The Two Blankets

 

That's our humble mattress bed that I actually really love. 

There are two blankets on it. The cowboy/horse blanket is Jacob's that he's had since he was young. The striped blanket I started working on sometime in December or January. I always had in mind to give it Jacob, but it took so long to make, I guess I made it for us. 

Anyway, I think it's kind of cool that the two colors in both of the blankets are basically the same. I didn't even know about Jacob's blanket when I picked out the colors for mine. 

I guess we were just meant to be. 

Gnocchi, Coffee Jello, Pasc Bread, and Stuff

 

Jacob told me his favorite soup from Olive Garden is Gnocchi Chicken soup, so I decided to make it. It actually gets a lot thicker than it was when I took this picture. It's so thick and creamy and amazing. I love it. 

I made this stuff from old bread, coffee, egg, and sugar. I mixed it up and cooked it. I think it tastes amazing. It's kind of like bread jello or pudding that tastes kind of like French toast. 

I decided to make whole wheat bread with the Pasca recipe, and it is moist and delicious. 

Kvas is a non-alcoholic drink made of rye from Ukraine. I have been looking for it for a while and finally found it in a European store nearby. It kind of tastes like molasses and soy sauce and soda. I don't think it's too bad, but Jacob is not into it. 

Trees

We are blessed with several acres of woods in our neighborhood. I have been enjoying time out there alone in the trees. 

It's gettin' colder around these parts, so I sometimes wear socks with my sandals. (Actually, today is super nice, so I've been barefoot.)

This is a nice, big tree. There are several good-sized trees in those woods. 

The Three Fingers Tree. 

The ravine down the middle is pretty cool. 

There's lots of moss in the bottom of the ravine. 

Such luscious moss!

Trees are nice to see. 

The praying rock. 

A strange plant I found on one of my adventures.

I love the big trees. 

There are a lot of animal holes. Maybe raccoons or opossums. 

The Wife

And particularly his wife. It's an honor and a joy. Maybe you'll get bored of me talking about my married life now, but you have to remember I've always just talked about what's going on in my life. Now that I'm a wife, that's my life. So, yeah. 

Anyway, I love being a wife. It's a dream come true. A dream I often thought would never come to pass. It did, and I'm happy. Just sayin', if you're single and gettin' older and want to get married and startin' to think there's no hope, don't give up now. Sometimes God has us wait longer so we can get something better than we ever imagined. 

I was looking back at these pictures of Hannah and Tyler's wedding 3 and a half years ago, and there's Jacob just standing there, looking very bored. Anyway, at that time in my life, I had absolutely no inclinations toward him. 

Fall leaves in TN.

I was trying to get a shot of the colors, so here's a picture of the mall parking lot. 

I'm a huge lover of sun. Even thought we don't really get direct sun in our apartment (seems to be my lot on life), we do get reflections from the complex across from us. I was happy to see those shadows this morning. 

That painting is one that my Great-grandma did, and I always loved it. Now that I'm a wife in the kitchen, I feel more connection to it. : )

Yep, my own "wife in the kitchen" picture. A normal old mess. 

I really like cleaning. I told Jacob that he could be messy, but he should know that I would always clean our house, even if that meant sweeping dirt floors in the jungle. 

I still love doing laundry. 

I love cooking meals for my man. 

I love baking and making tea and all sorts of things. 

One of my cool edited pictures. 

I love being his wife. 

❤

Marriage is Good

 

This is a screenshot from a video of our wedding. 

God made marriage, so it must be good, right? Well, ever since that fateful day in the garden, it hasn't been as good as it could have been, but it's still a great thing. Why do people always seem to talk bad about it then, even Christians? You know what I'm talking about? 

"Marriage is great, but..." fill in the blank with any number of complaints. I guess that's life though: there are a lot of buts. Anyway, I have certainly had my own worries about marriage, and you might be thinking, "Yeah, and you've only been married a few weeks. You just wait and see." Sure, I haven't been married for 47 years like the very happy older couple at church who seem to be just as in love as ever and seem to really like each other just as much as ever. However, I think attitude really does affect your life. 

If I have an attitude that my marriage is just going to get worse and harder over the years, than I'll probably be looking for all the bad things. That's not exactly helpful. Of course, life ain't always easy, relationships do take work, and we are going to go through some tough stuff; but having a right attitude toward each other will help it be better. 

From my assessment, marriage is pretty good. I want to love my man more and more over the years. I want to encourage single people who are worried about marriage that, if they have the right heart toward God and their person, marriage is really great. 

Actually, I think marriage has turned out even better than I could have imagined. 

Elements of Home

I took a bunch of pictures of random things in our house. I like to find the color and beauty in things that might even seem mundane sometimes. 

First, I just want to say, I really like our new home. I love it. God really blessed us a lot with it. I'm super thankful. I'm glad to be here. 

Yep...flowers.

I have to be kind of creative when it comes to bookshelves and certain other things. 

I really love color.

An interesting detail of our desk/table that Jacob made. 

A ruffled, dirty napkin. Mom made these for me because I tend to make napkins dirty, and these are heavy duty and darker colors. 

My green monster seems to be doing quite well in its new home. 

The elephant in the room. 

The bottle of flowers. 

Apples and a cool bowl. 

A little Vietnamese girl on the window sill. 

A note card from a friend.

Jacob's art. 

A banana

Everyone around here seems to really like raisin oatmeal cookies. They are pretty good. 

Homey, huh?

The house comes with this, and he's what makes home. ❤

Peanut-butter noodles are so amazing. You should try it. For real. 

Spaghetti dinner. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. 

We ain't got a ton, but we got what we need. 

My friend handmade this cutting board. It is so smooth. 

So, hopefully I didn't bore you too much, but I guess I probably did. 

✌