I get messages about this almost every week now. People tell me they would love to get out of the city, and then they ask how we decided, whether we regret it, what the hard parts really were. So I'm writing it all out here, everything I'd tell you if you sat down across from me and said we're thinking about doing this too.

If you're new here, a little of how we got to Tennessee. Anthony and I both grew up in Southern California, he's from Fullerton and I'm from Glendora, and we first met in Claremont after we both graduated college. We got married in 2013, moved in together, and spent our first years in apartments, most of them in Pasadena. We could walk to coffee, we ate out more nights than we cooked, and we never once thought about a yard because we didn't have one and figured we could always take Jadyn to the park when she wanted to play outside. We had started the blog but were both working full-time corporate jobs, so on our off time we would shoot outfits in downtown Pasadena and LA. Over the years building the blog then social media, it turned into a very fast-paced lifestyle, which meant events and shoots and enough travel that once Poppy came along we had a nanny to make any of it possible. It was a full life and a good one.

We bought our first house in 2020 in Pasadena and renovated it while we were living in it (more about that in this post here). A couple of years later we found another one in a quieter part of Pasadena that we thought was going to be our forever home, so we sold the first and moved into another apartment while construction started. Construction was taking longer than expected, so we moved into a rental house in San Marino that also had a tiny yard. Our "forever" home was still being renovated when we welcomed Elliott at that rental, and having two little ones now changed our priorities. I wanted to slow down and be with them more, and I was also learning to cook because I wanted them eating nourishing meals and not takeout all the time like we were used to.

Around that same time Jadyn started looking at colleges out of state, when we had always assumed she'd want to go to school in California, and something about seeing her want to explore another part of the country made Anthony and I start asking each other some real questions. If we could make an intentional decision about it, was Pasadena where we wanted the little ones to grow up? Or would we want to be somewhere we could have land? We had never had the chance to move before, we'd thought about New York when Jadyn was in middle school and couldn't do that to her mid-school-year, and now the main reason we hadn't moved was letting go on its own. Long story short, after contemplating it for quite a while, with our list of whys and praying about it continuously, we decided to move out of California before that house was finished. It was completed after we were already living in Tennessee and we sold it last fall. (I wrote the whole story of that here).

We've been here for almost a year and a half, and this is what I'd want you to know before you make a move like this:

Get specific about what kind of country you want. We wanted “country-ish”, because country means very different things to different people. We’re not in a truly small rural town, and we’re not trying to be fully self-sufficient the way I’ve seen other families do so beautifully. That’s not us right now and it might never be. What we wanted was land with a garden and (some) animals, while still being close enough to a city that we could get on a plane easily or go out to dinner or see a concert if we wanted to. Franklin Tennessee ended up being exactly that mix. Nashville is right there when we want it, the airport is easy, Green Hills with luxury stores is twenty minutes away, and then we come home and there’s nothing but our own yard and quiet.

We looked at other places first. I fell in love with Carmel CA and we thought about it for a while, but land there was expensive and there were enough restrictions on what you could do with it that we didn’t think it would work for us long term, and water was a real question mark. We looked at Dripping Springs in Texas and liked quite a bit about it, but the drought concerns were an issue, and if the whole point was growing food and maybe animals eventually, we didn’t want to be fighting for water to do it. That’s what pulled us toward Tennessee. Rain, real seasons, land you can plant in, and a city close enough that we never feel cut off from anything.

We found Franklin because of friends. I had been to Franklin once when I was younger, around thirteen I think, our family friend had moved there to work with Christian bands and we went to visit. I remember thinking how green it was, but it wasn't built up then the way it is now. Anthony had never been to Tennessee at all. Then our friends Stevie and Sazan Hendrix were planning to move from Texas to Tennessee, and we were visiting them in Texas when they said wait, you should come see Tennessee, we just bought a house there! So we flew out that fall, and I don't know how much of the decision got made in those first few hours downtown, all the red trees, everything so quaint and homey, but I remember walking around and thinking I could see us here. We came back a second time once we'd decided, this time to look at houses, and we spent part of that trip an hour outside Franklin looking at places with a lot more land. We drove away from those knowing it would be too remote for us. We also realized we needed to rent first to figure out which part of Franklin we wanted to be in, we still weren't sure how many acres we'd want.

Rent for a year before you buy. If I could only give you one piece of practical advice, this is the one. We rented a historic house built in the 1860s on thirty acres, and I fell in LOVE with that property. But it was in an HOA, which meant there were rules about how often you mow, what your fence posts had to look like in the front of the house, and you couldn't have any animals outside besides horses. That year taught us we didn't want to be in an HOA, especially once we knew chickens weren't allowed. It also taught us we didn't need thirty acres, a garden takes so much less than that, but we still wanted enough room for privacy and for the kids to have space to run. We would have gotten both of those wrong if we’d bought right away.

The quiet will be harder than you think. When we moved into our rental on land here, I would lie in bed those first nights straining to hear something, anything, and there was nothing, and it was so dark. In California I had stopped registering sirens and traffic years before, and I guess I didn’t know how loud my life had been until it was silent. The stars were amazing though, that part I loved right away.

You’ll miss your old routine. For weeks it didn’t feel like we had moved at all, it felt like a long trip somewhere new, the kind where you’re still figuring out which grocery store you like, and then the last box got unpacked and I stood in the kitchen thinking, now what? Back home we had our coffee shops and our routes and ten years of memories around every street, and here everything felt like starting over. I missed my old routine until I got into my new one.

Your kids will need to un-learn the city. This one caught me completely off guard. At our rental house in California I had always told Poppy she could never go outside by herself, cars came around that corner too fast, and she learned that rule so well that when we got here, all that grass and her toys sitting right outside the door, she wouldn't go out alone. She wanted one of us standing next to her. It took months of saying you're okay, we can see you from the window, before she believed anything had changed. Nobody tells you that you don't just move your kids out of the city, you have to un-teach them the city too, and watching Poppy and Elliott slowly figure out that they could run out there without us was really sweet to see.

Making friends takes longer than you'd like. We knew a few people when we moved but it all still felt unfamiliar. I remember thinking we have friends, we just moved away from them, and now we would need to be open to meeting new ones too. We kept showing up at the same places until we stopped being “the new family”. For us that was church and one little coffee shop we kept going back to. Our neighbors invited us to their Fourth of July party that first summer and I walked home from it feeling like we finally had people here, not just a house. We have our people now, and the funny thing is that once I stopped worrying about it, I realized how much I love a quiet night at home too. We have friends over and it's so fun, and we're just as happy when it's only us.

You will lose a version of yourself. I wasn’t prepared for that at all… (the full post continues below for my Substack family)

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Back when I drank Starbucks I always got the brown sugar shaken espresso in the summertime, and even though I rarely drink Starbucks anymore, I found myself missing that one drink and wondering if I could make my own version at home that was better quality. We have such good coffee shops here, our favorites are Hank's, High Brow and Perenn. I love going for a seasonal drink, but this was the flavor I kept thinking about.

I first learned about unrefined sweeteners from Dr. Bill Schindler, who wrote Eat Like a Human and co-founded Modern Stone Age Kitchen, and his thinking is why I use muscovado now instead of regular brown sugar. Most brown sugar is refined white sugar with molasses stirred back in after the fact, but muscovado is unrefined, so it never had its molasses stripped out in the first place, which is why it swaps in so easily and gives that deeper caramel note and that natural molasses is where its minerals come from. When I was having a hard time finding an organic muscovado and asked Dr. Bill which brand to buy, he told me the integrity of the sugar matters more than the label, that he'd take muscovado over a refined organic sugar every time. These are the ones I use for either dark muscovado sugar or light muscovado sugar.

The Starbucks version you get out is built on a brown sugar syrup and a bottled sweet cream on top, and I wanted to keep that same warm, cinnamon flavor while making it from things I already keep in the kitchen. So I stir muscovado straight into the hot espresso instead of a syrup, along with real cinnamon and a little vanilla so everything dissolves all the way through. For the foam I whip heavy cream with raw honey, a touch of vanilla, and a pinch of sea salt. It’s so good! Here's the to-go lids I use for my mason jars.

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Shaken Espresso with Salted Vanilla Cold Foam

Prep Time: 5 min Total Time: 5 min Serves: 1 (20–24 oz)

Before You Start

Fill your serving glass with fresh ice before assembling the drink.

Brew your espresso fresh so it’s hot enough to fully dissolve the muscovado sugar.

