We had a superb dinner tonight. Other bloggers write about having lamb on a regular basis. But lamb is really expensive at my grocery store, so I haven't bought it often. That is about to change. Sam's Club sells boneless leg of lamb for less than $4 a pound. This afternoon I roasted lamb for my son and me. (The Type As had left over chicken)

We have new neighbors across the street, and they have put in a garden. They brought over two of the largest onions I have ever seen. They are called Sweet 10-15s. Our neighbors said to cook them in foil in the oven with butter and salt. They were delicious with the lamb.

Fresh cherries for dessert were the perfect ending to the meal.

If anyone sells t-shirts like the ones Melissa proposed I will buy one and wear it proudly!

At the store today I saw a lady about my age in a t-shirt that said, "If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself." It was supposed to be funny, but really, it was kind of sad. There are many people my age paying the price for 50 years of eating the wrong foods, and they don't know what to do except deal with the discomfort, take prescription medication, or make jokes.

Comments this week were mostly about sunscreen and kohlrabi. Carla comes from a gardening family. She got this kohlrabi information from her mom. "They get bitter for two reasons: from being exposed to the air, (which is why storing them in water helps) and if they are old. You can tell if they are old because the cut end will have little woody fibers sticking out the bottom. Mom's best advice: get them as fresh as you can (straight from the garden if possible) store them uncut and unpeeled, and use them quickly. If you must store a cut kohlrabi, take a slice off the cut end and discard it before eating the rest."

Stephanie writes that there are companies that make mineral make up that acts as natural sunscreen. (Perhaps zinc and titanium are two of the minerals) Here are brands suggested by Stephanie: Jane Iredale, Bare Essentials, and Youngblood. She has also heard of oils having sunblocking properties. She thinks they may be Rice Bran oil and coconut oil. If any of you have information on that please pass it along.

I can't recommend a physical sunblock. I've ordered two brands to try. Here are some of the companies I found that make physical sunblocks, and you can read about them on the internet: Birch Trees, Physician's Complex, Kiss My Face, SkinCeuticals, Dermatone.

I keep thinking about that lady and her t-shirt. It could apply to spiritual health as well as physical health. We are going to live forever, just not in this world. I shudder to think of souls in the afterlife wearing t-shirts saying, "If I had known I was going to live forever, I would have had a personal relationship with God."

I have been trying to eat healthy for long enough that I know I have to read labels, but sometimes I still get caught off guard.

For years I've taken Kyolic garlic. When I started the Blood Type Diet and saw that garlic was neutral, I continued to take it. Then I noticed that the number two ingredient, is whey! I was horrified. I checked the other garlic labels in my health food store. Every single one contained either whey or soy oil. I wound up buying garlic tablets that don't seem to have any avoids at Walmart of all places. But I rarely take it any more unless a virus is going around.

My son used to get migraine headaches. We traced them to MSG, chocolate, and sodium nitrite. After years of reading carefully reading labels, I thought I knew which of the standard products were safe for him. Most lunch meat has sodium nitrite, but Oscar Mayer's oven roasted turkey breast did not. Since other brands without sodium nitrite had corn syrup or other offensive additives, I've been a loyal Oscar Mayer customer for years. For some reason, the week before my son came home from college, I glanced at the turkey breast label and saw "sodium nitrite". I wrote the company to complain. They answered, defending their decision and implying that they now add sodium nitrite to all their meat products.

Two nights ago dinner was almost ready, when I realized I needed another vegetable that I could eat. I keep some canned vegetables in the pantry for such occasions, and I grabbed a can of neutral English peas. The label said they had sugar in them. They had also changed the name from English peas to "sweet peas". When did this happen? At the store yesterday I read pea labels. Every brand had sugar, or worse, corn syrup! I'm going to check the health food store to see if they carry peas without sweetener. Otherwise, I guess it will be frozen or fresh peas from now on.

Will I trust products, even at health food stores, without reading labels anymore? No whey.

I have chosen to follow the Blood Type Diet rather than take medication for GERD the rest of my life. My husband has chosen to take blood pressure and cholesterol medication rather than diligently follow the BTD. That's his choice, but it does mean that he has to severely limit his favorite juice (and Type A beneficial) grapefruit juice.

