I got bento boxes & other goodies from Japan!

My friend Tracey, who lives in Japan, sent me a box of goodies and wow, was I surprised when I opened it! First, how she got all that stuff into a small box is beyond me (Tracey, were you a mover/packer in a previous life?) and second, I'm thrilled she sent so much! She really outdid herself and what she sent will be so helpful to me in my efforts to take healthy, low carb meals to work.


Here's a two tier bento box and insulated bag


And here's the top of the bento box, opened to show the chopsticks nestled in their rightful place. Do I know how to use chopsticks? Nope, but I'm going to learn.


Here's a small one tier box. I think this is a sidecar. Tracey?


This is a red bento box, a belt to put around it, a cloth to wrap it in, a napkin (I think) and chopsticks. Red is one of my favorite colors and this is just great!


All wrapped up and ready to go


Here we have animal and fishie sauce bottles and kitchen sponges with faces!

My friend also sent candy, seasoning type items to be added to rice, and a few more goodies but the pictures of those things didn't turn out well. I'll try again tomorrow. In the meantime, I have some wonderful new things to play with.

Arigato gozaimasu, tomodachi!

Tuesday plans

I'm off tomorrow and Wednesday and plan to stay in town tomorrow. I'm going to cook a beef roast, get the laundry tended to, clean the place, and pay some bills. Wednesday I'll go to Mom's house to cook, do their laundry, and clean their house. Ha, what days off? ;)

Stress and blood sugar

Well, my mother is home from the hospital but I'm not so sure that's a good thing. I absolutely had to go to work today since I left work last Tuesday morning when I was told about the accident and hadn't been back. My two sisters are with her now. But both sisters have businesses, lives, etc. and can't stay forever. One of my nephews came into town tonight and is staying until tomorrow night. I'm off Tuesday and Wednesday and will spend at least one of those days with her and my oldest son is planning to come into town this weekend so he'll be there to help out. Mom has accepted that she's going to have to have some kind of help so the sisters are going to work on that tomorrow.

I did find out the other driver had some kind of surgery but is going to be 'okay'. That makes us all feel a little better.

All this last week I managed to keep my blood sugar in beautiful control. With the help of insulins, a little exercise, and good diet, of course. And I did very well today until I had a customer who just set me off. She's one who comes in now and then and is known for being a very difficult person. She seems to look down on others and if everything about her visit isn't perfect, she runs to management. Even when it is perfect, she complains. That's what happened today. Fortunately, management stood up for me but the stress of the situation did a number on my BG. Not long before she showed up it was 110. About 30 minutes after she showed it was 229. Sheeeeesh! I haven't been able to get it under control the rest of the day. Its either way too high or way too low.

Stress definitely affects my blood sugar and most diabetics report the same thing. But what to do about it? It's impossible to live a stress free life but we can certainly minimize the impact stress has on us. Exercise helps but when I'm working I can't just go outside and walk around the parking lot for 30 minutes. There are a few other things I do but today none of them worked. The stress from mom's accident and dealing with all that goes with that combined with the stress of work was just too much for me, I guess. I took my 15 minute break and went outside and cried! I probably should have walked the parking lot while crying but I didn't. I sat down and cried like a baby for about 10 minutes. Sadly, I didn't feel better after the crying jag. In fact, I felt stupid and more stressed!

The day has been downhill since. Please keep us in your prayers. I need to be healthy and strong and letting bitchy customers get to me isn't going to help me to be either.