Friday December 27, 2024
Dear Diary,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for cleaning opportunities.
- Thank you for hot springs.
- Thank you for rest.
- Thank you for guidance.
I love you!
I awoke at 1:30 am. I played wordle and connections and wrote my blog. I was way behind on my blog because I had been so busy. I was determined to catch up. I wrote out the last three days and it took me until 5:30 am. I edited and posted my blog and fell asleep again. I slept deeply and woke up at 7 am feeling fully rested. I got up and put some logs on the fire. I went out to the barn and fed the horses. When I got back, I woke Angel up and stripped the sheets off of the bed and started them washing.
We left to go to McCall to my cat sitting opportunity. On the way, I stopped at home and made oatmeal for Angel and tea and a smoothie for myself. I wasn’t sure how the road would be going through the canyon but it was fine.
At my cat sitting house, I did a deep clean. My clients had hired me to clean as well as take care of the cats. They would be home Monday night and I decided to get the house cleaned today since I had the day open. Angel did get school and played on her phone while I cleaned. It took me half of the day to get it done. I had been cleaning a little each day when I checked on the cats and I was glad I did or it would have taken all day to clean, it’s a good size house.
When I finished, we stopped at Natural Grocers and went back to Council to our farm sitting opportunity. It was our last day there, the owners would be home later that evening. I started a fire in the wood stove, put the sheets in the dryer and fed all the animals. Angel fell asleep on the couch cuddled up in a blanket. She was still not fully recovered from being sick but is mostly recovered.
As soon as the sheets were dry. I put them on the bed and woke Angel up. We went home and Angel played with her toys while I did laundry and put gifts in the truck that we were talking to my moms tomorrow for a family Christmas gathering. Then I cleaned the bank 3 houses away on corner. It only took me an hour to clean because it wasn’t even dirty. With me cleaning it 3 days a week, it is staying clean.
After cleaning the bank, Angel and I took a bath and went to bed. We fell asleep at 7:30 pm listening to Little House on the Prairie. At 10:30 pm, I woke up and goofed around on my phone looking at land for sale and RV’s for sale. I have my motorhome but it’s really little and I would like something bigger. At midnight I played wordle and connections and didn’t write my blog. At 1 am I fell back asleep.
Saturday December 28, 2024
Dear Diary,
Good morning God,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for love.
- Thank you for opportunities.
- Thank you for winter.
- Thank you for farms.
- Thank you for a reliable vehicle.
I love you!
I awoke at 5:30 am. I woke Angel up and made her oatmeal for breakfast. For myself, I made tea and a smoothie. We left at 6:30 am to check on the cats in McCall and go to my mom’s down in Caldwell for a family Christmas gathering. On the way we were meeting Brett in New Meadows and he was going with us.
Brett arrived in New Meadow a few minutes after us. He parked his car and got in. I drove to McCall to check on the cats and we hearted (headed) down the mountain to the valley. We had fun conversations and listened to good music on the 2 hour drive. I had fun driving down the curvy mountain highway. Right before Horseshoe Bend, we got below the snow line and it was 44 degrees F out. It was a whole different world down in the valley. It wasn’t even winter there yet, it was still autumn. We took the scenic route through Emmett and it was fun going on roads that I hadn’t been on for years. I have deep roots in Emmett. It is where my maternal grandpa and his siblings were raised.
We arrived at my moms in Caldwell at around 11:30 am. My aunt and her ex husband were there along with a couple of my cousins and my cousins 7 year old daughter. My older sister was there with 2 of my nephews and one great nephew who is the same age as Angel. My mom’s cousin was also there with his 2 daughters and son-in-law. They would be my 2nd and 3rd cousins and I had never met them before. There were 17 of us altogether.
The family gathering was a lot of fun. It was so wonderful to spent time with family. I missed this when I lived in Texas. Every Christmas we would go to Christopher’s moms and she made it very clear to me that I was an outsider, which I was, so that didn’t bother me. I just really wanted to be with my family. My family welcomes everyone, even if they are only related by marriage. My aunts ex-husband is even considered family. My aunt and him have been divorced for years and they still get along. He is the father of her oldest son and they all go out to breakfast together all the time. Even though Brett isn’t related to my family in any way, he was also very welcome.
We all introduced ourselves and ate and opened gifts. We laughed a lot and enjoyed each others company. My mom got me a really nice Brothers sewing machine, wool socks, a nice winter coat, soap, another Bible and $500 in cash. Brett got me a shovel and a really nice snow brush and window scraper for my truck. My mom did a great job putting it all together. She has been wonderful lately and I’ve been enjoying talking to her on the phone and spending time with her.
After everyone opened their gifts. I helped my mom clean up the kitchen and then we played Scrabble Monopoly. It was a mix of both games and was interesting to play. My mom won the game and then we all got ready to go.
On the way home, we stopped at Brett’s brothers in Fruitland and had a nice conversation with him and his wife. We stopped in Council and I got some things from the house. Then I stopped at church to get paid for farm sitting. The lady I farm sat for was at a leadership meeting there. I chatted with everyone at the meeting briefly and they all told me about reading my last blog post. The one with the “TMI”. I laughed and said sometimes things happen. It amazes me how many people read my blog. My life doesn’t seem that exciting to me but maybe it is more entertaining than I realize. I am grateful that people enjoying reading my blog though. It’s really nice.
