Sweetly Simple Strawberry Ice Cream :)

One of the things I love about Tupperware is the tools that really make food preparation easy and the fabulous recipes that often come with those tools. Last night I decided to try out a recipe for home-made strawberry ice cream. In the words of my 8 year old 'This is the best ice cream I ever ate' It was super simple to make and only took a couple of minutes to make. I realize now I should have taken a better picture, but we were anxious to try out this soft serve type of ice cream!

I used my Quick Chef Pro System with the blade attachment, adding 1 cup whipping cream, 1.5 cups frozen strawberries, 3 tablespoons of icing sugar and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. Once all the ingredients were in, I simply turned the handle quickly for about 90 seconds and presto- yummy home made ice cream!
It was so good that I wanted to make some more tonight, but sadly we were all out of whipping cream. Tomorrow's another day, though, right? I was also wondering if it would work with different flavours of fruit- I guess there is only one way to find out :)

Sunny Skies of spring

Wow, first of all I can't believe that it has been 1.5 years since I have written anything here. Well, actually I can. Things have been busy, and often caring for a child with Type 1 diabetes can leave a person feeling like they are just surviving. Day in and day out the monotony of all the tasks involved together with the unpredictability that diabetes can bring, can sometimes take a lot out of a person. But we keep going and try not to let diabetes get in the way of life! (Not to mention moving to a new house, work, vacations and other things:)

Recently though I began a bit of a new adventure. Well it was kind of a return to a really old adventure actually. 20 years ago I sold Tupperware for a while and I decided that since there are so many wonderful new products I should give it another chance. So far I am loving it. Though it is taking a bit of my time, it is something fun to focus on, and certainly a bit of extra money doesn't hurt!
Things have taken off to great start and between that and the feeling like spring is in the air, I have really had that sunny skies kind of feeling. The kind of feeling you get when the day is beautiful and life is good. I tell you spring can't come soon enough for this lady!

They can have their candy and eat it too!

First of all, I would just like to say that it has been a very long time since I have blogged. Life (and summer) just got in the way I guess. And what a great summer it was (if only it could have lasted a little longer!)
We drove out to Victoria, BC to visit my dad. The visit was great, even though the camping was cold and wet. We love Victoria, but oh what a LONG drive!
After that Ezekiel and I went to Edmonton to our wonderful friends who live at the top of the country but were in  Edmonton in August. Ezekiel got along so well with my friend's boys that we didn't want to leave. And even better one of their boys also has type 1 diabetes and they both have the same insulin pump. And all 3 boys had their Lenny the Lions from the Medtronic company.
Lastly Ezekiel and I went to Simonhouse Bible Camp. It was the first year he was old to attend kid's camp and I wasn't about to let diabetes stop him. Of course I had to tag along and work in the kitchen, but it was great and totally worth it to see all the fun he had. And just to let him be a regular kid. Diabetes ruins his life enough (needles, finger pokes, counting carbs anyone??) and makes him stand out enough (um not too many other mothers stay at birthday parties once kids are turning 7. And then there is the big ol' infusion set stuck to his tummy). I am really big on trying to let him be a kid. A regular kid. One who just happens to have diabetes.
Okay, that brings me to the candy part. (Sorry for the long intro, but I wanted to catch things up!)
Earlier this evening Shawn (my husband) gave Ezekiel and his friend a bit of money for helping him rake up all the crab apples on our lawn. They wanted to go to the store to spend it so we walked there and once there of course they wanted to get candy. So there is Ezekiel picking out his 40 (yes, that is right 40. you can buy a lot of candy with $2) 5 cent candies when his friend says 'hey that's Ezekiel on that poster.' Indeed the JDRF walk poster is hanging on the wall at the end of the candy counter (Ezekiel and another boy are on the poster as the youth ambassadors). I silently chuckled to myself at the fact that he was buying sooo much candy right next to the JDRF poster with his picture on it. And I couldn't help thinking all the people who I haven't had a chance to educate yet who would be thinking that he can't or shouldn't eat candy.
In thinking about it on the walk home I realized that before diabetes i probably only would have let him spend half of his money on candy, but with all he endures day in and day out, I have an extra sense of he needs to just be able to be a kid.' So for us trips to the candy store are in. Let them have their candy and eat it too I say! I cannot count how many times in the past 2.5 years I have uttered the phrase 'He can eat anything as long as he has insulin for it' It only took about 500 uses of said phrase and about 2 years for my mom to understand that. Now if only the rest of the world would too.
Of course the 5 cent candies in the bins don't come with carb labels so there was a bit of guessing on my part. As a result I was a bit worried about what his blood sugar would be like later, but kept reminding myself it is okay. If he comes in a bit high we can correct with insulin. A bit low and we have more candy (that we keep just for lows). Before starting this post though he was 7.4. That's right 7.4!! The most perfect number for this time of night. So take that diabetes!!!

