Monthly Archives: May 2017

May28

Toronto Police Should NOT be a part of Toronto Pride in Uniform. 

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I repeat myself, the Metro Toronto Police Members should not be allowed to March in Pride in their Uniform. 

I say this because for as long as I can remember, the metro force has held down the black population in Toronto. 

In case you didn’t know this, the Pride Parade was initially a protest against “anti gay” laws enforced with a crazy amount of force on Gay Men and Lesbian women, and various members of the LGBTQ community. They were looked at as the scum of the Earth, considered sickos because of their sexual orientation. The problem is that even though the Metro force only recently apologized for the raids on bath houses (the gay men they arrested) they didn’t extend the apology towards the lesbian and Trans women they brutally arrested. 

So allowing police services to be a part of the Pride parade as LGBTQ+ members is okay, it is inclusive if they are allowed without their uniform, because it is when they are in uniform that they have brutalized various members of the LGBTQ+ community. They brutalized, lesbian women, trans members, gay men, black men and women and they have only, ONLY apologized to the Gay White Men. That’s it! 

Why more people aren’t mad about this is beyond me. I cannot believe all these straight white men in Toronto city council  are so butthurt about the funding going to Pride. It is always these same old school guys, the same ones telling me that there is no such thing as appropriation, sexism, ageism etc. It’s always the same type of man that is so narrow minded, telling everyone else that they are wrong, the same guys that are saying do it our way, or else! I call BS! Today no one agreed with you, you old backwards man! Today in Toronto, the old white dude who has always had everything go his way, finally got told to sit down and shut up! 
To Pride Toronto, please do your thing, include the police (without uniforms) until the Police apologize for the decades of abuse on the LGBTQ+ community, until they apologize to your Black members and acknowledge the brutality don’t let them into your pride parade! Don’t back down from the core values of Pride, until everyone is equal, your struggle isn’t over! The Police are supposed to serve and protect, and to those marginalized members who have been oppressed for so long by the same hand that is supposed to protect us is just unacceptable, so stand up! Return to your roots of protest! 

Oh oh wait to those organizers of the Pride New York Parade, you people are low down dirty scum! You turn against your own community for publicity? That is the most underhanded bitchy thing you could have done! Instead of looking into the reasons why BLM wanted police banned, and how Pride Toronto began, you guys decided to invited our Metro force over to march in your parade?! Wow, what a bitchy ass mean girl wannabe move! Take that shit and get outta here!

Until people realize that the whole LGBTQ+ community should feel protected by the police and not hunted by them, they simply shouldn’t be allowed to take part in uniform. The uniform gives them power, without it, they are just like everyone else, equal! Which is key, they are no more, nor less than any other LGBTQ+ member marching. Unless they have to exert their power over others there really shouldn’t be a problem with them wearing plain clothes. 

May26

Deviated Septum Surgery

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So I am less than 24 hrs out of my surgery to correct a deviated septum and to open up my nasal turbinates. Sounds weird but I’ve suffered all my life with breathing problems and when I took my son into this lovely ENT doctor (Dr. David Goldfarb) I was convinced wth his humour and how he put myself and my 6 year old at ease. My kiddo’s quick recovery and his doctor’s pride in his work just cemented the fact that I needed him to help me. 

All my life I’ve suffered with breathing problems and I’m sure I broke my nose a few times as a teenager, then my son and I had a head to nose collision when he was 1 and 1/2 and my nose bled on and off for a few days, and while trying to explain to him that he needs to be more careful when I’m helping him up, he managed to do another head to nose collision! I haven’t been able to breathe correctly since, and just remembering those hits brings tears to my eyes (this might be a side effect of the surgery)

Anyway, I wish I didn’t have to wait as long as I did but I had to ensure my second son wouldn’t do the same thing to me once I got it fixed. 

I tried to look everywhere to find out about the surgery, and I only got scary stories. Mine isn’t that scary so far. Not yet anyway but I will update as I go. This worst thing that I’ve noticed is that I can’t breathe through my nose which makes it hard to talk and breath at the same time and it’s hard to drink. Also huge thing I can taste sugar waaaay too much now! I wonder if this can curb my infamous sweet tooth! Bonus! 
Here are pictures right after surgery, I took off the moustache bandage to clean up. There is bleeding Mixed with discharge but not too much and not overly gross. I slept really well with the painkillers and PHO I had for dinner,from 1030 to 8 straight and I slept in like a sitting position with a ton of pillows behind me and around me, I felt great! Mostly because I almost always have a kid in bed with me!

Also thank God my nose is still my Indian Nose!😊

May23

Buddha Bowls Anyone?

