Cursed Ground for Man's Sake

We love to be outdoors exploring and playing and enjoying the amazing beauty of God's creation. However, there are a few effects of the fall that have not been very pleasant this week. To quote a children's bible story we enjoy -- "What a mess sin did make, thorns, thistles and cursed ground for man's sake".

We had some of our family over for Memorial Day and a number of us went on a hike. Some of the trails ended up being a little overgrown but the boys and I enjoy forging our way through. We are very well acquainted with watching out for poison ivy as John has had very bad reactions to it so always watch out for that.  I also brought along our spray to keep bugs away. It is the season for those pesty no-see-ums that bite our necks and leave them bloody. We often end up with scabby necks and when my Mom sees them says "It must be spring".

The other night Re-Pete wanted to show me all of the little bug bites on his ankle. Low and behold, he has poison ivy, although he wasn't even on the walk with us. We do have it on parts of our land so he must have stumbled upon it. Thankfully Re-Pete isn't bothered by it too much. It did spread to the other leg now but we have been washing it with Burts Bees Poison Ivy soap and then applying a salve and that seems to help.

This morning I itched on my lower back and felt something that seemed to be a scab of some sort. I couldn't recall what I might have done but went on with the day. Later on it was itching again and I thought I should see what it looked like. Well, it looked a lot like a bug to me and seeing as it was still there from this morning it most likely was a tick. George confirmed that yes indeed there was a tick stuck in my back. Just great! None of the boys wanted to attempt removing it and truth be told, I preferred they not as I wanted to make sure the entire thing was removed. I called my neighbor but she wasn't home. I tried another neighbor down the road (at the farm we work on) and the line was busy. No, I wasn't panicked or bothered too much but we hopped in the van and down the road we went.

Thankfully my friend was able to remove it for me and found that it was a deer tick.  Seeing as it has been raining here for most of the week the only time I was outside was when we went hiking on Monday. So I assume it had been stuck in my back for a few days. That area has been quite sore for the rest of the day and I will watch for any signs of anything else.

So, nothing really serious but inconvenient none-the-less. Oh, for the day when the world will be just as God originally intended it to be.