Monday September 9, 2024
Dear Diary,
I woke up at 2:30 AM, I let the dogs out and wrote my blog. I finished writing at 4:30 AM and posted it. I fell back asleep and woke up again at 8 AM. I prayed my gratitudes: Good morning God, I am grateful for faith. I am grateful for love. I am grateful for yard sales. I am grateful for people. I am grateful for trees. I am grateful for smart phones. I am grateful for laughter. I am grateful for bananas. I am grateful for a reliable vehicle. Thank you. I love you!
I got up and let the dogs out. I made tea and a smoothie. Angel was still asleep, so I took the opportunity to soak in the bath. I didn’t stretching and a full body relaxation session. When I got out, I woke Angel up. I made her waffles for breakfast and we hearted (headed) to my sister Missy’s. I was going to help her work on her house.
It was really smoky on the drive to Missy’s. My eyes are really feeling the smoke. They burn as if I’m sitting in smoke around a campfire. I’m sure my lungs are feeling it too but it’s not as noticeable to me as my eyes. The air was clearer when we got to Missy’s and I was grateful for that.
I got Angel started on her schoolwork while Missy showed me what she wanted me to do. I would be taking off 4 cupboard doors, cleaning out the cupboards, wiping them down and painting them. I was excited. This would be great fun. Taking off the cupboard doors was not easy going. There were layers of paint over slotted screws. I used my leatherman tool to scrape the paint off the screws and clear the paint out of the slot. I enjoyed the process and cheered when I got all the cupboards off successfully.
Angel was not cooperating with doing school and I found myself getting frustrated with her. She didn’t want to do her schoolwork and was pretending like she didn’t know to count by 2’s or 3’s during her math lesson. It took the whole 2 1/2 hours we were there and a lot of tears for her to finish 3 pages. I told her we would have to do her other six pages that evening after her ice-skating lessons.
Right before we left Missy’s, a handyman came over to bid a project she wanted done. He noticed that I was homeschooling Angel and said that him and his wife were homeschooling their kids. That was exciting news and I asked him if there was a homeschool group that they attended. He said there was and that they met on Tuesdays at a church in Payette. He told me that a couple of families near Council attended it and that we were welcome to come. Payette in an hour and ten minutes from Council but it might be worth the drive. I told him that we would come visit the homeschool group when we got back from Texas in mid October. He gave me his business card and I gave him mine so we would have each others number.
Angel and I left to go to ice-skating lessons. When we arrived, there was a long line of people with their kids waiting to sign up. We waited in line a few minutes when I noticed that some people were skipping the line and going directly to the front counter. I went over to the front counter and asked if we needed to wait in the line if we had already signed up. The lady said, “no” and asked for Angels name. Angel was already on the list. I had brought in the free skates I had gotten the other day that fit Angel. I was told they were hockey skates and not figure skates and were harder to learn in. The lady got Angel a pair of figure skates and amid all the chaos of kids and parents we found a place to sit down. I helped Angel put her skates on and visited with the lady sitting next to us who was there with her 6 year old granddaughter.
I saw the lady that had hired me to do a pet sitting opportunity for them at the end of October. The day after she had hired me, I had received a text message from her asking if I could also pet sit for them September 27-29. I had responded that I would be out of town but that maybe my friend Brett might be able to do it. I had gotten no response at all from her. I called Brett and asked him and he said he had another commitment and couldn’t do it. So I messaged that information to the lady and still had gotten no response. When I saw her at the ice-skating rink, I walked up to her and said hello. She turned to me and asked me what I was doing there. I said that Angel was doing lessons. She was very dismissive and walked away to talk to her friends. I wasn’t sure why she was acting that way towards me. It reminded me of being high school and the way the “popular” girls acted. My mind thought up some scenarios, maybe she was being dismissive because she was very wealthy and considered me the “hired help” or maybe she had decided to hire someone else and just didn’t tell me. Whatever the reason, I decided that I was going to talk to her again before we left and find out what was going on with our pet sitting agreement.