Last night my son was in charge of preparing drinks for dinner. He asked his dad what he wanted. Dad answered, "What kind of juice do we have?" The first choice was grape juice (Type A neutral). It was rejected. The second choice was pineapple juice (Type A beneficial). "That's worse," said Dad, "I'll take grape juice."

I let the subject drop last night, but picked up the thread of conversation at breakfast this morning. "What you have to understand," he said, "is that there are reasons people like potatoes and orange juice and don't like, what was that green stuff we had the other night, oh yeah, kale. Potatoes and orange juice taste good and kale does not. It's not a conspiracy. General Foods has PhDs in marketing who study these things. There is a reason they don't sell kale. People don't like it."

He paused for a breath, but before I could jump in with a rebuttal, he went on. "I know; that's why people are over weight and have heart attacks and high blood pressure. It's because they eat things that are not good for them. I eat a lot of the stuff you give me because I know it's good for me. But don't kid yourself. It doesn't taste as good as pizza and French fries."

I handed him his lunch box as he walked out the door. "I hope you enjoy your lunch," I said. "It's a soy cheese and turkey sandwich." "Soy cheese," he said, breaking into the first smile of the morning. "That's a food that tastes good!" I silently resolved to continue my quest for good tasting healthy recipes.

I just got home from the store, and the produce department is bursting with summer fruit, all much less expensive than last week. Peaches are in; watermelon is in; cherries, strawberries, and grapes are cheap. As soon as I finish this blog, I'm going to wash fruit and make a fruit salad. Half will be for us, and half to take with a casserole to friends who are sick this week.

While I was picking out my fruit, I saw a mom with two small children. One of them was whining - loudly. I smiled at the mom and said, "Has anyone told you today that you're doing a great job as a parent?" Her eyes lit up and she just beamed. I went on, "My youngest is starting high school next year. These years go by so fast." "I know," she said, and we both went on with our shopping.

By the way, I didn't mention that her little whiny one was saying over and over, "I want an apple. I want an apple." The mother of a child who is begging for fresh fruit is certainly doing something right!

My son's summer job is life guarding. This is his fifth year working at the pool. Yesterday he made his first rescue of the season. A 5th grade girl went down the slide into deep water and couldn't swim.

When he came home from work I saw two red spots on his chest where he had missed rubbing sun screen. That introduces today's blog.

Last summer as I was first reading about the Blood Type Diet, I saw that while Os are less prone to most cancers than other blood types, we are more prone to melanoma. I don't need to nag my life guarding son about using plenty of sun screen - they talk about that subject at every training session. I did decide to increase my daily use of sunscreen. I bought a tinted moisturizer with sunscreen for my face, and a moisturizer with sunscreen for my neck and arms.

Toward the end of the summer there was a line in one of Heidi's columns about sunscreen causing cancer. WHAT!?! I went to the internet and read enough to stop using the sunscreen moisturizers. I put the subject on the back burner for the winter, but the approach of summer has forced me to reexamine the topic. I'm going to urge you to do your own internet research. It's very controversial, and I'm just going to scratch the surface in this blog.

It turns out that there are physical sun blocks and chemical sun screens. The sun blocks are zinc oxide (which all of the web sites consider safe) and Titanium oxide (only 1 website I read cast aspersions on titanium oxide).

The chemical sunscreens are: benzophenone-3 (Bp-3), homosalate (HMS), 4-methyl-benzylidene camphor (4-MBC), octyl-methoxycinnamate (OMC), octyl-dimethyl-PABA (OD-PABA), and butyl-methoxydibenzoylmethane (B-MDM)

There has been research in Europe that has linked 5 of the chemical sunscreens with cancer. The researchers observed that they "behaved like oestrogen in lab tests, making cancer cells grow more rapidly." I asked Dr. D'Adamo and he confirmed that some substances in sunscreens have "shown to act as xenobiotic estrogens."

It is the chemical sunscreens that have made the 30, 40 and 50 SPF sunscreens possible. It is the chemical sunscreens that are used in water proof and sports sunscreens. All of the grocery store brands are chemical sunscreens. I found one physical sun block at my health food store. There are several brands available on the internet.

Here is what I plan to do for the summer. For mid-day water activities, we will go ahead and use high SPF sunscreens. For hiking, biking and non water activities we will use only sun blocks. No more chemical sunscreen in makeup or moisturizer for me!

