Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Sinuses, allergies, India, personal growth, and gratitude and more...

Today we're talking about sinuses, allergies, India, personal growth and development, and how to cultivate a grateful spirit. Yup, it's another episode of The Crystal Paine Show… and like usual, you're going to get a plethora of topics! 🙂 (Erin's ...

Intentional finance. Intentional family. Intentional business.

Sinuses, allergies, India, personal growth, and gratitude

Today we’re talking about sinuses, allergies, India, personal growth and development, and how to cultivate a grateful spirit.

Yup, it’s another episode of The Crystal Paine Show… and like usual, you’re going to get a plethora of topics! 🙂

(Erin’s 52-Week Meal Planner — which she shares more about on the show!)

Today I'm joined by the delightful Erin Port from Simple Purposeful Living. Unlike everyone I've interviewed so far, Erin doesn't have a book (yet!). And truth be told: I didn't even know who she was until a few months ago.

As we share on the podcast, Erin reached out to me on Instagram and I was so touched by her message that I responded and our online friendship has blossomed from there!

We talk about developing gratitude, how to be grateful when things are hard, miscarriage, adoption, helping our children cultivate hearts of gratitude… and more! I think you’ll be blessed by the conversation!

In This Episode:

[00:25] – For those who might be new around here, I’m a full-time blogger. Yes, that means I make a living from my computer. And best of all, I can work from anywhere. Literally. Well, so long as they have wifi! If you are interested in how I make a full-time income from blogging or have considered starting your own blog, I have a free class you can sign up for called 3 Steps to Start That Blog You’ve Been Dreaming Of. 

[02:15] – Now, onto what's saving my life this week (and I'll warn you, it's gonna get a little weird). Ready for this?! It's my sinus rinse bottle. About seven years ago, my allergies really flared up. An ENT recommended the NeilMed Sinus Rinse Bottle. As long as I use it every night, I almost never have issues. You guys, it's amazing! (And no, this isn't sponsored or an ad, I just really love it that much.)

[05:01] – If you've been to India (or plan to go), I’m sharing about an insightful and powerful book you should read. It's an amazing book that will stick with me for years to come. It's real, it's raw, and it doesn't sugarcoat anything.

[08:44] – My friend, Erin Port, of Simple Purposeful Living joins me on the show to talk about Erin explains what led her to choose the word "grateful" for 2018.

[13:24] –  We hear about a time in Erin's life when it was really difficult to choose gratitude. She also shares some thoughts for the women who is having a hard time seeing a reason to be grateful. I think her words and advice will really encourage you. 

[18:13] – Erin shares thoughts on helping children to develop hearts of gratitude and how they choose “roses” every night at dinner and try to collect at least a dozen. I absolutely love this idea and hope that some of you with younger children will consider making it part of your evening routine!

[21:23] – You know what struck me on this interview as we were talking about gratitude? Erin’s heart of gratitude is what brought us together. She has this beautifully contagious joy and warm heart and it was her reaching out in gratitude to me that opened up the door for our online friendship.

[25:47] – I close out the show by answering a question from Mindy who asked me for advice on how to develop yourself personally and grow as an individual. I give her three suggestions that have been really beneficial for me.

Links and Resources:

The podcast is available on iTunes, Android, Stitcher, and Spotify. You can listen online through the direct player we'll include in the show notes of each episode. OR, a much easier way to listen is by subscribing to the podcast through a free podcast app on your phone. (Find instructions for how to subscribe to a podcast here.)

Ready to dive in and listen? Hit the player above or search for "The Crystal Paine Show" on your favorite podcast app.

Sponsor Spotlight

Today's episode is sponsored by Twigby — a company dedicated to providing fantastic phone service at great prices. As I mentioned in the podcast, if you are looking for a great deal on a phone for your teen (or yourself!), I'd highly recommend checking out what Twigby has to offer.

Unlike traditional cell phone companies, they give you the ability to create your own custom, prepaid plan — without a contract or an unnecessary activation fee.

You don't have to mess with going to a store and picking out a phone plan. You just go to their site, pick your phone plan and either switch your current phone over or get a new phone, and they get it all set up for you.

My favorite part about their service (in addition to their great prices!) is that they offer plan flexibility with the ability to change plans or phones at any time for free. You're not locked into an expensive contract that has activation and termination fees.

They also offer Free Overage Protection, so you can rest easy in knowing that you will never be charged for overages without your go-ahead! You have complete control.

Special offer! Want to save 25% off your first 6 months of Twigby? Click here.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, we may receive a small commission — at no additional cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!

    
 

Pesto Chicken in the Crockpot (+ last night’s dinner was YUMMY!)

Are you joining me for the Eat at Home Challenge! I’m thrilled to have SO many of you participating this time around!

For those who missed my earlier posts on this challenge, here are the details:

  1. I’ll be on Facebook Live every weekday morning this week around 9 a.m. prepping our dinner for that evening. If you want to join us live, I’d love to have you do so!
  2. Every day at 2 p.m., I’ll send out an email with the video for that day’s recipe, the recipe I made, plus some menu-planning tips and money-saving suggestions. There will be a lot of things that I’ll only be sharing in the email (I won’t be posting them here), so if you don’t want to miss out, be sure to sign up to get my emails here.
  3. You can also interact on the Facebook Group every day and share what you are making for dinner, if you’d like!
  4. I’ll be using the Eat at Home Menu Plans for this week’s menu plan. I love these menu plans because you get 4 different meal plans in two different sizes and you get a color-coded grocery list. Plus, they are on sale for as low as $1.13 per week. (I’ll share more details in the coming days!)

