Sunday June 23, 2024
Dear Diary,
I woke up at 6 am. I got up but was still feeling really tired. I laid down on the couch and drifted to sleep for a few minutes. Then I got up again and woke up Angel. I made her waffles for breakfast and made myself a watermelon smoothie and a banana, peach, turmeric, fresh pineapple juice and homemade almond milk smoothie. I loaded up all the dogs and Angel in the truck and drove to clean an office. I was done with the office at 9 am and I drove home to get ready for church. I greeted Christopher, then Angel and I put on dresses and I drove us down the road to church, leaving the dogs at home with Christopher.
We arrived early and I had time to visit with people which I thoroughly enjoyed. I love people. Church service was good and I enjoyed singing the hymns. Some hymns have great lyrics. The message I received during the sermon was to pay attention to what idols I’m worshipping. After church, I had some great conversations with people. Did I mention how much I love people 😂. I fall in love with people everyday. People are so wonderful.
When we arrived home from church, I gathered eggs and filled up the duck pools with water. Then I sat by the fountain with Christopher and sang him a couple of songs. I met a friend at the gate that was dropping off a meal for me to take to Rita and Val. Angel wanted to go to swim tank and we got ready to go. Then another friend messaged me and she was coming by to drop off flowers for me to take to Rita and Val. I waited for her to arrive and then we went to swim tank.
We had all the dogs with us: Chance, Sophia, Bits, Healer, Jake and LacyJane. It was quite a crew. Sophia and Bits were in the front of the side-x-side with us and the rest of the dogs were secured in the back. At swim tank, I floated on my back and stretched. The dogs ran around swimming and running along the shore. Angel swam around on her paddle board and played with her dog LacyJane.
I got out and laid in the hammock. I wrote my blog and relaxed. All of a sudden I heard dogs fighting. I jumped up and saw that it was Chance and Jake. I ran over and tried to separate them but I couldn’t get Chance off of Jake. I grabbed a stick and hit Chance on the side of the head. I don’t like hitting animals and am very gentle with them but I had to break up the fight without putting myself in danger of getting bitten. The stick worked and Chance got off of Jake. I grabbed Chance by the collar and secured him with a leash in the back of the side-x-side. I gave him a good scolding and went to find Jake. Thankfully Jake wasn’t bleeding anywhere and didn’t seem hurt at all.
I laid down in the hammock again and wrote my blog some more. When we arrived home from swim tank, I secured Chance to the swing and told Christopher about him fighting with Jake. I went inside and made pineapple, carrot, grape and ginger juice. Then I packed up to go to Rita and Val’s. I loaded up the dogs. Angel got in and I drove us all over there.
When we arrived, I brought their prepared meal inside the house and came back outside. Tracey was out watering a pear tree. I shared a song with him that I thought he would like while I sat on the grass and Angel ran around.
Angel wanted to swim in the pond and just as we were getting ready to go out there Val and Rita came home. We stood and talked to Rita while Val took care of a baby turkey. I got Chance out of the back of the truck on his leash and we walked to the pond. When we got there, I let him off leash. He swam and stayed nearby and was mostly well behaved other than barking at the neighbors cows. Bits and Sophia had fun swimming and playing along the shore.
I floated on my back and stretched. At one point Angel was on the other side of the pond and I swam over there to her. I felt something on the ground underneath my foot and pulled up a broken piece of marble. That was a fun find. I showed it to Tracey and he said his son had thrown a bunch of broken things in the pond a while back and it was probably from that.
When I started swimming again, I noticed something felt weird on my foot. I reached down and it was something slick and it was stuck to me. I knew exactly what it was without even seeing it….a leech. I’ve had a leech on me only once before in my life. When I was around the age of 12, I was wading through a ditch behind our house in Middleton, Idaho. I was making a trail through the fox tails. When I got out I rinsed the mud off my legs and a big piece of mud wouldn’t come off. I knew it was a leech and I was kind of freaked out. I went in the house and got a butter knife. I brought it outside and scraped the leech off. I never went in that ditch again.
This time when I saw that there was a leech on me, I was excited. I could get a picture to put on iNaturalist. When I got up on the shore, the leech fell off. I picked it up and took a picture. I showed it to Tracey and Angel and put it back in the water. Then Angel noticed a leech on her leg, she started to freak out but I told her it was fine. I pulled it off of her and tosses it towards the water. I told her that now we know not to go over to the far side of the pond since there’s where they seem to be.
I put Chance on his leash and we walked up to the houses. As we were getting ready to leave Tracey told me a story from his past about how he was humiliated. I was appalled at how he has been treated. As he was telling me about it, he started laughing. I said, “you’re laughing about it?” He said, “yes, because it’s funny”. Tracey is good at reminding me to not take life so seriously. It is possible to laugh off our past traumatic experiences. Those experiences are over with, there’s no reason to keep re-living the trauma.
