Friday November 8, 2024
Dear Diary,
Good morning God,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for sunshine.
- Thank you for hot springs.
- Thank you for peace of mind.
- Thank you for my sisters.
- Thank you for friends.
I love you!
I woke up at 3 am and wrote my blog until 6 am. I thought about getting up but I fell back asleep until 8 am. My sister was just leaving for work when I came downstairs. I made tea and got my sourdough bread dough out of the fridge and put it in the oven to cook. Angel woke up and came downstairs. She had 2 bean burritos for breakfast, then went upstairs to do her schoolwork. I bathed Little Bit and my sisters dog Huckleberry. By the time I finished bathing the dogs, the bread was done baking. I pulled it out of the oven and set it on the cutting board to cool. While it was cooling, I went to my sister Missy’s and fed her cat and checked on the chickens. I petted her cat Halloween for a few minutes and found the chickens in the empty irrigation ditch next to the house.
When I got home, Angel and I got together everything we needed to spend the rest of the day in McCall. First we were meeting with the people I will be pet sitting for during Thanksgiving, then we will stop by Brett’s and I will help him carry solar panels into the garage to store them for the winter and lastly we will go to Zim’s Hot Springs pool to swim for a couple of hours.
Before leaving town, I stopped by a local dog groomers business and gave her my pet sitting business cards to hand out to her clients. She had seen one of my posts advertising my businesses on Facebook and had invited me to bring some business cards over. It was great meeting her and I was very grateful for her help. Angel told me stories on the drive to McCall. It was a beautiful sunny day and we hit the snow line about halfway there. The roads were clear and the temperature was above freezing so I wasn’t concerned about ice. The snow on the evergreen trees was so pretty and Angel oohed and awed when she first saw them. She said, “this is what Idaho is supposed to look like”. I asked, “even in the summer”? She said, “yes, because it was so beautiful”. She thought she was being funny and we had a good laugh.
We arrived at my new pet sitting clients house right on time. I met them and they were a young couple with an adorable nine month old baby. We hit it off right away and their dogs got along great with Little Bit. They have 2 dogs that are both lab mixes. We talked for almost an hour and Angel had fun playing with the baby.
Brett lives just down the road from their house house and we arrived there at around 1:30 pm. Angel played on the balcony while I helped Brett move a couple of solar panels into the garage. We also moved a couple pieces of plywood. We set the plywood on the garage floor for him to park on so his studded snow tires won’t ruin the concrete. Angel was hungry so Brett warmed up some beans and cut up some tomato and onion. Angel and I had bean tacos and I thanked Brett for feeding us. I told him we would be pet sitting just down the road from him over Thanksgiving and we talked about getting together during that time to play scrabble or Yahtzee.
Next, we went to Zim’s Hot Spring pool in New Meadows. There were quite a few people there and Angel was happy to have a lot of kids to play with. I stretched and floated on my back fully relaxing my body. Then I leaned against the wall of the pool and people watched. A lady saw me standing there and started talking to me. She talked to me for quite a while. She told me about her grandkids and kids and the new condo she was moving into and her car that she named “Horse” and her neighbors that are men in their 90’s that she watches out for… basically she told me her life story. I enjoyed listening to her talk and she liked having someone who would listen. She was originally from New York City and I could her the accent. I love hearing different accents. While living in Texas, the southern accent warmed my heart. When she was done talking, she swam off to play with her grandkids. Angel and I threw a squishy ball back and forth for a while. Then she wanted to get in the hot pool. She didn’t last long in the hot pool but I stayed in and soaked until I couldn’t take the heat anymore. The sun was starting to go down and I told Angel it was time to go.
We had a nice drive home. I feel so blessed to be living in the mountains in Idaho. This land has my heart. It’s where I belong. My 10 years in Texas were some of the most wonderful years of my life but I didn’t have the attachment to the land there that I have here. Once the land in Idaho started calling me home 2 years ago, I knew it was only a matter of time before I would be back. I just didn’t know how it would happen and I kept praying for the door to be opened. For two years I kept getting the message to wait and then I finally got the message that now was the time. So here I am and even though I’m grieving my life in Texas, I know without a doubt that this is where I am supposed to be. After all, Idaho has an abundance of hot springs and this is where most of my family lives.
When we arrived home, Angel and my sister played video games on the TV while I edited my blog and posted three days of blog posts. It took a while to upload all the pictures and video but I got it done. I had gotten behind and it felt good to be caught up. Since I was on a roll, I started today’s blog post. It was difficult to focus with the video game going on so I told Angel and my sister goodnight and went upstairs. When I finished writing today’s blog post, I read some Louis Lamour and went to sleep at around 9:30 pm.
Thank you for reading my blog and being a part of my life. I dearly appreciate you.
Love, Victoria
P.S. this blog post was inspired by the Holy Spirit.