This has been a stressful week. My journalism class published the April issue of the school newspaper, AND prepared to ship the second third of our yearbook pages to the publisher. That has meant a lot of proofing and a lot of late hours at the computer. It has also meant a lot of extra adrenaline.

There is no doubt that "intense physical exercise" is the best for me as a Type O.

On Monday I rode my bike. To tell the truth there was no time for exercise, so I jumped on the bike and did two errands. I rode hard and felt great. Tuesday I did stretching exercises with a video tape. I'm sure my joints benefit from the stretching, but it didn't work off the tension in my muscles.

Wednesday I ran two miles. I usually run about a mile and a half in a hilly area. Because I ran on a fairly level path near my house, I ran two miles. I was energized! I not only felt great physically, but I had the satisfaction of breaking through a barrier. It was the first time I had run 2 full miles since before my son was born.

Thursday I was a little sore from the 2 mile run, so I gave my muscles a rest. The right decision for my legs I'm sure, but I could feel the build up of stress in my shoulders.

I just got in from a hard swim. I feel wonderful. All the tension was left behind in the water.

I had my annual physical yesterday. It was 14 months ago that, after trying everything I knew to do, I complained to our family doctor about increasingly painful indigestion. He put me on Nex-ium. Two months later, when I wasn't feeling significantly better, he sent me to a specialist. When the specialist could not find a reason for the inflammation in my stomach, providence led me to the Blood Type Diet. Sometime I will write those details, but today's blog is about yesterday's appointment.

My doctor noticed immediately that I had lost 15 pounds. I told him that when the specialist had nothing to offer, I read that Type Os were the most likely to have stomach and digestive system problems. He raised his eyebrows. I said that as I read about the Blood Type Diet, I realized that I was eating the wrong foods first thing every morning. I told him I started following the Type O diet and was off the medication in less than two weeks.

He asked what I ate, and I told him lots of protein and lots of fruits and vegetables, very little grain*, and no dairy. He said, "If you don't eat wheat, do you eat corn?" I said no, that rice, kamut and oats were ok, but that I didn't really eat much of them. He wanted to be sure that if I wasn't eating dairy that I was taking calcium. Other than that, he didn't have a single negative thing to say. He totally approved of the quantity of fresh food I eat. He looked over my cholesterol report and said it looked great

He has been our family doctor since 1979, and he has not always approved of some of the vitamin programs I've tried. However, he did not in any way discourage me from continuing to pursue the Blood Type Diet.

* No longer grain free. click here for more info

A comment from Joan and a line in Catherine's blog got me thinking about how I make practical decisions about living life on the Blood Type Diet.

I've condensed a paragraph from Catherine's blog. "A big chunk of my money has gone on health supplements and foods. I can't help feeling resentful about that sometimes…There are so many different approaches and brands…Practitioners and manufacturers are also trying to make money so how do you know who to trust?"

Joan's comment (after I wrote about my daughter taking protein bars on a mission trip) was: "What soy protein bars did she get?" I could imagine Joan thinking - "Suzanne has found a blood type friendly protein bar!!!"

My store has an entire shelf of protein bars. They cost as little as 75 cents and as much as $3. To be honest, I didn't read the ingredients and I don't remember the brand name. I had my daughter pick soy bars that sounded good to her and were a dollar or less. The way I looked at it - if she chose it herself she would eat it. If the first ingredient was soy protein, it would be infinitely better for her (Type A) than chips, candy bars or other vending machine snacks.

I could have read the labels and picked something expensive that she didn't want. What would be the point of that? I walked a fine line between being strictly on the diet and being practical.

I face the same sort of decisions at the grocery store. Organic carrots cost about the same as regular carrots, so I buy organic. Organic fruit is way too expensive for my budget, so I buy regular. At the meat counter, I can choose between cheap commercial chicken, moderately priced no-hormone chicken or expensive organically fed chicken. I go for the middle. In supplements, I choose capsules over tablets because they are better absorbed, and I buy moderately priced, respected brands at a health food store.

