Friday, July 29, 2011

Fun Friday - A great web find

I have just finished perusing a blog "liked" by a friend on Facebook.  Parenting. Illustrated with crappy pictures is so true and so funny. The pictures are crappy but they are real. She could be talking about my life. Do you have a favourite parenting blog? Is it funny or serious or both?

Parenting. Illustrated with crappy pictures made me truly laugh out loud not just LOL for the sake of it. I hope it can brighten your day too.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Zumba

Yes. I'm sore. But it was worth it.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Trying something new - Zumba

My baby Miss F is nearly 2years old. When she was a new born I remember feeding her at night and watching TV to pass the time. Midnight, 2am, 3am there isn't much on except a lot of bad television programs and infomercials. Zumba infomercials always seemed to be on. And ads for Proactive.

Zumba ads then made into daytimes spots and then Zumba was at a gym near you. Up until tonight I hadn't made it to a class. I looked at the kits in Target and was tempted but managed to keep my money in my pocket so far. Local classes have been at inconvenient times.

Tonight I went to Zumba at my gym. I tried to go last Tuesday but I had the wrong night, oops. A friend posted about her recent Zumba experience saying it was a waste of an hour. But my class was a great workout. It got my heartrate up and my body moving. The instructor and the other participants were enthusiastic and having fun. I worked up a sweat and think I might be sore tomorrow. It don't think the difference in our experience is just the she's fit and I'm not. I think I had a great instructor.

Now I have to work out if I will go back and pay the extra money each week. Zumba classes aren't included in the membership or just buy the kit and do it at home?

What would you do?

Friday, July 22, 2011

Friday Fun - Family movie night

Tonight was a family movie night. After dinner I moved the couch into optimum TV watching position and put a Hi-5 DVD into the player. Not my choice but all 4 DD's were happy

The Hi-5 DVD was part of the haul of books and DVDs we brought home from the local libarary this afternoon. Not sure how far Hi-5 have made it overseas. Let me know if you have heard of them if you aren't in Australia.

We have lots of children's books at home, particularly picture books, but it is great to head to the library and temporarily added to our collection. There have been soem that ended up such favourites that I bought our own copy. One of these is Muddled Up Farm by Mike Dubbleton. Great rhymes, great pace, my DDs love it.

Have you borrowed anything from the library and then needed to buy your own copy?

Friday, July 15, 2011

Fun Friday - Coco

Disney has announced a new character, Coco the Monkey with Diabetes.
Coco is going to be part of a series of books, starting with "Coco and Goofy's Goofy Day". It a collaboration between Disney and Lilly Diabetes. Coco is newly diagnosed and still learning about BGL checks, insulin and eating well. And her friends are learning she is still one of thema nd can do the things they do.

It sounds like a great move to educate and entertain.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

National Diabetes Week 10-16 July

This week is  National Diabetes Week here in Australia.

A quote from the Diabetes Australia web page "Each year Diabetes Australia celebrates National Diabetes Week to raise awareness about diabetes in Australia. The campaign aims to educate Australia of the risk factors for type 2 diabetes and how type 2 can be prevented."

It makes me mad on behalf of people with Type 1 Diabetes that the focus is so fully on Type 2. Prevention is great but Type 1's need a cure and not more people telling them that they should have looked after themselves to avoid the disease and that they can't eat that.
Another focus of National Diabetes Week is Eye health and getting your eyes checked which is important for anyone with Diabetes. I can't argue with that. Diabetic Retinopathy is a real danger when living with D over time.

As a mum of a CWD who isn't Type 1 or 2 I get annoyed with the lack of information about Monogenic forms of Diabetes. I know it is rare but an accurate diagnosis has changed our life.
Most sources of information about Diabetes only include Type 1 & 2 and somtimes Gestational. Some forms of Monogenic Diabetes can be treated with oral drugs - glibenclamide (like our Miss F), some don't really any treatment and some still need insulin but knowing can help get better treatment and outcomes.

Rant over.

Any ideas on how to make a difference?

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Great week

During the past week my oldest three DDs have attended the Kids Club at our previous church. The theme was Jungle tales and they have come home with Jungle dioramas, Lion masks, stocking tales and animal vests. My girls love to make things so the craft was a hit with them. The teaching time was parables from Jesus and they were keen to tell me what they had learnt.

It was such a blessing to see the people running the program keen to share Jesus with the children. My girls raved about their groups leaders. Miss E wanted to go again on today (Saturday) even though we all went to an end of week BBQ last night to round off the week.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Playing with diabetes

Today was full. Today was great. Today my big girls, DD#1, 2 & 3 went to Kids Club in the morning and we brought 2 extra girls home for lunch.
When the other girls had gone home I made a quick decision to join the Diabeanies play date that I had hoped we could go to but hadn't counted on. I had to wake Miss F from her nap. Pile the girls into the car and drive to an unkown part of the city. I did have to stop a number of times to check the street directory. Miss C even commented on the number of times I pulled over to check.  "Are you stopping again mum?" "Yes, I am.". Anyway we got there and I had a great time. Meeting up with other D parents is great. They get it about BGL checks, and Doctors and just "get it". The know where you can get skins for your meter in Australia. Level Living, by the way.
I think the children had a good time too.
A lovely Diabetes Educator that I met on a Camp was there too, it was good to catch up with her and tell her about Miss F and how she is going on glibenclamide (glyburide).
I also had a chance to tell a few others about Felicity's type of diabetes and her treatment. I like to tell as many people as possible hoping that it will make to the right ears eventually and help change another life.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Litter, litter, everywhere.

I wasn't going to post about this particular holiday activity. I thought it might seem a little strange that this was our first family activity this school break. But my friend post here about the litter problem in her part of the world so I have decided to share.

After walking through our local park last Saturday I was shocked by the amount of rubbish. I usually drive past this reserve as there is no play equipment and it is really just a gully with a small creek between two roads. Local high school students walk through it each day. My theory is that the buy food at the local shops and then drop the rubbish when they finish each as the rubbish only starts after a certain point in the park.

Any way the point is that Sunday I bought small gloves and rubbish bags and Monday I took my 4 DD's to the park to clean up. I may have added a small amount of motivation by offering some chocolate eggs when we finished but the oldest 3 girls were very keen. Poor little Miss F was kept strapped into the pram as I didn't want her eating the rubbish or running into the creek.

They enjoyed themselves and filled 3 kitchen sized bags with rubbish. The park is cleaner and will most probably stay that way until Tuesday week when students return to school. But we had our own Clean Up Australia Day for the holdays.

Now if I could get them to clean up the house.