year-in-review
Looking Back on 2025
I can do hard things.
reflection
community
French or English school for our kids? A case study in choosing community
This week my household attended an open house event for the French public elementary school we are considering enrolling our child in to start Junior Kindergarten next fall. Ottawa has four separate school boards covering the same geographic area, that are each managed entirely separately: French secular, English secular, French
current-events
Simple Needs, Hard to Satisfy
My current immigration status is: saw a really pretty cloudy, still bright sky over a cornfield while riding my bike here in Ottawa, and cried. For a while in the last year we've been in Canada, I kept having a dream that we had to return to Lincoln
recommendations
Toothpaste Should Not Burn, Actually
Recently at work, our weekly company Talko Tuesday meeting once again became Talko Toothsday when the conversation turned to teeth and dental care. I don't entirely know why this topic even comes up so much in this particular workplace, and over time I've made a show
community
What Makes These Cities Feel Like Themselves
I just read a friend's post about the unique aspects that makes certain cities feel like uniquely that city, and I wanted to write down a few things that come to mind for me for cities I'm familiar with. Like Comfect/The Quad Urbanist says in
canada
One Year in Canada
We've now been living in Ottawa for a full year. Annual events that were happening last May when we came to visit before moving have happened again, and ones that happened shortly after we first arrived to live here are happening again, too. Summer flew by somehow; I&
consuming-less
Ways to Reduce Consumerism
Over the last few years I've been thinking more and more about how consumerism affects my life, and, finding the effects are mostly not great, thinking about what I can do to resist it. By consumerism, I mean all the societal and cultural forces (from government policy to
parenting
Big Sister as Gender
At a play group we attended recently for queer families with little kids, we were asked to fill out a new form for participant tracking by the host organization. Beyond some basic demographic questions you've probably been asked before, one question asked: how does your child describe their
recommendations
Things I've Been Enjoying Lately
Enjoying: Games and Media I recently received my new copy of The Encyclopedia of Radical Helping, and it's so delightful. I wish I had the budget to gift it to all my most caring friends who are part of movement & activism spaces - the two I have
parenting
Having a Two Year Old is Great
Today I would like to sing the praises of parenting a two year old. I am having so much fun, and my kid is such a joy to be around. Sometimes the narrative around parenting a toddler is all about the Terrible Twos or having a Threenager and how your
canada
Many Things Are True: The Hard Choice to Leave
I have been working to learn over the last decade or so to reject binary frameworks: very little (but probably not nothing, I note with irony) is an all or nothing proposition; very little is as black and white as the convenient narratives and theories of my childhood made it
nebraska
Why I Think Lincoln, Nebraska is Great
Today A month ago (this took a bit to finish writing, it turns out) I read a blog by Lou Plummer about the town he lives in: Fayetteville, NC. I thought it was a nice little look at his view of what makes his town nice to live in, and