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What are you doing this weekend? My boys are with their dad (sniffle, sniffle), so I'm planning to use the quiet time to finish the first round of edits on my new novel. I'll also probably also go for a run, clean my closet (spring cleaning has morphed into summer cleaning at this point (oops), and spend some time hanging with Brandon and his sweet kids, of course. It's going to be warm in Seattle, yay!

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It's no secret that about five years ago, my life changed in big ways. I wrote a bit about that journey in a series for Glamour, which after writing about and interviewing other people for years, it was scary, exciting, and therapeutic--all at the same time--to write from a personal place. But I'm so glad I did! I hear from women all the time who are facing similar big life changes and looking for advice, encouragement, or just someone to tell them that everything's going to be ok (it will, I promise). I've been wanting to write more on this subject in a more extensive, public way for some time now. So, I've decided to pool my advice, observations, wisdom, experience, encouragement, along with all kinds of confessions--both serious and hilarious. I've lived it all in these past five years--from crying to laughing, barely surviving to thriving. While it felt like my life was falling to pieces back then, I never imagined the beautiful, wild journey in store, or how happy I'd wind up years later in this very moment. I'm excited to share those thoughts, anecdotes and stories here. Will you follow along? OK, so today's topic: For starters, I just want to say that I really do think men are great. In fact, I loooooove men (and my fiancé, Brandon, is my total dream boat). But girls, here's the thing: I think that, in marriage or any longterm relationship, we sometimes fall into roles that can become limiting when (I suppose this is true for men, too, and I by no means want to imply that I or women are victims in any way. No. No way.) These roles we can find ourselves stuck in, well, it's nobody's fault, per se. I think it just happens. For example, I when I found myself suddenly single, with three little boys wanting me to fix their broken remote control cars, in a creaky old house with things breaking right and left, and no man around, at first I kind of

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I have no shame about the fact that I loooooove beauty products. I'm constantly switching up my skincare routine, freaking out my boys with the latest and greatest mud mask or wacky skin treatment, haha. But over the years, I've stuck with a few favorite products. In this list, I'm sharing the top six products I cannot live without. Most are old timers (as in, I've been using them for years), but a few are kind of newbies on the scene for me. The list: Dr. Dennis Gross, Alpha Beta Peel Pads: I'm telling you, use these daily and you will see results. Glow, texture, all of it. I use these every night before bed. Skinmedica .25 Retinol: When I turned 35, a friend of mine told me I needed to be using retinol daily. I was like "what is retinol?" Figured out fast that this stuff is the ultimate anti-ager and skin perfecter. It has literally transformed my skin in the years I've been using it. But, be careful that you don't use a strong formulation. I found that anything higher than .25 will make my skin flakey and dry--no good. Also, use only at night as it breaks down in sunlight, which is a total waste of money. Also, I make Brandon wear this stuff every night. Get your guys on board! Isle of Paradise tanning water spray. OMG, where has this been all my life. As a pale girl who has tried EVERY sunless tanner on the market, this new product is the absolute best I've ever found. No streaking. No scent. Just really glowy skin. Word of advice: Mist all over (I even do my face with it), then immediately apply a body moisturizer everywhere to blend it in. Then, wash your hands (and the bottoms of your feet--the other day I forgot and well, the sitch on my feet isn't pretty.) Emminence Clear Skin Probiotic Moisturizer: An esthetician put this on me at a recent facial and I fell in love, love, love with this stuff. It feels so healthy and nourishing and isn't overly oily in any way. A perfect day moisturizer. Kind of pricey, but then again, we only live once, and I believe good skincare is worth every dime. Are you with me, or are you with me? (P.S. I also love a good drugstore find and will be posting a bunch of budget friendly products I love soon.) Oh, and also, Emminence's Facial Recovery Oil is also everything and worth the splurge. DHC Deep Cleansing Oil: This is the facial cleanser of my dreams. It just works. I use it morning and night, and I swear I've had zero breakouts in the year I've used it. You can find it on Amazon and it lasts forever. Tip: Apply to DRY skin. No water. The "Cure" water exfoliating gel: Guys, this is such a weird and bizarre product (from Japan, I think) that I found on some beauty blog years ago, then ordered on Amazon. At first I thought it was a gimmick, and to be honest, I have really no idea what ingredients are in the bottle (it's all in Japanese), but, I'm telling you, the stuff is epic. Clean your face, then, when dry, apply a dime-size amount all around and really rub everywhere (do your lips too!), and the dead skin literally balls up before your eyes. Like, there is NO other exfoliant that gets the dead, icky skin cells off of your face like this. It's kind of magic, and really fun! I use it once a week as any more might be too harsh on my skin. And sometimes I use it on my feet or hands, or in places when I've gotten too crazy with sunless tanners (happens a lot, oops), and it works like an eraser. I don't use any other exfoliators and my pores have never been more clear. Life changing. Honorable mentions go to hyaluronic acid (I use this most nights before retinol) and vitamin C serum of any kind (no need for a pricey brand, just order something simple with good ratings online. I've used this and like it. Reminder: vitamin C in the day, retinol at night. xoxo What are your favorite products? I want to hear!

