Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

Have you heard about this book?  Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  One of Eliana's therapists told me about this book and gave me a copy of an article about this bread.  It really helped when a friend of mine, Jessica, showed me how she made it.  I bought the supplies - a large container to keep the dough in (it goes in the frig and can stay there for up to two weeks) and a thermometer and a pizza peel (for sliding the bread dough into the heated oven).

I had these things sitting around ... for months.  A good idea, but just not enough time to get to it.  Well, one day I decided to just give it a try.  I didn't read the directions carefully though and messed up the first batch of dough.  (Didn't let it sit out at room temp for a couple of hours before baking.)  I decided to give it a try anyway - and it worked. 

This bread is delicious!!!  Looks just like something you would buy from a store - firm crust, moist inside.  Did I mention that it is yummy!!!



Here is the author's website if you want more ideas on breads and like to look at pictures.  Don't go hungry.  ;-)   I love the photos and am hoping to buy the book with some birthday money.  We all enjoy bread at our house and it's been fun to experiment with this new (to us) bread.

Enjoy!

Blessings

Leslie

Playing catch-up with photos

I'm going to try to upload photos and post them over the course of the week and hopefully be "caught up".  Well, as best as I can be at this point.

Eliana has started music therapy.  We have had a lot of juggling to do to get this going.  She was supposed to start the week Joshua ended up in the hospital.  Then with the sickness getting passed around we missed some weeks in July too.  Hopefully now we'll be more regular in our time.

Eliana loves music!  She likes to dance, listen and to play instruments.  I'm so glad that she has this time and that our case manager suggested it for us! 



She is learning different concepts and skills and I'm finding ways to incorporate this into our daily lives.  I'm learning new things that I need to be teaching her because she is ready to learn.  I think it is going to be a great help for us!  The cabasa (below) is one of her favorite instruments!



Joshua and Christopher are playing football and practicing twice per week now.  It is going well and they are both enjoying their time.  They are in a great league with which we have had great experiences in the past.





Isaiah lost that other tooth.  I love the look of no front teeth on little kids and think it is really cute!



My sweet friend Catherine came for a visit so we could have some "girl's time".  We had fun and even got in some scrapbooking.  I'm thankful we can visit, but sure wish they still lived right next door!



 This is brief, but just a peek into a few more things going on in our days.  I hope your day is filled with God's blessings!

With love
Leslie

Some facts on Type 1 Diabetes

for those who are wanting to know a little more.  I found the comments by the children at the end to be sad, but true. 

Facts on Type 1

I am thankful that in the midst of dealing with this disease that we do have a hope.  We know Who made us and for what purpose.  I am thankful that God can use this for good in our lives and I trust that He will.  I am thankful that our circumstances do not change the hope we have in HIm!

Hope you are having a great week -end!

Love
Leslie

A really sweet story

This touched my heart and I bet it will yours too!

Dog Saves Boy's Life

Life is ... busy!

I'm feeling swamped and trying to stay on top of things.  Actually, things are going pretty well, but my free time for blogging has suffered as I've tried to organize and get on top of other things.  (I actually loaded a lot of photos tonight so hopefully I'll get to that later this week.)  I'm working through my emails (slowly) and trying to tackle other projects.  (If you have asked for the form I made for Eliana, I haven't forgotten and will get to that soon.) 

Headed to sleep soon, but wanted to share a little something cute. 

Christopher is working out and often doing push-ups.  Eliana loves it when he does as she thinks it means it is time for a ride! 



Hope this brings a smile to your face.  It always makes me chuckle.

Praying God's blessings on your day!

Leslie

Health Update

Thank you for your prayers.  Things are much better here today!  Health is such a sweet blessing and one we have learned not to take for granted over the last several years. 

Eliana was finally able to eat something last night about 7pm.  She spent a lot of the rest of the night with painful diarrhea though.  She had a long night's sleep - about 12 hours.  She woke up feeling much better.  She was ready to eat this morning.  I gave her some Kix cereal to hold her until I could get some oatmeal ready.

