a little crafty nest

pink elephant ~ spring 2012 ~ keeping on

Our family's "elephant in the room" is a pink one.  Our 3 year old daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in January 2011 at the age of 2 1/2 years old, and it has changed our lives forever.  Every season, I post a little update on how we are coping with her condition.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

It's been nearly six months since my last pink elephant post.  I didn't intend to stay away from it for this long, it just sort of happened that way.  Life is like that, I suppose.

Many, many times I began this post, only to shrug my shoulders and think, "Oh, that is nothing new.  That is kind of boring."  However, if you are not living with a child with T1D, it is new.  It may be interesting, it may be redundant, it may be sad/funny/challenging/overwhelming/defeating/triumphing...but boring...nope, not boring, that's for sure!

I get asked about Sunshine's condition fairly frequently, which I don't mind at all.  In fact, I think of it as an opportunity to bring some awareness to what Type 1 Diabetes is all about.  There is so much confusion between that and the more prominent Type 2 Diabetes ~ the one mostly adults develop largely as a result of poor diet and lack of exercise.  (I must admit, I don't know much about Type 2 Diabetes just that it is usually not life-threatening like Type 1).  Unfortunately, most people group the two types together into "diabetes" and most of us T1D mamas don't like that as Type 2 is largely preventable, some say even curable.  Type 1 is not.  It is for life.  It is a daily struggle to keep your child alive.  Some days may be easier than others, but every day is a new day, and the threat lingers or looms ~ always.

Many people begin by asking me if Sunshine has a "bad" case of diabetes.  It is a question that I may have asked a year and a half ago, before T1D moved in.  Sadly, there is no such thing as a bad case or a mild case.  Type 1 Diabetes is life threatening for every child (who becomes an adult) living with it.  They all need insulin to survive.  They all need to count the carbs in every morsel of food they eat.  They all need to have injections by syringes or insulin pumps.  They all need to be very mindful of the exercise they do ~ even swinging on their swingset or walking up the hill in their backyard.  They all need to carry an emergency kit with them that can save their life at any moment.  They all need to be monitored several times a day (we do about 20 finger pokes for her blood glucose each day ~ more than most, but it ensures we know where Sunshine is at).  This includes waking up in the middle of the night, two to three times, to make sure her blood glucose is in a safe zone.  Then we wake up and do it all over again.

Another common question is "are things getting better for Sunshine and your family...is life settling down?"  Well, that's a tricky one because like I wrote above, every day is a new day with potential for good (BG) numbers and also for bad numbers.  Good numbers means a happier day with mellower moods.  Bad numbers means temper tantrums, stomach aches, and general miserableness.  We are just getting used to this crazy roller coaster a little more.  Perhaps Sunshine's BG numbers are slightly more in range, but this changes roughly every two weeks as her body goes through growth spurts and then insulin levels need to be played with again.  It is not an exact science...far from it.  More like trial and error.

The other day, the children and I went to a friend's greenhouse and nursery to get some flowers for the garden.  My friend, who happens to be a yoga teacher, asked me how Sunshine was doing.  I told her that more and more I see glimpses of the girl behind the disease.  The girl who giggles hysterically with her brothers.  The girl who loves speed and snails and silliness.  I mentioned that I wondered what her life would have been like if she hadn't had Type 1 Diabetes.  And my friend, my wise friend, grabbed my arm and looked earnestly into my eyes (and soul) and said, "Jules, this is the life she chose.  This is who she was meant to be.  Let that go."

Thank you, for that.  'Tis absolutely true. 

This is my daughter, Sunshine.  She's pretty wonderful.   And she carries on with such determination, and it's all I can do to keep up with her.  I love her so!

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

On June 10th, we are walking for a cure for Type 1 Diabetes under the team name, Sunshine for Summer.  If anyone is interested in donating any money to finding a cure for this condition, please click on the link to our fundraising page.  Thank you so much!!!

 

moments from the week

Just a few glimpses of the better moments, the calmer moments.  Because, this week was a bit, well, trying.  Night weaning is on-going, and Huckley and I are still trying to create a new rhythm to our nights.  I do believe we are over the hump, and last night he woke just once to roll over...with no treading up and down the hallway in the dark!  And just as I was getting a bit more sleep, my oldest son and I both got the flu.  Gratefully, it was a 24 hour kind-of-thing and my husband was home because of the long weekend. 

