Like any single child-rearing approach or philosophy, there's some aspects of Montessori that I don't really agree with. However, reading through these articles, I liked seeing many of the things I feel are important for kids reflected.

For example, these "General Environment Principles":

"Here are some things to keep in mind when organizing a child's environment.

(1) Participation in Family Life: Even from the very first days invite the child into the life of the family. In each room—the bedroom, kitchen, dining room, living room, front hall, and so forth have a mobile for the infant, or a basket or shelves for the young child, to store the few carefully chosen belongings, and a special mat or rug for him to "work" on developing abilities.

(2) Independence: The child's message to us at any age is "Help me to do it myself." Supporting this need shows respect for and faith in the child. Think carefully about family activities in all areas of the home, and arrange each space to support independence. A twin mattress for the child's bed; clothing cubby, coat tree, or low clothing rod or hook wherever the child dresses or undresses (front hall, bathroom, bedroom, etc.); a stool or bench for removing shoes and boots; inviting shelves for books, dishes, toys.

(3) Belongings: This brings up a very important point. It is too much for anyone to care for or enjoy belongings when there are too many out at one time. In preparing the home environment for a child, have a place to keep clothing, toys, and books that are not being used. Rotate these when you see the child tiring of what is out on the shelf, in the book display, or toy basket. Have just a few pieces of clothing available to the child to choose what to wear each day, just a few toys that are enjoyed, and only a few favorite or new books to look at.

(4) Putting Away & The Sense of Order: "Discipline" comes from the same word as "disciple" and our children become disciplined only by imitating us; just as we teach manners such as saying "thank you" by modeling this for our children instead of reminding, we can teach them to put away their books and toys only by gracefully and cheerfully doing it over and over in their presence."


This reflects some of my personal philosophy of parenting pretty well. Plus, I've also found that my kid seems to be more content and less likely to act like a tiny toddler turd when I try to incorporate this kinda stuff.

There's nothing better than some hands-on evidence to support your beliefs.

Ok. I may be a little hardcore.


I tried running in my old sneakers (expensive hightech fancy ones that were a birthday gift 2 years ago) the other day and HATED it. I will never go back.

So, now my winter running options seem to be either to try to stick it out with the FiveFingers by adding toe socks or trying to find another minimalist shoe I can wear with my normal wool socks.

It's a tough call. Minimalist running shoes are not as cheap as you'd like to hope given that you're literally getting less shoe for your money. And that makes me grumpy. But I'm just not convinced that toe socks alone are going to cut it at -20C.

Right now I'm considering these but they're still not cheap and something about buying fancy aqua socks just seems wrong.

My brain is once again loving the lists it seems.


Some things that have made me happy lately:

• Watching the trailer for The Hunger Games. Goosebumps. This series had better not pull a "Twilight" on me.
• Having a friend stop by for a spontaneous Sunday visit just after I'd cleaned the house and baked cookies. Yes, I have officially earned my Martha Stewart patch.
• Going for a run and really enjoying the path culture that has people smiling and nodding to each other when they pass.
• Inventing and playing: "Movember, Hipster or Pervert?"
• Kale sauteed in bacon fat. So incredibly delicious.
• Witnessing a spontaneous Skype-based cooking class (see pic).
• Watching a three-legged dog chase a squirrel. That had to have been the happiest dog I have ever seen.
• Booking a grandparent for child-wrangling so I can have a date with my husband.
• Discovering that I have fun learning how to properly kick someone in the groin and stomp on their head.

Anyone else want to chime in?

Answers to some recent daily FAQs:

• Yes, I'm still biking to and from work. Every day.
• Yes, it's getting cold.
• No, I'm not brave or hardcore. Just lazy.
• It's only a ten minute ride each way. No, it doesn't really give me time to warm up.
• I'll stop biking when it starts snowing.

How much lying should you do in order to be a good parent?


To be clear, I'm talking about the "good" lies: Santa Claus, the Toothfairy, the Easter Bunny, the Great Pumpkin, a benevolent God. Well, maybe not that last one.

This year will be the kid's third Christmas but the first one where she's likely to "get" what's going on. Which means that if I'm going to start the Claus-washing, I'm going to have to start soon.

I know I'm over-thinking this issue (unlike say, everything else about parenting...) but for some reason I'm having difficulty making the decision to just go for it. And it's not because I didn't grow up loving all of the imaginary holiday mascots. Mainly I just don't know if I can keep my adult skepticism and cynicism out of it enough to decently fake it through all of the pre-Christmas hype and mythology-building.

And don't get me wrong. I'm not a total Scrooge. I'm looking forward to picking out stocking stuffers, baking cookies, putting up twinkly lights, snuggling up on the couch to watch "Elf" and the "Grinch Who Stole Christmas", seeing her face when she opens a couple of gifts I know she'll love, etc.

But is it possible to just do a half-assed version of the Santa thing and not deprive your children of a fundamental component of a good North American childhood?

For example, I don't think I'd ever really be comfortable with casting Santa as an almighty, all-seeing, areligious behavioral judge-and-jury. There's just something creepy about that. But I can see it being handy to put him in the role of jolly gift-giving pen pal to get the kid to write down what she wants for Christmas eventually.

