Tuesday September 3, 2024
Dear Diary,
I woke up at 5:30 am, I fell asleep again at 6:30 am until 8 am. Angel had decided to sleep with me and we woke up at the same time. Angel was hungry and wanted waffles for breakfast. I made up a new waffle batter by grinding up wheat berries into flour using the vitamix. Then I added 2 farm eggs that I still have from our chickens back in Texas, baking powder, honey and water. I made tea for myself and still had my smoothie from yesterday left over. I prayed my morning gratitudes: Good morning God, I am grateful for beautiful lakes. I am grateful for beaches. I am grateful for good sleep. I am grateful for peaceful thoughts. I am grateful for amazing friends. I am grateful for cold cloudy days. I am grateful for a reliable vehicle. Thank you! I love you.
Angel and I did school. She fought doing school and cried and carried on. I told her if she didn’t cooperate with school then we wouldn’t go ice skating. She said she didn’t want to go ice skating anymore. I told her that was fine, we could do school all day now and she could take her time. Angel got really upset then, because her plan to get out of school wasn’t working, she cried and carried on some more. I let her cry as long as she needed to.
Once Angel calmed down, she accepted that she wasn’t going to get out of doing school. She asked if we could sit on the upstairs balcony and do school. It was a cloudy and chilly 48 degree morning but I said that we could. I was wearing a summer dress and didn’t have warm clothes with me. All my warm clothes were at my sister Trish’s. I put on a pair of Angels socks and got my jacket out of the truck. Angel already had warm clothes on. We sat next to each other on the balcony and finished doing her required 9 pages.
Angel was happy to be done with school and played upstairs with her toys. I went outside and watered all the outside plants. Then I poop scooped and took the garbage can out to the curb since it was garbage day tomorrow. My friend Brett called to see if we were going ice skating. I told him that we weren’t but I had been thinking of going thrift store shopping. He said he was already in town shopping and I invited him to join us. He said that he didn’t think the thrift stores were open on Tuesdays. I told him that I had looked them up and 2 out of the 3 thrift stores in McCall were open. He said that he would like to join us.
We met Brett at Ridley’s in McCall. There is a little coffee shop there and I ordered a chai latte with almond milk. The barista and I started talking. He said he had moved to McCall recently from Boise and this would be his first winter in the mountains. “Mine too”! I exclaimed. Instantly we had a bond, except I can’t remember his name 😂. I told him that I was moving back to Idaho from being in Texas for 10 years. Not only was I going to experience my first real winter for a long time but it would be a mountain winter. I’m looking forward to it. As long as I dress warm enough, I think it will be fun.
Brett, Angel and I visited one thrift store. I asked a lady working there, if they had snow shoes. She said she thought she saw some in back and went to ask about them. She came back and said they will be putting out their winter supplies mid October. I thanked her and looked around to see if there was anything I could use. Angel found a stuffed Pegasus and I found a laundry hamper and some small plastic drawers that would fit nicely in the motorhome.
The next thrift store we visited was awesome. It was huge and I found a scooter for Angel. She had been wanting a scooter. Now that we would be living in town with paved roads she could actually ride one. I also found another good book for Angel and I to read for story time. They had a sign outside the store that was of a fabled monster that supposedly lives in Payette Lake. The lake right next to McCall. The sign had holes in it to put your face for a picture. Brett took a picture of Angel, LittleBit and myself looking through the holes.
After thrifting, I asked Brett if there was a way to drive all the way around Payette Lake. He said there was a road that goes all the way around but part of it is dirt. I said, let’s do it. Brett said, sure. Brett’s always up for an adventure which is why we have been friends for so many years. We drove around the lake which took a lot less time than I expected it to. It was a beautiful drive and to top it off, it started to thunder and sprinkle rain. Rain in Idaho is so different than rain in Texas. Texas gets downpours, like a wall of rain. Idaho rarely gets downpours and when it does it’s never as intense as the downpours in Texas. Idaho is a dry climate and it rarely rains here but it still has a lot of water from snow melt. I rolled down my window to feel the sprinkles of rain and smell the amazing smell of the pine forest. It is so good to be home.
When we got back to town, I asked Brett about the local library. He said they had one and it was brand new. We drove there and went inside. It was really nice. We looked all around and Angel played with a girl in the children’s section. Brett and I sat and talked about hot springs while Angel played. I was glad she had found another kid to play with. The girls name was Lucy and she said she was 5 years old. Her mom was sitting in a chair doing something on her phone. She looked to be in deep concentration and I didn’t introduce myself to her. I did talk to the ladies at the front desk and the library has story time on Thursdays. I will bring Angel to it this week.
We left the library after letting Angel play a while. I dropped Brett off at his car and drove to my pet sitting house. We greeted the dogs and took them on a walk. Angel tried out her new scooter once we got to the paved road. She didn’t like it as much as she thought she would. She said it was too bumpy and she carried it most of the way back. I suggested we look for one with bigger tires and she liked that idea.