I have to be practical. How long would my family go along with the Blood Type Diet if I spent so much money on rare foods and supplements that we had to disconnect the satellite TV or buy generic tennis shoes? Not Long!!

Some of you are horrified at what I just wrote. Most of you are breathing a sigh of relief. Like Catherine, your budget won't allow you to buy the best all the time. Don't be resentful, and trust your own good judgment. Maximize the beneficials; minimize the avoids. You will feel better, and you will be less stressed.

My daughter left this morning on a mission trip. Her 8th grade class from school will spend 5 days working in a homeless shelter in another city. They will be doing clean up projects in the morning and working with children in after school care in the afternoons.

Sometimes I have told funny stories about her resistance to trying new foods that would be beneficial to her as a type A. But this weekend as she packed and repacked her suitcase, I could see that she really has absorbed a lot about eating right for her type.

She was concerned about breakfast. She starts each day with a shake made with soy milk and a soy protein mix. She likes it smooth, like when she makes it in the blender; not lumpy, like when she shakes or stirs. So she asked to buy a hand blender. It will also be useful on vacation this summer. After much debate she decided to take the protein mix, but not the soy milk. She can keep the mix in her suitcase, and she wasn't sure she would have access to a refrigerator.

They will be eating and sleeping at a nearby youth camp. "You should see the menu, Mom," she said, "hotdogs, hamburgers, chicken nuggets." We decided she could take a jar of peanut butter. Type As can live on peanut butter for weeks. (I enjoy smelling it when I fix her a sandwich, but I choose almond and sesame butter for myself.) The good news about dinner was that there would be a salad bar. There are many good Type A choices in a salad bar.

She bought some soy protein bars to keep in her back pack for snacks when they are at the shelter.

I'm going to miss her a lot this week. I'm pleased that she understood on her own that she will feel better and have more energy if she watches what she eats. Even more, I'm glad she is willing to serve others in the name of the Lord.

I am facing a yearbook deadline at the end of next week. So today is another Saturday at the school, proofing student page submissions. I packed tuna, English peas, and parsnips for lunch; and while I eat I thought I'd blog.

In our family my daughter seems to have the best immune system. She is rarely sick and when she is, she usually fights it off quickly. My husband has the worst immune system. When he catches a cold it goes on and on, turns into a secondary infection, and he winds up on antibiotics. My son and I are in the middle. We occasionally pick up a bug, and it takes us several days to fight it off.

I have long been concerned about my husband so frequently being on antibiotics. I have convinced him to try lots of vitamins, herbs, and potions over the years. Nothing has kept him from being on antibiotics 2 or 3 times each winter.

He went to the doctor for a shoulder spasm last week, and that caused us to review our health. We suddenly realized that he hadn't been on antibiotics a single time all winter. We also realized that our daughter had had one brief cold, I had one brief cold, and our son had called from college once seeking advice about a scratchy throat that quickly disappeared. My husband had two colds, but he got over both within a week.

I speculated that his Type A Diet, particularly less milk and meat but more legumes and soy, might be the cause. As I said in my biography, my husband is skeptical, but he can't come up with anything else that was different about this winter.

I had never tasted fresh pineapple juice until today, and I was not prepared for how delicious it would be.

Everyone in my family loves fresh pineapple. I can buy two kinds in my local stores. Mexican pineapples are very inexpensive, but they are not very juicy and not very sweet. Del Monte Golds, grown in Costa Rica, are very juicy and very sweet. They are also rather expensive. I haven't seen a Hawaiian pineapple locally in ages.

After some bad experiences with Mexican pineapples years ago, I decided never to buy them again. I would wait for a good price on the Golds. We eat them slowly, enjoying every bite.

