Wednesday June 5, 2024
Dear Diary,
I woke up at 4:30 and wrote my blog until 6 am. I woke Angel and we got up. I let out the chickens, ducks, geese and kittens and put fresh water in the animals kiddie pool. I went in the house, greeted Christopher and fed Bits. I made tea with: cloves, cinnamon, orange peel, anise seed, cardamom, neem leaf and fresh lime juice. I hung up the laundry on the line, then I cut up half of a large watermelon and blended it up. It made a gallon of juice that I put in two 64 oz. jars. I packed one of the jars in my cooler and put the other one in the refrigerator. I had a banana smoothie left over from yesterday and put it in the cooler also.
Angel and I got in the truck and went to horse riding camp. We were a few minutes ahead of schedule and I stopped at the grocery store on the way. I dropped Angel off at camp and headed to Rockdale. It was sprinkling rain when I left horse riding camp in Dime Box, by the time I got to Lexington it was pouring rain. There hadn’t been rain in the forecast and this was unexpected. I was grateful for the rain though.
It was still pouring rain when I arrived at my first cleaning opportunity. I chatted with my client while I cleaned and the rain stopped by the time I finished. I received a message from her house that I took a picture of to share.
I went and picked up Ms. M. Since Angel was at camp we didn’t go to story-time and I thought I would take this opportunity to clean the churches instead. Christopher usually cleans the churches and I pay him what I make but I was choosing to perceive a lack in money lately since my savings was depleting rather than getting fuller and I wanted to clean the churches myself. When I pulled up to the Episcopal church, Christopher’s truck was there. I guessed that he got rained out of his foundation repair work and decided to clean the churches. I went inside and talked to him and that is exactly what happened. I guess I was paying him after all. I chose to accept that as an opportunity to step into faith again and know that I always receive everything I need.
I decided to go the Rockdale Reporter early and wait for the newspapers to arrive to be delivered. I got Ms. M settled in up front doing her word search puzzles and I filled out my receipt book. I chatted with my friends that work there while I waited. It was getting late in the morning and papers should have been there by now but they still hadn’t arrived. The papers are printed in Bryan and delivered to Rockdale. They usually arrive between 11 and 11:30 am. Kyle Cook sent out an email asking what was going on and before he received a response, the Reporter got a call saying the papers were on their way. I sat and wrote my blog waiting for them to arrive. Finally they arrived at around 12:15 pm. I knew there was no way I would get them all delivered and take Ms. M home before I had to leave at 2pm to pick up Angel from horse camp.
The newspapers were really heavy today. They had an FYI insert in them for the Rockdale sesquicentennial. I have an ad in the FYI for my pet sitting and it looks really good. The papers came in bundles of 20 rather than their usual bundles of 100. I deliver almost 700 papers to businesses around town and they were so big I wasn’t sure I could fit all of them in the back seat of the truck but I managed to get them all in. My left rotator cuff and tennis elbow started acting up from lifting such heavy bundles. I started to feel frustrated and angry with running late and my arm and shoulder hurting. I got to thinking I might not want to deliver the papers anymore. I was rushing on my route, running the papers in and running back out. If I had to wait very long to collect money I would feel impatient. I was not enjoying myself and I was not staying present in the moment. I was halfway through my route was getting in the truck after running the papers into a restaurant and having to wait in line to collect the money, when I looked over at Ms. M, she was looking at me with a huge smile on her face and she started laughing. I started laughing too and all the tension I had been feeling melted away. I thanked her for reminding me to take life lightly and to stop being so dramatic 😂. She laughed some more.
When I finished my route, I took Ms. M home. Her husband was frustrated with the Reporter for being so late with the papers and making it so we got back late. He was concerned that Ms. M might have gotten too hungry. I told him that the Reporter doesn’t print their own papers and that the delivery was late. The Reporter had nothing to do with it. I also assured him that Ms. M had snacked on pumpkin seeds in the truck and was fine. I shared with him how Ms. M had reminded me to not take life so seriously. He got the reminder too and settled down.
I messaged Angel’s camp instructors saying I would be late and they were fine with it. I enjoyed my drive to pick her up and was glad all the hurrying was over with. I picked up Angel and we stopped at Walmart in Caldwell to buy a new hammock. It’s a tiny store and they didn’t have any hammocks.
When I arrived home, Christopher wasn’t there, he had gone to spend the evening at the shack in the woods with his friends. My friend Tracy invited us to come hang out at his place and play with the singing bowls. That sounded like fun and I said we would. Angel and I gathered plants to bring to him to use for tea. I harvested a bunch of yaupon and blackened it on a flat cast iron skillets. Then I gathered some mint and lemon balm from my herb garden and Angel harvested loblolly pine needles.
We arrived at Tracy’s at around 5 pm. We were greeted by Tracy, the dogs and turkeys. The turkeys are so cute. There’s some eggs that are about to hatch and I will get to have some of the babies ❤️🦃. Angel wanted to see the goats and Tracy took her to find them. My friends Val and Rita live there too and they came outside shortly after I arrived. Val is directing a play coming up and I volunteered to help out if he needed more actors. He said he did need more and they were doing a read through tomorrow night. I said I would be there.
Tracy set up his singing bowls. Angel and Tracy played them while I sat and listened. Angel was excited about getting to play the singing bowls and had fun playing with the different sounds they make. After a while I joined in and played with the singing bowls too. Angel played in a hammock swing while Tracy and I talked. Then it was time to leave to go to Bible study.
We arrived at Bible study a few minutes late. The lady that usually does the Bible study wasn’t there and a man was teaching. He had been there last week and I hadn’t liked his lesson. I decided I was going to do something else besides join the class. I went upstairs and asked if they needed help with the kids. They didn’t. I went in the kitchen and they have a meal for the youth before Bible study. There was some chips and queso left over. I ate 3 chips with queso and my stomach immediately felt yucky. The the Holy Spirit came over me told me to get out of the kitchen, stop being self destructive and go to Bible study.
I joined the Bible study and it was about forgiveness. It was really good until the man teaching it brought politics into it. I immediately wanted nothing to do with it anymore. Then the Holy Spirit whispered, forgive him. Oh right! This was an opportunity to practice forgiveness right in the middle of receiving a lesson about it. I forgave home and forgave myself for judging him.
When we arrived home from Bible study. Angel and I took a shower. I read 2 chapter from The National Park Mystery Series book 4. Angel watched an episode of Yakari on her phone and we fell asleep at around 10 pm.
Thank you for reading my blog and being a part of my life. I appreciate you.
Love,
Victoria
P. S. This blog post was inspired by the Holy Spirit.