What Is Your Favorite Thing About Easter?

I absolutely love Spring.  Here where I live, Easter is usually right around the time when Spring is in full bloom.  I love the weather warming up, the flowers & trees blossoming, animals become very active and you can hear kids playing outside.

My absolute favorite thing to do is just step outside and breath it all in.  Nothing is more enjoyable or relaxing than to see Spring come alive.

 It is always fun to see all the kids line up at the mall and wait to meet the Easter bunny.  They are always dressed up so cute in their matching Easter clothing, adorable little hats and bows.  I also enjoy watching a good Easter egg hunt.  It is neat to see even the littlest of kids get so excited to find a hidden egg.

Every year, our family gathers at my mom's house and have an Easter lunch.  After lunch, we sit inside and chat while she goes out and hides the eggs in the yard.  She makes a lot of them really easy to find as our kids are still pretty young.  Some of them she makes more difficult.  We take lots of pictures and video of the kids searching for the eggs.  They each have a basket to fill.  It is really cute to see them fill their baskets to overflow and more eggs fall out then they put in.  This is a tradition that I play to continue and hope my kids will continue it with their children as well.

Don't forget about my annual Easter egg voting contest here on the blog.  The week before Easter, my family gets together one night and we paint eggs.  We try to make original creations.  One egg picture from each family member is uploaded onto my blog and I let my readers vote on which egg is their favorite.  I usually offer a gift card to a store to one lucky person who votes.  Not only is this a fun opportunity for you, my readers, but also bragging rights for my lucky family member.  I have yet to have one of my eggs be a winner :-(.  Last year, my mom's won and the year before my 2 year old won.  Lots of fun is had by all.

Though I love the awesome Easter weather, Spring coming alive, kids enjoying festivities, the real meaning of Easter is always first on my mind.  It is the day we celebrate that Jesus rose from the grave and fulfilled Bible prophecy.  Just like at Christmas, He is the real reason for the season!  Rather than dressing my kids up to go see the Easter bunny, we dress up to go to church and celebrate Jesus with all our friends.

What is your favorite thing about Easter?

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Hop blogging program, for a gift card worth $25.  For more information on how you can participate, click here.

Diabetes Guest Post

This is a Guest Post written by Kristina V. Ridley

Here’s a Quick Way to Prevent Diabetes Through Blood Glucose Test

Having diabetes means having your pancreas affected by Type 2 diabetes. Our blood stream contains glucose, which is converted sugar from what we eat. As soon as it’s in our blood cells, the insulin secreted by the pancreas makes it a sort-of fuel which our body utilizes. If you have Type 2 diabetes, it will be difficult for you to produce and use this insulin. Your body’s cells have a hard time looking for this glucose even if it’s all over your body.

Type 2 diabetes is a serious condition, and because of that the American Diabetes Association is always looking for information about it. With 23.6 million individuals living with diabetes, many have come to associate America with extreme unhealthiness.90% of these patients are suffering from Type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes and the issue of being overweight can be present in several members of a family. The nervous system and the internal organs might end up with irreparable damage if there is an overabundance of glucose in the body.

Life with Diabetes

The easiest and the most efficient way to treat your Type 2 diabetes is through healthy living practices on a daily basis. Among these practices include eating healthy and engaging in exercise. The healthy practices that you regularly do will have an enormous lasting and positive effect on you. To avoid health complications, many doctors have recommended that you ensure that the glucose levels in your body are within the appropriate range.

The blood glucose level in your body can easily be monitored simply by using the finger prick test. Such a test is as good as an HbA1c test when it comes to checking and tracking your glucose fluctuations. This HbA1c test is able to determine the levels of glycated hemoglobin in your body, as well as know if the glucose levels are on the high side. The average level which diabetics maintain, as per the A1c test results, are at seven percent. One can experience a 40% reduction in the possibility of developing risks if people simply ensure that their a1c levels are kept at seven percent.

An Iron Grip Control

If your a1c levels are below this seven percent mark, studies indicate that this could result into something bad. One particular study done in Lancet and Swedish Medical Center located in Seattle, showed that there is a higher death risk for people who use insulin regularly and those who have a1c median levels. On the contrary, there have been many tests that show that it is also healthy to keep your a1c levels at 7%. According to accredited endocrinologist Matt Davies, the seven percent maintaining level of a1c is all right; still, physicians need to consider their patient’s medical history even before they prescribe the treatment.

About the Author - Kristina V. Ridley writes on diabetes meters.org/ , her personal hobby blog focused on helping people get free information to prevent diabetes and test blood glucose at home.

Shopping on December 26?

I can't decide if it is worth it to me to go shopping the day after Christmas. What do you think? I really didn't see any deals yet that jumped out at me.

I will post a Mr. Linky here. If you see a deal that you think is great and worth going out for, please leave a comment or a link to a post about it here.

Olympics Side Note

Most of you are aware that the 2008 Olympics started on August 8th. Though controversial due to being in China, it is an amazing event. I have been watching our US teams competing and they are doing amazing! Though many have disagreement with the games being held in China, I feel we should still be loyal to our country's athletes and cheer them on. The way we can do this is by watching the games. The local TV channels & internet record how many people watch each show. I don't know about you but if I was playing to try to bring home a gold metal to my country, I would want to know that I have a support group. I hope you are all just as excited for our competitors as I am. It takes great talent and dedication to do what they do. Each of us are gifted in some way in our lives. If we dedicated all the time and effort that these athletes do to our gifts, we would be just as amazing. Just a side note of opinion. Feel free to share yours here.