Angels lesson started and I stood on the other side of the glass barrier and watched. She was doing good but then I could see her getting upset and crying. Her class was at the other side of the rink, so I walked over there to see what was going on. While I was making my way there, I saw the pet sitting lady standing to the side. I went up her and she pretended like she didn’t notice me. I said her name and she turned to me. I asked her if she had found someone for September and she said “yes”. I asked her if I was still pet sitting for them at the end of October and she said, “I thinks so”. I smiled at her and said, “great”. Then I continued walking around to the backside of the rink. Angel was still crying as she was doing her lessons. Her instructor saw me and I motioned about Angel crying. She motioned that all was good. After a while, Angel saw me standing there watching her and I gave her a thumbs up. She kept crying through the whole lesson and when they were finished, I asked her what was wrong. She said that her instructor wouldn’t let her do whatever she wanted and that upset her. Oh mylanta! I told her that she is supposed to do what her instructor says rather than do her own thing so that she can learn how to ice-skate. She said that she wants to learn it her own way. Of course she does!
We turned in her skates and the lady at the front desk said that she would see us next week. I wasn’t expecting that. I thought it was just one lesson. I asked the lady about that and she said that the lessons were every Monday for 6 weeks. Well that made more sense on the cost of the lessons. I told her that we would be out of town most of that time. She said that they could move Angel to the next set of lessons that start at the end of October. Perfect! I thanked her and we hearted (headed) out. I got to thinking maybe the pet sitting lady had thought I had lied about being gone at the end of September because Angel was signed up for six week ice-skating lessons. I would message her tomorrow and make sure she knew that I really would be gone. I have a feeling she is going to find someone else to pet sit for her and that would be just fine. In my mind I thought she was acting like a *bitch*. Then I corrected myself. I don’t know her situation but I do know that people who treat others badly are hurting inside. I switched my perspective to one of compassion and stepped into faith, knowing everything will work out perfectly.
When we arrived at our pet sitting house, I let the dogs out and made Angel waffles for dinner. She ate ravenously and then I realized that she had probably been a little bit hungry going into her ice-skating lessons. She gets upset really easy when she’s hungry. I will make sure she is well fed before her lessons in the future. After Angel ate, we sat down at the table and did the rest of her schoolwork. She was much more cooperative and said that she had just needed to have a few good cries. We worked on reading and writing words that rhyme and also words with the long “a” sound that are spelled differently. Words with “ai”, “ay” and words with “a” that have a silent “e” at the end. We also did reading comprehension. Angel would read a short story and write down the answers to questions about the story.
When we finished with school. I made tea and we went to bed. I read to Angel a few chapters of The Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I put on a sleep meditation and fell asleep at around 8:30 PM. I woke up at 9:30 PM to Angel squirming around and she was wide awake. I got up and let the dogs out and started some laundry. I crawled back into bed and read my book Wish You Well by David Baldacci. Angel finally fell asleep at around 11 PM. I continued reading until midnight and fell asleep shortly after that.
Tuesday September 10, 2024
Dear Diary,
I woke up at 5 AM. I looked at car insurance quotes on my phone and goofed around until 6:45 AM. I prayed my gratitudes: Good morning God, I am grateful for good books. I am grateful for smoky air. I am grateful for my intuition. I am grateful for my sisters. I am grateful for my thoughts. I am grateful for trees. I am grateful for painting opportunities. I am grateful for water. I am grateful for smoothies. I am grateful for love. Thank you. I love you.
I read a couple chapters from the book I’m reading, Wish You Well, by David Baldacci. Then I texted my good morning friends. We say good morning to each other every morning. I am grateful for my good morning friends. (If any of my readers are interested in joining my good morning friends list let me know.) I snuggled up in the blankets and fell back asleep.
Angel woke up at 8 am and told me she was hungry. I wanted to sleep longer and I laid there dozing off. Angel also fell back to sleep. At 8:30 AM I got up and made tea and a smoothie. Angel woke up and said that she was really hungry. She wanted waffles again. That child is on a waffle and berry diet right now. The waffles are healthy and I’m not concerned about her not having enough nutrients. They waffles have an abundance of nutrients and so the does the real maple syrup. Along with the blueberries, raspberries and blackberries she likes to eat.
