Tales of a Shoebox Princess

It seems like Matt just jumped on the robotics team train a few months ago, but he assures me that it's been 4 years. It took me a while to understand how robotics works, from the teams at the school to the competitions themselves, and just when I think I have a handle on it, he goes and graduates. I can tell you that he has learned so much from participating in robotics: using tools and machines to manufacture parts, deciding on a strategy which determines the robot's functionality, then deciding what parts and assemblies would work best, to ordering parts within a budget, and having to work with other students who have slightly different ideas, leadership, teaching younger kids how to work machines and how generally to be a good parts maker, team strategy and so much more. I am of the opinion that his time in robotics has taught him a great deal more than his actual public education.  The banquet was held at a golf club and the dinner was pasta, veg, and salad. I allowed...

10 things I wouldn't have done two weeks ago (before diabetes diagnosis. Not before diabetes, because I realize that I've probably been diabetic for a while now) 1. Stare at my 1/4 c of cottage cheese and 1/4 of an apple, chopped, and will it to be satisfying. Heck, BDD (before diabetes diagnosis), limiting any sort of consumable food to 1/4 c serving or a 1/4 of the whole would have been "NOT ENOUGH." (Actually, I was surprised at how decent the snack was. I'll eat it again and won't complain about the serving size) 2. Same with 1/4 c rolled oats with barely a tsp of brown sugar and raspberries in almond milk. BDD, if I ate oatmeal, I ate 1/2 c of it with about a tbsp of brown sugar (which I considered myself practically saintly for doing, as SOME people in this family put about 1/4 c of brown sugar on their oats. Oh, how the self-diagnosed saintly have fallen). It was enough. I ate it before working out. Then I came home and had 2 eggs and half an avocad...

I've been diagnosed with diabetes. What fun!  Finger pricking daily, insulin pills daily, radical diet change daily. The diet change has hit hard. I'm not sad or shaking my fist in the air or yelling "Why me?" As for "Why me?" I know why: me. I do love me some veg and I eat them a lot, but I also love me some carbohydrates, specifically chocolate, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, more chocolate, fruit with a high sugar content, cookies, cake, pastries, cereal, donuts, cupcakes, etc. Sigh. It's going to take some getting used to, not eating those yummy things like I used to. I'm doing ok restricting carbs, but what do I eat to replace them? I am leery of eating too much animal meat for fear of cholesterol, and nuts because of the fat. I could eat more veg I guess and I have been doing that. I haven't gotten to the point where I cry for loss of carbs, it's more that I haven't expanded my list of what I can eat yet to a point where my stoma...