MSI Press Blog

  Dr. Liz Bayardelle holds a PhD in business psychology with a strong footing in the practical application psychological research. She serves as a digital consultant. She has written two books published by MSI Press:  Clean Your Plate! 13 Things Good Parents Say That Ruins Kids’ Lives  and (forthcoming)  Parenting in a Pademic . In her own words, Dr. Bayardelle, as a busy, educated, multitasking mother, “runs a household with a teenage stepdaughter, a toddlernado, a newborn baby, two dogs totaling over 200 pounds of poor behavior, and a rabbit the size of a large housecat. She also runs a successful parenting blog ( theStaySaneMom.com ) that has an avid following of mothers who want to be smart, engaged, and thoughtful parents. For more posts about Liz Bayardelle and her work, click HERE .

  Excerpt from Travels with Elly (MacDonald) - from chapter 2, ALBERTA  “If we hope to preserve our way of life, the first thing we must do is rediscover our respect for the land, the water, and the entire natural world. And if we do manage to regain that respect, then we must make sure that human beings never lose it again.” (Quote from the late, The Honorable Dr. Lois E. Hole, displayed on a plaque at the Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park in St. Albert)  Shortly after crossing the border, we entered Crowsnest Pass, site of the devastating Frank Slide. In the early morning of April 29, 1903, a mountainside came thundering down in the darkness, burying most of the town of Frank and killing 90 people, the highest death toll from any slide in Canada. Massive boulders, remnants of the slide, remain piled 30-metres high on both sides of the road. An Interpretation Centre provides personal stories of survivors and dynamic, hands-on educational programs. To forewarn residents

  I have written a bit about the process of pets dying before, along with the ways in which vets can be (or not) helpful. In that post, I shared a book by Barbara Karnes on understanding the pet-dying process, which I had found very helpful and which would have provided me with a fair amount of relief and guidance had I known about while Murjan was still alive. It explained much about his dying process and death that was comforting in retrospect. You can read that post HERE . In this post, I want to share the emotional aspects not only of the dying itself but also of the role of the support community (which should be supportive but in our case was not so, at least not to the extent that we needed and that could have been). As a result, my experience with Murjan's dying days were traumatic--more traumatic than they should have been because of lack of support from the veterinary hospital that should have been my source of support.  As I explained in the earlier post, Murjan had been

  excerpt from  Living in Blue Sky Mind How We Talk I remember a time that I lied to my mother and how it made me feel. One night my brother and I had a plan. We were going to throw a water balloon out of our bedroom window against the wall of the house next door. After lights went out and we got into bed, I snuck into the bathroom and filled a balloon with water. I came back, and my brother lifted the screen to our window. I leaned out as far as I could and threw the balloon. It was lopsided and slippery so it flew off target. I heard a window break. My brother and I dove into our beds. I saw that the shade on our window was up so I stood to pull it down. When I was in the window, the porch light from the house next door came on. Our neighbor stepped out and saw me. I fell on my pillow. She already saw me so I got on my knees and looked out, acting groggy, as if I had just woken up. Someone broke our window,” our neighbor said. “Did you see anything?” I thought for a second. “I think