Destination ME

This post has been a long time coming.

First off, some background - I stole the title and the first sentence of this post from one of my favorite new (to me) blogs, The Princess and the Pump: A Type 1 Diabetes Blog. I can't remember exactly when or how I found the P and the P blog, but I'm almost sure it was late at night while I was trolling the 'net for information on Type 1 diabetes. The author, Hallie, is a wife, teacher and mother to a darling T1D girl. In her blog, Hallie chronicles the challenges they endure and triumphs they achieve with their T1D child. It is a wonderful resource for parents of diabetic children. 

Hallie's daughter is elementary-school age and was diagnosed at age 3. My T1D daughter is a freshman in high school and was diagnosed at age 12. The circumstances that Hallie and I deal with are probably very different, but still very much the same. Her daughter, being so young, is still dependent on her parents for her diabetic care. My daughter is fairly independent with her diabetes care, but that doesn't mean I'm not there questioning when she last tested her blood sugar and did she do a correction for a high number, etc. With all that goes on with having a T1D child, it's easy to lose yourself in it. Hallie's most recent blog post, Destination ME, is about how she is going to find her way back to herself. She will have a weekly post about her current goal, and she invited her followers to join her. When I saw that, I thought, "Count me in!" It was just what I needed. It was just what I'd been thinking. It is so easy to get caught up in our children and lose sight of ourselves. And having a child with diabetes - or any other challenging illness or circumstance - compounds that. 

Hallie's goal this week is to get more sleep. As much as I'd like to be original, I'm going to make that my goal, too. Sleep is where it all starts. 

I don't check my daughter's blood sugar in the middle of the night like we did when she was first diagnosed, so I shouldn't be as sleep deprived as I am. My sleep deprivation is mostly self inflicted. I find I can't go to sleep until after I know all of my kids are sleeping. If my T1D daughter has had a high or a low right before bed, of course I'm up with her until we get her numbers in check. But even when everything is going well, I tend to stay up until I know everyone is asleep. With two teenagers, this can be pretty late. 

Sleep is also important for me right now as I'm getting over this awful bout of pneumonia. I've been struggling with it since the end of July, and I'm finally feeling pretty good. So at the moment, exercise is out of the question. Getting more sleep would be the best thing I could do for myself. 

As I embark on this Destination ME journey, I know it's not just for me. If I can get to where I feel like myself again, my family will benefit, too. And my T1D daughter, a teenager, needs good examples healthy living. She doesn't need a grouchy mom with dark circles under her eyes. 

This goal won't be easy. It's years of a bad habit I need to break, but now is the time.

I'm going to say I'd like to be asleep every night by 11pm. That didn't happen last night, even after reading Hallie's post. But tonight I will stick to it. 

** I know I've been absent from my blog for months. I will definitely be back here more often, starting with Murrini Mondays (I have some awesome Halloween murrini to show off!). Then I'll post my new Destination ME goals on Wednesdays. I like the idea of putting a new weekly goal right in the middle of the week - it will change things up for sure. I probably won't post every day because that's when I get overwhelmed and just stop completely. But I'll take baby steps with my blog as I will with my new goals, so please check back!