When I started the Blood Type Diet, I couldn't understand why pineapple was neutral but pineapple juice was beneficial. I've read Dr. D'Adamo's explanation, and it made sense - sort of. I keep little 6 oz. cans of pineapple juice around. They make great snacks and are handy for breakfast when we're traveling. But I was appalled at the idea of juicing one of my expensive, sweet Golds. In addition, I know how important the fiber in fresh fruits is to my intestinal health. I didn't want to discard it.

This week I noticed a really good price on Mexican pineapples, and I wondered what would happen if I juiced them. It couldn't hurt to try. The juice came out of the juicer frothy and thick, nothing like the thin, pale pineapple juice in the cans. Everything about it tasted beneficial and wonderful.

Now, whichever pineapples are on special will be in my shopping cart: the Golds for eating and the cheap Mexican pineapples for juicing.

There are several family favorite meals that I no longer make because they call for avoids like cream of mushroom soup or sour cream. When I read in Paul's blog that silken tofu can be used as a sauce, I was very excited. Tofu is a beneficial for the two As in my family, and as far as I know it is neutral for me. I bought silken tofu as my new food for last week.

I put some in the blender, and it did indeed become wonderfully creamy. Then I started blending in things for taste. My husband and daughter were watching a movie together. Every time I thought I might have a good sauce, I would go into the den with two taste spoons. Every time I left the den with decidedly negative responses. They were relieved when I gave up and tossed the creamy mess into the trash.

Next I went on the internet. There are lots of tofu sauce recipes are out there, but they are either for sweet dessert-like sauces or the first ingredient is vinegar. Since vinegar is an avoid for my Type As, I could forget all those recipes.

We had chef salad over the weekend, so I cut some of the tofu into little cubes and added it to the salads. My husband said, "It's ok, but not as good as soy cheese." My daughter gave hers to the dog, and made sure I noticed that even the dog didn't finish it.

They wanted to know what tofu really was. I said that it was a different form of soy, sort of like sour cream and cream cheese are different forms of milk products. Then my daughter wanted to know why I never bought blueberry cream cheese any more. She already knew the answer - it is an avoid for everyone in the family. I said, "What if I blend blueberries into the tofu, would you try it for breakfast?" She raised her eyebrows and said, "I'd try it - but not tomorrow."

So I have failed my first tofu test. The remnant of my first purchase is now way past the expiration date. I'm not giving up. But I will wait a few weeks before I experiment with tofu again.

I've been doing some shopping at the before and after Easter sales. To my delight, I'm wearing a size smaller in dresses and shorts.

Compared to the world of advertising, this doesn't seem like a remarkable feat. I heard an ad on the radio today with a girl gushing how on some diet she had lost 20 pounds in two months. I read a magazine ad that said buy this exercise equipment and you'll tone your tummy in four weeks.

Compared to those wild claims my modest dress size in a year seems pretty tame. It's certainly not going to get me an advertising contract. Nonetheless, I'm very pleased, and I'll tell you why.

I did not go on the Blood Type Diet to lose weight. I was happy enough with my weight before. Oh, I knew I didn't have the perfect figure, but I was content. I started on the Blood Type Diet because nothing else, including some high priced medicines, had helped my indigestion and GERD. When my GERD symptoms were gone in a week, and I could stop taking the medication, I made a lifetime commitment to the BTD.

I don't watch my portions, because I'm not trying to lose weight. I eat whenever I'm hungry, but I only eat beneficial and neutral foods. I eat until I feel satisfied. Even so, I lost 5-6 pounds the first 2 months I was following the BTD. In the 9 months since then, I've lost another 5-6 pounds. That translates into a size smaller swimsuit for the summer.

For me, losing weight has been a bonus. If your goal is to lose weight, I think you will see success on the BTD. Perhaps your bonus will be that you feel better, and then you will do what I did - make a lifetime commitment to eating right for your type.

The current fad restaurant at our daughter's school is a burrito restaurant called Chipotle. My daughter has been eager to go there, so today after church we tried it, and found it to be remarkably Blood Type friendly.

There are only three menu items: burritos, tacos, and bowls. For a Type O the choice was easy. The burritos and the tacos had grains I must avoid, so I chose a bowl.