Ingredients

2 shots espresso
1 tablespoon muscovado sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup ice (for shaking)
¾ cup whole milk (or milk of choice)
Fresh ice

For the Salted Vanilla Cold Foam

¼ cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon raw honey or maple syrup (or more to taste)
Pinch of fine sea salt
Ground cinnamon, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Brew the espresso. While it’s still hot, stir in the muscovado sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla extract until the sugar has completely dissolved.

Fill a mason jar with the ice. Pour the espresso mixture over the ice and shake vigorously for 20–30 seconds, until chilled and frothy. Then add the milk.

In a separate measuring cup or frothing pitcher, combine the heavy cream, whole milk, vanilla extract, honey or maple syrup, and sea salt. Froth with a handheld frother for 20–30 seconds, until thick, silky, and pourable.

Slowly pour the salted vanilla cold foam over the top of the drink.

Finish with a light dusting of cinnamon, and enjoy!

Check out my other summer drink recipes HERE and HERE.

I used to work at Nordstrom. Once in high school, then again for three years starting when I was pregnant with Jadyn, so I worked four or five Anniversary Sales from the other side of the register. Here’s what really cool about these items and why I would get excited for it: it isn’t leftover summer items. It’s brand-new fall product, marked down before the season, that goes up to full price on August 10th. The buyers would come in and talk about the fall items that were going to be on the sale and it was always a good time to buy that fall piece you were thinking about.

I was terrible with money back then, and being at the mall every shift didn’t help. I’d shop the sale before it even opened to the public and I almost always walked out with items I didn’t need, like new flats for Jadyn (I was obsessed with buying her flats for some reason).

It's easy to get caught up in all the good deals, and I tend to spend more money when I think that way. Instead, I'm focusing on items with better quality materials. I went through the sale and pulled out only what's made of natural materials: cotton, linen, wool, silk, leather, suede. I don't mind wearing polyester here and there, like for a special-occasion dress where the style is what I'm after. But for classic pieces I'll reach for again and again, I want natural. I've got 25 core pieces here, plus a few fun accessories at the end that I think are great deals!

Bedding:

If you buy one thing from this sale, buy sheets. Here’s the difference of percale vs. sateen: Both are 100% cotton. The only difference is the weave.

Percale is the classic over-under weave, the crisp, cool, matte one. Think of the sheets on a really good hotel bed, or a freshly pressed white shirt. It breathes beautifully, so it stays cool all night and never feels clingy. The tradeoff is that it wrinkles a little and feels crisp rather than buttery. If you sleep hot, percale is made for you.

Sateen is woven so more of the thread sits on the surface, which is what gives it that soft sheen and silky drape. It feels a touch warmer and cozier against your skin, the kind of sheet you sink into on a cold night. The tradeoff is that it holds a little more heat. If you run cold, go sateen.

Boll & Branch Framed Organic Cotton Percale Sheet Set

The contrast trim is so chic!

Coyuchi Classic Organic Cotton Sateen Sheet Set (in color undyed white)

Coyuchi is amazing deal when it’s on sale. GOTS certified, woven in a Fair Trade certified factory.

Nordstrom 400 Thread Count Organic Cotton Fitted Sheet

We have two sets of sheets for our bed, so when I’m washing one I can put the other one on the bed, this is great for that second set.

Parachute Organic Cotton Twill Quilt

A quilt is the layer that makes a bed look finished. I’ve had our Parachute quilt since our first house in 2020. I love the cinnamon color for making the bedroom cozy for fall, but I have the cream one.

Coyuchi Classic Organic Cotton Blanket

This is great for pulling out for a movie night or when guests come over.

Kitchen

If you've been thinking about making the switch from nonstick, this is the time to invest in cookware that will last.

Our Place 4-Piece Cookware Set

The Always Pan and Perfect Pot, plus the minis. Ceramic instead of the usual nonstick coating: Our Place says it’s made without PFAS, PTFE, PFOA, lead, or cadmium. If you’re currently using non-stick pans they most likely contain forever chemicals, so it’s best to switch to something like this or stainless steel.

Madein Stainless Stainless Clad Frying Pan Set

Madein pans are fully clad 5-ply stainless, five layers of steel and aluminum bonded together and running all the way up the sides, so the whole pan heats evenly instead of just the bottom. The aluminum in the core spreads the heat, the stainless makes it last, and the magnetic stainless exterior means it works on induction and every other cooktop. I love using stainless steel to cook with because there’s no coating to scratch or wear off, nothing leaches into your food, it doesn’t react with a tomato sauce or a splash of wine, and it takes the high heat that gives you a real sear. They also rarely go on sale.

LE CONNOISSEUR 6.6 Qt. Round French Oven

This is perfect if you wanted to get started on making sourdough bread, I also use this to make our stews, I use it many times weekly it’s worth the investment.

For Baby:

These are staple items that aren’t on sale very often so I think are worth it:

Stokke Flexi Bath:

I love ours, it’s what I used for Elliott and now with Clive. It folds up so you can take it on a trip too.

Nuna Rava Next Flame Retardant-Free Convertible Car Seat

$150 off, such a deal! We love Nuna in our house, no added flame retardants, which is pretty tough to find in a car seat.

Nuna PIPA Aire RX + PIPA Relx Base

Nuna TRVL LX Compact Stroller

Both of these are in my non-toxic baby registry guide!

WILDBIRD Aerial Linen Baby Carrier

100% linen for a baby carrier is a really good deal.

Stokke Tripp Trapp high chair with cushion and tray

We love ours, it supports correct sitting position as they grow and it’s rare to see it on sale.

For Kids:

This is also a good time to think about back-to-school items. I'm keeping fall in mind in general as I look at the kids' clothes:

Polo Ralph Lauren Kids’ Cable Stitch Cotton Cardigan

This one is so classy! Cardigans are on repeat for us in the fall.

Mini Boden Kids’ Scallop Trim Cardigan

I love the print of these ones.

Two-Piece Organic Cotton Rib Pajamas

Long sleeve PJs are something they’ll wear again and again.

Pan Polo long sleeve

I love layering a white long-sleeve like this under a cardigan. It's also great if they go to a school with uniforms.

Pan Polo short sleeve

Poppy likes short sleeve under cardigans because she tends to run hot, so this is something she’ll wear more.

What I’m loving for myself:

I tend to look for simple items I can use as classic basics:

Free People Torres Turtleneck Sweater

100% cotton and runs slightly large. I love it in the cream color.

Relaxed Fit Pima Cotton Crewneck T-Shirt

Pima is extra-long-staple cotton, which is a fancy way of saying the fibers are longer, so it's softer, stronger, and doesn't pill or go rough the way cheap cotton does. That's why it costs more, so it’s a good deal when it’s on sale.

Nordstrom Gingham Cotton Pajamas

These are so cute! I love they don’t look like typical PJs. I like the navy color combo.

Ella Rib Lettuce Trim Cotton Pointelle Tank

Such a cute trim detail on a classic tank.

Denim Popover Shirt

Love the style of this, also breastfeeding friendly with the opening.

Free People We The Free Palmer Cuffed Baggy Jeans

Free people always has good fits, their jeans are some of my favorites!

Merino Wool Sweater Jacket

Merino wool is something I’ll invest in because it’s warm and breathable. I love it in the cream color.

Natori Bliss Cotton French Cut Briefs

My favorite underwear, what I switched to when I was looking for cotton underwear. Pima cotton with a cotton-lined gusset, they’re so comfortable!

Handbags:

Lately I've been using two styles: either a smaller shoulder bag or a larger tote with all the kids' items in it:

The Date Night Suede Shoulder Bag

Real suede and perfect 90s style.

Suede Satchel

This is a great size for shoulder bag and I love the dark color of the suede.

The Shopper Tote

This is such a classic, I love the Madewell bags, the leather always feels so nice.

Accessories:

These are fun styles I love!

Pearl Cross Necklace (I got one for me and one for Jay)

Baguette Cross Necklace

Chunky Huggie Hoop Earrings

Kacie Ring Set

Gold Band Ring

Gisele Cat-Eye Polarized Sunglasses

The Suede Statement Belt

Pure Silk 6-Pack Skinny Scrunchies- These are perfect for ponytails, they protect my hair with real silk and don’t hurt when you pull it out.

What I’m skipping

• Barefoot Dreams and the CozyChic blankets. They’re 100% polyester microfiber and something I avoid when looking for blankets.

• Vegan leather.“Vegan leather” is plastic, usually polyurethane. It cracks, it peels, and it’s in a landfill in three years. A real leather bag on sale is the better buy in every way that matters. Some people do it for animal rights, I think that’s different if thats why you want to buy it, but don’t buy it thinking it’s better quality.

