Our Romantic Night Away

Despite our meager family budget living on one income, Philip and I have recently tried to find ways to keep the romance alive. That is, we try to do something for just us, as husband and wife rather than as mommy and daddy. This is hard to do when you consider what a night out cost. By the time you add in $10/hour for a babysitter, a modest dinner and two movie tickets, the cost starts looking like most of our monthly grocery budget.

Last weekend we headed to West Tennessee with plans to leave our children with Mamie and Bop and "camp" at the nearby Moss Farm. Apparently, Noah finished his ark because the rain started and it did not stop. Thankfully, the Moss Farm has a delightful farm house that kept us warm and dry.

Despite deciding the day before to make this trip, Philip managed to make some delicious chicken and vegetable foil pouches to marinate on our drive up. After marinating for about six hours, our dinner was absolutely delicious, roasted over a campfire, I mean, wood burning fireplace. So after a glass or two of wine and a nice walk through the woods before the rain started, we hunkered down inside and ate our dinner. Philip also brought the fixings to make raspberry and chocolate enchiladas. They were incredible. So incredible that they ended up being digested before either of us could take a picture.

We did our best not to turn on the TV, especially since the TV picture really doesn't work but we turned it on long enough to be sure we were not under a tornado watch or warning. Then we chatted a bit and went to bed at 9:00 p.m. This by itself, made the trip completely worth it. We tried to sleep in the next day but our bodies are so used to waking up early with the children that we only made it to 7:30 a.m. We made coffee and laughed about how little conversation we had for each other that did not involve our children. At lunchtime and with the rains subsiding, Philip grilled delicious burgers and we ate them with the organic veggie chips we picked up at the Amish bulk food store coming into town (that sounded like a SNL skit involving Martha Stewart but really, that's what we did). After that we headed back into town to rejoin the living.

It may not be the posh get away most couples dream of visiting but it was a blissful time for the two of us to reconnect.