May 20, 2008

I've been tagged by Elaine to list six quirky facts about me.

1. I didn't realize Elaine and I had so much in common until I read her list. I, too, do the purse touching thing! I had no idea that was common. I mainly do it with dear son's diabetic bag.

2. When I drive anywhere and get out of the car, I check to see if I have my keys over and over and over again. I will put them in my purse and I will know I put them in there and I still have to unzip my purse and look inside for my keys. I have learned to just keep them in my hand until I lock the car and then put them in my purse to save me from looking over and over again.

3. I sanitize my buggy when I go to trade and I sanitize my hands after being in public places. I make my family sanitize their hands, too. I am quite germ phobic. If I am walking down an aisle in the store and I see someone coughing and sneezing, I will turn around and go the other way. I don't like to touch door handles and I always try to open a public door using a part of the handle that is rarely touched. I will use my coat sleeve in the winter and I love to walk in after someone else has opened the door. I also love automatic doors that don't have to be touched. I will not touch items in a store that are "out of place". I also reach in the shelf or freezer and retrieve items that are not in the front.

4. I don't kill most insects and spiders when I find them in my house. I catch them and let them go outside. I can catch spiders, wasps, flies, and most any insect with my bug catching jar and index card. I do kill any mosquito I see, along with ticks and fleas. I also set out bait for ants that come in our home. Other insects that happen to wander in by mistake, I just catch them and let them go. I have never been bitten or stung.

5. I cannot stand for someone to sit on my feet if I am lying down. It smothers me. I know that is stupid and there is no logical basis for it, but you might as well put a pillow over my face. When my boys were little and would crawl all over me, I could handle anything but them sitting on my feet. After a while, I will literally panic and struggle to get free.

6. I hate pancakes. I am including this because I was discussing my quirks with my family and they insisted that this was not normal and should be listed.

May 16, 2008

I spent part of the day yesterday gathering online materials for our first try at summer school. I think I hit the jackpot. I found so many good resources that I decided to share them with you here.

Resources For Music Appreciation:

Ambleside Online Composer Schedule

Music of the Baroque

The Baroque Period From Capistrano School

Classics For Kids

Core Knowledge Lesson Plan: The Best of Baroque

Lesson Plans Page: Beethoven and Bach

National Core Knowledge Lesson Plans For Music

Core Knowledge Lesson Plan: Going for Baroque- a Study of Bach

Resources For Shakespeare:

Teachers First: The Plays of William Shakespeare

Folger Shakespeare Library Lesson Plans Archive

Core Knowledge Lesson Plan: Student Based Oral Reading & Presentation Study of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Ambleside Online Shakespeare Rotation

Core Knowledge Lesson Plan: Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, and You!

Core Knowledge Lesson Plan: Twelfth Night, Or, What You Will...Learn!

May 13, 2008

This morning I want to write about all the activity going on in the backyard.

The chickadees are still in the bluebird nesting box, but were visited one morning this week by a bluebird! Mama Chickadee quickly ran off the intruder. I really wasn't expecting to see any more bluebirds this spring. I need to go buy another nesting box.

On Mother's Day, after the storm passed through, I took it upon myself to check on the Carolina wrens that are nesting in the basketball goal. I still wasn't sure if they were even in there. I had seen both male and female building the nest, but I hadn't seen any activity about the nest in a while. I thought it may have been a decoy nest. First, I tried looking from the ground, but I couldn't see anything. I climbed up on the picnic table and just as I was about to peek into the nest the mama flew out and almost flew right up my nose! She was mad as a wet hen! She flew up in a tree and scolded me over and over again. Dear husband was out working on the van and he said, "You had to do it, didn't you!"

Recently, the whole family was fortunate enough to see a mama robin feeding her fledgling. She only had one with her and I couldn't help but wonder what had happened to the rest of them. Mama robin was busy pulling up earthworms from the ground. The fledgling had a voracious appetite and spent most of the time with its mouth open. The baby robin's breast was red, but was covered in black spots. The robins at my Mom's house fledged without her ever getting to see them.

Since May 5th we have been having a song sparrow sit and peck on the kitchen window. He wakes me up almost every morning. At first, I thought he was seeing a reflection, but he pecks on the window at all hours of the day whether the sun is out or not and even when the shutters are closed. He will hop back and forth from the window to the roof of the pump house, taking time to grab a bite of suet and then back over to the window to peck, peck, peck. It's a good thing I like birds so well.

