October 2014 - Page 2 of 2 - Forever In Mom Genes

All About That Stretch—Parenting & Paper Towels

Oct 15 2014

I won’t skimp on paper plates, toilet paper or paper towels. Clearly I’m rather particular about my paper products. We all have our things. Our new favourite paper product? Viva Vantage—a new brand of premium paper towel being introduced to Canada. They’re all about the stretch, ‘bout that stretch… which means, no trouble. They also provide some pretty great parenting perks. Seriously. Watch this! P.S. Paper Towels Curls are probably the easiest and cutest hair style ever! Avery rocks these Shirley Temple curls. #cuteness 🙂 Try them for yourself! Visit vivatowels.ca to get a coupon. This post was brought to you by Viva® Vantage however the images and opinions are my own. For more information please visit www.vivatowels.ca.

Oct 14 2014

When this first photo was taken my daughter was three years old and just started having status epilepticus seizures and I was STRESSED out. And skinny. I felt sick to my stomach a lot of the time—great for my jeans, but not much good for anything else. Five years later, we’ve settled into our lives. There are still stressful moments, but as you can clearly see by my shapely rump, I’m not letting it get to me. “A fourth slice of pizza? Why yes, I think I will.” This post isn’t a commentary on weight gain or the fact that my hair hasn’t changed much in half a decade. No, it’s more about… ~ leaning on friends and family ~ understanding it’s easier to focus on the negative than to find the positive, but that the latter is so much better ~ choosing to laugh, because sometimes it really is a choice ~ being gentle with yourself (I’m still working on that) ~ realizing we can’t control everything (working on that one too!) ~ spending meaningful time with family because man, kids grow up fast don’t they?? ~ learning that stress can be managed with a little work and[…]

Oct 08 2014

I am beautiful. At least this is the message I try to model for my daughter. However, when my head is dotted with dry broken hairs, spiking out from my crown, I feel more like a cactus than a beautiful woman. I envy my daughter’s downy mane and I can’t help but stroke it until she tells me to stop hair-assing her. What? You didn’t think this post wouldn’t include a few stray hair puns, did you? Wait! Before you try to escape via some excuse about having to go wash your hair, read on… I have hair tips for you. No really. Perhaps you’ll even call me your hair-o? Okay, okay…I’ll use the puns sp-hairingly. The other day my son said, “Mum, you have a lot of colours of hair. There’s black hair under your yellow hair and all kinds of white hairs mixed in.” I am beautiful, I am beautiful, I am beautiful. I must keep repeating this mantra despite my children’s vulgar honesty. I visited the Beauty Supply Outlet last week in search of a cactus-head serum of some kind. My daughter and my mom came along —just us blondes. Well, one natural blonde. Two[…]

Oct 07 2014

I’ve been actively avoiding parallel parking since my driver’s test in 1986 when I grazed* the curb during the parking component. I’ve had PTSD—Parking-Trauma Stress Disorder—ever since. I’ll drive around the block seven times in an attempt to find a spot wide enough for me to pull straight in. Parallel parking is for Europeans in minis, not suburban moms in mini-vans. *grazed = slammed into Source On the rare occasion when I’ve HAD to parallel park my stress level has been unparalleled. Last year I drove my friend Sarah to an event downtown. I was fine to get us there. I’m reasonably okay at moving my vehicle forwards and backwards. It’s sideways—specifically sideways into a parking spot—that makes me sweat. Upon finding the perfect spot right in front of our event, Sarah encouraged me to parallel park into the tiny spot….on a one way street, with tons of cars crammed with impatient drivers, judging me. I made three attempts with the final effort landing us up on the curb. And not just a little bit. I was ON THE SIDEWALK blocking pedestrians. Sarah looked at me with shock and pity. Then she said rather sternly, “Get out.” She banished me[…]

Archive - October 2014

All About That Stretch—Parenting & Paper Towels

Oh How We’ve Grown

A Family Hairstory

Parallel Parking Paranoia Isn’t Pretty