One thing I'm learning is that if I let myself get frantically hungry, I am tempted to grab whatever is close. Knowing how bad an avoid will make me feel, I drink water, eat sugar free peppermints, and make myself wait. But once that point of frantically hungry is reached, a reasonable amount of beneficial food does not satisfy, and I eat too much. Feeling stuffed with beneficial food is not nearly as uncomfortable as feeling stuffed with junk, but it still feels stuffed.

When we get out of church I am really hungry, and I want lunch NOW. But lunch is at least 20 minutes away. I have started putting a bag of walnuts and a bag of figs in the car on Sunday morning. As soon as we get to the car I get a snack. By the time we get to a restaurant and order our food, I am ready to eat, but not desperate. When I first started doing this my family teased me, now they say, "Mom can I have a handful of your walnuts?"

Yesterday we ate at a Chinese restaurant with friends. I ordered beef and broccoli with steamed rice and without the sauce. It was delicious, however, it came with an eggroll and I just love eggrolls. Since I've been recently reminded that cabbage is neutral I decided to eat the eggroll, though it was likely that the crust contained wheat and that it had been fried in an avoid oil. With the first bite I knew it was worse than that. There was pork in this eggroll. I should have put it down, but I did not. I tasted eggroll all afternoon.

Food is deeply linked to fellowship at church functions. During my health nut years, I could hardly ever find much to eat that wasn't highly processed. Now, on the Blood Type diet it's even worse - I can't even eat the little cheese cubes on the fruit and vegetable trays. But, there always seems to be an abundance of donuts, chips, cookies, and soda.

Yesterday morning someone brought chocolate peanut bars to our Bible study. It was easy enough to politely decline. Peanuts are avoids for Type Os and I've been very allergic to chocolate since I was 8 years old. It made me smile, however that as the plate went around the room almost everyone made a joke about how fattening the bars were or how their doctors would not approve. The most poignant comment of all came from our teacher as the empty plate was returned to the couple who had brought the snacks. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled." Matthew 5:6

I am so encouraged by your comments. Here are just three from this week.

Carla says that she doesn't cook kohlrabi. She peals it, cuts it in sticks, and eats it raw with dip. My favorite vegetable dips are almond butter and tahini (sesame seed butter). Carla recommends a silken tofu dip, which I will try. (The memory of my first tofu test is fading). Carla's other hint is to lessen the strong flavor by covering the kohlrabi sticks in water in the refrigerator overnight. Would that leach out the water soluble vitamins along with the flavor?

Tonight we had breakfast for dinner: eggs, soy sausage (for the As) and jicama pancakes from a recipe by another Suzanne. The whole family liked the pancakes - yes even my husband. Next time I will have to make a bigger batch, because I only got two.

3 cups shredded jicama

½ cup rice flour

garlic powder

salt (or seasoned salt)

1 egg

Squeeze shredded jicama between paper towels to remove excess water. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Heat about ½ inch of olive oil in a large skillet. The oil is hot enough when a pinch of batter sizzles. Form loose patties with the batter and fry until golden on both sides. Do not cover the pan as this will create too much moisture and the pancakes will not crisp. Because there is no potato starch, there will be less sticking, but you will need to add more olive oil to the pan as you cook because the jicama absorbs the oil. Be sure the oil is hot before adding more batter. This is the key to getting light crisp pancakes.

I cooked mine on a griddle, with the heat set to high. I poured a pool of olive oil on the griddle, waited until the oil was hot, then put a patty of batter in the oil. When it was time to turn the pancake, I poured another pool of olive oil.

Lila wrote that a Bible verse led her to the Blood Type Diet. She is struggling with some health issues, and remembered the verse "for lack of knowledge, the people perish." That started her reading and studying. When she read ER4YT it rang true.

I'm trying to keep an open mind about kohlrabi and turnips because they are both beneficial. I tried turnips several weeks ago and they did not make a good first impression. They had a strong taste, and I ate them reluctantly.

Joan wrote saying she had tried kohlrabi for the first time and had liked it cooked with lamb. I couldn't find kohlrabi in my stores until this week. I bought some and cooked it together with chicken, carrots, and onion.

When I first tasted it I thought, "Kohlrabi either tastes just like a turnip or my produce manager doesn't know the difference and sold me turnips of a different color." After one bite, my husband picked out the onions and carrots and left the kohlrabi for me and my son.

