Shack updates

I devoted 8 minutes to myself today. That was time where I attempted to return to meditation as a healing and necessary discipline. Several times, I had to reel myself back to the images that allow me to meditate peacefully. Several times, I fell back into this stressed out space where my thoughts whirl with anxiety and negative thoughts. I keep asking myself why it is that this time of year is so exhaustively negative, when it should be joyous and energetic and generous? Or is that just our utopian take of what the holidays should be? Was it ever NOT stressed out? I can't remember. I can only get to a pure and quiet meditative place when I place myself outdoors, at specific places I've been, where nature takes my breath away and leaves me in awe of how gorgeous nature is. It's my calm spot and nothing else drops my blood pressure quite like it, unless, of course, I'm actually  out there, breathing in the amazing sights and smells of the pacific northwest temperate ra

I'm incredibly excited to be teaching a jewelry making workshop for the local high school. We are gathering materials, and after 25 years of jewelry making, I have so many amazing beads and tools and findings to donate. Our project list has great potential! I'm elated to share this craft with young, talented minds and learn from them as well. I'm hoping to draw in staff as well, for perhaps a staff workshop. I've already heard interest from parents who'd like the same. All weekend long, I pulled out boxes of beads, findings, tools that I've collected over the years. I was surprised at how much I have, and I haven't explored the bins in the garage yet. I know I have yet another one full of beads.  So we'll see how this goes. We have an earring project lined up, and I've collected some watch faces for a watch making workshop.  Happy Monday........

Visit my instagram page @yummykitchenchemistry to see our recipes and food prep. With a diabetic in the home, we've all learned how to calculate carbohydrates, build meals focused on a complex approach for blood sugar health, & avoid simple empty calorie carbs which will spike blood sugars and offer little nutrient value. We also document our garden's progress, provide recipes and throw in some amazing desserts.

I'm trying to teach my girls to derive their take on ANYTHING via facts and evidence. Seek the truth. Understand what a credible source is. Study the constructs of the scientific method to apply an objective stepwise procedure when sifting through garbage for that one degree of truth. I don't believe that we, as adults, have mastered this. I'm stunned at the disregard for credibility. Adults in our lives on social media are notorious for inflammatory rhetoric that holds no truth. It's lazy. It's lazy and demonstrably embarrassing when you consider that THIS is the lowered standard we are putting out there purposely and it defines us. Embarrassing. I've worked in the jails, in the in-patient psych units. I've been told every crazy story you can imagine. True or not, the agenda is to mold a certain perspective in order to gain trust not earned. These were my patients. Patients or not, people lie most of the time. MOST OF THE TIME. A story by anyone is litter

I diagnosed my daughter with type 1 diabetes when she was 2 years old. One week prior, she'd had symptoms of a viral infection, but certain signs and symptoms persisted. She was exhausted, extra naps during the day, and she looked listless. Fatigued. She complained of thirst and hunger throughout the day, and throughout the night. We had 8 sippy cups on her dresser so that we prepared every evening for her nighttime water requests. Later we connected zero weight gain from her 1st well child check to her 2nd one. No weight gain in a year. Her height & head circumference were fine, however, so after re-weighing her at her 2 year well child check, we assumed it was nothing.  So on one particular night, at 10:30 pm., after about a week of these symptoms persisting, when Liv was lying there awake and restless, and I suspected diabetes but wanted absolute proof, I tested her urine for ketones. It was positive for a large concentration of ketones in her urine. We dressed her and her

It's not helpful when we can't read our daughter's sugars off site....that's the whole idea of the continuous glucose monitor....a graph that gives a general trend for sugars over the past three hours, six hours, 12 or 24 hours. Texting my girl now....please hook up the monitor~ It's incredibly reassuring to be able to read her serum glucose while she's at school. 'Info unavailable' on the graph is NOT helpful........

Amazing combination of healthy fresh food. I'm fortunate in that my type 1 daughter will try my recipes and enjoys making food herself. She inspires me, I hope I inspire her. This salad has freeze dried strawberries, fresh pears and mandarins, avocado, mesclun, beat strips, three varieties of nuts, and our favorite, furikaki. A balsamic vinaigrette tops this off. This sort of lunch, or snack, or dinner, is complex and filling. And it's incredibly pretty and seasonal!

Salads have become an art in our home! How many colors can you add.....  Most of my family members are not huge lettuce fans. So we just decreased the lettuce to everything else ratio. Three varieties of nuts, strawberries and applies, sweet chilis, furikaki. Sometimes we add turkey or chicken or proscuitto. We use a light Italian dressing or a homemade vinaigrette. Tomatoes, greens, garlic and basil are straight out of our garden. We have three young hazelnut trees, not big producers yet but we are trying. This salad has pistachios, pine nuts and almonds. Have you tried furikaki?? It's amazing! Check it out on amazon.com.  We use it on salads, on rice, fish, stir fry..... it's worth trying. I'm blessed that my type 1 girl appreciates the food we grow in the garden. She loves making salads. If I make a salad for lunches, she'll eat it for breakfast too. This sort of meal is excellent for anyone's blood glucose.

Pesto paste. Harvested basil and garlic from the garden, pureed with pine nuts and a touch of olive oil. #vegan! #pesto #veganpesto #paste  Keeps in the freezer until you're ready to thaw some for pesto pasta. Dairy free. Vegan meal. My kids put it on their turkey sandwiches too.

Follow us at instagram.com/yummykitchenchemistry to see our kitchen conquests & colorful pictures.

It's time for a new insulin pump!! Liv's had her first and only pump for five years now, and we got to select which one we wanted from four options. It's not an easy decision to make. And after making our decision, we changed our  minds. Initially we wanted the T-slim, with the Dexcom glucose monitor. The Dexcom sounds too good to be true, she wouldn't have to check her blood sugars because the monitor does that for her. I can't wrap my head around this. I don't think we are ready to trust a monitor completely to keep her sugars within range. But we were going to try it, the T-slim pump has amazing features and the screen functionality was huge. I loved it. Liv loved it. But then there's Medtronic. And even though our dietician told us that most athletic high school aged kids preferred other models and companies, we've been with Medtronic to date and it's been a good experience. There's also something comforting about Medtronic making the pump

It's been awhile. My type 1 girl is in high school now, ninth grade, gearing up to play high school basketball. We're excited for her and how life will transform for her these next four years. I do miss our middle school staff and nurse, it's really been a blessed experience with them. They looked out for Liv, they changed classroom policies for kids like Liv, they responded immediately when she needed them. I'm forever grateful. As far as our strategy to teach Liv healthy eating habits, we've managed to create quite the chef out of Liv, she makes the best spicy tuna sushi bowl I've ever had. This is a kid who appreciates good food! She's always down to try a new recipe, and she is learning how metabolism works and how this affects her blood sugar. We document our recipes on Instagram at @yummykitchenchemistry. Because it IS all about the chemistry, how what you consume becomes different elements in your body ~ to use as energy, to store as glycogen or fat