This post is sponsored by Madison Reed.

For the longest time (I’m talking 10 years), I dyed my hair a slightly darker shade of brown, and then more recently I spent a few years (and way too much money) going lighter and exploring the whole ombre trend. With a toddler keeping me busy these days, I’m in a season of more low-maintenance hair care, having just chopped a good 6 inches of length and staying away from any color regimen that includes a full afternoon in a salon chair.

Because of that, I was really excited to get an invitation to try out Madison Reed Color Bar in San Francisco. Madison Reed focuses on high-quality ingredients and a high-end salon experience, but they get you in and out in much less time than other salons and also focus more on roots, gray coverage, and all-over color (so it may not be the right place if you’re looking for something more high maintenance).

Because it’s been a while since I got my hair colored, I decided to go with the color-reviving gloss in the shade Espresso, which is a really nice cool brown shade that’s just slightly darker than my natural color.

The colors and glosses are all pre-mixed and ready to go, which is so nice because you can buy them (and all of their products) on Madison-Reed.com (use code MEGANCOLOR for free shipping). They sent me home with a tube of the Espresso gloss so I can do it myself at home in 6-8 weeks. The gloss is just $25 online! I think their prices are so reasonable for the wonderful servicethey provide, not to mention the gorgeous space!

There are also do-it-yourself hair drying stations in every salon that you can use for free, or you can add a blow out to any service for just $35—their products seriously felt so good and smelled amazing! I’m a sucker for a blow out so I truly felt like I was living my best life in there on a Saturday morning with my little head massage and double espresso.

If you live near one of their locations, you should totally try them out! And if you don’t, make sure to check out their website and shop around if you’re looking for a new shampoo or conditioner, styling product, or one of their many lovely glosses and permanent dyes. Use the code MEGANCOLOR for $20 off your first roots treatment in a salon or for free shipping on your next Madison Reed online purchase.

Thank you Madison Reed for having me! I can’t wait to try the at-home color and hopefully visit again soon.

Photos by Cue the Light for Freckled Italian.

The best thing I did in the past few months was finally learn how to walk my dog with one hand and push a stroller with another—that may sound silly but Ender is a super high-energy pup and if he doesn’t get enough exercise it can be a struggle.

For the first few months of Sophie’s life, I’d wear her in a baby wrap and walk Ender and it was great—we’d get out of the house for 30-40 minutes, sometimes even an hour every day, she would sleep on me, and he would get his exercise; but as Sophie got bigger it became harder to manage them both that way. After a few weeks of trying to walk him early before anyone in my house woke up, I decided to just get over it and walk Ender with the stroller—something I always found really intimidating.

The first few times didn’t exactly go smoothly, but after a few walks we started to get the hang of it, and now we get a good 2-3 miles in pretty much every day, which has been so nice for all of us. Sometimes I’ll call my mom or a friend to catch up while I’m walking, but most of the time I listen to one of my favorite podcasts, which I wanted to share here—which is also why I’m telling you this story about walking the dog.

So without further ado, my five favorite podcasts:

• The Bon Appétit Foodcast: I don’t listen to every episode of this show, but the ones I do listen to I always enjoy so much. I consume Bon Appétit content on pretty much every channel they create it for: Instagram, YouTube, I’ll even buy a copy of the magazine if I’m in an airport and my flight gets delayed. So it was only a matter of time before I started listening to their podcast as well. I feel like I know the people who work at BA, and their enthusiasm and passion for food really speaks to me. Who wants to listen to someone talk about rice for an hour? I do.

• Getting Curious: Jonathan Van Ness is like my imaginary friend, except he’s real, he just doesn’t have any idea who I am. I think he is so sweet and funny and I love listening to him ask people questions on this show. I love that he is loud and outrageous and has the funniest expressions but also really does his research and leads some super interesting conversations with experts on a really wide spectrum of topics. It’s so interesting, and I’ve learned so much.

• Pod Save America: I listen to this podcast first when I’m walking and always when I’m driving anywhere—I’m at the point where this is really the only way I want to hear the news and learn about current events. These guys are funny (never have I ever fast forwarded through one of their ads), smart, and well-connected and I love hearing from them a couple times a week. They’re also in the process of interviewing every Democratic nominee for President right now and releasing them as separate episodes, which is super interesting and valuable to me.

