December 31, 2023 and January 1, 2024
I woke up at 12 p.m. I started listening to an audiobook called The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku. The book was fascinating and I listened to it until 5 a.m. before falling back asleep and I woke up again at 7 a.m. I stretched and did 100 rebounder jumps. I went in the house, greeted Christopher and Angel and made tea. I was enjoying having a slow paced morning. Angel said she didn’t want to go to church and I took that as an opportunity to use that time cleaning and organizing her room. It had gotten crazy in there since Christmas with no place for the new gifts to go. Christopher went to town to get his groceries and I did morning chores. When he got home, I went to town to do a quick errand. Then Angel and I got started on her room. It took about a couple hours, which was less time than I thought it would take. We had a big pile of things to donate and a big pile of garbage. We got everything organized and clean and her room looks so nice.
I sat outside in the sun with the dogs and watched the ducks play in their pools. I had put fresh water in them and they love having fresh clean water. As soon as I turn on the hose, they gather around excitedly quacking as I empty out the pools and fill them up. Angel sat with me off and on working on her circle crochet loom. She has quite a bit done already. As I soaked up the sun I prayed my thanksgivings and gratitudes.
- Thank you for sunshine. I am grateful for the warmth and light.
- Thank you for water. I am grateful for the joy water brings.
- Thank you for home days. I am grateful to have a home in the woods.
- Thank you for Angel. I am grateful to be her mom.
- Thank you for ducks. I am grateful for their cuteness.
I spent the rest of the afternoon alternating sitting in the sun, training Chance and doing small projects. Christopher and Angel helped me fix a little water fountain I have that was losing water. Later in the afternoon, Angel and I listened to a Nancy Drew book on audio while soaking in the sun. Then we went for a walk in the woods. Angel climbed around the edge of the gulley and I did training with Chance.
Back at home, I took a hot bath where I stretched my muscles and did a full body relaxation session. Angel got in the bath after me, then we ate supper. I ate a big salad that Christopher had made for me. We all shared what we were grateful for with each other around the table. After supper, I cleaned up the kitchen and went in the banana hut. I did 200 rebounder jumps and got my laptop set up to watch a movie. Christopher and Angel came in and we finished watching National Velvet. When it was over, Christopher went in the house after we said our good nights. Angel slept next to me on the trundle bed and we fell asleep early at 7:30 p.m. listening to Nancy Drew.
I woke up at 3 a.m. Happy New Year! I wrote my blog until 5 a.m. I prayed my thanksgivings and gratitudes.
- Thank you for the day. I am grateful to be alive.
- Thank you for my kids. I am grateful for the joy they bring.
- Thank you for audiobooks. I am grateful to enjoy books hand free.
- Thank you for opportunities. I am grateful for wonderful experiences.
- Thank you for dogs. I am grateful for their love and companionship.
I stretched and did 100 rebounded jumps. Before I went in the house, I put Fluffy the cat in the banana hut with Angel on the trundle bed. I knew she would enjoy having Fluffy snuggled up to her when she woke up. In the house, I greeted Christopher, made tea and a smoothie, and got ready to go to town to clean. I hung clothes on the line and headed out. When I got to the highway, I saw there was a dead dog on the shoulder of the road. It looked like it might be Fletcher the dog we lost. I pulled over and looked. It wasn’t Fletcher, the dog belonged to our neighbors up the road and his name was Baxter. He probably became frightened by fireworks in the night and ran off. I felt really sad. Baxter was a great neighbor dog. He made his rounds almost everyday and would go around our property marking the perimeter, feeling it was his duty to protect us. I will miss him. I thought to myself, this is a horrible way to start the new year, I wanted this year to be better than last year. Then I remembered that everything is perspective. I can choose to see this from many perspectives and I get to decide which one I want to give energy to. I quieted my mind and breathed deeply. I felt the Holy Spirit speak from within me, death is a part of life…you can’t have life without death…celebrate both. I continued on to town and called Christopher to tell him about Baxter. We both cried a little. Christopher said he would go later in the morning and double check to make sure it was Baxter and let the neighbors know. I got off the phone and thought about how wonderful Baxter was and felt joy that I got to be a part of his life.
