By Marilyn

This Thanksgiving I’ll be spending the holiday at my brother’s house with his wife and daughter, my husband and my mom.  Not sure what I’ll be bringing yet, but Mom will make sweet potato pies (and lemon meringue pie for my husband and brother).  Last Thanksgiving, Mom ate everything she’s not “supposed” to.  This year…she’ll probably do it again. Especially the candied yams.  “Oh, but it’s just one day of the year!” she’ll say (except it’s not because she’ll do it again at Christmas).  But we just go with the flow.      

Since we have a long weekend coming up, I’ll have time to make her some meals she can keep in the freezer.  I’ll have to see how much room she has, but I’m thinking of making my 15 bean soup with kielbasa and American Chop Suey.  My sister-in-law will bring her over some fresh meals as well.  Mom claims she doesn’t eat the “bad stuff” but I have to keep an eye on her:  she’s been known to eat snacks my sister-in-law bought for the grandkids (like Cheez-its and frozen pizzas).  Sometimes she’ll get into a mood where she’ll say “I’m 80-something years old, why can’t I eat what I want?”  And I’ll tell her “well, don’t you want to see your granddaughters finish high school?” 

She called me the other day, upset because her blood sugars had been a bit out of wack.  Not really sure why.  It could be because she wasn’t exercising enough, but everything’s a guessing game with Diabetes.  She manages her Diabetes with diet, exercise (my 17 year old niece visits her every day after school and the two of them go for a walk) and medications.  But, her doctor recently told her she doesn’t have to take as many medications—so thank the Lord for that!  

All in all though, she’s quite a happy lady.  As she says:  “I’m not so sick I can’t move around.”  And she gets to spend time with her family regularly.