Life is Good, Better, Best

Well, dear friends...  I think I can finally take a breath and exhale.  Our little wooden advent calendar has only a few more closed doors.  Most of the extended family gifts have been distributed.  Parties have come and gone.  School ended on Friday for a much-needed two week hiatus and this morning, our little family actually slept until 9:00 a.m. - with solid blood sugars!!!  

Life is good.  

I love when we are able to carve out a bit of calm in the middle of the holiday.  To me, this is the perfect opportunity to really enjoy the season.  No rushing, no chaos.  Just our family and our ever present thankfulness of keeping 'the happy' in our lives despite the ups and downs that T1D often brings.  

For many newly diagnosed families, I thought it might be helpful to share one of our most-referred to posts on navigating Christmas morning while living with Type 1 Diabetes.  Click HERE to read about how we handle the early morning excitement.  

To all of the seasoned T1D families out there, my hope is that you allow yourselves a moment to quiet and hush the all of the extraneous activities demanding your attention.  I know for myself, that the longer I continue this journey with T1D, the more that I forget that I am allowed to take breaks to center and balance my mind.  

Yes, we are skilled at fitting T1D into our lives.  

Yes, we can ninja count carbs on things like Eggnog, Sugar Cookies and Puppy Chow like no body's business.  

Yes, we can silence an impending low in less than five minutes thanks to the ever present full-sugar Cranberry Ginger ale our friends are serving.  

Yes, we can discreetly manipulate an infusion site change sitting in a dark movie theater and still eat that box of popcorn before the opening credits roll.

Yes, we can really party like it's 1999 - well until midnight, maybe.  After that, I am pretty tired.  :)

Life is Good

However all of those extraordinary skills require extra energy and extra time to stay mentally and physically afloat.  I would be miserable if I thought I had to keep up at that pace all of the time.  In fact, I would be fooling myself by thinking that is what I was supposed to do ten years after diagnosis.  

The reality is Life is Good but Life is EVEN BETTER when we take a break.  

We all need to recharge our batteries and to recognize that while we can do ANYTHING we choose to do with T1D, we also can be much more effective after having some downtime.  Maybe you use that time to reconcile blood sugars.  Or maybe you use it to squeeze in a nap.  Or maybe just to 'be' and relish how kick-ass you have been through all of the holiday mayhem.  Whatever it is that you NEED, be sure to allow yourself the opportunity to do it.  

Allow your life to go from Good to Even Better to the BEST.

Merry Christmas from our house to yours... 

Love, The Naturally Sweet Sisters