• Yo, Is This Racist?: I learned about Andrew Ti on an episode of Getting Curious last year and finally started listening to this podcast last month. He and his co-host Tawny Newsome answer listener questions about racism, and they are so hilarious but also unapologetic about calling out racism even just in our casual, day-to-day lives. I really can’t recommend this show enough, especially if you’re white. There are so many things I used to not notice or—even worse—ignore and this podcast has really taught me so much about speaking up in the face of white supremacy (while making me laugh out loud in the process).

• Cafeteria Christian: This was a podcast I really needed. If you’ve been here for a while you know I was raised in the Catholic church but don’t really identify as Catholic anymore. For a long time I wasn’t sure if I even identified as Christian. When this podcast came out and announced that it was a show for “people who like Jesus but aren’t so sure about some of his friends,” I knew I had to subscribe. From forgiveness to prosperity gospel and purity culture to mental health and even abortion, Natalia and Nora tackle everything through the lens of progressive Christian-ish-ity.

What are you listening to these days?

I found myself in the Southern California desert earlier this week—driving a last-minute rental car I booked one way from Palm Springs to Oakland.

For roughly half a decade, I’ve attended the same conference every winter—I started going in 2014, right after I quit my 9-5 and was living in Minnesota; blogging and planning our wedding. I didn’t fully know what I was doing but I was writing every day and I was happy. I freelanced and temped as a receptionist and dreamed of my blog paying all the bills. I went to Salt Lake City that January and learned so much that I came home exhausted and overwhelmed in the best way imaginable—with a journal full of notes and a wallet full of business cards and a plan.

That conference really, truly changed my life.

Fast forward to last weekend and I was packing my bag for a week at the same conference, just in a new location. I felt the same in many ways but also so incredibly different. Goodness, how my life has changed in five years—one wedding, three huge moves, one dog, four cookbooks, one baby. Every morning I wake up feeling simultaneously blessed beyond measure and burnt out—excited to spend another day with my daughter but wondering when that spark might light itself again in the back of my mind where essays and recipes and #contentcreation used to overflow; when I might not only dream again about writing, but actually do it.

I started talking to anyone who would listen about how badly I needed this week away to refocus, get re-energized, and find inspiration. “I just want to get inspired” came out of my mouth so much that I started to annoy even myself. But it was true—I felt desperate for inspiration. I still kind of do.

On Sunday morning I landed in Palm Springs and immediately felt a shift. I slid my sunglasses onto my face and felt the sun beaming down on me, so happy that I had braved the cold damp sidewalks of SFO in sandals earlier that morning. My heart jumped as my sweet friend Kristan came around the corner in her car to scoop me and my bag and we were off, driving the short distance to our hotel where, within a half hour, we were sitting by the pool, drinks in hand, waiting for the conference to begin—waiting for inspiration to strike.

The conference was not what I expected this year, and I found myself feeling overwhelmingly disappointed and lost. So, after about 36 hours, I decided to do something I never thought I would do: leave.

I wanted to make the most of my time but through every overcrowded session and late shuttle I couldn’t stop thinking about my word for 2019–purpose.

“Does it help me reach a goal? Does it make me happy? Does it serve my family or someone I care about? Do I come out on the other side burned out or resentful? Will it make me a better mom, wife, friend, writer, person? I want to live a life full of choices and work that makes me happier, healthier, more kind, more skilled, more thoughtful. ”

Would I regret staying and leaving disappointed, feeling like I had wasted even more time? Or should I cut my losses and get back to my family at home, where my husband was missing time at the office and we were paying our nanny to be there four days instead of two? Luckily Kristan felt the same and we cancelled the rest of our hotel stay, I rented a car, and we planned for her to drop me off at the airport the following day. Immediately I felt lighter.

It’s a privilege to be able to say no to things that you originally said yes to, but it’s one I didn’t want to waste. We went to a sponsored yoga class the morning of our departure and as I stood there barefoot in the grass behind the Parker Palm Springs, listening to the instructor tell us how blessed we were, I felt it. Tears in my eyes, hands on my heart, the Universe truly reached out and told me it was time to go home.

And that’s how I came to spend 8 hours alone on the road on a Tuesday afternoon. And as I drove over those majestic desert mountains for the first time, windows down, music blasting, the arid heat whipping through my hair, I realized that maybe there is no magic “press for inspiration” button—maybe sometimes you just have to find it yourself.