Week in the Life - Monday, July 25, 2011

Even though Elijah's diabetes has brought many changes to our routine, other parts of our life are still going as they always have. Papa still goes to work and every morning he lays out the things he needs to take with him: keys, cell phone, teeth.

Every morning the kids want to be fed. This morning they won out and got to start off the day with cool, refreshing Jello. In Mississippi by the time it is 9:00 a.m. you are ready for something cool and refreshing.

Speaking of food, it is nearing the end of the month and the end of the grocery budget. I have $35.00 left to spend on groceries, so I need to be careful in what I choose to buy so we don't run out of anything we really need. So I headed to Save A Lot and after spending $29.64 I came back with this:

The ice cream and Diet Coke were necessities, everything else was negotiable. While I was unpacking the provisions, folks started arriving. Gabriel came over for some girl-time with Naomi, lots of beads, and wire, and laughter, and chit-chat.

Aunt Mary brought a slew of young uns to play in the pool

And Jace came up for some play time with Granny

and even better than playing with the bestest Granny in the whole world is getting to play with Granny's toys

While Granny and Jace enjoyed playing in the lovely air conditioned house with cool toys, the boys and Lizzie played in the pool with their cousins and Papa.

All in all a lovely day.

Week in the Life - Sunday, July 24, 2011

The time has come for another round of Week in the Life, which elicits groans from my teenagers, and strange looks from my younger children as I photograph odd things like my frosty Diet Coke can.

This year's week long event happened to fall less than a month after my four year old was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes. So our weeks have not yet gotten to the point where we are totally comfortable with the 'new normal.' Our days now are structured around checking Elijah's blood glucose level at least every two hours,

making sure he eats meals with adequate numbers of carbs,

and morning, afternoon, and before bedtime snacks.

And he gets a minimum of four shots a day, generally drawn up and administered by yours truly, who up until one month ago couldn't even look at a needle without getting woozy. Funny how quickly things can change.

I will, of course, get pictures of the other kiddos and their daily doings, school work (yes, we school over the summer) and chores, and fun and games. We have a whole week to document, after all. 

It's Been A While

Hello again. Remember me?

I know.

It's been a while since I've been around.

But I'm back now. At least I think I am.

Life has been crazy busy in my neck of the woods. We've had record flooding.

I participated in May 2011's LOAD (LayOut A Day) and managed to almost make it to the end. We started a new school year for five of the kids, changing curriculum to make life a little more manageable.

There was a seemingly never-ending stream of things breaking and needing repair. We took a couple of trips to Branson, visited grandparents, had a couple of big family get-togethers. And then there was the ER visit and a stay in the Pediatric ICU at Blair E. Batson's Children Hospital and a diagnosis of Type I Diabetes for my sweet four year old baby boy.

 I am really ready for life to slow down so we can get back to normal. But normal is never going to be quite the same again for us. But it will be do-able. And it will still be a good life, full of happiness, love and memorable moments, big and small.