Tuesday October 22, 2024
Dear Diary,
Good morning God,
- I am grateful for a reliable vehicle.
- I am grateful for faith.
- I am grateful for a new day.
- I am grateful for family.
- I am grateful for love.
Thank you. I love you!
At 4 am, I woke up. I edited my blog and posted it. At 5 am I got up, folded up my blankets and put them on the shelf. I closed my hammock frame and leaned it against the wall. The banana hut will probably be there waiting for me when I come back in the spring, unless it sells. I’m leaving a few things in it such as blankets and my hammock and a few books. I have another hammock frame in Idaho that I brought when I went there in September. I decided that hammocks are my new bed since I sleep so much better in them. Years ago when Angel was 3, we both slept in a hammock for a whole year. I love sleeping in a hammock.
When I went in the house, Angel and Christopher were still sleeping. I made tea and packed up a few last things. Christopher got up and started making breakfast for Angel while I hooked up the trailer to the truck hitch. Angel was up when I went in the house and she was packing up the last of her stuff. Christopher made Angel two tacos to go. One was a bean taco and the other was an eggs and potato (tater) taco. Christopher was crying when he hugged Angel goodbye. I gave him a hug too and told him that I loved him, he said that he loved me too.
At 5:45 am Angel and I got on the road. We were going to see Angel’s paternal grandma in Oklahoma and it was a 7 1/2 hour drive there. Angel wanted to listen to a Goosebumps audiobook and I put one on. About halfway through the book Angel said it was too scary and I happily turned it off. She watched The Star on her DVD player and I listened to an audiobook called The Sunshine Club which was really good until it got to the part about finding the perfect man, with the perfect body and that says and does all the perfect things. Ugh…romance novels are not my cup of tea 😝. At around the same time as the novel started getting cheesy, Angel wanted to talk. I turned off the audiobook and we listened to inspirational music while we talked. We were stuck in traffic in the middle of Dallas and Angel was excited about the different shapes of the tall buildings. She pointed out at the neat features on the buildings and figured out which one was the tallest. I asked her if she would ever want to live on the top floor of a tall building. She said, “noooooo”. I taught her the words horizontal and vertical. She said she didn’t want to learn new words. I suggested we take turns teaching each other something new and since I had taught her horizontal and vertical it was her turn to teach me something. She agreed and thought about what she could teach me. She said she could teach me about kindness. “Oh good”, I told her, “tell me all the ways to be kind”. She said that sharing was kind. Then she got distracted and by that time we were out of the traffic jamb and trucking along. I listened to music while Angel played on her phone.
Angel had eaten her tacos and wanted some fruit to eat. I found an HEB on the way and we got berries and pumpkin seeds and fresh squeezed tangelo juice. It would probably be the last grocery store that I would be able to buy fresh squeezed juice from in a while. HEB is an awesome grocery store and it would be nice if there was a store like that in Idaho but there’s not one….yet. We crossed the Oklahoma border and had 3 1/2 hours to go. Angel and I practiced spelling and reading words we saw as we drove through the little towns and Angel wiped down all her toy horses with lotion and showed me how shiny each one looked. Before we knew it, we were there.
Angel’s grandma Carolyn greeted us and she had gifts for us. Angel got a bunch of stickers, socks, a cup decorating kit, a pumpkin decorating kit and a pumpkin. I received socks, a book and a beautiful journal. I thanked Carolyn and appreciated her thoughtfulness. Angel watched Disney+ and got started with her cup decorating kit. I brought in my cooler inside and started putting my food in the fridge. I had two 64oz. glass jars of fresh made fruit juice that I had made the other day. When I put them in the fridge, one glass jar barely hit the bottom side of the other glass jar and a huge piece of the bottom of the jar broke off. Juice poured all over the inside of the fridge and out onto the floor. I stood there saying, “oh no, oh no, oh no”. Carolyn asked what was the matter and I told her what had just happened. She looked and there was juice on everything in the fridge, it was even pooled up in the drawers at the bottom. Carolyn laughed it off and got me some paper towels. I began cleaning up the mess. I pulled all the food and drawers out. Carolyn washed things off in the sink while I soaked up the juice with the paper towels. Then we switched places with Carolyn soaking up the juice with the paper towels and I washed things off in the sink. About halfway through cleaning the fridge, I thought to take a picture. After getting at the juice up. I wiped the fridge and the floor down with a wet cloth to get the stickiness off of everything. Then I finished putting my food in the fridge.
Carolyn and I sat in the living room and she helped Angel decorate her pumpkin while we talked. Carolyn made Angel some waffles to eat, then Angel’s aunt Kim came over. We all sat in the living room chatting for a couple of hours. I ate a big salad while we talked. It took Angel a while to warm up to Kim but when she did, she had Kim play hide and seek with her. One of Carolyn and Kim’s family friends stopped by and visited for a half hour or so and left.
In the evening, Angel wanted to go on a walk in the cemetery across the street. Kim left right as Angel and I went on our walk. We walked all over the cemetery and read the gravestones. Angel pointed out unique features on the different gravestones and we figured out the what age people were when they died. Little Bit ran around enjoying his freedom to run after being cooped up in the car and house.
When we got back to the house, it was just getting dark. I took a shower and Angel took a bath after I got out. While I was waiting for Angel to get out of the bath, I fell asleep sitting in the couch recliner. I woke up later in the night and Angel and Carolyn were in bed asleep. I got into a more comfortable position on the couch and slept some more.
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.