I’m just home from a rainy week in Spain where I created authentic Andalusian meals using seasonal, fresh foods from the region for a women’s retreat.

The experience was nourishing and memorable though exhausting from the effort of procuring local food in a foreign country using my less-than-optimal language skills. I chopped onions, garlic, peppers and tomatoes for days while standing on a marble kitchen floor; overate and under-slept; and traveled home on three planes across two countries and an ocean over the course of 32 hours.

I returned to another packed schedule: elections, clients, planning an annual women’s yoga retreat, writing this column and, most of all, some time and meals with my kids. Whew!