June Links.

The month of June is a crazy.  Everything is wrapping up and Mom's like me are breathing deep and gearing up for summer holidays, which means having kids home 24/7.  Amazing and intense all at the same time.


My summer will hopefully consist of:

• embracing the mess, chaos and the noise of having 3 kids home.
• wearing a pony tail with my bangs pinned back for most of the summer - no time to blow dry hair.
• purchasing a membership to our local pool.
• not having to wrestle with my kids to make their school lunches :)
• lazy mornings.
• keeping fighting and whining to a minimum (hopefully!).
• being spontaneous.
• living in the moment.
• Mystery Wednesdays - new this summer (snatched idea from this post)

For the next two months, I likely will not have time to read much of anything on the Internet.  Instead, I have a stack of books that I hope to be reading here and there by the pool, beach and so on.

But here are a few things as of late that I have loved and appreciated online during the month of June:

This letter to young moms.  I loved this.  So true.

Change the Story.  Love the thought of telling a new story.

As an introvert, I resonated with this post by Donald Miller (this one's great too).

My creative sister explains how to make home made deodorant.  As someone who loves natural products, I so want to make this.  Or maybe I'll just see if I can talk her into making me some :)

I listened to this podcast on leadership as I was cleaning my house and thought it was great.

Lastly, this one by Jen Hatmaker.  Steve and I literally laughed out loud when we read it.

Enjoy and savour the last weeks of June.

C.

Press. Pause. Please.

This little girl turned 6 today.  That's right - six.

I can't even believe it.

It's hard to believe that up until six years ago, there were only four of us in this family.

Words scarcely express how much this wee girl has changed and blessed our family.  Honestly, there are not enough words.  She has made our lives richer and fuller (louder too!).  She has multiplied the drama in our home.  She has wrapped all of us around her little finger.  Her very existence has helped her big sisters, who were five-and-a-half and eight when she was born, hang on a little bit longer to their own childhoods as they live vicariously through her.  For goodness sake, her sisters run her birthday parties, help her with her homework, babysit her, plan her Hallowe'en costumes and play school with her.  At this very moment, Eva is making her birthday pancakes.  Really, the list is endless...

Today I am celebrating the past six years and desperately wanting to press pause on the next six.  How I wish I could make time slooooooow down.

Happy Birthday Beth!  We can't imagine our family without you!  You are so loved xoxo.

Rhubarb Crisp.

Admittedly, Steve and I are not the best gardeners and so last summer we (actually it was Steve and not at all me) radially simplified our backyard and made our vegetable and flower gardens smaller.  It was so liberating.  Such freedom for us!  The only thing we kept in our vegetable garden was rhubarb and raspberries - so now, it's essentially a fruit garden :)

Growing up, rhubarb was a staple in our home during the spring and summer months.  Our Mom managed to find a way to put rhubarb in every dessert, muffin and cake possible.  No joke.  I kept the rhubarb in my garden just as much for my parents as I did for me, as they "steal" some every time they come visit us in rhubarb season.

Along with a really simple rhubarb tart recipe, the other recipe I make with this tangy fruit is Rhubarb Crisp.  I cant even remember where I got the recipe, so have no way of giving credit where credit is due.  All I know is that I picked it up in a brochure from a fruit farm over a decade ago.  Technically it is called Blueberry Crisp, but you can put any fruit in it and it turns out amazing.  It's such an easy recipe and tastes heavenly.  100% comfort food.

This morning I picked some rhubarb, washed it, chopped it up and Beth and I made this:

Rhubarb Crisp
Filling:
1/2 cup of packed brown sugar
4 cups of fresh fruit
2 tbsp. cornstarch

Topping:
1/2 cup of all-purpose flour (I use gf all-purpose flour)
1/2 cup of uncooked oats
1/2 cup of packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter

In a 9" baking pan, combine brown sugar and cornstarch.  Stir in fruit until coated.  For topping, combine flour, brown sugar and oats.  Cut in butter until crumbly.  Sprinkle over fruit.  Bake at 375F for about 30 minutes or until bubbling and golden.  Increase baking time to 45 minutes for frozen fruit.

Serve it warm with some vanilla ice cream and it's pure heaven.