Dare to Care

Tonight I came out as this sweet slice of my day began. The sun was just setting. The weather was perfect as I read and commented on some Slices of Life from my friends. This month is almost finished, and I will be relieved when it’s over. However, I have enjoyed every day in March, and I love getting to better know my writing friends through their writing.

One of the blog posts I read this evening was Barb Elder’s “Cowpoking: Writing Advice”, with an added sijo poem. I tried a simple draft using this form.

Breezes blowing through the bent
palo verde tree shiver and ride

the waves of air whispering
in this perfectly springing day

Soon it will be too hot and I
will remember this evening

When today’s time began, my sister and I were sitting around the table. I had invited her over for a Reuben, both of our favorite sandwich. We had finished eating, and I was busy munching on cookies she had brought over. (I ate the sweets after dinner at least, but I had too many, and no walking afterwards. Tonight, my lowering A1C post from yesterday seemed just a distant memory that I don’t really believe.)

I left the table, and within the 31 minutes, I:

• read three books to Indy (my sister’s granddaughter)
• watched a bit of Baby Shark’s Space Adventure (it nearly put me over the edge)
• began helping my sister attach a document to an application she made for a county building permit

And that was the end of today’s slice. I hit some snags, had to change passwords, and more. It took 40 minutes for me to figure out how to attach that document!

Heather Morris wrote a delightful poem yesterday about a bad habit that brings her joy. After my dinner, I wrote a poem about one of my worst habits; but unfortunately, it still brings me joy.

I want to eat healthy. I do.
But my bad habit is deep;
I eat too many sweets.

The Glucose Goddess
inspires me somedays,
but too often doesn’t

I will keep up the fight,
finding ways to eat healthy
keeping just a little sweetness

For dinner, I ate some raw carrots and then a BBQ pork sandwich. Then I took a 10-minute walk around my yard.

The last two times I’ve had blood work, my A1C was in the prediabetic range. The number went up a tenth of a point each time. I don’t want that to keep happening, so I decided this time I needed to do something about making it go down instead of up. Have you heard of the Glucose Goddess? She is Jessie Inchauspé, a French biochemist and author.  She suggests some ways to eat to avoid glucose spikes, which hopefully will help the A1C go down. (I’ll have it tested again in April, so I’ll let you know if it worked.)

In the meantime, here are some of the easy hacks for keeping your blood sugar on an even keel:

1. Eat vegetables or salad first.
2. Have a savory breakfast.
3. Move after you eat.
4. Choose savory snacks.
5. Eat sweets after a meal only, not for a snack.
6. Dress up your carbs–with protein, fat or fiber (e.g., avocado toast or hummus and pita).

Read more at glucosegoddess.com

When today’s slice of the day started, I was out taking a walk. It’s just a 1.5 mile loop around a mountain in my neighborhood.

Take a short bit of my walk with me.

After a 45-minute walk, I returned home at 4:43 p.m. Time to sit on the porch for a few while I enjoy my plants and take my shoes off.

Today’s slice included getting things ready for dinner tonight. On the menu: baked potatoes, corn, sourdough bread, and meat (my husband is in charge of that). Our friends, K & L, were helping us in the kitchen. My sister-in-law is bringing salad. My sister is bringing cookies. We invited my siblings over to meet our friends, who are leaving tomorrow.

The rest of my 31 minutes was spent finishing the last few pages of the book How to They/Them by Stuart Getty because it belongs to K & L, so it’s leaving tomorrow. Here are two example pages with their important sentiments:

Our guests took us out for happy hour and a late lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant. As we left the restaurant at 3:45, they asked if we could stop at Walmart for a few items they needed. “Of course, we can,” I said. I am the designated driver, after all.

I passed all the empty parking places on my side of the row, so then I decided to back in to the loan empty space on the other side. It took much wiggling back and forth, and I had a car load of jokesters being entertained by my parking. At one point Keith hit the inside of the truck wall in the back seat where he was sitting. I jumped and stopped, thinking I had hit something (or thinking my husband had done his same old joke.) I finally got it parked.

Before we got out of the truck, Keith said, “Hey, where’s my hat!? I guess I left it at the restaurant.”

“We can go back,” I said to our friends, “while you shop.”

Keith and I started back, and he said, “I’m sorry I hit the truck. I’m under the influence…of being a jerk. It’s been a long ride on the jerk mobile. Got any medications for that? I think you might have been sympathy intoxicated back there while you were parking, though, so I shouldn’t have scared you.” (No one was really intoxicated. There were only two small margaritas ordered at our table.)

“Okay, no problem. I know you,” I said. “Just a warning, though. We are in my slice of the day right now, so anything you say and do during these 31 minutes are game for my blog post tonight.”