Saturday December 14, 2024
Dear Diary,
Good morning God,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for rain.
- Thank you for the gift of giving.
- Thank you for legs.
- Thank you for inflammation.
- Thank you for grace.
I love you!
I awoke at 4AM. I wrote my blog and played wordle and connections. Then I read some of my Louis L’Amour book and sent my good morning friends their good morning message. I fell asleep again at around 7AM and I slept until 9:30AM. I got up and made my bed (which I do every day). I got dressed and combed my hair. I went downstairs and made tea. I ground up some wheat berries and started a batch of bread rising. I made Angel waffles for breakfast and since I had waffle batter that I needed to use up. I made a grilled cheese waffle and a peanut butter and jelly waffle for her lunch. I made her an extra peanut butter and jelly sandwich for her dinner with my sisters extra large bread that she made.
I checked my bread and folded it. Then I made myself 2 smoothies. One with 10 bananas, strawberries, raspberries and fresh fruit juice. The other one with 7 bananas, cacao and filtered water. I also made a big salad and homemade tahini/lemon dressing. I packed it all up to go and cleaned up the kitchen. All my food was prepared for the day and I envisioned a successful day of eating foods that I thrive on.
It was a warm 40 degrees F out and had been raining all morning. The rain had stopped and I walked to the grocery store with Bits. It felt so warm out that I didn’t put on a coat and was perfectly warm in my long sleeve shirt. On the way, I stopped at the thrift store and found more winter stuff for Angel. Bits was very popular at the thrift store and got lots of attention. Then I got some groceries and picked up a package from the post office.
Back at home, Angel and I got ready to go to a kids birthday party at the roller skating rink. There were a lot of people that showed up to the birthday party. Angel had fun playing with the kids and is getting better at roller blading. I didn’t put on roller blades this time and I people watched for a while. Another homeschool mom came and sat by me and we talked. She’s an older mom with young kids, like me, and we got along really well.
When we left the party, I stopped at the library to look at a silent auction going on there. I bid on 3 model cars for my great nephew for Christmas and won them. My mom is having a Christmas party at her house on December 28th and I will be seeing my great nephew for the first time in a long time. Angel and him are the same age and I bet they will play good together.
We left the library and drove to Pineridge which is a small community and store in the canyon between Council and New Meadows. They were having a Christmas event. My friend Brett met us there. Angel talked to Mr. and Mrs. Claus and then she got to go downhill snow sledding for the first time. She had a lot of fun sledding. I even went down the hill once myself right before we left. Here’s a couple of videos of Angel sledding:
While we were in Pineridge I talked to a lady whose husband is starting a cub scouts group that is for boys and girls. I’m definitely signing Angel up for that. I think it will be a good replacement for jujitsu. The lady also mentioned that they will have a cabin in Pineridge coming up for rent this summer. I told her that I am for sure interested.
After Pineridge, we went to Zim’s hot springs. On the drive, there view of the mountains with the clouds on them was so amazing that I pulled over and took pictures. We swam for a couple of hours. Then Brett and I played scrabble while I ate my big salad. Angel played with other kids in the lounge area. I won at scrabble again 😂. Brett’s a trooper though and keeps playing it with me. He wins every once in a while.
We swam some more until the pool closed at 8 PM. It was snowing out and it was slow going driving home through the canyon. I could barely see where the road was because it was covered in snow and I couldn’t drive over 25 mph. If I tried going faster, it was almost impossible to see through the snow coming down. I almost turned around and drove to McCall to stay the night at Brett’s but to get to McCall I would also have to drive through a canyon and that one is a big climb. I took some deep breaths and relaxed. There were a few cars that were going up and one car going down came up behind me. I pulled over and let them go past so that I could follow them but they were going way too fast for me to keep up. I have no idea how they could be safe going as fast as they were and I was hoping I wouldn’t have to rescue them if they went off the road. Having their tracks to follow was really helpful though.
When I finally made it home, I called Brett. He said it had been really bad going up the canyon to McCall and he had spun out a few times. At least we both made it home. Angel and I got ready for bed. I put on a sleep meditation and we fell asleep at 10 PM.
Sunday December 15, 2024
Dear Diary,
Good morning God,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for hot springs.
- Thank you for snow.
- Thank you for crispy air.
- Thank you for laughter.
- Thank you for sleds.
- Thank you for relaxation.
I love you!