After leaving the church, we continued driving to New Meadows. I dropped Brett off at his car and drove a few blocks to an overnight dog sitting opportunity that I am doing until January 4th. I’m excited to stay in New Meadows because Zim’s hot springs is located just a couple of miles outside of town.
I greeted the dog Lucky and let her out and gave her some treats. Then her and Bits ran around playing. Angel and I got settled in and went to bed at 9 pm. Angel told me a story and we drifted off to sleep at 9:30 pm.
Sunday December 29, 2024
Dear Diary,
Good morning God,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for dog and cat sitting opportunities.
- Thank you for snow.
- Thank you for friends.
- Thank you for family.
- Thank you for my mom.
I love you!
I awoke at 4:30 am. I watched YouTube videos online and played wordle and connections. I could have made good use of my time by writing my blog but I goofed off instead. I looked at rv’s and motorhomes for sale online and looked at houses and land for sale near me. Before I knew it, the time was 7 am and Angel woke up. We got up and got dressed. I let the dogs out. It was snowing out and had been snowing all night. Winter is so much different up here in the mountains than it is down in the valley. I made tea while Angel ate leftover apple pie for breakfast and played on the floor with her new toys she had gotten yesterday at her grandmas.
I laid back down and was going to take a morning nap before going to do my drop in cat sitting opportunity. I called my friend Brett and we made plans to go to Zim’s hot springs later in the day. I got off the phone and had just started to doze off when suddenly I decided to do my cat sitting opportunity right away. Since it was snowing and wasn’t going to be stopping for a while, I thought it would be better to check on the cats sooner rather than later because the person hired to plow out the driveway at the cat sitting house is not doing it consistently and with it snowing, the snow in the driveway was only going to get deeper.
Angel and I got ready to go and drove up the mountain to McCall. McCall is only 8 miles from where I’m staying in New Meadow and even though it was snowing, the roads weren’t slippery. When I got to the cat sitting house, the driveway was not plowed out. I drove in through the snow and managed to not get stuck. I checked on the cats and fed them. I didn’t stay long because it was still snowing and I wanted to make sure I could get back out of the driveway.
I got out of the driveway with no problem and decided to check the driveway of a house I was planning on cleaning tomorrow. The people are out of town until Tuesday and I have until then to clean. When I got there, the driveway looked like it had been plowed yesterday and was in good enough shape to get in and out of. It’s a fairly steep circular driveway that you drive down into. I decided to go ahead and clean the house today so it would be done. I had a feeling tomorrow’s schedule would fill up. As of now, I had my last day of cat sitting in McCall, then a cleaning opportunity in Cambridge at 1 pm and cleaning the bank at 5:30 pm.
Angel and I went inside and she did her schoolwork while I cleaned. Even though it was a Sunday, I had her do school because she had missed a lot of days while she had been sick. Besides, she didn’t know what day it was because we hadn’t gone to church. I skipped church because I didn’t want to drive to drive all the way to Council and back in the snow.
I finished cleaning and stopped at KB’s Mexican restaurant in McCall. Angel got a couple of kids burritos and I ordered a salad. We got them to go and hearted (headed) back down the mountain to New Meadows. We stopped at the dog sitting house and let Lucky the dog out and got a few things. Then we went to Zim’s hot springs.
Brett met us at the hot springs. The pool was really crowded, even out in the deep end. It was a thick “people soup”, more like “people stew”. Angel likes it when there’s a lot of people there because she finds kids to play with. We swam for an hour, then we got out to play board games. I had brought games to play with Angel like Sorry and Candyland but she didn’t want to play, she wanted to watch YouTube kids on her phone. So Brett and I played 2 games of Scrabble which took about 2 1/2 hours. Brett won the second game and he was really happy about that. He rarely beats me at Scrabble and I was glad he won. If he doesn’t win once in a while then he might quit playing it with me. While we were playing, I got a message asking if I was available to split and sort wood in the morning. I said I was available and was glad that I had cleaned the house today that I had planned on cleaning tomorrow.
We got back in the pool and swam for another couple of hours. The pool was even more crowded than before. I’ve never seen it so busy but I was glad the hot springs was making money. When we got out, Brett headed home and Angel and I went to our overnight dog sitting opportunity.
We let Lucky out and her and Bits played. Angel played with her toys while I did laundry and made tea. Then we went to bed. I received a text from the newspaper editor asking if I could attend a meeting tomorrow afternoon and do a write up about it. I figured I could squeeze it in between sorting wood and doing a cleaning opportunity in Cambridge. I knew my schedule tomorrow would fill up. The day was officially booked solid. I would do my last drop in cat sitting opportunity in McCall at 8am. Then drive to Council and sort wood from 9am to 11:45am. I’d go to the meeting for the newspaper from 12pm to 1pm. Clean in Cambridge from 1:30pm to 4:30pm. Lastly I’ll clean the bank from 5:30pm to 6:30pm. Then drive back to New Meadows to dog sit overnight.
I put on a sleep meditation and Angel and I fell asleep at 8:30 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.