I hope everyone is doing well! It's hard to believe it's already March. It's been an eventful start to March, too; I've been learning about different opportunities like the Wholesale Formula and Jake Ducey's 10K in 10 weeks. I signed up for both, and they seem really promising. I know there's abundance out there for each of us; sometimes finding it can feel rather tricky, though. These two opportunities feel so promising, and I'm excited. Hopefully, the new moon in Pisces treated you well; it left me feeling rather drained, and it didn't help that I struggled sleeping around the new moon. I included some videos on the recent new moon below if you're interested in learning more:
I woke up Monday morning rather cozy and didn't want to get up. It felt like a lot happened in my dream. From what I could remember my dream started off with InuYasha characters. I think Koga had kids or packmates that were off--there was something about them that wasn't developed right. I think there were three of them in total. The three of them had a grudge or something. I remember traveling with Sesshomaru and Rin (a young Rin), but we were in more modern times (if not present day). I think we met up with Sesshomaru's mother at one point. We ended up at like a mall or something, but it wasn't a normal one because it seemed like it had like underground caves or something along those lines. I think we were being chased and that we had to complete challenges/overcome some kind of obstacles. Details were a bit fuzzy when I woke up. At another point I was at a mall with April. She ordered chocolate covered strawberries and a mint chocolate chip shake, and she started dipping the strawberries in the shake, surprised at how amazing it was. We went into some store, and she found some shirts that she really wanted on clearance. There was an announcement that there was some super sale on t-shirts or something. We went to another store that had like crystals and similar products for sale, and there was this grumpy lady checking out at one of the registers. The cashier that was helping her make her purchases made some remark that he had like 35% of the luck his coworker had, a bit reluctant about how he had yet another unpleasant customer in his line. More happened, but that's all I could remember upon waking up.
I woke up Tuesday morning extra cozy and struggled getting out of bed; it felt like way too much effort, but eventually, I did make it out of bed, despite the challenge. From what I could remember from my dream I was at my house with Tsuki. April's mom ended up coming over and was on the phone with someone when the doorbell rang/someone knocked on the door. Perplexed, I went to see who it was, as few people ever did so. I opened the door to find a pair of young adults that I had never seen before. These two girls asked if Jessica was home, and I told them that was me. They also asked if anyone else was home, and I informed them that my kitten and friend's mom were also here. They proceeded to invite me to their evening gathering, a chill evening with an outdoor fire, commenting on how they always walked by my house. They hoped to see me at the gathering but understood if it was too last minute. I told them I would see if April and Corliss wanted to go, as well. They seemed to be having a sleep over, as the host remarked that they would be having cream for breakfast as she was carb/gluten free. They went onto the porch, and Tsuki followed us out there, licking the one hosting the party's hand. More likely happened, but that's all I could recall upon waking.
I was exhausted when I woke up Wednesday morning, although I didn't go to bed late. It was rather difficult getting up, and my alarm didn't got off, which made it a close call for getting to before care on time. I didn't remember that much from my dream either. I think I might have been at a hockey game, but there weren't actually seats, and the setup almost had me fall on the ice. I must have fallen asleep or something because the next thing I knew I was groggily riding a bus. Apparently, my coworker was there and had helped me get on the bus. He asked if I had a Band-Aid because he had, apparently, sliced open his big toe while helping me. When we got off the bus, a black sandal or flip flop fell into a creek, and we had to retrieve it. I remember exclaiming that I had won, which caused him to chuckle, because there was something like a leaf in the shoe (something about it being a prize). Everything else was fuzzy, and I didn't recall any more upon waking up.
I struggled staying asleep Wednesday night/Thursday morning, so I was rather groggy when I got up that morning. It did not make being awake early for before care easy. It also resulted in an extremely foggy dream recall and not remembering anything specific. I was a bit sleepy when I woke up on Friday morning; what I could remember from my dream was that I was hanging out with Corliss. We were at some store, but I'm not sure which store. We ended up passing up some snacks and deciding to get some. There were some veggie crisps, but they were in the shape of waffle fries instead of the normal shape from Trader Joe's; Corliss was trying to decide between two different kinds. We ended up in a clothing section. In the corner there was a section dedicated to anime/pop culture t-shirts. There were several InuYasha ones. I remembered there was one illustrating the strife Kagome felt when InuYasha ran off with Kikyo. There was, apparently, one featuring a full youkai younger brother of Sesshomaru. There was one of Lord Fluffy himself (I was drawn to that one, unsurprisingly). More happened in the dream, but that's all I recalled upon waking.