• Anything labeled “performance,” “moisture-wicking,” or “wrinkle-free.” Those are finishes. I have this type of material for our couch, but for clothes I try to avoid.

• Faux fur throws. Also plastic.

xx Brittany

Most mornings right now I’m outside with Clive before it gets hot, giving him a few minutes of gentle sun, his “sun snack”, what my midwife Shannon calls it, before it’s strong out. The other two are usually out there too in their pajamas, giving snacks to the chickens, Poppy in her rainboots even though it’s July, and I’ve got my coffee and no shoes on, and it’s become my favorite part of the day.

Clive is my fourth baby and the first one I’ve done this with from the beginning, and it makes me think about how scared of the sun I was when Poppy was born, how covered up I kept her, it feels so different now. I’m particular about summer more than any season, because the kids are outside all day and everything is touching their skin, the sun, the pool, the grass, the bug spray, so over a lot of reading and trial and error these are the items I trust and use, all in one place.

I have my Complete Non-Toxic Baby Registry Guide if you want the baby-specific things, but this one is for the whole family and just for summer.

For Sunscreen

If you change one thing this summer I’d make it this, because standard sunscreen has quite a bit of chemicals in it that I believe are more risky than sun exposure. We rarely use sunblock here, unless we’re going to be in the sun for awhile without shade, which rarely happens. My kids swim and play outside, they’re getting a little sun every day and I can’t remember the last time they got burned because they’ve built up what’s known as their “solar callus”. It’s the same idea as a callus on your hand, a little exposure over and over and your skin adapts, building up melanin and getting more tolerant so it can handle the sun instead of being shocked by it.

I’ve learned so much from Dr. Alexis Cowan, who has her PhD from Princeton and studies light and metabolism, and she’s the reason I started questioning what I previously believed about the sun… I used to be so scared of it! The research that convinced me is about outdoor workers, people who are out in the sun all day for a living turn out to be less prone to melanoma than people who work indoors, which is the opposite of what I’d always assumed. She explains that the real risk isn’t how much sun you get, it’s whether you burn. Skin that’s been covered up all year has nothing built up, so a full day of sun on vacation turns into a burn, and the burns are what do the damage. Those workers are getting more sun than those working indoors and burning less, because they’re adapted to it. A little sun daily is what builds that callus.

She also explains that being sun deficient carries real risk of its own, that when UVB hits your skin it isn't only vitamin D your body makes, it's a whole family of related compounds from that same starting material, plus a hormone cascade that includes the signal telling your skin to make melanin, which is what protects you. The same light that makes the vitamin D is the light that tells your skin how to handle it. And UVB is only around when the sun is high enough, here that's usually 10am to 4pm, so I make sure they're outside for a little in the afternoon too, not just first thing.

The part surprised me is that it starts with your eyes. When UVB reaches your eyes it sets off that hormonal cascade, and part of what that produces is the signal that tells your skin to make melanin. So if you’re outside in sunglasses, you’re blocking the message, your body never gets told to tan, and you burn instead. It doesn’t mean staring at the sun, it’s just letting light reach your eyes, even on cloudy days. She says the same about morning light, getting outside at sunrise, when it’s red and infrared and there’s no UV in it yet, is what preps your skin for the middle of the day. So I don’t wear sunglasses at the beginning of the day when I’m trying to tell my body to get ready for the sun. I still like the way sunglasses look for certain outfits, but by the pool or out in the garden I’ve gotten into the habit of going without. It’s a big part of why the kids are out there right after breakfast, they’ve eased into the day before the sun is ever strong.

So that's what we do. I don't hide my kids from the sun like I used to when Poppy was born, but I'm also not letting them get burned either, so if they've already been out for a a little and they want to stay out longer, that's when the sunscreen goes on, and after that I'll utilize shade. It's so nice not being as stressed about the sun! My vitamin D is in the optimal range now, and I'm not taking a supplement for it anymore.

When I do use sunscreen, I keep it simple, I look for zinc, and the fewer ingredients the better. Zinc works completely differently than the rest of what’s out there, it sits on top of your skin and reflects the light back, and non-nano means the particles are too big to pass through skin at all. The chemical ones do the opposite by design, they absorb the light, and they absorb into your bloodstream right along with it.

These are the ones I always avoid when I’m looking at sunscreen ingredients: homosalate, octisalate, octocrylene, avobenzone, oxybenzone and octinoxate. When they tested all six, every one was in people’s bloodstream after one day of wearing it, and two of them were still showing up three weeks after people stopped, so it isn’t passing through. Several of these are endocrine disruptors, which means your body reads them as hormones and responds to them. All this to say, I thought I was doing the right thing with the spray sunscreen I used to use, and it turns out I was doing my body and my hormones a disservice instead.

My favorite now is:

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A couple weeks ago I shared the two iced drinks I’ve been living on this summer, and so many of you made them and sent me pictures (the cold foam was a hit with the matcha!), so I wanted to come back and show you the other half of my day.

The summer is really setting in with the heat! The kids aren’t phased by it though, they’re still outside all day either playing with the chickens, picking the cherry tomatoes off the vine, on the trampoline, or in the pool with us, and they come in soaked, which I love for them, sweating is one of the ways their little bodies clear out what they don’t need. I'm also doing sauna sessions throughout the week, so between that and breastfeeding, I really need to stay on top of my hydration.

My daytime drink is still the B•T Fountain (I told the whole story of how I first found it at Erewhon in this post if you missed it). The short version is that it’s the electrolytes that makes my water count, because I learned a while back that staying hydrated isn’t only about how much water you drink, your body needs the minerals and electrolytes to hold onto it, and in a Tennessee summer you’re sweating those minerals right back out. Pique B•T Fountain is also so good for my skin! It has clinically studied ceramides and hyaluronic acid in it that hydrate my skin from the inside while I drink it, so it’s doing double duty on the days I’m sweating half of it back out in the garden.

The kids lose their minerals in all that sweat too, so I've been making sure they stay topped up. They love the sachet just stirred into plain water, the flavor is so good on its own, but the watermelon version is a fun way to make it feel extra special. Elliott loves muddling, which means half of it ends up on the counter, but he's so proud of it that I don't worry about the mess.

Watermelon Lime B•T Cooler

Prep Time: 5 min Total Time: 5 min Serves: 1 (16–18 oz)

Before You Start

Choose a ripe, sweet watermelon for the best flavor.

Chill your water or sparkling water before making the drink.

Ingredients

1 B•T Fountain sachet
½ cup fresh watermelon, cubed
Juice of ½ lime
8 oz cold filtered water or sparkling water
Ice
Fresh mint, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Add the watermelon to the bottom of a large glass and gently muddle until it releases its juices. Slowly pour in the cold filtered water or sparkling water and gently stir to combine.

Add the B•T Fountain sachet and lime juice, stirring until the powder is completely dissolved.

Fill the glass with ice.

Garnish with fresh mint, if desired, and enjoy immediately.

Then there’s the other end of the day, which has become my favorite part of it. We’ve started eating dinner early, around 5pm, because it’s been better for everyone’s digestion and we’ve all been sleeping deeper for it, and by the time the Poppy and Elliott are down it’s usually around 8:30pm. Clive is almost always with us then, either nursing or just awake for a little while before bed, and Anthony and I have gotten into the habit of making our night drink and sitting on the couch together to enjoy it. It's usually the two of us with the baby, talking about the day and thinking about plans for the next. It's almost like a regroup, and such a calming way to end the night.

That's where Pique R•E Fountain comes in, it's built around magnesium, the mineral your body leans on to relax, your muscles and your nervous system both need it to settle down, which is why being low can leave you feeling wired and restless right when you're trying to come down, and so many of us are running low without even knowing it, between stress, sweating, and not getting much of it from food anymore. What I love about this particular one is that is uses three different forms of magnesium (triple maxed) instead of just one, so your body can absorb and use it, and it has the other electrolytes right alongside it; potassium, sodium, and calcium. So it's replacing what a long hot day pulls out of me while it helps me wind down. The nice thing is it works both directions, the magnesium helps calm everything down in the evening so you rest better, and then you wake up feeling clearer and more focused the next morning. It has a soft lemongrass-lemon taste that comes from real lemongrass and lemon juice, nothing artificial, no flavoring or fillers, (which is rare for an electrolyte!) and it turns the prettiest pale blue from spirulina.

