Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.

Ben and I are now proud owners of a house! Well, technically the bank owns it but we get to live here now instead of in an apartment where our rent money goes to who knows what or who. We are blessed to be able to raise our son in a house with a garden and a yard and trees and freedom to be loud. 

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
-Melody Beattie

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.

My close friend - we used to be BFFs in high school until I moved away - is having a baby! She is due with a little boy named Dmitrius (not sure I spelled that right) in November. 

So, I wanted to make her something to put in the baby's room to look at and smile over. I found this free cross stitch pattern on a Russian cross stitching website and immediately thought it was perfect and easy. It was, however, not easy but it's still perfect. This was the first pattern I have done that has a majority of the stitches being a combination of two colors, two very similar colors. My eye sight was sorely tested doing this pattern. Now that it's done I love it and I think she will too. Of course the huge yellow frame was a great find at Hobby Lobby, the pattern measures 7x5.

My mom marveled over how many patterns I have completed in the last two months (3 patterns) but I seriously get an itch to stitch as soon as a pattern is completed. Anyway, stitching makes me relaxed and I love it because while I'm stitching my son can come over and ask me to put the pattern away and play with him and I can! And he isn't seeing me just sit around on my phone all day. He likes this pattern too, he kept pointing at the balloons and saying, "pop pop pop" and he makes a little breathy trumpet noise whenever he sees an elephant.

I'm remaking this piece for a friend who is willing to pay me money for it. As well as starting on a basic pineapple cross stitch that I need done in two days. Wish me luck!

Much Love,
Rachel

Today's Quote is by: Pablo Picasso
"The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls."

Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes.

There are so many changes coming up in my life in the very near future. I've come accustom to change. In fact, if I don't change something or feel some sort of change is near then I get a little antsy. All my life I've had to change, homes, schools, jobs... One thing that I've been able to rely on through most of these changes is my devoted husband (known as husBen from here on). 

Now we brace for a new change, a big change. We are in the process of purchasing our very first home! We have been married for over 6 years and have moved from location to location over 9 times together. That's more than 1 move a year, that's a lot of get-up-and-go, a lot of lost items, uncertain times and hard moves. 

Through all of that we have always thought that something good was around the bend, just one more step and we might see what this is all about. God is good, and we have faith in His provision and I think it has proven us well. 

Ok, so new house is ours as of 10/01/2015!

Backyard looking toward the house (stock pic, I did not take this)

Another big change is our son Noah will be 2 years old on 10/16/2015 (say what!?). 

Then another change is that we will be having another son in January 2016, his name will be Lincoln and I'm happy we will be bringing him home to a house, and a brother and so much love. 

Noah is going to be a big brother!

So that puts me at 21 weeks pregnant as of today, pretty crazy, but honestly this pregnancy has just been a walk in the park so far. I haven't been stressed about little things as much (like eating lunch meat or drinking coffee) and that helps since I have a toddler to chase all day. 

The husBen recently started a new job, so another change. He was unemployed for 2 months after working a Nuclear Outage at EnergyNW, Hanford. Now he works for PGE at a coal-fired plant in Boardman. He drives 1 hour each way to get to work and has decided to keep our family in Tri-Cities/Kennewick despite that long drive. He wants us here so we can be near family. His parents, my parents and my siblings all live in Richland/Kennewick.

So there you have it, a little update to get this blog started, an update all about changes in my life. 

Much love,
Rachel 

Today's Quote is by: Hugh Prather
Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes.