Changes are Coming

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to share a little news of what is happening in our world. This is a bittersweet message. But we are moving.

yes. We are leaving our small town in the center of Washington state.

We have been “wanting” to make this move for YEARS.

However, thinking about something and actually doing it are 2 different things.

Our house is going on the market within the next few days. The locals are going to know and I wanted to share this news before it was a surprise.

There is so much to say about this.

I wanted to raise my children in such a way that they would go through school with all of the same people. They wouldn’t move around. They would have a stable home and that is what we did. We moved into our current home exactly a week before Clarissa was born. She had to pack up her room in this very house to leave for college. It was the same room that I set up her crib in time for her to come into the world. Her first big girl bed, her first everything happened in this house. She is gone now. The majority of our 6 children now live in Spokane, WA. That is on the WA- ID border and Rob is originally from North Idaho. It has been our plan to get back to ID. I love North ID. I love the trees, the snow and the mountains. We also feel like a red state aligns more with our values. However, we can’t afford to live in ID. The prices for a home there are INSANE. So we will probably still be in WA but closer to most of our adult children. Rob’s mom, who needs us. She has been diagnosed with an advanced stage of cancer and needs us more now.

Rob has been working in a thankless job where he has to be on call for 6 months out of the year ( at least) and he works LONG hours. He has done his time. We said after the kids left he could get an easier job. Mon-Fri –8 to 5….seemed like a fantasy. He found one. He also found one that is willing to start him at the hourly rate that he is currently making. They rarely offer overtime much less demand it. Rob will feel like he is on a vacation no longer at the whims of harvest. I will no longer be a harvest widow. He will be able to go to family functions and actually be around his children. And if we should ever have grandchildren he will know what they look like because he can be a part of it. He has missed so much and he feels like he had paid his dues.

However change is hard. I am used to my surroundings. When I first moved here I was planning my escape. FOR YEARS. I hated it here. I never got used to the desert. I long for the trees. But I love that everything is within minutes of my house. I love my friends and the community I have built here. I love that when I go shopping at Walmart on a Saturday that I will run into 5 families that I know. I know all of my postal workers. I love the familiarity or everything. There is security in that. I hate that I am going to have to get a new mortgage. That all of my expenses will go up and that I have zero control over so many things in this process. I have grown to accept this place and it’s charm. I love small town America. I love that most people here feel the same way. It was a great place to raise our 6 children. But I am doing this for my husband. He needs to have a win. He needs to finish out his time in an easier capacity to save his body.

But as we are changing here in our house. So is our town. More city folk are moving in because we are only a 2 hour drive from Seattle. Just in this last year it has grown a ton. I am not sure how long it will stay this way….so maybe it is time for us to move so we can remember things as they are/were. For everything has a time and season, right? We are empty nesters and things are changing.

Truth be told I have taken over our house with my business and I need a bigger space. But as a creature of routine and habit I would stay. I am actually afraid to live in the city again. You have to be more alert. You have to lock everything. You have to look at everyone in a different way.  I am not looking forward to all of the traffic. However the trees. The seasons. mountains. green. no rattle snakes and scorpians or goat heads. cooler weather! If you only knew….the cooler weather. It’s always about 10 degrees hotter here than where we are moving. But we are also moving out of the basin which also means we get to avoid the wind. We get crazy wind storms here. But whatever house I get will have central air. I will no longer live without that. it’s a way of life for me. LOL!

This has all happened recently. for 2 weeks we have been working on thinning out our house to show it. We still need to touch up the paint and do some more cleaning. We have to work on the yard. but it so wet and yucky here lately.  We have made several trips to goodwill, the dump, given away stuff and taken stuff to storage. It’s been a lot. I haven’t even touched my studio. That’s going to be quite the haul. But the fact is that I could be here for months. We are listing our house right before the Holidays. Rob will come home on the weekends and stay with his mom during the work week. It will all work out the way it’s supposed to. I am trusting and doing the work.

I was completely crazy when my husband got this job and wanted to move. I shocked myself with how crazy I reacted and all the emotions that I have been experiencing. But God sent me some verses in the way that he does from multiple sources all saying the same thing. I immediately prayed and asked for peace. He gave it to me. I am not saying it’s easy. But freaking out isn’t going to make things better.

I also have to be aware of the fact that maybe I was too comfortable. I need to follow the plan and see what is waiting for me on the other side. I also have to make compromises for my husband because he has sacrificed his body all of these years for his family and it’s his turn for some rest. I have the kid from Goonies in my mind saying “This is our time!” LOL!

I am still accepting quilts and work. As I said we are still here. Still working and I could still be here for quite some time. I will be keeping everyone posted on our progress.

Be Blessed,

Charisma