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Some of you here have been longtime readers of my books and my work for Glamour (hi everyone! And, good heavens, I just saw that when you search my name on the site, I've written something like 4,600 articles and blog posts over the years. I am exhausted just thinking about that right now, ha. I mean, how did I do this? Did I have a clone working at night while I slept. These are blurry years. There was a lot of newborn babies involved.). Anyway, some of you are new here--new to me, my books, my writing, and I wanted to say hi! I love hearing from new readers every day all around the world. It's seriously my favorite part of what I do--hearing from you! I write to authors of books and articles all the time to say hi and tell them when I connect with something because it means so much to me when people take the time to write. So, welcome, everyone, and thank you for stopping by! Things have been a little quiet around here for a while. I took a bit of a break from this blog while I went through some big changes in my personal life, which I will write about more here in the coming months, but I’m BACK, and I have some exciting stuff coming your way. If you'd like to learn a little about me, you might check out my bio (scroll down for the slightly more fun "informal bio"), but to add to that, I decided I'd share some more, real life, less stuffy kind of stuff (stuffy kind of stuff-? My editor would cut that one on sight). With that, here's some stuff about me: I write books. Ten so far, published in a lot of countries (around 30, I think). Pinch me. Sometimes I still wake up and am like, "really? Is this really my career?" I feel very lucky. I'm a boy mama. My boys are presently 11, 9 and 7. If you see me in Seattle, I usually have a herd of little men around me, with the littlest one (age 7)  holding onto my purse or skirt hem (he's done this since he learned to walk). I love pink, heels, and all things girly, and while I'm not entirely sure how/why God thought it would be a good idea to shower me with boys, I have to say I love, love, love being a boy mom. Lots more posts on boy-mamahood to come, but I feel, truly and deeply, like the luckiest lady to have been blessed with this tribe of little men. My first love was magazine journalism. After college, my dream was to become a freelance writer, and I hustled it big time to make it a reality. While my career transitioned into writing fiction, I still love magazines and would drop anything if one of my former editors called and asked me to write an essay about, say, my love of jazz, for example. (Friends at Real Simple, are you listening? Also, here's an article I wrote for RS years ago titled "20 Tips to Make Your Wardrobe Last" that I just found online. My Lulu leggings are looking kind of haggard, so I'm going to stop this and re-reread my own advice right now, ha.) I'm obsessed with jazz. Old jazz, new jazz, latin jazz, piano jazz, Bossanova jazz--all jazz (except elevator jazz, which really isn't jazz) makes me insanely happy. Dave Brubeck for me = instant mood lift. At my house, you'll find jazz streaming through the speakers all the time, especially on Sunday mornings, when it's a ritual. I think life is better with wine. Enough said. Dark chocolate makes me sneeze. Totally bizarre but true: I sneeze after the first bite of dark chocolate. Same thing happens to my son, Carson. Genetics, I tell ya! I love love. I'm a total cheeseball, tis true. I cry at weddings. All of them. I ask everyone how they met, fell in love. I eavesdrop on strangers on dates at restaurants. I am eternally fascinated by love. I'm a huge believer in forgiveness, of others and self. Forgiveness comes easier to some than others. I am always grateful that I'm an easy forgiver. I mean, I know, some people deserve what they have coming, but the thing is, friends, holding on to anger is sooooo toxic. Choose forgiveness. I do! And what's harder, I've found, is forgiving yourself. I'm still working on that. I survived divorce, and am stronger in its wake. Divorce sucks. I went through a pretty bad and wacky one, and still struggle with frequent landmines in its aftermath. Basically, when you dismember a family unit with the court system as the surgeon, you're going to have a bunch of wounds, scars, infections and phantom pain. Good analogy, right? That said, five years later, I am happier than ever, stronger than ever, and look at life and people so differently than I did before. Lots more on this subject to come

About Sarah Jio

Sarah Jio is a journalist and the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of ten novels published in more than 25 countries.

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