1. Reminders to Live Life with Abandon
This girl lives life with abandon. She doesn’t worry about tomorrow, she shows up fully for today and believes wholeheartedly that every single day is a good day to wear fancy hair — even if you’re just staying home all day.
I think God knew how desperately I would need constant reminders to embrace and celebrate life instead of just plowing through it in get-er-done mode, so that’s one reason He gave me this beauty!
2. ALDI
As I told you earlier, I was reminded just how much I love Aldi this past week.
If you are looking to lower your grocery bill and have an Aldi in your area and haven’t checked it out, please do yourself a huge favor and go check ALDI out. It is basically one of my lifelong missions to get as many people as possible to regularly shop at Aldi. So it would make my day/week/month to find out I had convinced another person to give it a try! 
For more tips and encouragement on shopping at Aldi, check out my post here.
3. Making Do With What’s in the Fridge
Now that I’m back to the menu-planning and grocery-shopping, I’m loving getting creative using with what’s in the fridge and freezer. One of the hit recipes from this past week was thisFrench Toast Bake. I never managed to get a photo of it, but it was a winner.
In typical Crystal style, I made some changes to the recipe. I used almond milk instead of regular milk. I used half almond milk/half half & half instead of cream. I used day old bread and hamburger buns I got marked down at the store. I used a mix of coconut sugar + brown sugar. And I used coconut oil instead of butter. Okay, maybe a few more than “some changes”, but even with all these changes, it was SO good!
In case you missed it, you can see our menu from this past week here. Pictured above was one night’s dinner — Chicken Sauce over Rice with broccoli and fruit (I was going to make a Chicken/Cheese/Broccoli Sauce over rice but changed my mind and did this instead.)
I’ve been listening to this book on audiobook, thanks to the FREE OneClickDigital app from our library, and I’m truly loving it. It took me a few chapters to really get into and I almost gave up on it, but I’m so glad I persevered.
It’s truly a well-written and deeply moving book. I’m especially struck with the way the author crafts words and sentences as well as weaving together stories is inspiring.
5. Weight-Lifting
I know I’ve talked about this a lot, but you’ll just have to pardon me while I (once again) gush about how much I’ve fallen in love with weight-lifting. Because I have. And I just can’t help but talk about it.
I’m especially loving it right now because I’m starting to really see the effects of all that time in our in garage gym every week. I feel so much stronger. I have muscles I never knew existed. And I feel more energetic and healthier than I can ever remember feeling.
I have gained muscle weight, but I’ve lost fat… and I’m truly seeing my body transform from being borderline too thin and lethargic, to strong, muscular, and powerful. I’m definitely nowhere near where I hope to be as far as my personal records go for maxing out reps and weights, but I’m so proud of how far I’ve come.
As an added benefit, I feel like this is helping me having fewer mood swings, feel more emotionally and mentally strong, and am emboldened and braver by my weight-lifting success to step out and try new things.
If you follow me on Snapchat, I post often about my workouts (in case you’re interested or would love the regular motivation to make fitness a priority). This week, I got to celebrate the fact that I finally mastered Skullcrushers — something I’ve been working on for weeks. And I conquered some of my ongoing fear of squats.
You can read more about why I’m weight-lifting and what plan I’m using here.
What are YOU loving this week? Tell us in the comments!
