It wouldn't be a birthday without it

I don't know when Hilary first got the recipe book that included Chocolate Irish Potato cake, but ever since then almost every birthday has been celebrated with it.  We even made it as a wedding cake for friends of ours, they loved it that much.

So of course Hilary spent the day slaving over a hot stove making it for my birthday.  We've never had a dome shaped one but it cooked up evenly and just as delicious as always!

Its a great way to start off being 43!  And there is lots left over for breakfast!

Swimmer's ear

Let's talk about parenting guilt.

Over a week ago Liam complained of ear pain, even woke up crying from it in the middle of the night.  Of course, this was in the middle of our vacation.  We considered taking him to the local small town ER where we were staying, but by the time he woke up in the morning he seemed fine.  I didn't think taking a very healthy looking, active, not currently in pain kid to the ER was a good way to use our fine Canadian medical system. So we ignored it.

Then the ear got better.  Then the pain switched ears.  Then it hurt again.  Sometimes the outer ear hurt to the touch, sometimes it was the inner ear.  Then it got better.  Then the pain switched ears.  Rinse and repeat for a week.  The guilt inducing part was the fact that with all the switcheroos going on, I didn't really 100% believe him.

Last night the pain was at it's worse, so we decided to head to the walk in clinic today, no matter how it felt by morning.  It's a beautiful day out and the clinic is only a 20 minute walk from home.  Or a 60 minute walk if you get most of the way there and realize that Liam's health card is in Hilary's purse at home.

Turns out the he has an infection, commonly referred to as Swimmer's Ear.  His ear is so full of goop (technical turn used by the doctor) that he couldn't even see his ear drum to tell if it's perforated or burst from the plane rides or driving up and down the mountains.  Having never had swimmer's ear myself, I didn't realize that the pain comes and goes and can be felt more on the outer physical ear then the inner ear. Way to go Mama.

He has ear drops to use for the next 7 days and needs to keep his ears dry for the week too.  He's very excited to have a legitimate reason to avoid hair washing!  Of course he starts going to a day camp tomorrow that has swimming as part of their schedule.  Luckily he's fine with sitting it out for the week.  He started a Dr Who novel while we were on vacation so he can take that to camp to read during swim time.

Note to self:  If the kid is complaining about something, believe him!

Daring Kitchen - Yogurt

Well I'm more then a week late with this post, but better late then never!

Blog-checking lines: The lovely Cher of The Not So Exciting Adventures of a Dabbler was our July Daring Cooks’ hostess and she asked us to create homemade yogurt in our own kitchens! No incubators needed, no expensive equipment or ingredients, just a few items and we had delicious yogurt for a fraction of the cost and a whole lot healthier than what you buy in the stores!

We used to make yogurt every week.  We would eat it with fruit, cereal, strain it and cook with it.  But over the years we moved on to the convenience of simply buying yogurt, even though it's not that hard to make.  We had talked about getting back to making it again, so this challenge was just the push we needed

We made a plain yogurt, then strained it to thicken it and added garlic, cucumber, salt, pepper, red wine vinegar and some sugar and turned it into tzatziki.  We then served it on homemade turkey burgers.

Pampered

I decided to pamper myself this weekend.

First I had a manicure:

Then I had a pedicure:

Then for the first time ever I had my eyebrows waxed:

For the record, having your eyebrows waxed hurts 1000% times more then getting a tattoo!

And Hilary is going to cut my hair.  I feel like a new woman!

Another Year

"It's not every day that your

young man turns 11!"

11 years ago at 11:58 AM a new little baby joined this world.  And I have the privilege of being one of his mothers.

I can't wait to see what the next 11 years (and beyond) will hold. 

Happy Birthday Liam!

HAL

We've used the initials of our three first names to refer to our family for quite awhile now. HAL is how we often sign cards, fill out our return address on mail and I even have it stamped on a necklace that I wear all the time.

For a long time now I have been toying with the idea of getting another tattoo.  Why yes, I already have 2 that I got in my early 20's. After lots of consideration for what I would get, where I would put it, colour, design and choice of tattoo artist, I finally decided:

I left the overall design up to the tattoo artist, Helena.  I just told her during my consultation that I wanted it on my forearm, I wanted our 3 initials and that I wanted it somehow bordered by a Celtic line.  One of my other tattoos is a Celtic knot on my shoulder, so I thought it was a nice tie in.  I had tried to doodle many designs on my own, but since I have the handwriting of a drunk squirrel wearing oven mitts, my "designs" were kinda frightening.  I was thrilled when she showed me her drawing today.  I hadn't settled on colour till I sat down in the chair, when I decided to go with purple.

I'm so happy with the overall result!  I can't wait for it to heal (and no, the blueish/purplish colour around the HAL is not bruising, it's shading) so that I can see exactly how it will look for the rest of my life.

New Food

As you know we struggle with getting Liam to eat not just new foods, but any food.  Weight gain is celebrated in grams.

Today he came home from camp and requested to have a Subway turkey sub with lettuce for dinner.   Of course we jumped at the suggestion!  New food!  Calories!  Somewhat Healthy!

I love peer pressure and the influential friend who sold him on the virtues of Subway at lunch today.