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I made a wonderful bow for dinner tonight inspired by my need to have Asian flavours but not the added salt and sugar. The base of the dish is your choice of grain, I’ve used brown rice in the picture but sometimes I’ve also used quinoa, and even egg noodles, and if you keep the leftovers separate you can roll up the meat filling with salad or avocado and roll it up in a rice paper wrap! Super versatile. Also if you like the mix of hot and cold and various textures then this is an easy weeknight dish.

I’ve mixed 1/4 of a cup naturally brewed soy sauce, with ground meat of your choosing, half of a chopped purple cabbage, a few shakes of onion powder, garlic salt to taste, 2 tbsps of minced garlic, and 2 tbsps of sesame oil and two cups of water.

Now the next step you can do in your instant pot if you set it to chilli, it will turn out quite nice. I prefer to put this all in a big pan that has some depth to it, and slowly simmer it on medium to low heat watching while the sauce reduces to maybe half, which is about 20-30 mins. I pour all of this over quinoa, and serve with chopped cucumbers, and slices of avocado.

If you are feeling extra lazy like I do a lot of the time, you can throw the quinoa into the same pot and add one more cup of water and cover and simmer the same way (after the meat is fully cooked)

May21

Don’t Hang Around Toxic People!

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Recently, within the last few years or so I have come to the realization that I don’t have to hang around people I don’t like, nor do I have to make my kids be in their presence. I’m not under this impression that you should see people to keep up appearances, because well truthfully that is utter bullshit. People who force themselves to be around people who they don’t like, just come off as disingenuous, and fake. When my son was born I make him a promise that I would attempt to put as much good into this world as possible and this is one of the ways that I intend to do that.

The problem with this decision is that I’ve been faced with so much backlash from people that I should make an effort and keep putting myself out there and quite simply I now say; “No.”

Zerofucks1

People show you who they are with the way they treat you, and sure someone can have a bad day every now and then and be a bitch, but when someone continuously insults, degrades, questions, demeans or just straight up puts you down in front of others, no matter how many chances you give that person they are going to keep treating you this way because you are Allowing them to treat you this way. You show the aggressor that it’s okay to keep treating you like garbage and they will continue to treat you like garbage until you show them otherwise.

I find that people want you to be a part of the status quo, and the second you decide to do better than them in life, they begin to attempt to bring you back down to their level. The crabs in a bucket theory. The theory being that if you put crabs in a bucket, and they see one crab escaping, they will jointly pull that crab back into the bucket, basically telling that one lonely crab that it should know its roll and fall in line.

We as humans are the same for the most part. It is very rare to find real friends, even family. I have so many family members that told my mom and I off when she was divorced, then there were friends that stood by us. I’ve even had people, tell me off and degrade me in front of my spouse and children, on numerous occasions and then still be expected to hang out again with this person. I’m proud of myself for not doing it. This person is a family member, and the betrayal that I felt when I was degraded cut me deeply. I mourned our times together and then I reminded myself, if that person could do that to me, truly they may not have ever been genuine towards me. I haven’t spoke to this person in years now and when mutual friends or family tell me about them I literally give zero fucks. I smile and nod and don’t feel a thing. It’s sooo fucking liberating to give zero fucks!! I highly suggest it, it is the best medicine for a tortured soul!

Losing a parent or having a great loss in life usually wakes up fake people. This is another observation I’ve made. I lost multiple people whom I was close to at every single developmental stage of my life, and every single one of those people, taught me great lessons in life and their deaths all changed the course of my life for the better. The last person I lost was my mentor. He was my best friend if I’m totally honest one of my greatest life teachers. I used to refer to him as my Canadian Dad. He would always tell me that I just cared too damn much about what everyone else thought about me. It was very true, and in his life he encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone, and I always did knowing that he would be there with pizza, gin & tonics with reruns of the sopranos to make me feel better. When he passed, after a long, painful batter with brain cancer, I went full force into living life with less of other people’s expectations on me. I’m sure there were some points in my life where he was cheering me on like “Fuck Yes Leena Jump!” I think I really heard him sometimes, I feel like I still do!

So I guess the point of this long drawn out post today is that I want you as my friend to feel my freedom. Life doesn’t have to be about bullshit toxic people. Cut off people who only bring bad shit to your life. You will feel liberated. You will be happier not having to worry about how someone is looking at you or what they are saying behind your back. Surround yourself with people who tell you what they think of you to your face. Life is too short, to waste on fake friends. Do you and be good to others, just because they are humans like you and I promise you only good things will come your way. If you put goodness into the world, and stop putting bad vibes and Bullshit drama, your life will improve immensely.

