Monday December 9, 2024
Dear Diary,
Good morning God,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for the gift of writing.
- Thank you for encouragement.
- Thank you for people.
- Thank you for accomplishments.
- Thank you for rest.
I love you!
I woke up at 2:30AM. Immediately I started writing the articles for the newspaper that I needed to get done. I finished the first article and edited it. Holding my breath, I sent it in an email to the editor of the newspaper, The Record Reporter, and added pictures. Then I started on the 2nd article. I wanted to get it completely finished and not have it hanging over my head later in the morning. I have to have it completed by noon. At 6:30AM the second article was completed, other than a few details that I needed to get from the lady who mc’d the event. I found the lady on Facebook messenger and sent her a message with the questions. Hopefully she would see the message and reply before I have to turn in the article.
I went back to sleep and slept hard for 2 hours. When I woke up again I saw that that the lady had replied. I added the final details to my last article and sent it in. Yay!! Angel woke up and lay next to me while I finished writing my blog that I had started yesterday. I read it to her and she approved, so I added pictures and posted it.
At 10AM I got up and switched my sisters laundry that she had asked me to do. Angel wanted a bean burrito for breakfast and I made her 2 of them. I made tea for myself and talked to my mom on the phone. I am driving down to Caldwell later in the day. Angel and I are going to stay the night with my mom and get the extra sewing machine she has for my sister. I made Angel peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch and packed them in her lunch bag along with some mandarin oranges.
I started to make a smoothie but none of my bananas were ripe enough. So I walked to the store in hopes of finding some. There were 2 bunches of half price “overripe” or as I say “perfectly ripe” bananas. Yay! I walked home and made my smoothie. I switched my sisters laundry and vacuumed upstairs while Angel got ready to go. I received a message from the editor of The Record Reporter asking how to spell my name correctly and he also said that my articles were good. That was a relief!
Angel and I packed an overnight suitcase to take to my mom’s. We loaded it up in the car and hearted (headed) out. I had a 2 hour cleaning opportunity to do right outside of town and we were going straight to Caldwell after that. I had a great time cleaning. There were 2 other women there cleaning as well. The lady that hired me had me start deep cleaning and organizing some shelves in the dining room. I was fun seeing some old books and magazines on the shelves. There was a 1909 Sears Roebuck and Co. Catalog that I thought was really neat. It was in great shape too.
Angel did her schoolwork while I cleaned. I was impressed that she happily started doing her math book without trying to get out of it. She was very cooperative and polite. Yay! One of the other ladies cleaning suggested we get our kids together because she homeschools her son too. I told her that I would love that and I also told her about the homeschool co-op. She said that she’d heard the co-op was extremely religious. I told her that it wasn’t. One of the other co-op moms had told me that the co-op had gotten that way a few years ago but then it all fell apart. The co-op going on now was not that way anymore. It was still Christian based but you didn’t have to sign a form verifying that you were saved or any ridiculous things like that. I’d heard the previous group had people do that and even more, to prove they were Christian. Things like that are way too cultish for me and push people away from Christians. I grew up with that nonsense and as an adult I wanted nothing to do with those mean judgmental Christians. Then in my 30’s, I started cleaning the Mennonite church in Boise and after talking to the pastor sometimes while I cleaned, I starting attending the Sunday services. That’s when I realized that there are Christian churches that actually teach people to love and accept everyone as they are and stay out of each others personal relationship with God business.
I finished cleaning and had done a very thorough job. The lady that hired me was very happy with my work and paid me extra. When we left, I started driving to my moms in Caldwell. As soon as I sat down in the truck, I felt exhausted. It had been a marathon of a weekend. I had done the craft fair on Saturday, sang at church Sunday morning, then went to the events in Cambridge and wrote articles about them. I had lost a lot of sleep getting ready for all of those things and writing out the articles. Now that it was all finished, tiredness overtook me. I put on a Nancy Drew audiobook for us to listen to so that I could stay awake for the drive. After struggling for a half hour, I realized I needed more than the audiobook to keep me awake. So I called my mom and talked to her until I was 45 minutes away. Angel somehow got her hand stuck under her seat and couldn’t get it out. After she tried for a while to get it loose, she went into full panic mode. I pulled over and helped her get her hand out. I have no idea how she got it stuck in there.
At around 4:30PM we arrived at my mom’s. I greeted her and brought in our luggage. Then I laid back in a recliner and rested while my mom sewed and Angel watched a movie. I didn’t want to fall asleep that late in the day or I wouldn’t sleep at night. So I just rested. My mom made a dinner of salad and mac ‘n cheese. I ate salad and then had a little bit of mac’n cheese. I immediately bloated up. I laid on the couch, bloated and exhausted, and watched a movie with my mom. I called my cousin Greg to see if he was coming to my moms on December 28th for our family Christmas celebration. He said he might make it. I called my friend Brett to see if he wanted to come and he said he did.
When the movie was over, I made some tea and helped my mom make up a bed on the couch for Angel. We were all going to bed early. I tucked Angel in and hugged my mom goodnight. Then I got into bed at 7:30PM. Yay, I love early bedtimes. I received a message from the editor of the newspaper and he gave me another writing assignment covering an event on Sunday. Yay! Yay! I talked to my sister on the phone and read a little bit of a Louis L’Amour book. Then I fell sleep at around 8:30PM.
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.