It's been a good run

I think I can officially give you the stoic goodbye salute on this blog. All the margins of my life have been filled up and when I do have time for leisure writing it's now mostly short stories that I'll likely never share with anyone.

But while I'm getting sentimental over the fun that was My Idea of Happiness, here is a quick list I put together of the great times we had together. Thank you, dear reader, it was a slice.

You came along with me as I ate and drank delicious things including...
Twin Pines orchard & ciderhouse
Fire Roasted Coffee / Habitual Chocolate
Chil Frozen Yogurt
The Root Cellar organic cafe
Goodah Gastro food truck
That Crepe Place & Bakery, St Thomas
Richmond Station, Toronto

I packed you in my luggage on various travels including...
Curitia, Brazil
Los Angeles
Chicago
Cocoa Beach, FL
Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba
Great Wolfe Lodge (Traverse City, Michigan)
Huntsville
Trump International, Toronto

I was overwhelmed by the generosity of many kind-minded companies who sponosed My Idea of Happiness, or just made incredible products that I couldn't help but review and promote, or sat down with me for interviews on the great work that they do...
Triple Cord Community-Shared Agriculture program
Chipkos eco-friendly sandals
Cottage Gardener heirloom seeds
Eco Kid bug repellent
Sircuit Skin
Natural Vitality magnesium
Daiya (vegan cheese)
Derma E
Sol Cuisine
Ecover
J.R. Watkins
LARAbars
Rockin' Wellness (shake)
LUSH
Natural Twig Toothbrush
Snappi (for cloth diapers)
100% Pure
Boogie Wipes
Broccofusion
Radius recycled-material toothbrushes
DivaCup
Farm Boy
SoLi Gi gluten-free bars
Molson Canadian (stone fruit cider)
Garnier Eco-Fructis
Homeocan (homeopathics)
DAVIDsTea
Aloha Chocolate & Greens
A & W
Blurb
Sample Source
The Honest Company
The OVer Company

We saw plenty of contribution from the strange & beautiful people in my life, not limited to...
Angela's lentil lasagna (and extensive maple syrup usage guide), Filipe's brazilian brigedeiro recipe, Sarah's honey face mask, Alexis's soap tips, Perrie's feelings on vegan makeup, beauty tips from Jill and Jess, canning with mom and with Aunt Betty and with Ashley and with Bethany (so much canning), laundry soap by Ashley... I am forgetting so many. Please email me so I can update the list.

I featured friends' blogs like...
Britt and Natalie's Three Little Crowns
Dave's The Primal Cave Man

And we attended some fun events (metaphorically) together like...
My Natural Weight Loss lecture at the YMCA
the Birth and Beyond conference
the Bump, Baby & Toddler Expo
Break Up & Move free yoga

I am always, always available via email - amyjoyharrison@gmail.com
I hope you're happy!

Cottage July 2016

Here are some photos I (and others) took at our cottage and in Ottawa.

Ollie and Kota liked to tag along on my early morning photo adventures.

Ottawa bathroom selfie.

This is how interested I was in taking a photo.

This is how interested Dakota was in Papa giving her a shoulder ride.

I'm on the pursuit of happiness...

This is currently my most effective parenting method.

Place me anywhere in the world and I will find the shawarma.

"Mom, your caramel is burning."
"Did you take it off the heat?"
"I did not. I just took a photo and then told you about it."

Just a casual cinnamon apple dutch baby with bacon maple syrup.

This is how I enforce modesty.

My mom learned ukulele in under 30 minutes.

This is Lance Bass and his brother Chance

This is Mr. Avocado the toad

My mom is the type of person who whips up a gluten free wild berry pie as though the task is as simple as breathing

A week's worth of groceries. Family of 4. $100.

Today I did something I haven't done in a LONG time. I grocery shopped by myself. It was a glorious and therapeutic 40 minutes as I pranced down the aisles repeating to myself "Don't forget Asian dressing. Don't forget Asian dressing."

So being that there were no outside influences (aside from the fact that I live with three mega-picky goobers) I am here to show you what I bought for your review and judgment. (Other outside influences include: time, money, selection, North American norms, prep time, I get anxiety about asking people to shuffle over for me to grab something off a shelf, and, I didn't want raw meat touching my Kate Spade purse.)

