Sunday April 7, 2024
Dear Diary,
I woke up at 4:30 AM and wrote my blog until 7 AM. I thought about going back to sleep for a couple of hours until it was time to go ready for church. I laid there a few minutes and changed my mind. I decided to get my cat pet sitting job done early and drive my Toyota Scion there to see how it was running since I plan on driving it to Idaho later this month. I got up and let out the birds. I went in the house and greeted Christopher. Angel was still in bed. I made tea and drank some smoothie I had left over from last night. I told Christopher I was driving the Scion to my pet sitting job to see how it drove and headed out.
It was strange being back in the Scion. I miss driving a stick shift and it was fun driving it. Amazingly the Scion has more cab room in it than my Ford Maverick. It drove fine other than a popping noise near the right front wheel, later in the day my husband looked at said is a ball joint.
When I arrived back home, Angel and I got ready for church and Christopher went to town to get groceries. I got dressed in church clothes, then realized I had still had a half hour before it was time to leave. I went outside to look the plants in the greenhouse. I had been in town cleaning and doing other things most days and hadn’t had an opportunity to see how the plants were doing. The plants in the greenhouse looked amazing and so much is growing. A lot of it started by itself from seed. Gray water from our kitchen sink waters the greenhouse and we wash a lot of seeds down the drain. There were peppers, squash, melons and a whole bunch of tomatoes growing. The citrus trees I planted in there are thriving. It’s going to be a great gardening year. I’m glad I chose that spot to build the greenhouse. While I was looking at all the plants I decided to take the plastic cover off the greenhouse. I didn’t think it would take long and figured I could get it done before it was time to leave. Once I started it was a little more complicated than I thought. Once I got the plastic off, there was the issue of how to keep the chickens out now that there wasn’t a plastic barrier anymore. The only place they would be able to get in was through the back. I got some chicken wire and temporarily secured it into place. I would fix it better when I got home from church. While doing all this I had gotten dirty. I didn’t have time to changed so I brushed the dirt off and headed to church with Angel.
At church I started feeling really tired. It was difficult to stay awake and pay attention during the sermon. I kept slightly nodding off. I guess being up since 4:30 AM had caught up to me. When I got home from church, I was going to take a nap but first I wanted to secure the temporary chicken wire better. Christopher helped me and by the time we got that done I didn’t feel tired anymore. I dragged the plastic cover out to the driveway and folded it up nicely. I put it away in the bicycle shed to use again next year.
I noticed the bicycle shed was full of gardening supplies and it was crowded in there. I got on-line and ordered another shed to be used for only gardening supplies. That is something I’ve needed for a while.
The next project I wanted to get done was replacing the front passenger window regulator in the Scion. The window will roll down but loses power when being rolled back up. If I am going to drive the car all the way to Idaho then I would like all of the windows to work. I already had the new part and it was sitting in the backseat. I bought it months ago before I had decided to buy a new truck. I watched a YouTube video on how to replace it and sent it to Christopher. After watching the video I found Christopher and asked if he had the tools I would need. He watched the video and went to get the tools. I went in the house to find heavy duty tape to use to hold the glass in place. When I came back outside Christopher was already in the middle of doing the project. I immediately felt disappointed because I had wanted to do it and to have him guide me through it. Then I accepted that it was being done for me and switched to gratitude. It was difficult to switch from disappointment to gratitude because I had really wanted to do it myself with guidance. I had almost started crying, the feeling of disappointment was so strong. I knew my thoughts were causing the feeling. I prayed for a change in perspective and immediately I was able to see the gift of being served. I felt grateful for being able to observe the regulator being replaced for me and l was still able to learn how to do it by watching Christopher.
When the repair was finished, the window rolled up and down perfectly. Yay! One of the back windows needs the regulator and motor replaced as well so I got on-line and ordered the part. Christopher crawled under the car to see what was causing the popping noise I told him about and said it was the ball joint. I asked if we could fix that ourselves and he said it needed to be done in a shop. I said I would call a shop first thing in the morning. I was excited to get the car all fixed up. It was a great little car.
The car was really dirty and I asked Angel if she wanted to help me wash it. She excitedly said yes and ran to get a bucket to fill with soapy water. We washed the car together and got it nice and shiny. While washing it, I noticed a couple of places where the paint was coming off. I got on-line again and ordered some touch up paint. It’s so nice and convenient to be able to order things on-line.
With all my projects done. I got on my side-x-side to drive over and look at the wild plum orchard. For some reason there were no plums on the trees that I could see. Near the plum orchard was a shed that my 23 year old daughter had set up and I thought I would check on it. When I got there the shed was gone. All that was left were the pavers it had been sitting on. I wasn’t sure if my daughter had came and gotten it or if someone else had taken it. I sent my daughter a text which she responded to later on saying that she had taken it. I was glad it was her and not someone else. I loaded up a bunch of the pavers into the back of the side-x-side and drove back home. They would work nicely for the new shed I had ordered.
When I got back, it was time to take Angel to Awanas (a kids program held at a Baptist church in Caldwell). I dropped Angel off at the church and went to the store. Then I parked outside the church to wait. I still had 45 minutes until the program was over so I called Angel’s adopted grandma Peggy. She lives an hour away in Round Rock and Angel hasn’t seen her for a while. Peggy and I had a good talk. She is having some health issues and isn’t able to come get Angel or have her stay overnight. We made a plan for me to bring Angel over to visit for a few hours on Tuesday afternoon. When we got home from Awanas. Angel and I took a bath. Angel got out before me to eat dinner. I wasn’t eating because it was too late in the day and I sleep better on an empty stomach. I stayed in the bath relaxing and looking up property for sale in Idaho and Utah. I noticed property for sale way out in the high desert in Nevada near the Utah border that was under 10k. I love the high desert in the middle of nowhere. I might buy a few acres just because.
When I got out of the bath, we all met in the banana hut and I read one chapter from Stormy, Misty’s Foal. Then we said our good nights. Angel was going to sleep on the trundle bed next to me but changed her mind and joined Christopher in the house. I started watching videos of America’s Got Talent on YouTube which was great fun. At around 10:30 PM I put away my phone and went to sleep.
Thank you for reading my blog and being a part of my life. I dearly appreciate you.
Love,
Victoria
P. S. This blog post was inspired by the Holy Spirit.