My last bird story for this week is about a little chickadee that oldest dear son was observing and called for me to come watch. Oldest dear son is also an avid bird watcher and it is so nice to have an extra pair of eyes on the look out for birding activity. We have a metal strainer on the roof for seeds. Originally, I bought it for a honey strainer, but it was too small. It has an oblong metal strainer in which we pour the seeds. Around the rim of the strainer are two sides which pull out for you to hang the strainer over the sink. We leave these out for the birds to use as a perch. On this day a little chickadee was trying to hold a seed between his feet and crack it open. He kept slipping and falling backwards, but he would not turn lose of the perch or the seed so he ended up hanging upside down! One second he would be upright trying to open the seed and the next second he would fall backwards and briefly hang before righting himself. It was like something you would see in a cartoon.

And finally, here is the turtle that oldest dear son called me out to see the day he was mowing grass. I think this little fellow has star quality. He seemed to be posing for me and didn't retreat into his shell.

May 12, 2008

Dear husband and I went fishing last Monday. I caught three large mouth bass and dear husband caught two. He had two to get away; one right at the boat. I reached for my camera when I should have reached for the net! It was a beautiful day. Foggy and cold first, but then sunny and warm. I looked like I was dressed for the antarctic instead of the lake. I had on long johns, jeans, and then dear husband's coveralls. I was also wearing thick mittens that fold back so your fingers can stick out when you fish. My feet got cold, but I didn't open my mouth. I knew if I did, dear husband would make me wear his boots! :-)

I saw several Great Blue Herons and a beaver! In case you are wondering, I caught all my fish on a Yum Wooly Hawgtail (Green Pumpkin). I kid you not...wooly hawgtail. Here are some pix from our trip.



Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam! I always sing this when I see a sunbeam.




Sometimes the fog rolls off the water like a big cloud when the sun comes up.



And sometimes it hovers over the water in wisps and curls.




We found this little waterfall on the bank in a little cove.



I found this on the bank when I had to get out of the boat to stretch my legs. The blossoms were fragrant. I brought one back to the boat with me.



Beautiful purple-lined clover growing on the bank.

May 11, 2008

Happy Mother's Day. Except for the terrible storm this morning, I am having a wonderful Mother's Day. Oldest son did not have to work today, so all my guys are home. Dear husband took me to Walmart last night and let me pick out an indecent amount of flowers. I picked out some annuals for my flower pots and a few perennials for my small rock garden and another little clump of flowers for up on the hill near the bee hive. I bought my mom two hanging baskets for her porch.

This morning we were watching CBS Sunday Morning. It has been one of my favorite shows for years. I called the boys into the living room to watch a segment on Neil Diamond. Both of our boys are really good at impersonations and voices and they both do a mean Neil Diamond. Better, than Neil Diamond himself! While we were waiting for the Diamond segment there was a segment on Mother's Day by a photographer that had photographed mothers and their children. While the pix were being displayed, Baby Mine was playing in the background. Baby Mine has always been my favorite lullaby. Instead of seeing the pix on the screen, my mind's eye was flashing visions of my boys when they were precious babies. They are both taller than me now, and I am happy and content with our life where it is at this moment. As I type this they are in oldest dear son's bedroom admiring his new iPod dock. They have always got along, despite being nine years apart. I can hear them laughing and talking and it is one of the sweetest sounds in the world. Hope you are as blessed as I am this Mother's Day.


Baby Mine

Baby mine, don't you cry
Baby mine, dry your eyes
Rest your head close to my heart
Never to part, baby of mine

Little one when you play
Don't you mind what you say
Let those eyes sparkle and shine
Never a tear, baby of mine

If they knew sweet little you
They'd end up loving you too
All those same people who scold you
What they'd give just for
The right to hold you

From your head to your toes
You're not much, goodness knows
But you're so precious to me
Cute as can be, baby of mine

Listen to melody here.

May 9, 2008

Youngest dear son and I are wrapping up our homeschooling for the regular year. We have decided to do a little summer school this year to catch up on some things that we never seem to have time for during the regular school year. This week, dear son finished his English and math book. I love the fact that we finish textbooks. I attended public school and except for readers, I don't think I ever finished a book...maybe a spelling book.

Regular gas here is $3.70 a gallon now, and groceries are going up every time I go trade. I was just looking at a couple of homeschooling catalogs. I have a winter sale catalog and a spring sale catalog and I couldn't believe how much they have raised. I have been trying to stock up when I catch things on sale, but it never dawned on me to go ahead and buy our books for next year.