My first cleaning opportunity was a store. I listened to an audiobook called A Full Guide on How to Really Reach Your Goals in 2024 while I lovingly dusted all the items for sale. I loved that I got to clean a store and it looked great when I finished. At my next cleaning opportunity, I talked with my client for a few minutes before she left to go watch football with her family. I peacefully cleaned her house and was proud of how it looked when I was done.
I had a half hour before my next house, I used that time to go to the supermarket and resupply my cleaning supplies. My client was not home and I had fun conversations with several her many cats while I cleaned. The conversations mostly consisted of me asking a cat how things were going and the cat looking at me with an uninterested look on its face and then looking away ignoring me entirely. When I finished, I told the cats we would continue our conversation when I saw them next week. I happily drove to my last house of the day. I conversed with my clients while I made their house sparkling clean. I have the best clients.
When I arrived home, I greeted Christopher and Angel. Angel wanted me to help her put together a ginger bread house that was a chicken coop. I started to help her but it kept falling over and I started to get frustrated. Christopher came and helped and we got it together. Angel waited for it to dry in plant and decorated it. I laid down in the banana hut for a few minutes to decompress. When I felt refreshed, I got up and did chores…laundry, fresh duck water, training Chance. I watched the goats and talked to Christopher. The billy goat Tom had broken up his house by head butting it over and over. Christopher put it back together and Tom immediately set to work destroying it again. He’s hilarious. Christopher I discussed a way to build him an easy temporary shelter until we get the billy pen officially built. Then Angel and I went on a walk in the woods to gulley with the dogs. Angel climbed around the edge of the gulley while I watched and took pictures and a video.
When we got back home, I took a hot bath. It was really hot. I could barely get in it. I figured this was a great time to take a cold shower. I set a timer for 2 minutes and stood in a cold shower. It felt like a long time had passed and I figured this 2 minutes would be a snap. I looked at the timer. It had only been 30 seconds. Oh man, ok, I had this. I switched from back to front, back to front. I imagined I was in a beautiful waterfall. The 2 minutes had to be almost up. I looked at the timer 52 seconds still to go. Nooo, ok, I can do this. Then I found that I forgot to pay attention to the cold water and my mind wandered off in random thought. Suddenly, I remembered I was in a cold shower. I looked at the timer, 4 seconds to go. 4,3,2,1…ding ding ding. I turned off the shower and got in the hot bath. It didn’t feel hot at all. It felt lukewarm but only for a few minutes. Then it was hot again but tolerable. I alternated stretching with fully relaxing my body. Angel came and joined me in the bath. We watched a YouTube video on my phone about how to eat a cactus in the wild. I like learning about survival stuff and wild edibles.
When we got out of the bath, Angel and I brainstormed ideas for a gift to make to take to friend’s birthday party on Wednesday. We finally came up with the idea to make a collage of cat pictures since her friend loves cats. We started looking through her stack of magazines for cat pictures and cutting them out. About halfway through the stack of magazines, Christopher called us to supper. I had a bid yummy salad and we all shared what we were grateful for. After supper, Angel and I continued going through the magazines and cutting out cat pictures. When we went through them all, we all met up in the banana hut. I read 2 chapters out loud from Hank the Cowdog book 6. We all said our good nights and Christopher went in the house. Angel stayed on the trundle bed next to me and worked on her circle crochet loom while we listened to an audiobook from the Find Outers series. I did 200 rebounder jumps and wrote some of my blog. We turned out the light and went to sleep around 8:30 p.m.
Thank you for reading my blog and being a part of my life. I dearly appreciate you.
Love,
Victoria