Things I’m Loving Friday #546

aIsn’t it wild the impact weather can have on your mood? It truly wasn’t until springtime weather rolled into our area that I realized how much JOY warmer temperatures and lots of sunshine bring to my day. We’ve been enjoying dinners outside, long walks and feeling grateful for the place we call home, especially this time of year. Keep this beautiful weather streak rolling, please!

Tell me about your week! Was it a good one? Anything fun on the agenda for you this weekend? Our weekend is fairly full but it’s filled with good stuff like soccer games, tickets to a local show and a nature event we’re excited to attend. I hope to share pictures and a recap on the blog on Monday but until then, keep on scrolling for this week’s roundup of favorites, Things I’m Loving Friday style!

Things I’m Loving Friday

I wholeheartedly trust Pinch of Yum’s recipes and when I saw Lindsay rave about a cottage cheese pizza crust from Fit Foodie Finds, I knew I had to give it a shot. It seemed simple enough and Lindsay shared her take on the recipe which sounded fabulous, but I ended up following the original recipe from Fit Foodie Finds as it looked a little fluffier/doughier which I personally love in a pizza crust. I must first mention I made the crust with einkorn flour, so that may have impacted my results, but I definitely needed more flour than the original recipe calls for to make the dough manageable and not too sticky. I would just make sure to keep extra flour on hand if you give it a shot! We loved our pizza topped pizza sauce, Italian chicken sausage, a layer of shredded cheese and pepperoni and will absolutely make this one again.

(Sweatshirt: Target / Sweats: Target / Charm necklace: Amazon / Sunglasses: Amazon) 

Last month, during a girls’ weekend getaway to Scottsdale, Arizona, I lost my all-time favorite pair of sunglasses. I was so, so bummed, as I’ve had and loved them for years and QUAY no longer makes the gray-black tortoise shell combo in the same pair. Womp, womp. I ended up ordering this pair of sunglasses from Amazon to try and love them! They’re lightweight, comfortable and the price point is awesome. I liked them so much I ordered them in the brown tortoise shell color as well and ended up loving that version of the sunglasses even more!

Genre: Fiction / My rating: A 

One of you recommended Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life to me on Instagram after I mentioned how much I loved Eleanor Oliphant and Molly the Maid, two books with uniquely wonderful main characters. As expected, I absolutely adored Joe Nathan. He is a neurodivergent young man who loves the TV show Friends and is so wonderful in his innocence and his desire for routine, predictability and his determination to do the right thing. It’s such a unique book and one I thoroughly enjoyed. It has depth, so many sweet moments and great takeaways. It is not a light read but it was also one my tender heart could still handle. I know this book will stick with me and it’s the book currently claiming the top spot on my list of best books I’ve read so far this year.

From Amazon:

Joe-Nathan likes the two parts of his name separate, just like dinner and dessert. Mean Charlie at work sometimes calls him Joe-Nuthin. But Joe is far from nothing. Joe is a good friend, good at his job, good at making things and at following rules, and he is learning how to do lots of things by himself.

Joe’s mother knows there are a million things he isn’t yet prepared for. While she helps to guide him every day, she is also writing notebooks of advice for Joe, of all the things she hasn’t yet told him about life and things he might forget.

By following her advice, Joe’s life is about to be more of a surprise than he expects. Because he’s about to learn that remarkable things can happen when you leave your comfort zone, and that you can do even the hardest things with a little help from your friends.

Whenever ALDI has macarons in their frozen desserts section, I scoop them up because they are shockingly good. They are priced well — $5 for a box — and made without any artificial colors. Their spring assortment just hit the shelves at my local ALDI and we made quick work of the box I bought in our house after dinner one night. The pistachio and coconut flavors are my favorite!

Air Fryer Pesto Salmon (Keep this one in your back pocket for when you need an easy dinner idea!)

Sarasota with Kids: What We Did for Spring Break (We’re getting so excited to return to Sarasota in April for our spring break!)

QUESTION OF THE DAY

What is one thing you’re loving this week?