I have been living for all things mango (and pineapple) lately, so this delicious little drink I came up with has been shaken up and poured on repeat at my house lately. It’s a virgin margarita that easily goes from mocktail to cocktail with an ounce or two of your favorite tequila, but I am loving it as a booze-free afternoon treat now that the weather is so nice.

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces of fresh mango, diced

• 3 heaping tablespoons cream of coconut

• 3 ounces of pineapple juice

• 3 ounces of your favorite margarita mix

• As little or as much tequila as you like in a margarita (obviously optional)

Instructions:

1. Muddle mango and cream of coconut together in a shaker.

2. Add ice and pineapple juice, margarita mix, and tequila, if using. Shake well and strain over fresh ice.

3. Garnish with lime and enjoy!

This recipe is so fast and easy that I didn’t even bother to take photos, but that didn’t stop me from making a quick video about it:

PS I had so many people ask me for the recipe for this drink the few times I shared it on Instagram, it inspired me to create a short collection of 10 more drinks (complete with real photos) for warmer weather. It’ll be formatted as an ebook and I’ll share it on my Shop page when it’s done! If you want to get a notification when it’s ready, I’ll be sending a link to my newsletter subscribers first, so feel free to sign up here.

Well we are officially in the third trimester of this pregnancy and the countdown to baby boy’s arrival is on! I have been feeling pretty settled in this new house (we moved in mid-October), but there are quite a few things we wanted to do to really make it feel comfortable before his arrival and Rob’s paternity leave, so we are working with a designer to “finish off” our bedrooms and hopefully get some custom built-ins done in a few spots downstairs before May rolls around—but that’s a whole other post!

Here’s a quick recap of my second trimester with Baby Boy:

Cravings:

• Pad Thai, preferably 2-3 times a week

• Ramen

• California rolls! Every time I went to Publix I would grab a spicy California roll and either eat it in the car or as soon as I got home. It got to the point that even if I didn’t really want one I would get one and put it in the fridge, only to end up eating it a few hours later.

• Pancakes. When it comes to breakfast, I’m usually more of a savory egg-and-cheese kind of person, but for a few weeks there all I could think about were pancakes. We made them at home but then started ordering from IHOP or other breakfast places around town and it was always so good.

• All the hot fudge sundaes

Aversions:

• I was super excited to start drinking coffee again around 15 weeks. It had been grossing me out so much but it is such a part of my morning routine and I was really missing it.

Symptoms:

• I still threw up most mornings throughout this entire trimester. I started taking B6 in the morning which helped a little with the daytime nausea, but taking it at night never quite helped with that first-thing-in-the morning puke.

• Around 16 weeks my hips really started bothering me, but exercise always seems to help with that which is great.

• 18 weeks I would wake up wide awake at like 4AM and have trouble going back to sleep.

• Around week 22 the nausea started to make way for heartburn, which I had a terrible time with my first pregnancy.

• My feet started hurting pretty badly by the end of the day, but I got some house slippers with arch support that help a lot.

Exercise:

• Around week 21 I was able to start riding the Peleton regularly and added a few strength workouts into my routine. I would do a cycle class 3 times a week and a strength class 2 times a week, which felt like a lot of exercise after the first trimester of almost nothing.

Other Stuff:

• I swear I felt him move at 13 weeks, which was so much earlier than with Sophie but I read that subsequent pregnancies can be like that.

• I had someone come to our house to do a prenatal massage because I didn’t want to go to a spa during COVID which was nice, but I found it really hard to relax in my own house, especially because it happened to take place on a day where Sophie decided not to nap. But I really needed some work on my back and hips, and I definitely felt better afterwards.

• There was never a time where I felt like I had that “second trimester energy surge” or the magic spot between first trimester nausea and third trimester aches and pains. For some reason this time it felt like I was just getting the worst parts of the first trimester and some early struggles of the third. I was somehow nauseated, exhausted, and would get heartburn at night.

That’s about it for those three months! I’m surprised by how good I feel currently in the final trimester, but I’ll have more on that later. Thanks for reading!

I have progressively gotten worse and worse about making time to read, and even though I love it, I know that biting off more than I can chew in terms of reading goals is only going to make me feel like I failed, so I decided to make a short list this year and try to commit to reading at least these six books. Some of them are practical and parenting-related, one is a book of poetry, one is a memoir, a classic novel, and then a bit of non-religious spirituality to round it all out.

• What Kind of Woman: This collection of poems came out last year and it is one of the only books I’ve ever preordered. Once mine arrived, I immediately ordered more copies to give to friends. I can’t get enough of it, and it is going on my 2021 list because it has a semi-permanent spot not on my bookshelf, but on my bedside table. I’m constantly flipping through it and absolutely cannot get enough.

• An Altar in the World: I started this book a while ago and then didn’t get super into it, but I want to finish it (or maybe even start over) this year. I absolutely love hearing from spiritual people who have left their churches (which is a journey I myself have taken) and found God in other, less structured ways and places.

• Oh Crap: Potty Training: Definitely not the most fun book on this list, but it’s one of the few that I have already finished. I find the author of this book to be really rude and kind of intimidating, but the potty training method she uses worked really well for us. I always promised myself that potty training was one thing I would never write about on this blog, so I’ll leave it at that.

• The Great Gatsby: One of my favorite classics, which I used to read pretty regularly. It felt like the start of the new ‘20s was a good reason to dust it off for another re-read, you know?

• The Montessori Toddler: This book is not only super informative, but really beautiful to flip through. Sophie went to a Montessori preschool for a few months before the pandemic hit and it felt like such a good fit. I’m always trying to incorporate some Montessori principals into our own home and play.

• Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger: I love a memoir, but a food memoir? Sign me up.

I’m sure I may pick up another book or two this year but I like having this short and very manageable list right now. I always feel so much better when I read (especially before bed instead of mindlessly scrolling on my phone). What are you reading this year?

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