Hi hi! Happy Friday! I hope you had a wonderful week. The Pilot was gone all week, so it was solo parent ops around here. We did the usual dance, soccer, homework, and school shuffle, enjoyed a dinner with madre and nana, and evening walks. The girls were awesome as always, but it takes a lot of mental energy to go all day until bedtime without someone to tag into the chaos. I’m pretty sure I’ll take a 3-hour nap this weekend lol.

Something else that’s been going on this week: sweet Caro has had a bit of a rough go. She’s an old gal and has some health issues, but things seemed to hit a peak this week. She was walking sideways and tripped over herself, and had multiple accidents in the house, so I called the vet. A few hours after it happened, she was acting normal again, but hasn’t been eating much. The vet is seeing her today, so we’ll see what they say. Thank you so much to those of you who have sent prayers and well wishes her way on IG.

What do you have going on this weekend? We have an event at the girls’ school, dinner plans with some friends, I’m catching a hot yoga class and teaching barre, and we’re celebrating my stepdad’s bday. I hope you have a fun and amazing weekend ahead.

It’s time for the weekly Friday Faves party. 🙂 This is where I share some of my favorite finds from the week and around the web. I always love to hear about your faves, too, so please shout out something you’re loving in the comments section below.

Friday Faves

Life:

A trip to the gem show with my mom! I had badges to go to the JOGS gem and jewelry show -it’s a smaller one, as the gigantic one is in February – and we decided to check it out. We were pretty surprised by the amount of vendors and the selection of sparkly jewelry, gems, and crystals. I got a couple of things for myself, bracelets and sparkly backpack keychains for the crew, and some extras to share with friends and give away here on the blog.

This year’s blog holiday giveaway is already looking pretty epic, I’ve gotta say…

Fashion + Beauty:

Let it be known that our tiny baby has an official skincare routine????? We wandered into Ulta because she was looking for face wash and moisturizer, and unfortunately the Beautycounter Coco cleanser wasn’t a good fit for her skin.

I wanted to get her something gentle with not-so-sketchy ingredients, and in the end, we decided on this face wash (which I’ve used

Hi friends! I’m so excited for today’s podcast episode because it’s a topic that’s near and dear to my heart: Fertility Awareness Method!

I’ve been practicing FAM since the old days, when I first got off birth control in 2009. It changed my life. It was the first chance I had to understand my cycle and how it changes throughout the month and gave me key insights into my fertile and non-fertile days. It’s a non-hormonal form of birth control that can be very effective, especially if you’re diligent about tracking your symptoms throughout the month. It can also tell you if something is off, like if your cycle starts to change lengths drastically, or if you’re not ovulating.

In today’s podcast episode, I’m chatting with Jess Suchan and Candace Burch (an incredible mother-daughter duo! Candace’s daughter Ryan also works on the family business) all about birth control and Fertility Awareness Method.

109: Fertility Awareness Method and getting off birth control with Jess Suchan and Candace Burch

Here’s what we discuss:

– Why hormonal birth control can be problematic

– What is FAM and how does it work?

– Tracking apps and how to track throughout the month

– Hormone balancing tips

– and so.much.more.

It’s also worth mentioning here that birth control is a super personal topic and at the end of the day, you have to research and do what makes sense for your body and life. This podcast episode is not meant to convince anyone; we’re just sharing our experiences. You gotta do what works for you, boo. Also, friendly reminder that this is not medical advice and just intended for informational purposes.

You can also check out my previous podcast episode with Candace Burch here!

Here’s a little bit more about Candace and Jess and their backgrounds:

Jess Suchan is a board certified Holistic Health Coach who coaches her clients towards finding a life of bliss, free from fad diets, overexercising, and burnout. She believes that in order to change our habits we must address the “holistic picture” and compassionately investigate how all areas of our lives are interconnected.

Jess spent over a decade yo-yo dieting, exercising fo

Sharing a recipe for a delicious and refreshing blackberry cucumber cocktail!

Hi hi! How’s the day going so far? I hope you’re having a great morning. I’m catching a yoga class and spending the rest of the day working on some stuff for Fit Team and the podcast.

For today’s post, I wanted to share a super delicious and EASY cocktail recipe. This one is courtesy of my brother Kyle, and we learned how to make this while we did his Cocktails in the Kitchen class at Miraval.

TBH, I haven’t experimented with cocktails too much. I feel like they can be intimidating, and while I can follow a recipe, I don’t tend to be very creative with cocktails. (Worth mentioning here that I do make a very lovely margarita, but that’s about where it ends.) He had our stations set up with fresh herbs, berries, tools, and gin, and before we knew it, we were cheers-ing each other with the freshest libation I’d had in a long time. I’m so pumped to share the recipe with you!

Blackberry Cucumber Cocktail

Ingredients

Cucumber

Mint

Basil

Blackberries

Simple syrup (equal parts honey and water)

Lemon

Lime

Gin

Ice

Instructions

Muddle all of the ingredients (minus the gin).

Next, add in the gin. Shake, strain, and garnish!

Kyle gave