I wanted to show you this little stool my mom made and gave to me. The top is made of men's neckties.

I guess that's it for this morning. I need to get my day started. Toodles.

May 8, 2008

We came home in time from the graduation to watch the Kentucky Derby. It's always fun to see the hats! Dear husband and I both knew that Big Brown would win. We had watched him in the Florida Derby and he was a joy to behold. You could tell by watching just that one race that he loved to run and he loved to win. Too bad I'm not a bettin' woman.

In this year's Derby, we saw two riders get thrown from their mounts. One before the race and the winning jockey after the race. I was amazed that they could hold on and even ride standing up going full speed without falling and then get bucked off when the horses were just walking. I guess they both were caught off guard. Maybe it's common. I am not a horse person. My sister is. She has always owned horses. I am sort of afraid of them.

There was tragedy at this year's Derby, too. Eight Belles broke both front ankles and had to be put down at the track. I don't think I have ever seen this happen before. Eight Belles finished second.

Here are a couple more pix of the azaleas and our redbud.




I love how the redbud blossoms grow right on the tree trunk.

The mountains are full and green now. I have a few bearded irises getting ready to bloom. That will be it for a while, except for some daisies and lilies I have up on the hill. I need to buy some annuals to set out now that the danger of frost is over. I should have a handful of strawberries pretty soon. I can't wait.

May 7, 2008

Well...I tried. I blogged twelve days in a row. I think that is a record for me. Life just got in the way and I couldn't get here to post. I now have a lot of catching up to do.

Let me back up to Saturday. We now have a college graduate in the family! Oldest dear son graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in History. It definitely was a proud mamma moment.

We really enjoyed the ceremony despite the rude people behind us who kept talking through the whole thing. The Processional was led by a bagpiper in full Scottish attire. Most of the graduations I have attended used a tape of Pomp and Circumstance, so this was such a pleasant surprise. The National Anthem was played on the French Horn. Very nicely done. The guest speaker gave a good speech and didn't drone on like some do. The Valedictorian's Address was from the book of Esther. Three hundred and thirty graduates received diplomas. The youngest was 20 and the oldest was 55.

Oldest dear son will now go on to get his Master's degree. He wants to teach college history. Both of our sons are history nuts. Watching oldest dear son graduate has made me want to hold on to youngest dear son. I know they won't be living with me forever and it is just something I don't allow myself to think about. I am sitting here thinking about the little poem about roots and wings:

For you, my child,
I wish two things,
To give you roots
And give you wings.

For me, growing roots is so much easier.

And now I have to go. Oldest dear son just came to get me. He found a turtle while mowing the grass and I never turn down a nature opportunity. Hope your day is a good one. Thanks for stopping by.

May 2, 2008

I saw a beautiful eastern cottontail rabbit in the back yard yesterday morning. I have seen a few squirrels this spring, but not many and most of them were young. We have been watching a young mourning dove at the feeders. He or she is much smaller than the other doves and has more spots. We now have a brown thrasher coming to the feeders. He is such a big bully. He has to run all the birds off before he can eat. He does this by running at them headfirst. Sometimes, it takes him a while to scare them all off and he will not eat until they are gone. We are waiting for the showdown between him and the mockingbird that always fans out his wings at all the birds before he can eat. In the past week, we have had two different birds sit on the kitchen window ledge and look in. One was a juvenile titmouse. It was flapping its wings like baby birds do when they are waiting on a parent to feed them. I suspect it was seeing its reflection in the glass and thought a parent was there. The same thing happened with a song sparrow. Mom has baby robins now on the nest over the downspout of the gutter. I have been watching a robin in our front yard, but I can't find a nest.

The azalea bushes are blooming now and I hope to have pix soon. I already have tiny strawberries forming on the plants that I have in two large pots. They had to go in the carport for two days this week because of frost! The lilac was pretty this year despite the squirrel's efforts to plant walnuts in its roots. I saw a sapling growing there yesterday that I need to pull up. It is one of their favorite places to hide their stash of nuts and seeds.


A not so great pix of the lilac. The wind was blowing.




Another not so great pix of the little bush in the front yard. Does anyone know the name of this? It was given to me years ago and I don't remember the name. It has tiny white blossoms in the spring, and sometimes again later in the summer. I have even seen it blooming in the winter, but not as full as spring. It branches will bow and weep like a forsythia, but it is much smaller.

