November is Diabetes Awareness Month

The purpose of Diabetes Awareness Month is to provide awareness and education about diabetes.  To honor Diabetes Awareness Month I am going to take a break from homesteading and farming posts and talk more about diabetes.  This month I will be posting everyday using prompts from the American Diabetes Association's "American Diabetes Month Blog 30 Days of Diabetes in November - and Beyond!". 

Yes, I have committed to the challenge, I will be blogging EVERY DAY in November.  This will prove to be a challenge for me, but every day living with diabetes is a challenge and it is so important to educate folks on what living with this disease means. 

Each day I will write a post in response to the prompt.  At the beginning of the post, I will also list my current blood sugar and how that number will affect my day.  I got this idea from a fellow blogger over at Bitter Sweet.  I think it would be a great chance for you readers to see what my numbers are like...sometimes its like telling someone your weight, the good and the bad.   

Today's Prompt: Introduction – Tell us about yourself! Why did you decide to start a blog or share your blog with us?

Current Blood sugar: 122...not bad, but not as low as I would like considering its only 30 minutes until lunch time.  This is the kind of number I like to see.

So, most of you have read my blog for a while and know all about me.   But here is a short recap.  I am 30 years old living in central NC.  I was diagnosed with Type I in June of 2007....not even a year after I was married, bought a new house and started a new career as an Agriculture Teacher. 

After a year of teaching with diabetes I decided to take some time off from my stressful job to maintain my health.  Two years later, I am still officially unemployed but I have plenty of other "jobs" at home...I am a homemaker.  Hubby and I started growing our own food, raising chickens and bees, and I began making most of our food from scratch.  This was prompted by my diagnosis and our need to eat a healthier.  We were healthy folks before, but diabetes meant a whole new outlook on food.  I am very active in the agriculture community here in our town.  I also work part time as a mentor for high school students. 

I first started blogging because I was bored and needed an outlet for my thoughts.  I also wanted to let my friends and family in on some of the crazy things going on in our lives.  This turned into a desire to educate others about our lifestyle and how living simple and healthy was easy.  I have always hoped that one day my blog would cross over in the diabetes online community and stay within the homesteading online community, creating a link between this lifestyle and its benefits for managing diabetes.

So, that is a short introduction to me and my blog.  I hope that this month of blogging about diabetes will bring awareness to my peers and support to those of us living with diabetes.