A server then adds to your bowl (or burrito or taco) only the ingredients that you want.

I chose grilled steak and romaine lettuce, both beneficial for an O. I also chose rice and black beans, both neutrals. I passed on the sauces because I wasn't sure what was in them.

My Type A husband also got a bowl. He selected rice, black beans (beneficial for him) romaine lettuce, and guacamole. My Type A daughter got a burrito with pinto beans (beneficial for her) and chicken.

The portions were generous, so we all had plenty to eat. It was a unique idea and a very enjoyable lunch

One line in Mike's blog on famous quotes about the treatment of animals and eating meat sent me off on a search of my Bible this morning.

When people quote the Ten Commandments, they usually quote the King James Version which translates the words "Thou shalt not kill." Any modern language translation done by Christians or Jews translates it this way: You shall not murder. Exodus 20:13.

This verse has been incorrectly used as an argument against capital punishment and for vegetarianism. It has nothing to do with either issue. It is a commandment against murder.

The verse I relied on during my "health nut" days when everything I read urged me to become a vegetarian was this:

1 Timothy 4:3

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.

I knew I felt bad and got sick every time I took meat out of my diet. Back then this verse confirmed to me that those who said everyone should be a vegetarian were false teachers. Now that I understand the blood type diet, I can see how God designed some of us to thrive on meat and some of us to thrive on vegetarianism. As the end of that verse says, it's important to know the truth.

I did a scripture search this morning and came up with a few other verses for Type Os who are made to feel guilty about eating meat.

Genesis 9:3

Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

Romans 14:6-8

He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

Moses ate lamb at the Passover and ate quail that was miraculously provided by God. Jesus ate fish and lamb and told a story about eating "the fatted calf".

I'm busy just like you. Today I had paper work to do in the morning plus laundry and mowing the yard. I had an appointment at 11:15, and I needed to get to school early to prepare for my journalism students. My daughter had a dentist appointment right after school, and then we had to photograph a tennis tournament.

I was trying to think creatively, but it was going to be hard to fit exercise into the schedule. I strapped on my ankle weights, 1.5 pounds each, and started the lawn mower. Our yard is not totally flat, and our lawn mower is not self propelled. Before I had finished half the front my heart rate was up and I was breathing hard. By the time I finished the back, I had probably gotten a better workout than I do when I run.

This came from Reader's Digest:

Did you hear about the sword swallower who was on a diet? He was on pins and needles for six weeks.

Two more new veggies and I'll be caught up. These are two of my favorite discoveries, but they have not been popular with my family.

One day I was looking for unfamiliar foods in the produce department and saw a sign for Mexican potatoes. A closer look found the word Jicama on a label of a furry looking vegetable. The ER4YT data base listed it as a neutral. My vegetable guide said if it was eaten raw it was like water chestnuts; if it was cooked it was like oven fries. I hadn't had French fries since last summer, and oven fries sounded really good. My daughter and I think these are delicious. My husband and son say "no thanks." She, like me, has made the decision to stop eating potatoes. My husband and son both know that potatoes are avoids, but will still order a value meal at a fast food restaurant. My theory is that the longer you go without "real" French Fries, the better the Jicima fries taste.

When I noticed parsnips were beneficial to Type Os and Type As, I set out to find some. I asked a young man working in the produce department if he had any parsnips, and he gave me a totally blank look. He checked his vegetable guide and said, "Oh, you mean white carrots. That's what most people call them." While he went to get some, I saw that his guide said they were good with maple syrup. That first night I cooked them in the pressure cooker. They were really soft and by the time I stirred in maple syrup and butter, they looked liked mashed potatoes. I told the family they were parsnips, not mashed potatoes, but no one really liked them (was it the taste or the way they looked?). I still had half a bag left, so a few days later I sliced them and steamed them until they were barely soft. I tossed them with maple syrup and butter and they were delicious. The family has tried them fixed the new way, and still does not care for them. I fix them for myself at least once a week. I can't get enough. They are high in potassium; maybe my body needs more potassium right now. It is a bit of a disappointment that my enthusiasm for parsnips is not shared by anyone in my house.