April 29, 2008

Spring is here and that means spring cleaning. Just off the living room, we have a little alcove that sets up a step from the rest of the house. It has one large window in the back with two smaller windows on each side. I took down all the valances, or toppers as they are called now, and threw them in the washer and dryer. I was positive I had put them in the dryer before. When they came out none of them were the same length! It was hilarious. One was half the original size! One was a little longer and the other two were somewhere in between. Now I can't use any of them. I guess it's time for new curtains.

I learned this weekend that I "play ball like a girl". This is one of our favorite quotes from the movie, The Sandlot. I laugh just thinking about it. We went up on the football field to let youngest hit some balls and run off some energy. I thought I would try my hand at batting. Dear husband is a fairly good pitcher. I ended up bunting almost every time because I was afraid the ball was going to hit me. Instead of swinging at the pitch, I was jabbing at them defensively. I hit dear husband on the same shin twice with the ball. The sun was in my eyes. I was hot and sweaty. I needed to go to the bathroom. I gave up and wandered over to a little cemetery until they finished playing. I guess I'm just a big sissy chicken girl after all.

April 28, 2008

Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy! Vidalia onions are now in the store! It almost rhymes. I think God created Vidalia onions to help us while we are waiting for real tomatoes. It will be a while, yet. I only eat tomatoes in the summer. I cannot stand hot house tomatoes. They're white and they taste like cardboard. I really don't see the point at all. Once you have tasted a home-grown tomato, your life changes forever. You will never go back.

Lack of sleep and lack of estrogen have made thinking quite a chore for me. I do, however, every now and then, come up with a great idea. The boys' rooms are on the end of the house. Most of the time they are holed up in their rooms listening to loud music. If I need them, I have to walk through the house or yell like a crazy woman to get them to hear me. We have had a wireless doorbell on top of the fridge for years in the mixing bowl waiting for someone to put in the batteries and install it. I threw in the batteries and put the part that rings in the adjoining closets of the boys' rooms. When we had their rooms built, we had the builder leave the bottom half of the adjoining wall in their closets open. Dear husband and I were worried about oldest son's room being on the other side of the hallway in case the house ever caught on fire. You can go in one closet and crawl through into the other closet. It's like a secret passageway. Now when I need them, I just ring the doorbell!

April 25, 2008

It is almost 7pm. I usually blog in the mornings, but this morning was a bit hectic. Normally, I would just wait until the next day or whenever I found time, but for some reason, I have been trying to blog every day. I have no idea why. Maybe just to see if I can do it.

Now...let's see what I have to tell you.

I officially weigh.......15 pounds. That's right. Dear husband and I stopped to get our fishing license and he told me I was going to have to tell him how much I weighed. Nice try. I know that every year when we renew, they just look at the old license and type in that weight. Mine said that I weighed 15 pounds.

Our church had new carpet installed this week. The first service after it was installed, everyone was admiring it. One of the ladies told all the children to be very careful with their candy and gum, so they wouldn't get it on the carpet. While she was talking, her grandbaby came walking up behind her and some poop fell out of his diaper and landed on the new carpet.

Thanks for stopping by. Toodles!

April 23, 2008

It has been four years today. Today is the anniversary of youngest dear son's diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes. We have made it four whole years. We won't celebrate in the normal way you celebrate an anniversary, but I will thank God that we have made it this far and without any complications.

I have to share a funny with you or what I thought was a funny. I took my mom out shopping Monday morning. She wanted to pick up some cleaning supplies for spring cleaning. She said she wanted gravy and biscuits from McDonald's and that she would rather go through the drive through window. I pulled up to the window and I meant to tell them to give me a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit. What I said was, "Give me a bacon, egg, and cheese burger!" Mom and I thought it was horribly funny and started laughing. The young girl on the speaker was not in the least bit amused and that only made it harder not to laugh.

The mountains are several shades of green now, sprinkled with lots of dogwoods and redbuds. I love spring in Appalachia. The azalea bushes are starting to bloom. I worked in the yard last night. I weeded the rock garden up on the hill. I started out with my little hand rake and scissors. Then I had to go back down for the big rake. Then back down for the loppers, or whatever you call them. I thought I was going to have to go back down for the bow saw! Sassafras saplings had sprouted in my Sweet Williams and I had to cut them out along with some horrible vine that had taken over the whole bed. Ugh. Some wild blackberries had also sprang up in two places. I huffed and puffed and whined the whole time, stopping many times for water. My hat kept blowing off. I was just a whole pack of weenies as my dear husband would say. I will keep at it though. My flowers are in serious need of TLC and goodness knows I need the exercise.

