diabetes blog week - day 1: find a friend

Big ups to Karen at Bitter~Sweet for starting Diabetes Blog Week 3 years ago. This is my second year participating, and I'm looking forward to all y'alls posts. Let's get started.

Today's prompt is: Think about the d-blogs you read that you think we may not know about and introduce us to one that you love!!  Let’s all find a new friend today!

ONLY ONE? Unpossible. Here are my faves, in the order they appear in my Google Reader:

+ Carey at dLife
At my house, we call him "The Dude Carey" so as not to confuse him with the other Kerri. He weaves entertaining tales of his family's life with diabetes, mostly featuring his 9 yo son Charlie (dx 2003).  He's funny as hell and has great taste in music. If you dig darkly comic stories with a gooey soft center, Carey's yer man.

+ Joanne at Death of a Pancreas
You guys know that animated video illustrating what NOT to say to parents of kids with diabetes? I LITERALLY quote the part about poison + cookies every time someone asks if my kid can eat that. Joanne was inspired to create that video a year and a half ago and since then I've seen it pop up all over the DOC, from #dsma chats to blog comments and Facebook statuses. Check out her blog for her special brand of Canadian sarcasm and pics of her beautiful kids, including her 4.5 yo daughter Elise (dx 2008).

+ Jules at muffinmoon
I usually find myself smiling while reading a post from Jules, which invariably features stories about her 6 yo son Frank (dx 2008), with special appearances by knitting, cooking, seaside caravan trips, photography projects, and basically all things charming and British. Each post is like a snapshot of her peaceful and creative life and one more than one occasion I've thought: I want to go to there.

+ Meri at Our Diabetic Life
The odds are slim to none that someone visiting my blog wouldn't already be a faithful reader of Meri's as well. But just in case...she and her husband are raising four sons, three of whom have type 1 diabetes. They meet life's challenges with humor, faith and the support of their community, and I have personally benefited from Meri's generosity of time and spirit. Oh yeah, and they also have an awesome diabetes alert dog. How cool is that?

+ Lorraine at This is Caleb
Lorraine's blog does a great job of balancing posts about her family's experience with diabetes from her perspective, as well as first-person accounts from her 8 yo son Caleb (dx 2007). She's also posted a lot of infotaining videos featuring Caleb over the years that really helped my family during the first few months after L's diagnosis.

+ Reyna at Beta Buddies
Reyna's got a knack for storytelling that is difficult to describe. Her inimitable voice comes through loud and clear in all of her posts, whether she's talking about her 9 yo son Joe (dx 2006), or the other members of her family. She's a tremendous advocate in her day-to-day life and if there was an award for Best Mascara, she would win it every time.

+ Amy at wait for it
I never know what I'm gonna get when I see a new post from Amy. Will it be a story about her boxing training? Will she be describing a personal experience about the transformative power of theatre? Perhaps she'll be sharing photos of one of the many creepy crawly critters she welcomes into her home.  Or it might be something about her family, including her 8 yo son Theo (dx 2010). Whatever the topic, her posts always leave me with something to think about.

+ Amy at Type 1 Today
Music-lovin' d-mom who has a knack for tying the perfect song into whatever experience she and her family, including her 14 yo son Matt (dx 2009), are going through. And if you know me, you know how important music is to my daily life, so it's easy to see why I'm down with her blog.

+ Steve at Without Envy
You guys, Steve is like, a published author and shit. That means he makes words real good. His 10 yo daughter Lia was diagnosed just a few months after my own daughter (2009), so reading about how he and his family are dealing with things along a similar timeline to my own family's has been unexpectedly comforting. Also, homeboy knows his way around a turn of phrase. Srsly.

+ Kristin at Luke's D Day
Kristin has been in the D biz for almost exactly the same amount of time as me, and she was the first person to ever comment on my blog. She's spent the last couple of years doing some serious advocating for her 3 yo son Luke (dx 2009). She blogs about her efforts to raise awareness and encourage positive legislation in her home state of Washington, as well as the DC version. She also posts awesome vacation pics of her family, featuring her very sassy hairdo.

+ Zakary at Raising Colorado
11 yo daughter Zoe (dx 2010), squirrels, photographs, asians, colorado, swearing, hijinx, hilarity

+ Katy at Bigfoot Child Have Diabetes
A couple of weeks ago, Kerri posted a link to what I call The Bigfoot Blog, and I sat unmoving on my couch for the next few hours mainlining every single post, in reverse chronological order. My surprised barks of laughter echoed off the walls of my empty house, since my family was at soccer practice and thereby not in need of my attention (luckily for everyone involved). If that's not enough of an endorsement for you, how about this one: Katy refers to her 8 yo son (dx 2011) by the nickname of 'Bubs'. Because that's the name of the recovering heroin addict on the critically-acclaimed television program called 'The Wire'. ALL ON ACCOUNT OF THE NEEDLES, GET IT? Also, she created a tag for posts mentioning the 'Portlandia Food Allergy Pride Parade', so. That should tell you all you need to know to determine whether or not her blog is your cup of tea (so delicious coconut milk optional).

Have you guys noticed a common thread between all of these blogs? They're all written by parents of kids with diabetes. You might think that means I don't read any other types of blogs in the DOC. Oh contrayer moan frare (I took Spanish in school). But all the adult PWD blogs I enjoy seem so widely read, I would be surprised if you'd not already heard of them. However, I'd feel remiss if I didn't at least give them a little shoutout here at the end. So here are some more linkies to check out, just in case your RSS feed feels a little lonely: George, Ginger, Haidee, Jacquie, Jess, Kerri, Kim, Lee Ann, Martin, Mike, Sara, Scott, Scott, and Simon.

Happy Reading! :D