February 19 & 20, 2024
I woke up at 4 a.m. I had slept really good through the night. I only briefly woke up a couple of times to let the puppy out to potty. He’s such a smart boy for being only 8 weeks old. He lets me know when he needs to go out. I felt fully rested. Ever since I quit smoking marijuana and went through a long and intense detox, my sleep has greatly improved. I sleep deep and have colorful vivid dreams that I actually remember. There just one problem with sleeping through the night, having time to write my blog. I usually write my blog when I wake up in the middle of the night. Now that I’m sleeping all night most nights, I’m going to have to figure out a different time to get my writing in.
I went in the house and made lime tea and 2 64oz. smoothies. I’ve been having 2 smoothies with 10 bananas each lately and I feel better eating (drinking) more during the day. 20 bananas a day! That’s why they call me the crazy banana lady. 😂
I arrived at my first house to clean at 5:30 a.m. My client leaves early in the morning to go work out at the gym and I like starting my day really early. I am definitely a morning person. I listened to Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hahn while I cleaned and was reminded how cleaning can be a form of meditation. I felt grateful to create money while moving my body rather than sitting at a desk. My client arrived home just as I was finishing up and we had a great talk about feeding dogs a healthy diet. I found out she makes homemade dog food for her dogs just like I do for mine and we make them almost exactly the same, meat and vegetables.
My next 2 houses were uneventful. I had brief conversations with my clients and enjoyed making their homes beautiful. When I finished, I drove to a friends and picked up a bunch of almost expired produce that she gets from a store. This week I got strawberries, bell peppers, vegetable trays and lettuce. I got enough to share and dropped some off at a friends house for her to use and distribute. Then I went to take care of Ms. M. She was at an appointment with her husband and he left a note for me to wash the linens and make the beds. In between loads of laundry, I sorted the strawberries I had gotten and put all the bad ones in a bag to give to the chickens when I got home. I messaged Christopher telling him how much produce I was bringing home so he could make room in the fridge for it all. I called my son Shawn to see how he was doing and to see if he found out when his surgery to repair his broken ankle would be. He said the doctors office moved his appointment to tomorrow and he didn’t know anything yet. We chatted while I switched the laundry, sorted strawberries and ate a salad I had brought with me. Shawn told me my mom had called him and yelled at him for not calling her immediately after he broke his ankle. That got us off on a tangent of complaining about my mom. It felt yucky talking badly about her, yet it’s so easy to do because she seems to always be trying to cause drama. Finally I put a stop to our gossip session and said that we should change the subject. I don’t want to talk badly about anyone anymore no matter what they do, it’s spreads bad energy and I desire to spread positive energy. Sometimes I slip up but I catch it quicker now and shift my focus. I call it changing the channel from a bad news station to a good news station. When I got off the phone with Shawn, I tidied up around the house, finished doing laundry (which took forever to dry) and made the beds.
When I arrived home, Christopher unloaded the produce and I froze a bunch of strawberries. The rest of the strawberries and produce we put in the fridge and it fit perfectly. There wasn’t room for one more thing in there but it was all in. I wrote some of my blog while I took a bath that Christopher had ready for me. After a while, Angel joined and we got washed up. When we got out I read a chapter of the National Park Mystery Series book 2 to Angel, then I got ready to go to music club. Music club was fantastic! The program was great and I enjoyed seeing everyone. I arrived home at around 9:00 p.m. and went straight to bed. I fell asleep at around 9:30 p.m.
Tuesday February 20, 2024:
I woke up at 3 a.m. and thought I heard the chickens squawking. I jumped out of bed and realized it was the trains wheels squealing as it went by. Since I was wide awake, let the puppy out to potty and finished editing my blog and posted it. It always feels so good when I post my blog. It’s like releasing a masterpiece to the public.
At 5 a.m. I starting drifting off to sleep to get another hour of rest before getting up at 6 a.m. As sleep took over, I heard Little Bit hacking up under the covers and he threw up all over my sheets before I could get to him. So much for sleeping another hour. I changed my sheets and started the dirty ones in the wash. Then I went into the house to get ready for the day. I greeted Christopher and made my tea and smoothies. Angel got ready to go with me since Christopher had to work. I arrived at my first house to clean and got Angel started on her schoolwork. Today she was enthusiastic about doing school. This was something new! I was grateful she wasn’t fighting me on doing it and she did page after page. She was determined to finish 50 pages, which she had 20 left to complete. Whenever she finishes 50 pages she gets to watch a movie, which is a big deal to her because we cut off all movies except when she earns them through doing schoolwork. Since we don’t have a TV or Wi-Fi at home, it’s easy to restrict her screen time. The only electronic she has “free rein” of, is her leap pad and that only has educational content on it. By the time I finished cleaning my first house she was almost to 50 pages. At my next house, she made it to her goal and then did a few more pages since the book was almost complete. She also gets a movie for each workbook she completes. With 50 pages completed and a workbook completed she earned 2 movies which she was thrilled about. Except she still had to work on her reading before she could watch a movie. I had her read a challenging sentence. She struggled and cried and struggled and cried. She fights reading so much. I worked with her on it and had her read the sentence over and over. She has a really hard time remembering double letter sounds and breaking up words into smaller parts. Finally she was able to read the entire sentence without getting stuck. Then, I had her read it 10 times more for the repetition practice. Relieved she had survived her reading lesson she was excited to pick out a movie to watch on my phone. She chose a My Little Pony movie and watched half of it before it was time to go to my next house. At my 3rd house we didn’t have enough service on my phone for Angel’s movie to play. So she watched PBS kids on their TV while I cleaned. When I finished we headed straight home. My friend Kim was coming over to hang out and I wanted to get there before her.
Kim arrived shortly after me and she brought Chance (our dog that we rehomed to her and her husband) and her little dachshund Sophia. Sophia had been to our place before when I had pet sat her and she loves it here. Chance was excited to see us and the dogs. The dogs all played together while we sat around the table and chatted for a while. Then we went for a walk in the woods. Chance was happy as ever running through the woods. Our new puppy Healer walked with us for his first outing in the forest. He stayed right with us and so did Sophia. All the rest of the dogs ran all over the place. I took Kim to the gulley, where Angel showed her all of her climbing tricks. Kim and I talked and enjoyed watching Angel and the dogs. Then we walked back to the house and Kim headed home. Christopher, Angel and I sat outside in the sun. I called Shawn to see when the doctor scheduled his surgery. He said his surgery will be on Friday.
After sitting outside a while longer, Angel and I took a bath, then we all ate dinner. I had a big yummy salad. After dinner, Christopher took a shower and we all gathered in the banana hut. I read one chapter from National Park Mystery Series book 2 and read the last 2 chapters from Hank the Cowdog book 9. We said our good nights. Angel slept on the trundle bed next to me and we fell asleep around 8:30 p.m. listening to a Bobbsey Twins audiobook.
Thank you for reading my blog and being a part of my life. I dearly appreciate you.
Love,
Victoria