Wednesday May 15, 2024
Dear Diary,
I woke up at 3 am to the sound of a dog hacking and throwing up. I didn’t want to turn on the light to find out who had vomited and where. I wanted to sleep some more but I also didn’t want to roll over in it either. I turned on the light and looked around. Sofia was laying on the bed calmly looking at me and I didn’t see any dog vomit around her. Little Bit was under the covers at the bottom edge of the opposite side of the bed. I threw back the covers and he looked at me guiltily with a wet spot in front of him. It looked like he just vomited liquid and since it wasn’t where Angel or I would be touching. I decided I was going to deal with it later in the morning when I got up. I pulled the covers back up, turned out the light and went back to sleep.
I woke up again at 6 am. I laid in bed slowly waking up and got up 15 minutes later. I woke Angel up and stripped the bedding. I started the bedding in the wash and got dressed. I let Sofia and Bits out and made oatmeal for Angel’s breakfast and a quesadilla for her lunch. I fed the dogs, made tea and a smoothie.
I left Sofia in the house and put Bits in the truck. Chance stayed outside to guard the house. Angel got in the truck and I drove to my first and only house to clean. I chatted with my clients, they were glad I was back. Angel did her schoolwork while I cleaned and she got all her schoolwork done right before I finished cleaning. My clients have hersheys kisses in a jar and Angel knows she gets one if she finishes her schoolwork. It’s not ideal motivation since I prefer not to use junk food as a reward but since she rarely gets candy I let it slide once in a while. Recently, I looked up the difference between bribery and reward. I was curious about what the differences were because sometimes I use rewards in my parenting to help motivate Angel. I read a lot of different articles on the differences and basically what it comes down to is: bribes reinforce negative behavior and rewards reinforce positive behavior. Example… if a child is throwing a fit and the parent says, “if you stop throwing a fit I will give you an ice cream cone” vs. if I child doesn’t want to clean their room and a parent says, “once your room is clean you can have an ice cream cone”. One reinforces throwing fits and the other reinforces cleaning their room.
After I finished cleaning, we got in the truck and saw that Little Bit had somehow opened Angels canvas lunch bag and had eaten half of her quesadilla. He was sitting in the back seat trying to hide. I showed him the half eaten quesadilla and told him “no”. He put his head down and looked at me as if saying, I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it. We broke off the eaten edge of the quesadilla and saved the other half for Angel to eat for her lunch.
We went and picked up Ms. M and drove to the library for story-time. The stories were about llamas and the kids made a paper llama for their craft. It was a lot of fun. Ms. M likes being with the kids, she laughs and seems to really enjoy herself. Little Bit gets to be with us in the library and he likes being with the kids too. When we left the library we still had an hour before the newspapers arrived. So we went to my pet sitting house to spend time with the dogs.
The papers had just arrived when I pulled up to the Rockdale Reporter. I loaded them in the truck and headed out to do my route. The businesses on my route were glad I was back and I enjoyed seeing everyone. We listened to fun music and the route went smoothly. When I finished, I took Ms. M home and she said she’d had a fun time. I also had fun and I like taking her along. I left her in her husband’s care and headed towards home. On the way, I did a bid near my house for on a once a month cleaning. I have one early morning opening coming up since one of my clients is moving. I wasn’t sure if it was too early for the people wanting a bid but they were fine with early mornings. My schedule is so full that I bid high, almost hoping they wouldn’t accept it. But they immediately accepted the bid and I put them on my schedule. As I was leaving their house I got a text from another person wanting me to bid a bi-weekly cleaning. I let them know I was booked full and they asked me to put them on a waiting list, which I did.
When we got home, Bits was excited to play with his dog family. Christopher was getting ready to leave to go out in the woods to spend the evening with his friends. We talked for a few minutes about a camping trip his family and friends were planning at Inks Lake state park. Everyone was going Wednesday through Friday next week and we talked about joining them on Thursday for one night and coming back Friday. We both needed to get going, so I packed up some eggs, juice and honey. Angel and Bits got in the car and I drove to my pet sitting house.
When we arrived, I fed the dogs and let Chance inside. The dogs ran around playing for a while until they got all of their excitement out. Angel was hungry and I made her waffles for dinner and turned on a nature show for her to watch on TV.
I laid down on the couch with my eyes closed meditating until it was time to call a coaching client for our session. She was running behind and would text me when she was ready. I received her text and went into the office to do our phone call. The coaching session went really good and I got a lot out of it as well. When I am coaching others, I’m talking to myself as much as I am talking to my clients. I also encourage my clients to find their own answers and solutions. They know what’s best for themselves more than I do and sometimes they just need encouragement to listen to and follow their own inner wisdom.
After the coaching session, I remembered that I am pet sitting some yorkies next Thursday and I can’t do an overnight camping trip. I let Christopher know and we might just do a day trip instead. I took a shower and Angel got in after me. Then we left to go to Bible study at the Cowboy Church. On the way, I stopped at a friends house and gave her eggs, blackberries, bananas and strawberries. It was great to see here it had been a while and she gave me some of her homemade soap and a homemade candle. I was almost out of soap and her candles smell wonderful. I was grateful for the gifts.
Bible study was wonderful as always. The Holy Spirit speaks right through Gay Marburger. Here are my notes:
2 Peter 1:2&3
Who was Peter:
- One of the 12 apolstles
- Followed Jesus for 3 years
- Denied Jesus
- Restored by Jesus
John 1:17
- Jesus made the Grace of God clear.
Romans 5:1
- We have peace with God
Pray that peace and grace be multiplied.
- They are multiplied in the intimate knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
- Heart knowledge not head knowledge.
- God will meet me right where I’m at.
- God had given me everything we need. Will I trust him?
I Corinthians 1:4&5
- Knowledge is found in Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:6
- Knowledge comes from God shining light in my heart.
Ephesians 1:17
- Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God.
We got home at around 8:30 pm and went straight to bed. We shared our gratefuls:
- I am grateful for a beautiful sunset.
- I am grateful for Angel.
- I am grateful for dogs.
Angel listened to Native American stories while I wrote my blog. Once I finished writing, I read my blog out loud to Angel. She approved and I posted it. I turned out the light at we went to sleep at around 9:30 pm.
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.