Till Then Smile Often

Friday Favorites | Excitement Loading

I can’t believe the weekend is finally here. On Saturday I am going to an all day blogger conference in Boston and looking forward to meeting up with Kate who is also going. This will be my first blogger conference and I am a little excited because it is by Wayfair. Hopefully I will learn a ton and maybe get some cute swag. Either way lunch is served by a local chef and a cocktail hour at the end. Total score. Enough of my rambling let’s got on with my favorites from this week. 

 

Favorite Book: I have two books to share with you because I couldn’t decide. One was for fun for the Winter Book Challenge and one was for personal growth. 

 

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I have read over two dozen of Suzanne Brockmann’s books, I just love how she tells a story. It all moves so quick and effortless. This is a tale of Kayla in search of Liam who went missing while doing a story overseas of corruption and a war raging, that breaks so many civil liberties. Kayla implores Liam’s brother to help rescue him. To do so they have to hope that the news of his death two years earlier was false. The road to find Liam helps them find each other. 

 

The second book was a really short read, it was only 149 pages and it read as if you personally had a life coach.  The Experiment: Discover a Revolutionary Way to Manage Stress and Achieve Work-Life Balance discusses how to reduce stress by dealing with the everyday stresses in a different way. It also discusses how to find time and structure your day to be more efficient, and tackle the things you dread the most in order to move on from the day.

In the way the book is structured Dennis is a business owner on the verge of a mental breakdown and divorce and runs into Robert a life coach on the train. They see each other in multiple sessions and focus on certain issues in his life. It was broken down in such a way that I found myself saying duh! Why is this so simple but you just don’t see it when you are in it. Though in the book one of the basic principles was Compassion. Compassion for yourself for not getting it sooner, or being frustrated that you weren’t learning the lesson sooner. It also gave Dennis homework and tasks to do which you could use for your own life. I can’t recommend this book more highly, I think I need to read it quarterly every year. 

 

 
Favorite DIY: Such a cute and easy easy DIY, I will be doing this one really soon. 

4 X 4 wood blocks tied with burlap - Easiest DIY ever!
Favorite Recipe: With it starting to get cold I am hoping to find a chili recipe that is Paleo friendly and this one looks like it might just work. 

 

BombChili
 

 
Favorite Quote: Don’t focus on the small hurdles but the overall happiness. 

I can relate to this

Favorite Funnies: If only. 

There should be a refund on calories for things that don’t taste as good as you thought they would.
 

How I was feeling on Wednesday 

SO TRUE
 

Yes, I am a dork but for some reason this made me chuckle. 

 

21+Jokes+That+Are+So+Stupid,+They're+Actually+Funny.+The+Last+One+Killed+Me!
 

 

funny (21)
 

 

That is all I have. Go enjoy the weekend! 

 

What are your plans for the weekend? 

 

Linking up with Amanda

Meet At The Barre

 Also linking up with Natasha for 5 on Friday.

 

THE GOOD LIFE BLOG

 

 

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Wallet Watch | Mo’ Money

 So I want to say I was really strict with myself and I really paid attention to every dime I was spending but to be honest I totally forgot about the wallet watch more than a few times. I did have one stressful week and ended up finding myself at Old Navy and totally blowing my clothing ban. i really needed warm clothes but it was still on my no spend list. 

A reminder of my Goals:

Save $300.00 to be added to saving to be used towards Christmas. I only use cash for Christmas so time to save.

Stay with budget for my grocery bill – recipe testing kills my budget every month so I want to work on this one.

No spending on clothes, makeup or accessories.

 

So how did I do? 

I was able to put $300 into savings. I would have liked more but I will add more in November to beef it up. I also bought 5 gifts already so that factors into spending less later. WIN

 

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My grocery budget is $70.00 per week or $280.00 per month. I found that I took a lot of little trips this month (total 7) but I made it under budget. My total was $275.78 so just under but under none the less. WIN

 

No spending on clothes, makeup or accessories. Bwahahahaha! Like I said I totally stressed shopped at Old Navy but I got some really cute cardigans and a Mint scarf that I adore. You win some you lose some. This one I am totally okay with losing. FAIL

 

 Linking up with Steph for my results. 

Life According to Steph

 

 Have you started Christmas Shopping? 

Have you done a wallet watch before to save money? 