And here we are a few days later, with not much to show for the week, but this...

~ transplanting the last of our basil, before planting it maybe next week?

~ seeing how my big boy enjoys weeding his garden bed...he likes it nice and tidy, like his mama

~ watching the neighbour clean up around our garden fence posts after digging our pond

~ anticipating new garden gates being made by Papa

~ enjoying having my biggest boy in an herb class for homeschoolers...and he loves it!  He has come home with nettle vinegar, dandelion lemonade, and comfrey tincture and salve.  He made himself his own first aid kit and every night asks for new "patients".  Tonight, while massaging oil on my "wounds", Forrest tells me he wants to be an herb doctor while Sunshine chimes in she wants to be a "massager".  Sounds good to me!

~ loving that my six year old son was taught to needlefelt at the herb class because he loves it so!  He made a dandelion fairy for a friend this week and I was amazed at  his concentration and determination, and then his pride in his work.

~ enjoying all the spinach goodness coming from our garden

~ planting all the flowers out, bringing some cheerful colour to the gardens and house

~ feeling grateful to my husband for being the glue of the household while I lay in bed with the flu

Here's wishing you a healthy, happy weekend outdoors, my friends!

pondering

After several years of on and off discussions, we took a leap and began a project.  A big project.  A project that we have spent much time wondering and pondering over, ahem.

Tucked behind our blackberry spiral, in a quiet, unused part of our property is a marshy area.  Josh is an avid fly-fisherman and he has always had a vision of a pond.  As we tossed the idea around over the years, it became obvious that my idyllic vision of a pond is definately not the same as my husband's.  At all.  However, like many things in marriage, compromise is needed and I let it all go...so we moved forward to create a small trout pond with lots of plant life and animals. 

So this is where we are at...a giant, gravelly hole in the ground.  I have to swallow hard and look away from the mountain of sod (and topsoil!) that sits behind me in this photo.  I do have faith in my ever-optimistic husband and that he will create something beautiful out of this crater.  He envisions trout and lily pads and ducks, while I see turtles and a dock...and winter skating ~ yes!

Perhaps the word got out that there is a new habitat to explore as the children found this enormous Woodhouse toad on the wrong side of the creek.

The children delighted in following the wee hops this fella did throughout our kitchen garden.  He was about 4 inches long and made the sweetest bleating sounds, just like a lamb ~ really!  I find I have to constantly remind the children to be gentle with the creatures, and they did a great job with Mr. Toad.  At lunch, we came inside and looked through this book, which is a wonderful beginner book for 3 and 6 year old biologists.

I hope to find more of these over the summer to make a science basket filled with magnifying glasses, field guides, binoculars, and more.  With a pond in our backyard, I feel we will have hours of studying, identifying and learning right out our door.

Having said that, I am very cautious and concerned regarding the danger of water, and I am relieved that the pond is still a bit of a walk from the house, especially for little ones. 

As far as filling it goes, we are looking into natural ways to keep the water from seeping out.  It is fed by our creek with a drainage back into it, and we will be catching the trout to eat from the pond, so it is important to us not to use plastic pond liners.   We've been told to use clay and let it settle, and we are looking into a local source for that.  Does anyone have experience with this?

For now, there remains a big hole.  And while it is not exactly how I envisioned it, just this picture alone tells me this is a good idea.  A very good idea, indeed.

moments from the week

This week we leapfrogged over late spring and landed, kerplop!, into the middle of summer.  Lots of sunshine and hotness and seeking the shade.  And lots of...

...experiments with water...

...new skills learned...

...favourite places to climb aboard...

...bits of togetherness, with Nana and with each other...

Yes, a good, hot, summery week ~ in Springtime! 

Tonight is night #3 for night-weaning my youngest.  He will be two years old in about 5 weeks and my exhaustion is pushing me to do this.  I feel very ready...and very reluctant.  The first two nights proved that it does not get easier with each successive child.  Huckley is by far, showing the most resistance to this most unwelcome of changes.  Poor fellow.  It is so tempting to succumb to the tears (both of ours) and just give him what he wants, but for many reasons this is best for all.  As soon as Mr. Sun wakes up in the morning, he gets free reign again with his beloved oy-yoi's.  (Yes, Huckley calls them oy-yoi's because it seems all too often I would collapse in a chair to nurse him and quietly exclaim under my breath, oy-yoi-yoi!)  All I can do is hold him all night long, sit with him and try and calm his aching little heart.  I am hoping tonight will be less of the marathon we experienced last night...oh, how hard it is to hold back the thing he loves so much.  So.  Hard. 