An unexpected sweet moment came during this time.  When Eliana finished what was in her bowl, she began to protest.  I looked at her and then she said and signed "more".  I asked her to say please which she did.  I was happy to comply with her request.  We did this multiple times with her learning to say "more" first instead of just fussing.  She began to add please a little more quickly too.

Having her initiate speech is a wonderful thing!  It's something most children do and we can just take it for granted.  Each little mileston with Eliana though seems something to be celebrated.  If we can get her to move to two word sentences, that too would be a great milestone.  Something small, and yet big too.  It is just so sweet to hear her little voice telling me what she wants.  It is so nice to have her communicating! 

She has had a good day.  Playing, eating, no sickness.  What could be better?!

We tried to do a school day and had a pretty productive one.  At the moment, my oldest children are cooking dinner as part of their geography course.  We are having a meal from Maine.  It looks yummy. 

Earlier today I did something I should have done in a more planned fashion long ago.  A few days ago I began making a list of specific games, toys and activities that could be used to help Eliana with certain skill groups.  I tried to think of things in a variety of areas - speech, oral motor, gross motor, fine motor.  I also just tried to think of toys that we have and how they can be used in a productive manner.  I made a grid (2 pages) of these skills and printed it out.  I'm planning on having a teaching time with everyone in the family so that when they are playing with Eliana it can be done in a way that really benefits her.  We all play with her so there is no reason we can't learn to adapt our play a little bit so that she is learning while playing.  I'm hoping this will help me to stay on top of her learning too.  I can post more about this if anyone is interested.

The rest of the family is feeling fine.  Joshua had no relapse after being sick on Monday.  I emailed his numbers to his doctor last night and she said that everything looks great.  He typically has a spike at lunch time because we are giving snacks without a dose of insulin.  She said this was all still fine.  If/when he moves to a pump, he will correct it then.  For now, we are both (dr and I) comfortable with his regimen and not wanting to add another 3 shots a day for snacks.  That just seems like too much!

More later.  Still have things I want to do in a catch-up post like our trip to the beach.  We spent a wonderful week at the beach with my family just prior to Joshua's diagnosis.  I have some great photos to share.  It may be the week-end as most of my spare time now is in planning and schooling. 

We are thankful for our healthy bodies.  Thankful for good food to put in them.  Thankful for friends and family who are praying with us.  Thankful for a wonderful and good God.

Blessings

Leslie

Quick update - Tue night

Thank you friends for praying and for your hugs too!

She had a good long nap and has woken up ... cranky. (Which is very much out of character for her) She has been able to keep down some water, but not interested in food at all and I'm not pushing it. I'm just really not sure what to do to help her.

Sorry this is short. Just wanted to update.

Love,

Leslie

Eliana's turn - small request for prayer

Maybe this helps to confirm that Joshua's sickness yesterday was a virus of some sort.  That is good news in some ways, though I sure wish it hadn't been Eliana's job to be the messenger.

Eliana is throwing up. I thought it was just sinus drainage, because she woke up at 6am very stuffy and clearly dealing with internal drainage.  I began to doubt the drainage theory when it happened a second time. Now that we are up to 8 or 9 ore more, it is something else. She is miserable. I'm holding her. She's tired, but not able to sleep as she keeps getting sick.

Just interupted. She is keeping nothing down. Not even water.   I've spent the morning doing LOTS of laundry, changing clothes (both of us), giving a bath and well, doing clean-up.  So much for our first week of school,huh?  Actually the children have been doing school and helping out.  They have been great!

As I was thinking about this post while changing clothes, I remembered one of my last "small request" posts. It was for Joshua on the day he was diagnosed with diabetes. It just hit me and made me cry. The grief process can just hit out of nowhere sometimes, kwim? I'm not thinking this is like that. Not sure at what point this sickness becomes more than I need to try to handle at home though.

THanks for praying.

Quick update on things here

Over the last couple of days we have started to see Joshua having some lower numbers (80s and 90s).  Not technically "low", but pretty close.  His goal is to be closer to 200.

This morning, we planned to start our first day of school.  The kids got new school things last night and we had planned to go out to eat this morning as per our family tradition.  We got up and were getting going with our day when Joshua says that his stomach hurts.  I take him upstairs and so he can lay down and rest.  The pain gets worse for him and within half an hour, he is sick.  Again.  :-(  He threw up several (3) times and then fell asleep for a couple of hours. 

