January 1st, 2014

Today was a doozy, so glad Jillian had the day off to help.  Lake came down with his first real sickness yesterday and today he was super needy and sad, and wanted to be held constantly.  At one point his fever reach 103.4!  We gave him baby fever reducer and it helped some, he was able to get in a couple 20-30 minute naps, but kept waking up in tears.  I've heard it before and it's true, nothing worse than your baby being sick and there's nothing you can do about it, almost broke our hearts.  
 



Lucky for him (us), by this evening his fever broke and he managed a few smiles and a little laugh, whew! I hope he sleeps though the night :)

I haven't wanted to jinks things by saying something, but Lake had been sleeping through the night for about a month now.  There have been a few exceptions, like last night when he was so sick, but I can't tell you how awesome it is for me to finally be getting some sleep.  I'm hoping that this means that I will have more energy to do things....both around the house and in the community.








Paddle has invited me to join her, and a bunch of others, in finding a word for the year:

 Hello Beautiful People!

As many of you from the Humboldt Area tribe know and participated in, it organically became a tradition for a handful of us to choose a word each year to take to heart, embrace with conscious intention, ponder for ourselves, consider our personal relationship to, use as a tool for growth, challenge ourselves with, sit with, openly embody, etc...whatever made sense for us in relation to our word. Sometimes these words have come to us easily and are obvious, other times, it has taken some time to ruminate on a number of possible words and to consider the parts of ourselves we want to work on or better engage. In whatever case, I have found that the words tend to pick us rather than the other way around, and when you have stumbled into the "right" word, you know it in your bones. 

 

In years past I have not felt drawn to a particular word, but this year I feel one calling to me.  It's still not clear, like a voice calling from a distance, but it's there.  I'm feeling like it may have something to do with being here in Portland and finding my place in the community.  Between being new to town and Lake being born, I really haven't had much chance to get to know this place....I still read the Lost Coast Outpost every day and know more about current events in Humboldt than I do here in Portland.  In the year to come I hope to find an activity/group/volunteer opportunity/work to help me feel more connected to the place we choose to call home for now.