I was excited. Although we catch up on the phone several times a week, it’s always great to have one on one time with her in person. After all, my mom is one of my very best friends and one of my favorite people in the world. She is someone I share so much of my life with. Someone I can be myself around (even when I am feeling sensitive or blue, or just have a lot on my plate), someone I laugh with and confide in—everything from the joys and struggles in life and with my health to the calls I used to make to her about figuring out the first few years of this thing called marriage. She is always there for me.

I know I am blessed to have such a beautiful person as my mom and do not take it for granted. It is no wonder that at her last job she retired from 6 months ago she had many friends of all ages. I think to some she was the cheerful, fun and interesting mom maybe they wish they had. I completely understood how bummed they were when they found out she was leaving and offered to still meet with her, showering her with hugs. She is one of the kindest people you could ever hope to meet and is always reading so is a wonderful conversationalist, never running out of interesting things to talk about. If you bring up a topic of conversation, there is a good chance she has read something about it and has something to share.

Last Wednesday we met in a town that has many, many restaurants—most of which are chains. Living with multiple food sensitivities, I am lucky if there is more than one place in any given town that is safe for me to eat and actually provides a healthy meal worth eating. Chains are not usually in this repertoire. We decided to meet at the Woodbury Cafe. It had been a long while since we had eaten here. I guess we kind of forgot about it. The food was delicious and so was our time together. I took some pictures to share with you.

Woodbury Cafe with one of the many Charles Schultz statues out front. These statues created by local artists adorn the Twin Cities in honor of the late Charles Schultz (creator of Snoopy) born in St. Paul, Minnesota. (See more statues at bottom of post).

Mom & me.

Earl Grey tea w/lemon to start my meal. Hmmm.

Veggie Omelet w/fresh fruit as a substitute for unsafe gluten free bread (contained corn to which I am also intolerant).

Yep, I ordered a side of hash browns too. So good!

Perfect bg’s too. Can’t be beat!

My dearly loved Mom.

I love you Mom! And I look forward to our meeting later this month! Thanks for all the support you have given me over the years with my health and diabetes. Your encouragement and love all these years has carried me far and gotten me through some really tough times. Thank you.

Peace & Light,

Cynthia

Please join our Facebook page for Diabetes Light! I would love to have you join our community where I share daily.

A few more statues that were in front of the business development:

Look at the snow on top of his head! That’s life as a statue in Minnesota.

I just made one of these for breakfast for the first time this morning and it is definitely a recipe I am waiting for my next banana to brown to make again. Here’s what’s in it: 1 brown banana, 2 eggs, a pinch of salt and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. I cooked it in a little bit of coconut oil.

I will give you the link to the original recipe by The Primalist to follow their instructions. Here’s what I did. I added 2 eggs to a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes to warm and then mixed all of the ingredients in my stand mixer. I set the electric stove to a temp of low-medium (8:00) and it was ready to turn at 7 minutes then heated it a few minutes longer on the other side, turning the heat down a little lower to the 9:00 position. I left the lid on while cooking. Before eating I added a little butter, a sprinkling of cinnamon and some real maple syrup. Yum!

These are definitely a great use for brown bananas and couldn’t be any simpler to make. I hope you enjoy!

More recipes can be found on the homepage under the tab at the top titled “Recipes.”

Peace & Light,

Cynthia

Please join our Facebook page for Diabetes Light! I would love to have you join our community where I share daily.

I attended a special Earth Day yoga class last night at a nature center just a few miles from my house. It was a class as lovely as it sounds and organized by my local yoga studio. The combination of the class being held at a nature center as well as featuring a live drummer convinced me to register and leave the house for a bit on a Sunday evening.

Here is the description from Invisible Bee Yoga’s website:

Yoga starts with the Earth. Our bodies are made from elements of the planet, our blood from its waters, the air we breathe from its atmosphere. We are not separate. When we recognize this deeply with yoga, we see that we are one with the universe and mother earth. Join Ann and drummer Tony Paul to practice a gentle, peaceful yoga class with live drumming. And help raise money for our beautiful local Richfield’s Wood Lake Nature Center.

 

It was a splendid evening and the views from the room we practiced in were beautiful—I cannot imagine a space much more beautiful to practice yoga for Earth Day. The drumming that accompanied class made it a special and unique evening. I took some pictures for you that I shared below.

One highlight was at the beginning of class when 3 deer appeared directly though the window at the front of the room we were practicing in. They ate some vegetation for a while before running off. I grabbed my phone out of my bag when I first saw them and was able to capture one of the beautiful deer in a picture below – which I note.

It was hard to concentrate as much the rest of class because I was so excited about the possibility of viewing more wildlife in their natural habitat. I did see at least 3 kinds of birds as I peacefully watched out the window from my yoga mat—sneaking peeks between postures.

