ABCE

Happy Holidays and almost New Year, everyone! I hope you and your family have been blessed with good food, good times and warmth this frigid season. We’ve been under a cold snap for a week or so and it hasn’t been fun. One morning I walked to work it felt like -41C with the windchill! Hurry up, Spring! Last night we braved the cold and went over to the movies and watched The Greatest Showman, staring Hugh Jackman, Zach Efron, Zendaya and Michelle Williams. Honourable mention to Keala Settle as the Bearded Lady, in which she was wonderful. A lot of what I can say about this movie has already been said; the score and songs are lively and bright, even the more somber pieces, with Hugh Jackman showing us yet again why he is a true Hollywood star. The man can sing, dance AND act, making it seem almost effortless. At one point he’s running through the streets of New York, singing his lungs out, and I believe him. When the movie ended my husband and I turned to each other and said “We ha...

Hi everyone! A little while ago on the FB page I wondered if I changed the blog around if I would lose a bunch of followers. Well, here goes: After 10 years or so of writing here, and a million views, I’ve decided to officially diversify the blog from a FA/HAES focused site to one that is more general, where I can share bits of poetry or politics, parenting or pop culture, and not feel like I *should be* writing about Something Else.  What do you think of the redesign? I went with Store Bought Mama because frankly, that’s my style-low maintenance, forgetful, not arts-and-crafty. I’m a millennial mom raising two kids on a shoestring budget who has mild mental health issues, feels passionately about feminism and politics, and isn’t afraid to throw a store bought pizza in the oven now and then.   I support evidence based parenting, education and policy and have been wanting to write more about that, so I will be. I’m planning on going back to school in 2019 for midwifer...

I did not catch the Golden Globes last night on t.v. I had completely forgotten about them and thus forgot to set my DVR to record. Part of me was disappointed to have missed it, it seemed like an important thing, but now that I’m seeing some of the things that came out of the ceremony I am glad I missed them. With one exception, Oprah’s acceptance speech. When I was checking my notifications on Facebook this morning I couldn’t help but see quotes from her speech over and over again in my feed. So I watched her speech and I was deeply moved. There were a few takeaways that felt especially poignant, but one shone brighter than the rest. “What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have” Oprah Winfrey, 2018 Golden Globes speech, accepting the Cecil B. DeMille award. I believe that speaking your truth, sharing your story, is the most powerful thing a human, but especially an oppressed/abused human can do. It reclaims our voices, it connects us to othe...

I saw the above image with the text, “2018 Goal: Stay calm in all situations.” and I was immediately irritated! Ha-ha! I’m sure the intention of the text isn’t for us to aspire to be emotionally stoic robots, but damn if it didn’t feel that way at first encounter. It reminded me right away of a time when I worked for one of the largest and most worshipped tech companies in the world. I was on a lunch break in my usual dark corner of the cafeteria and had received a text message with sad news. I usually read a book while eating, so I’m sure my facial expressions were ever changing. The following day I was lectured for 45 minutes by my immediate supervisor for looking sad and was instructed to compartmentalize and to never appear emotional at all ever. UGH! Infuriating! I’ve often gotten into hot water in work situations for caring “too much”, but I now see it as an asset. My intuition has steered me clear of many of life’s pitfalls, though certainly not all. People trust me and come to ...

It’s New Years – part of the Diet Industry Axis of Evil (which also includes “bikini season” and “the holidays are coming.”) That means that you can’t open your eyes without being assaulted by diet industry propaganda, and your Facebook feed will be chock full of people (who you likely thought knew better) starting (yet another) diet. Ugh. Let’s start with the onslaught of propaganda. Unfortunately, people who are still duped by diet culture give the diet industry over $60 Billion a year (I don’t know about you, but I definitely used to be one of them!), and the diet industry isn’t shy or stingy about using that money to advertise. Add to that all of the gyms, health and wellness coaches, and anyone in any industry that is willing to jump on the weight loss bandwagon and we are all being bombarded with misinformation and false promises and all kinds of weight loss BS all the damn time. This sucks for everyone who has managed to get off the diet roller coaster, and can be especially dif...

I have had insomnia since I was twelve years old. I was getting bullied pretty bad every day at school. The anxiety of knowing what the next day held, what route I could take to avoid my bullies, where I could sit at lunch to evade them, kept me up at night. Of course, I couldn’t really connect the dots at the time, it’s crystal clear to me now. Prior to this, I would wake up eager for the day to begin. I recall walking to school with wet hair and arriving with it frozen solid in the winter, living only two blocks away from my elementary school, and in California, this was quite a feat! I would dash off to school excited to see my friends and find out what the day’s curriculum might be. So, you know, junior high really sucked! I don’t think my life, or sleeping schedule, ever fully recovered. Even after the bullying stopped, my bullies were a grade above me and thus no longer at my school, my sleep just always sort of suffered. I started to use caffeine for the first time, Pepsi being ...

Self-care gets derided for it’s fluffy, privileged, often spa-specific references in the media. I want to talk about how self-care looks different for everyone. Because it does! You can be flat broke and still practice self-care. It’s way more than facials and blowouts, it’s more about the here and now and what gets you through and soothes your soul. What helps you feel grounded and calm in the face of stress or when you’re too exhausted to cook for yourself, that’s self-care! Self-care is often things we know we need to do, for ourselves, but gets put on the back burner over and over until everything is simply overwhelming. Work, offspring, partners, housekeeping, and caretaking for others, but what about you?!  How do you stay in touch with friends, build or maintain meaningful relationships, pursue your hobbies or passions, or even just cut your damned toenails?! I mention that last one because there is a big difference between going to a spa or salon and getting a ful...