No Rest for the Wicked.... or D-Moms

People who live with Type 1 diabetes on a daily basis know that it is a dragon that doesn't sleep. It doesn't take a vacation. It doesn't 'get better'. It doesn't go away. Not ever (well not unless they find a cure:). But sometimes it does play nice. Sometimes the management of the this disease seems to work perfectly and for a few days or maybe even weeks you might get great numbers, but it won't last.

Just last Sunday afternoon I commented to my husband how great Ezekiel's numbers have been and how we haven't had any issues. But I think I forgot to knock on wood because that same day his sight fell off in the pool and his new one didn't insert properly and had to be changed again (the only way to know the site isn't working is the high blood sugars that follow). A few days later he went to 22 at bedtime one day, completely out of the blue, not rhyme or reason at all whatsoever. 

Then along comes Canada Day. We start the day by biking down to the parade for which Ezekiel has decorated his bike. Since the bikes are at the front we stop to watch the rest of the parade at the end where he collects a bucketful of candy. Then come the free hot dogs, cake and juice from big jugs. Being a special day I did allow him to enjoy the day and just eat his candy and whatever while we were at the events. Having a pump made this possible, but as a human it was nearly impossible to keep track of everything he was eating/drinking, add to that the guessing of carbohydrates and I was certain we would either be correcting him later or treating lows. But all day he was perfect. Sometimes you just never know. 

I was so happy/pleased with ourselves over achieving such perfect numbers with all odds against us. I felt we were back on track. But of course it wasn't to last. Yesterday we went to my mother in law's house at the lake, a 40 minute drive from town. Literally as soon as we stepped out of the car I went to bolus him for the sandwiches he ate on the drive there and the buttons on the pump did not want to work. Immediately following trying to bolus the pump went into BUTTON ERROR and would not work again. Luckily we had a pen with us and were able to give shots. But oh, what a long night! For some reason it seemed like a good idea not to give lantus when we got home (lantus is the background insulin that he used to take before the pump which lasts for 24 hours). We had survived the day so far by frequent BG checks and injections and decided if we continued through the night we would be free to start the pump when it arrived without worrying about any lantus still being on board. Unfortunately for me this meant continuing the frequent BG checks and injections.

To top off the day, Ezekiel fell asleep on the way home and while i thought it would be for the night, he woke up from his nap at 7:30. This is a kid who can't sleep at night after even a 10 minute nap, so you can imagine what a 2 hour late evening nap did! Finally at 1:00 in the morning he was drifting back off to sleep. And me, I was up ever hour or 2 providing him with life sustaining therapy. What any mom would do for their child I am sure. Fortunately most don't have to. But for all the D-moms (and dads) out there (D-moms = mom of a child with Type 1 Diabetes btw), who are up in the night keeping your kids alive, I salute you. It is truly a 24/7 job and sometimes there is no rest for the wicked.... or D-moms!

Boo on You, Diabetes!

