Leanne Shirtliffe's Blog

I’m feeling very Canadian. Our national band, The Tragically Hip, gave their last concert in Kingston because their frontman Gord Downie—who’s been called Canada’s Shakespeare and poet laureate—has incurable brain cancer. On Saturday, CBC carried the concert live, and a nation shut down to watch, to celebrate, and to say […]

The post On being Canadian: wearing toques in summer appeared first on Ironic Mom.

I’m a sucker for before-and-after shots—and not just because most mornings I feel like a “before” model in the back pages of one of those magazines whose mission is to make you feel worse. I like knowing that change is possible, that I too could change my skin, my weight, […]

The post Oh, the Places I Grow Grass: Before and After appeared first on Ironic Mom.

I’d like to put out an APB for my lawn. It’s sometimes difficult to spot amid hardened patches of nutrient-depleted soil. Don’t believe me? Look: And because we have winters that lasts 14 months a year, the salt on our vehicles falls onto our driveway. When we shovel our driveway, […]

The post The Weird Places I Can Grow Grass appeared first on Ironic Mom.

When the Liberal government announced that they were going to legalize weed, I thought that meant growing thistles and dandelions was going to be the “in thing.” You know, kind of how Prime Minister Trudeau has made doing yoga poses on board tables cool. Except the only yoga pose I’ve […]

The post Suburban Woman vs. Weeds appeared first on Ironic Mom.

It’s four days until I’m done teaching for the year. The winter break will be here soon, possibly before I break, but not before I post more exhausted-teacher-memes to Facebook. Then I feel it. Like the head of a Xenomorph trying to escape my chin. A too-many-chocolates and stress zit. I […]

The post My Chin, My Husband, and North Korea appeared first on Ironic Mom.

On July 15, 2000, my husband and I were married in rural Manitoba.   That was fifteen years ago today. This is how our anniversary played out this morning. * I adjust my duvet cover and look at Chris, who’s half a kilometre away in our king-size bed. “Hey, Happy Anniversary,” […]

The post This Is What 15 Years of Marriage Looks Like appeared first on Ironic Mom.

There are many ways to survive The Calgary Stampede as an intact family. Here are five. 1. Leave town. Without your children. I’m on Breakfast TV this morning. Then I’m heading east for a girls’ trip with my mom, aunt, sister, and cousin in Saskatchewan. Yeehaw! 2. If you can’t leave […]

The post Surviving the Calgary Stampede with Kids appeared first on Ironic Mom.

It’s nearly Mother’s Day. Usually I celebrate Mother’s Day by calling my mom and apologizing for not sending her a card. Being awesome, my mom says she doesn’t want a card. Look how amazing she was (and still is…even though this picture was taken a few years ago). But this Mother’s […]

The post Funny and Easy Gifts for Mother’s Day appeared first on Ironic Mom.

I’ve been trying to get fit(ter). For about 40 years now. I’m a slow learner. I do yoga about twice a year, which is just slightly less than I exercise. Lately when I do yoga poses, I feel not-so-limber. Kind of like Lego. In fact, doing yoga when you’re in your […]

The post Lego Yoga: What It Feels Like to Exercise in Your 40s appeared first on Ironic Mom.

I like wooden things: tables, desks, trees. Sometimes even toothpicks if I have corn-on-the-cob stuck in my teeth. (Clarification: The kernels, not the cob, though I suppose I might need a toothpick—or a pickaxe—if I got an entire cob stuck between my teeth.) And now I also like wooden watches. […]

The post Funny Review Time: Jord Wood Watch appeared first on Ironic Mom.