April 22, 2008

Dear husband is a most patient and tolerant man when it comes to anything but his boat. This made what I had to tell him all the more difficult. I had been watching a Carolina wren out in the carport for two days. It was always in the same spot so I figured something was up. I walked out and looked around after church Sunday and found a nest under the boat cover on the front of the boat. Thankfully, the little fellow was just getting started and dear husband dismantled the few pieces of moss, bark, and twig. He then tightened the boat cover so little fellow wren would not try it again.

Male Carolina wrens will make several nests, but the female chooses the final nesting site. Evidently, she preferred the one he had started in the ball goal because now both of them are hard at work building a glorious nest there. Last summer, I hung some life jackets over the ball goal in the car port. I place the smallest on first and then fastened each one over the goal. I think there are three life jackets fastened over the goal. I was just trying to get them out of the way and that seemed like a secure place for them to spend the winter. The wrens have crawled inside the life jackets and built their nest in the net of the goal. Not only are they under the roof of the carport, they are surrounded my the life jackets which will serve as a wind break. Pretty clever, huh?

We also have chickadees nesting in the bluebird box I bought. Dear husband put it on one of the posts in the carport. We have another chickadee nest in the wall of the house. Our house has blown-in insulation and one of the little caps popped off the outside wall years ago, and the chickadees pounced on this as a nesting site. They will nest as early as December some years. You can sit in the living room and hear them pecking around in the nest.

We had our first hummingbird on Friday. I had the feeders cleaned and hung so he had a place to stop and refill. I am hoping we have plenty this year. I think we had less than 10 last year. I bought two more feeders that I need to clean and hang.

Oldest dear son and I saw a red-breasted nut hatch at the feeder. We also have a pair of house finches now along with all the many other birds that have been at the feeders all winter.

I guess I had better update about Sweet Potato, our stray cat that is still with us. He will get jealous reading about all these birds. He continues to stay on our back porch most of the time. He will disappear for days, and I will think that he isn't coming back and then one morning I will walk to the back door and there he will be waiting for me. This weekend I went out to feed him and found an injured wasp in his bed. This is the second time this has happened. I don't know if they are just wandering in or if he is playing with them. In any case, the next morning I went out to feed him and he was limping on both his front and back leg on the right side. He would just about lie down after taking a step. I think he may have been stung a couple of times. He was better the next morning. He is still the sweetest cat in the universe. I love him to pieces.

April 19, 2008

Anytime we travel, our trips always include a trip to the "record store". If we are in Gatlinburg, we always go to the Rhythm Section. The Rhythm Section is the tiniest little store crammed full of audio cassettes, CDs, DVDs, and even some vinyl. The walls are covered from ceiling to floor with music. We have recently discovered another store for finding music gems: The Disc Exchange. We wandered in after youngest dear son's doctor's appointment and didn't want to leave. I never made it out of the Folk Section. I ended up buying two CDs.

The first one is Songbird, by Eva Cassidy. Here is a youtube clip of her singing People Get Ready. You can also hear it streamed here. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page.

I also bought an Elizabeth (Libba) Cotton CD called Shake Sugaree. I first heard her sing on Austin City Limits. Being left-handed and not allowed to restring her brother's guitar, she learned to play by holding the guitar upside down. This means that she was also picking the strings backwards. She picks the bass strings with her fingers and the treble strings with her thumb. She has a very unique style.

This is what is written on the back of the CD which was produced by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings:

Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (1895-1987) wrote her well-known song "Freight Train" at about age 11 and sang it nearly 80 years. Through her songwriting, her quietly commanding personality, and her unique left-handed guitar and banjo styles, she has inspired and influenced generations of younger artists. Cotten was declared a national Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1984, and was recognized by the Smithsonian Institution as a "living treasure". She received a Grammy Award in 1985 when she was 90. You can click here to hear Freight Train.

April 16, 2008

There's few things in life better than a good book. One of them is a free good book! Remember my find at our local library? The American art book that weighed four pounds? I found it in the free section and lugged it home to keep. Well...yesterday my oldest dear son called from the campus to say he was bringing me home a surprise. My mind instantly went to something in nature...a bird's nest, flower, rock, etc. When he got home, he had a book with him that he had picked up off the free table at the campus library. The book is Chronicle of the 20th Century and it weighs almost NINE POUNDS! It is a history of the 2oth century written in a brief newspaper style format with tons of pictures. It is like having a huge book of newspaper clippings in chronological order.