There’s no sugar in it, it’s lightly sweetened with organic monk fruit instead, which doesn’t spike my blood sugar the way regular sugar does, so it doesn’t work against me at night. I feel physically more relaxed after drinking it. I give the kids a little too, their recent HTMA results came back a bit low on magnesium, so I asked our practitioner about the ingredients in this one for them, and she had me go off the standard 150-pound adult serving size and divide it down based on their weight, so Poppy and Elliott each get about a quarter of a sachet. They love it, they call it the “blue drink” and think it’s a treat (because it’s so delicious)! Once they’ve done their other supplements at night, the “blue drink” is the last thing they get before bed. I’ll retest them in a couple months to see how it’s helped their mineral levels too.

You can add this single serving size to plain water or here’s the recipe we love for our favorite wind-down mocktail:

Sparkling Cucumber Mint R•E Spritzer

Prep Time: 5 min Total Time: 5 min Serves: 1 (16 oz)

Before You Start

Use chilled sparkling water.

Gently muddle the cucumber and mint to release their flavor without breaking them down too much.

Pour the sparkling water in last to keep the bubbles fresh.

Ingredients

For the Spritzer

1 R•E Fountain sachet
3–4 thin cucumber ribbons
4–5 fresh mint leaves
Squeeze of fresh lemon
8 oz sparkling water
Ice

Instructions

Add the cucumber ribbons and mint leaves to the bottom of a large glass.

Gently muddle just enough to release their natural oils and flavor.

Slowly pour in the sparkling water and gently stir.

Add the R•E Fountain sachet and squeeze in the fresh lemon juice. Stir until completely dissolved.

Fill the glass with ice.

Garnish with an extra cucumber ribbon and a sprig of fresh mint, if desired.

Serve immediately.

I keep thinking about how before Elliott was born I wasn't paying attention to any of this, and now it's woven into our days without me even trying, the cold one when the sun's high and the kids are wild in the yard, and the blue one on the couch with Anthony once they're all down. I can't remember the last time I had the kids or myself drink plain water without electrolytes in it. You can absolutely just stir either one of these sachets into plain water, that's how I have them half the time, especially if I'm running low on time, but making them into a little something fun with seasonal ingredients is an extra treat I look forward to.

I love the quality of Pique! They also offer a 90-day money-back guarantee, so there’s really no risk in trying it, and the discount through my link is 20% off for life, not just your first order, which is so cool! If you only want to start with one, I’d grab the B•T if your days are hot and long, or the R•E if it’s your sleep that could use the help. And if you’ve been meaning to get better about your hydration all summer and keep forgetting, consider this your easy start! Use my link, piquelife.com/brittanydhp, for 20% off for life + free gifts.

Let me know if you make any of them, I want to hear which is your favorite!

xx Brittany

If you’ve been wanting to start a garden but have no idea where to begin, this is the guide I wish I’d had our first year. I tend to over-research before I try something, and I like to learn from people who have done it, so I get why so many have been asking me the same thing: “Where do I even start with growing food?” That’s exactly what I’m walking you through here, start to finish, in the order I’d do it. And if you’re reading this in the middle of summer thinking you’ve missed your window, you haven’t!

I'll show you exactly what you can still get in the ground right now for July and August, with specific examples of what to direct sow and what to grab as transplants based on the space you're working with. I'm still learning myself, but this is the method we used to plant our spring garden, and we had a pretty good harvest for how low-maintenance it was (I share what we're currently growing and the mistakes we've learned from in this post)

The biggest thing I want you to hear before anything else: you don’t have to do it all at once. You don’t need a big yard or a dozen beds to grow your own food, you can do it with a relatively small space. If all you do is put a few pots of herbs on your patio, it’s a perfect place to start! So take what’s useful here, leave the rest, and don’t let the idea of doing it perfectly stop you from starting.

Why grow your own in the first place?

If you're wondering whether it's even worth the effort, believe me... it is! Once you've eaten a juicy tomato you picked from the vine, the store-bought ones are ruined for you, they have less flavor and they're so pale compared to the rich red of one you picked yourself. And it's not just taste, they're better for you too, because produce starts losing nutrients the second it's picked, ..so by the time the ones at the store have traveled and sat on a shelf for a week or more, a lot of that is already gone. That's why, if you're not growing your own, a farmers market is the next best thing, the produce isn't traveling as far since it's coming from local vendors.

But nothing beats walking out to your own backyard, and the part I love most is the control it gives you over your food, you know exactly what went into the soil and that there's no pesticides on it. It's changed how we eat too, we end up eating way more vegetables just because they're right there. I'll walk out and pick the chard and bring it in and make it, and it's gotten us eating more seasonally, just using whatever's growing at the time, lately it’s been beet greens, kale, chard, spinach. That ownership over what we're feeding our family feels amazing. We're not at the point where we grow everything we eat, we still shop to fill in the gaps and are figuring out how to store what we grow, but starting small and seeing that we could do it is what's gotten us to where we are now.

Before you start, here’s what to expect

The setup is the biggest part, and it’s a one-time thing. When we built our four beds last summer, Anthony put them together in one morning, we filled them with soil that same day, and we planted the following evening. So give yourself a weekend or a few evenings here and there, to go from nothing to fully planted. If you’re starting with a couple of pots on a patio, it’s even quicker, an afternoon.

After that it’s pretty easy. Most days it’s just watering and a quick check to see how everything’s doing, with a little more on the weekend. The hard part is the beginning, once it’s in the ground it pretty much takes care of itself. When we did our first small garden last summer, we didn’t even know to prune things for a bigger harvest, and we still barely did anything to it and got tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and all our herbs for very little effort. It kind of shocked us, like wow, if we could get more strategic with this, we could probably grow enough to feed our family once we had a system down.

That's exactly what I've put together below, the full step-by-step, including the part I needed help with the most when we first started: what to plant right now and exactly how to lay it out, whether you're starting with a few pots on a patio, one bed, two beds, or a full four-bed setup. I'll walk you through my whole plan, the specific varieties I'd buy, how many of each, and explain what goes where in every bed, so you're not guessing at any of it. I'm only in my second year of this, so I’m still learning too, but it's what worked for us, laid out the way I wish someone had done for me when we started.

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Eight weeks already, and I keep thinking about how different this feels from those first newborn bubble weeks when I couldn't do much more than stay on the bed and nurse. The thing I've loved most lately is being able to pick up Poppy and Elliott again, scooping them up for snuggles, helping them with something, carrying them when they need me. For weeks I felt so limited, standing at the bottom of the stairs waiting for Anthony to bring them down to me, and now I can just reach down and lift them up like I used to. Elliott keeps asking me, "better now?" because I always told him that when I'm healed and better I could pick him up again, and even though I've picked him up quite a bit by now, he still asks me every time. I just laugh and tell him, yeah little man, I've been better for a few weeks now.

Our days have more of a solid routine now. Clive usually nurses then goes down around 9 or 10pm, then wakes around 2 or 3am, then again around 5 or 6am, and after that he sleeps until 8:30am. He was in my bed with me for a while, but we recently set up his crib in my room right next to my bed, so Poppy and Elliott can sleep in our bed when they want to and Clive is still close enough that I can grab him easily in the night. We go to bed around 9:30pm, so even though I’m getting up in the night I still feel rested, I haven’t felt too tired this way. Usually I’ll nurse one side, then change his diaper and nurse him on the other. The times I’ve skipped the second side and laid him back down, he’s woken up so much sooner, so I try to do a full feeding every time he wakes, which gets me more sleep in a row after.

In the mornings Anthony works out first while I do the early feeding, and then we switch. He takes Clive so I can go get my own workout in with red light therapy, and he starts breakfast with the kids. We come back in and all do devotion together over breakfast, and then for the past five weeks we’ve been heading to ISR (Infant Swim Rescue) lessons. When we get back it’s lunch, and the afternoon is when I’ll get on the computer, film, or work in the garden, depending on the day. I’m wearing Clive for most of his naps. I’ll either wear him until he falls asleep and then lay him in his crib, or if we’re staying inside I’ll just keep him on me because he sometimes sleeps better that way. But if I’m going to be out in the heat, I like to put him down in his crib so he can get a solid nap. I really just go off what he’s doing. I don’t stress about what time he sleeps or where he sleeps, as long as he sleeps, that’s the most important part.

Back to ISR, because it's been a whole thing these past weeks. When we first started, both kids were screaming and crying and they didn't want to do it, they were scared of the water, especially without their swim vests on, (our instructor had us get rid of the swim vests after the first day since she said they teach kids a false sense of security and put them in the wrong position for learning to swim). Those first three days were rough enough that I wasn't sure it would be like this the whole time, but then something switched. The lessons are only ten minutes each so they're quick, but they're going every day and seeing the same instructor, and they started understanding what to do, and the quicker they did the amount of swims required the quicker the lesson would be over, and then they started having fun with it.