This food will feed the 4 of us for the week. Keep in mind, I had tons of stuff at home when I got this. These things include: a dozen eggs, more cheese than I could ever eat, a loaf of whole wheat bread, some country butter, 2L of almond milk, tons of fruit, cucumbers, bell peppers, onions, garlic, ginger, all the oil/vinegar/herbs/spices you could ever need, rice, protein powder, hot sauce... you know, the important stuff. And whatever the garden will produce (radishes, chives, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, rhubarb, kale, lettuce).

First, let's get the boring non-food stuff out of the way: paper towel. For those times that your kid's elbow becomes a magnet to every glass of water you set on the table. I feel like I'm living in that Shymalan film about aliens - "swing Merill swing".

Next, from the left we have multigrain wasa, Asian dressing (see, I remembered), an entire ocean of canned tuna, British style beans and cornstarch.

In the towering pile next we have my ramen noodle addiction...

Okay, let's take a moment for a ranty aside. The other day I was trying to think of what my friends and family might put on my tombstone. Like: Here lies Amy Harrison, she sucked at sports but was great at push ups. RIP Amy Harrison, never watched a full movie in her life. Amy: she hated racism so much. Or would it be something like, Damn that girl ate a lot of ramen? I don't know. Probably the last one.

Back to the groceries. Moving toward the front we have a container of premade quinoa salad. This is speaks to my laziness and career success. Then a package of boneless chicken thighs. We'll use these for cold noodle salad as well as chicken pitas. Yes I sanitized my floor after taking this.

Next is natural peanut butter and dill pickles. In case a pregnant woman comes over?

Most embarrassing items next: the "soft baked banana cookies" and "soft baked chocolate cookies" to put in Oliver's lunch. Relax.

Next is whole wheat pitas. When I was selecting these I happened to be on the phone with my mom and was struggling to find any that weren't white. I finally yelled out "JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL, ARE THEY ALL WHITE HERE?!" and a number of people side eyed me.

Two types of yogurt. For the adults, extra-fibre Activia and for the kids, raspberry Iogo drinks.

Then there's an ambiguous pile of fruit and veg which includes carrots, apples, nectarines and bananas. I honestly can't be bothered to haul a ton of produce home from the store when we have so much to harvest right now.

And quite finally, the impossible collection of beverages. There was a sale on a new product Extra Protein Soy Milk. Not a huge fan of soy but was too curious to pass it up. If I totally hate it we'll make some other plant based milk from scratch. A package of powerade for Calvin's baseball games. A package of stevia-sweetened cherry soda. A large "owwange dooce" for Dakota (to spill on the floor). And a cold-pressed kale/orange/apple/cucumber/mint/swiss chard/ginger juice for me because I have a Pavlovian need to recieve a 'treat' everytime I go shopping - thanks Mom.

Thank you my dear readers for your time and please feel free to pass any and all judgment on me in the comments below. My skin is thick and my desire for your feedback is above average.

Our Garden 2016

I can't even over-exaggerate how weird 2016 has been for gardening. Every other year I am the lunatic who has been reading "The Farmer's Almanac" since February. This season, the May 2-4 weekend was suddenly upon us and I realized: usually by this time I've been growing all of my plants from seeds since eight weeks ago. And I realized: I need to get to the garden center. And I realized: I'm the worst.

So we packed up the kids and drove out to Heeman's. I was already growing sage, parsley, chives and strawberries (since they came up on their own - hey, thanks).

I picked up zucchini, cucumber, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce mix, kale, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, blueberries, radishes and beets - the last two I planted as seed because they pop up quick. 

Got them in the ground, watered, caged the tomatoes. Explained to my offspring that any and all ripping of leaves will be punishable by Neflix-bans, and that was it.

Here are some photos.

The raised beds I built with my dad last year for under $100. I did re-fill them with 3-in-1 soil because they were a little on the low side. 

First bed has zucchini, cuc, broc, cauli, lettuce, kale and all the herbs. I was going to plant snap peas from seed but I forgot and now I'm too lazy.

Bed 2 is purely tomatoes. A tomato jungle, if you will. I have the usual beefsteak, roma, cherry. The more interesting ones would be the heirloom pink and heirloom black. I am so excited to cube those into a very minimalistic salad on a white plate with proper natural lighting. You know, for flavour.

And on the far right I have a new blueberry plant, a slew of strawberry plants, rows of crowded beets and rows of even more crowded radishes. I'm reluctant to thin them because I wonder if they'll grow super long and skinny which would be hilarious. (In my, and only my, opinion.)

