Dash of Sparkle May 2020

Hi there, friends! Wow… another month has come and gone ALREADY!! I can hardly believe that it is June. Like I can hardly believe it. May was a crazy busy month for us behind the scenes, but we still managed to get a few "dash of sparkle" moments in May.

For the most part we are still staying home, although we managed to squeeze in a few runs and we even went golfing a few weeks ago!

This summer is looking so different for us already. I usually have everything planned out for the year in like, January… but this year, we don't even know what next week is going to look like!

I hate not knowing, not having a plan. But if this has taught me anything it has definitely been that things will still happen, when the time is right.

The Garden

I was able to move all the plants outdoors at the beginning of May!

And then we had some frost a few nights ago and I don't think the cucumbers survived! I have still been watering them everyday, hoping that they come back, but I think it's too late. Luckily everything else seems to have survived that pesky frost, and the rest of the garden is thriving!

I got my first flower on my acorn squash this week and I had no idea how beautiful their flowers were! It only lasted half of the day, I am so happy that I caught it and snapped this photo!

The thing I am most excited for is the kale. We eat SO MUCH KALE. Basically we don't buy any other forms of lettuce, only kale. So I am pretty excited to just be able to walk out my backdoor and get some right off the plant!

All of the things that I planted this year were:

Kale
Buttercrunch Lettuce
Leeks
Green Onions
Carrots
Acorn Squash
Rainbow Swiss Chard

The cucumbers and butternut squash plants unfortunately didn't make the transition…

The Rhubarb

The newest addition to the garden is Rhubarb! It comes with a story that I shared over on my Insta stories a few days ago, but it is a really great story, so I will share it here too!

First, the Backstory

When we built our house my grandmother had already moved out to the coast and when she came into town, I took her on a drive to see the lot that we had bought and where our house would be built.

The whole time we were driving, she kept asking me where we were going and telling me that the area looked very familiar to her. She had already been gone for a lot of years, so the city had greatly expanded in that time.

When we got near to the area, she recognized one of the names of the roads was the same as some old neighbours that they had at my grandfather's parents farm.

We told my mom about this and she pulled up the coordinates of the old farm and took it to a land engineer at her work. They were able to pull up the old coordinates and overlay a map of the community layout as it stands now.

It turns out that our house is built a mere 605 meters from where that old farmhouse stood! I actually now have that photo framed and hung on the wall in our house.

Now, The Rhubarb

When my grandparents built their house, they took a part of the rhubarb plant that was planted at that farm.

Then, when my mother moved out, she took a part of the plant to her new home.

Then this past weekend, I took a part of my mom's plant, brought it home and now it is planted back in the place that it started, over 100 years later.

The Blog

You may or (may not) have noticed a few (a lot) of changes on the site this month. Either way, I have been working my tail off behind the scenes everyday to keep up with it all.

Save This Recipe! 💌

We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!

Over the last few months we have experienced a major growth spurt. I wasn't ready for it, it just kind of happened and all of a sudden I had to update everything. EVERYTHING.

When that kind of major change happens all at once it is definitely overwhelming.

After a few days I got my spinning head under control, wrote everything down (aka, the largest to-do list you have ever seen). I have been working my way through that for 2 months now and I can finally (maybe) say that I am almost back to normal.

Y'all, I haven't taken photos of a new recipe for over SIX WEEKS. I have been coasting on the stock pile I had accumulated. But I am hopeful that in the next few days I will be back in the kitchen!

I just have to stop here and say THANK YOU!! To each and every one of you that read our recipes and use our site. We are so grateful and it has been an amazing ride so far, I can't wait to see what the future holds!

New on the Blog this month

These were some of the new recipes that I posted this month! They are all great, so be sure to check them out (you can click on the photos for a direct link to the recipes)!

Homemade Flour Tortillas

A plate of cooked flour tortillas being covered by a tea towel

Crunchwrap Supremes

a man holding a crunchwrap supreme; ready to take a bite!

Bourbon Barbecue Roast Chicken

The Blogging Section

This month I also added a "blogging" section to my blog! (Because why not? It's not like I had a million other things going on…)

I love to share little tips and tricks with you that I have learnt along the way, and that is what you are going to be able to find in this section! You can easily navigate to it at the top of any page in the heading section.

So far, I have posted all about my story and how I got into blogging and you can check that out here!