I did it. I spent a bunch of money I didn’t have to spend and can already feel the financial pinch, but I circumvented a downward spiral into mommy madness this past weekend with my Mommy Escape. For those of you on Twitter, my hashtag was #mommyescapes. I learned a lot on my weekend and wanted to share some of those lessons as well as recap what I did - and didn’t do.

Here’s a glimpse of my weekend:

1. Booked Friday and Saturday night at the hotel. I chose a hotel called Il Lugano. I’ve stayed there before and knew I liked the hotel’s style, the ambiance, the food, the intracoastal.

2. Slept. No, I did not indulge in a pay-per-view-movie at all during my entire stay (see previous post).

3. Spent Saturday being creatively productive. I was actually planning on doing nothing but found I got much more joy out of being creative. Wrote a little then got caught up with some of my podcasts and felt really good about that.

4. Booked a spa treatment. Went to the Atlantic Hotel’s spa and picked two of the cheapest spa treatments. They did some heavy upsell on me and ended up doubling what I had budgeted. Live and learn, but thank you, Atlantic Hotel spa, for working with me on my sticker shock. Good customer service wins out.

5. Ate solo in the lobby bar. I wanted to dine with a friend but she was out of town. So tried a fancy burger with chianti onions and hand-pulled mozarella and parmesan fries. Sipped some 14 Hands merlot. Then wandered out to a wine bar nearby. Early night, more sleep.

6. Spent Sunday at the beach. I ended up at the beach at the Ocean Manor which turned out to be like a mini-Spring Break-type crowd but instead of stressing about it, I amused myself watching the people and sipping a Bloody Mary.

7. Ended with a fun fruity drink. When I asked the bartender back at Il Lugano to make me a special drink for the end of my Mommy Escapes Weekend, she obliged with a concoction of dark rum, coconut rum, pineapple and orange juices and grenadine. Perfect!

But of course, the weekend was not all relaxation and drinks. Here is an excerpt of what I tweeted during my Mommy Escape including a short list of lessons I came away with from my time alone:

All in all, this time away solidified my perception that the idea of balance between work and home life is a fallacy. It is all one big life with different modes, paces, interactions and obligations. It all requires an agile dance, a juggle, some ritual, a lot of self-care, and unapologetic moments of shifting from high stress and pressure mode to complete abandon and disconnection. I’m one of the lucky ones who can (almost) afford to pay for my “away time.” But we all need to find it, create it, honor it, revel in it.

If we don’t take care of ourselves, we could do the one bad thing we all seem to be racing around so hard to avoid: We could fail.

How do you take care of yourself - just you - to fortify yourself to meet the demands of work life and home life?

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