My dream from Friday night/Saturday morning was veiled in a haze, making it a challenge to remember anything specific. For some reason I woke up around 6 am and couldn't fall back asleep no matter how much I wanted to, leaving me rather sleepy. I struggled a bit with staying asleep again, but I was able to fall back asleep this morning, so I was a lit more rested. My dream recall was still rather fuzzy, though. I knew that my dream involved Corliss. I think we were setting up a business. We might have just been hanging out, though. At one point I think laundry might have been involved as I remembered there being 3 hampers full of clothes, one belonging to my sister with the others belonging to Corliss and me. Everything else was veiled in a haze, leaving me unsure of what transpired.
It was a busy week. I got certified for CPR, first aid, and emergency oxygen this week, but it was rather rushed because my job hasn't been on top of things... They mentioned it when I was interviewed back in August but then did nothing more about it until now.... They gave us a week to do mandatory online trainings and then sprung mandatory in-person training that had to be done the next day. I won't be coming back next school year because this is becoming a pattern with them, and I don't appreciate their unprofessional and disrespectful handling of important matters. The handbook they gave me even states that staff would be given at least 2 weeks notice for meetings/training, but it's always been a week or less. They're scrambling to hire new staff, but they're not handling matters in a way that would actually keep their current staff. I discussed this with my coworker in length this week because Wednesday and Thursday the kids showed up rather late (there was at least 45 minutes with no kids each morning, which is highly unusual). We discussed different options, and I asked him if he had ever considered creating digital guitar lessons as a source of passive income since I knew he works at Guitar Center, providing lessons in person. Throw in the fact that Target is now offering starting pay of $24 an hour and many restaurants paying more than we're getting for providing child care, they're on a sinking ship. Honestly, I'm only staying this long for the kids and to provide them consistency. There are way too many options to limit and constrict myself by staying at this job for much longer. Nothing personal against my boss; she's quite kind, but the leadership of the whole organization is where the real issue lies. They keep merging jobs together and expecting one person to do it all. It isn't feasible, and I get the feeling that they won't realize it until it's too late.
One of the boys decided to draw a massive poster of the Titanic this week, and I thought it was pretty great; I also found it humorous because it was "Beach Day" at the school. The kids had me play with the miniature Uno cards Burger King gave out with a kids' meal; they were super excited to show them off, and we got into some pretty fun rounds. The pair of sisters were flabbergasted by the amount of beads on the floor in the hallway earlier this week, exclaiming, "OH MY GOSH!!" and demanding to know who made such a mess when they arrived to before care this week. Turned out that my coworker had been trying to put the beads away the previous night, but two of the drawers fell out; he did his best to sweep them up, but it became obvious that he didn't clean up all the beads. Granted, it wasn't super noticeable unless you paid attention to the floor since the beads were so tiny, but there were quite a few on the floor. They stopped everything, hunting down a broom and dustpan before setting out to clean up all the beads. They were dead serious about the task, hunting down each and every bead. The younger sister kept lowering herself to the floor so she'd be able to detect the crafty, little beads that tended to blend in with the floor. She declared that it was because she was the smallest one there that allowed her the ability to see them better. The sisters decided I would be their assistant and that I should help them spot the beads; a lot of them ended up congregating in nooks and corners. They were also eager to make signs for the fundraiser going on; they want the reward of a pizza or ice cream party. They decided that each person should bring in $20 and made signs declaring so (the goal is to raise $200 to get the party). They had my coworker make a note for the president, trying to enlist his help; he ended up taking a car coloring sheet and drawing "the president" inside of it, driving up with his $20 contribution. It was pretty humorous. One of the girls brought me Girl Scouts' cookies this week, too.