Angel ate her breakfast and we started school. She did great at school today. She did math first, working on multiplication. My friend Carolena called and we had a great conversation while Angel finished her math. I was so glad Carolena had called, she was very uplifting and encouraging and it gave me a lot of clarity. I had lost my focus for a few weeks when Tracey and I had first started hanging out. On one hand, I had Christopher telling me everything that was wrong with me, then Tracey was telling me everything that was right with me. I became really confused and I stopped listening to my own inner voice and getting my guidance from the Holy Spirit. I was grieving the ending of my relationship with Christopher and I had ignored red flags I had received about Tracey. Carolena reminded me that it was all ok and I had done my best. I appreciated her support and felt grateful to have such amazing friends.
When I got off the phone, I went back to doing school with Angel. She had just finished doing her math and we started on reading comprehension and word grouping. She was having so much fun that she only took one break after page 7. My big sister called to talk to me about some things. She told me that I didn’t have to pay her rent but wanted me to pitch in when I can, that way I can get established without worrying about paying her. I really appreciated that. She also said that she wants to remain anonymous on my blog. I can do that! Lastly she was concerned about her garage and outside area being too crowded with my kayaks, bicycles and camping gear. I told her that once my motorhome was moved to her place then I could put my kayaks underneath it and a lot of the camping gear would go inside the motorhomes storage compartment. The rest could be stored underneath. I will also sort through my bicycles and get rid of some of them. She was happy with all of that.
After her break, Angel finished her last 2 pages of school. The very last page was finding leaves and identifying them. We took the dogs on a walk and looked at all the different trees. We found pine (of course), mountain ash, willow, maple, cottonwood and aspen. We didn’t find any oak trees or elm trees that were on our list but we found a lot that weren’t on the list. While we were walking my adult daughter called and talked to Angel and me about her plans to get Angel when we come back to Texas. We had a good talk. Angel and I are looking forward to seeing her when we get there.
We got back to the house and I took a vacuum filter I had washed out of the dryer. I had put it in the dryer on low heat before we left to go on our walk so that I could vacuum when we got back. Much to my dismay, the filter had left black marks on the inside of the dryer. My first thought was, “damn it”. I looked up how to get the black marks out and the recommendation that I liked the most was using a magic eraser. I knew that would do the trick without scratching the surface of the dryer. I was going to the store later today and I put magic eraser on my list.
Angel watched YouTube kids on her phone while I dusted and vacuumed downstairs. I moved the living room furniture and vacuumed under it. I vacuumed the couches and under the couch cushions.
Then I poop scooped outside. I noticed the yard needed mowed and there was a mower sitting by the garage. It had half a tank of gas in it. It started up right away so I went ahead and mowed the back yard. When I finished, I checked the gas again. I wasn’t sure there was enough to do the front yard. I tried to door to the garage to look for a gas can but it was locked. I decided I would mow as much of the front yard as I could and see if I had enough gas to finish it. I mowed the front yard as quickly as I could. It’s not a big yard but it’s not small either. It took me about 45 minutes. The mower ran out of gas with one tiny patch of grass left to go and I evened that part out by hand. I felt like I was gasping for air by the time I finished. It probably wasn’t smart to exert myself with the air quality index over 400. Regardless, it was done and the yard looked nice.
I went inside and walked around slowly catching my breath. When I felt like I could breathe again, I texted the lady I will be pet sitting for at the end of October letting her know my schedule, she didn’t respond. I went in the kitchen and started juicing. I made a half gallon of almond milk and 2 gallons of wild apple/wild pear juice. Even after all of that, I still had one really big bag of apples left from what Angel and I had picked last week.
After cleaning up the kitchen, Angel, Bits and I went into McCall to get some groceries. First we went to Ridley’s and they had everything I wanted except magic erasers. I definitely needed the magic erasers to get the blacks marks off the inside of the dryer. After leaving Ridley’s, I drove to Albertsons. I was enjoying visiting the local grocery stores to see what they had. I was hoping one of them had fresh squeezed OJ but no such luck. Albertsons did have magic erasers though. Yay!
