Our son, his wife and two young sons live in Finland. The boys were born in Finland and have dual Canadian Finnish citizenship. Both speak fluent Finnish but understand and converse in English. Their schooling was entirely in Finnish so to be clear, Finnish was their primary language and they were Finns in every way. Until recently, they lived full time in a suburb of Helsinki. And then everything changed. The family decided to come to Canada for a year. We were thrilled! It was a golden opportunity to get to know our grandsons, to see them on a daily basis and introduce them to Canada. Hello Canada They arrived…

Our mom always had friends, lots of friends. It seemed like everyone who crossed paths with her became her friend in short order and many friendships endured for a lifetime. It was always a bit of a mystery to us how mom managed to strike up and maintain so many friendships.

So, I have a story to tell. Not particularly profound or exciting, but noteworthy nonetheless To my indignation, on a recent flight home, I was apparently invisible. By that I mean that for all intents and purposes I was essentially a “ghost.” How so? Well, as I approached my aisle seat, I could see that the middle seat was occupied by a woman who was completely engrossed in her laptop screen. As I settled in, she did not look up or acknowledge in any way that I was present. It was as if my seat was unoccupied, and in my opinion that broke the unspoken passenger civility code. By that…

I realize that weight loss is a topic as old as the hills and can easily cause ones eyes to glaze over. I mean who hasn’t tried to lose weight? And who among us has managed to not only lose weight but also keep it off? For many it is a never ending cycle of frustration, but thanks to social media there is a flood of both helpful and sometimes questionable information, and I recently decided to “give it a go.” What are Macros? If you follow Instagram or other social media, you are likely well aware of the current trend towards maximizing protein intake, and tracking your macros. Macros…

Recently I experienced a “smiling incident” that resonated so strongly I was compelled to write a blog post about it. I mean, it really resonated. So I decided to try a personal experiment which I imaginatively called “Smile at a Stranger Day.” It involved deliberate smiling attempts to engage with a stranger and documenting the results, which of course were beyond fascinating. So without further ado, I present my findings, none of which could possibly be classified as scientific in nature, but rather, anecdotal and very interesting. Big Sis’ Smile Stories I Like Your Shoes I will state right up front that I have an unhealthy fixation with shoes, stemming…

Mom left us six years ago. Tomorrow would have been her 96th birthday and we are reminded that there are so many things we remember and celebrate about her. But most of all, she was quite simply a sweet, warm, friendly person, and her Starbucks story is one that personifies those qualities. So, in her honor, we offer a reprint of one of our original posts, "BettyBucks."