May your holiday season be merry and bright along with a few peaceful moments in the mix. The last day of school was just this past Friday, yesterday in fact. And tomorrow is Christmas Eve. The air is thick with excitement. And Erik our almost nine year old is calling from the entryway asking me to quote a percentage it might be that he will finish his cleaning job before my brother comes over. Since I’m writing, I hadn’t been checking on his progress and so I just throw our an estimate. 85% chance that he will be finished by the time they come. In fact it was 100%, as he was already finished.
We have been learning a new life. A few weeks ago, our Marian was diagnosed with type one diabetes. It is one of those things that you know something about, perhaps quite a bit in fact, as there are articles about diabetes all over the place. Most of them are about type II, which is in fact a completely different condition. But when it enters your life, you start to learn about all of the little details that no one tells you about in those articles. The fact that you set your alarm clock for 1 am and 4 am to check blood glucose levels, and then if they are low you might give a few sips of juice to help coax it back up. And then you reset your alarm for an hour later to see if the juice helped or if more is needed. Of course there are good nights and no extra carbohydrates are needed and it is enough to check in a couple of times but other times it is like we had a newborn in the house again.
Marian has been the best of the best. She is an absolute trooper and never complains even if we occasionally need to interupt her sleep. Her biggest complaint is that she would like to occasionally be without supervision. It’s quite natural since she is a teenager. Now I’m not able to leave her for very long by herself as we’re still in the process of learning how to count carbs and decide what is the right amount of insulin as it is different everytime depending on how low or high her blood sugar was to begin with. Fortunately the care for diabetes has become simpler as scientists have found more information and the technology involved is so developed. Of course a healthy diet is best, as is for all of us, but there is no recommendation today to attempt to be completely carbohydrate or sugar free. Everything in moderation. Marian of course has never liked sweets. Only perhaps a slice of chocolate cake or a piece of chocolate every once in a while, but nothing else.
But in the midst of all of this, we have been trying to live as normal of a life as possible. We are fortunate to be able to receive such wonderful health care and it fortunately is managable even if the blood sugar graphs are usually all over the place with growing children.
My friend has occasionally made these lovely filled dates. They are very decadent and in the end are not too difficult, quite easy actually if you don’t count the time that goes into covering each individual date with chocolate. And the recipe has only three ingredients.
Chocolate covered filled dates — naturally gluten-free
Fresh dates (about 25)
100 g /3.5 oz orange-flavored cream cheese
200 g/ 7 oz dark chocolate
Gently slit the dates and remove the pit. Using a teaspoon place a bit of orange cream cheese inside and gently press to close.
Melt and temper the chocolate and coat each date one by one. I noticed that two fondue skewers worked best for the job. Allow to set in the refrigerator for a few hours.
Happy holidays my fellow bloggers and dear readers! I appreciate you more than you know ❤
tableofcolors 
Merrry Christmas! (wishing you a little sleep also) Love & hugs
Thank you Gramma ❤️ Hope your Christmas is lovely as well! And yes, sleep is always a good thing! 😊 Hugs!
All the best to you and Marian with her diagnosis and a new way of life for the family.
Have a great Christmas.
Thank you Gary! We learn everyday 🙂 Hoping the New Year brings all the best to you and yours!
These little blogging communities are very special. We learn rather intimate things about each other as we share some of our vulnerablities. My sincere wishes for Marian and your family for a peaceful and loving holiday and coming year. I know you will find the way to meet this challenge with your usual dignity and kindness Laila.
Thank you Ardys! ❤ And yes, we share some rather personal things at times. We learn something new everyday. And since each person is an individual there really is no handbook that can tell all of the guidelines. So it is mostly from trial and error. Who would have guessed that the sauna would make one's blood sugar spike 🙂
Hoping all the best for you and yours in the New Year!
Merry Christmas to you and your lovely Family!
Thank you so much…and wishing you all the best into the New Year!
Thank you.
Lovely to see a Christmas photo of all the children. And those dates look so delicious! Dates and chocolate are some of my favourite treats. I do hope the diabetes management will become easier for you and Marian as the weeks go by. As you said, medical treatment and care are very good these days, and that is a wonderful comfort even though it can’t make up for disturbed sleep! Sending you fond greetings and best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.
Oh lovely Gallivanta, thank you! We learn everyday, but to tell you the truth, growing youth keep you surprised. Often when you think you have it done pat, there is a curveball thrown in. But we’re managing. And the doctor was pleased at our check-up even if the blood sugar graph was all over the place. That is just the name of the game 🙂 But so thankful for all of you special blogger friends who have a warm word of encouragement to say. Best wishes to you for the New Year!
Your news is encouraging. 🙂 🙂
That feature photo is just beautiful. What a pretty family. I hope your Christmas is wonderful!
Thank you Mimi! Hoping your holiday season was wonderful and best wishes for the New year for you and your family.
And a Merry Christmas to you! I have a NYear’s resolution to reinstate my blogging, which has been sorely neglected for too long. So, I was browsing my “follow” emails and saw your lovely photo (something about it made me smile).
Then I noticed your Type 1 comment. I wish your family strength in working through this process. I know from a close friend (and many years of involvement with JDRF) that the first year can be the most challenging. Do you have JDRF where you are? Besides their exceptional research, kinship with others in the same process can be very helpful.
And thanks for your blogging inspiration (I like your style).
Thank you so much ❤ Yes, my blog has been a bit slow this past year with posts only about once a month. I'm hoping to start writing more as it is something I so enjoy. And I love the blogging community. And so it is my New Year's resolution as well!
We don't have JDRF, but the whole family has participated in diabetes research and they will continue to test all of our children every year until adulthood. And I have found a Finnish facebook group for parents of children with diabetes. Parents share their experiences about different products and everyday life…and some are quite humorous 🙂
Wishing all the best to you and yours for the New Year!
All the best to you and your wonderful family, I hope you have had a Merry Christmas.
Thank you so much Karen. We had a lovely Christmas! Hoping your New Year brings all the best to you and yours!
Life has a way of introducing game changers…And this new journey will present new challenges but the results will be positive. Best of luck to you and your family.
This is my first time to your blog! Hope to see more of your posts this year.
Velva
i hope everything is going well with your marian. hopefully it is all settling down now. Happy 2018 to you! cheers Sherry
Thank you Sherry! 2018 has started well and Marian is such a trooper. Of course there are many new things to learn but overall I think it’s gone quite well. Hope 2018 brings you all the best ❤️
I love dates! Have your tried them with bacon wrapped & around them & then baked?
No I haven’t, but that sounds delicious!