Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend

by Brittany

One of my favourite times of year in Ottawa, Canada’s Capital City, is Ottawa Race Weekend. Since moving to Ottawa there has been only one year (2013 - when my daughter was born the same week as the race) that I was unable to participate in or observe the runs.  

There is so much energy in the city at that time. The camaraderie of runners and spectators alike, and the excitement and buzz surrounding the week leading up to the actual weekend, always reinforces exactly why I was so drawn to this city. 

This year I am adding a special twist to my Race Weekend participation. I am not just running for me, but I am combining my love for running while representing Kids in the Capital as part of the FIRST EVER Scotiabank Media Challenge and Scotiabank Charity Challenge. 

My efforts (with your HELP!) over the next 4 weeks will be about training, fundraising and sharing how the CHEO Foundation plays an important role in our community.

What’s the CHEO Foundation?

The sole purpose of the CHEO Foundation is to raise funds to help support the work of the  Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Donations help the hospital provide a wide variety of pediatric programs, research, state-of the art equipment, medical and nursing education, and assistance for families in crisis. 

TO learn more about the Foundation and the Children’s Hospital, and what they both have to offer click here. 

How can You help? 

• Consider making a donation, no amount is too small. Here is the link to my fundraising page!
• Spread the word! Social media is having a profound effect on making our local communities aware of what’s happening. Please share this post with your family and friends, or tweet to us at @BrittHameed and @kidsincapital and we will be sure to connect! 
• Support the Ottawa Race Weekend runners on race day! Check here for the scheduled times and we will be looking for you all in the crowds! 
• If you would like to contribute directly to Cheo Foundation,  click here for details on how that’s possible. 

My Commitment to You and the CHEO Foundation? 

• Update regularly on training and fundraising progress via Kids in the Capital, my personal blog and/or our social media platforms! 
• Tweet (@BRittHameed) throughout the event (and possibly en route!)
• Stay tuned for a post-race and fundraising recap!

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Brittany is a Canadian mama on a journey to live a healthy lifestyle and to share what works in the world of health and fitness for her and her family. Check her out on her blog, My Mama Journey, and over on twitter and instagram!

Pip, Pop and Pug: The Pipe Cleaner Family

This is the story of Pip, Pop and Pug, the Pipe Cleaner Family. They live in Ottawa, Canada, and recently experienced the worst winter imaginable. Spring hasn't been much better. In the background of certain images, you will notice a curious creature of the toddler variety.

Pip is so sick of shoveling snow

It never ends....the piles just get bigger

Almost as though the snow drifts have a life of their own...

WHAT THE...the snow DOES have a life of its own!!

AHHHHHHH!!!!

"It's a Snowdrift Monster! Save yourself Pug!!!"

"Gahhh, Mfffgggrrllll"

"Jesus Pug, could I get a little help here?"

After a lengthy battle, Pip reigns as Queen over the now melted snowdrift monster.

ONE MONTH LATER....

"Ahh, finally...going outside with a light scarf on. The sun is shining!"

Pip and Pug are off for a walk

Despite the sun, it's pretty windy out there....and frickin cold!!

Pip is glad she brought her umbrella

Umbrellas are no match for hurricane winds

Finally, a warm day for Pip and Pug.

Pip can tend to her garden, and Pug can wee on the flowers

Pip, Pop and Pug can enjoy biking once again

And of course, walkies!

All photographs are exclusive property of my infinitely talented husband, Tom Stacey.

DIY Home Design: Wall Art

Confession: we moved into our home 5 years ago, and we just got around to painting this month! 

The original 1980s wallpaper stuck around for so long because we've been raising two young kids - wet paint and young kids do NOT go together.

So now, my darling husband has almost completed the transformation. We have a beautiful grey colour, with a slightly darker shade on our biggest wall. Grey is amazing, because you can add a lot of colour accents to your rooms.

We recently found this antique table on the Orleans Buy and Sell Facebook Group

With the walls painted in such a neutral tone, we see the need for some huge splashes of colour. I've always dreamed of commissioning several pieces of art, but sadly that is not in the budget.

So I'm relying on my somewhat limited artist skills, and I've decided to paint my own canvas. I was somewhat of an "artiste" in my younger days - let's see what I can do now ;)

My husband and I created a Pinterest board with all of our ideas: check it out here! 

Have you ever created your own wall art?

Boomerang Kids

by Vicky

In our house the organization and management of kids clothing is my job. And it’s a big job! It started when I was pregnant with my son who is now 8 years old, and I received two enormous Rubbermaid bins full of baby clothing. So began my journey into sorting, washing, folding, labeling and storing kids clothing to be passed down, worn in the next season, donated or sold.

I have bags, bins and boxes in closets and in the basement, in a somewhat organized, yet chaotic system. My husband has no idea how it works, and what goes where. One box for clothing that has been outgrown, another bin for things that are still too big, bags to be donated and more bags full to pass along to friends. Now that I have three kids, I am using a secret weapon to help me stay on top of the ever increasing mountain of clothing organization! Boomerang Kids.

If you haven’t consigned with Boomerang Kids yet, you need to! Consigning your kids clothing is a great way to get those bins of clothing out of your basement and make a bit of cash. Boomerang Kids only accepts clothing that is no more than 5 years old, and in excellent condition, so here are some tips to help you get started before you consign.

While sorting your clothing at home:

• Look for clothing items that are in excellent condition (no stains, tears, broken zippers etc)
• Only clothing that is less than 5 years old
• Name brands only, Boomerang Kids doesn’t accept house brands from Walmart, Target (like Circo, Cheerokee, or George)
• Check the website to find out what items are currently being accepted, and make sure you are bringing in appropriately seasonal pieces

Set up an account:

• Walk in and set up an account at the self-serve kiosk, you don’t need an appointment.
• Your Boomerang Kids account is where your commission is deposited; you can use it to shop in the store and also online!
• You can check our balance and see your items in stock or sold online, using your account.
• You receive 40% of the purchase price on clothes and toys and 50% for equipment. 