He seemed to feel much better after sleeping.  He stayed up in the bedroom for the rest of the day though without complaining.  I know he did some good reading and a little bit of math. 

The rest of the kids started school and had a productive (albeit slow) day.  More on all of that later. 

Please pray for health for Joshua.  He told me his stomach hurt again at bedtime.  I hope we are going to see this as a trend.  Planning to email his doctor later tonight - and then hopefully head to bed soon.

Blessings
Leslie

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

We have gotten a lot of support in this new journey.  I'm thankful for that and know that it helps to know that others have walked this path and are here to answer questions, listen, sympathize and understand.

One of the supports we have is from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation  We received information about them while we were in the hospital.  I had not yet initiated contact though when I received a call from our new case manager at our insurance company.  I'll admit, when I first heard it was someone from insurance, I was fearful of hearing that we were being denied services or coverage.  The gal I spoke with was nice - and knowledgable about diabetes!  It was very refreshing.  She talked with me about the things I needed to do - and then followed up with an email listing websites for various services.  Really nice!

She followed up our phone call the next week to ask if I'd talked with anyone from JDRF.  I hadn't.  Well, she called them and spoke with someone who then called me!  This gal from BCBS (insurance) is on the ball!  I spoke with another mom that helped to answer questions and talked with me about the mentor program.  They will match us up with another family with a boy similar in age to Joshua.  That will be nice.  I know he will enjoy meeting another boy that also has diabetes. 

I sent in a form to JDRF that we received in the hospital.  As a result of that, Joshua received a really nice surprise in the mail!  It is the JDRF Bag of Hope. 



A backpack filled with things.  The backpack even has a cooler compartment in the back that he could use to carry his meds (or a cheese stick which is what he likes putting in the cooler when we go out).  The backpack has the JDRF logo on it.

Here are some of the goodies inside.

*Rufus the bear - who is wearing a medic alert bracelet.  He has patches in the spots where you get pokes and shots.

*Story book about Rufus.  The story is about a boy diagnosed with diabetes and his mom makes this bear "with diabetes" so that he has a friend that understands. 

*Pink Panther First Book for Understanding Diabetes

*Cartoon book called CJ has diabetes.  One of the facts from this book is "every hour someone finds out they have diabetes". 

*DVD called "You Can't Catch Diabetes from a Friend"

*Coupon for a local science museum

*Carb counting book

*Glucometer

*OmniPod Demo Kit - a pump so Joshua can see what it is like. 

*LOTS of pamphlets and brochures on carb counting, wearing a pump, advocacy, research, hypoglycemia chart, JDRF magazine, diet and portion control and more!

This is incredibly nice.  I know it helps to have the information and even in reading the books to know that the emotions are all things others have felt too.  I have to say, that I cry reading these books still.  There are times when I just can't believe he has diabetes.  There are still times when it is hard for him.  I hang out with him most nights until he goes to sleep as night is typically the hardest time of day.

Today has been a challenge today because Joshua woke up feeling badly - and soon got sick.  Again.  He ended up being sick in the morning and then slept most of the afternoon (and also had a short nap in the morning too!).  After lots of sleep, he felt much better.  Was able to eat dinner.  Then after dinner, Christopher got sick.  *sigh*  Surely this will all be gone soon.  I'm really hoping it doesn't make the complete rounds.  Praying for wellness and for it to be short-lived sickness.

Sorry my posting is so sporadic these days.  I'm trying to catch up on my records for Chrisopher's past year.  (Yes, behind)  Trying to plan for the upcoming year.  Working on getting things started with our FIAR support group.  Planning our field trips is the biggest item there.  Juggling therapies - we are up to 6 per week now.  Trying to implement a budget.  Working on chore charts.  Oh, and learning to count carbs, measure carefully all the ingredients in dishes and what is served and just in general diabetes care.  I know we all have full plates.  Some days mine seems to be running off the sides.  In it all though, life is good.  I'm richly blessed and thankful for much!

Blessings

Leslie