Of course, one of the first things I looked up was my birth date. I learned that Castro proclaimed Cuba a socialist nation on this day and abolished elections. I learned that Coca-Cola first arrived in Britain, 14 years after it went on sale in the United States on August 31, 1900. I learned that different blood types were not discovered until November 14, 1900. On December 1, 1959, twelve countries signed a treaty which said that no country would claim any part of Antarctica as its own and established the continent as a preserve for scientific research. Robert Frost, who was asked by President John Kennedy to read a poem at his Inauguration, died on January 29, 1963. You get the idea. The book covers wars, politics, sports, fashion, movies, medicine, etc.

You may be wondering why we have been weighing our books. We are nerdy homeschoolers and nerdy homeschoolers are supposed to do stuff like this.

April 14, 2008

Today is Raise Your Voice For Type 1 Diabetes Awareness Day.

I should have had a post all ready to go, but we spent Friday at Children's Hospital. As most of you know, our youngest dear son was diagnosed almost four years ago with Type 1 diabetes and he had an appointment on Friday to go to the diabetic clinic for a check-up and lab work. The hospital is three hours away and the appointment takes up most of the morning. Our first visit we were there all day long, only stopping for lunch. After dear son is checked in he is put in an exam room and then the lab tech comes and draws his blood for an A1c and other tests. Then a doctor, nurse, and dietitian rotate coming to talk with us. We have also had visits from a counselor, chaplain, therapy dog, and even Santa Claus. You never know who is going to open the door and walk in.

This visit was uneventful. Dear son's A1c was 7. The doctor wants it to stay below 8. We took in a 10 hour urine to check for long term kidney damage which can be a complication of uncontrolled Type 1. They also drew labs for a thyroid profile and checked his cholesterol.

I guess of all the things I would want people to know about Type 1, is that my son doesn't have Type 1 because of something he did wrong. He did not get Type 1 from eating too much sugar or watching too much TV and playing too many video games. He did not get Type 1 from being overweight. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder. Antibodies attacked his pancreas, killing off all the cells that produce insulin. Type 1 diabetics have to take insulin to live. They do not have a choice. They will die without it. Dear son takes two different types of insulin. The first one is a fast acting insulin that he takes with meals. The dosage is based on the amount of carbs he eats. The second insulin is what is called a basal insulin. It lasts 24 hours and does not peak like the fast acting insulin dose. The basal insulin just works in the background for the times that the body needs insulin other than at meals. The two insulins must be balanced to avoid high and low blood glucose readings. Dear son checks his blood many times a day and dear husband and I check him through the night. Man-made insulin is a life saver, but it doesn't come close to working as effectively as pancreas-produced insulin. This means we are constantly tweaking the dosages and trying to find patterns. There are so many different things that can affect blood sugar levels that it is impossible to completely control the disease. Ideally, 50% of our son's numbers should be in target range. His target range is 80-180 now. You cannot imagine how hard it is to get 50% in this range.

I guess the other thing I would want people to know is that you are never free from Type 1. I have written about this before. You have to deal with it day and night, every couple of hours, all day long. You do not get to take a vacation from it. It does not go away. It will not get better unless there's a cure and currently there is not a cure. It is a huge responsibility and it can really drain all your time and energy on the bad days. We try not to let it control our lives, but really there is no escaping it. You learn to manage. You adapt. You do what you have to do and then you get up the next day and do it all over again. You stay up during the night for checks and you watch and wait for lows. You pray for strength and wisdom and a cure.

Please help us pray for a cure.

Note: To read about other people dealing with Type 1 click HERE. I haven't had a chance to read them yet, so use caution. I hope they are all G rated, but I am not sure.

April 10, 2008

I wanted to start my entry today by saying thanks to everyone who visits my blog and especially to those of you who comment. I love reading blogs. I try to leave comments, but my computer does not always cooperate. I just wanted to mention that here.

We are about to embark on a new adventure. Homeschooling year round. Dear son will be in the 8th grade next year and I am finding it hard to fit everything in that I want him to cover before I have to send him off to college. I know that once he starts college he will be too busy to do anything else. We will still stick to our usual schedule starting in July, taking all our breaks. Then when we get to our summer break, we will do a shorter day still taking breaks here and there. We will cover Shakespeare, art and music appreciation, science experiments that we didn't have time to do during the year, and dear son will continue to read good books. We are both looking forward to it.

