Onward!

We topped off the weekend with a little beach ramble, and a ceremonial swim for me! Brrr...Zing! Washing off the past, and moving forward for new, good changes! I have officially given notice at my "day job" and am planning to focus more on our family, our place and our community. Brave and crazy all together, indeed!

My Weekend

I turned 37 this weekend. I am officially old. But I am going to do new things and appreciate this life!

Helping Bean make me a card...(the one way to be sure I'll get a card from my household, ahem!)


Contemplating my next steps...


Which serindipidously involved a rare lighthouse tower visit; yay!




And taking a break at Spiral Earth. More soon!

A New Road

So. Our house is for sale on Craig's List. I have very mixed feelings, to say the least. Feeling quite overwhelmed, actually. We're far from ready to really "show" it off to best advantage. But let's hope this leads us down a good, positive new path. Who knows...

Words

A random list, bubbling over from my brain today:

Thinking big at work: just wrote $275,000 worth of grant pre-proposals. I’m oddly good at writing general grant “government-ese”. Must have been my early years working for the Feds. Now hoping that some of these projects come to pass, even perhaps offering new opportunities to people looking for part-time work (who might that be, hmmm?)

I am loving eating lacto-fermented sauerkraut lately; even Bean likes it. It’s sour, but not very, and it’s helping to replenish the lost good bacteria in our guts. Now I’m inspiring to try to make my own. Ingredients: cabbage and salt. The helpful critters appear on their own!

My Lyme rash is dwindling and feeling much better…. Still a bit swollen and itchy, but hoping that means that the good white blood cells are doing their work against the evil spirochetes.

I’ve been so tired lately, so I haven’t been exercising, but then I get more tired, so I don’t exercise… a vicious circle. But my need for a belt is decreasing (ahem!), and that may finally motivate me out the door. We don’t have a scale, so I judge thing on how my pants fit. The pants say: get moving!

Bean has been getting more words all the time lately; one of this favorite right now is “Hop hop!” We get this from seeing real rabbits in our yard, looking at pictures, or playing with his stuffed bunny. Also at a few random times, like when hearing birds from inside the house. Does he think the hop-hops are chirping? This is such a fun age, where it just seems so astounding that he recognizes pictures and associates things; I think he was even trying to “put on” some shoes pictured in a book; he was at least showing that he knew shoes went on feet. Very fun.

He also had quite a night of using baby sign language the other day; his own versions of more, please, eat… it was very cute! Now if we can only get him to use that more than the standard “uuuurrrggghhhh” grunting request! He’s got body language, why bother with words? I’m hoping the words keep coming….

Summer Fun

While I'm on a roll here, I'll post another catch-up entry (who knows when I'll get back to the computer when everyone else is sleeping?!)



We went to the Carlon County Fair, and Bean met some goats and "Baaaaas". For some reason, his first recognizable animal sound (when looking at books, etc) is Baaaa. We were slightly traumatized by a really LOUD BAAA, but later were OK with visiting the real sheep. Bean was very quiet when we visited the cows, but later pronounced MOO while looking at a picture of a cow. Genius!









Other recent fun includes visiting the cabin and using the special Bean-sized beach made by Grandpa, riding on the pontoon boat (even though the life jacket was objectionable) and picking raspberries. Yep, we're puttin' him to work picking his favorite fruit; he's got a good eye! We've also recently been out in a kayak for Bean's first very quick ride.. maybe more pics soon!

Walk before you can run

In my combination of busy, tired and now Lymes excitement, I neglected to post about a BIG milestone for our little (big) Bean! For just over 2 weeks now, he's been officially walking!


Just after he turned 15 months, something clicked. Now he walks everywhere, cruising over tall grass, rocks and hills! The first day he figured it out, we were all up till 10:30, watching the gleeful demonstration. I got a few choppy videos, but no official pictures... but it's hard to tell the new motion in a picture, eh? He impressed his daycare provider the next day, weaving through the room around the other kids.

