Facing Reality -- and learning to cope with a diagnosis of Diabetes

14 months ago, I learned that I have diabetes. I have spent the last year alternately trying like mad to get it under control and pretending that I can eat like I didn't "really" have this disease. Today, I went to a diabetes management class, and I am hopeful that I will "get it together" and be able to say that I am a lot healthier in 14 months from now.

I find it very scary to have diabetes-- both parents had it and both really died from complications from it, my mother at only 60 years old. She was legally blind by the time she died, and could no longer do any of the things she really loved to do- sewing, crafts, even reading was not possible for her anymore. I am going to be 60 years old in six months. I am petrified... I expect that I will reach the age of 61 and feel a lot better, but this next year just feels like I am following in Mom's footsteps (once I was diagnosed with Diabetes last year that is.) So my challenge is: to keep my blood sugars under control, and to lose weight. My goal is for there to be a whole lot less of me by next fall. Watch this space for updates! 

Places I have been...

1. Albuquerque, NM, USA
2. Virginia Beach, VA, USA
3. Toronto, Ontario, Canada
4. Campbell, CA, USA
5. Lake Tahoe, CA, USA
6. Raleigh, NC, USA
7. Poughkeepsie, NY, USA
8. Oceanside, CA, USA
9. Torrance, CA, USA
10. San Jose, CA, USA
11. Santa Fe, NM, USA
12. Newport, RI, USA

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Places I have been...

1. Albuquerque, NM, USA
2. Virginia Beach, VA, USA
3. Toronto, Ontario, Canada
4. Campbell, CA, USA
5. Lake Tahoe, CA, USA
6. Raleigh, NC, USA
7. Poughkeepsie, NY, USA
8. Oceanside, CA, USA
9. Torrance, CA, USA
10. San Jose, CA, USA
11. Santa Fe, NM, USA
12. Newport, RI, USA

• Create your own travel map or travel blog
• Find Cheap Flights at TripAdvisor

Family Slide Show and Link to Big Slide Show

Making progress...

I know this is not about crafting, per se-- but it's what's been going on in my life. I figure I have to get through the thinking process of this mess if I'm going to be able to do any crafting at all. So here goes: (if you don't have this problem, just come back to read what's happening next time -- I promise it won't be about cleaning house! :-)).

Joel, my husband of 35+ years, has been working in Dallas TX (we live in Raleigh, NC so we have been about 20 hours apart for all but about 6 weeks since July!). This happened in July of 2004, because the money from our savings just "ran out" after Joel had been out of work for almost a year, (give or take a few small contracts that he had -- he teaches Java programming).

It's been rough. He's lonely-- I'm lonely. He's bored, and I'm anything BUT bored-- in fact, lately, I rarely get to do any where near as much crafting or working on my business as I'd like to.

Well! Yesterday (Saturday) Joel came home for a week- just in time for Valentine's Day, mind you :-D! In preparation for his coming home, I got the house cleaned for the first time since he left at the beginning of January. It feels sooo nice to be able to find things again-- I'm not totally sure how it got so out of hand, but I definitely hope to keep it from ever becoming like that again.

Tomorrow, I am going to tidy up the house from the weekend's activities to try to keep it nice and not have to dig out again like I did this last few weeks. (One big problem for me was that I put all the Christmas stuff into my son's old room, and kept telling myself I should go through it and get rid of the stuff that is just taking up space. Finally, I just put it all in the closet, and then somehow, I could think so much easier! Now why didn't I think of that earlier???? Amazing how it just kept nagging at my mind to get it out of the way, and when I finally did, I was free to think of what else needed to be done.

Anyway, after I do the tidying, I am going to work on my jewelry. I will post what I get done. Wish me luck ;-)

This was one of THOSE days...

Today was just "not my day". I was supposed to go help serve a meal at a soup kitchen, and I voluteeered to bring dessert. I planned to make a recipe called "Chocolate Brownie Mousse Trifle". -- It's sooo, soo good. However, my oven had other plans, it seems, because something is wrong with the thermostat, I think.

I say this because I baked the first of the two brownie batches that go into it, and set it on top of the stove to cool, and made the next batch. I got distracted and forgot to notice the time so the last one over cooked by about 10 minutes. Not a problem-- that one was fine. So I went to crumble up the first one while the second was cooling. The first wasn't cooked. So I stuck it back into the oven. For some reason, it just WOULD not finish cooking. So I went on to the other components of the dish. I made the mousse, no problem. I went to make the whipped cream. I couldn't get it to whip. I eventually gave up and just took the individual parts and we had brownies with mousse on top, and the canned whipped cream on top of that. It wasn't bad, but it was no where near what I had thought it would be.


So, needless to say, none of the crafts or jewelry making I'd hoped to do were accomplished. Ah well, there's always tomorrow!

Brianna (oldest grandaughter) and I in August, 2001.