Originally intended to simply focus on book reviews, over time, KaliDesautelsReads has morphed into its own entity.
I write about issues that are near to my heart, be they political, feminist, motherhood, mental health, or, as the title holds, books.
A thirty-something Canadian woman in my mid-thirties, I have been “super married” to my high school sweetheart since 2006, and together we have two crazy, clever, kind, hilarious, wonderful kids.
My first book – How Not To Blog: Finding Myself, One Post at a Time is available on Amazon (in eBook formats for you clever tech readers, and paperback for those of us who love that new book smell!)
I have tried a podcast – it’s still on Apple and Google Podcasts – but writing is where my heart is.
My life changed dramatically when my husband was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer in 2018, and I am now a writer for a leading Canadian Cancer Non-Profit.
I am lucky enough to have a family that loves me and pushes me to be my best, even if it is outside of my cushiony comfort zone. I have a village of friends that nourish me, mentally, and spiritually.
Welcome to my thoughts. Sit down. Stay a while. Enjoy a cup of coffee!
I am so thankful this boy. The first baby in our family, this smiley, silly, smart boy. This kid sits patiently on facetime teaching his younger cousin how to play Mario. This kid is my soul twin if ever there was one. So for the first thankful post of Thanksgiving weekend, I am thankful for my Buddy Boy, regardless of the kilometres between us. ⠀
Just a reminder from the great man himself – if you can dream it, you can do it. It may take forever and it may not be easy, but you can do it. Don’t let the fact that something hasn’t been done before stop YOU from doing it yourself!! As the amazing @msrachelhollis always says – no one will care about your dream as much as you do, and NO ONE gets to tell you how big your dreams can be. .
In recent history, Canadian identity has had the underlying theme of being NOT American. What is the Canadian Identity? Well, first of all we are not American. Beyond that, some people are unsure of what we are. The past 2 years have reinforced to me over and over and over how glad I am to be “not American”. I question the sanity of even travelling to a country where the man in charge has threatened to “destroy” his closest neighbours, but willingly sits with Kim Jung Un and Vladimir Putin. That said, it is while this nonsensical rabbit hole to a not to distant history Old White Boys Club of politics has opened up and swallowed our southern neighbours that we Canadians must stand with and shout angrily for our sisters and brothers to the South. We must advocate for them as we do our sister in India, and the Congo, and Colombia. I am so angry to have had my basest fears of the America that exists next door to me come to fruition AGAIN today. 2 years ago, I truly did not believe that this could be where the world is headed; now I know that it is a disappointing state of being that we need to rally against. Women, men, people of colour, LGBTQ+, immigrants, anyone who disagrees with the current administration are not safe and as the chips become more and more stacked, please remember that you are not alone. The rest of the World hears you and I can honestly say, we stand with you.
Today, it was Mama’s turn to pick out the show for family movie night. In light of current events, a desire to introduce our kids to history, including WWII, while still enjoying a family friendly film, I chose one of my very favourite movies, A League of Their Own. If you don’t know, this is a movie about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (I genuinely don’t think they could have come up with a longer or more sexist name if they had tried, but I digress), who entertained fans while North American men were fighting in WWII. They were the Rosie the Riveters of sport – intended to do the job until the men came back to do it “better”.
My take aways from watching this 26 year old movie with my kids are: 1) my daughter struggled the make sense of why the women would have to choose between their kids, spouses, and baseball; 2) both of my kids did not understand what was supposed to be so funny about revealing Marla Hooch’s face near the beginning – they said she isn’t ugly, she just looks scared; 3) neither of them could grasp why they would be sent back to the kitchens after the “boys came back”, as they figured there were probably enough baseballs for everyone; 4) my daughter wondering how on earth anyone could play baseball in a miniskirt. My ultimate greatest takeaway? That I have great kids, and 🤞they are being raised to understand that everyone is equal, everyone has worth, to look past someone’s face and see the emotion that is there, and that there is room in this world for both of them.
Are you all signed up for the #Last90Days? 🎉 It’s not too late to join! If you’ve ever participated in Last90Days then you know how awesome it is. If you’ve never done it before, you should totally join in because it’s super motivational and absolutely FREE.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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The intention is simple… can we be as intentional about taking care of ourselves and working on our goals for the last 90 days of the year so we START the New Year more on fire than ever before?! We can tell you the answer is YES! All it takes is a plan, and a prompt and some motivational emails and videos and a community of people who are dedicated to supporting each other!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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We start officially THIS Monday, October 1st and if you’re interested you can sign up for this challenge at 👉🏻 http://www.thechicsite.com/90days or email us at hello@thehollisco.com 💌 If you signed up for it last year don’t worry, you’re still in! Last90Days #TheHollisCompany
Virtual Book Club with @rfempower @leniproof @kalidesautelsreads have a vino chilling, out fluffiest blankets at the ready and we’re getting stuck into October’s 📚 .
Have you heard of the 5 second rule by @melrobbinslive ? If you haven’t go check out her @ted__talks on the #5secondrule don’t say yeah yeah I’ll do that later, instead count down a 🚀
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Now go to the bio and join us at #virtualbookclub because we know you are going to love this simple technique that will help you take control of your life.
Kali J Desautels 