I drove to my pet sitting job. I fed the dogs and made tea. Angel set up a fort on the couch that she wanted to sleep in. Once she was settled in, I went to bed and fell asleep at around 10 pm.
Monday June 24, 2024
Dear Diary,
I woke up at 5:20 am. I got right up and woke up Angel. I left the dogs out and fed them. I made Angel a waffle and quesadilla for breakfast and packed her a quesadilla for lunch. I made myself tea and packed up a bananas, peach, turmeric, fresh pineapple juice and homemade almond milk smoothie. I told Bits he had to stay with Sophia and he ran out the door before I could close it. I put him back inside and told him he would be ok, I would be back. He gave me “the look” and I assured him that he would be ok.
We were out the door at 5:50 am and I drove to my first cleaning opportunity. Angel chatted with my client for a few minutes. Then she got started on her schoolwork. She worked on multiplication and fractions and got her required 9 pages done within an hour. She watched YouTube kids on her phone the rest of the time.
My 2nd house was next door. I took my time cleaning and it looked great when I was finished. My client shared with me something’s going on in her life that she was struggling with. I listened as I cleaned and encouraged her. Everything went well at my 3rd house. Angel continued to play on her phone and I took my time cleaning. When I finished, my client asked me what I recommended for a liver cleanse. I recommended celery juice first thing every morning on an empty stomach, horsemint tea throughout the day and loblolly tea. She asked about fasting on water and I shared how water only fasting for a few days is one of the best ways to heal. Jesus in the Bible did it often and he’s a great example of how to live consciously.
Next, I picked up a meal for Rita and Val from a friend and we chatted briefly. I drove to a drop-in farm sitting opportunity. I fed the dogs, petted them and gave them water. The chickens had plenty of food but I gave them water. I gathered eggs and put them in the house. Then I checked the sheep and watered all the outside plants and garden. I love watering. There’s something about it that is meditative and relaxing. I made sure everything was watered really well and checked my list to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I only remembered to take one picture while I was there.
I drove back to town and bought chicken feed and cat food at the farm supply store. I stopped at tractor supply and got a 5 gallon bucket of roof sealant paint for my RV, I asked one of the guys that work there load it in my truck for me and he was happy to do it. Then I filled up on gas, got some groceries and went through the car wash. I stopped at the bank and went to my pet-sitting house. The dogs were excited that we were home. Chance greeted us at the truck. When I opened the door to the house, Bits and Sophia were jumping all around. Once the greetings were over with, I made Angel a waffle and made tea for myself. I put away groceries and filled up Chances kiddie pool outside. I watered all the outdoor plants while I made a few phone calls.
I loaded up Bits and Sophia in the car, then Angel and I delivered Rita and Val’s meal to their house. Tracey wasn’t up at the houses but he had left me a smudge stick as a gift, which I appreciated. I was feeling tired by this time. It has been a busy day.
I drove home and greeted Christopher. He unloaded the animal feed and roof paint. I gathered eggs and watered the plants on the banana hut porch. I went inside and posted a wild edible plant in a Facebook group called Milam County Plant Exchange. This week I chose to post about lambsquarters:
Lambsquarters:
Nutritional value and benefits
- Fiber
- Protein (amino acids)
- Vitamins A and C
- Manganese
- Calcium
- Copper
- Iron
- Omega-3 and omega-6
Preparation
- Eat raw in salad
- Boil, steam or sauté
- Blend to make creamy soup
A nice thing about lambsquarter is that it never tastes bitter even when it goes to seed.
Christopher came inside and fed Angel some beans he had ready. We sat and talked for a while. I received an email from the president of the Kay Theater canceling my plans to use interns to do a float for the 4th of July parade and suggested I just use my truck instead with Kay Theater magnets on the side and Angel and myself in the back. At first I was irritated because any ideas I have for the Kay get seem to get shut down or stonewalled. What’s the point of me even being on the board? I was tempted to immediately message the president and resign from the board. Instead, I sat with my feeling of irritation and felt it fully. Through this, I realized that my plans weren’t canceled. They were just changed and that I was having llama drama over nothing. It would be fun to have my truck in the parade. It simplified things, plus I wouldn’t have to coordinate things with the interns. All I needed was to find someone to drive my truck.
After chatting with Christopher for a while, I loaded up Angel, Bits and Sophia and drove to my pet sitting house. I was really tired when I arrived. I took a long hot shower and went to bed. Angel cuddled with me and I read a chapter of Ranger in Time: Journey of Ash and Smoke. Then I turned on children’s audiobooks and fell asleep at around 8 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.