Friday night was a long one for my children. Two of their friends came for a sleepover, and with all four children snuggled into the big sofa bed together, there wasn’t a lot of sleep happening. In anticipation of her buddy coming over, my five-year old daughter announced that they would stay up until midnight. So when the kids weren’t looking, I changed the digital clocks on the microwave ...

The Olympics have just left town. Although we’re collectively gearing up for the Paralympics in a couple of weeks, the big crowds are gone. Classes were suspended at universities and community colleges in the region ostensibly to allow students the opportunity to volunteer at the Olympics. However, the primary reason for the two-week break in the middle of the term was transportation gridlock, ...

When I was pregnant with my daughter and unsure what was going to happen to my academic career, a woman I admire, a full-time mom/scientist, told me that she thought of her life in terms of five-year blocks. These blocks corresponded loosely with her children’s developmental stages, and with each subsequent phase she was able to take on different projects or increase the amount of time she ...

On our recent New Year’s trip to Friday Harbor, Washington, my eight-year old had the chance to reconnect with one of his buddies, a boy his age he’s known and played with since they were toddlers. A group of us went for a long walk in the woods, and the boys tagged along. The boys were shy together at first, but they soon adjusted to their own pace on the hike, falling behind to splash in ...

My family spent New Year’s Eve and the following weekend at one of our favorite places in the world, Friday Harbor Labs, on San Juan Island, off the Washington coast. (Mama PhD blogging colleague Dana Campbell and I have frequently written about Friday Harbor Labs and its adjoining retreat for scholars, the Whitely Center.) My son told all his friends “we’re going to a 3-day party!” ...

My son and I arrived ten minutes before the official vaccination clinic start time, but already the line-up for H1N1 vaccine snaked out the cafeteria doors and down the path into the cold rain outside. Although the clinic was held at a university dining hall, it was open to any provincial resident, and over a hundred university staff, faculty, students, neighbors, and their kids were queued ...

We were all up before the sun this past Saturday morning. My eight-year-old son was practically bouncing off the walls with nervous energy from the moment he was out of bed. We left the house at 8AM for a regional karate tournament in which my son would be competing. Although my husband and I tried to hide it, we were pretty nervous on the 45-minute drive to the suburban high school gym we’d ...

One recent morning while I was getting dressed, my four-year-old daughter had some advice for me: “Mama, I want you to eat and eat. I want you to always eat lots of healthy food because then you won’t get skinny”. Where was this conversation going? Was this about body image? I have a good appetite most of the time, I’m not particularly thin, and my weight hasn’t changed much recently, ...

We celebrated Thanksgiving here in Canada not long ago, and I spent the holiday weekend in deep contemplation and reflection about all I have and where my life has brought me. Aside from the obvious things for which I feel thankful — health (a big one this year), family, home, and food on the table — I feel particularly grateful for the invaluable time I can spend with my children in their ...

A radio interview I heard yesterday completely derailed the blog theme I’d planned for this week (I’ll have to save the sex topic for next time). Let’s just say I’ve become a little obsessed with obsessiveness since hearing the program. The interview (from CBC radio’s “The Current”) was titled “Obsessive Work” and featured an ornithologist named Glen Chilton who’s just ...