So hear I sit at nearly midnight, having waited up to check Ezekiel's blood sugar. Having recently learned to ride a 2 wheeler, I am having trouble getting him off his bike to come inside (including at bedtime!). Plus earlier in the evening he had been low. So despite the fact that I can barely keep my eyes open, I wait to be able to check his sugar (at a time that is far enough away from his last snack that it will actually give me an idea of where he is at), not trusting myself to wake up to an alarm so soon after going to sleep.
I get everything ready and poke his finger. As I begin to squeeze the blood drop out, I think about how cruel and unfair it is that I have to be making my son bleed while he so peacefully sleeps. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. beeep. 3.5! And now on top of that i have to wake him up and feed him candy. Poor guy was so exhausted earlier, as was I. Now we will be even more so.
I was reading a post earlier in which there was discussion on how unless someone lives with type 1 diabetes they can never fully understand. Sure they can hear the stories of waking up in the middle of the night and wonder how we do it. (This I can never answer as I don't even know myself, just keep going one BG check at a time!). Sure they can hear about how your child was so low he was crying and kicking you and threw chocolate pudding all over the white carpet in the bedroom during his meltdown from his low blood sugar (this was our lovely after school time). Sure they can sympathize a little when you get called from work to go to the school AGAIN (though now that I am working in the school I don't have to worry about this one anymore). But the reality unless they live with it day in, day out, 24 hours a day 7 days a week, 365 days a year, unless they can truly know the worry that is always there, unless they can truly experience getting up in the night every night know that one night it just might save your child's life, a person not living with this could never truly, completely understand all that it drains from you.
My husband always says that diabetes is sinister. It is true. Just when you think things are going well and you have good 'control' it will change all the rules and throw you for a loop. You can never let your guard down. Not only is it sinister, but this dragon won't sleep. Just because a child is sleeping, does not in anyway mean their blood sugar will behave. Even at night we need to be on guard and ready. Every night my alarm goes off at 2:00am. Sometimes I will need to set it a second time. I am hoping that this is not one of those nights because even though this diabetes dragon won't sleep, this D-mom sure needs to! Goodnight!

The Early Bird Catches the Worm?

A couple of weeks ago I started a new job. So far, so great:) I am working in the same school as my son, as the Family Liaison Worker/Community Connector. Being in the same building as Ezekiel has simplified my life a bit and has also given me peace of mind.  In my short time there I have created a school website (www.sites.google.com/site/kelseycommunity) and a school Facebook page. I have also organized my office and started a walking school bus. In the coming weeks I hope to start connecting with students through a lot of the upcoming special events. I also have less responsibility than my old job so I also feel like a big weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
Of course nothing is perfect, and one of the downfalls of my new position is starting 45 minutes earlier than in my previous job. One of Ezekiel's teachers asked him how he likes having his mom work at the school and he replied "It's good except that we have to get up too early and get to work." And so at 7:30 every morning the alarm rings, which then gives us 45 minutes to get ready and get to work (the first thing I do is the walking school bus which basically involves meeting a group of kids and walking them to school so he just comes with me). With my old job I never set an alarm as he would usually be up sometime around 8:00, and on the very rare occasion he would sleep until 8:30, we were a wee bit late. But now every weekday morning just after 7:30 am, I am waking him up with lots of protesting on his part. I don't blame him. He's tired. I'm tired too.
Enter the weekend. Freedom. A chance to sleep as long as we want. And what happens? My boy decides the saying 'The early bird catches the worm' must be true (only he must think worm means candy). Yes that is correct. 7:00 am on Saturday morning and he is not only wide awake, but dragging me out of bed. A complete role reversal from the previous 5 days during the week (okay 4 this last week). Sunday we made it all the way to 7:15. But guaranteed tomorrow it will be me dragging him out of bed.
I can't help but wonder what is up with that. I mean he is so tired all week and here's me feeling bad that I have to wake him up then all I want is a and extra maybe hour of sleep and he gets up extra early! But then I think back to my own childhood and remember that I was the same. Always sleeping until the last second during the week (and often late for school) and up like a shot on Saturday morning. In fact I remember waking even earlier than 7.  I remember having to get up that early if I wanted to watch the Wizard of Oz cartoon (anyone else remember that?).
But in my defense, we didn't have cartoon networks with cartoons around the clock. We didn't have DVD players or even VCRs. If something came on TV on one of the few channels available that was when we had to watch it. There was the Flintstones at lunch time and some shows right after school, but Saturday morning was the big cartoon day. If you slept in you missed the whole thing and the only thing I remember being on after cartoon fest was fishing shows. And golf.
I always figured I was rising early just for the cartoons, but Ezekiel can watch cartoons any time. (and has yet to turn the TV on this morning). Maybe it was more than that. Maybe it is the freedom. No school, no schedule. Time to watch cartoons but more importantly time to play. Time to be a kid. And after a whole weekend of playing I guess a kid is pretty tired. And who wants to get up when you just have to go to school anyway? Surely there are no worms in school. Those can only be caught on the weekend:)