The kids decided that this springy see-saw type piece of playground equipment was a toilet this week for some reason, so I started asking questions about how it turned into a toilet, why they put it out on the middle of the playground, etc. They thought I was super silly and ate it up, giggling. One of the girls kept creeping up to the "toilet" and poking it with her foot, so I decided to play it up, exclaiming that it was gross to touch a toilet with your foot because they can be so dirty. While she was giggling excessively, I posed the question of what if the "toilet" had "toilet cooties" and turned her foot into a toilet? She loved it an then proceeded to "flush toys" down the "toilet." I asked her, "Didn't anyone ever teach you that you shouldn't do that? You can't just flush toys down the toilet!" She was gasping for breath, clutching her sides in laughter, before proceeding to "flush herself" down the "toilet." I asked her why she would want to flush herself down the toilet and wind up in the stinky sewers. She informed me that there's a party in the sewer with all the flushed pets. I asked why she would want to have a party in a place so stinky before telling her to watch out for the alligators, and she said she'd just feed them food so they would be uninterested in eating her. She couldn't contain her laughter and proceeded to follow me around the rest of the time outside, trying to "gross" me out.
One of the boys kept spinning on one of the spiny seats on the playground, insisting that he would never get dizzy. No matter what happened (he was on it for a good 15-20 minutes), he claimed that he wouldn't get dizzy. He spun himself faster and exclaimed, "Still not dizzy!" As he continued to spin round and round, he kept insisting he still wasn't dizzy. He declared that he wouldn't be dizzy on the amusement rides that spin you really fast. Since he loves Pokémon, I asked if he was Hitmontop, that he was secretly pretending to be a human even though he was Hitmontop. He agreed at first, laughing so hard, before remarking that he was actually Charmelon instead. We had fun joking around and discussing Pokémon until his mom picked him up; he even told me all about the new goodies he got for his birthday last month.
The kids seemed pretty emotional this week; they seemed easily triggered and quick to shout/cry. Thankfully, I was able to calm them down and ease the situation to a peaceful solution most of the time. A lot of the time it was merely by talking to them, asking about their day, their favorite things, making jokes, etc. I earned quite a few laughs by merely being myself, which I was grateful for. I'd rather the kiddos not be upset if I can help it. My art buddy was rather cheerful this week, though, but that's her normal. She kept running up to me, greeting me with a massive hug, and exclaiming how much she loved me. She's also quite excited because her birthday is coming up soon (the 13th); she's excited that she'll "finally" be seven. Suddenly she announced that she knew that YMCA stood for Young Man's Christian Association and grumbled that it should be YWCA instead, saying that women are important, too. My coworker started talking about how inclusive the group was, but I pointed out that the name wasn't all that inclusive--not only did it focus on men, but the Christian religion and the young, as well. My art buddy said it wasn't right, so I proposed it be the HA instead: Human Association. It's a lot more inclusive and gets rid of the divisive labels. Granted, that might be why they go with the acronym instead, but she brought up a valid point. She also tricked my coworker by asking him if he knows the state Mississippi and then asking him to spell it. He started spelling Mississippi, but she corrected him, telling him that it is spelled 'i-t'. He laughed, realizing that she had got him. She tried to pull a similar stunt with me, but I saw it coming; she remarked that she had music class, and when I asked if that meant she would sing a song, she sang the words "a song" like an opera singer. It was pretty impressive, and I found it humorous that she was trying to surprise me with her literal response. Gotta love kids.
The boys were excited about the new Pokémon game trailer, asking if I had seen it yet. They wanted to know more about the games and were a bit disappointed that the trailer didn't possess more information. They were rather bummed and frustrated that their Wi-Fi signal was nonexistent Tuesday afternoon. They were being a bit dramatic about it, acting as if the world was conspiring to thwart their desires and ensure that they personally wouldn't have a Wi-Fi connection. I was able to calm them down and distract them, but it was rather humorous how offended they were by the prospect of having no connection, like it was the worst thing that could possibly happen and there was nothing for them to do without it. We discussed anime and InuYasha, such as favorite characters. They commented on how they knew I loved Rin, and I confirmed such but that Sesshomaru is my favorite favorite character from InuYasha; they remarked that their favorite is Shippo because he's funny/provides comic relief.