Look at the beautiful deer in the window behind our yoga teacher Ann! So lovely…

I truly do not think I will leave my house again. Nope, perfectly content right here. Moments like these make my heart overflow with happiness. Thank you dear Juniper and Jonah for your love and companionship. I could not ask for better pets or ones that are as lovable, cuddly and caring as you.

Notice Juniper’s paw on my shoulder? It is still there as I type this. What a sweet kitty.

If you do not currently have a pet, I highly encourage it—especially if living with a challenging chronic health condition like diabetes. Juniper is from the local animal shelter and Jonah is rescued from a rescue organization, Homeward Bound. I support adopting rescue animals 100%. They will give you more love than you know what to do with. And with the difficult days diabetes can throw at us, this is a good problem to have.

Peace & Light,

Cynthia

Please join our Facebook page for Diabetes Light! I would love to have you join our community where I share from my heart daily.

Woohoo! On Monday of this week Diabetes Light reached 100,000 hits on the blog! As of today we are at 101,640 hits and 62,157 page views! Not bad (in my humble opinion) for a girl from Minnesota who writes about things she likes and to help others. I didn’t really know what I was doing or much anything about blogging when I started a little over a year ago in December, 2011 but I have a strong desire to help others. I have figured things out along the way and have have found that articles turn out best when I really feel a passion within me to write. So if the mood is not there to write, I no longer force it.

Each day people from 20-25 countries around the world visit Diabetes Light. This is so amazing to me! Often they come in search of poems about diabetes and healthy recipes. I have a special page for recipes at the top of the home page with links to my recipes—check it out! I love to feature my dog Jonah and it is funny to think about his face being seen in places as far as Japan—it makes me chuckle. I love when people visit from where my ancestors are from too. Germany, Sweden, Poland and Bohemia (Czech Republic) are the countries where my ancestors lived before some of my family moved to the United States. Hello out there to each of you visiting from these countries that are so special to me!!

I would like to take this time to give a BIG thanks for your support and readership. I could never have imagined that 16 months after starting Diabetes Light I would currently have 15,000 hits a month on my blog—with this number growing every month! This number may not be much to some, but for me it’s pretty darn good and means my message about living life well despite diabetes or food sensitivities, etc is getting out to others and reaching much further than I ever could have imagined. It is my hope that each of you and the people who find Diabetes Light through internet searches are benefiting positively from what I share.

And.. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you have something to say, consider starting a blog yourself! It is a lot of work but worth it in so many ways. I now have friends around the world that I would not have met otherwise. It’s fun to answer questions locally about my diabetes, insulin pump or continuous glucose meter etc and be able to share about what things are like for people with diabetes in South Africa, the UK, Australia and Canada etc from what I learn from each of you. Love it! It makes my whole day when I get messages from readers letting me know that I have in some way helped them by sharing my journey and experiences.

I’ve been a little quiet lately but I hope to get back to more writing real soon. I have a lot of recipes on board ready to share with you and great topics too. Stay tuned!

In case you missed it, I also started a Facebook page/community recently that will focus exclusively on my love for real food (everything featured is free of gluten, corn and most nuts) through pictures I share of kitchen successes, recipes and healthy living. It is a Facebook page suitable for everyone, whether living with diabetes or not. Happy Heart, Happy Belly. I hope you will join our community!

And if you have not joined the Facebook community yet for Diabetes Light, please get on board! We are just shy of 600 people with 594 awesome community members from around the country and world. I share daily and it’s a great place to be! So many wonderful people have gathered here and it is so much fun getting to know each of you!

See you around real soon and thanks again. You are all the best! Have a great day. I’m off to the treadmill now as we are snowed in today!

Snowy Minnesota Spring – April 11 Snowstorm

Peace & Light,

Cynthia

I welcome you to join our community at Diabetes Light on Facebook where I share quotes, stories and pictures for a healthy body, mind and spirit! You can also find us on Twitter @diabeteslight. I look forward to seeing you there!

I was bundled up and shivering as I drove to visit my niece and her mom last Wednesday morning on that first day of spring. It was only 5 degrees out! The following morning it was not much warmer, only 9 degrees. It is finally warming up a bit and is actually 43 degrees out this afternoon—this is considered almost a heat wave here for us hardy Minnesotans. I went for a short walk with my husband and dog Jonah but still had to brave a lot of slippery ice and big melting puddles on the path. Jonah didn’t like getting his paws wet either and did his best to walk around the puddles. We may reach the low 50′s on Friday and Saturday before cooling back down into the 30′s and 40′s again. But I can guarantee you there will be people out in t-shirts despite all the snow.

