Bluehive Bamboo Wireless Chargers | Available NOW at Canadian Tire!

The featured image for a post on Bluehive Bamboo Wireless Chargers, available at Canadian Tire.

Disclaimer: I was compensated for this review of Bluehive Bamboo Wireless Chargers, but all opinions remained my own.

With working from home becoming a much bigger part of the picture for so many of us thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to make the most of our spaces since we’re in them so often.

Wireless Charging | What IS It?

Wireless charging, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is exactly what it sounds like—charging your mobile device without needing to plug your device in to do it. It’s not quite as space-age as it sounds—you still need to lay your device on some sort of surface to make the charging happen, but those surfaces have started looking a lot more stylish than they used to!

Enter: The Bluehive Bamboo Wireless Chargers, from Your Friends at Canadian Tire!

Inspired by the possibilities when you bring the natural and technological worlds together, Canadian Tire explores properly introducing wireless charging into the home with their Bluehive brand, which keeps people connected on the go with innovative and stylish mobile electronic accessories!

  1. The Bluehive Bamboo Wireless Charging Pad ($39.99), which is a single bamboo pad to put a device on for charging,
  2. The Bluehive 10W Wireless Charge Pad with Arch LED Light ($59.99), which adds an adjustable light over the charging area,
  3. And, the Bluehive Foldable 10W Wireless Charge Pad with LED Lamp ($89.99), which has a foldable lamp, a USB port for charging your older technology, and adjustable colour temperature to meet the mood of your space!
Continue reading to learn more about the Bluehive Bamboo Wireless Charger Series from Canadian Tire! “Bluehive Bamboo Wireless Chargers | Available NOW at Canadian Tire!”

Pickering Museum Village

Pickering Museum Village (Featured Image)

The Pickering Museum Village—an open-air museum located just outside of Toronto in Pickering, Ontario—offers a glimpse into the history of the Pickering area with an engaging family program that’ll both educate and entertain!

As parents, what we’ve learned about parenting in a pandemic is that you’re constantly looking for activities to make the days interesting and put the cries of boredom at bay. But with the pandemic bringing so much of our children’s programming to a halt for sixteen months and running, we’re all hungry for options that let us explore life beyond our homes and our neighbourhoods.

  • Pickering Museum Village | The Palmers in Front of the Bible Christian Chapel
  • Pickering Museum Village | The Palmer Family in front of Duffin's Creek General Store

And so, enter the Pickering Museum Village and its creative methods of delivering its programming in a world whose rules are so different.

Continue Reading about the Pickering Museum Village and what it has to offer your family! “Pickering Museum Village”

It’s Not Babysitting if it’s Your Kid.

The featured image for Forty Days for Father's Day #8 featuring Casey with his youngest son in a baby carrier.

Last updated on June 5th, 2021 at 12:49 pm

Why the World Has Fatherhood WRONG.

It took me until we had our second child to feel like I was getting a handle on fatherhood, much of the awkwardness I’d had from those early days with our first son melted away as I just sprang into action the second time around.

But I’ll never forget what happened a few weeks into being a family of four when Sarah and I decided to do some grocery shopping with our newborn while our oldest was away at daycare.

How Manulife Can Cover Me — Why Life Insurance is SO IMPORTANT — Newborn Little Man in His Carseat

Grocery shopping as new parents is always easier when you have two or more people do it together, because trying to manage a baby and shopping cart on your own ain’t easy!

(Putting a car seat on top of a shopping cart is a no-no, so how do you carry you baby and have room for your groceries, too? Do you get a second cart? Get a stroller with generous bottom basket like the Uppababy Vista and take smaller trips? You have to get very creative to make it work, but a parent’s gotta do what a parent’s gotta do.)

So, with two of us there to share the load, we decided to split up and have me walk our baby around the store for his nap while Sarah got everything we needed. And as I did a lap past the meat aisle, an older woman not much lighter in complexion than myself decided to strike up conversation about my baby and me.

“Awww—look at your baby! He’s so cute!”

“Thank you!”

“Oh, I miss those days—he looks so sweet while he sleeps!”

“Well, so far so good, anyway.”

“Where’s the mother? She let you take him out on your own?”

I’m sorry—what???

Continue reading “It’s Not Babysitting if it’s Your Kid.”

13 Things Dads Need to Know When Having Kids

The featured image for the seventh "Forty Days to Father's Day" piece for Casey Palmer, Canadian Dad, featuring Casey Palmer and his eldest son, 2014

Last updated on May 26th, 2021 at 11:29 pm

Though I know that I’m one of the few dads publicly sharing his fatherhood story up here in the Great White North, my story isn’t the only Canadian fatherhood story out there, and I’ll continue reminding the world that it’s only one of the 4.5 million in Canada.

4.5 million dads live up here in Canada—and probably even more who aren’t parenting children full-time—and each of their stories is just as valid as the next to tell the full story of what fatherhood’s all about. And with my fatherhood story only being seven-and-a-half years in its making, there’s a whole heap of fatherhood I haven’t even experienced yet.

What’s it like to raise a teenager? What’s it like to have an empty nest? How do you give the sex talk? How do you handle it when they want to learn how to drive?

With all the communities I’ve joined in my time as a dad, there are so many other men whose experiences I rely on every day to show me what I should expect in the years to come. And so a week into Forty Days to Father’s Day, I want to share some gems with you from all the wisdom they’ve given to me.

Continue reading “13 Things Dads Need to Know When Having Kids”

First Steps to Fatherhood: A Year Makes a Difference!

The featured image for the sixth Forty Days to Father's Day piece, featuring Casey holding his eldest son at six months old in May 2014. They're standing in the Palmer household kitchen.

Last updated on May 20th, 2021 at 01:22 am

I have a theory—if more fathers were able to stay with their babies till they were six months old, we’d have far fewer deadbeat dads in the world.

Just wait a minute—hear me out.

Casey holding his son in the Palmer household dining room, May 2014

Not all dads are created equal. We come from different backgrounds with different circumstances and carry different toolkits to get the parenting job done.

But not all fathers make it to the Dad Life.

Life is very complicated—we react to its curveballs in all sorts of ways. Some babies come unexpectedly and their fathers are unwilling to step up to the responsibility. Some fathers are kept away from their babies because they can’t get along with the mom, and the letter of the law doesn’t often fall in their favour. You end up with prospective fathers who are too young, too broke, or too irresponsible to be there for their kid.

I was fortunate to enter fatherhood with it all very planned out, growing our family after two years of marriage seeming like the next logical step. But even though we’d read the books, watched the videos, and taken the birthing classes at the hospital up the street, nothing ever fully prepares you for what fatherhood’s going to be like.

Continue reading “First Steps to Fatherhood: A Year Makes a Difference!”