He's quite confident by now, but he did take his time working up to this... like all his earlier milestones. An email I got from Babycenter said 90% of kids walk by 15 months, but I wasn't worried. Apparently I walked at 15 months. He's been walking with help for a long time. He took his first solo steps about a month earlier, but mostly stuck with crawling; a much faster way to get around if you plop down on your diaper-padded backside every few steps. I took short videos of the crawling, because I knew it wouldn't last. So now, he walks. 2 weeks later, we're even quite used to it. He's even started walking and drumming; it's old hat by now!


Welcome to the walking world, Bean. Now that you're upright with the rest of us, you seem so much more grown up. Adulthood, here we come!

Ticked Off

So. We had an interesting day yesterday. Can't remember the last time I was in an emergency room (maybe it was when I was 3 and stuck that raisin up my nose? I've been lucky). Sure didn't think I'd end up there yesterday because of a simple tick bite!

I first found a little bump and perhaps rash on my leg on Sunday; never saw a tick. But it was just on the top of my sock line; a suspicious place. By Monday is was bigger, so I brought myself to Urgent Care to get it looked at; really seemed like a bit of a Lyme rash and if so I wanted to start treatment right away. I've know a couple people who have suffered terribly from Lyme. Dr. said hmmm, maybe, here's a prescription if you want to fill it later if it spreads, or after the not-so-accurate tests come back in a week or so. It spread and began to hurt, so I started the antibiotics on Tuesday on the way to the big Women's Gathering in WI with Bean. The normal Lyme antibiotic treatment is not compatible with nursing, so I ended up with a not-so-strong type, hoping for the best.

Didn't feel better, felt worse and worse. The rash grew and grew, swelled up and stung like crazy. In hindsight, camping in a COLD tent with Bean (he was fine, I was cold) wasn't the greatest way to deal with this, but I really just thought it would be fine. Showed it to a doctor who was present at the gathering, and she said "Ooooh." And started mentioning MRSA, stronger antibiotics, etc. Most people agreed that it looked worse than Lyme, now. By the time my lips started to feel hot and I was limping, I decided to go back to Urgent Care.

At Urgent Care, the triage nurse took one look at it and also said "Oooooh!". And started mentioning the Emergency Room and intravenous antibiotics. So, me and my little tick bite were essentially admitted to the hospital, where we waited. Doctors finally came, said WOW and began conferring with each other. I had to correct one about an antiobiotic that's not safe for nursing, but to their credit they didn't give me trouble about nursing a young toddler, who is nowhere near ready to wean. We settled on a shot of a stronger antibiotic (which is considered safe with nursing, I told them where to look it up) and MORE amoxicillin. Just sitting with it up on bed for a couple hours made it feel better, and they pronounced it just a heck of a case of Lyme Disease, not MRSA or anything else ickier.

Not that Lyme isn't icky. I still feel sore, tired, a bit feverish. Took a 3 hour nap today with Bean. I guess the lesson is to LOOK FOR TICKS a bit more carefully after being in the woods. This one was likely very tiny, probably picked up on the South Shore near Spiral Earth (where we hope to live someday). I guess the one thing I'm grateful for is that Bean didn't get the tick. I had the same experience a couple weeks ago, when I got stung by a yellowjacket (OUCH!) in the grass where I was going to set Bean down. The thing that scared me the most was that he might have gotten the sting instead. I knew that Lyme was serious out East, but I didn't realize that Wisconsin is also an infection hot spot. Ug.



I've had requests for pictures of the exciting rash, so here it is, in all it's erythema migrans glory. The circle was from yesterday's doctor, so we could see if it was growing or shrinking. I don't think it's grown, but it hasn't shrunk yet, either. We're doing OK, just a few expected, ah, intestinal effects upon Bean, who is essentially taking the antibiotics along with me. We are pushing the probiotics. Rooting for the good microbes, not the bad! Onward...

Stylin'!

Dashing out the door, but wanted to post these! We're zooming around in style these days! Bean seems to enjoy himself in his little "pod", but it's extra fun when we bike to a berry patch! Yum!



And this picture gives you a realistic glimpse of our usual, rural life. Ratty garage, random chickens (behind me), friendly cat, and happy boy ready for outdoor adventures!