Here are a few pictures I took today to show you what spring is like this year where I live. It is not always this cold and snowy but I guess this year spring is going out like a lion as they say! The last two pictures were taken this morning on my drive to see my homeopath for my monthly visit. It is a beautiful drive.

View from my front step this morning.

Lake Elmo, Minnesota

Lake Elmo, Minnesota

Peace & Light,

Cynthia

I welcome you to join our community at Diabetes Light on Facebook where I share quotes, stories and pictures for a healthy body, mind and spirit! You can also find us on Twitter @diabeteslight. I look forward to seeing you there!

Several months ago I found out I was nominated for several WEGO Health Activist Awards for my work with Diabetes Light. I was overjoyed. It is a wonderful feeling to learn that several members of our community went out of their way to share some positive feedback about Diabetes Light to be considered for this special award. Thank you to each of you who submitted your kind words on my behalf. I appreciate it so much!!

What is a WEGO Health Activist Award?

The WEGO Health Activist Awards were created to embody the mission of WEGO Health: to empower Health Activists. We connect with so many inspiring Health Activists who raise awareness, share information, support their communities, and much more – often without recognition.  Because our network is centered around Health Activists, we knew it was up to us to tell these leaders and how great they are. We wanted to celebrate those who have made a difference and thus, the Awards were born.  We’ve since found that these Awards are one of the best ways to introduce new Health Activists and have community members say “Thank You” to the leaders they love. (source: WEGO website)

Who is eligible to win an award?

Anyone who focuses on health online!  They can be in any health focus or condition, on any platform, in any location. If they advocate for health, they can win. (source: WEGO website)

Then about two months ago I found out I was chosen as a finalist in the Rookie of the Year category. I could hardly believe that I was one of the finalists.. There were 6 finalists chosen out of 107 nominees in this category (View all 107 of the Rookie of the Year nominees here on this Pinterest board). I immediately posted an announcement on Facebook to our Diabetes Light community when I found out the news on February 24..

Eep! Yay!!! I am sooooo very excited right now (just before bed.. oops). I just found out by accident that I am a FINALIST in the Wego Health 2012 Health Activist Awards!! I am up for Rookie of the Year Award for Diabetes Light! I am thrilled and this is such an honor! If you would, please send out your positive thoughts my way as my win would mean further advocacy and positive outreach for those of us with diabetes!! Thank you each of you for your support of Diabetes Light and being a member of this community!!! Here is a link to see my nomination!!  http://blog.wegohealth.com/2013/02/22/haawards-finalists-–-rookie-of-the-year-award/

I share openly and write from my heart to try to help others so it is just so amazing and a big honor for me to even be included in the company of the other inspiring Rookie of the Year nominees and finalists. One of the other finalists was on the Ellen DeGeneres show last month speaking about her recent lung transplant and advocacy with organ transplants. Another is a fitness model that has been on television and has thousands of followers and one of the others is an author! You can check them out here!

Winners are being announced this Thursday, March 28th from 6:00 – 8:30 pm CST (5-7:30pm EST) during a live party online. There are 16 categories of Health Activists that will have winners selected during the party. The Rookie of the Year will be announced from 7:45 – 7:52 pm CST. Here is the Facebook event page to join us!! (Just click “Going” at the top of the event page to come and please invite any friends to come too). More event details (link to log in to party, etc) to come on the Facebook event page.

And here’s a few pics for you before I let you go! Because WEGO Health is just this awesome. Last week they sent me a party box of things to celebrate with during the awards ceremony Thursday. It was soooo much fun to get a special package delivered to my house!

As requested by WEGO Health – a picture of me (and Jonah!) with the banner.

Lastly, a BIG special thank for each of you for reading my blog and/or being a member of our Facebook community that I love so much. To be nominated for a special award like this is unbelievable to me and so exciting. Thanks for your support. I would not be a finalist without you! I hope you will come to cheer me on—I would love to celebrate with you! Especially if I win! (I have been envisioning myself winning—they say it helps!).

Thanks again and hope to see you there! Here is the link one more time to join the Facebook event page. I’m sooooo excited!!! Just two more days!! Yay!

Peace & Light,

Cynthia

I welcome you to join our community at Diabetes Light on Facebook where I share quotes, stories and pictures for a healthy body, mind and spirit! You can also find us on Twitter @diabeteslight. I look forward to seeing you there!

I’m guessing you might be able to relate to some of my feelings?!? If so, try writing a poem or journaling about it next time. In my experience, it really helps me move beyond what I am feeling at the time and feel more positive again.

Photo Credit: www.freevector.com

The days with Sunshine…

This body of mine

Is

so

very

difficult

To live in.

So many demands

And conditions

That have to be

Just right

For things to go okay

And flow smoothly.

No alcohol…

No gluten…

No corn…

No nuts…

Except almonds are okay..

