Of Good Report

I love Halloween Night.  As much as I hate carving pumpkins I love the actual night of halloween.  A friend summed it up for me when she also stated her dislike of pumpkin carving when she said that she hated all the preparation for halloween, but halloween itself is great.  I fully agree.  I don't love the halloween parades at the school, or all parties at school.  I do love the magic of the night.  There is something magical about eating a nice warm dinner pulled out of the crockpot or some simmering soup then getting all costumed up and hitting the streets.  I love the honest to goodness trick or treating.  The kind where all the neighborhood heads out going door to door begging for candy.  I could do without "trunk or treat" or all the trick or treating in offices, or local businesses.  It is fun to see all of the children, and adults, dressed up in classic, or scary, or clever costumes.  I love the excitement of the...

I hate carving pumpkins.  I realize hate is a strong word and I honestly don't hate too many things, but carving pumpkins makes the short list.  I know I am the title of this blog is "of good report", but I can think of few, if any, virtues of pumpkin guts!  They are slimy, stinky and messy.  I always try to put on a happy face as we spread out the newspaper, pull out bowls and pass around sharp knives to my children.  I keep a prayer in my heart the the only guts and gore we see comes out of the pumpkin and not out of any fingers.  So far we have not had to get any stitches due to pumpkin carving--there it is a virtue. Tonight started out quite well, Spencer, Taylor and Emma were fairly independent gutters and carvers.  Estelle required quite a bit of assistance, and Sarah, bless her heart, decided to paint her pumpkin.  This of course meant we also had paint to clean up, but the fewer the pumpkin guts the better.  Sarah was...

I was planning on writing this tomorrow because that is Emma's birthday, but it looks like it is going to be another long night of blood testing so I decided to make good use of my time.  We had a party for her tonight and she got sung to at church, so it seems ok to write about my darling 10 year old daughter tonight.  Ten years ago tomorrow night I was holding my first baby daughter in my arms.  She was my easiest delivery and a sweet, sweet baby.  I felt like I had my hands full with a toddler and a preschooler to care for as well, but she was definitely a welcome addition to our family.  Her big brothers loved her right away; Taylor would shake her hand and say, "welcome, Emma, welcome."  She has a tender heart and is a hard worker.  She is very organized and responsible.  She loves animals and the outdoors.  She likes to play basketball and has a good shot.  She is petite and beautiful.  She grew her hair long so she could ...

I seriously considered having the theme of this blog be about a family who has a child with diabetes.   I decided that although there will certainly be plenty of posts about that I didn't want it to define who we are.  Even though I could put something about it every day, I will resist.  I want to focus on the good and virtuous, and by good in the case of diabetes I mean the learning that takes place on many levels and by virtuous I mean the patience and grace with which my son deals with this challenge every day.  For the second night in a row I will be checking Taylor's blood every couple of hours.  He has had two days of being extremely high--most of the time.  He had several lows this morning.  In April he started using an insulin pump.  It is supposed to make his life easier.  And in many ways it does.  He doesn't have to give himself four or more shots every day and he/I don't have to do as many calculations each day, b...