Hello, friends. Wow, it's seems like ages since I've been in this place. I feel like I'm still catching up from our holiday weekend away.

My sister and I basically house-swapped for the holiday. She came here for Thanksgiving and managed to take care of our chickens, dogs and cats. While we went her direction, where my mother also lives--and took care of the animals on her farm. (Though she left us more animals to take care of, she had a more "annoying" situation--as our older Lab wandered the valley the whole time we were away...) Things are never problem-free when you go away, are they?

To top things off on Sunday morning, little Mary woke up unable to move her right leg. She was in excruciating pain--couldn't move, couldn't touch her skin and it took us two hours to finally get her moving and out of bed. But by mid-day she seemed back to normal.

Monday morning she woke up again with the exact same problem--this time it took me almost three hours to get her up and able to move--and we hobbled straight to the doctor's office.

She'd had a very bad, sore and swollen tick bite at the base of her hairline the week before and in my mind I had the strong suspicion that she had Lyme's Disease. But there was no "bulls eye" rash, and it was very early for symptoms to start to appear.

After a very frustrating experience at the doctor's office--where I felt like he wasn't recognizing the fact that Mary was faking health and lack of pain in order to not be embarrassed in front of him, he did blood work to determine what was bothering her--(yes, I was the mother of the hysterically screaming child in exam room two)--but basically the doctor thought we were looking at "morning stiffness". ??

She continued to go down hill that afternoon and by dinner, I broke down and called him back--convinced that she at least needed to begin a round of antibiotics--something I'm never quick to put my children on--while we waited out the four days for her test results to come back. It's horrible seeing your children in pain, especially when you don't know exactly what is wrong with them or what to do to help.

But the doctor stood fast, and didn't want to start any meds until we knew what was exactly wrong. I hung up the phone frustrated.

Thankfully, the next night, her test results came back earlier than expected and my suspicions were correct--she has Lyme's Disease. And while I hate to see Mary have it, I'm glad we know what's going on and how to help her have some relief.

So now, she's walking around the house like an 80 year-old woman with bad hips. One morning she requested two croquet mallets to help her get around--which has led us to refer to her as Tiny Tim.

The antibiotics haven't kicked in yet, but I can tell she's relieved to be getting something to help her feel better. She also loves the fact that I'm offering her unlimited amounts of yogurt--to help restore some of those good bacteria the antibiotics wipe out.

As my aunt said the other day, "It's always something, isn't it?" But we're hanging in there. Relief is around the corner. The sun is out today. Emma is horseback riding. The girls have a "baking date" in the afternoon. And I have some crafty plans up my sleeve.

Each day holds both it's own trials and it's own treasures.