It has been a challenging week for me. Nothing I can give too much air to in this forum but suffice to say parenting the two youngest has been substantially less fun of late. It’s fine. We’re fine. I’m fine. But today I hit a point that I realized was a red flag “ENGAGE IN SELF CARE IMMEDIATELY” moment. Luckily I had just finished a week long project and had about three hours to myself before re-engaging as a parent. Self care for me is pretty simple. It is ALWAYS solitary. I do not draw energy or renewal or stabilization from people; I have to be alone in these self-care moments. I require a great meal, perhaps even something a little nicer than I would typically do for myself. And I require colorful or creative inspiration. In the absence of any of these three the beach fills in quite nicely. Today I headed off to my next door neighbor, Napa for some time at Oxbow Public Market and one of my favorite restaurants, Gotts Roadside.

Oxbow is filled to the brim with funky/flavorful eateries, bakeries, wine tasting rooms and shops. It isn’t very large so you can get through it as quickly as you want or need or linger and take a few hours. Right next door is the Bay Area institution Gotts (formally known as Taylors Refresher). I started happily at Gotts with my standard order of Ahi Poke tacos and a Large (thank you very much) chocolate milkshake. Gotts makes the best milkshakes of all time so do not try to convince me otherwise. Absolutely decadent and frankly, necessary.

Just so you know, I fully devoured every single last morsel of these tacos. I may have even made some appreciative noises while doing so, not even ashamed. There is no photo of the chocolate milkshake because priorities. Also, I have never been an alcohol drinking woman because a good chocolate milkshake pretty much heals me.

From there it was off for an hour long linger at Oxbow to pick up some inspiration and a few vinyl stickers for my water bottle because maybe I am basically a teenager with the sticker-on-water-bottle-thing. Oh well. There are worse indulgences.

I could easily live in this olive oil/olive tasting store for many hours. If you are at Oxbow this is a must-see stop.

This honey/honeycomb in the market looked pretty amazing. I have a feeling the jar would be devoured too quickly to justify the $20 price tag. But doesn’t it look YUM?!

It took a lot of self control not to purchase any of these. I keep telling myself that I am going to Istanbul next year and can buy all of the Turkish pottery my suitcase can hold and to just be patient. But THESE were so beautiful.

I finished my inspirational linger with some back and forth Marco Polo’s to friends, a little Armchair Expert podcast and a happy belly. Motherhood is so not for the faint at heart. It requires every last ounce of creativity, problem solving, empathy, tenacity and good old fashioned hard work that I could possibly have to give. And some days I am fresh out of all of the above. This is why it is important to know WHAT you need WHEN you need it and have the wherewithal to carve it out for yourself. If I didn’t have the time constraints of parenting I would simply get on a plane and go somewhere until my reservoir was refilled but today that wasn’t an option. So happy that Oxbow and Gotts were there to help me in the interim :).