Friday February 14, 2025
Dear Diary,
Good morning God,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for icy roads.
- Thank you for peace of mind.
- Thank you for children.
- Thank you for my mom.
- Thank you for love.
- Thank you grace.
I love you!
I awoke at 3 AM. I wrote my blog and played wordle and connections. At 5:30 AM, I put on a sleep meditation and drifted to sleep. At 7:45 AM, I awoke again feeling well rested. I got up, let Bits out and made tea. My mom got up and came into the kitchen and I gave her a hug. I sat in the living room to write my blog and listen to morning affirmations. My mom came in and turned on the morning news. The TV was loud and fear based and chaotic. It was the opposite of my usual peaceful morning experience. I asked my mom if she could turn the TV down a little because Scott was sleeping on the couch. She said that she wanted to get the weather report but she did turn the TV down a tiny bit. I told her the weather report from looking at it on my phone but she didn’t want my weather report 😂. I went in the bedroom and continued listening to my morning affirmations and writing my blog.
The kids got up a little while later. Angel was instantly hungry. My mom made her breakfast. Scott and Savana shoveled the snow off of the driveway while I made the beds and packed. My mom made the rest of us breakfast and we hearted (headed) out.
We stopped at the store and got a few things. Then we went and picked up Savana’s friend K. The kids wanted to go to a natural hot springs and with all the snow we had gotten, I knew the ones up in the mountains would be hard to access so I opted to go to one that was in the high desert near Nyssa, Oregon called Snively. I was hoping it wouldn’t be too busy since it was a Friday morning and not quite the weekend.
It was an hour drive to Snively hot springs and the main roads were mostly clear. The kids and I had fun talking and joking around. The dirt road to the hot springs was snow covered but it wasn’t very deep and we didn’t have any issues. When we arrived, there were a couple of vehicles in the parking area. We changed into our swimsuits by holding up towels and hiding by the side of the truck. Then we walked down to the hot springs.
The hot spring pools are next to the Owyhee river and the river was high so there was only one pool available and it wasn’t very big. There were 2 people in it and we joined them. The pool was super hot where the hot water was coming in. The back of the pool was mixed with the ice cold river water but since cold water sinks and hot water rises, the water had to constantly be stirred to keep from being too hot on top. The canyon was beautiful and we sorted through the rocks on the bottom of the pool looking for pretty gems. People kept arriving and the pool quickly became overcrowded where the only spots left were too hot. We stayed for about 45 minutes then we were too hot and couldn’t take it anymore. We got out and managed ways to privately change back into our clothes.
On our way up to the mountains, we stopped at a store in Ontario, Oregon and bought snacks. By the time we arrived in Council it was 3 PM. We drove to my older sisters where the kids would be staying since I didn’t have room in my camper. My sisters was excited to see Scott and Savana and had a bunch of food ready for everyone to eat. We had been snacking the whole drive and we weren’t very hungry but the kids ate a little anyway. I didn’t eat, I reclined on the couch and rested. I was feeling really worn out and tired.
After a while I felt rested and asked everyone if they wanted to go sledding. They did and got dressed in their snow suits. We got out the sleds and were getting ready to leave when my sisters boyfriend showed up unexpectedly. He had driven up from the valley to surprise her for Valentine’s Day. Usually when he is around, my sister doesn’t want anyone there, so I asked her if the kids needed to stay someone else but she said that her boyfriend wasn’t staying the night and the kids could still stay there.
The kids got in the truck and we drove out to the camper since Mr. and Mrs. C live on a hill that I thought would work great for sledding. Before we started sledding, Scott looked at the motorhome and asked how he was going to get it out since the driveway where it was parked was snowed in. Oh no! I hadn’t thought about that! Mr. C wasn’t home so I messaged him and asked about getting the driveway plowed out.
We got the sleds out of the back of the truck and walked up the hill. We had a lot of fun sledding. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. One time, Savana went down face first and ended up plowing right into a snow drift. Her head was in the snow drift while the rest of her body was sticking out. I laughed and laughed. Scott and I decided to climb up a steeper hill with a ledge and going down that was entertaining. We were having so much fun we sledded until it was almost dark. Talk about getting a good workout without realizing it, we hiked up the hill over a dozen times. I made a video compilation of our sledding adventures.
When we got back to my older sisters, my younger sister Missy was there. She hadn’t met Savana before and had met Scott only once when he was a little kid. We all hung out talking for a while, then the older kids walked to the local bars while Angel stayed and played Minecraft. My older sister, her boyfriend, Missy and I all played a game of scrabble. When we were in the middle of the game. Mr. C messaged me back saying that he couldn’t plow out the driveway because he had a bunch of wood orders he needed to fill. I called him and discussed maybe using a one ton truck to pull the motorhome out. He said that wouldn’t work and would make a mess of the driveway. I wasn’t sure what to do, since Scott had flown here, the motorhome was his way home back to Salt Lake City. I looked up plane tickets to fly Scott back and they were $506. I thought about driving him home on Sunday but it was a 14 hour round trip drive. My sister Missy offered to drive him which was really generous but I didn’t feel right about that.
I was tired and couldn’t stay focused on the game. Plus a couple of the other players were getting drunk and drunk people are not fun to be around when you’re sober. As soon as the game was over. I went home. I went straight to bed and prayed for an answer on how to get Scott home. I wrote my blog notes, put on a sleep meditation and went to sleep at around 10 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.