I shared my menu plan for this week and the grocery list in the email I sent out to the Eat at Home email list. (Not on that list? Sign up here.)

Last Night’s Dinner:

For those of you who asked, we LOVED the All Day Beef Stew I made yesterday. It was a HUGE hit and so easy and yummy and healthful. My whole family said it was good — which rarely happens! So I’ll call that a win.

Here’s a photo — with bad indoor lighting since we didn’t get home until afternoon 7:30 p.m. last night since Kathrynne had a basketball game.

What I Made Today:

Today’s recipe was super simple and easy to make. Although I managed to almost knock my phone out of the tripod and across the room AND drop my crockpot while making it on live video. Y’all, I’m just such a hot mess some days

(Speaking of which, I discovered last night — after having worn my outfit all day AND having done multiple videos that went out to thousands of people — that I had been wearing my shirt on backwards! Where is my brain??)

Anyway, if you want to watch me (and laugh!) on live video, here you go:

 

I’ll let you know tomorrow what we thought of the recipe! I think it’s going to be yummy — and it was so simple to make!

Thanks for joining me in this challenge. If you want to share what you cooked today, head over here to the Facebook Group and leave a comment and tell us!

Looking for some inspiration to eat at home more often?

I’m using the Eat at Home menu-planning service for my recipes for this challenge. I love this menu-planning service and highly recommend it — especially if you struggle to come up with the time and inspiration to make your own menus.

Eat at Home is a menu-planning service designed to make getting dinner on the table much easier every night. It was a service created by Tiffany, a mom of 4 who loves to cook and loves to gather her family around the table, but has found that if she doesn't have a quick and easy plan, it's hard to make that happen.

How Does the Eat at Home Menu-Planning Service Work?

The Eat at Home menu-planning service is an incredible way to help you save time and save money. You don't have to worry about planning menus OR grocery list, because Tiffany does all of that for you as part of the menu-planning service.

She has designed it specifically with busy families in mind and the menu plans offer:

The recipes can all be fixed quickly, with only a few minutes of hands-on prep. Because the recipes use common pantry ingredients, it's likely that you have everything you need to make many of the recipes.

It's so convenient because all the work is done for you! You just choose which menu plan you'll use, print the grocery list, go shopping, and then spend a few minutes prepping food each day and dinner is D-O-N-E!

When you sign up for the plan (it's just a few dollars per week — or less!), each month, you'll get:

  • An entire money of No Flour, No Sugar menu plans, including weekly grocery lists and printable recipe instructions
  • An entire month of Traditional Menu Plans, including weekly grocery lists and printable recipe instructions
  • An entire month of Slow Cooker Menu Plans, including weekly grocery lists and printable recipe instructions (this is my favorite!)
  • An entire month of Whole Food Menu Plans, including weekly grocery lists and printable recipe instructions
  • Each menu plan comes with recipes created for small family (3-4 servings) and large family (6-8 servings)
  • Color-coded grocery lists make it easy to swap out ingredients or whole meals
  • Printable Menus to hang on the fridge or near your calendar, so you can easily see what's for dinner that week and your family can too
  • Access to the entire month at once!
  • 1 Hour Freezer Stash Plans – a new plan each month to stock your freezer with 6 meals in 1 hour!

You can choose to stick with just the traditional menu plan or just the slow cooker menu plan or just the whole foods menu plan or just the no flour, no sugar menu plan. Or, you can rotate different menu plans on different weeks, depending upon what you feel like cooking or how much time you have!

Get the Eat at Home Menu-Planning Service for as Low as $1.13 per Week!

If you struggle to make menu plans and would love for someone to make them for you + make a grocery list for you, it's well worth spending a few dollars every week to let Eat at Home do the work for you.

This week only, when you sign up for their plan (either the monthly plan, the quarterly plan, or the yearly plan, you can get 30% off through January 14, 2019 by using coupon code NEW at checkout!)

That makes the done-for-you menu plans and grocery lists as low as $1.13 per week. And you get access to all four plans and the freezer cooking plans for the whole month at the rate!

Go sign up for this incredible menu-planning service here!

(Oh and they have a fantastic two-week money-back guarantee if you think you want to try it out but aren't sure whether it will work for you or not!)

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links, and we will be compensated when you make a purchase by clicking through our links. Read our disclosure policy here.

    
 

Gretchen’s $1.55 Target Shopping Trip

I ran into Target this morning and ended up scoring some GREAT deals! It’s been a while since I’ve done a Target coupon shopping trip so I was excited to get back into it.

2 GoGo Squeeze Blastz – $2, used 2 $1/1 Ibotta rebate – $1 each after rebates

1 pkg Perfect Bar Snacks – $3.99, used $4.99 Ibotta rebate – Free plus overage after rebate

3 RX Nut Butter – $1.25 each, used $1/3 printable (no longer available) AND 3 $0.55/1 Ibotta rebates – $0.36 each after coupon and rebates

1 Revlon Kiss Balm – Marked down to $1.88, used $2/1 printable – Free after coupon

1 Schick Intuition Fab Razor – Marked down to $5.58 (Most stores have these on clearance!), used $4/1 printable – $1.58 after coupon

1 Schick Intuition Fab Razor Refills – $11.89 (Price matched to Target.com’s price), used $4/1 printable – $7.89 after coupon

Used $10/1 Ibotta rebate for buying 2 Schick Intuition Razor products

I also received 25 Fetch Reward Points for scanning my receipt

Total before coupons and rebates: $31.09

Total after coupons and rebates: $1.55

    
 

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