Monday March 17, 2025
Dear Diary,
Good morning God,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for road trip opportunities.
- Thank you for abundance.
- Thank you for getting out of my comfort zone.
- Thank you for help.
- Thank you for love.
I love you!
I woke up at 5:30 AM. I checked to see if highway 95 was open yet and it wasn’t. I wanted to leave and start driving the long way around. It would take 3 1/2 to 4 hours and if I left at 6 AM, I could make it to my 10 AM cleaning opportunity. I checked to see if the road was plowed for me to get out to the main highway and it wasn’t. I didn’t have any food or my tea and I was stuck at my friend Brett’s. I began to feel frustrated again with the situation I was in, then I calmed down and accepted what was. I messaged my sister to see if she would feed Lila and let her out. She said she would. I switched to gratitude and felt grateful for help and grateful to Brett for a warm and safe place to stay.
I wrote my blog and posted it. Then I slept for another hour. I got up again at 8:30 AM. Angel was awake and Brett had oatmeal ready for her to eat for breakfast. She ate and I asked Brett if he had any tea. He had some and I was able to make my tea. I sat down and called my cleaning clients letting them know that I wouldn’t be there today. Brett handed me a hymnal he had picked up somewhere and said he thought I would like to look through it. I opened it up and started singing hymns such as It Is Well With My Soul and Peace Like a River. Instantly my spirit was lifted and I felt completely at peace.
Brett went outside to see if the road was plowed. He was gone a while and when he came back in, he said that it was plowed. I got ready to go and when I went out to the truck, I noticed that Brett had cleared the driveways of snow where I needed to drive out of it. That’s what he had been doing outside for so long. I thanked Brett for letting us stay over and we left to drive home the long way.
The drive down the mountain on highway 55 was blissful. I hadn’t been that way in a while and it was beautiful. We listened to a Nancy Drew audiobook and the time went by fast. Before I knew it, we had reached Horseshoe Bend and I turned onto Highway 52 towards Emmett. Once we reached Emmett, I was in memory lane. I showed Angel the farm that my great grandparents had owned. She didn’t seem interested. I turned off the highway and drove through town. It’s bigger and a lot different than it used to be.
Since I was only 20 minutes from Middleton, I decided to go visit Jason at work. He works Ace hardware store that is a part of Ridley’s grocery store. Jason told me the other day that Ridley’s sells fresh squeezed OJ. I didn’t think any grocery stores in Idaho sold fresh squeezed juice and I wanted to buy some. I drove past my grandpas farm outside of Middleton and the house he had built was still there. It’s strange having that house belong to someone else now.
When I got to Middleton, I drove through the neighborhood I used to live in. The house I had lived in was now painted a hideous florescent green. I went down memory, remembering the fun times I’d had in that neighborhood. A guy named Mike had lived across the street and one time he got caught peeking in our bedroom window at my sister. Jason lived 2 houses down and across the street from Jason was a boy named Bruce. I was 12 years old and my best friend Julie and I stuck out one night and knocked on Jason’s front window. Bruce had stayed the night at Jason’s house and they slept in the living room. The boys woke up and came outside. We all hung out in Jason’s driveway until we heard a sound like someone was coming. Then Julie and I ran back to my house and the boys went inside. We were terrified that we were going you get caught sneaking out but we never did.
After visiting the old neighborhood, we went to Ridley’s. I saw Jason right away in the paint section. We hugged hello and talked for a few minutes. Then he took me over to the grocery side of the store and showed me where the fresh squeezed OJ was. It cost $15 for 64 OZ. but I bought it anyway. Worth it!! I shopped for a few more groceries and Jason went back to work. I bought my groceries and talked to Jason a few more minutes.
I got in the truck and suddenly I had to go to the bathroom. I told Angel I had to go to the bathroom but I thought I could hold it. Angel said that I better go now or I would regret it. I laughed and told her that she was right. I went back inside and used the bathroom. Jason saw me as I was walking back out of the store. Laughing, I told him I was leaving for real this time.
I drove the back roads to get to highway 52. It was nice out and I had the windows down. I drove slowly looking for asparagus on the sides of the ditch banks but I didn’t see any. It felt so good to be in Idaho, doing my Idaho foraging again. Once we got to the highway, we had to go fast and couldn’t look for asparagus anymore.
We drove to Payette and got onto highway 95 heading north. We only had one more hour to go before we made it home. When we got to Weiser, I saw a Ford dealership on the outskirts of town. I’d been wanting to trade in my 2 wheel drive Ford Maverick for an all-wheel drive. The Mavericks are front wheel drive pickups and that’s why they can be all-wheel drive as well. They also get 32 mph on the highway. I really needed an AWD vehicle living in the mountains. Then it wouldn’t take me 10 tries to get up Brett’s driveway in the snow with studded snow tires on. It might only take 5 tries 😂.
I stopped in at the dealership just to see what they had. They had a couple of Ford Mavericks that were AWD. One was really fancy with a sun roof and heated seats and a heated steering wheel and a bunch of other fancy stuff. It was way out of my price range though and besides, I don’t like all the fancy stuff. It’s just more stuff to fix. The sun roof would have been nice though.
The other Maverick had all the basics and was in my price range. I knew I would be approved for a loan because my credit score is 827. We played the number game and they got my payments to be the same as I was currently paying. I signed my life away and suddenly I had a brand new truck with 23 miles on it.
Since I had not planned on buying a new truck, I hadn’t emptied out my old truck and I had been nesting in it. I had a whole lot of stuff I had to move from my old truck to my new truck. The amount of stuff I had was a little bit ridiculous and it took a while to get it all transferred.
I drove the rest of the way home in my new truck. When I got to town, I let Lila out and fed her. Then I went to my older sisters and showed her my new truck. Angel stayed with her while I walked over to the bank and cleaned it. While I cleaned I listened to the Gregg Allman memoir My Cross to Bear. When I finished cleaning, I got Angel from my sisters and let Lila out. Then we went home. We played a couple games of What’s the Point and I talked to Jason on the phone. When I got off the phone, we brushed our teeth and went to bed. I put on a sleep meditation and wrote my blog notes. I 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
PS. This blog post was inspired by the Holy Spirit.
P. S. S. This was Monday. A lot has happened since then. Stay tuned.