I have one pix that I want to share with you today:

This is light from the window coming in on youngest dear son's bed. I just liked how it looked and grabbed the camera for a quick pix. Of course, the bed wasn't made, but I think that's what gives it such a wavy look.

April 8, 2008

Today has went surprisingly well after a couple of rough nights and busy days. Youngest dear son has been sick and when he is sick we have to deal with high blood sugars and ketones. This time, however, he hasn't even had a trace of ketones. We have raised the dosage of the insulin he takes with meals to cover the higher numbers. Now that he is getting better we have to lower the insulin dosage back to what it was before he got sick. The tricky part is knowing when to do this. If you lower it too quickly, he will spike. If you don't lower it soon enough, he will go low. We had lows the past two nights and a nasty low at lunch today, despite lowering the breakfast dose by two units. I went ahead and gave his usual amount for lunch today, hoping that we can get back on track.

Yesterday, I took the time to go to the library. I picked up a couple of books on Shakespeare. I have finally gotten my courage up and this summer we are going to study some of Shakespeare's plays, starting with Twelfth Night. I also picked up Anne of Avonlea for youngest son and me to read, along with three books by Lois Lowry that I hadn't read. I read one of them, Gossamer, yesterday and I loved it. I really like her books. They are very easy for me to get into and read. She has a wonderful imagination. I will never forget reading The Giver for the first time. It is one of my favorite books. I may let youngest dear son read it soon.

On my way out I noticed that there was only one book in the "give away" stack that you usually find at the front door of the library. I figured that no one wanted it because it was so heavy. It weighs four pounds. Youngest dear son weighed it for me. The name of the book is Three Hundred Years of American Painting. The first painting in the book is dated 1690; the last is dated 1956. I thought it was truly a treasure to find a book like this, so of course I swooped it up and took it home. The whole family has enjoyed looking through it. It made me wonder if there are any famous American painters painting now. Anyone? Anyone?

I know it is a little late for this pix, but it is a long and boring story. Speaking of late, we woke up Sunday morning to discover that our VCRs had reset themselves forward one hour. We reset all the clocks in the house for Daylight Savings back in March. I guess someone forgot to tell the VCRs that it had been moved up a month. Still, they showed good effort and I like that in an electronic device.

April 7, 2008

Dear husband and I ran in Food City the other day and picked up a few groceries, otherwise known around here as "trading" or "going to trade". Not to be confused with "going to town". "Going to town" around here is usually referring to going to pay bills. If you have to do both you say, "I have to go trade and go to town today."

So, we are walking the aisles picking up what we can remember we need. This is not my regular trip. We have stopped after working at the shelter and I don't have a list. This is not good. So not good. I stopped taking anyone with me to trade years ago. I always go alone with a list, a hand full of coupons, and after a full meal. This time I had dear husband with me who has absolutely no concept of how high groceries are, or the fact that everything, not just gas, is sky high now. I had to be diligent in keeping expensive items with no nutritive value from making it into our buggy without being the "bad guy". It was hard.

We walked by the "Dollar Shelf" and noticed a lot of band aids. Dear husband works in the coal mines and his hands are in pitiful shape. Last week a rock fell on one of his hands from what is called a "rib roll". This is where the side of the mines just falls over into the work area, usually on a man. Back to the band aids...Every box was just one dollar. I know that band aids are very expensive, so I was surprised and pleased to see all of these for just one dollar. We bring our band aids home. After dear husband's bath that night he asked me to help him put a band aid on his finger. I get out the band aids and open them. Something is not quite right. They are much smaller than what I usually buy. We both get to looking at the box and well I'll be! These aren't Band-Aid brand band aids! How did that happen? They look like Band-Aid brand. They seem to be made of the same tough, brown material, but are much smaller. I wrap one around his finger and it works, but I can't help but feel duped. Not, that my powers of observation are that hot or anything. Unless I am working a logic puzzle or expect something to be off kilter, I just really don't pay that much attention to my surroundings, unless I am outside looking at nature. I will chalk this up as a lesson learned. I still think it should be against the law.


The "real" Band-Aid brand box.



Both products side by side. Impostor!

AND...

Long, but a good read. Nothing to do with band aids. :-)