As I was driving my son to meet his ride back to college, we were talking about dorm food. They have two types of dining halls: traditional cafeterias and newly renovated food courts. The food courts are the most popular with the students. I was warning him about the food courts because of all the wheat in the sandwiches and pastas that are served there.

He said that he had been eating breakfast and dinner in the cafeterias. He usually has eggs and fruit for breakfast and lots of vegetables and salad for dinner. He does, however, like meeting friends for lunch in the food courts. He said, "Don't worry Mom; I really don't eat a lot of wheat. I have a motto: Eat Meat, Not Wheat."

There it is - Type O basics in four words. Then we were at his roommate's house, hugging and saying good bye.

For those of you who have little children at home, I would say three words, "Treasure each day." You have no idea how quickly those little ones will grow up. I have watched friends wish their children's childhood away saying, "I can't wait until he sleeps through the night." "I can't wait until she can talk and I don't have to guess what she wants." I can't wait until he can walk and I don't have to carry him everywhere." "I can't wait until she starts school so I can have a minute of peace and quiet." I can't wait until he can drive so I don't have to take him to soccer practice and music lessons." Suddenly they're grown up and packing their bags.

Share the adventure with your toddlers and preschoolers as they explore their world. Be there when they say their first words and take their first steps. Listen to the stories they tell and answer all their questions. Delight in their smiles and their joy. Those will be the memories you treasure as they wave good bye and drive away.

Our son came home from college for the three day Easter Holiday. It was wonderful to see him, and to have him telling funny stories about dorm life around the kitchen table. Two aspects of his visit touched on Blood Type Diet issues, and I'll share them with you.

Body building is currently very popular at his school. There are three weight rooms at the student rec. center, and girls as well as guys are into the trend. One of his friends decided to give up meat for lent. When this boy stopped eating meat, he stopped building muscle. No matter how hard he worked, without protein, he could not increase his muscle mass. My son and I speculated about what his blood type might be, and concluded that it is highly likely that he is a Type O like us. There's an application here for me. One of my goals is to firm my muscles, and that means I have got to keep my protein intake high.

On his first night home he was helping set the table for dinner, and asked "Do we have any milk?" I answered that I didn't buy much milk anymore since his dad and sister had pretty much switched over to soy milk. He said, "This summer, I think I'm going to want to drink milk." That is ok with me. I stay really close to the BTD myself, but I am not strict with my family. However, next morning when I made my daughter her morning protein shake, I made one for my son as well. Back when he was running track in high school, I made protein shakes for him all the time, but I made them with cow's milk. This time I made it with soy milk and did not tell him. He liked it, and was really surprised when he found out it was soy milk. He says that they serve a lot of vegetarian meals in the dorm, but that he has never seen soy milk there. Dorm food has come a long way since the 70s when I was in college, but I hope they add soy milk to the menu before my daughter gets there in 4 years.

As a journalist I like to know what the opposition is saying, so occasionally I go on the internet and read what critics of the Blood Type Diet have written. It's usually something like this, "What an odd idea that blood type would have anything to do with what you should eat. Food goes in your stomach, not your blood vessels." I'll let Dr. D'Adamo continue to give his excellent scientific response to such criticism, but I have some thoughts on my emotional response.

The Bible says "Life…is in the blood." Leviticus 17:11. So it doesn't surprise me that blood has everything to do with our health and what we eat. In fact it seems pretty natural for that to be true.

We celebrate Easter because Jesus shed his blood on the cross and rose from the dead. People say "What an odd idea that the death of a man who lived so long ago would have anything to do with me." What it has to do with you is that the Son of God was willing to take the punishment that you and I deserve for the wrong we have done. "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." Hebrews 9:22

So today I wish you a Happy Easter. I wish you success and good health as you follow the Blood Type Diet. And I wish you the inner peace you can find if you accept the gift Christ offered when he shed his blood for you.

