Fresh Courage Take

So for 2011 I'm going to start doing what everybody keeps telling me to do, and begin to blog.  I'd like to think that I am told to blog because I am funny, or smart, or have something interesting to talk about, but probably it is more that I have, since birth, been full of words, all crowding to get free.  I am, however, sometimes quite ill and also my jewels are also quite ill, which means my capabilities will be at best sporadic, hopefully vaguely intelligent on good brain days, and typed with a preschooler on my lap.  I could use that last mention as the excuse for my poorly typed words, but realistically, it's because my fingers do not type words that I've known how to spell since fifth grade in the correct order, and periodically I miss one when I check.  Which would be slightly less embarassing if I didn't have editorial experience.

If you wanted pictures, this is probably not where you want to be.  If want a beautiful story about how to DIY crafts, illustrated with professionally done pictures, (I do too, truly), this is not your blog.  If you have, however, Lyme disease and/or have a family member with Lyme disease, perhaps I can be of some use to you.

Word have always been my chosen medium.  Since I could hold a pencil I have needed to write, and therefore, the progression of this disgusting bacteria throughout my system, creating complications in the neural pathways which create strings of words and communication capabilities is particularly both ironic and frustrating.  But, having a portion of my brain returned to me by a recently completed round of IV antibiotics,  and having five years experience in the ringamarole of Lyme treatment options, as well as 22 years of experience with the detriments caused by this disease, diagnosed or undiagnosed, I feel it is time to begin to contribute what hope and opportunity I have to the discussion of this disease.

I am a 35 year old wife and mother of three small children, two of whom have tested positive for Lyme, having been infected inutero.  I am Latter-day Saint, and have great faith and hope in Christ.  Hope is what drives me forward daily, a continual refusal to collapse under the weight and strain of the pressure from both within and without my body.  My name is Tamar, and I hope that something I have experienced can be of use to you. 

The name of my blog is an ongoing inside joke... You know that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.  Everything we do in our household, who we have become, is what happens when life gives you Lyme disease.  Thus, I hope that my small contribution can offer some aid to whatever sorrows and illnesses are plaguing you and your family.  I do not have much, and some days am nearing empty, but in my hermitage I will give all that I can.


I contribute as a former editor and current board member at Segullah.org, which, if your hope meter is running low, you should definitely check out.  It is a LDS women's literary magazine begun six years ago, and is of both the highest quality authorship and doctrine, and I love it dearly.  One of my greatest sorrows has been becoming too sick to be able to further serve as editor, but, with Lyme, you take what you can and return whatever is possible.  Just being able to associate with the women who write, blog, and editor there is a gift to my life.

And now... to change a sick baby....