I took a bowl of the left over kohlrabi to school one afternoon when I knew I would be working past dinner time. Surprisingly it tasted less like a turnip. Not bad. This morning I mixed the last of the kohlrabi with some mozzarella cheese. It didn't taste like a turnip at all. In fact I rather enjoyed it.

Now the question is - does fresh kohlrabi taste like turnips, but leftover kohlrabi taste good?

OR

Do both kohlrabi and turnips lose their strong taste over time? (If so I can cook them one day and serve them the next.)

OR

Am I getting just getting used to a new taste?

I guess the only way to find out is to buy more turnips and kohlrabi.

I've been irritable for the last 24 hours, and I'm not really sure why. The weather was so warm and muggy that I really didn't enjoy my run yesterday. Students whose grades need a boost at the end of the semester refused to turn in an easy assignment. I wrote out a grocery list, and then left it in the car my son took when he went out with friends. When I finally did get to the grocery store, I had to take in a cart that someone else left in a parking place - again. A friend took a different position on a political issue that is important to me.

My stomach is irritable too. It probably didn't help that I ate a breaded veal cutlet with my son.

I know I've not had enough sleep. We were jolted awake at 1am Monday because our son was having car trouble. I didn't get home from school until 9 pm Tuesday night, and I must work that late again tonight. Last night I played a computer game to relax - bad decision. Computer games are like black holes in my clock. When I stopped playing it was late, and there were still chores to do.

So, now what do I do? First of all, just listing the insignificant things that I have let irritate me has made me laugh at myself. Second, I have juiced a ginger root, and I'm fairly certain ginger & water will settle my stomach. If I manage my time this morning, I can get to bed at a decent hour tonight.

There's a spiritual component to my irritability as well. I've been thinking about the verse "Do not be weary in well doing." I try to be polite to others. I try to eat right for myself and cook right for my family. I try to help my students and my community. Yesterday I felt like I was the only one trying, and I wanted to stop trying, too. Of course I am not the only one. But even if I was, I am not responsible for all the others. I am only responsible for living my life the way God has called me to live.

The produce department at the grocery store has new signs. They are based on the Color Diet, so naturally, they are very colorful and attention grabbing. At the top they say "Eat 5-a-Day for Better Health"

It makes me smile. How would a Type O manage on ONLY 5 fruits and vegetables a day? I eat a minimum of 9-a-day; often 12 or 13. I have a fruit (grapefruit, pineapple, or dried figs) while I'm fixing breakfast and packing lunches for the rest of the family. After they are out the door, I eat my seed and fruit mixture (another 2-3 fruits). I've had 4 fruits before 8:00 AM!!! I have 2-3 cold leftover vegetables with beef for lunch, a snack that almost always includes a fruit or vegetable when I get home from school, and another 2-3 vegetables with dinner.

Even my Type As who are allowed more grain and beans get 6-8 servings of fruit and vegetables. I might need to be careful of my serving definitions. If I grill an onion and cook greens or squash with it, I don't measure; I just count it as two vegetables. If I fix a big salad with Romaine and fresh spinach, I count that as two. If I season with garlic or horseradish, I don't count either of them.

I worked for one part of my journalism career in advertising. So I began to think about what kind of posters the D'Adamo clinic could print and donate to produce departments. The four lists of beneficials would certainly be confusing. And listing avoids would be sure to cause conflict. My college son is not happy to find that I don't intend to put oranges or orange juice on my summer shopping list.

If you're a regular reader, you know that my church is doing a study called "40 Days of Purpose." This week's topic was "You were created to become like Christ." It included a word picture of how people change their habits. It had a wonderful spiritual application, but it also reminded me of how I've adapted to the Blood Type Diet.

Imagine you are in a boat, and the auto pilot is set to go straight east. You, however, want to go west. You take the wheel and force it around. However you have to keep the pressure on to work against the auto pilot. This causes stress and tension. You succeed at first, then you get tired, give up, and go back to heading a direction you didn't want to go. The better way is to reprogram the boat's auto pilot, in other words to change your core thinking. That is how you bring about lasting change.

When I first started the Blood Type Diet, I tried to find substitutes for the foods I was used to. I stopped buying wheat crackers and started buying rye crackers. I switched from safflower mayonnaise to canola mayonnaise. I was trying to force the Type O diet into my old eating habits.

