A mother’s day

For Mother’s Day my requests are simple. Not breakfast in bed nor flowers nor jewelry. Just a day when things run not even smoothly but in a fashion that doesn’t resemble some theatrical farce. A day when I don’t wake up (as this morning) to a 3-year-old by my bedside who’s soaking wet with pee. When I don’t jump up and screech [...]

Zen and the art of home maintenance

If Elizabeth Gilbert was a man and instead of loving to eat she loved to work, she’d be Mark Farris Pirtle. If his own memoir ever comes to fruition, may I suggest he rips off Gilbert completely and calls it Work, Pray, Love. The work part has died down, thanks to Pirtle’s conquering of a workaholic [...]

That’s me in the corner (losing my mind)

So here’s the ugly ‘before’ of the fireplace. And here’s the ‘after’. Not bad, eh? The brick is covered with cement board, then glass mosaic tile from Home Depot. Materials: $175. Labour: $375. The original quarry tile, which I love, stays the same. And here’s me: feeling like the gullible girlfriend who just can’t shake that bad guy [...]