I could also probably get into doing the milk and cookies (even if Santa clearly has Type 2 diabetes and could use a break from the dairy, wheat and sugar) but I don't think I can be bothered to run around the house leaving fake reindeer poop (raisins) to mark their passing. Yes, I have over-achiever friends who do that.

As I've noted before, I'm sure my kids will find reasons to criticize my parenting eventually. However, I'd like to hope that it's not because I didn't lie to them enough. I'm sure they'll have plenty to complain about when they find out that it wasn't a decline in the global market demand for baby teeth that resulted in the Toothfairy only leaving them a shiny nickle.

"It may seem onerous to prepare yourself and your family to respond to violence, but not doing so is also a form of preparation. Failing to prepare is, generally speaking, preparing very well to do the wrong thing. Although most of us are good at recognizing danger, our instincts often lead us to behave in ways that increase our chances of being injured or killed once a threat emerges." ~ Sam Harris, "The Truth about Violence"

This piece is a incredibly eye-opening read. Both scary and (potentially) empowering.


I loath the cult of false fear-mongering that is worshipped in North America. The evidence shows clearly that violent crime rates in Canada are going down (despite the media bias and what certain governments would like voters to believe) and Ottawa is a very safe city. Fear is used far too often to con and control us.

I don't think anyone should live their lives in perpetual anticipation of a violent attack they're (thankfully) unlikely to ever experience. However, I also believe as a general life-philosophy that being prepared is never a bad thing. Somehow though I've always subconsciously allowed myself to accept that I will willingly play the role of victim should I ever be confronted with violence. And that's really scary.

I've been dithering about starting some sort of martial arts training for a while. This article was the final boot in the butt I needed.

It's official: the powers that be have destroyed all that was good and fun about Sesame Street.


It started with turning everything into the Cult of Elmo. Rude little douchebag.

Now they've got Cookie Monster shilling fat-phobic lies in the name of fighting childhood obesity. Drink up your nutritionally-bankrupt, chalk-flavoured, hormone-filled cow juice kids!

If they make him vegan I'm going to organize a boycott. Perhaps even grab a tent and join Occupy Sesame Street.

I hear that's what all the cool kids are doing these days.

How awesome would our world be if all restaurant reviews were half so entertaining:


"He forked another helping of seared Muscovy duck breast with foraged chanterelle succotash into his mouth and chewed it mechanically and without joy. On his tongue the rusty tang of revenge sought and achieved. His eyes fixed beyond the warm glow of the restaurant to a middle distance known only to him, to a home on a wasted prairie and those men and the outrage he’d born witness to and his promise to them on that day and the years that followed hunting and waiting and one by one he delivered his promise to each of them and with their money he bought this food and this wine and he could taste none of it." ~ Yelping with Cormac

In case it isn't obvious, what you are looking at here is the fulfilment of a lifelong dream.


Some of my earliest memories of childish yearnings involve me staring wistfully at fountains filled with wishing coins, wishing fervently that I could climb in and grab them.

A barely-suppressible desire to gleefully splash about clutching fistfuls of the wet, metallically-incarnated dreams of strangers.

I'd like to pretend that as an adult this compulsion has at least somewhat dissipated. But I'd be lying. I still want to jump in every fountain I see.

Which leads us to today. In the midst of walking-off some hill sprints and trying not to puke on my shoes (a grim design flaw to be noted with Vibram KSOs: I don't think they'd keep the vomit out), I happened to notice that the city had recently drained a fountain in the park I run through. At first glance (because I always do) it looked like the fountain-drainers had efficiently removed all the donated hopes and prayers of passers-by along with the water.

But then my well-trained eye spotted a single rusty penny. And then another. Even before I spotted the dime, I'd hopped over the edge.

Admittedly it's a small handful but damn was it satisfying.

"Welch calls this the overdiagnosis paradox. “The more overdiagnosis the test causes, the more popular it is because there are more survivors,” he says. “The person who had a breast cancer diagnosed by mammography is tempted to view herself as being helped, but there are two other possibilities that are more likely,” he says. The first is that the person would have fared exactly the same without the mammogram, and the second is that the cancer the mammogram diagnosed was indolent and did not require treatment. “I always hope that the person who found cancer via mammography was helped,” says Welch, but on an individual level it’s impossible to say which category an individual person falls into. Statistically, the vast majority fall into the overdiagnosed category." ~ Christie Aschwanden, "Breast Cancer's False Narrative"


I personally know several women who've died as a result of having breast cancer so I don't take this issue lightly but it's incredibly scary to think that "screening causes 10 times as many women to become cancer patients unnecessarily as it prevents from dying from breast cancer."

Tragically, the light changed before I was able to get a picture.


This morning on my ride into work, I was stopped at a red light behind a guy on a bike who had naked lady stickers on his fenders. Front and back.

This level of awesome will only be topped if I ever see someone on a bike with a set of Car Nutz (TM) installed under the seat.

Watching this video made me very happy today (though, I can't guarantee that witnessing our dear PM makeout with Marg won't give you nightmares for life) and led me to watching just about everything on Rick's channel.

So good. So proud to be Canadian.