It was a good place to start, and I felt better. But I remember the moment I realized that Type Os just weren't suited for sandwiches. For lunch I needed 2 or 3 vegetables and some meat. At that moment I began to adjust my auto pilot.

I can have Ezekiel bread or a kamut cookie for a snack, but I really don't need the grains. A better snack is a dish of walnuts or some carrots dipped in almond butter. Aerobic exercise isn't something I do to keep in shape; it is the way my body best diffuses stress. It has to be as much a part of my day as eating. Each of these was an adjustment to my auto pilot.

I've been on the Blood Type Diet less than a year, and I realize my core thinking is still a mixture of typical American diet, health nut, and Type O. But when I walk in a restaurant looking for something that is beneficial, rather than sighing over what I can't have, I can see that I am changing.

The 40 Days of Purpose study said that God uses the Bible, the Holy Spirit and our circumstances to change our spiritual thinking. I am using this web site, the "Food Beverage & Supplement Lists," and awareness of how foods make me feel to change my dietary thinking.

Jane wrote to remind me that cabbage is neutral for Os.

I think it was one of those Freudian mistakes. I have eaten cabbage lots of ways, never really liking it. Some cole slaw is ok; most I just can't swallow. I once had a stuffed cabbage dish that I liked, but I think it was the spicy meat that made it good, not the cabbage. So when I read in the first edition Blood Type Diet publications that cabbage was an avoid, I thought "HA! I knew there was a reason I didn't like it." I later read that it was neutral. I even have it marked in my "Food, Beverage, & Supplement List", but I still think of it negatively. My husband loves cabbage, but since it is an avoid for As, I seriously doubt I invest much time looking for cabbage recipes. It might be a better choice at barbeque restaurants than pinto beans.

The blog on kale brought in two recipes, both of which I intend to try.

Carla wrote "chop up a few tablespoons of parsley and steam it with the kale until it is a dark green color, still retaining a bit of crunch."

Michaela says, "I briefly stir fry just the leaves in sesame oil with onion & chicken, then I add a bit of plum jam or pureed plums, chili and wheat free soy sauce."

I love spinach & raisins, so kale & plums sounds like it has potential.

Several of you recommended sweet potato fries. I made them the first day my son was home from college. We both thought they were outstanding!

Cassandra said "Try sweet potato hash browns! Grate the sweet potato and fry up in butter and/or olive oil. I have found that they get mushy in my cast iron skillet, but are fine in other pans. Salt 'em, and serve 'em up. Delish with garlic powder on them, too!"



I just can't keep your comments all to myself, so I think I'll share comments on the weekends. I promise never, ever to give last names or locations. If you don't want me to use your first name, just say so.

I read this verse this morning. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. Psalm 103:2-5

There is a study by a group in London that says, "a chemical called AITC is released when brassica vegetables are prepared. This chemical can kill colon cancer cells and is able to stop the disease from spreading." I found this in a news story on Google Health News. It attracted my attention because the list of vegetables in the first article I read included lots of Type O avoids, while kale seemed to be the only beneficial.

Kale was my least favorite when I was trying all the beneficial greens. In fairness to kale, the first bunch I bought had a lot of yellow leaves, and the stems were thick and tough. Last week my produce department had some really fresh looking kale. I chopped it in smaller pieces than I did the first time, and it tasted much better.

Further reading on Goggle expanded the list of vegetables containing the cancer fighting chemical to include mustard, broccoli, cabbage, horseradish, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and Swede (rutabaga). Broccoli and horseradish are also Type O beneficials; but cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts are avoids.

The other thing interesting in the study was that they didn't recommend eating the vegetables raw. "AITC is created when brassica vegetables are chopped, chewed, cooked, processed and digested." Another article recommended the vegetables be, "chopped and lightly cooked in a little water…stewing the vegetables would kill the chemical."

I fix broccoli once a week because everyone in the family likes it. My grandmother, and my husband's uncle both had colon cancer, and my mom had a precancerous polyp removed. Because of that I will probably buy kale more often as well.

Another blogger once wrote that she had been on the Blood Type Diet for so long that she knew when she had eaten certain avoids because they made specific parts of her body react. I'm trying to sort out clues I got from the weekend.

Friday night friends were passing through town and stopped to have dinner with my husband and me at a local restaurant. I ordered beef liver & onions, steamed broccoli, and zucchini. I said no to gravy on the liver and no to cheese on the broccoli. It was all very tasty and seemed compliant for a Type O, except for a thin coating on the liver that I suspect was flour.

