Homegrown Rhubarb Crumble

A Winter delight that brings warmth and colour to my home and nurtures my family.

Thanks to my popular IG photo of rhubarb in the garden, here's a recipe with old-fashioned flair and lots of love:

You'll need about 1kg of rhubarb from your garden. Trim the leaves and keep the rich red stems.

Base:

1 kg rhubarb stems cut straight from the garden

2 apples, peeled and sliced with love

1/4 cup of water

A good handful of soft brown sugar

Wash and slice rhubarb, marvel at this luscious growth that's taken place just outside your door. Place in a saucepan with the water and apple slices, then let the soft, browny sugar crystals gently slip from your hands on to the top.

Place the lid on and gently simmer until soft, pungent and a soft pinky-red colour (like a beautiful sunset).

Crumble:

1 cup self-raising flour

150g cold butter (the real, full-fat stuff)

1/2 cup more soft brown sugar (oh, you luscious delight!)

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Place all ingredients into your favourite special bowl and massage that butter baby! Right into the silky dryness of that flour until it's just right and crumbly.

Now don't skimp here! The beauty of slowly bringing this dish into being is such a blessing.

Be mindful. Cook with intention and love. Nurture the sh*t out of it so it brings light and joy to your home tonight.

Sprinkle generously over your rhubarb base and bake for about 25 mins in an oven set to 180*C

Viola! An amazing, old-fashioned, seasonal delight created with love and intention. 

It's something that keeps life simpler, more on purpose and in our house this evening it's hitting the mark perfectly. Xx

12 souls who inspire me online

Image via Lori Portka

 

 

I have some regular inspiration that I turn to, and I thought I'd share. 'Cause sharing is caring and these souls are amazing - they rock my world regularly, shift the way I see things and help me live with passion and purpose.

1. Tara Bliss at Such Different Skies - an amazing lady I have so much love for. She's been my mentor for a while now and her website is my first port of call when I need pulling out of a hole.

2. Sarah Wilson - A Sweeter Life - the creator and author of the I Quit Sugar program and books, but more importantly I think, a thought leader. I love this way this lady thinks outside the square and discusses stuff we're all thinking about, but not talking about.

3. Claire Baker at This is Lifeblood - a beautiful soul expressing radiance, nurturing her readers and giving me the impetus to love myself more through food. I definitely have more to learn from this lady.

4. The Universe - sign up for these notes to your inbox lovelies and you'll be blown away with his wisdom. These notes often cause me to gasp with surprise, insight and amazement.

5. Danielle LaPorte - perhaps an obvious one for a list such as this, but I truly admire this lady's heart and soul. She gets to the deeper parts of me and pulls them out to the light, and I love her for that.

6. Amy Taylor-Kabbaz at Seek Act Love - another Mama out there helping the world. Her Happy Mama cards sit on my kitchen windowsill and inspire me everyday.

7. Soulemama - how can you not love this Mama and her homestead? Her images, words and home never fail to inspire me to live a life of gratitude, simplicity and homemade joy. Many a time after reading her blog I've turned straight to my knitting and got on with it.

8. Wellness Mama - a smart lady with some very sensible health habits she happily and informatively shares with the world. I love the organic simplicity of her approach to caring for herself and her family.

9. Leonie Dawson - a loving soul out there giving everything she has to the world with joy and love. I have her annual life planner and love her approach to planning with the universe with soul.

10. Jess Ainscough at The Wellness Warrior - one tough lady with a helluva lot of knowledge about what makes a healthy lifestyle.

11. Rhonda Hetzel at Down to Earth - an amazing online space where this special soul shares all manner of authentic skills, techniques and experiences to create a simple life living within your means and experiencing joy in the everyday. To me this is mindfulness at its most practical.

12. Carolyn Franzke at A Life Transformed - well, me actually. A mama giving everything she has to share with the world, thinking outside the square, giving mamas with depression a chance to understand themselves better and move forward. A beautiful soul creating an authentic, organic online space for big-hearted mamas.

There you have it lovelies, you have my full endorsement for all these gorgeous souls and their online presence. May they inspire you as they do me.

Xx

Forget habits, build rituals

Habits are so yesterday. Rituals are the new present.

I've been pondering on this lately because it seems that rituals are becoming a new buzzword - in the self-help field at least - but more and more in broader media circles. It might just be me that feels this, but either way it's a hot topic I'd love to start a juicy conversation with you right now.

So what's the deal? How are they different?

Glad you asked. Here's what I think...

Habits can be consciously built, but are mind-numbing once in place - we forget about them and they just happen, unexamined. They stem, it feels to me, from an ego-centred mindset, where behaviours and choices are placed on automatic pilot, left there to be the same forever - safe and predictable.

Rituals are so much more about love and intention and presence. They begin with intention and flow on throughout your day. Essentially, they're a mindful mama's best friend.

Just a short post for you today my friends. Enjoy these colder, inner times by building in some rituals to anchor your days to the divine.

Xx

Let your heart speak through your hands

So often our hearts don't get a chance to be heard over the loud voices in our heads.

For me, my journal is my regular everyday ritual where this magic gets to happen.

Journalling is about connecting with your soul. About being totally, mindfully present with yourself in the now.

And I feel called today to tell you that this is another day of potential journalling for you lovely.

I know you've written in a journal before. I know you've started and stopped, and started and stopped again.

I know this resistance, this illusion that inspiration must come before writing has held you up.

And I'm here today to say that you can change that. You can freaking rock that journal. Everyday.

Here's my confession...

I stopped writing in my journal these past few days. It just didn't happen, and today almost didn't either, as lots of excuses and a general malaise trundled in.

Now it's late in the day and I'm tired, but I can't let resistance beat me another day. I need to journal.

I need that communion with soul and spirit that happens so easily when I show up to my journal.

And you do too.

You need that chance to get it out, sort it out, ask for help, ask for guidance, be.here.now.

So what did I do?

 I kept trying. I brought my attention back to my journal again and again. I let myself feel bad that I hadn't written - I welcomed those feelings with love. Then I got my journal out and sat down.

So here's my advice for you....

- just get that journal out

- just leave it on the kitchen table

- just open it to the right page

- just write one word

- just keep going

- just do it again tomorrow

When we take these little steps by themselves we take the size out of the monster. We move past that resistance. 

We give our hearts a chance to speak to our hands without our heads getting in the way.

Best of luck beautiful xx