Now Elliott cries when the lesson ends because he wants to keep swimming! Which after that first week of tears is not something I saw coming, but so proud of them both. We've been having good talks with them about how good things are often hard, as much as we can explain it to them anyway. Poppy understands it more than Elliott does and it's been a sweet little lesson for all of us.

I'd been resting and taking it slow for weeks now, wondering the whole time if it was doing anything, and yesterday at my postpartum check with Shannon I finally found out…

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I love a festive 4th of July cake and wanted to make a version out of real food that still gives you that classic stars-and-stripes look everyone loves at a cookout.

Boxed cake mixes lean on artificial flavors, preservatives, and a long list of additives so they can sit on a shelf for a year or two. And cool whip (which I used to loveee) isn’t really cream, it’s mostly water, hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, and corn syrup, held together with things like polysorbate 60 and sodium caseinate. Cream, on the other hand, is one ingredient, and it whips up into something so much better for you.

This version is a honey-vanilla sheet cake with a light vanilla milk brush that keeps it tender, real maple whipped cream in place of cool whip, and fresh raspberries and blueberries for the stripes and stars. There’s no refined sugar in it, just honey, maple, eggs, cream, and berries.

The whipped cream is the same one we make most weeks for our sourdough protein waffles. All you do is beat cold heavy cream with a little maple and vanilla until it’s soft and fluffy. A stand mixer or a hand mixer both work, and it takes just a few minutes. The one thing to watch is not to overbeat it, because cream will go from fluffy to butter consistency quick if you walk away, so stop once it holds a soft peak.

You can bake the cake the day before, whip the cream in the morning, and add the berries an hour or two before everyone shows up. Raspberries hold their shape and don’t weep the way sliced strawberries do, so the flag still looks clean by the time you’re serving it.

One tip: dry your berries really well after washing them, and wait until the cake is fully cooled before you spread the cream, or it will slide right off.

I made the usual swaps to keep the ingredients clean: honey and maple instead of refined sugar, grass-fed butter, pasture-raised eggs, unbleached flour, aluminum-free baking powder, and real heavy whipping cream (I like the Kalona Organics or Alexandre Family Farm brand at either Sprouts or Whole foods, both have no added gums).

Full recipe below:

Naturally Sweetened Berry Flag Sheet Cake

Prep Time: 30 min Bake Time: 22–28 min Cool Time: 1 hour Total Time: ~2 hours Serves: 16-20

Before You Start:

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Grease a 13 x 18 inch rimmed half-sheet pan, line the bottom with parchment paper, then lightly grease the parchment.
Set the eggs out so they are not fridge-cold.
Melt the butter and let it cool slightly.
Wash the raspberries and blueberries, then dry them very well.
Keep the heavy cream cold until you are ready to make the whipped cream.
Make sure the cake is fully cooled before adding the whipped cream or it can melt.
Add the berries within 1–2 hours of serving for the cleanest flag design.

Ingredients

For the Honey-Vanilla Sheet Cake
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
¾ tsp fine sea salt
5 large eggs
¾ cup raw honey
⅓ cup pure maple syrup
1 cup whole milk
¾ cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

For the Light Vanilla Milk Brush
¾ cup whole milk
¼ cup heavy cream
1 tbsp raw honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch fine sea salt

For the Maple-Vanilla Whipped Cream
3 cups cold heavy whipping cream
3 tbsp pure maple syrup, or up to ¼ cup to taste
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp finely grated lemon zest, optional
Pinch fine sea salt

For the Flag Topping
4 containers fresh raspberries, 6 oz each
2 pints fresh blueberries

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F and prepare your half-sheet pan with parchment and butter.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until smooth.

Add honey, maple syrup, milk, melted butter, vanilla extract, and lemon zest.

Whisk until fully combined.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.

Whisk gently just until the batter is smooth and no dry flour remains. Do not overmix.

Pour batter into the prepared sheet pan and spread evenly into the corners.

Bake for 22–28 minutes, until the cake is lightly golden and the center springs back when touched.

Start checking around 22 minutes. If the top is getting too dark before the center is done, loosely tent with foil and keep baking.

Remove from oven and let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes.

Make the Light Vanilla Milk Brush

In a small saucepan or microwave-safe bowl, warm the milk, heavy cream, honey, vanilla, and salt just until the honey dissolves.

Do not boil it.

Keep the cake in the pan.

Use a toothpick, skewer, or fork to poke small holes all over the cake.

Slowly brush or spoon the milk mixture over the cake.

This is a light brush, not a heavy soak. The cake should be moist, but not wet or soggy.

Let the cake cool completely.

Make the Maple-Vanilla Whipped Cream

Add cold heavy whipping cream to a large mixing bowl.

Beat on medium speed until it starts to thicken.

Add maple syrup, vanilla extract, lemon zest if using, and salt.

Keep whipping on medium to medium-high until fluffy and spreadable.

Stop when it holds soft-to-medium peaks.

Do not overwhip or it starts to turn to butter consistency.

Assemble the Flag Cake

Make sure the cake is fully cooled.

Spread the maple-vanilla whipped cream evenly over the cake.

Place blueberries in the upper-left corner for the blue star section.

Arrange raspberries in rows across the cake for the red stripes.

Leave whipped cream showing between the raspberry rows for the white stripes.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Serving Instructions

Serve chilled, straight from the pan.

Slice into squares.

Keep refrigerated until close to serving, especially on a warm day.

Make It Ahead

Day before: Bake the cake, add the light milk brush, cool completely, cover well, and refrigerate.

Morning of: Make the whipped cream and spread it over the cake.

Within 1–2 hours of serving: Add the blueberries and raspberries.

Tips

Don’t overmix once the flour is added, or the cake can become dense.

Use a light hand with the milk brush. Too much liquid can make the cake feel heavy.

Make sure the berries are dry before decorating so the flag stays clean.

If your oven runs hot, bake at 340°F and start checking around 20 minutes.

There's a moment in recent mornings, before the house is really awake, where I take Clive outside with me and the sun is just coming up and it's still cool out and the birds are going, and it's so peaceful that I sit there for a little while with the light in my eyes. I'm standing in the middle of eighteen garden beds with my coffee, trying to remember which things need harvesting and which will need to be rotated out soon, thinking about the seeds I want to start, admiring the wildflowers….it's my favorite way to start the day. Back in California our mornings looked nothing like this. We'd make eggs or run out for breakfast burritos from Erewhon, and we spent almost no time in our own backyard. It's funny, when I think of California living it seems like I should have been outside all the time, but we were always on the go, in the car, off to places, in the air conditioning on hot days.

I think about our house we sold in Pasadena sometimes, and the flowers growing in the backyard were so beautiful, but the lot was mainly on a hill and shaded by these gorgeous old oak trees, not much sun all day in the flat areas I would have needed for garden beds, and looking at it now I know my garden never could have thrived there the way it does here. And we certainly couldn't have had chickens for our own eggs. It's strange to realize how much of our life has changed in a year and a half…

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This meal is something I originally prepped for postpartum healing and froze in these soup prep containers as single servings. Once those ran out, Anthony made it fresh for me at least three more times since Clive was born. It seems really simple, and when I first made it I wasn't sure it would be that filling because it doesn't have many ingredients. But it's SO good.

The Chinese red dates really make it. They’re a bit sweeter than regular dates, and I love the texture. They’re firmer when dry, so in the soup they turn into this amazing bite.

In Chinese tradition, red dates have been used to help mothers recover after birth for generations. They’re thought to nourish the blood and bring warmth back into the body, and they’re high in iron, that’s why they turn up in so many recovery soups and teas. With the chicken broth for protein and the ginger to settle your stomach, a bowl of this feels nourishing in the best way. It was one of the meals I was so glad to have stocked in the freezer those first few weeks with Clive.

I found the recipe in the First Forty Days book, which is all about postpartum healing and warming foods. Red dates aren't something I'd ever think to buy, and this was my first time having them, but I'll always keep them stocked now. You can find them at an Asian market or order them online. I ordered mine from here: TeaCuppa

If you know someone who's pregnant or just had a baby, this is an amazing meal to bring a newly postpartum mom. It's also great to prep ahead if you've got your own postpartum coming up.

Chicken, Red Dates & Ginger Soup

Prep Time: 15 min Cook Time: 2 hr 40 min Total Time: ~3 hr Serves: 6–8

Before You Start

Rinse the chicken thoroughly under cold water.

Wash and slice the carrots.

Peel the onion.

Leave the ginger unpeeled and simply cut it in half.

Have a large stockpot ready.

