Year 2, Day 317: Lean On Lodge Getaway, Part 1, Finally Alone!

Thanks for hanging in with us.  I wanted to write out the whole story of this past week, including some unshareable parts, and then post pieces of it here, for your amusement.  It totals 6 pages in Word, so we'll see how long it is on here.  With all that writing done, I might not write as much on all the pictures.  In fact, I might not share all the pictures either.  So, hang in there, we are about to take off!

Jared and I went away for a couple of days this week to a little lodge called Lean On Lodge in Roachdale, IN.  Here's that story:

Phew! It was a crazy busy day on Monday. Jared had to teach class at Benaiah's school, and I knew I didn't want to just wait there with him, so I stayed home putting the last details together. Grandma came around 1. By the time we went out to eat at Red Lobster (with a gift card), dropped off a package at a post office fr Jared's work, and were on our way to Roachdale, it was already 4:30 pm when we arrived. The Lean On Lodge is only an hour away though. We had a fun time finding it because it's just a guest house on a very large farm in the middle of nowhere and the GPS didn't know where everything was at. We had to wind our way around over a few different backroads full of potholes with signs that indicated thicker (2 car) and thinner (1 car width) roads. When we arrived, the cabin was cold! Like 50 degrees cold! And the furnance wasn't working properly, so we only had the gas fireplace to heat up this small, two bedroom, one bath house. It took 24 hrs of constant heating to warm it up to 65F. Part of the problem was the high ceiling in the middle, so off course the 2^nd story was much warmer. We huddled under blankets, ate a small supper and went to bed early at 9:30 pm the first night, Monday.

Yes, the guest house is free for those in ministry looking for a quiet getaway. We were the last ones on the list to use it this year. They had weekend and weekday slots, and since our jobs are flexible, the midweek slot worked fine. But that meant that Grandma and Grandpa had to do all the kids' transportation to and from school, library, and gymnastics. Grandma and Grandpa also had their own things to do like volunteering at Lifebridge, traveling to another town for a church consultation, and they both were a part of or attending a funeral on Wednesday at church. It's not easy coordinating all that! The kids were supposed to get a good amoung of school work done, and they did most of it. I did make them finish anything they missed before the week was out though. We are taking next week off due to too many appointments and it being the Thanksgiving week. Benaiah has the whole week off, too. So we were at the cabin/guest house from Monday to Wednesday, mid day.

The house has just the basics, and you bring your own food of course. There's not much in the way of stores unless you want to go back to the main highway and travel for 20 minutes or so. I'm so glad we only needed enough for two days! I felt like I had packed a ton for just two nights and two days, but it was just enough. We ended up drinking a lot of hot tea just to stay warm though!

I did have an agenda for us for the next 40 hrs, including tackling the budget and finances, sitting in quiet without electronics, sharing what was on our hearts and minds with one another without interruptions of little and big kids, and simply being with one another. We hadn't done this since our honey moon 17 ½ yrs ago. We have taken kids with us if they were nursing or have been on vacation with the whole family. We might have had one night in downtown Indy, but that's it.

The cabin was full of great Americana, like signs and tins from the last 100 years. Old taxidermy animals, lots of cabin themed furniture like log bed frame and bear skin rugs, even a tiger skin! Canada goose, coyote carrying a mallard duck, patridges, even a gun that had a metal piece put into it's barrel so you can't shoot with it. It had a vintage electronic stove complete with instructions on how it takes twice as long to make something and you need to rotate your pan. The cabin sleeps 2 in a queen/king sized bed upstairs with a loft you can put an air mattress on. Plus a kids' bedroom with a twin on top and full bed on the bottom. And 3 couches, none of which can be made into a bed. Because this cabin is free, maybe we can go as a family of 6 next year! It is a little retention pond with a sandbox full of big machines, a walkable covered bridge, two docks, and a boat. There was a grill, fridge, dishwasher, microwave, etc. We kept a pot boiling on the stove for humidity and heat and tea to warm us up. It was a great little set up, perfect for us.

Crab legs! Real seafood! Messy and time consuming, so Jared helped me open them up.  Sweet potatoes and asparagus with a side of Dr. Pepper.  Jared got a chicken nugget sandwhich.  Thanks, honey, for letting me choose something fancier and expensive (gift cards are great!).

Made a wrong turn looking for the post office in Danville, Indiana and found this gem!  A railroad bridge!

In the middle of nowhere!

The stove with the weird dials and the oven that cooks unevenly.

Sunset day 1.  And we did sit on the porch, although it was very cold.  There's the chocolate lab, too, watching out for us.

Lots of colors.

Tons of decorations!

Covered bridge out back.

Entrance to the kitchen.

Very rustic and quaint.

We had one of these at my grandmother's house growing up!

The fire that kept us warm and the TV we didn't use.  I did sit on the hearth a few times to warm up.

Real or fake?  I don't know.

Master bedroom.

The pond.

Dump it out truck! Excadator! Big truck!  Perfect sandbox for you know who, with lots of supervision because it's near the water.

While we were eating lunch, this guy was preaching his first sermon in his school's weekly chapel service.  His teacher, Mrs. McCollum, recorded the first 4 minutes of it and it's on her classroom's Facebook page.  I couldn't believe how good he was!  He didn't read directly from his manuscript.  He used lots of hand motions, he spoke up and clearly.  And he sounded a lot like his Grandpa!  He did move around and talk fast kind of like Jared does.  But other than that, wow, we have another preacher on our hands!  Yes, he did have Grandpa's help in his manuscript, but he took on the topic of Job and how his friends reacted to Job's lose.  Yes, not an easy topic to preach on.  He certainly didn't get those speaking skills from me.  Way to go, Son!

If you are on Facebook, you can use the link here.  If not, try it anyway, it might just work!
 Benaiah's Sermon on Job

And this of course, too.  He said he'll be singing and playing drums in the next chapel service he has.  Remember, he's 15, a sophmore in high school.  Crazy busy and talented, even if he does procrastinate from time to time and forgets to pick up his dirty socks and he eats all our food.  So proud of him!

To be continued on...Day 318: Lean on Lodge Part 2, Turkey Run State Park