Thursday December 5, 2024
Dear Diary,
Good morning God,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for cleaning opportunities.
- Thank you for creativity.
- Thank you for family.
- Thank you for winter.
- Thank you for fresh produce.
- Thank you for joy.
I love you.
I woke up at 2:30 am. I wrote my blog and played wordle and connections. At 5:30 am, I checked my bread. It has been rising all day and all night and it had only risen a little. I punched it down and started it on a second rise. Then I went back to bed and fell asleep from 6 am to 7:30 am.
My sister was getting ready to leave for work when I went downstairs. I said good morning and made tea and a smoothie. Angel woke up and I made her waffles for breakfast. I made myself a smoothie. My smoothie had 10 bananas blended with fresh fruit juice. For Angels lunch and dinner, I made 4 peanut butter sandwiches. For my dinner, I made a big salad, the smoothie I made was my breakfast and lunch. We will be spending the afternoon and evening in McCall doing some cleaning opportunities and I wanted to make sure we had plenty of food to eat. I packed up my smoothie and Angels sandwiches, along with a bunch of tangerines.
Angel and I painted rocks until it was time for her to go to jujitsu. She rode her bicycle there and I walked with Bits. We were a few minutes early and the rec center wasn’t open yet, so we went next door to the library and briefly worked on a puzzle for 5 minutes. When the jujitsu instructor opened the door to the rec center she told me that I couldn’t bring Bits anymore because dogs were not allowed in the building. I said that was fine.
The jujitsu class started and I walked home. On the way, I noticed that the thrift store had some bags of car tire chains sitting out front. I had just bought some chains for my truck at Les Schwab for $130 a couple of weeks ago. The exact same chains were at the thrift store for $4 and they were brand new. The thrift store didn’t open until 11 am. It was 10:15 am, so I continued walking home and would come back in 45 minutes.
At home, a friend had left a sewing machine for me to borrow outside the front door. I brought it upstairs and set it up. Then I finished sewing a dog coat that I had started when my sisters sewing machine had stopped working. The sewing machine worked great and now I can make a few more dog coats before the craft fair on Saturday. Yay!
I had 10 minutes until the thrift store opened, so I drove to the grocery store and bought raspberries. I got to the thrift store right at 11 am. There was a line of people sitting in their cars waiting to go in. The thrift store is called the “local mall” in this small town and it is very popular. I understand why because it is one of the best thrift stores I’ve ever gone to. I got out of my truck and stood in the cold holding the tire chains, patiently impatiently waiting for the door to open. At 11:05 am they opened the door. Everyone had gotten out of their cars and we all went inside. I didn’t look around because I needed to pick up Angel from jujitsu. I went straight to the check out counter and bought the tire chains. I would return the ones I had bought from Les Schwab and get a refund.
The jujitsu class was just finishing up when I arrived. I paid Angels dues and told her to ride her bicycle home and I would meet her there. We met up at the house, Angel got in the truck and I grabbed our food. Then we drove to McCall. It had been foggy in Council but as soon as we started up the mountain we came out of the fog and it was a beautiful sunny day. I hadn’t realized that the inversion going in the valley had reached Council until I got above it. The valley where Boise is gets inversions in the winter and when that happens it can be weeks before it clears out and you can see the sun. The mountains are usually above the inversion and it is like looking down on a huge cloud.
It was a beautiful drive to McCall and we listened to a Nancy Drew audiobook. At my first cleaning opportunity, my client had some Beverly Clearly books sitting out on the desk that she had set up for Angel to do her schoolwork. She asked Angel if she could read to her after she finished school. Angel was happy about that and I felt really blessed to have such a kid friendly and thoughtful client.
Angel got started on her schoolwork and I got started cleaning. I enjoyed making their adorable cabin sparkling clean and my client was very happy with my work. Angel did a great job on her schoolwork and enjoyed the story my client read to her.
When I finished cleaning, I drank some of my smoothie and I drove to Les Schwab on the way to my next cleaning opportunity. The man at the front counter at Les Schwab was unfriendly. He told me that if I had read the fine print on my receipt I would have seen that unused tire chains cannot be returned until after the snow season on April 1st. I told him thank you and left. I was unbothered about the whole ordeal because I know everything happens for a reason. I will just wait until April to return the chains.
My next cleaning opportunity had been set up over the phone. I had given them a bid without seeing the house first, which is always taking a chance but I got a good feeling about the lady when we talked and I felt that she was honest. The house is a vacation home and I was hired to clean it in between their visits. When I pulled up to the house it looked twice as big as I had been told. I wasn’t happy about that but when I went inside, I saw that most of the house was a garage and the living area was indeed the size I had been told. It was also barely dirty. I got started cleaning and Angel played on her phone. It was an easy house to clean and I got it done so quickly that I did a few extra things to add on some time. I messaged the lady when I finished and she paid me more than I had bid it for without even seeing if I had done a good job. I told her thank you and that if she sees anything I missed that I will be sure to get it next time.
After cleaning, we drove to Zim’s hot springs. I drank the rest of my smoothie on the drive and we listened to a Louis L’Amour audiobook. My friend Brett met us there and it was good to see him. I was sore from roller skating and doing Zumba yesterday, plus cleaning the 2 houses today. It felt great to soak in the hot mineral water. Brett and I chatted while we floated around. There were a lot of people there swimming which was unusual for a Thursday night. We hung out in the deep end where there weren’t very many people. Angel found some friends to play with and had a lot of fun. I stretched and fully relaxed my body. We stayed for an hour and a half until they closed at 8 pm.
We listen to Louis L’Amour audiobook on the drive home. My sister was still awake when we came inside. Angel watched her play a video game and I checked on my bread. It had risen a little and I figured that was all it was going to do. I warmed up the oven and started it cooking. I sat with my sister and Angel eating salad while I waited for the bread to cook. When I finished eating, I went upstairs and painted rocks. When the timer went off, I pulled out the bread. The loaves were small but they looked good.
Angel and I went straight to bed. She slept in her bed and didn’t want stories. I put on a sleep meditation for her to listen to and wrote out my blog notes. Then I turned out the light and went to sleep at around 10:30 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.