Keep a spoon nearby for skimming any foam from the broth while it simmers.

Ingredients

For the Soup

2–2½ pounds whole chicken or chicken parts
½ white or yellow onion, peeled
1 (2-inch) knob fresh ginger, unpeeled and halved
3 medium carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
5 Chinese red dates (jujubes)
3 tbsp dried goji berries
Sea salt, to taste
Cold water, enough to cover the chicken

Instructions

Rinse the chicken under cold water, place in a medium stockpot and add enough cold water to just cover the chicken.

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, uncovered.

Once boiling, add the onion and ginger.

Reduce the heat to medium, cover, and simmer for 40 minutes.

Occasionally skim off any foam that rises to the surface.

Carefully remove the chicken from the pot and set aside until cool enough to handle.

Remove the meat from the bones and shred it.

Return the carcass and bones to the pot.

Reserve any extra chicken for another meal and return about 1–2 cups shredded chicken to the soup.

Add the carrots and red dates.

Simmer uncovered over low heat for 1 hour.

During the final 15 minutes of cooking, stir in the goji berries.

Season with sea salt to taste.

Remove and discard the bones before serving.

Serve warm.

Storage: Keep in the fridge for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

I’m extra excited about this routine lately because I’m finally back to iced drinks! Through the early weeks with Clive I was leaning into the Traditional Chinese Medicine approach to postpartum healing, which is where the warm-everything comes from; warm meals, warm drinks, no cold water or iced coffee, etc. I loveee iced drinks in the warm months so I was a little bummed about missing out on them. Now that I’m on the tail end of healing I’m easing cold back in. I’ve been testing out different recipes that feel gourmet at home and use all high quality ingredients.

These are two drinks I’ve been loving making lately, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. They look like something I’d order out, an iced matcha with vanilla cold foam and a sparkling strawberry basil refresher. They take a few minutes to make and both are great for me (and my skin!) too.

They both use Pique, which I’ve used since right after I had Elliott. I first found them at Erewhon, browsing the wellness section for a high-quality electrolyte I could travel with. Around that same time I’d gotten some bloodwork done postpartum, my first time really testing my biomarkers and seeing where I was at with everything. Anthony and I were getting more committed to making meals at home and prioritizing our health, and from my results I realized I needed to be a lot more intentional about my hydration and my minerals, which was something I’d never thought much about before. I was a sparkling-water person with some still water here and there, and because I didn’t drink soda I figured I was getting enough. I learned that staying hydrated isn’t only about how much water you drink, your body also needs minerals and electrolytes to hold onto it. And with breastfeeding I’m trying to stay on top of my hydration and minerals as much as I can right now, so a daily electrolyte that also tastes delicious is even better!

Because I trusted them for my electrolytes, reaching for their matcha was an easy yes, and the timing worked out, because Jadyn has got me on a matcha kick ever since she moved back home from college, whenever we order coffees, she gets a matcha and she would try different seasonal flavor ones. I still love coffee and I’m not giving it up, but I’ve gotten strict about not having it after 12pm because sleep is everything right now, and I went looking for something gentler to get my mornings going, especially with breastfeeding.

Now my mornings start with the Pique Sun Goddess Matcha and I make one for Jay too. What I love about matcha is the calmer, steadier kind of energy it gives you compared to coffee. This one is organic, ceremonial-grade, and sourced from Japan. Ceremonial-grade is the highest quality you can get and Japan is where the best matcha in the world comes from. It also matters because other matcha out there can contain heavy metals like lead depending on where and how it's grown, and this one is quadruple toxin screened for purity. On top of all that it's rich in EGCG, the main antioxidant in green tea, which helps protect your cells from the everyday damage that comes from things like stress and pollution, and it's a big part of why green tea comes up everywhere when you read about healthy aging, and skin. Pique also uses a cold extraction process, which is part of why it's such clean, calm energy, with no jittery spike. And matcha is the most concentrated way to get all of it, because you're drinking the whole leaf instead of steeping it and pouring it out.

I like to add sweetness to my matcha without using refined sugar, and this recipe below is sweetened with honey and vanilla extract and tastes delicious!

Iced Sun Goddess Matcha Cloud

Prep Time: 10 min Total Time: 10 min Serves: 1 (16–18 oz)

Before You Start

Heat water to about 175°F.

Fill a large glass with ice.

Have a handheld frother ready.

Stop frothing the cold foam while it’s still silky and pourable. You want cold foam, not whipped cream.

Ingredients

For the Matcha

1 Sun Goddess Matcha sachet
2 oz hot water
8 oz whole milk or milk of choice
2 tsp raw honey
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Ice

For the Cold Foam

¼ cup whipping cream
2 tbsp whole milk or milk of choice
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp raw honey or maple syrup
Pinch of flaky sea salt

Instructions

Add the Sun Goddess Matcha sachet to a small bowl or cup. Pour in the hot water and whisk until smooth and frothy.

Stir in the raw honey and vanilla extract until fully dissolved.

Fill a large glass with ice and pour in the whole milk.

Slowly pour the prepared matcha over the milk for beautiful layers.

To make the cold foam: In a measuring cup or mason jar, combine the whipping cream and 2 tablespoons of whole milk, vanilla extract, honey and salt.

Using a handheld frother, froth for 20–30 seconds until thick, silky, and still pourable.

Pour the cold foam over the top, allowing it to come right to the rim of the glass.

If desired, finish with a light dusting of matcha powder and serve immediately.

Tips

• Whole milk creates the creamiest, coffee-shop-style drink, but any milk of choice works beautifully.

• Don’t over-froth the cold foam. It should be thick and creamy, but still pourable.

If you want to try the matcha, you can get it through my link, piquelife.com/brittanyrsd, with 20% off for life + free gifts.

My afternoon drink is the one with the B•T Fountain. It’s an electrolyte, so it’s doing the hydration work, the minerals and coconut water that help my body hold onto water instead of it running right through me, which after a hot day in the garden with a baby on me is exactly what I need. But Pique calls it a beauty electrolyte for a reason (and that was one of the things that stood out to me when I was first looking for an electrolyte, that it's good for your skin too) it has clinically studied ceramides and hyaluronic acid in it, the same ingredients I love in a good serum, except here they’re working from the inside. Ceramides help your skin hold moisture in and hyaluronic acid pulls water in and keeps it there. It’s made with no sugar, no fillers, and no artificial flavors as well.

My garden is overflowing with basil right now, so I’ve been building drinks around it while it’s fresh, and strawberry and basil together are so good, a little herby, a little sweet, exactly right for the heat. The B•T Fountain is doing the heavy lifting, it has a full range of minerals, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, plus coconut water powder and Himalayan pink salt, so it's real electrolyte hydration. Its natural yuzu raspberry flavor is what makes the strawberries and basil work so well, you get that bright citrus-berry base, and the fresh strawberries deepen it while the basil keeps it from being too sweet:

Strawberry Basil Yuzu Berry Spritzer

Prep Time: 5 min Total Time: 5 min Serves: 1

Before You Start

Chill the sparkling water well.

Use pure vanilla extract.

Add the sparkling water last to preserve the bubbles.

A tiny pinch of sea salt brings out the flavors.

Ingredients

For the Spritzer

1 B•T Fountain sachet
8 oz coconut water
8 oz sparkling mineral water
3-4 strawberries (or more to taste)
3-4 fresh basil leaves (or more to taste)
½ tsp pure vanilla extract (or more to taste)
Tiny pinch flaky sea salt
Ice (optional)

Instructions

Add the frozen strawberries and basil leaves to a large glass.

Lightly muddle the strawberries to release some juice.

Pour in the coconut water and filtered water.

Add the B•T Fountain sachet and stir until completely dissolved.

Stir in the vanilla extract and a tiny pinch of flaky sea salt.

Slowly top with the sparkling mineral water and gently stir.

Garnish with an extra strawberry or basil leaf, if desired.

Serve immediately.

Together they’re what Pique calls the Radiant Skin Duo. What’s kept me with it is how easy it is. You can make these into a whole drink like I did above, or just stir a single packet into hot or cold water in a minute, which is especially nice while traveling. If you’ve been wanting to be better about your hydration, or you just want an afternoon drink that isn’t another coffee, it’s an easy place to start. Use my link piquelife.com/brittanyrsd to get 20% off for life + free gifts and try it for yourself.