 

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Paleo Banana Protein Pancakes

 In deciding to try the Paleo diet I wanted to eat as many food I recognize as possible in order to make it easier to do long term. I am a big fan of protein pancakes because they are easy to whip up and perfect for when I get home from the gym for dinner. When I found this recipe I knew I wanted to try it. I made only slight modifications. 

Paleo Banana Protein Pancakes
 Ingredients:  4 eggs (room temperature) ~ 1/4 cup coconut flour ~ 1/4 tsp sea salt (I used Kosher course salt) ~ 1/2 banana mashed ~ 2 tsp pure vanilla extract ~ 1 tsp baking soda ~ 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 

Directions: Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Just smoosh the banana into the mixture with your hands and mix to incorporate. You could use a fork but that wouldn’t be as much fun. 

Paleo Banana Protein Pancakes
Add some coconut oil into a medium heat pan and add dollops of batter into the pan. Flip after 2-4 minutes. Optional: Add a few slices of banana to the pan and flip after a minute to glaze both sides. This made 3 medium sized pancakes and 3 smaller pancakes. Serve with pure maple syrup, and top with the grilled banana. Grass fed butter is also an option. 

 

Paleo Banana Protein Pancakes
Have you made protein pancakes? 
Did you like them? 

Martinis & Bikinis
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4.5 from 2 reviews
Print
Paleo Banana Pancakes
 
Ingredients
  • 4 eggs (room temperature) ~ ¼ cup coconut flour ~ ¼ tsp sea salt (I used Kosher course salt) ~ ½ banana mashed ~ 2 tsp pure vanilla extract ~ 1 tsp baking soda ~ ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
  1. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl.
  2. Just smoosh the banana into the mixture with your hands and mix.
  3. Add some coconut oil into a medium heat pan and add dollops of batter into the pan.
  4. Flip after 2-4 minutes.
  5. Optional: Add a few slices of banana to the pan and flip after a minute to glaze both sides.
  6. This made 3 medium sized pancakes and 3 smaller pancakes.
  7. Serve with pure maple syrup, and top with the grilled banana. Grass fed butter is also an option.
 

Rain, Sleet and Snow

Well my favorite holiday has come and gone. I am a little sad, but there is always next year right? The weekend was filled with rainy days which turned to snow for a few hours on Sunday but luckily it didn’t accumulate to anything on the ground. This meant a pretty mellow and quiet weekend which really wasn’t a bad thing. I did buy some wood though that didn’t get to be stained so that was a bummer. 

 

Friday was Halloween and I went to work for a half day, dressed as the Bride of Frankenstein. After stopping home to grab Seamus, I went to my Dad’s to do the tradition of decorating his house and passing out the candy. My brother brought my nieces over early to get candy and to see them in costume. The older one hates to get her picture taken and is almost never serious but it is fun for the outtakes. 

Halloween
 

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Halloween-2
 

Saturday I ran a bunch of errands, including stopping at the library to pickup some books for the Winter Book Challenge. I also went to Lowe’s to pickup some wood for a few projects and then it started to pour. Obviously I wasn’t going to be able to stain outside so the project got scraped for the day and I headed back down to my Dad’s to try and fix his storm door. The screws were stripped so I couldn’t finish the job since he doesn’t really have tools so it was back home, 3 hours later. I ended up spending the night finishing my recent book and just taking it easy since it was still raining and really windy. Seamus decided he wanted to snuggle but he doesn’t really get the concept of personal space. 

 

Saturday
Sunday was such a lazy day. I started a new book and then took a break only to find that Sixteen Candles was on TV. Consider those next two hours totally lost. I did put my laundry away during the commercials though. Then when it was over I spent two hours cleaning the upstairs portion of my house including straightening out my office which including filing a bunch of receipts and shredding junk mail. Then I noticed that Lifetime was playing Christmas movies all day. It was life the universe was trying to tell me to relax and do nothing all day. I did have to pop out for groceries and it started to snow. It was a sign. Snuggling with the candles going and Lifetime was my destiny for the day. Total perfection. 

 

Sunday

How was your weekend?  

Did you get any snow? 

 

In case you missed it too I am part of a Huge $1650 Paypal cash giveaway. Go enter. 

Linking up with Leeann from Join the Gossip and Biana from B Loved Boston.

Weekending
 
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