Sunday August 3, 2025
Good morning God,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for many opportunities to create income.
- Thank you for prayer.
- Thank you for insights.
- Thank you for love.
I love you!
Dear Diary,
I work at 2:22 AM and went to the bathroom. I laid awake until 3:30 AM. and finally drifted back to sleep. Just as I started dreaming, the baby in the room next to us started crying. His parents calmed him down right away, but for the rest of the night/early morning the baby woke up off and on crying and I didn’t get anymore sleep. At 5:20 AM I got up and started to get dressed to go work in the kitchen for breakfast prep. My mom came in from her room, we hugged and said good morning. She left to go to the kitchen. I was really tired and dragging. I wanted to sleep more and my knee on my right leg was aching from standing on a concrete floor 10 or more hours a day. The knee has scar tissue on it from a burn I got when I was a baby. I forced myself to finished getting ready and I went in the kitchen. Before starting work, I used the bathroom and brushed my teeth. My teeth thanked me.
Breakfast prep dragged on and the tiredness I was feeling was heavy. My knee ached and ached and I was ready for church camp to be over with. We got breakfast served and cleaned up. Then I went to chapel. I stayed seated during singing because my knee was hurting so much and my feet were sore.
I left before the sermon and laid down in my room. I was just drifting off to sleep when I heard people talking loudly in the next room. It was time for lunch prep anyway so I got up and forced my sore and tired body to move, especially my right knee. I limped into the kitchen and started working when suddenly tears began pouring out of my eyes and I began sobbing. I knew I was being ridiculous but I was too tired to care. Not only was I exhausted but I had been fasting for three days on water and a small amount of fruit to heal up my jaw, which had been hurting for the last 2 weeks. Fasting brings up stuffed emotions and I was willing to let them release. I let myself cry for a while and people comforted me and told me to go lay down and to not worry about lunch prep. I limped to my room and packed up my stuff and put it my truck. Then I sat in my truck resting for a while. I saw some people playing volleyball. I limped over to a stump and watched the volleyball game while I sat rubbing my knee. I found it to be comforting watching the game and I really enjoyed it.
After a while, I got my hammock out of my truck and set it up. I laid in it fully relaxing my body and suddenly my right knee popped and felt better. I was grateful for that. I laid in my hammock for quite a while but couldn’t fall asleep for some reason. The rest helped though and the rocking motion of the hammock felt nice. I watched the trees and sky and was fully at peace.
When I felt ready to face society again, I put my hammock away and went to the kitchen. I was still limping but only slightly as my knee adjusted to being back in alignment. The kitchen crew was just finishing clean up and camp was over. Thank goodness! I hugged people goodbye and was given some left over apples and oranges to take home. My mom wanted me to help her get home and asked if she could follow me. She lives in the opposite direction and didn’t want to go down highway 55. Going down the mountain Sunday on highway 55 in the summer is intense. It’s called the McCall crawl and all the people that went up to the mountains for the weekend are all going home to the valley. Traffic is often backed up for miles and miles. My mom and I looked at a map and discussed our options. I suggested we turn off highway 55 at Smiths Ferry go up through Sage Hen reservoir and Ola and drop down onto highway 52 right before Black canyon dam. My mom liked that idea. I told her that the road is dirt and will be dusty and curvy she said she was fine with that.
I got Angel and we hearted (headed) out. Traffic was flowing good all the way to Smiths Ferry and I was grateful for that.
I pulled off onto the dirt road that goes to Sage Hen and stopped. My mom pulled up next to me and I asked her if she was sure she wanted to take the dirt road. She said she was and so we started up the mountain. The road was a little rough at first but then it got better. I hadn’t been to Sage Hen in years and I thoroughly enjoyed the drive up and over the mountain. I figured my mom hadn’t driven a road like this in a decade but she did great following me.
When we got to highway 52, the road was really busy with a long line of cars going down it. Later on I found out that there was a motorcycle accident on highway 55 and the highway was shut down. Traffic had been diverted onto highway 52. I am so glad we didn’t go down highway 55 and took the dirt road over the mountain instead. We would have been stuck in traffic for hours.
When we got to Emmett, my mom turned off to go home to Caldwell and I turned off to drive the back roads to Council. It was a nice drive and I was happy to get home. I called my mom to tell her that I arrived safely, then I texted Aaron saying that I was home. Within a few minutes he brought Little Bit home. Little Bit was so excited to see me that I thought he would burst from excitement. I picked him up and hugged him. I gave Aaron a hug too and thanked him for taking good care of Little Bit. He said to me that he had told Little Bit this morning that momma was coming home today and Little Bit had ran outside and sat by the gate. He loves his momma!
After helping me carry things upstairs to my apartment, Aaron left and I walked over to the bank and cleaned it. I was so tired cleaning the bank and for some reason I thought it was a good time to do an extra thorough job. When I finished, I went around back to throw the garbage away and there were 3 stags standing there watching me. I took a video of them.
When I got home, Angel took a long shower and I took one after her. Then we went to bed. I read Angel a chapter from The National Park Mystery Series book 5 and went to sleep at 10:30 PM.
Monday August 4, 2025
Morning prayer:
Good morning God,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for laughter.
- Thank you for rain.
- Thank you for healing.
- Thank you for love.
I love you!
Dear Diary,
I awoke at 6 AM. I let Little Bit out and wrote my blog and posted it. I felt well rested. It was nice to be home and to sleep in my own bed. I got up and made tea. Then I walked to M&W with Little Bit to set up my gratitude sign. We went inside and said good morning to everyone and they all loved on Little Bit, which he thought was great stuff.