Let me know if you make either one, I want to hear which is your favorite!

xx Brittany

A month in with Clive, and the thing that keeps surprising me is how settled it all feels. After my home birth and my healing I wrote about in Two Weeks Postpartum and Three Weeks Postpartum I went into this one bracing for the chaos of three littles, that pulled-in-every-direction feeling I remember so well from before, and it hasn't come. These first weeks have been calmer than any postpartum I've had, and it's taken me a while to figure out why, because it isn't that three littles is somehow easier than two. I think it's that I'm so much more go-with-the-flow this time, I'm not stressing over the little things I would have with the others. I heard a mom say once that the more kids you have the easier it gets, and I never thought that made much sense, but I'm starting to understand it now.

We took Clive’s one month photo with this little milestone marker the same way I did for all the other kids, and he’s just lying there so still. We have videos of Elliott from right after he learned to roll where I’d lay him down for his monthly photo and he’d immediately flip over and start scooting out of the frame, and you can hear me laughing because there was no getting him to stay, and I know that’s coming for Clive too.

Our days move around him the way they do when they’re this small. I’m still nursing pretty constantly and he loves to be snug in the baby wrap for his naps, which I loveee because it means I’m hands free and can get around the house with him close. At night he nurses even more before he’s down around nine, then he’s up again around two, and again around six, and some nights a little more depending on how he’s feeling, but the thing I love most about nursing is that it soothes every situation, it doesn’t matter what he’s crying about or where we are, nursing solves it and that has made everything so much easier. I took him to an event the other night for Divi and he did so great, slept through most of it, and the second he started to fuss I sat down on the couch and nursed him and he was happy again, it was really sweet.

I'm also nursing what feels like every two hours all day, and now that I'm moving out of that early resting mindset and trying to get back into a routine, it can feel all consuming. I'll get him down for a nap in the wrap planning to get something done, and then he's up and ready to eat again and the list I made in my head just doesn't happen, and I'm learning to let the to-do list be slower than the old version of me wants it to be. But all that feeding is doing exactly what it's supposed to, he's a total chunk, he went from the 74th percentile up to the 96th, and he's 12 pounds now at his one month check.

Although I keep calling Clive, Elliott. I’ll be talking to him, or asking one of the kids to grab me something for him, and Elliott’s name comes out, and Jadyn does the same thing, we keep catching each other doing it and laughing, like how do we keep doing this out of habit, I think some part of me is still catching up to there being a new little boy in the house.

Poppy and Elliott couldn’t be more different about him. Poppy will hold him, but only when she’s sure it’ll be quick and he won’t fuss, and the second he makes the smallest noise she’s handing him right back…”Mom, he needs you, I think he’s hungry”, she takes it so seriously and can’t relax until he’s back with me. Elliott is the complete opposite, he wants to hold Clive all the time and be near him constantly, and it’s the sweetest thing how smitten he is even though he still has no idea how strong he is. I lay Clive out flat on a blanket by the window in the playroom so he can stretch out and look outside, which he loves, but the second Elliott’s up from his nap…that’s over, because he’ll come straight for him to try to poke at him or scoop him up himself.

We pulled our first real harvest out of the garden this week too, and I made a ground beef pesto pasta with steamed greens from it, and there was something about sitting down to a dinner knowing most of it came from right outside our door. It's a small thing, but it's the kind of moment we were hoping for when we moved here, and I don't take it for granted.

And then there are nights like this week where all six of us somehow ended up piled on my bed together. Poppy and Elliott had their little figurine horses out doing all the voices, “Hi, my name is horse” .., and Jadyn had Clive resting on her, and I just sat there in the middle of all of it trying to take a mental picture of it, because I know what this is, everyone still little, everyone still here under one roof (while Jadyn is home for the summer from college), and it won’t stay this way.

We were over with Anthony's family the other night, and his sister asked us, do you guys want another baby?…

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Last week, I shared the emotional side of these first weeks, and I promised I’d come back with all the specific things I’ve been using and loving the most, so here it is, three weeks in, what our days look like now and everything that’s getting me through…

The time is flying, and three weeks already doesn't feel possible. I'm up and moving around a little more now, baking something here or there and straightening up, but I'm still trying not to be on my feet for long stretches.

(These cowboy cookies didn't last, I'd made a big batch while I was pregnant and froze them for postpartum, but everyone ate through them in the first week, so I made more yesterday. So good!)

We had a few rainy days this past week, and they helped me mentally, because I knew I couldn't be out doing things anyway, so there was nothing to feel guilty about. It's the sunny days that get me. I'll look outside and think, okay, it's beautiful, I need to be productive, and then I have to talk myself back down and remember that this slower stretch is exactly what my body needs.

Our days have a small routine now even if they blur together a little. I nurse Clive until around 6am, and then he'll either go back down for a bit or, if he seems up, Anthony will take him out so I can get a little more rest before the other kids are up around 7:30. The one thing I'm strict about is getting all of us outside first thing to get that morning light in our eyes. After that Anthony makes us smoothies and then coffee while the kids play for a while. I recently got them a sand kit (perfect for a rainy day inside) and a little outdoor pool that have been saving us while we haven't left the house much, and they love the mini pool because they fill it with their toys and play like it's a little bathtub. Then it's back to nursing on my bed or in the chair. Later we'll all go out to the garden for a bit, where the kids love playing with the chickens, and I'll sit out there until Clive starts getting too sweaty and we head back in.

One morning this week was the first time I felt how far I've come…

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I’ve been seeing the viral dot cakes all over and wanted to make a homemade version with no artificial coloring or synthetic dyes. I love that they come together as little single-serve cakes, finished with a blanket of dots on top that are oddly satisfying. I used naturally colored sprinkles so you get that same bright, playful look without anything artificial.

Funfetti was my favorite growing up. I made the boxed version constantly in high school. I still have a soft spot for it and there’s something so nostalgic about it, but I looked at the ingredient list recently and couldn’t believe what was in something I used to eat by the spoonful: Red 40 Lake, Yellow 5 and 6, Blue 1, propylene glycol, BHT, and a long tail of additives I can’t pronounce. The candy bits alone have four artificial dyes. Half of it isn’t even real food, it’s dyes for color, preservatives like BHT to give a boxed mix a two-year shelf life, and fillers to hold it together, none of it there to make the cake taste better or do anything good for your body. Making it from scratch gets me the same funfetti I loved, with butter, eggs, and naturally colored sprinkles instead.

The kids and Anthony were the official taste testers on this one, and the cake didn’t last long! Elliott was pulling pieces straight from the pan before it ever made it into a ramekin, and I did too (I love a good cake without any frosting sometimes). It’s buttery with a fine, tender crumb and just enough vanilla, the kind of cake that holds up on its own without needing frosting to carry it.

The whole thing is easier than it looks. You bake one sheet cake, cut out rounds, stack them with buttercream in a ramekin, and flip the top into a plate of sprinkles. You’ll want a stand mixer or hand mixer to get the buttercream light and fluffy. We also fold naturally colored, naturally flavored sprinkles right into the batter, so the cake bakes up funfetti on the inside with little flecks of color in every slice.

I made a few swaps to keep the ingredients clean: grass-fed butter, pasture-raised eggs, organic cane sugar, unbleached flour, and aluminum-free baking powder. None of it changes how simple the recipe is, but it makes a treat I feel good about handing to the kids.

These are the kind of thing I'll keep making all summer, for birthdays, or any time the kids need a little something special. They had so much fun making them together! Full recipe below, plus everything we used to make them:

Viral Dot Cupcakes (No Artificial Ingredients)

Prep Time: 30 min Bake Time: 20–25 min Chill Time: 30 min Total Time: ~1 hr 45 min Serves: 4

Before You Start:

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Line a 9 x 13 inch pan with parchment paper and lightly butter it.
Set out 4 ramekins for assembling later.
Bring butter, eggs, and milk to room temperature.
Measure all ingredients before starting.
Use naturally colored sprinkles (I used these ones for the top and these ones for the inside)
Find a round cutter or glass slightly smaller than your ramekins.
Make sure the cake is fully cooled before cutting or it will tear.

Ingredients

For the Cake
1½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1½ tsp aluminum-free baking powder
¼ tsp fine sea salt
½ cup salted grass-fed butter, softened
⅔ cup organic cane sugar
2 pasture-raised eggs, room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
½ cup whole milk or whole-milk buttermilk
3 tbsp naturally colored rainbow sprinkles

For the Buttercream
3/4 cup unsalted grass-fed butter, softened
2 cups organic powdered sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tbsp heavy cream
Pinch fine sea salt

For the Dot Blanket
1 cup naturally colored rainbow nonpareils

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F and prepare your sheet pan with parchment and butter.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a stand mixer (or large bowl with hand mixer), beat butter and sugar on medium-high speed with the paddle attachment for about 4 minutes, until pale and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, mixing fully between each addition.