Sleep, no I never get enough...

As Riley Armstrong so eloquently put it "Sleep, no I never get enough. Always wakin up tired. Sleep, no I never get enough. If I don't show up I might get fired..."
(if you are not familiar with the song, you can listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl0Zvw6hXMQ)
Actually I have been wanting to write this blog all week, but guess what? That's right I was just too tired. And I started a new job on Monday, so I definitely didn't want to not show up and take my chance on the firing thing. It was the best of weeks, it was the worst of weeks.
My new job has been going very well and it is a big relief to be in the school with Ezekiel and makes helping him at lunch or other times he may need it so much easier. I got a lot accomplished in my first few days, despite the lack of sleep and I think that they are happy with my work. The negatives are the earlier start time and the fact that I don't have time to go and get my daily Timmy's anymore (partly  due to the earlier start time and partly due to the lack of sleep thing. Losing another 1/2 hour of sleep isn't worth the coffee).
This is how my week started: 8:00pm Sunday and Ezekiel's pump site falls off in the bathtub. (We had just put that site on earlier that day and it was working just fine). So we change the site. I am heading to bed and I check Ezekiel's Blood sugar to find he is 18.8! I double check and it is indeed around that number. I suspect the site, but he has gone up like that randomly before so it may or may not be the site. I check for ketones, which are negative so I bolus a correction and wait. An hour later he is around the same. At this point I should have changed the site, but there were still no ketones so i corrected again and waited. I guess I wanted to be sure it was the site (partly I think because we were trying a new type of infusion set and didn't want to see the 2 samples down the drain within 8 hours). An hour (or was it an hour and a half?) later he was 25, thirsty and had wet the bed. I gave an injection and changed the site. 2 hours later he was coming down but was still quite high. Corrected again. Checked again an hour later. He was coming down nicely. In between all these checks I didn't sleep very much at all as I was stressed/worried. The next morning I started my new job.
He was pretty stable the rest of the week, so I was only up once a night to check him, but between trying to catch up from the first night and having to get up earlier and an unusually busy week (there just so happened to be more things going on in the evenings this week) I am pretty zombie-like as I type this.
And of course as a nice ending to the week, Ezekiel's pump malfunctioned. Poor guy was up late while I was on the phone to Medtronic who is sending out a new one. But in the meantime? Ezekiel refused shots and I managed to clear the button error, but none of the buttons on the pump are working. Luckily we do have a remote. I have opted to leave the pump on him and hope for the best. Of course I won't be able to fall asleep very easily and I will need to keep getting up to check him, just to be sure (which I would also have to do if we went to shots in the meantime as I don't even know what he would need for Lantus, so either way a good night's sleep is out of the question). If the pump appears not to be working I will need to put a call in to the children's diabetes doctor on call to figure out what to do. But hopefully if I don't touch the buttons it will work out fine and hopefully Medtronic is telling the truth that the new pump will be here tomorrow. I guess if it all works out that way it won't be so bad as we will have a brand new pump instead of the one we have now which has a scratched up screen. But boy, am I going to need one big coffee in the morning!