Back at the house, I texted my friend Ed and we got ready for bed. I read to Angel a few chapters of The Christmas Pig and we went to sleep at around 9 Pm.
Wednesday September 4, 2024
Dear Diary,
I woke up at 2:30 AM and wrote my blog until 5:30 AM. I went back to sleep and woke up to the phone ringing at 8 AM. It was Angels adopted grandma Peggy calling. She wanted to know if we were going to be back in time for Angel to go to church camp with her on September 28. I told her we should be back on September 14 or 15th. She was happy about that and we talked on the phone for a half hour. Angel woke up in the middle of our conversation and talk to her as well. When we got off the phone, it was time to get up and get ready to go to Zim’s Hot Springs. I made angel waffles for breakfast and for myself I made tea and blended up a watermelon. I don’t like to eat watermelon unless it’s going to be very very hot out since watermelon is so cooling. So I’ve been carrying this watermelon around with me all the way from Texas. Since we’re going to the Hot Springs today, I figured I would be warm enough to drink a watermelon smoothie. Regardless, I needed to get it eaten before it went bad.
I prayed my morning gratitudes. Good morning God, I am grateful for beautiful lakes up in the mountains. I am grateful for thrift stores. I am grateful for the color green. I am grateful for my health. I am grateful for good sleep. I am grateful for my family. I am grateful for my friends. Thank you for all the abundance of wonderful things in my life. I love you.
I did chores around the house and poop scooped outside. We got ready to go to and right before we left, I gave the dogs each a bone to chew on. We drove to Brett’s and I talked with his mom and step dad while he finished getting ready to go. Angel stayed in car and said that a tooth was hurting her. It’s one of her baby teeth on the bottom and it’s starting to get loose. I think it’s the tooth underneath pushing on it that is causing her pain.
When Brett and I got in the truck, Angel said her tooth was hurting even more. I told her I would stop at a store and get some clove oil. Brett suggested that Natural Grocers would be the best option and I agreed. I drove straight there and they had a great selection of essential oils. I bought a small bottle of clove oil and a few other groceries. When I got back to the truck I rubbed some clove oil on Angels tooth. Within a minute her tooth quit hurting.
Before going to the hot springs, we went to Trish’s house in Council. I got some warm weather clothes and we all walked over to the thrift store. I didn’t find anything I wanted but I did find a neat wooden board to hang gardens tools on that I thought Trish would like. I bought it for her and left it by her front door. Brett wanted to visit the Mennonite store, so I drove us over there. We went in and looked around. I saw some things there that I want to buy in the future, such as real maple syrup. Angel will be out of her maple syrup soon with all the waffles she has been eating. Brett bought some horehound candy and I bought some dark chocolate covered almonds.
Next we drove to Zim’s hot springs pool. Angel jumped in as soon as we got there. Here is a video:
I floated on my back and did a full body relaxation session. It’s been a while since I’ve done that! I stretched and floated around on some floaties. We swam and floated for 2 hours. The pool had great energy and not only that, they were playing Native American flute music to swim to. The pool is owned by the Nez Perce tribe. It wasn’t crowded at all and most of the people there were a small group of retired ladies that obviously came there often to soak and socialize. I drank my watermelon smoothie while I was there and it was perfect for keeping me hydrated and cool.
I had a coaching client phone call scheduled in the middle of our swim. So I got out of the pool a few minutes before the session and went to the truck to pray and get centered. The session went great and when it was over, I went back inside and continued swimming. Brett had stayed in the pool with Angel while I did my phone call and I thanked him for keeping an eye on her for me. He said it was no problem. After floating around a while, I was feeling the need to get some exercise that got my heart rate up. I saw a good opportunity to do that by throwing basketballs in a basketball net that was hanging over the pool. Brett and I and another little girl threw basketballs through the hoop for a while. I had a lot of fun doing it and it was great exercise. Angel found a friend to play with, a boy who was a couple of years older than her. They swam around playing. The boy had come with his grandma and I talked to her for a few minutes. They live in Payette and had drove up to spend the day in the hot springs.
When we left Zim’s, I dropped Brett off at his house and drove to our pet sitting house. I greeted the dogs and let them out. They had been alone for 6 hours, which is the longest I’d ever left them. They’d had a couple of accidents in the game room and I cleaned them up. I was grateful it wasn’t on the carpet. I fed Angel waffles for dinner. Then I walked around outside with the dogs and played fetch with them a long time. When the dogs were fully worn out and done playing fetch, we went inside and got ready for bed.
I talked to my sister Trish on the phone and she liked the gift I had bought her earlier. Then Angel and I got in bed and we did some schoolwork together. We worked on antonyms and homonyms. I felt grateful to have the time to be present with her without having to focus on anyone else. We did a few pages of her schoolbook. Then we cuddled up and I read to her a few chapters of The Christmas Pig. We turned out the light and fell asleep at around 8:30 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.