Chasing Happiness Blog

If you follow me  on social media you know, I love my birthday. Some years I celebrate for weeks surrounding my birthday. I do this for a number of reasons (which I will talk about in a minute) and I think you should too.   Here's why….. Your birthday is meant to be a celebration of your life. A celebration of how much better the world is...

We're now 11 days into 2019 and I've talked to a lot of people so far this year who are hoping that 2019 will be a better year than 2018 was. It's made me wonder how many people have no reason to get out of bed in the morning? For those of you who have been a part of this blog for a while, you know that in June of 2015 I felt the same way and I cou...

2018 was such a crazy year for me that I really don't know how to put into words all the things that have happened. I started the year off living with friends of mine who had just found out there were going to have twins! For a couple who struggled with fertility treatments to have children, I was overwhelmed and excited for them. The year held a l...

With being sick for the last few weeks I haven't done much of anything. I haven't gone out a whole lot as I've been too sick to bother getting out of bed. I did, however, go out a few nights ago. Not for long but just long enough for a quick drive to Niagara Falls to check out the Christmas Light displays as I'm hoping to do a Thursday night l...

For those of you who follow our podcast, you will know that this week I interviewed Beth from The Collectionears Club on YouTube about this awesome idea she has to bring together a bunch of Disney Christmas trees from around the world. This is Beth. She started The Collectionears Club as a way to help showcase her love of Disney while also showcasi...

  Do you ever stop in the middle of doing something to take a minute to appreciate what is going on around you? Have you ever found yourself looking at a sunrise or sunset with a wonderful sense of completeness? Do you look at things like Niagara Falls or The Grand Canyon with awe and wonder? I do! I find myself more and more, as I get older, ...

For those of you who have followed this blog for a while, you know that every year while I'm living in Niagara I love to take part in a charity event held in Niagara Falls. This "Sleep Cheap" event is a fundraiser held just for people who live locally (you have to prove your Niagara address to take part) and the funds all go to local charities...

It's something we heard all the time when we were kids. "You are what you eat". We also heard a lot of "eat more meat" and "eat more grains". There wasn't much of a mixed message when I was a kid. It was pretty simple. Follow the Canada food guide and you will be healthy. Of course, this wasn't true but I had no way of knowing that as a kid. Back t...

  We live in this filtered, staged, photo-shopped to perfection world now and I sometimes have a hard time processing that. I've talked before in this blog about how I feel this has created an unrealistic expectation of what life should be. I made a promise to this community that I would not just whitewash life on this blog. I said we would ta...

I love to travel. I talk about it often and I am lucky to be able to say that every few months I find myself on a flight to somewhere. I get a lot of people emailing me about this because many people wonder why I enjoy it (traveling) so much when it can be such a stressful thing. After all, it's not as simple as just getting on a flight and poof yo...

I've recorded a podcast about this but it seems that Apple Podcasts and I are having some issues right now so my web team is working on hosting the Podcasts on this site for you while we work with Apple to get this all sorted out. In the meantime, I am going to fill you in on the podcast here on the blog and hopefully, in the next few days, we can ...

Let's face it we all have days where we think "I wish I could go back to being a kid and have nothing to worry about" right? The truth is there are some days where we as adults think 'Why is this so hard?' I've spent the last week trying to fix problems with my Podcasts and Website so they work together and I don't seem to be making progress. I am ...

I don't know how many of you actually subscribe to podcasts but since I started the Chasing Happiness Podcast last year, I now have a list of about 30 podcasts I subscribe to. This may sound like a lot but in the world of podcasting, it really is a small number. I know people who subscribe to hundreds of different Podcasts. So today I thought we sh...

"You're more of a mother than most women with children. People use this 'mother' title to feel value within themselves not realizing it's the capacity to love that makes you a true woman."    Wise words from a very wise soul who I am blessed to know and love. These words came to me in response to a short article I had posted on my persona...

The last few months or so I have watched as a number of people express to me "How lucky I am that I don't have kids, or a husband or a house to worry about. You can travel and work when you choose to do so."   Frankly, I know I have a sense of freedom that not everyone has, however, I'm sick of people telling me that they can't do what I do be...

 The last few months, hell the last six months even, have been so hard to classify for me. I don't even know where to start with trying to describe all of what has gone on. I've moved back across the country, I've lived with some amazing friends of mine. People who I can never thank enough for taking me into their lives. People who gave me mor...

When I woke up today I saw a Facebook post from my sister in law (she has been away for a couple of weeks and I didn't realize she was now back at home and online again), I posted a short comment to welcome her home without understanding what the "Me Too" that she had posted actually meant. As I scrolled through my Facebook I saw more and more wome...

This past weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving. I haven't put much thought into holidays over the last couple of years because I was living across the country. This year, I'm home, back in Ontario and although I didn't spend this Thanksgiving with my family this year, I'm grateful to be home. I'm grateful to be close enough to everyone that I'm within...

Today is October 3rd. For most people, today is just a normal day. A day like any other. People go to work, go shopping, do normal things. Today is not a normal day for me. Today is a reminder of a loss that even now, six years later, I'm still not recovered from. Six years ago today Nikita passed away in my arms. Yeah for most people the loss of a...

I've been back in Ontario about a month now. As you know I haven't posted anything on this blog since returning. I've barely posted on social media. I haven't lost interest or decided consciously to walk away, I've just lost the energy to do it.   ​ When I first got back to Ontario my life became very chaotic, very quickly. The plan I had in p...