Life Lessons
Meaningful lessons learned through experience
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8 Ways To Promote Gratitude When Life Isn’t Easy
Sadness creeps in from time-to-time. Leaving home and moving to Eastern Canada has left me yearning for the mountains, for the pounding, unrelenting rain, for familiarity, family, and friends. I miss the essence of the west coast. Namely, I miss moist air, water, and mountains on the margins of everywhere we went. I miss […] Continue reading
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Our Mother-Daughter Dance
If I could have preconceived my one and only daughter, I would have conjured her up. After a textbook first cry, my sweet girl came out into this world and it all made sense. There was no epiphany just a calm realization that everything was right. As I sat in my hospital bed, a […] Continue reading
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Time
If you have an under-apprecation of time, I highly suggest having kids nice and close together. Forget years apart, I’m talking something that you can count in months, like 20 or 15 or 12. Because if you do, the only life events that will seemingly take an eternity will be things like sitting in […] Continue reading
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The Parenting Bubble
It is Farmer’s Market season here again! There is no way I’d rather spend my Saturday morning than waiting in line at our favorite bakery, praying there will be at least one ginormous scone left, grabbing a freshly dripped cup of coffee from a local roaster and then strolling through the booths of fresh spring goodies. It is also so […] Continue reading
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A Letter To My Pregnant Self About Marriage
To: My Pregnant Self, Congratulations on making it this far without killing anyone. REALLY. You’ve had a lot on your plate over the course of this pregnancy and even though you may have been more sensitive than usual, all of your loved ones still love you and you still love them. I could have […] Continue reading
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Falling In Love With My Son All Over Again
If you’re visiting Parenting from the Heart for the first time, click here to see my Readers’ Favourite Posts. I don’t remember too much from the early months of my son’s life. I had an almost 15 month-old daughter the day he was born. My husband and I hadn’t even celebrated our second wedding anniversary. […] Continue reading
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5 Pieces of Wisdom When The Baby Weight Doesn’t Come Off
We were sitting in a friend’s apartment. My husband in a suit, I was about eight months pregnant and in the closest thing to business attire that the maternity store had (I realize now this is one of the last times I would be dressed like this). We had stopped by on the way home from work […] Continue reading
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An Open Letter to the Mom in the Apple Store
To: The Mom in the Apple Store, Today, before we spoke at the Apple Store, was not the easiest for me. The night prior, my daughter had the first-night terror of her life. She is just shy of three-years-old. When she uncharacteristically woke at 11:30 the night before, I figured she’d be dead asleep in […] Continue reading
About Me
Hi, I’m Alana. When I’m not nursing cold, stale coffee, I usually can be found with the baby on my hip, barefoot, and racing after my two older kids.
Thanks to a degree in psychology and a free-range childhood backing onto an expansive evergreen forest, positive parenting and play-based learning are my passions.