a peek inside the fishbowl

Archive for the ‘parenting’ Category

09 Sep, 2023

Back to school for the youngest

Posted by: andrea tomkins In: parenting

I might be exaggerating but when we dropped the youngest off at kindergarten she cried every morning for months, possibly years. While the photos above may show otherwise, I don’t think we had a truly smooth drop-off until second grade. It broke my heart every day to leave behind a crying kid. Teachers assured me […]

When our daughters went away to university I discovered I liked making care packages for them. Here’s one package, and another, just to give you a sense of the kinds of things I sent. Of course, these were created and sent in the Before Times. It was a process. Building a care package took time, dare I say, […]

19 Mar, 2020

Coronavirus changing the daily lives of families

Posted by: andrea tomkins In: Misc. life|parenting

Mark is picking the youngest up in Kingston today, and moving her out of residence. I continue to work from home. At the moment, Piper is sitting on my lap, which is nice but she’s a tad too large to fit. Related: her Instagram account and the #terriersofinstagram community continues to bring smiles to our faces […]

08 Feb, 2020

the best kind of surprises for us empty nesters

Posted by: andrea tomkins In: Misc. life|parenting

As some of you know, Mark and I are pretty much empty nesters now. It’s kind of weird. Not just WEIRD, to me, but it might also be weird to you, especially since some of you have been following our family adventures from the day the girls were born. (!) Life is different in a […]

At the end of my previous post I linked to a very old blog post, an 18-year-old blog post, to be exact. It’s so old it’s not even part of the archives. I actually had to go and find it on my computer and upload it. I had to laugh at a sentence I had written […]


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  • Gretchen Humphrey: I had a beautiful bee& birdbath filled with a solar fountain and dozens of antique marbles that were suddenly disappearing. At first I thought my
  • Jinjer: I am sobbing reading this post. And you're right, companion is not enough. Little furry treasured gifts that they are. Thanks for sharing cutie-pi
  • Karen: Dear Andrea, Mark and your daughters I am so very sad for your family xxx Piper was/is my favourite Instagram post. You shared with us so intimately
  • Christina Banuelos: Thank you for sharing Pipers life with us. Your posts of Piper brought me joy. Every time I see your post and see what kind of mischief Piper was gett
  • Carla Slocum: I am sitting here yet again crying at your loss. We have known that loss with Asta the WFT our first pup but now have the enormous gift of Stryker the
  • Janelle Brown: Dear Andrea Thank you for sharing Piper’s story with her followers. I empathise with your grief and emptiness as I lost my 14 year old Westie last
  • Natasha McReynolds-Nicholl: My god reading this is heartbreaking. December 1st was the as you describe longest day of my life, we lost out beautiful WFT hazel. Pipers final momen

The Obligatory Blurb

My name is Andrea and I live in the Westboro area of Ottawa with my husband Mark and our dog Piper who is kind of a big deal on Instagram. We also have two human offspring: Emma (24) and Sarah (22). During the day I work as a writer at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. I am a longtime Ottawa blogger and I've occupied this little corner of the WWW since 1999. The Fishbowl is my whiteboard, water cooler, and journal, all rolled into one. I'm passionate about healthy living, arts and culture, travel, great gear, good food, and sharing the best of Ottawa. I also love vegetables, photography, gadgets, and great design.

If you'd like to contact me, please use this form. If you're so inclined, you can read more about me here. Thank you for visiting!

 


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