Saturday I packed a beneficial lunch for our long drive. Saturday night we went to a family style restaurant. I ordered roast with a steamed vegetable medley (carrots, yellow squash, and green peppers). It seemed like a safe choice, but the roast came covered in gravy. I scraped it off, but there was no way to totally avoid whatever wheat or corn thickener they used.

Sunday we stopped at Subway for lunch. Their "make any sub a salad" is wonderful for type Os. I added walnuts and olive oil from my bag. Sunday night we stopped for barbeque. The brisket was delicious. I stayed away from the Cole slaw and potato salad (avoids for all Os), but took a chance on the pinto beans (beneficial for non secretors; avoid for secretors)

Today I'm dealing with an achy knee. It's not all that bad. It didn't stop me from climbing up and down stairs in the parking garage while my son was at an appointment this morning. (That is definitely an intense aerobic workout by the way). I'm just aware that something's not quite right. I should probably create a data base and keep track of clues like this. Perhaps some day they will form a pattern.

Our son is home from college for the summer! He goes to a university that is more than 300 miles from home. That is a 7 hour trip in the car. We drove there on Saturday, loaded up all his worldly possessions, and drove home on Sunday.

Last summer when he and I made the trip alone for freshman orientation we left very early in the morning and made few stops in order to arrive on time for the first afternoon session. I was getting rather stiff from sitting so long in the car. So I started tensing and relaxing different muscle groups. It felt really good.

In road trips since then I have come up with a pattern I call "Five Minute Isometrics." I set the cruise control. I never take my hands off the wheel, and I never take my eyes off the road, but I can get a good workout in the car.

I isolate a muscle group and tense it HARD and then relax it. I stay with the same muscles for five minutes on the car's digital clock, and then I switch to another muscle group. (For instance I start with left quad, right quad, right bicep, left bicep. I repeat that pattern for 5 minutes.) Some of the exercises are isometric exercises our doctors have given us for shoulder and neck injuries over the years. Some come from various exercise tapes. Some I have made up in an effort to cover all my muscles. I use the steering wheel for resistance on several patterns.

We normally switch drivers every two hours. So theoretically I could get in 24 stretches. I never really get that many because when we drive through a town or a construction zone I have to take the cruise control off.

I am amazed at how much better I feel at the end of a long drive. In addition I get some exercise on travel days when there's often not time for a walk or a run.

I inherited a framed picture taken at my grandparent's 50th Anniversary Celebration. It is in my den. Friends look at it and say, "That's you on the back row, and that's your daughter in the front." No - the woman on the back row is my mother and the 4-year old girl in front is me. The three of us look remarkably alike in the face.

The rest of us is quite different. My mom and I are both tall; over 5'6". My daughter doesn't think she will ever reach 5'3". My mom has never exercised, but she has great legs. What can you say when your 88 year old mother has better looking legs than you do? My daughter says, "I have the only grandmother who looks really good in denim shorts."

I learned how to cook from my Mom. She is a natural cook, quite fearless about trying new things. It's hard to get her recipes because while she may start with a printed card, she always adds or changes, tasting as she goes. I was a terribly picky eater as a child, existing mostly on meat and bread. (good Type O instincts on the meat; not so good on the bread) She kept patiently putting good food in front of me, and was delighted when I came home from college eating vegetables.

Another thing I learned from my Mom is how to listen. A favorite memory is coming home from school with my sister and sitting around the kitchen table telling Mom about our day. I was in high school in the late 60s and early 70s when the drug culture was sweeping across the US. I remember telling tales designed to shock at those after school snack times. Rather than lecture, she would say, "Well, what do you think about that?" or "Do you think that's a good idea?" Before long I was telling her how foolish or immature the event at school had been. I learned my best journalistic interviewing techniques not in college classes but around my kitchen table.

I learned about unconditional love from my Mom. That doesn't mean she approved of every thing I did. It means that while she tried to modify my behavior, she wasn't trying to change the real me inside. She is always supportive of my activities, always amiable with my friends, always interested in what I have to say.

The only thing I've ever known her to be afraid of is the computer. Hopefully my Dad will go onto my Blog today so I can say "I love you, Mom."