On the way back to my pet sitting house, I stopped and got some Chinese to go, Ma Pau tofu. When we arrived, I let out the dogs and ate my food while I talked to my friend Rita on the phone. We talked about her interview with the person taking over pet sitting for me. She wasn’t sure if the person really wanted to do it. I told Rita, I would still do the pet sitting if she really needed me to. She said she appreciates that and will let me know. When I got off the phone, I felt nauseous from the Chinese food. I barely made it to the bathroom before it came back up. Well, I guess my stomach had a quick reaction to that food 😂. It said no.
I went outside and took the garbage can to the curb. I came back in and put away the clean dishes out of the dish washer. Then I cleaned the dryer with the magic eraser while Angel took a bath. The magic eraser did the trick and by the time I finished, the dryer looked brand new on the inside. Woo hoo! I was so grateful that it worked.
I got in the bath with Angel. I fully relaxed my body and did stretching. When we got out we went straight to bed. I read 4 chapters of On The Shores of Silver Lake to Angel. Then we put on a sleep story and fell asleep at around 9:30 PM.
Wednesday September 11, 2024
Dear Diary,
I woke up at 1:30 AM. I wrote my blog for an hour and then I read a few chapters of Wish You Well by David Baldacci. It’s a great book. I went back to sleep at around 5 AM and woke up again at 8:30 AM. I prayed my gratitudes: Good morning God, I am grateful for easy mornings. I am grateful for dogs. I am grateful for leaves. I am grateful I can homeschool Angel. I am grateful for walks. I am grateful for magic erasers. I am grateful for my friends. I am grateful for faith. I am grateful for my sisters. Thank you. I love you.
I got up and made tea and a smoothie. I woke Angel up and stripped all the bedding off of the bed. I started the sheets in the wash and went downstairs to make my starving child waffles. Angel likes to eat the minute she wakes up or she thinks she’s wasting away.
Angel did school. She was very cooperative today. I looked up how to get her a free phone number on her phone. I couldn’t use google voice because I already had a google voice number. I found another app called textnow but there wasn’t enough room on Angel’s phone to download it. On her break from school Angel freed up some space on her phone by deleting videos and photos while I cleaned and swept the front porch. It was covered in ash from all the nearby fires. After her break, Angel continued to do school and I downloaded the app and got her number set up. We tested it and it worked. Yay! I sent her number to my sister and other family members.
On Angel’s lunch break, she had more waffles. It started to rain outside which was wonderful. I went outside and took a video. The smoky air cleared up and the rain smelled amazing. As long as lightning didn’t strike and cause more fires, the rain would help put the fires out. The rain created a beautiful refreshing feeling. I came back inside and switched laundry. I made the bed in the guest room and continued to help Angel with her schoolwork.
The rest of the day was spent cleaning and packing. Angel finally finished her schoolwork at around 3 pm. I packed all of our things in the truck except my book and stuff to make Angel waffles for dinner. I got the house completely cleaned from top to bottom. After dinner, I started the dishwasher and packed the last of our things in the truck.
Angel played on her phone and I watched a movie. It took me a while to find a decent movie. Finally I settled on Enola Homes and it was ok. When the movie was over, Angel and I cuddled up on the couch with the dogs. I read my book Wish You Well and she watched YouTube kids. At 10:30pm the pet owners came home. The pups were really happy to see them. We talked for few minutes and they were really happy with how well I took care of their house and animals. I had sent them texts and videos daily and they liked that. They gave me a very generous and unexpected tip and we said our goodbyes.
Angel was very talkative on the drive, which was good because I was tired. We arrived in Council at 11:45 pm and went straight to bed. Angel got snuggled up in her bed and I got into mine. We fell asleep at around 12:30 AM.
Thank you for reading my blog and being part of my life. I appreciate you.
Love, Victoria
P.S. this blog post is inspired by the Holy Spirit.