I woke up at 4:30AM. I watched “shorts” on Facebook and played wordle and connections. I wasn’t going to write my blog. I wanted to stop writing it altogether. Then the Holy Spirit came over me and gave me the inspiration to keep writing it. So I wrote my blog and posted it. At 7AM, I fell back asleep until 8:30AM. I wanted to sleep more but forced myself to get up. Angel was awake and still laying in bed. I asked her what she wanted for breakfast. She said she wanted something with raw food. That was music to my ears. She got in the bath and I gave her some of my banana, cacao smoothie left over from yesterday. My aunt called me and we talked while I made myself some tea and finished drinking my banana, cacao smoothie. It was almost time to leave for church, so I got off the phone and got Angel out of the bath. She got dressed and I blow dried her hair so that it wouldn’t be wet on our walk to church.
We went to the Community church today rather than the Assembly of God church. I had overheard some church members talking unkindly about other church members the other night and it triggered me. Of course that was my perception and I might have interpreted it wrong but God used it to bring to light my childhood trauma around Christianity. I grew up going to churches where Christian’s treated each other unkindly and tried to govern each others personal relationship with God, using scriptures about accountability as a tool to justify their cruelty, rather than practicing love and acceptance. Writing this all out, I realized that being judged by people at church is a big trigger for me that I have been avoiding facing. Now that I’m aware of this, it’s time to face my fear. Thank you God for bringing to light another trigger to let go of. I ask for guidance and clarity on how to release the fear of being judged by people at church. I know that it’s ok to be judged by others. I know when I am intentionally going against your guidance. I know that if others accuse me of things I’m not doing, it’s not about me. I ask for the ability to allow others to be how they need to be without taking their judgements personally. I ask to love others judgements rather than fear them. People’s judgments show their fears and my job is to love them where they are at. I ask to know how to comfort others when they reveal to me their fears rather than become defensive and run away. I pray to have an open heart and shine my light in the face of judgement.
Another reason I wanted to visit the Community Church is because of the music. They sing hymns and songs I know. I know this because I watched part of one of their church services online. The last reason I went was because Angel has been feeling ostracized by the other girls at the Assembly of God church. I wanted to see how things went with the kids at a different church.
We bundled up and walked the 2 blocks to the Community Church. We were warmly greeted at the door by the person handing out the church bulletin. One other man and a lady I know from Angels jujitsu class said hello to us as we looked for a seat. Angel chose a spot in the front to sit. The church service started and the music was fantastic. There was a time in the service to say hello to the people around you. We were not close to other people where we were seated but 2 people came over and said hello. The sermon was about following Gods leading in your life and to live by faith. Appropriate for where I am at in my life. After the service, I stood at the front of the room pleasantly smiling and watching people while I waiting for Angel to come out of the children church. A man and his wife approached me and introduced themselves to me. We chatted for a few minutes. Everyone else in the congregation ignored me. I could have approached people and introduced myself but I wanted to see how welcoming the church was towards someone new. I’d give the church a grade of c-. Angel came out of children’s church and she’d had a lot of fun. She ran around outside playing with a girl that goes to her jujitsu class. I let her play as long as she wanted and then we walked home.
Angel started playing video games with my sister and I put my loaf of fresh ground wheat sourdough sandwich bread that had been rising overnight and all morning in the oven to cook. When it was finished, it turned out fluffy but hadn’t risen fully like it should have. I tried a piece and the flavor was really good. Thankfully it didn’t bloat me up or hurt my stomach like my sisters white flour sourdough bread had done the other day. Fresh ground wheat is so flavorful compared to store bought flour. Even the store bought high quality whole wheat flour doesn’t taste a good as fresh ground wheat berries. I wanted to try the recipe again to see if I can get it to rise more this time. I ground up wheat berries in the vitamix and started another loaf rising. I ate another small piece of my homemade bread and again felt fine. I’ve been having the hardest time staying away from bread and eating all raw. At least this new bread recipe seemed to working ok for me.
Angel drank more of her banana, cacao smoothie for lunch. She said she wasn’t feeling good and wanted to eat healthy. I drank some smoothie and went on a walk with Little Bit. We walked over to the Weiser River Trail and walked down it a ways. Then we got off the trail and walked around the baseball field and by the town pond. I was hoping to get some sunshine but the clouds continued to block the sun, I did get to see patches of blue sky though. I’ve forgotten how little you get to see the sun during the Idaho winter. I long for sunshine.
When we got back home, it was time for me to go to the Council Community Choir Concert held at the Community church. I was hired by the Record Reporter to write an article about it. I saw some people I knew from the Assembly of God church. It was good to see them. When asked, I honestly told them that I had been to the Community church that morning. There’s no hiding in small towns and I’m not interested in hiding anyway.