I went back up to the apartment and cut up a watermelon. Angel ate it for breakfast and we watched the burned building across the street start to get torn down. It burned down almost a year ago and it is good that it is getting cleaned up. I walked next door to my neighbors to ask if she wanted to sit outside and watch the building being torn down with me. She was worried about the dust but invited me in to talk. We talked for a few minutes. Then I went back home and started a project of creating a shoe rack from a cubbyhole shelf. The shoe rack turned out great and since I was on a roll, I cleaned out some drawers in the front room and organized them.
Aaron came by to say hi and we chatted for a few minutes. He was doing laundry at the laundry mat and headed over to the to put his clothes in the dryer. I followed him shortly after and started our laundry washing. We hung out at the laundry mat and talked while we waited for our clothes to finish. I told Aaron all about my time at camp and everything I learned from the conflict I’d had with my mom. He gave some great insights and I appreciated his feedback.
When I got home from the laundry mat, Angel did her schoolwork. For art we did a couple of stained glass kits. Then we played a game called Race Across the USA. It’s a great educational game and I’m glad Angel likes to play it. Angel won the game and I laid down to take a nap.
I woke up just in time to go to a pet sitting opportunity. I fed the dogs and cat and walked the dogs. I came back home and cleaned the bank. Then I walked to M&W to get some avocados and say goodnight to the people working there.
Back at home, I talked to Aaron on the phone. Then Angel and I got ready for bed. She read one chapter of a Magic Treehouse book and I read a few chapters from The National Park Mystery Seriesbook 5. Then we went to bed. Angel slept on the trundle bed next to me. I wrote my blog notes and we went to sleep at 11 PM.
Tuesday August 5, 2025
Morning prayer:
Good morning God,
- Thank you for this day.
- Thank you for flowers.
- Thank you for peace of mind.
- Thank you for acceptance.
- Thank you for love.
I love you!
Dear Diary,
I woke up at 5:30 AM. My mom had posted on my Facebook account a few minutes ago so I tried to call her. She didn’t answer, so I wrote my blog and got it ready to be posted. At 6:30 AM, Angel woke up and played on her phone in the trundle bed next to me while I finished up my blog. I got up and walked to M&W with Little Bit and bought a bunch of blueberries for Angel for breakfast since they were on sale. She had told me she wanted raspberries but they were sold out. I also bought some bananas which I stock up on every few days.
When I got home, Angel ate her blueberries and I made tea. I finished posting my blog then went to a pet sitting opportunity, where I fed the dogs and cat and took the dogs for a walk down the lane. Then I went to my friend TJ’s, checked on the baby chicks and weeded for a couple of hours. When I finished, I harvested some fresh blackberries, hot pepper and a zucchini. I also munched on a few ripe strawberries. I gave the blackberries I didn’t eat to Angel but she didn’t like them, which surprised me because she loves store bought blackberries. I talked to Aaron on the phone while I was weeding and we had a great talk about healing. We also discussed the possibility of driving up to Black Lake today for a day trip. Aaron said he was going to think about it and let me know later on.
Back at home, Angel went to her friends house and I watched the building across the street being torn down. Then I laid down and took a nap. When I woke up, I called my mom and talked to her for a while. Aaron let me know he was staying in town today and I thought about what I wanted to do with the rest of the day. Suddenly I knew and drove over to get Angel from her friends.
I chatted with the mom of Angels friend while I was waiting for Angel to get ready to go. When I mentioned what we were doing, Angels friend and her little brother wanted to go too. Their mom and dad said it was fine and I was happy to have them come along. Angel rode her bicycle home and I met her there in the truck with the other kids. She changed into her swimsuit and we headed out to Fruitvale/Glendale road to a swimming hole I remember seeing there on Weiser river.
We arrived and the kids were excited. The swimming hole was perfect with its deepest part being about 3 feet deep and the current was slow. The kids swam and explored and played. I enjoyed sitting peacefully watching them and taking pictures of plants. An older couple showed up with their 2 labs. They said that their dogs were friendly with other dogs so I introduced Little Bit to them. We talked and they were interested in having me pet sit in the future and I gave them my business card.
The couple left and we left shortly after because I wanted to get to my pet sitting opportunity to feed the dogs and cat their evening meal. We arrived just after 5 PM, I fed the animals and walked the dogs down the lane and back. Then we went to my apartment. The kids picked out frozen pizza from M&W and I started it cooking in the oven. The kids played hide and seek while waiting for it to cook and I sat in the front room and wrote my blog.
When the pizza was ready. The kids ate and ran around playing. I talked to my younger sister on the phone. Then one of my cleaning/organizing clients called and wanted to know if I could use the time I had scheduled to clean for them tomorrow to follow them to Midvale so they could drop off their truck to be worked on and they could ride with me back to their place. I was happy to do that. I get off the phone and Aaron called. We talked for a while, Aaron told stories about experiences he’d had in the past.
After getting off the phone, I took Angel’s friend and her friends younger brother to their house. Angel wanted to stay the night and their parents said it was ok. I went home and got ready for bed. I finished writing my blog post for the day and read some of my book The Courage to be Disliked. I went to sleep at 10 PM.
Thank you for reading my block and being a part of my life. I appreciate you.
Love, Victoria
P. S. This blog post was inspired by the Holy Spirit.
P. S. S. This was Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. A lot has happened since then. Stay tuned.