Mix in vanilla extract.

Turn mixer to low and add the dry ingredients and milk in this order: flour, milk, flour, milk, flour. Mix just until combined and no dry streaks remain.

Fold in sprinkles gently with a spatula so the colors stay intact.

Pour batter into prepared sheet pan and spread evenly into a smooth, level layer. (It will feel a little thick and low in the pan).

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the center springs back lightly and a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.

Remove from oven and let the cake cool completely in the pan.

Use a round cutter or glass to cut out 8 circles, pressing straight down.

Make the Buttercream

In a clean bowl, beat butter on medium-high for 2 minutes until smooth.

Add powdered sugar gradually on low speed.

Add vanilla, heavy cream, and salt, then whip on medium-high for 3 minutes until light and fluffy.

Assemble the Cakes

Place one cake round into the bottom of each ramekin.

Spread about 2 tablespoons of buttercream evenly over each base layer.

Place a second cake round on top and press gently.

Add a generous amount of buttercream on top of each cake.

Use a spatula or knife to spread it to the edges and smooth it completely flat with the rim of the ramekin, scraping off excess.

Add the Dot Blanket

Pour nonpareils into a plate.

Flip the ramekin over onto the sprinkles

Gently press to set, then tap off any loose sprinkles.

Optional: refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.

Serving Instructions
Serve straight from the ramekin with a small spoon. Keep chilled until serving so the buttercream holds and the natural sprinkles stay vibrant without bleeding.

Shopping List

Dairy
1¼ cups unsalted grass-fed butter (2½ sticks total)
½ cup whole milk or whole-milk buttermilk
1 tbsp heavy cream
2 pasture-raised eggs

Grains & Baking
1½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups organic powdered sugar

Pantry & Sweeteners
⅔ cup organic cane sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Leavening & Salt
1½ tsp aluminum-free baking powder
¼ tsp fine sea salt

Decorations
3 tbsp naturally colored rainbow sprinkles
2 cups naturally colored rainbow nonpareils

After my home birth experience I felt more prepared going into postpartum than I ever have. Two weeks in and it's still managed to surprise me…

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This is my fourth baby and I've had all different types of births. My first was a c-section, my second was medicated in the hospital, my third was unmedicated in the hospital, and this was my first home birth. This birth moved even quicker than my last and my midwife missed it by ten minutes. I get into all of that in this post…how it all went and my overall thoughts about the experience.

Let me back up for a second because to understand why this experience was so different for me, you have to know where I started. With my c-section I had just turned twenty and the doctor made it seem like it would be an easier route, and I thought so too, but the recovery was terrible even for me being so young. It was an elective c-section, not medically necessary, and I had no idea what I was agreeing to. I knew I never wanted to do that again. The recovery process was downplayed and the worst of the pain was after Jadyn was born, not during, and not being able to lift her and having staples was the hardest part.

With Poppy I really wanted to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) and my doctor at the time kept pushing a scheduled c-section, even though fourteen years had passed and I wasn't high risk for rupture based on my scar type. She kept finding reasons to talk me out of it, even telling me at one point that Poppy's head was too big and I'd most likely need a c-section anyway and wanted to refer me to a specialist. When I looked up the specialist and read the reviews saying he almost always recommended c-sections, I knew I needed to find a different doctor. I ended up leaving that practice at eight months pregnant to find someone who would be open to me trying, and I found one who believed in me and listened to what I wanted. I had a successful medicated VBAC with Poppy but I almost didn't make it to the hospital in time to get the epidural. I begged one of the nurses, told her I'd sit still during a contraction. I wasn't mentally prepped to do it without. I got the epidural and everything slowed down, I couldn't tell if I was pushing when they told me to, and my legs being numb after was something I didn't like. The recovery wasn't nearly as bad as the c-section but I definitely felt more out of it after, and I never considered going unmedicated at that point, absolutely not. That thought didn't even cross my mind… until Elliott.

Then with Elliott it seemed to go from zero to a hundred quick and by the time contractions were getting intense we were frantically trying to get things together to leave for the hospital. I had him at 38 weeks and assumed I'd have until 40…so no hospital bag was packed. By the time we got there I had the urge to push and they told me right away there was no time for an epidural. I was so mad at myself because I knew we'd left too late, I'd told myself I wouldn't do that again after arriving too close with Poppy. The panic of knowing I'd be doing it without lasted about a second, because the nurses told me to get into whatever position felt right and kept telling me I could do this and it would be quick. And they were right. I was free to be in any position I wanted, I could actually feel myself pushing, and I felt way more in control than I expected. It was intense but it was over fast, and the moment he was born I could feel the relief of it that I hadn't felt the same way with an epidural. I felt amazing afterwards with no numbness having to wear off and Elliott was much more alert than Poppy was too. The cramping after was uncomfortable because you can feel all of that right away, but it gave me the confidence that I could do it again. It wasn't like I had originally thought it would be. Where the epidural slows things down, going without it lets your body do what it needs to do without anything getting in the way, your body takes over and knows what to do. After Elliott I started thinking differently, not just that I could do unmedicated again, but that the hospital itself was starting to feel unnecessary for how my births were going. The scariest part of that whole experience wasn't the birth, it was the rushing to get there in time and not feeling safe in the car while I was in active labor.

With how quickly things had progressed I knew that unless I got to the hospital when contractions weren’t painful yet, that was really the only way I’d make it there in time, and I didn’t feel like the hospital did much for me with an unmedicated birth anyway. I knew I could do it at home with a good team and an emergency plan in place, and moving to Tennessee made that feel even more possible. Out here anyone who’s pregnant, you ask them who their doctor is and it’s always “I have a midwife.” It’s very common here to do a home birth, so much so that there’s a popular clinic that’s hard to get into and I was told the moment I got a positive pregnancy test to call and get scheduled, otherwise they book out. They wouldn't take me because I was a VBAC, which gave me a weird feeling at first because I've done it before, I know how my births go, I just needed someone trained in VBAC in case of rupture. I was referred to Shannon, who was also hard to get into because she was in high demand, but she takes on higher risk cases for people like me who get turned away from some standard midwife clinics. I talk more about her credentials and how she helped me prep for labor in the posts linked here:

1. Everything’s Different This Time

2. What I Changed After My Last Midwife Appointment

3. My Midwife’s Labor Prep Plan (and What I’ve Added on My Own)

4. My Midwife Home Visit: The Full Plan, My Labor Kit, and Postpartum Essentials

The day before he was born, I was almost 40 weeks when I went in for what I hoped would be my last prenatal checkup. Everything felt so heavy and the pressure was very low, I knew things were close. But when she checked on him his heart rate was much higher than normal, which can be a sign of stress…

(the full post continues below for my Substack family)

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Jadyn is officially moved back in for the summer! When we first started looking at houses, having a separate area for her was high on our list. With the age gap of the littles, it’s so nice for her to have her own space while she’s home from college for the summer. The previous owners converted the garage into a two-bedroom ADU unit, and it has a full kitchen with a full size fridge, mini appliances, and a living room. Over the summer we’ll source pieces to finish styling the living room and dining area, but getting her bedroom and bathroom finished before she came home was the top priority.

Her room was all white before with high ceilings, and it's a bit narrow with no closet, so we had to get creative with storage and making the room feel bigger. I wanted to surprise her with the styling but wanted to make sure she loved the wall color first, so I asked her which direction she was thinking and she said she wanted something light and airy…

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After months of slowly piecing it together, Poppy's room is finally finished, and I have so many feelings about it! If you followed along in Part 1 and Part 2 of What We've Done to the House So Far, you've already seen bits of the other rooms coming together, but today I'm sharing the full finished space for Poppy.

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Things are starting to feel very real now. I’m 38 weeks and Elliott came at 38 weeks. I keep having to remind myself that this baby could be any day now. I’m eating in a way to keep this baby in until 40 weeks because those last two weeks matter so much for development, which I talked about more in this post HERE. So hoping we have two more weeks, but we’re prepared now just in case it’s sooner.

We just had our home visit with my midwife and this one was different from our regular appointments. Typically I go to her house but she came here specifically to go over all my supplies, walk through the full plan, and make sure everything’s in place. I always leave my appointments with her having learned something I didn’t know going in and this one was no different. I took notes on everything and I want to share all of it here, what she covered, what’s in my labor kit, and what I’m doing for postpartum recovery. I’m feeling more prepared for this birth than any of my others. Full post continues below for my Substack family:

If you missed my earlier pregnancy posts you can find them here: My Midwife’s Labor Prep Plan and My Complete Non Toxic Baby Registry Guide

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