My students had earned a reward party for making their deadlines. They would have liked a half day shopping at the mall, but this close to finals I didn't think the principal would approve. We compromised on tacos and a movie in our classroom. So yesterday I bought lots of tacos (some beef and some bean and cheese) and we watched "Dumb and Dumber". After the party there were some beef tacos left.

Last night my husband and I had to go to a swim league meeting. I knew we would need to leave immediately for the meeting when he got home from work. What to do for dinner? I scooped out the meat and lettuce from some of the tacos and ate it with left over veggies. My daughter said she would warm up the left over lentils after we were gone (yes!). I thought - my husband does not follow the BTD, I'll just give him tacos and some sliced fruit. He can eat in the car on the way to the meeting, and I'll drive.

He ate the first taco pretty fast; I guess he was hungry. He opened the second taco and said, "This isn't good for me, is it?" before he ate it. He took the meat out of the third taco, and said, "Beef, yuck," and ate the corn shell and lettuce.

I felt so guilty. I cannot tell you how guilty I felt. I've been trying to get him interested following the Type A Diet. I prepare type A lunches for him to take to work, and I try to make the new Type A foods I serve at dinner appetizing. Then not only do I serve him a major avoid for dinner, but he recognizes it and calls it to my attention.

After the meeting he was driving home and took an exit that wasn't for our house. I asked where we were going, and as he pulled into Dairy Queen he said, "I have a craving for a freeze."

Well that ended my guilt! But it is interesting to me that he is recognizing what is good for him, and he expects me to feed him beneficials. However he's not ready to take personal responsibility for his eating yet.

Sometimes experiences that test and aggravate us at the time later turn out to benefit and encourage others. (2 Corinthians 1:4). I had an experience with the pill that might help Jennifer and other young women who are deciding about this issue.

When my husband and I married, my doctor automatically put me on the pill. I don't recall that the doctor even talked about any other birth control method. I remember him saying that unless I wanted to have a baby, I could stay on the pill until I was in my 40s. I had a vague feeling that I didn't like how the pill made me feel, but everyone else I knew was using the pill, so I took it.

One evening when we had been married about a year we invited another couple over for dinner. My friend and I were in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on dinner, when she began complaining about her gynecologist. She said that he didn't completely trust the pill and that he made all his patients get off once a year. I told her about my gynecologist who wouldn't talk to me about anything but the pill. We laughed and said we should switch doctors, but before she left my house that night, I got her doctor's name.

I made an appointment with him, and he said that while he believed the pill was safe for most women, he wanted his patients once a year to get off and have one normal menstrual cycle. Then they could go back to the pill. He had information about lots of other birth control methods and the percentages of effectiveness for each one.

My husband, being an engineer, recognized the statistical principal that combining two methods would increase the effectiveness to equal the pill. So I stopped the pill; just for a few weeks, we thought.

It was a full year before I had a period. It was two years before my cycle was back to normal. Some women, like me, over react to the pill, but there is no way to know ahead of time who will do fine and who will have problems.

Now that I have two children I ask myself, "What if I had stayed on the pill for years until we were ready for a baby? How long then would it have taken for my cycle to return to normal? Could I ever have gotten pregnant?"

Needless to say I never went back on the pill. I don't oppose other women taking it, but I think that gynecologist's idea of giving your body a break once a year is excellent. I also believe that the conversation in the kitchen with my friend was the direct intervention of God in my life and in the lives of my future son and daughter.

My daughter's mouth was really sore after her trip to the orthodontist, so last night I told her I was going to cook lentils. I said that they would be very soft and feel good in her mouth.

I had bought ingredients for a lentil and barley recipe. Half way through cooking, I decided it didn't smell very flavorful, so I added the spices (marjoram, thyme, garlic and celery) from a lentil recipe on RECIbase.

I fixed frozen blueberries for her and a salad with fresh cauliflower for my husband. They came to serve their plates and looked suspiciously at the pot of lentils. "Don't tell me what it is," said my husband. "I don't want to know. I'll just call it gumbo."

They took tentative tastes. "It's not bad," said my husband. "It's not my favorite, but I'd eat it again," said my daughter. Soon they both got up and went back for seconds. It took great self control not to jump up and shout "YES".

Lentils and barley are both avoids for me, so with my salad I had a ground beef patty, yellow squash and grilled onions. A two blood type family sure generates a lot of dirty pots and pans!