The Community Choir concert was fantastic. I walked around taking pictures and thoroughly enjoyed the event. When it was over, everyone had food and fellowship in the dining room. I ate a lot of cut veggies, a couple of deviled eggs, a small piece of fudge, a small rum ball and a tiny sugar cookie. Pretty good for me being at a potluck sort of meal and I felt ok. I was tempted to eat more junk food but I left to get away from the temptation. Potlucks to food addicts are like bars to alcoholics, it’s best to avoid them.
When I got home from the Community Choir event, Angel was still not feeling good. She hadn’t wanted to eat and drank a little of her smoothie. She took a bath and we went to bed early. She wanted to sleep with me. I tucked her in next to me and put on a sleep meditation to listen to. I turned out the light and we fell asleep at 7:30 PM. At 10:30 PM, I woke up. I wrote the article for the newspaper about the Community Choir event and send it in. Then I read some of my Louis L’Amour book. Angel woke up and had a fever I put on an audiobook for her to listen to called The Complete Green Ember. When it was after midnight I played wordle and connections. Then I read some more of my book until I got tired enough to fall back asleep at around 2:30 AM.
Monday December 16, 2024
Dear Diary,
Good morning God,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for clarity.
- Thank you for walks.
- Thank you for mountains.
- Thank you for money.
- Thank you for grace.
I love you!
I woke up at 7:30 AM. I went downstairs and made my tea. I said good morning to my sister on her way out the door to go to work. Angel woke up and wanted honey tea. Her fever had broke. We sat in bed listening to The Complete Green Ember audiobook. I wrote my blog while we listened. Angel wanted grapes to eat so I walked to the store and got them for her. When I got back, I suddenly started to feel feverish and achy.
Angel and I spent the day laying in bed and sleeping off and on. Her fever came and went. I had her watch educational videos on YouTube for her schooling. We listened to audiobooks and I read some of my Louis L’Amour book. I blended up some vegetables in the vitamix and warmed them up to have as a broth. I drank the broth and had lemon/honey tea. A friend reminded me about colloidal silver and I took some of that. I was actually enjoying being sick and resting all day cuddled up with Angel.
My sister cooked my bread for me when she got home from work and again it didn’t rise right. My friend Brett texted me and he was sick with a fever too. We probably all picked something up from the hot springs. I’m not sure what time we went to sleep and we were up in the night too. I listened to an audiobook on self control that was fantastic. Sometime in the night my fever broke.
Tuesday December 17, 2024
Dear Diary,
Good morning God,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for sickness.
- Thank you for healing.
- Thank you for abundance.
- Thank you for peace of mind.
- Thank you for tea.
- Thank you for discipline.
I love you!
I woke up at 7 AM. I wrote my blog and got it all caught up but didn’t have time to edit it post it before leaving for women’s Bible study. I felt great after having had the fever all day yesterday. I felt like brand new. Angel still wasn’t feeling good but her fever had broke again. I quickly made tea and a banana, cacao smoothie and left for Bible study.
It was a nice winter walk the 3 blocks to church. Bible study was fantastic and I was really glad that I went. Back at home, Angel wanted to make a snowman. We had fun making it and it turned out cute. I gathered up some Christmas gifts I had boxed up to send and we walked to the post office. My holiday Christmas cards had come in at the post office and I added them to my packages before sending them. The post office was a very busy place and we had to wait in a long line. I enjoyed people watching. Since it’s a small town most of the people in line knew each other and I liked listening to their stories.
After the post office, we walked to the library. Angel and I played chess and worked on a puzzle. We talked to people there at the library and had a really nice time. The town library is only open 3 days a week but on the days it’s open, it’s a very popular place.
At 3:30 PM, we walked home so I could meet with a lady from church that is hiring me to farm sit for her. On the way home Angel climbed up a gigantic pile of snow. I’m glad she is having fun with the snow because it’s going to be here for a few more months.
As soon as we got home, we got in the truck and drove to the farm sitting house. It’s right outside of town and only took us 5 minutes to get there. The lady showed us the horses and the mules and dogs and cats and told me how to feed them. Her husband showed me how to feed the quail. It will be a fun farm sitting opportunity and we will be staying there overnight. While we were standing around talking, the ladies husband asked if I was looking for more work. I said, “yes”. He asked if I wanted to help him sort split wood. Again I said, “yes”. He took me outside and showed me how he does it and I will be going there Thursday to help him. Yay!
When we got home, Angel and I took a bath together. Then we watched part of a Christmas movie with my sister. Angels fever came back and I had her go to bed. She slept with me and we fell sleep listening to a sleep meditation.
Thank you for reading my blog and being a part of my life. I appreciate you.
Love, Victoria
P.S. this blog post is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Where were you when this post was written? Where, in Idaho?