A Bit of Illness
Soooooo…I’ve been recovering from Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Or something.
I say “something” because my illness did not involve spotted-ness or a fever, which are kinda in the name. But I had a bad tick bite and, subsequently, tested positive for it. I found out doctors GASP, then go all serious, when you have that particular illness. (This is decidedly less than fun!)
((In regards to the tick, the little booger is still crawling around in a Ziploc bag in my kitchen. What do you do with something like that when you KNOW it is carrying a disease, and almost wiped you out?? Some of ya’ll are gonna say kill it! But I’m so crazy, in my head, I’m thinkin’ all stately and queen-like “I will show you the mercy you did not grant me,”…. but then, I’ve still got a tick… who could infect someone else if I let it go. Hence, the bag on my kitchen counter.))
Ya’ll, I’m not gonna lie. I felt like crap (excuse the language). Like REALLY bad. My legs hurt, my head hurt, I didn’t want to move for the better part of two weeks while the illness was hitting me hard. It has taken over a month to get to the point where I now have mostly good days again.
Looking back, there are entire chunks of time I lost. Just pffft. Gone.
I read books, ‘cause I didn’t feel like moving off the dang couch, and I can’t remember what I read. Those days are all a blur.
I’ll be honest, I had a couple of moments where I thought, “hm, this might be what takes me out”. For those of you who don’t know, I’m a breast cancer survivor, so this would not be the first time I’ve had that thought. It ain’t easy and it ain’t pretty and it always scares the bejeebus out of me.
At the same time, it is wonderfully freeing. Suddenly, what matters in life is shown to you with 4G HD Mega-pixel 5000 Super Duper Ultra Vivid Clarity.
In my case, it’s family.
I love my family. I like seeing them, I like talking to them, and I like thinking about them. They are pretty awesome. (Yes, I’m biased.)
We have a group chat and I sooooo enjoy it. We share little tidbits of our day, laugh over funny memes, and have raging political discussions (apologies to my youngest, who isn’t such a fan of the non-stop politics.)
Another thing we do is share advice. And, after a recent discussion about homeschooling, I started thinking.
I’ve been doling out a lot of advice lately. A divorce led to sharing how to cook simply and economically with an older fellow. Due to the pandemic, I’ve talked to people about how to educate and entertain their children at home. Plus, we’ve got kids old enough to be starting life on their own, and they occasionally come to us about life and how to navigate it. ((My hubby says sometimes they don’t come to us when we think they should. Hm.))
I enjoy tackling all of this.
I have decided I am going to start including blog posts, on this site, on self-sufficiency type stuff and how to get along in life. It will be called Tips and Tricks for Life. Most of it will be easy-peasy kinda things, but maybe someone has never thought of doing them. Or maybe they didn’t have anyone to show them the way.
(You’d be surprised the stuff that escapes us. Just a week ago, I finally figured out why, all my life, older folks seems obsessed with the weather and rain. It’s ‘cause if it rains, they don’t have to water their plants! Which is a “well, duh” thing. But while I knew, in a scientific way, weather is connected to plant growth, I had never applied that to real life and folks with gardens and houseplants and stuff.)
There ya’ go! I’ve caught you up on what I’ve been doing.
Well.
Not all of it.
But a lot.