8 hours of sleep

Every night

And sometimes more…

Even then

You sometimes

need

a nap

Exercise

every

day

Just once in a while

You allow me to miss

one day

But if I miss more than that

Hello insulin resistance!

You like yoga

A lot!

Me and my mat

At the studio

Several times a week

Can make you so much

More agreeable

And if I miss?

Hello roller coasters!

Sometimes I just don’t know

What I’ll do

With all these demands

You

place

on

me

Yet you are

So sneaky about it

No one

On the outside

Could possibly know

How much you ask of me

And how many sacrifices

I make for you..

I really could use a break

A

little

vacation

I guess that’ll have to wait

‘Til we find a cure…

Until then,

I’ll snuggle with my puppy

Sip on green tea

And make the most of

the days with sunshine

and the days without.

Peace & Light,

Cynthia

I welcome you to join our positive community at Diabetes Light on Facebook where I share stories, pictures and fun each day for a healthy body, mind and spirit! You can also find us on Twitter @diabeteslight. I look forward to seeing you there!

*****

Here are links to a few of the other poems I have written. To see more poems I have published, click on “Poems” under Categories on the right side bar of the homepage.

What other's don't see

Diabetes, I am sorry

Goodnight diabetes

Just for you diabetes...

Diabetes, You Have Made Me

I turn 3 today!!

Three years ago today our darling dog Jonah was born in the Southern state of Kentucky. Arriving in this world as a stray, Homeward Bound Dog Rescue brought Jonah and his family up to Minnesota where they could be adopted into a loving home. At just nine weeks old we adopted this sweet little guy (on my birthday!). What a great birthday present he was. (Some cute puppy pics of Jonah to come soon in an Almost Wordless Wednesday post!).

Somehow, three years have passed already. Not a day goes by that I am not thankful for Jonah. He showers his family and everyone he meets with lots of love. He has also become a beloved member of the DOC (diabetes online community) through his appearances on Diabetes Light, offering his warmth, presence and support.

He seems especially cuddly today on his birthday—as I type this, he is pressed up next to me on the couch. I am enjoying every minute of it!

Helping Mommy write her post for Diabetes Light.

Offering an abundance of hugs, kisses, silly antics and all-around goofiness, not a day goes by that we are not laughing and smiling because of this sweet boy. He always seems to know when an extra cuddle is needed, warming my heart in a way only he could.

I might be 3 but I still love my Momma snuggles daily…

I’ve taken a small handful of pictures today to honor Jonah on his special day! (Umm. Yes, I took each of these pics today just for this post.. What can I say? I really love my boy!). One of these years on his birthday, I hope to make Jonah a special doggie birthday cake. Today he got a slice of American cheese. He did not seem to mind the compromise one bit.

Hmmm.. American cheese!

Last week I picked out a few special things for Jonah’s 3rd birthday while at the pet store. Sweet potato dog fries (he loves these!) and an an eco-friendly toy—a large “Old Buzzard” made in India of water buffalo leather, coconut fiber and jute.

Waiting for my special birthday gifts! I can hardly contain my excitement!

I really LOVE my new toy!

Happy Birthday Jonah!!!

I love you so much. You are the best Type 3 pup I could ever ask for. Always coaxing a smile or laugh from me even when I may not be feeling like it. May you always feel the love I have in my heart for you.

Peace & Light,

Cynthia

I welcome you to join our positive community at Diabetes Light on Facebook where I share stories, pictures and fun each day for a healthy body, mind and spirit! You can also find us on Twitter @diabeteslight. I look forward to seeing you there!

You may also like these posts about Jonah:

Lessons from Jonah #1: enjoy the present moment

Lessons from Jonah #2: love is about receiving too…

Lessons from Jonah #3: How to Survive Cold Snaps

ps. Junie capitalizing on Jonah’s birthday—she is sitting in the bag I was storing Jonah’s gifts in.

Juniper Alice

Photo Credit: theminaretonline.com

Stopped Short

Diabetes,


You have this habit


of getting in the way


Do you realize


what a bother this is?


I finally get the discipline


and find the time

at 10pm tonight

to walk on the treadmill


To help you feel better


and your blood sugars

be more stable

But no!


You just weren’t able to cooperate,

were you?


I started feeling a little funny


so I stepped off the treadmill


44

Thanks diabetes!


Now after just

1.29 miles

I have to cut my walk short!


Don’t worry
,

orange juice & organic dried cranberries


should have you feeling good real soon


Now I just have to pick up the pieces


and continue this walk tomorrow


And..


I’ll do it again


Just for you.

Peace & Light,

Cynthia

I welcome you to join our positive community at Diabetes Light on Facebook where I share stories, pictures and fun each day for a healthy body, mind and spirit! You can also find us on Twitter @diabeteslight. I look forward to seeing you there!