Once you’ve set up your account, you then leave your items to be sorted by a friendly sales person. They will be examined quickly while you wait. Anything that can’t be sold will be donated to several local charities, unless you choose to have it returned at your drop off.  Your items will be priced and photographed before they are available to purchase in store or online.

As a shopper, I can appreciate that only the best, current brands and the highest quality will be available for me to purchase in store. Also, when you shop online, you can choose in-store pick up and that saves you the shipping fees.

Boomerang Kids is also a great place to bring toys, books and baby equipment, and accepts 10 of each at a time. Toys and equipment must have working batteries and be no more than 10 years old. It’s always best to bring the items in and have a staff person look it over if you aren’t sure if it’s an acceptable item, or you can check the list of acceptable items online: http://www.boomerangkids.com/buy-and-sell/
 
As a mom of three, I make a trip to my neighborhood Boomerang Kids weekly.  The staff is friendly, the washrooms are clean, and there’s always new items to browse. As I continue to consign my kids clothes and earn money, I rarely pay for my purchases.  Boomerang Kids makes it easy, convenient and nearly effortless to sell your stuff.  I highly recommend consigning as it keeps your clothing out of landfills and lets you make a bit of cash while you are doing it.

Boomerang Kids also offers great in store events, like free strollercize, Zumba and other workshops!

Visit a Boomerang Kids location closest to you in:
Orleans
Kanata
Barrhaven
Westboro
Old Ottawa South
Gatineau
 
Vicky is a mom of three kids, Joel (8), Mieka (5) and Leo (18 months). She's an occasional teacher, and also runs her own business as a Peekaboo Beans Play Stylist, where customers can shop from her pop up shop www.peekaboobeans.com/vicky 
vicky@peekaboobeans.com 
(613)218-6699 

Green Your Baby: Cloth Diapers

By Katie,

With Earth Day fast approaching, I thought this would be a fantastic opportunity to write a piece about the environmental impacts of cloth diapers versus disposables.  It is really hard to talk about environmental issues without sounding like I go and chain myself to trees in my spare time, but I will do my best! I am not a hard core environmental advocate, but I am a normal (well, normal-ish) person who just wants to do their part to keep our planet nice.

I often hear the argument that disposables are more earth friendly because of the laundry necessary to cloth diaper. This to me is the same as arguing that using Styrofoam plates is more environmentally friendly than washing the dishes! For some reason, it would be obviously wasteful to use disposable dishes all the time, but disposable diapers have become the norm in our society. So, let’s take a look together of what the real impacts of both are, and you can make up your own mind. 

1)    Resource consumption: It takes almost 1 cup of crude oil to make the plastic in just ONE diaper.  That is a phenomenal amount of oil used just to catch poop. We all know that oil is a non-renewable resource that we are really dependent on, so let’s ignore that for a second. There are still the environmental effects of oil extraction and refinement, and the devastating effect of oil spills during transportation to think about. 

What about the rest of the diaper? A good bit of the absorbency in disposables is provided by wood pulp. A lot of wood pulp: approximately 4.5 trees per baby in diapers per year. Doing a little highly accurate math, if we multiply the number of babies in disposables by 4.5 trees, we get a whole lot of trees! Yes, forests are technically a renewable resource, but we aren’t planting them nearly as fast as we are using them, and it is impossible to replace complex, ancient forest ecosystems in a short period of time.

Cloth diapers are made using easily renewable materials like cotton, bamboo and hemp. They also use a lot less resources overall, as there is a lot less of them to make! A baby will need 5000-7000 diaper changes before potty training. If you had a stack of 5000 diapers, it would be a lot taller than a stack of 24 cloth diapers, right?

2)    Water consumption: This may come as a shocker, but disposable diapers use 47% MORE water than cloth, even including all the laundry. More? But how? Think of all of the processing that needs to happen in order to make those disposable diapers in the first place. For example, the wood pulp needs to be processed, which uses large amounts of water. All of this processing uses many different chemicals, which ends up polluting this water. 
 
3)    Energy use: Energy use is a concern to most of us, especially considering the current hydro prices! We are much more aware of the energy that we use in our homes, because we are the ones writing the painful cheques to the power companies. So it makes sense that disposables seem like they use less energy, because they have absolutely no effect on your bills. However, it takes huge amounts of energy to create all of these diapers and transport them to the stores, whether we notice it or not.  

Cloth diapers also give us a lot more control over how much energy we use. In our house, we have a high efficiency washing machine which uses a surprisingly small amount of electricity, and we dry our diapers on the line the majority of the time. Our energy costs have not changed at all even with two kids in diapers. 

4)    Garbage: Oh, the garbage. This is a pretty obvious one, but disposable diapers create a lot more garbage than cloth; about a tonne more. That is a huge pile of garbage! Do this for me: close your eyes (then open them when you realize you can’t read with your eyes closed) and picture your favourite outdoor place – a park, field, golf course, whatever. Then picture it with a 25 foot tall pile of garbage in the middle of it. It kind of takes away from the scenery, right? It is easy to forget about the waste we create when it is kindly whisked away to an unseen landfill, but it is still there, and will still be there in 250-500 years. Yuck!

Everything we do has an impact on our planet. While you are reading this, you are using electricity to power your device and breathing out carbon dioxide. The key is to minimize our impact, and I believe that choosing cloth diapers is a great way to do this. 

Katie is owner of Bumbini Cloth Diaper Company, and you can follow her business on Facebook.