This year it is more important than ever to approach Canada Day with the respect and reverence that it deserves.

Canada Day is not a day of celebration. It should be a day of education.

A day of mourning the thousands upon thousands of families shattered over hundreds of years. A day where we talk about the unthinkable things that people did to steal this country, and the effects those things have had, and continue to have on Indigenous people generation after generation.

I ran away for 3 nights to untangle the gnarly knots in my heart and soul…

I almost went into an explanation of why I needed the time away. But there doesn’t have to be a special reason. I don’t need to earn time to myself. Time to think. Time to rest. Time to dream. Psst. Either do you. Find out how to make a solo retreat a reality.

The show starts. The Discovery+ logo makes that fun sound and zooms across the screen.

Just like that it begins. “Every year, 2 Million Americans renovate their homes,” starts the narrator, the music is intense. The cinematography is beautiful, “it’s one of the most stressful” she carries on ”YOU’RE PULLING OUR HOUSE APART!” interrupts Katherine with a shriek. And there we are.

Our family flashes across the screen.

HOW ARE YOU CELEBRATING PRIDE?

If you don’t feel like shouting and screaming and dancing and resisting you are not alone. I personally have run out of words.

It’s June and this is when I should be ramping up! Instead I’m turning inwards.

Does your family do allowances? Are you on the “NO WAY! Chores are just being a part of the family” train? Or do you land somewhere in between? 

Like pretty much everything else that works well in our family life, Katherine and I have created a system! Find out all about how our system works!

To our kids, our very queer family is typical.

I love it! And yet, I also want them to know that we are Queer! That we’ve got a little extra rainbow magic in us. Sometimes that is amazing. And sometimes that can put us in dangerous positions.

I want them to know how to talk about their family when they encounter people who don’t love and live with freedom like we do.

And so started our kids’ queer education by way of books!

These are my babies. Epic, our middle kid is racing towards 12, his little teen moustache starting to form.

But this is deeper than that.

I am overwhelmed with love and pride as I watch him grow into a man. With his muscles, and his deep voice and his testosterone changing him right in front of my eyes.

If my son were black, I can imagine, I might have conflicted feelings of pride, and fear.

Raise your hand if you’ve cried while living through a renovation!

ALL MY HANDS ARE IN THE AIR.

If you’ve ever lived through a reno, with kids, on a remote island, you know it’s the most stressful. Like for real.

The story of this renovation is too long for one post but the answer to our problems was simple - we just needed some heroes.

This past summer we took on the hardest, most exhausting project of our lives. And we can finally start telling you about it! Get ready to watch us on Discovery+

Have you ever sat up late at night googling, “What to say when someone comes out to you?”, or “when someone you love comes out” or even, “what to say when kid comes out?”

This is my wife, Katherine. Not only is she hot, and smart, like write books, smart. She’s also the fiercest woman I know. The we should all be just a little bit scared of her, in the best sort of way, kind of fierce. What can I say, I like em feisty.

Are you afraid of the phone like I am?

UGH!!! Free Trials— They are all a SHAM! They sit upon a throne of lies! Almost always that free trial turns into a subscription I didn’t notice, because details are not my love language, and I end up paying for something I don’t actually want for at least 6 months while I gather the courage to end our relationship jam packed with unrequited love! Anyone else with me here?

So what’s a guy to do?

CONFESSION: I HATE CAKE

Well I like the cake just fine actually. I really don’t like icing. Such an unpopular opinion, I know. Katherine basically believes I am broken. In her opinion cake is the necessary serving vessel required to deliver as much icing into ones gullet as possible. In short she loves icing. The sweater the better. But it wasn’t her birthday today! Oh no! Today it’s all about me! So instead of cake for my birthday, we do No Bake Cherry Cheese Cake, with Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk.

DO YOU MAKE A “DID IT” LIST?

I don’t know about you, but I always enter the end of the year with a fair amount of angst, especially as a parent it’s easy to end the year feeling at least a little bit like a failure, and 2020 was no different. Until I stop and list all the actual shit I did this year in my annual “DID IT LIST!”

SHE WAS 8, IN THE 3RD GRADE WHEN SHE LEARNED I AM SANTA

She was the cutest Rapping Elf there ever was in her school concert. I remember it like it was yesterday. She was overflowing with Joy. Like you’ve never seen this kinda of joy. Her love for Christmas and the North Pole and all things MAGIC was intoxicating.

AHHH WHAT DO I EVEN BUY!?!

I never thought that I would be the kind of person that writes a Holiday Gift Guide. Typically I’m the one freaking out a week before Christmas because I find gift giving harder than child birthing. And I’ve done that 4 times, a bunch of different ways, so I know. And yes, I do recognize that that makes me weird. Not the child birthing part. Lots of Transgender folks birth kids. The part where I would choose the birthing over the gift giving— that’s the weird part.

YOUR BEST OR YOUR WORST?

Do you think about what you’re passing on to your kids? We spend a lot of time talking about all the things we pass down to our children. We don’t talk much about the parts of ourselves that we work so hard to keep to ourselves, terrified to pass it on to our sweet babies. For me there is more from my childhood I keep tucked away from them than traditions and memories I share.

TRANS AWARENESS WEEK.

The life expectancy of a transgender person is 35. Statistically speaking this is my last year, but I’m all about defying the odds. I’m here. I’m alive. I’m loved. I am a lucky one.

IT’S ONLY BEEN ONE WEEK.

When your BIPOC, queer, or disabled friends haven’t quite bounced back, remember they just lived through an election cycle where their worth, rights, dignity and frankly their lives were debated on a 24 hour loop. Then they watched 70 million people vote against their human rights.

5 MONTHS IN.

This is our update 5 months in on our little hobby farm, I let you know all the things. Like, how we’re settling in? Do the kids like school? How many chickens do you have, what type are they, are there roosters, what do they eat and why are they so cute? Secret Project what now? It's a lot to catch up on. I’ve covered most of it in just less than 5 minutes.