I ended up doing last minute babysitting Saturday afternoon/evening. When I arrived, their mom informed me that they had a "pack of wild, rabid boys on the loose in the backyard." All the neighborhood boys disappeared suddenly while I was discussing the rundown of the night. Remnants of their intense Nerf war lay scattered all over the backyard; the neighborhood boys ran off with the older brother because, according to the younger brother, he told them his grandmother was alive. The younger brother told me that he actually threw them all into a pit of lava connected to their basement. The others had been scheming in their secret base for the upcoming war the following week. Then he told me that the lava pit was filled in with dirt 15 years ago and showed me the spot the lava pit had supposedly been located in their backyard. The younger brother proceeded to tell me that he fought in the war 50 years ago (despite being 5 years old) and said that he was 2 years old for 45 years. While outside I asked him about the horse by their tree house. He told me that it had served in World War 1, that it was his brother, but that it had been turned to stone. I noticed a granola bar wrapper by the horse. At first he blamed the horse, but then he amended that one of his stuffed animals was the culprit responsibility for littering and that he had tossed him into jail for all eternity. He started demanding that I scream because we were in "Scream Land," and if you didn't scream in Scream Land, you would be executed via sword. Then he exclaimed that the rain was coming, urging for us to race inside because it would flood. To be fair, it was becoming increasingly windy and gray clouds were swiftly rolling in. After playing with the youngest for an hour or so, we played inside for a while in their basement. When we came back upstairs near sunset, the swarm of boys were back, as rowdy as ever.
It took a while to convince the boys to come in to dinner, as they were having so much fun with the neighborhood kids; there were nine boys playing in the backyard, and it kind of felt like an outbreak of children had suddenly descended upon their backyard. After dinner the boys were painting a base coat on their derby cars. Their parents had asked if we would complete the base coat since their races were the following weekend and had taped newspaper down on the table for them to complete the painting. The younger of the two decided he wanted to eliminate the people on the newspapers, assassinating each one with an 'x'. We got to talking about how the security at D&B thought my friends and I were babies, and I remarked, "Oooooh, so that must be why I'm a babysitter. I'm a baby." The boys were howling with laughter. The younger brother asked who all these people were on the newspaper sheet (who happened to be over a dozen realtors).
Me: "My parents."
Older brother: "Which ones?"
Me *matter-of-factly*: "All of them."
They were clutching their sides as they erupted with laughter.
Younger brother: "Nice try. You can't fool me--they're not all your parents."
It was an unexpected afternoon/night, but we had a lot of fun. I love working with children; they always keep things interesting and humorous.
Corliss came over this weekend. We had a lot of fun, although it didn't go as we expected. I ended up picking her up after 9 pm on Friday because she was running late. Since I had gotten up at 5 am for before care, I didn't stay up nearly as late as she did, but since she stayed up so much later than I had (5 am since she's been a night owl lately), she didn't wake up until 2 pm. I had last minute babysitting to do, so I didn't see her again until about 10 pm (but Tsuki was happy to have someone to hangout with while I was gone). She stayed up late again Saturday night but nowhere near as late as the previous night, and she got up around 10 am this morning. When Corliss opened up some new brown sugar, it came out as a rock-hard brick. It was quite the challenge to be able to use it; we had to use our creativity and ingenuity to do so, and the brown sugar was far from expired. It was an amusing incident. She tried slamming it on the counter repeatedly, but it barely did anything. We heated it in the microwave for several minutes before trying to break it again. It didn't do much, although it was easier. She ended up trying to saw it with a knife, which worked, but it resembled a bunch of sand. We laughed hard at the ridiculousness of it all.
We also had fun chatting and catching up with April on Sunday. We planned to go out and do more, but it was nice to have a relaxed afternoon, chilling with each other as we enjoyed great food and each other's company. We made eggplant parmesan, and it was bomb! So yummy! We were excited to share it with April, and we'll definitely be making it again.
