a peek inside the fishbowl

Awhile back I wrote a post about lice removal service here in Ottawa that happens to be handily close to where we live in Westboro. We’ve had kids with lice. Teens with lice. I’ve known parents with lice in the neighbourhood too. I’m relieved to know there’s a place we can go when we need help.

I think a lot of you already know about Lice Services Canada – Ottawa Lice Treatment and Removal and their expert services, but what you may not know is that they’ve introduced a twist to their services which will definitely be of interest to parents of school-age children here in Ottawa. This new program does two things: it gets expert information about lice right into the teachers’ and caregivers’ hands AND helps the school raise extra some funds.

If your school is registered with Lice Services Canada, 10% of sales of lice removal services (even during the summer!) and $5 from their pesticide-free products will go back to YOUR school. It’s really a win-win for all… except the lice, because THEY ARE HISTORY. Families get expert help when they really need it, and the schools get a little something as well.

Interested? It’s easy. Just send an email to your school principal or parent council, because they need to be the ones who register on the Lice Services Canada website. Once the school is registered, they’ll start getting the word out to parents. That’s it! If you don’t need the services, great. But if you do, it’s nice to know your school is getting something back, isn’t it?

And whether your school is registered or not, you should know that if you find something in your kid’s scalp and you’re not sure if it’s a louse or not, you can always take a picture and email it to Lice Services Canada for a free diagnosis.

*This post is sponsored by Lice Services Canada in Ottawa.

I was feeling squirrely yesterday so I decided to take a walk and drop off some books at a friend’s place. It was a hot and sunny morning and I felt like I was wasting it by staying indoors so I grabbed the bag, put on my flip-flops, and went.

I flip-flopped up the street and past the park, which was populated by a multitude of young families who were also enjoying this surprise summer weather. As I walked by I heard a familiar refrain: “Ok Riley, just ONE MORE MINUTE and we have to go!” It made me smile. I can’t even remember the last time we had to pull that line out of our parenting arsenal.

The bag bumped against my hip as I walked. I thought about how I was feeling in This Exact Moment. This is something I do every once in awhile, especially if I am fighting off a flutter of anxiety that I get in the pit of my stomach. I ask myself: “What am I feeling This Exact Moment, and why?” Sometimes, the very act of drilling down, putting a label on it, and making an action plan, is helpful.

There was no flutter today. In fact, the very opposite was true. The word that floated up to the surface and found me in that moment was unencumbered. When I thought about it, I realized I felt very free. It was just me, in a summer dress and my flip-flops and a bag of books I was giving away. There was no pressing appointment, no device buzzing in my back pocket, nothing. What a luxurious feeling, to be disconnected from the world. I was unreachable, inaccessible, untethered, away.

I thought about how our devices, which we love for how much they help us, actually tie us down to work and to a myriad of obligations that are both real and imagined. They keep our brains in the “on” position for longer than is probably good for us.

For such small things they sure do take up a lot of space in our lives, don’t they?

As I walked, I took deep breaths to match my walking pace. Deep breath in, two, three, four, five, and out, two, three, four, five. Instead of just breathing to fill my lungs, I flicked a switch in my mind and decided to smell my surroundings: a new cedar fence, freshly mown grass, the heat coming off the road. Alone with my thoughts, I walked past pretty gardens and watched flocks of sparrows take baths in the dust.

As much as I hate the phrase life balance, I wondered how one goes about finding this precarious thing. Am I on the right path, or not? I like to think that as I get older I am finally finding some answers, but most times they remain just out of reach.

New listing! Gorgeous riverfront living in family home with view of dwntown Ottawa. Well engineered wood construction pic.twitter.com/mCX1PQlltw

— Blair Crawford (@GetBAC) September 14, 2017

• The Ever-Changing Business of ‘Anti-Aging’, nytimes.com
• Corduroy History: The McRib of Clothing, tedium.co
• How Not to Raise a Ray of Sunshine, nytimes.com
• The end of young love: Dating is in decline among the “i-Generation”, study finds, telegraph.co.uk
• The Father Of Mobile Computing Is Not Impressed, fastcompany.com

On the nightstand: The Little Friend