And this too shall pass.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend...it is a Long Weekend here in Canada which means Papa will be around here more ~ hooray!!!

notes from the garden ~ second week of may

On this lovely, sunshiney Mama's Day weekend, I wanted to be outside as much as possible, with family by my side.  Being in the garden is just about the perfect way for me to spend my time, and with Papa minding the littles nearby, I got to dig and plant and water to my heart's content.

Garlic's thriving...

Blueberry bushes budding out...

Granny's maple tree seems decorated for this special day ~ I love the garlands it is wearing!

I have been spending much of my time on this patch of the garden beside our two big garlic beds.  This is the back gate (though, the gate is still in Josh's shop being made), and I am digging and digging and digging out the couch grass and tenacious bracken.  After this monotonous and finicky task, I lay landscape fabric and then gravel and then woodchips.  I guarantee this insures no weeds get in.  It is a tremendous amount of work, but it is so worthwhile for there are no weeds to be battling.  My window for finishing this 12' x 11' space is closing as soon the mosquitoes arrive and surely I am not that crazy to do this while fending off hungry bloodsuckers!

Other garden chores happening around here include breaking down the eggshells we have collected since January.  If anyone visits my home, they often quietly note the overflowing pile of eggshells toppling over in the cookstove warming oven.  We save all the eggshells to be ground into somewhat of a powder to sprinkle generously in the soil as we plant out the tomato starts.  Apparently, the calcium in the eggshells prevents blossom end rot...and I think it works because I've never had that problem with them.  I also add it to the beds that will have tomatoes the next year, and then the compost gets the rest.  But, the job of grinding the shells is a popular one...

I'm a believer in using what you have around your home to help your garden grow.  Eggshells for fertilizer, comfrey leaves for garden teas, toilet paper rolls for collars against cutworms, matchsticks for pepper plants, manure for making the black gold...it goes on and on.  I am always testing out folklore advice, and jotting notes down in my gardening journal. 

This week, we also planted our greenhouse full of tomatoes, peppers, basil and cucumbers.  And wouldn't you know it...that first night we had a spring killing frost!  I scrambled out of bed and raced down to the greenhouse to assess the damage, which wasn't too bad.  Somehow the frost crept in and claimed two tomatoes, two peppers and four basil plants ~ all of which I have replacements sitting under the lights inside here.  Thank goodness for being cautious!

Do you see all that green mossy looking stuff on the right and at the bottom?  That is volunteer dill plants...thousands of them!  A few years ago, I didn't take the plants down before they seeded and now we have so much dill it is ridiculous!  Even after all the stepping on it (though we try and be careful), it still springs up anew...hardy stuff, that dill!

And finally, Josh and the children went to a local planer and filled up the truck with sawdust.  Such fun to back it into the spot by the blackberry spiral and jump into the mountain of sawdust they scooped off!  Well, such fun the first time, because sawdust down your boots and shirt and even in your undies is a wee bit uncomfortable.  Lesson learned, this year.  Next year, they will undoubtedly relearn that one...again.

I moved almost the whole pile onto the pathways of the spiral in under 24 hours...oh, my back is tired!  It is a little crazy this whole spiral, but I confess to loving it!  Last year, we had 3 canes give off berries that allowed a few desserts and one freezer bag filled, in addition to a lot of eating.  3 canes!!!  I have already counted 12 canes for this year, with over 30 growing for next year.  I look forward to the jungle this will become.  It is a lot of work to maintain the pathways here, but while the children are little, it is so worth it.  They have such fun in here and that keeps me going.