Try it and please let me know how it works out for you!Zerofucks

May19

The Ultimate Guide to Travelling with Children

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So first I must thank my wonderful friend Lauren for telling me to put all my information stored in my head up on a post

First step to ease your mind about travelling with children is what form of safety and travel gear will you take? Car seats, Strollers, play pens oh My! Well if you are travelling to specific cities you may be in luck, because you can rent gear from two very reputable companies, and get this, they DELIVER the gear to your destination! Hotel, home, or airport! Whaaaat?!

This is important for people who are concerned when they rent carseats from car rental places, i mean they usually have the cheapest of the cheap, and lowest safety rated carseats. These two companies below, allow you to Choose the same britax you have at home or the city mini jogger if that is your stroller, allowing kids to feel comfortable too!

Their sites are: http://www.weetravel.ca (so reasonably priced) and http://www.coast2coastbabies.com (they only work in select US cities)

So that’s check one off of your list.

Next step is the Stroller you want to take (especially if the companies above don’t service your area). I think the city select is the best stroller of all time.It maneuvers with one hand and can go into any handicap washroom stall, folds easily and is a general lifesaver. When we had two small kids they would face each other and entertain each other. When they were tired it fully reclined, while keeping the canopies closed. It was as if they were in their own business class pods! It is a pricey stroller if you don’t have it but you can easily find them second hand online in great condition! The configurations available on this are just too good to be true. Now that my oldest is 6, he rides the boogie board on the city select and his brother is in the seat, and trust me for connecting flights it is a saviour to not have to run holding a child who cannot run as fast as you, when you can literally just push and run (i recently had to do this in the Vancouver airport at 4am, it was as if I got a bootcamp workout in!) I have no doubt I will be using this stroller for at least two more years especially for travel, which will mean that I’ve had it for 9 years!

cityselect

What to pack for the flight?

I have a simple rules for packing a carryon bag. I pack for a worst case scenario. I take a Carryon (wheelie suitcase) and my giant TokiDoki Juju Be soft bag (Starlet or Super Be which can later be used at my destination as a beach bag and a stroller bag.

starlet

starlet1SuperBe

For a baby in diapers: 3 outfit changes, 1 diaper per hours in transit, a travel pack of wipes, (not a small one but the decent size ones in case of a poop explosion) 3 snacks (milk and water if they are not eating solids) per hour of flight, and a way to wear baby and a swaddle blanket for them to cover their eyes like a sleep mask, while rocking them to sleep. My kids sleep with white noise and in the dark so if i cover their eyes on a plane its like the ideal sleep situation for them. Multiple pacifiers if they take them, and in case you lose them!!! No judgement if you don’t.

For a toddler: 3 outfit changes (i usually let them travel in pjs), 1 diaper per hours in transit, 4 snacks per hour (because chewing is good for their ears, especially if in pain). For entertainment purposes, their favourite digital movies downloaded on their ipads or portable DVD player, their headphones, and a little kid neck pillow. Also their favourite Stuffed toy. I also buy like a bunch of mess free colouring books from dollarama, and let them go to town!

For Mom: It’s probably wrong if I say little alcohol bottles, especially as my first item right? well it isn’t too bad, I have done it and will do it again, just to calm my nerves. In all seriousness; 1 change of clothes, ear buds, gum, and basically anything you need to look human and feel like a human and not just a walking Mom zombie! I take my makeup bag, and a headband and hair-tie. My favourtie thing I just found out about was wearing a giant cotton scarf (if you are still wearing baby they have nice baby wearing scarves that you can pull over yourself if you are feeling a chill.

For liquids, medicine, and easy access: I usually take two giant ziplock bags and keep one in my diaper bag. I take tylenol for the kids (who I wake up early, and let stay up late, and they almost always sleep on the flight) I give them tylenol and gravol, 20 mins apart with the last dose 20 mins before take off. I will justify this once, and only once. The tylenol is usually for the pain in their ears, I know by trail and error that this helps, because every time I’ve travelled with my children if one of them refuses the tylenol he is the child that screams their head off on the plane, because he cannot handle the pain in his ears! I also give them a dose of gravol, because they do get tummy aches, and motion sickeness in the car on a regular basis, and after one flight where both of them were screaming that they wanted to throw up every 30 mins, I will always keep liquid gravol ready to go and now it even comes in chewables so you can take chewables for the tylenol and gravol now and not have to worry about the liquid rules.

I also take extra strength tylenol, advil, and sinutab (if you get congested on a flight) for myself in my ziplock medicine bag and benedryl in case of a random allergic reaction. I also keep all the liquids and meds in that are in the ziplock in a Jujube fuel cell, along with two small spoons, forks, and medicine dispensers 2 of them in case one is sick you cant have them sharing (this has happened to me, I shit you not it almost killed me the stress)

Fuel Cell

When you have a baby or child you need to have a little wristlet like the JuJu Be Be Quick that I keep in the outside pocket of the diaper bag with the change bag. In it i have 2 diapers, baby wipes & disinfectant wipes (to wipe down all the seat handles and tray tables and anything your kids can touch because those things are nasty, and the last thing you want is to be sick from some random airplane bug at your destination) When you have the wristlet you can just grab it and the change pad and hands free go to the washroom.

