Filling My Cup with Beautiful Chorus, The Ultimate Lazy Dinner, and a Potential Summer Sabbatical

Happy last Friday of March!!!! (yes I did just have to check my calendar to confirm that given that I just posted an entire TikTok this week saying I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to dress for “fall” or “spring” when we are very much ending winter). This week was a little ~down~ for me mentally and instead of obsessing over the “why”, I’m trying to just simply sit with the feelings and let that be okay and remember that it is not permanent - these emotions are always temporary. I’ve been working on a lot of things (professional and personal) behind the scenes and trying to figure out how to strategically share them so there is a lot coming your way!! In the meantime, here’s what I’ve been up to this week.

Conversations with Cam -

What I’m Listening To -

• Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce and Michelle Obama - As a big fan of Kylie Kelce’s, I am loving the mega guests she has been booking lately. I loved hearing from Michelle about what it was like raising daughters in the White House and an inside look into how difficult that must’ve been to try and still provide them with a “regular” childhood and prepare them for the outside world knowing that, at most, they would be in this specific position for 8 years. While I wish she was considering running for office (because how fucking amazing would that be??), I totally understand her decision not to after hearing more about why.

• Beautiful Chorus - Ok take this or leave it because I imagine this will only resonate with a specific sector of people, but this discovery has utterly changed the game for me this week. Last weekend at hot yoga during savasana the teacher played this beautiful song of a chorus repeating encouraging mantras and I was overcome with peace and gratitude and overall joy. Immediately after the class I asked her what that song was and she told me about Beautiful Chorus - a chorus that sings songs repeating specific mantras. Ever since learning about them, I have had this playing on our Sonos speakers, quite literally, 24/7. I have it at a low volume and it does something incredible to my nervous system that I cannot put into words.

What I’m Reading -

• Dream Girl Drama - Guys I know, I can’t with these titles. This is the most recent of Tessa Bailey’s Big Shot series and is about a professional hockey player, Sig, and a harp prodigy, Chloe, who hit it off only to find out they are soon-to-be step-siblings. As I write that out, I too, am wondering what the actual fuck I catch myself reading on my kindle. I enjoyed parts of this book and then caught myself thinking “literally what is this” during other parts, so I can’t confidently recommend it. I will say this is the book that led to my recent break of romance novels (I’ll get into this soon).

What I’m Watching

• The Day of Jackel on Peacock - My parents and close friends have been telling us to watch this show for weeks so we finally started and, while we’re only 2 episodes in, we are loving it. An action-packed series about a professional hitman who has the most insane disguises and seems to be the calmest person under stress I’ve ever seen!?

What I’m Wearing -

• NoBull All Day Elements - I have been preaching about these sweatpants for the past few months for good reason - they are the best joggers to exist!!! Similarly, I love the crewneck (and hoodie) and sneakers. Truly the NoBull all day elements line is my dream come true. Use the link HERE for 30% off your order!

• Leopard Cargo Jeans - I’ve had these for over a year now but haven’t worn them in a bit (they don’t feel like winter pants to me for some reason??) so I am so happy to have them back in my rotation because they are so FUN

• Week’s Round of 365 Days of Dressing for Me

  

  

What I’m Writing/Journaling/Thinking About -

• That commuting is the “easier” job - I posted this video on TikTok & IG and thankfully it reached the right audience, but I had this moment this week where I left the house at 6:45AM to catch the train and Joe was with two very emotional boys and as I shut the door to the car and was wrapped in silence I thought, “wow, this is so much easier than what he has to deal with for the next hour”. So if you are a stay at home parent who doesn’t get the acknowledgement you deserve - your job is HARD!

• Potential Summer Sabbatical? I’ve been talking with my friends lately about how I feel I’m on the verge of burnout. I’m switching between 100 tasks a day, there is a ton on my plate, and I continue to just go-go-go and I can feel it catching up to me. In my meditation this morning I suddenly felt pulled to the idea of a social media sabbatical for the month of August, something I typically do for the last week of the month. Doing an entire month would be hard and I’d have to figure out whether it is feasible, but I’m kind of into the idea of making this happen.

What I’m Loving -

• We The Urban Post I loved all of these and think we all could use these reminders!

  wetheurban

  

  A post shared by @wetheurban

• Night Service (Code: Cameron) - I was given these at a recent Sakara event and have been taking them a few nights a week recently and my god the sleep is so freaking good. I am passed out within a few minutes of reading and sleeping like a princess all night long plus I’m not waking up groggy.

• The Puzzle Group book - I was recently gifted this and have been using it every morning. Recently I feel like my brain simply isn’t functioning the way it should be (more on that to come) so I am turning to small things to help improve my cognitive function. I have been loving these puzzles (crosswords, sudoku, etc) to help!

What My Family is Loving -

• Magic Spoon - We were already huge fans of the cereal, but the bars have become staples in our routine and such an easy grab & go option for the whole fam. Use my code CAMERONOAKS for $5 off the cereal or the treats.

• A 3-minute Lazy F’ing Dinner - If you are like me and sometimes realize it’s dinner time as the kids turn to you and tell you they’re hungry, this 3-minute lazy f’ing dinner can be a part of your weekly rotation (like it is mine). Filled with items we always have on hand: crackers, cucumbers, strawberries, and rotisserie chicken

• Outdoor post-dinner hangs (still)

How I’m Filling My Cup -

Refusing to do anything at faster than 1X speed. I’ve mentioned in this post a few times now that I feel like my brain isn’t operating at it’s strongest function and I feel like I’m in 10,000 places at once and part of that is the way our society functions nowadays but the other part is because I crave the madness. I catch myself listening to podcasts on 1.5X speed or holding down TikToks to listen to them at 2X speed or speeding up anything I possibly can and I really think it’s hurting me. So to fill up my cup and help my brain, I am giving up that habit!!!