My daughter has not had a glass of milk since the day I started on the Blood Type Diet. She never liked milk, and she resisted drinking it. When I read that milk was an avoid for Type As I felt so guilty. I said, "I will never make you drink a glass of milk again." She has a protein shake made with soy milk for breakfast every morning, and she eats yogurt several times a week, but she has not touched cow's milk. However at 14, her body needs calcium. I had been giving her 160 mg of magnesium and 400 mg of calcium a day.

She swims in a summer swim league, and she asked if I would consider swimming at night so that she could start getting in shape for the season. Three weeks ago we went to the pool together. She blew past me on the first lap, but several minutes later she was sitting on the side of the pool. She had a serious foot cramp. She stretched it and massaged it, but she was through swimming for the night. I knew it was her calcium so I added another 500 mg per day.

Last week she swam a little farther, but again had to stop because of a cramp in the other foot. This week she's taken 320 mg of magnesium and 1100 mg of calcium. She swam tonight completely free of pain.

When I started trying a new vegetable a week I was at a loss about what to do with some of them. If you've never had escarole, it helps to know that it's a type of lettuce! (I know half of you are thinking how can anyone not know what escarole is and the other half of you are saying esca-what.) I have lots of cook books, but most of them have fancy recipes with lots of avoids. I went to Half Price Books (a used book store) and found several vegetable guides. I bought one that described how to choose vegetables and how to prepare them.

This week the grocery had really fresh looking Swiss Chard. When I got home I consulted the vegetable book and learned that Swiss Chard is "two vegetables in one." The book said to strip the leaves from the stems and cook the leaves like spinach. They were very good, almost as good as beet greens. The book said the stems could be eaten either raw or cooked like asparagus. I prepared them both ways and we voted. My daughter and I both like them raw. I ate mine dipped in olive oil, she dipped hers in peanut butter. My husband preferred them cooked.

I'm going to stick with my "new veggie" topic for a few more days. Having been on the Blood Type Diet for less than a year, I want to encourage you if you are searching around this web site wondering, "What in the world do I eat with my meat if I don't eat potatoes, bread or corn."

When I first read the Type O beneficial list and saw dandelion, I thought "You've got to be kidding - that's a weed." It would have been a long, long time before I paid money for a weed, beneficial or not. However, I was invited to a birthday party at a very trendy restaurant, and as I looked over the menu some words jumped out at me "…served on a bed of five greens including dandelion…" I ordered it, and surprise, surprise, it tasted fine. I still had not bought dandelion until yesterday. I saw some in the grocery store. It looked a little wilted, so when I got home I cut off the bottom two inches for the stems and plunged the whole bunch in a tub of water. By the time I got back to them a couple of hours later, they had perked up quite a bit.

For breakfast every morning I eat a mixture of seeds and fruit, except on the mornings that I run. Then I make an omelet, usually filled with some vegetable left in the refrigerator. This morning on a whim I put dandelion on top of the eggs. It cooked nicely, just like spinach, and tasted good. Tonight my unsuspecting husband and daughter will find dandelion in their salad.

Probably the best of the greens I have tried so far has been beet greens. Most other cooked greens need quite a bit of seasoning, but beet greens are delicious with just a little butter or olive oil.

The only thing wrong with beet greens is that they come attached to beets. I just can't develop a taste for beets. I'm glad they are a neutral. When I acquired a used juicer, I bought a book on juicing. The man who wrote it has long lists of juice combinations, but his #1 standby is carrot, celery & beet juice. The taste of that combination grows on you. So, I rummage through all the beets in the produce department selecting the bunch that has the most greens and the smallest beets. I thoroughly enjoy my cooked beet greens. Then I use up the beets in juice. (My favorite proportion is 3 carrots, 2 stalks celery, ½ beet).

