Contrast

Beautiful morning on the boat; salt air, sun, family :: no lunch...blood sugar is too high, and we didn't bring a site change

Baseball game; a nail-biting tie featuring TJ as the saving pitcher :: a shot and the second site change of the morning...in the dugout right before the game

Celebrating the tie with flav-or-ice :: watching friends have flav-or-ice...it has too much sugar

Jumping on the trampoline with friends :: low...coming in for juice

Playing Wii with friends :: low...stopping for juice

Falling asleep after a long, fun day :: low...downstairs again for more juice

Sunday morning; slow wake-up :: wet bed and high...too much juice the night before

Donuts at a friends house :: watch friends eat them...they are frosted, covered in sugar

Soccer game :: on the sideline at the start...chugging gatorade to bring up a low

One weekend :: Diabetes with him every minute

Opening Day

Vacationing

How quickly we settle into vacation. One day in, with Tom headed to Stellwagen in search of tuna, we settled into our slow paced routine of beach, reading, puzzles, and solitaire. I love how much my children were looking forward to Marshfield. The activities - the games, the beach trip - even the exact puzzles - have become a "tradition."

Rope Swinging

There does not seem to be anything that is more quintessentially summer than a rope swing. Pure summer love.

Both Gwen and TJ were so much more brave then I imagined they would be when we arrived at the swinging spot - letting the rope take them far out over the pond over and over.

Just by chance, TJ's cozmo insulin pump is right up front and center in the photos I took of him swinging. On the one hand, I love these photos - pictorial evidence that diabetes never holds him back. On the other hand, they are a reminder - diabetes with him, no matter the day.

30 Days

Many years, the coming on of August causes me to panic. In so many ways I have yet to settle into a summer routine, yet all of a sudden the end is in sight. This summer - one filled with unpredictable weather, a busy work schedule, and a two-week stay away from home - I find myself entering August with a sinking feeling that summer will end and I will not have lived it.

But, in reality, summer is only peaking - there are many days left to be enjoyed. In order to live them just a little more deliberately, and to share them with my children, I challenged each of us to keep a journal for each day in August. The children were each treated to new spiral notebooks and markers to help encourage them and each dutifully filled the first page with color, prose, and drawings detailing our first day of actual away-at-a-beach-house vacation. I promised them I would blog each day this month.

Although the first half of summer has passed by in a (non-documented) flash, the images on my camera tell tales of long, fun-filled days. Rope swings, boat rides, beach excursions. Fun, any way you remember it.

Red Sox

A (long ago, at this point) April vacation trip to Fenway...the first night was rained out, so we ventured to the city again the next day for the make up game. Lots of Fenway franks, and lots of fun. Click on the photo for a full size look.

Be (Kerri's) Guest

I'm SO honored to be hosted as a "guest blogger" today over at my favorite blog, Six Until Me. Kerri has been an inspiration to me since TJ was diagnosed, and I am still in awe that she would share her space with me. Check it out here!