Part of the reason we were hanging out (but not the sole reason because we love just hanging out) was to start planning for starting a business. 2022 feels like a really big year, a year full of abundance and prosperity. We did some studying/learning with the 10K in 10 Weeks program from Jake Ducey as well as The Wholesale Formula. We're really excited by the prospect and look forward to all the abundance heading our way. Corliss mentioned that we could get grants (she has a business background), and that was something I had no idea about, so I'm super grateful for her insight.
Tsuki has been her usual nutty self. She was ecstatic about the warmer weather and got incredibly hyped up--she was bouncing off the walls with how high her energy levels were. Tsuki savored the sunshine and loved spending afternoons out on the porch. She enjoyed cuddling with me in the evening on the couch after dinner while I read, though. She had her calmer moments, but they were pretty scarce compared to her hyper active ones where she wanted to wrestle, play rough, and chomp like crazy. Our little, nutty kitty got behind the TV stand this week, too, and almost pushed the TV over. Tsuki is such a nut.
I got new goodies this week! I received Goddess Provisions' March box; this month's theme is Midnight Garden. I was excited to see that there were new cards, and the scarf is so pretty! I also finally received my last two orders from Spiritual Supermall; my Divine $9 orders from last week and the week before got delayed probably due to snow storms, and I'm excited to finally have them! Tsuki was excited to get into them, as well. I spotted some InuYasha pants, and I decided to make them mine--they arrived on Thursday, even though it said it was supposed to arrive on Saturday (not that I'm complaining).
Artwork for the week included more constellations:
I did some more writing, reading, and anime watching this week. My newest story is now posted and is based on an interaction I had with some of the kids in before care after they had a snow day. Kids are full of the unexpected and always keep things interesting. Feel free to read it and share your thoughts! I'm also open to suggestions and recommendations for future stories! I have other pieces in the works, so stay tuned for more stories! Fanfic for this week included Higher Education. I watched Adachi and Shimamura this week, and it was really cute. I clicked on it at random and wasn't sure what to expect, but I'm definitely not mad at it. Adachi and Shimamura are super adorable together. I love Adachi's character growth and how she gains more confidence as the story progresses to voice her wants/needs. She still has room to continue her growth, but the progress she's made is beautiful. Plus, I find Chikama Yashiro's character interesting; she shows up out of the blue in an astronaut/space suit, claiming to be a galactic being searching for her partner. Considering how, once her suit is off, she sparkles/glows, I'd be inclined to believe her. Plus, there's the fact that she was floating around in the air at one point, and she claims to be 680 years old, so all signs point to her not being human at the very least. Chikama Yashiro remarks, "There is an important truth you must realize about fishing. At first you won't get anything to bite, and nothing goes as planned. But the only thing that matters is that you started something... The only thing we can do in life is hope for a bright future, so we cast our lines and wait." She has a valid point; often people get excited by an idea but end up abandoning ship when it doesn't play out right away. The lack of immediate results convinces them that it's a failure, so they decide there's no point in continuing. You'll never get a bite if you give up; it takes patience, but in time you'll get that bite. Sometimes it might jump off the line before you can reel it in, but there will always be another fish if you're willing to give it a chance. The only way you'll end up failing is if you give up. If you persevere, you'll always learn and grow, assisting you in reaching success.
My friends and I are deciding to step up and try new things. We're tired of running ourselves ragged with little to show for it. We know that we're meant for bigger and better things, and we're committed to making it happen. I've been working on this website and the YouTube channel for a while now, and since I haven't "made it big" yet, one could argue that it's a "failure" because of that. Patience is key, though, much like Chikama Yashiro's allusion to fishing. You may go hours without a bite, but if you're willing to wait it out, you can go home with a huge haul. We're working on learning new skills, considering new business prospects, and putting in the effort to make beneficial change. I feel like a lot of people are reaching this point, ready for the systems to change (because frankly they're rather broken and unhealthy). Whatever you decide to do with your future, I wish you well! Take care, prioritize self-care and your overall wellbeing, and don't sell yourself short. You're capable of amazing things, and I can't wait to see everything we all accomplish! Stay blessed with love and light, everyone~
Food for thought from Ralph Smart on Infinite Waters:
Food for thought for the week:
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