This Week

Hmmm, I haven't posted in more than a week!

It has been a busy week and a sad one, in many ways.  Kevin's mother lost a very dear, close friend on Saturday, rather unexpectedly. The death of a loved one is so hard.

We finally got some winter weather, including snow.  Today it is cold and windy, but I hope when it warms a bit the kids can go out and play in it.  A few weeks ago, we had a cold snowy day and our middle kids stayed out so long that one was crying from the cold when she got in.  That is the kind of thing that worries me.  Sometimes they don't have enough sense to come in from the cold when they are having tons of fun :-).

I went to the doctor on Monday morning for a diabetes check.  The news wasn't good, as my A1c hopped from 5.6 to 6.1 over the course of 6 months. This was NOT a huge surprise, as I've been lax about my eating lately. But, good wake-up call.  I need to start eating better. I really should start exercising.  I think I am quite active as I spend the day going up and down stairs and carrying little people about, but I know aerobic is better.  The last 2 nights, I've managed to eat a few nuts in the middle of the night and my fasting levels (which have been a little high) have been down near 100.  I appear to be experiencing the infamous "dawn effect", where my body decides to pump glucose in my bloodstream to make sure I don't go too low, or something.  I forget the medical details.  Anyway, my fasting blood sugar has been high lately.

Diabetes stinks.  It really does.  I am experiencing no long term effects from it and that is what is so...challenging about diabetes.  Someone like me could run high for likely a decade or more before the nasty side effects started catching up with me. But the long term side effects are devastating: blindness, kidney failure, amputation because of poor circulation, fun stuff like that.  I am an engineer and cautious, so I've done really well since I was diagnosed at age 34.  The last 6 months I've been tired and just threw caution to the wind, and I jumped up.  But I'm taking caution back from the winds now :-)

We are MOSTLY healthy now. I still have a little cough and my side hurts from coughing so much, but I am 95% functional.  I am thankful for that.

Rose figured out how to climb out of her pack and play.  This was alarming as she WAS sleeping in our entry room, which has 2 computers in it.  We had visions of our sweet girl climbing out of her pack and play at night, then climbing on desks and falling off of desks or hurling laptops on the floor -- there were so many glorious possibilities!  It was clear the entry room was no longer safe for her.

Which left us with the conundrum -- where to put her?  The study, which is baby proofed, was Daniel's bedroom.  But we decided desperate times called for desperate measures, so we moved Daniel up to the crib in the boys' room (where Rose naps during the day.)  We lowered the side so he could climb in and out easily.  Amazingly, the first 3 days have gone beautifully.  Daniel is thrilled to be in with the big boys, and HE hasn't climbed out and wrecked havoc after bed.  So that is great news.

The big boys are now staying up in the living room or basement until 9 p.m. or later, whereas they used to hang out in their room for an hour or more with the lights on.  But the lights need off so Daniel can sleep.

The sleeping arrangements are somewhat humorous, and a part of the life of a large family.  I've been watching a show called "Fixer Upper" on Netflix, which is about families seeking new homes.  It is cute that most of them have 1 or 2 kids, and they ALL want each child to have his/her own room.  Needless to say, a family of 9 has no such desire.  We now have 3 boys in one room at night, 3 girls in another room at night, our eldest 2 in another bedroom, and the toddler in a child proofed room by herself.  And Kevin and I have the master bedroom.

I'll leave with this -- I usually don't remember my dreams, but 3 nights ago I had a dream in which we visited a lakeside "cottage" which was more like a mansion, and which had NINE bedrooms plus a master bedroom. The 9 bedrooms were tiny, with little more than a bed and a dresser.  There were toilets (hooked up) in regular spaces along the hallway where the bedrooms were. So at some level, does my subconscious want more bedrooms and more bathrooms?  Maybe :-).