The Weekend Retreat

Sam and I took a weekend away at my parents' cabin, just to relax a bit and get away. It's always nice to do that. I took Louie with me, because that dog stresses when I leave him. I thought I was doing him a favor. Poor Louie. He just had a miserable weekend wondering where on earth we were, why the other dogs weren't with us, if we were ever going to return home... He wasn't any too happy, and protested by not eating anything for 3 days. He barely even drank anything. I'd say that dog needs to get out more, but I kind of take him with me any chance I get, so he's just got a personality that doesn't like change, I think. Spoiler alert: he lived. And he's glad he's home.

Sam and I had a much better time than Louie did, however. We should make more time to get away, especially when accommodations are free. Despite the fact that just sitting around a cabin for a few days and do nothing more than prop our feet up and enjoy the roaring fire, we headed into town to shop as well as relax. Shopping is relaxing, if done right.

Downtown Bedford is full of a whole lot of fun locally owned shops filled with handmade goodies. We window shopped, and browsed, and generally had a wonderful time. We got a whole lot of marketing ideas for our candle business and shopped for some display set-ups for upcoming craft shows. We treated Louie to a hot dog at Sheetz, and let him come into a pet friendly store with us just to make his day. (It did not. I pushed him in a Cart Of Death, which he tried to jump out of. He eventually learned to sit quietly and enjoy it, but it wasn't a great time had by all.) I'd say the purchase of the weekend was the toffee covered peanuts we bought at a candy shop. Partly because that's the only thing we did buy besides business related items. Browsing is good for the budget.

And then we blew the whole budget thing when we hit up the local discount grocery store, but we had that stop planned ahead of time and I had my grocery money ready. When you're feeding the 5,000, it's always good to have a freezer full of ... anything, really. The kids just eat. That's what they do, and I shop to keep them fed. So it was a successful weekend all around, even if we thought we broke the wood burner door (we didn't, but we did unhinge it to realize that), and nearly got stuck in the driveway after a snow storm on Friday night (Sam had to push the van out while I drove). The kind neighbor plowed the drive while we were out shopping, and that's such a great thing because they have so few neighbors where they live. (That's part of the reason I love staying there.)

Relaxing. The weekend was just relaxing. And I've got to make time to do that far more often. Sewing and house work and Easter dramas and craft show business and kids and dogs and cooking can all wait for a few days while I re energize my batteries, right?