November 20, 2023
At 2:30 a.m. I woke up. Often I wake up for an hour or two in the middle of the night. I’ve done it since I was a kid. I spent years resisting it and trying all sorts of things to help me sleep all through the night. A few years ago I read an article about it being natural to wake up in the night for an hour or so. Ever since reading that, I embrace my awake time in the night. It’s peaceful and serene. It’s a perfect time to read or write or meditate or pray. This morning I did a full body relaxation session and listened to a self confidence meditation on YouTube. I drifted back to sleep around 4 a.m. and woke up again at 6:15 a.m.
I prayed my thanksgivings and gratitudes, then jumped 100 jumps on the rebounder. Christopher was awake when I went in the kitchen. We said our good mornings and I made tea. Christopher has the tea water heated up for me every morning, so I can make my tea when I get up. That is something to be grateful for! Angel woke up shortly after that and played with the yorkies. She made up a song about yorkies while she played with them. They all had great fun playing together.
My first job was a couple of miles down the back road. I enjoying driving slowly on the back road with the windows down. Little Bit was with me and we both like going slow with the windows down. We like to smell everything and see stuff as we pass by. At work, I listened to joyful music while I cleaned. The house looked great when I finished. My next job was down the road a ways on the same back road. Little Bit and I enjoyed looking and smelling on the way, going slow with the windows down. At my 2nd job, I had a great conversation with my client, then listened to an audiobook, The Power of Silence by Carlos Castaneda while I cleaned.
I continued on the backroads to my next cleaning job. It is relaxing driving the back roads. I was feeling content and happy, enjoying my work day. I arrived at my 3rd job feeling refreshed. While I was cleaning a friend texted me about a mutual acquaintance giving away free organic produce that a store had given her since they were almost expired. I contacted her and after finishing up cleaning, I went to pick some up. I did not realize how much there would be. I got a lot of cases of raspberries and strawberries. I did not count them but it was a lot. I’ll post a picture I took. I was grateful for such a wonderful gift. Free organic produce! I had plans to juice some and freeze some.
My last job of the day went good. I was still feeling full of energy and enjoyed getting the house clean. When I finished, I was excited to go home and start juicing strawberries and raspberries. I had messaged Christopher before hand about all the fruit I was bringing home but I don’t think he realized how much it was until he saw it. His eyes got big as I made a few trips carrying it all in. Then we all got to work as a family. I ran the juicer, Angel put raspberries in bags to freeze, Christopher sorted strawberries. Angel and Christopher made several trips to the chickens and goats to give them the leftover compost. We ended up with twelve 1/2 gallon jars of strawberry juice and a freezer full of raspberries. Amazingly it only took two hours, we started at 6 p.m. and we finished at 8 p.m. Yay us! Now I get to do a strawberry juice feast this week. I am looking forward to it.
Even though it had been a long busy day, I felt full of energy. Maybe it was all the fruit energy I was surrounded by. I took a nice relaxing bath that Christopher had made for me. Christopher put the yorkies to bed in their kennel. I said good night to Christopher and Angel and got into bed. I wrote my blog and went to sleep at around 9:30 p.m. listening to a sleep meditation by Joseph Clough.
I am grateful for free fruit.
I am grateful for work.
I am grateful for back roads.
I am grateful for Christopher.
I am grateful for juice.
I am grateful for friends.
I am grateful for baths.
Thank you for reading my blog and being a part of my life. I dearly appreciate you.
Love,
Victoria