BeQuick1

beQuick

Sometimes I used a second Be Quick for passports and a pen and any travel documents so that everything is in one place and I wear it until I’m on the plane, and then put it inside my diaper bag in a zipped up pocket.

One very important thing you need to pack: Confidence, that you can do it, and even if you don’t who cares, no one else on that flight paid for a private plane so they should know that babies will be babies, and if they don’t give them a death-stare! It isn’t easy travelling with small children but it is doable and can be fun, once you get the hang of it!

CHECKLIST: (you can screenshot and print this list)

  1. Call the travel rental gear places to set up the framework of your travel.
  2. Pick a stroller that will work for your family
  3. 3 outfits per child and one change of clothes for yourself.
  4. diapers per hour in transit depending on child (see above) _____________________
  5. 3 snacks per child and adult per hour
  6. quick grab wristlet (BeQuick) for diapers wipes and change pad
  7. Have a fuel cell handy with small cutlery (sporks) and medicine dispensers 1 per child, and all blister pills or bottles in a separate ziplock bag incase of a leak. You can also store baby bottles in this and it can clip around any diaper bag so that you are hands free.
  8. Be Quick (wristlet) with a pen, and passports and travel documents in it
  9. little backpack for toddler or small child with their headphones, tablet, stuffed animal and crayons and colouring in it so that they have it and they feel like a big kid. If your toddler is travelling with a paid seat they are entitled to their own carry-on take advantage of it. It will give them a feeling of independence, which you may be able to use against them, by saying; “Remember lets all be big boys and girls and use our manners and be thoughtful towards others on the plane” it’s worth a shot!
  10. Also in case of an accident you will need some good plastic bags to shove any soiled clothing into and then tie shut so the rest of your stuff doesn’t smell.
  11. for the above reason I also keep in that liquids ziplock bag in my carryon a little bottle of gain laundry detergent that i pour onto any soiled clothes
  12. One final tip, and this is for any traveller, I vacuum seal all of my carry-on suitcase items, and get a little hand vacuum pump. it saves on room, and I keep all of our clothes in them sealed when travelling to prevent ticks or bedbugs hopping a ride home with me. I know this works because they will die without the oxygen, because I’ve seen a dead tick fall out of a bag when doing laundry after vacation…because sometimes you forget to close the bag, but those suckers can survive the plane right home with after being vacuum sealed!

 

Hope this helps you. If you like it please feel free to share! Please also share any tips that you would like to share!! I’m always open for more advice in my storage of information.

 

May11

I Dare you to be Happy

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I know so many women who are unhappy. I’m not talking about day to day happiness, I’m talking about deep down unhappiness. Like the stuff depression is made of. As someone who has been severely depressed and someone who has been working my way to happiness one day at a time. The biggest change I made in my life is to change my negative thinking. 

First step was to rid my life of negative people. I surrounded myself with only my friends and family I knew were good hearted and wouldn’t hold me back. I kept those around me that Loved me as much as I Loved them. Those ride or die bitches (both male and female)!  I will go into this in more detail in another post.

Then I made the biggest change. I stopped using negative words, not in my head, not out loud.

So if I didn’t want to do something with a friend or despised something it would come out like this: 

I Hate that = That may be suited for someone else

Yuck I would never go out with a bald guy = I like guys with long hair, it’s more towards my type.

Urrgh I don’t ever get what I want in life and everyone else gets it without as much work as me = Life can be hard sometimes but I will preserve like my friends who were in similar situations that have become successful. Maybe their path was smoother but I will savour mine when I get there, the bumps will let me appreciate it.

Simple steps to a positive life. 

Also watch more comedies, laughter is the best medicine of all to stay positive!

Xoxoxo

May1

Purple Cabbage with mushrooms and chicken 

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There is really something mesmerizing about cooking purple cabbage! It just changes colour it’s like looking directly into a lava lamp! 

Anyway I made this beauty of a dish (over ramen) for the kids and just plain for me and the hubby! 


It was so easy!

Half a purple cabbage chopped with 4 chicken breasts also chopped. 

I sautéed the mushrooms in one pan with garlic sesame oil and then added 1/4 cup soy sauce and seasonings.

In my wok I sautĂ©ed my cabbage in sesame oil (two turns), 1/4 balsamic, 1/4 naturally brewed soy sauce, a few shakes of onion powder, garlic powder and salt (all to taste) and kept turning it with tongs until it cooked. 

Then mixed it all together! 

I don’t miss the carbs with this dish at all!