So that's what's been keeping me busy besides reading short stories by Vonnegut and writing songs on guitar that I'm embarrassed to play in front of anyone else, and working through the week, and oh yeah being a mom. 

If I continue on this trajectory, Garden 2017 will probably just be an aloe vera plant on my kitchen counter.

Toronto Getaway Weekend

Last weekend Calvin planned us a weekend in Toronto with no kids. Which sounds like a really good opportunity to catch up on sleep, except that I only got three hours. Because I'm smart.

Our evening started off having dinner with my sister and her boyfriend. We ate at Richmond Station, a restaurant that is the creation of former Top Chef winner, chef Carl. He was in the kitchen all night, which was totally open to where we sat, so my sister definitely took some strategic selfies with him in the background. We had some delicious drinks - a walnut old fashioned, craft beer... mine was ginger beer based which is pretty typical for me. We polished off an enormous plate of oysters then ordered chick pea fritters with tahini and baba ganoush. Cal was excited to try their famous station burger. My sister settled on a duck dish and her boyfriend ordered rabbit two ways. One dish on the menu caught my eye because of the accompaniments (pickled ramps, oyster mushrooms, tarragon soubis, I'm there) but I honestly didn't know what the main protein was - skate wing. My guess was beef so I asked the server. She said it's a type of manta ray. I was all in, and it was perfect. Lightly floured and pan-seared - the texture was similar to any ocean fish flesh and the flavour was sweet and mild. The pickled ramps put it over the top for me - any acidic component in a meal is a winner for me. (#allthevinegar) We couldn't deny ourselves the dessert menu and we ended up with a matcha bar (good sweet mercy) and this unreal combination of apple crumble (corn shortbread crust) with miso caramel (which I would happily drown in), a toasted nut dusting and this life-changing cheddar ice cream. I also had some coffee, because, coffee. 

Overall, it had really nice decor - hip, modern, minimalist - and incredible service. 10/10 would eat there again. 

We took a 2 minute walk back over to our hotel (Trump International) and spent the next few hours playing round after gut-busting round of Cards Against Humanity. I made the horrible choice to have another coffee. Long after my sister and her boyfriend had left to see a friend's concert, and Calvin had passed out in bed, I was sitting sitting there on my phone like an Energizer bunny, unable to fall asleep until after 2:30am. But the math checked out ... coffee at 11:30pm + 3 hours of caffeination = 2:30am, so I should have seen it coming.

Our room had a beautiful view of the financial district all the way to the Lake. All of the windows were outfitted with powered curtains, much to my demise when Calvin realized this around 8am when he woke up. Unfortunately, I'd woken up at 5am (my body didn't get the memo that Oliver wouldn't be asking for a breakfast sandwich in the next few minutes) and I had used a soak in the giant bath tub to fall back asleep. Little did I know I had an appointment at the spa for 9am so I guess waking up was eventually necessary.

This is the pool I didn't swim in. 

This is the bathroom I took selfies in.

I'll be fantasizing about this tub for the next few years. 

Big beds are my cat nip. You know that Nick Jonas song "Cause space is just a word made up for someone who's afraid to get too... close." yeah, my husband says my version is "Cause close is just a word made up for someone who's afraid to give me ... SPACE." #getoutofmyzone #INTJ

This was my view as I waited for my appointment to begin at the spa.

The manicurist enjoyed my description of what colour I want on my nails as "I only like really light pink, but opaque enough to cover how awful my natural nails look, but still pale enough that it's like the colour of a worn ballet slipper." "So, ballet slipper?" "No. Like a more nude Bubble Bath." "Sweet heart." "I know I'm not usually this difficult but I..." "No, the colour is Sweet heart." "Oh okay, I trust you."

Later she said "So apparently you play guitar." 

We ate in the restaurant upstairs and were not disappointed. Calvin had a ham benny.

I went with the hang over classic, Huevos Racheros. Which I immediately searched on Urban Dictionary to see if it had any double meaning. 

Lunch was at our favourite street meat guy. In case you're wondering, my order is Spicy + olives, kraut, banana peppers & mustard. No drink.

I was told our seats were "pretty crappy, sorry" and I was already convinced that we should start looking for the stairs to get to the upper when suddenly Cal took at turn down a section and we ended up 7 rows from the TD seats behind home plate. And not a damn person saw me on TV! Come on.

This is the face of a tired woman.

And here are some snaps of the Jays. We really had a great weekend and I can't wait til the next one.