When I first started the BTD, I focused on weeding out the avoids in my diet, and eating more of the beneficials that I liked. Soon I became curious about foods on the beneficial list that I had never heard of. I decided to try one new food a week until I'd tasted all the beneficials. I'll start today catching you up on my new foods so far.

I had never eaten artichoke. I tried canned and they were horrible. Frozen were not any better. One day they were on sale 2 for a dollar in the produce department. I bought two and cooked them in the pressure cooker. They were delicious. I served them to my family dreading the response. It turned out my husband ate artichokes growing up and likes them a lot. My daughter doesn't like the way they look and hasn't gotten up the courage to try them. When her brother is home from college this summer, I'll see if I can get them to be brave together.

The first few times I fixed collard greens I ate them only because they were beneficials. Now I grill an onion, then add a small amount of water and the collards. They taste pretty good that way. They are really good when I season them with curry powder OR Cajun seasoning. I buy fresh when I can, but I keep a bag of frozen collards in the freezer all the time. They taste about the same to me.

My new beneficial last week was aduki beans. I bought a can of Eden organic adukis, salt free and seasoned with seaweed. Everyone liked them which is great because they are beneficial for both Os and As.

We journalists like quotes, and here is one I heard today:

"God may heal you, but if you don't change the way you eat, you'll get sick again."

We had friends over for dinner Friday night. I asked my husband what he would like for me to fix. He said "Remember that meat and cheese casserole you used to make, let's have that." There was a reason that I "USED TO make" that casserole. It has three ingredients: noodles, queso, and ground beef. The noodles and cheese are avoids for me; the tomatoes and beef are avoids for my Type A husband and daughter.

I asked my daughter what she thought about the proposed casserole. She wrinkled her nose, because she likes each of the individual ingredients but she does not like her food mixed together. Then her eyes brightened, and she said, "Mom, why don't you set it up like a taco bar. Let everyone go by and pick what they want to eat."

That is exactly what we did. I had a bowl of ground beef and a bowl of ground turkey; a bowl of queso and a bowl of noodles. I had a big bowl of greens and a large platter of other salad vegetables. I baked kamut rolls. I explained to our friends that they could mix up the ingredients any way they wanted. When we sat down at the table no two plates were alike.

For dessert I fixed the walnut torte in the RECIbase on this website and served it with diced nectarine. I was a little suspicious because the ingredients were very unusual, but it was delicious.

On a different subject, how is this for a greeting. "Good health to you and your household, and good health to all that is yours." You'll never believe where I found it…in the Bible. It's 1 Samuel 25:6.

My favorite place to run is a park near home. There is a steep hill in the middle of it, and a running trail about a mile long circling the hill. Several trails go over the top of the hill. When I first get there I climb up to the top and back down. That gets my muscles warmed up. Then I run 1 ½ laps around the hill. I climb back over the top, and return to my car for water.

Yesterday spring had arrived at the park. The trees and bushes were bursting with new life. A tree at the top of the hill was covered with yellow flowers. Along the trail were trees with bright purple flowers and other trees with delicate white flowers. On the ground were bushes with pink flowers and wildflowers of all sorts of colors. The dark green of the evergreens was in stark contrast to the pale green of the newly budding leaves. It was a gorgeous day for a run.

If anyone was to ask "But which color is right?" or "Which color is best?" we would think they were crazy. You would never say that the purple flowers are superior to the white, or that the pink will take over from the yellow. The beauty is in the variety. Especially at spring time I see the hand of a very creative creator behind the variety of color and shape.

Yet ever so often I read in Heidi or Doc Bron's columns questions like "Which blood type is best?" or "Will Type A and B eventually replace Type O?" As if we could change our blood type, anyway! I enjoy the many personalities, sizes, talents, and yes, even blood types found among human beings. Each type has unique strengths, and each type has its challenges. What a dull world it would be if we were all the same. In the incredible variety of people there is evidence of intelligent design.

I hope it's spring where you are. Celebrate the joy of new life! And celebrate the unique and wonderful way you were made.