trusty coffee pot warmer turned off, and I was left with cold coffee. In true mom fashion, I was trying not to wake the entire household by microwaving it, so I sat there content, sipping my cold coffee versus the alternative of waking everyone up. Kris texted me a quick “How’s your morning?” and I shot back, “Great… thanks for the cold coffee.” His reply? “Why the heck do you think I bough
Stacy
Sep 6, 20253 min read
Dear Teenage Me
The other day, on a long hike with one of my dear sister-in-laws, we found ourselves deep in conversation. Between the crunch of gravel under our shoes and the quiet stretches of trail… who are we kidding, we ran a full marathon with our mouths. Bears didn’t dare approach us with the loud voices and laughter echoing through the trees. We chatted about everything under the sun and, of course, The Summer I Turned Pretty. That spiraled us right into a bigger question: What would
Stacy
Aug 31, 20253 min read
The Kind of Joy That Stays With You
There are chapters in life that mark you. For me, Pre-K was one of them. I spent years in that little world, surrounded by tiny humans with loud voices and even louder imaginations. Some days it was messy and wild. Some days it was magic. Most days, it was both. And even now, I miss it. I miss the random hand-raising that had nothing to do with the lesson. Me: “What do bears eat?” Kid: “My grandma has a cat!” I miss the curiosity that came in the form of five different questi
Stacy
Aug 6, 20254 min read
Homeschooling Myths Debunked: What I Thought vs. The Reality
I used to think homeschoolers were weird. There, I said it. If someone had told me years ago that I'd be homeschooling my kids, I would have laughed in their face. Me? The mom who counted down to the first day of school each fall? The one who had zero teaching experience in a school system and, while patient, knew that working with my own kids on schoolwork was a completely different ballgame? No way. But here I am, several years into our homeschool journey, and I've never be
Stacy & Amanda
Mar 31, 20256 min read
Grieving Gramma: The Unexpected Weight of Saying Goodbye
You’d think I’d be prepared. Gramma was 90. Ninety. She had lived a full, beautiful life, raised generations of stubborn, independent, loving people, and had been asking God to take her home for years. She was ready. She had told us, over and over, that she had made peace with leaving. And yet, when she finally passed, the grief hit in ways I didn’t expect. I miss her in the big, obvious ways….holidays, birthdays, the family gatherings where her presence was as familiar as th
Stacy
Mar 17, 20253 min read
The Great Pandemic Haircut Disaster of 2020
Remember during the pandemic when we all became "professional" hairstylists? And by professional, I mean absolutely clueless people wielding sharp objects near our loved ones' heads with way too much confidence. Yeah, let me tell you about the time I accidentally gave my husband the world's most unexpected buzz cut. So there we were, deep in lockdown, when my husband decided he wanted a mohawk. You know the type - business on the sides, party in the middle. "Sure, honey!" I s
Stacy & Amanda
Mar 10, 20254 min read
"It Could Always Be Worse", The Phrase That Haunts Me
This phrase lurks in the shadows, waiting to pounce the moment you start feeling even slightly sorry for yourself. It could always be worse. And sure, technically, that’s true. Things could always be worse. But does that mean what I’m going through right now doesn’t suck? That my struggle isn’t real? That I should be grateful my situation isn’t at peak disaster level? At the height of my mysterious, undiagnosed medical nightmare, walking around with lips quadrupled in size, m
Stacy
Mar 4, 20253 min read
The Last Lesson of 2024: What Paint Night Taught Me
You know how we're all trying to create those special family traditions? The ones our kids will look back on and say, "Remember when we used to...?" Maybe it's cookie decorating, or matching Christmas pajamas, or in our case - attempting a family paint night. Because who doesn't want to be that Pinterest-worthy family who creates beautiful art together while making precious memories? (Pinterest moms are either lying or have secretly replaced their children with robots. And ou
Stacy & Amanda
Dec 30, 20244 min read
Stop Apologizing, Stop Judging, Start Living: A Sassy Guide to Letting Go and Letting Yourself Shine
You know those moments when you’re apologizing for everything? Like you’re late to a party, and before you even take off your coat, you’re already halfway through an over-the-top explanation about how the roads were bad because it’s the middle of a Canadian winter, your dog wouldn’t pee, and your kid had a meltdown over mismatched socks? Or maybe it’s spilling tea on your shirt and apologizing to… what, your shirt? The floor? The tea itself? Why do we do this? Why are we, as
Stacy & Amanda
Dec 16, 20245 min read
The Yearly List: A Realistic Spin on "Bucket Lists"
Amanda nailed it in her last blog: life is a rhythm of highs and lows, chaos and calm. Some days, you’re crushing it, and others, you’re just trying to keep everyone fed and semi-clean. But in that rhythm, there’s beauty. It’s not about having it all figured out; it’s about leaning into the moments as they come, knowing the highs wouldn’t feel so sweet without the lows. Becoming a mother was one of the most beautiful and life-changing experiences of my life, but after a while
Stacy
Dec 12, 20246 min read
Why the Dust Can Wait
I'm standing at the sink, drying dishes, stacking them in neat piles I know will last approximately 2.5 seconds before someone decides to make a "quick snack" that somehow requires every clean dish in the house. My eyes drift to the dust on the light fixtures of my high ceiling. Cleaning it feels like an impossible task. I mean, I could tackle it now, but honestly? I don't have it in me. Besides, who's even looking up there? The kids? Yeah, no... they’re too busy leaving stic
Stacy & Amanda
Dec 11, 20244 min read
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