It is incredible the amount of work that growing food requires, but it is such honest, hard work that I love!  My body aches now, but this past weekend of digging and hauling was so incredibly satisfying...with papa taking care of the littles nearby, hooting and hollering.  Indeed, a blissful mama's day for me.  I hope you all enjoyed your days with your sweet ones, too!

moments from the week

This week, I am happy to remember...
~ water play in the Big Garden with Tonka trucks, allowing me to work on the tedious task of digging out some couch grass and creating some more growing space

~ how quickly and thoroughly mud play consumes clean clothing

~ a surprise visit from someone we wish we'd see more often, bearing gifts of bubbles and books

~ the beginning of dandelion bouquets

~ Forrest's first herbal class with other little ones his age...and the excitement over being allowed by the herbalist to needle felt a nettle gnome to protect his nettle vinegar

~ the relief that I wasn't there to witness the needle felting

~our little village's annual Water Unity Festival...always fun to see the colourful locals celebrating Water and Life with parades, children's activities, a samba band, dancing, and poetry

~ how my children decided, on their own, to dress up for the parade...and pose their brother beneath a tree for me to photograph

~ the intrigue that a sample of river water and all its critters could hold for these three littles

~ overhearing the conversations my six year old is having on the phone with his friend from across the river...such giggling and silliness...for over half an hour!

~ how much I love our two four-legged companions, Cocoa and Nyla...such happiness they bring with their sloppy, wet-nosed, in-your-face, relentless, faithful love

~ how simple life can be

pretty little frocks

Those pretty little frocks my daughter has acquired over the past few years are slowly gathering into a pile of outgrown clothing.  It makes me kind of sad, in a materialistic way, as so many of them were so darn sweet.  And in a mama-kind-of-way, it means my little girl is growing up!  Sighs.

But I don't feel quite done with them, yet.  (I mean, the dresses).  So what to do with several beautiful but tight-fitting outfits?  As many of you do already, I re-purposed them...into skirts.  So simple, so easy, so functional.  And so stinkin' cute!

Most of them required a little snipping here and there, a waistband added with an elastic and finito!  The orange and white sundress only needed straps to be taken off as there is a zipper up the back.  Each skirt took less than 20 minutes to fix, if that. 

Sunshine tells me she will wear them for fancy times.  I'm not sure what a "fancy time" is, but I look forward to finding out!

notes from the garden ~ early may

Already my garden note-taking is falling by the wayside as there are so many other things to tend to right now.  Between watering the indoor starts, digging temporary beds in the newly fenced in Big Garden, transplanting some timid flower starts (that are not liking the morning coolness it seems), and setting out lots of veggie starts...my garden journal has remained closed for far too many days now.

Ah, well, it all grows upwards right?  Eventually I'll see evidence of what I've done...(I like to give myself positive affirmations when I know I "ought" to be doing something that I've neglected).  But I do have a few pictures from the garden.

I did plant out the potatoes into a makeshift bed in the Big Garden.

Because we have a creek running through the property, there is much too much gravel in the soil.  I prefer the raised beds for so many reasons, but I thought I'd try 70' of potatoes directly into the earth.  There are yellow, red and purple varieties straight from the shelves of our local organic grocery store.  I always use these spuds for my "seed" potatoes, but in the future I hope to save my own.

These last few weeks have been cool and damp, giving us a bounteous nettle and morel mushroom harvest. 

These photos show the first harvest of both nettles and morels, right from our property.  My little Sunshine is an expert morel spotter as her eagle eyes don't miss a single mushroom!  I'm so happy she loves to go morel hunting every day...Yum!

Last year we moved our driveway to give us more privacy from the road and it created a little spot for a very special tree.  My granny is 101 years old, and every birthday we get a little money to spend on ourselves.  Usually, I use it to pay bills but last summer, I bought a Sunset Maple tree and planted it right on that newly created spot.  My granny was an incredible gardener, and back then, it was not only a necessity to grow your own food, but it was also only organic.  They didn't call it organic, of course, they just called it food.  Funny that now, in a supermarket, that kind of produce is labelled "organic" while conventionally sprayed and treated and fertilized and chemicalized produce is unlabelled.  I wonder what granny would think if she thought about that!

Anyhow, we also planted 40 daffodil bulbs last fall around granny's tree.  It was hard work breaking the gravelly and rocky soil to place the bulbs, but we perservered...

Late in the winter, I began to think about those sleeping bulbs and every day I got more excited about what we would soon see.  Last weekend, they started popping up...and now...

Affirmation.  (At last count, 23 little bits of affirmation out of 40...not bad).

Isn't gardening all about affirmation?  Hope, promises, fulfillment.  'Tis a miraculous thing, indeed.