Monday October 28, 2024
Dear Diary,
Good morning God
- Thank you for autumn.
- Thank you for grace.
- Thank you for opportunities.
- Thank you for people.
- Thank you for rain.
- Thank you for ringworm.
- Thank you for breath.
I love you!
I awoke at 12:30 am. I wrote my blog until 4:30 am. I edited and posted it and went back to sleep at 5:30 am. At 7 am, Angel woke me up and told me it was morning. Angel went downstairs while I put iodine on Bits and fed him. My sister was getting ready for work when I went downstairs and Angel was playing a video game called Animal Crossing on the TV. I told Angel to turn off the video game. My sister is convinced that playing video games is am important part of child rearing. She argues that it is educational and a needed skill in order to function in todays society. I disagree. While it might be considered “educational” from certain perspectives, I’m a fan of good old fashioned “educational” entertainment such as reading books, playing with toys and spending an abundance of time outside. In my opinion, staring at a screen should be done in small doses and especially not done first thing in the morning.
I turned off the TV and told my sister good morning. Angel went upstairs and got dressed while I made her waffles. I made tea and a smoothie for myself. My smoothie had 9 bananas/cherry juice/tangerine juice and turmeric powder. Angel ate her waffles and I mopped the floors downstairs.
I had a cleaning opportunity in McCall and I was a little concerned about the drive there. It is a 50 minute drive up 2,000 feet through 2 mountain canyons. It had been raining last night and the temperatures were hovering above freezing this morning. I still had highway tires on my truck and I’m out of practice with driving on snow and ice. I didn’t like feeling worried and weak and projecting negative, “what ifs”, so I changed my concern to confidence and focused on what was real. I do remember how to drive in winter conditions and the temperatures were still above freezing. We would be fine.
Angel and I hearted (headed) out. The drive was absolutely beautiful, through the pine forests and meadows. I’m so thrilled that this is where I live now. I live in the mountains in Idaho. This is my reality. The highway was not icy at all and we arrived at my cleaning opportunity right on time.
I met my client and we hit it off right away. I got Angel started on her schoolwork and talked with my client a few minutes before I began cleaning. She shared with me that her only son had died this past year from a drug overdose and she has been grieving. My eyes filled with tears as she told me about her grief and sorrow. She also told me about her physical pain, which I know is also connected to her sadness.
I got started cleaning and Angel and my client bonded. She helped Angel with her schoolwork and did it in such a way that Angel was fully engaged and having fun. It was obvious my client loves kids and having Angel there brought her joy. I thoroughly cleaned the small apartment from top to bottom and when I finished, my client was very happy with my work. She added a $20 tip to my pay and we scheduled another cleaning for next month. Yay!
We went to my friend Brett’s and he was busy making food. He had a red lentil soup cooking on the stove that would be ready tomorrow. He had also warmed up some beans and had made two different cabbage salads. Angel had a bean taco and I ate some of both salads. I told Brett that I didn’t know he liked to cook. He said he’s always liked to cook since he was a kid. It’s amazing that all the years we’ve know each other, I never knew that. I told him that he could make me food any day. Having food made for me is one of my favorite things. Back in Texas, Christopher was the cook and made me food all the time.
After we ate, we packed up some stack food and left to go to a hot springs. We went in Brett’s car and it was an hour and a half drive. The scenery was beautiful and there was snow on the road going over a mountain pass. Sixteen miles of the drive was on a tiny, one lane, curvy mountain road. You couldn’t safely drive the road over 25 mph with all its sharp curves and it was a tight squeeze when we met with oncoming vehicles. Whoever was not on the side of the cliff would move over next to the mountain as far as they could and we would slowly passed by each other.
The hot springs was down a steep incline right off of the little road. There was a switchback trail leading down and it was right next to the Salmon river. The water in the hot springs was a perfect temperature. I’m guessing it was around 102 degrees Fahrenheit. Someone had made a couple of pools out of rocks and concrete to catch the hot water. Above the big pool there was a pipe someone had rigged up to direct the hot water into the pool. Here is a video I took:
We stayed at the hot springs close to 4 hours. Angel played with toys she had brought and Brett and I relaxed and soaked in the mineral water. My skin felt super soft from all the minerals in the water. Even though it was only 41 degrees Fahrenheit outside, the water raises your body temperature so much, you can get out and walk around soaking wet and still feel warm. As you can see in the video, Angel was running around in her bathing suit perfectly warm. At one point, I dipped my whole body in the ice cold river, I felt so hot that the icy water felt good. After cooling off in the river, it’s fun to get back in the hot springs because your body feels tingly all over. Hot springs are so amazing. They are such a wonderful gift. I am so grateful to be back in Idaho where there are an abundance of hot springs.
By the time we got back to Brett’s, it was starting to get dark. We got my truck and Angel and I listened to music on the drive home. My sister was already asleep when we went inside the house. Quietly, I started laundry and we went straight upstairs. I put iodine on Bits. He had come with us but had stayed in his kennel in quarantine most of the day. I let him out at the hot springs but he had been cold and went back in his kennel. I have dog coats for him but I had forgotten to bring them.
I read Angel a couple of stories, tucked her in and put on a sleep meditation. I went to bed and jotted down some blog notes. Then I fell asleep right away at 9:30 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.