We are searching for a new church home. It is important to us that we have solid Bible teaching and a place to serve. It is also important that our daughter enjoy the other students in the youth group. We may have found a church where we can feel very much at home. We've been visiting there for several weeks.

On Sunday afternoon this church had a skating party for the surrounding neighborhoods. Church members were asked to bring sandwiches, cookies and fruit, so that there would be plenty of food for all of the skaters. I had gone to the store on Friday to buy grapes, bread, and sliced turkey. I also bought a box of cookies from the bakery. I did not feel guilty about buying regular bread. That is what people coming to skate would expect. They would have thrown away sandwiches made with Ezekiel bread or seaweed wraps. I did feel a little guilty about not baking homemade cookies. However, after I made the fast trip to take care of my Mom, I was really glad I didn't have to spend Saturday night baking.

My dilemma was what to do about my own meal. I would be mingling with first time guests at the church. I did not want to call attention to myself, or answer questions about what I was eating. I considered eating just fruit, but I knew I would be hungrier than that. I considered rolling lunchmeat for myself, but that was sure to attract notice.

People e-mail me quite often asking "What do you do for sandwiches?" My response is, "You will be happier on the Blood Type Diet if you think like an O. That means don't try to eat the same way you used to, just substituting neutrals for avoids. Find a new way of eating that is really beneficial for your type." Then I tell them that I don't eat sandwiches at all. I eat meat and vegetables or meat and salads. It's a shocking concept until you get used to it. Then you feel so good, that you don't want to go back to sandwiches ever again.

However, for this event, I decided to make myself a sandwich on Ezekiel bread and keep it in my purse. When I went through the food line, I would just slip my sandwich onto my plate. That's what I did. It's the first sandwich I've had in several years. It was good, and I fit in with the others at the party.

However, I realized again that I feel better when I think like an O and eat like an O. I'm made to eat meat and vegetables. That's what I'll do until the next time that a higher calling dictates that I think of others rather than myself.

I got a call at 4:00 Friday from a neighbor that my Mom had fallen on the patio and cut her head. I got a call at 5:00 from my Dad that the cut was still bleeding and they were going to go to an emergency clinic. I got a call at 9:00 from the doctor at the clinic saying that my Mom had needed stitches, but that she was going to be fine. However, they were not going to let a 91 year old woman with a head injury drive home in the dark with her 89 year old husband. I threw shorts, shirts, and socks into my suitcase and began the 3 hour drive to get them. I returned home tonight.

Why, I wondered as I drove, do well-meaning people, even medical professionals, treat someone who is hard of hearing as if they were ignorant? Part of the difficulty my mom had at the clinic was that because she can't hear, she didn't answer their questions promptly. Just because you can't hear doesn't mean you can't think.

I was 30 miles from home when I realized that I had packed so fast that I forgot a nightgown. I also forgot my eye drops, my vitamins, and my breakfast mix. Fortunately my parents eat flax seed and lots of fruit. I improvised.

My parents are fiercely independent. Most of the time that is a good thing. But why, I asked myself, didn't they listen when I suggested that they get a church friend to drive them to the clinic? I thought I had dodged a bullet by having cooperative teenagers. Was I now going to pay the price with rebellious parents? No - when I walked into the clinic they were so contrite and so sorry that I had driven 200 miles late at night. Today they were very cooperative as we planned together what we need to do for them to continue to live at home.

My Type O Dad has had problems with edema since he has been in the wheel chair. He stopped eating wheat 2 months ago and the edema is going away. His legs look so much better.

For my birthday I got an MP3 player. I didn't want to download hundreds of songs and videos like the kids want to do. I wanted to download a Bible teacher whose radio program is on at an inconvenient time where I now live. So I shopped around on the internet and found a good price on what was probably last year's model.

One day last week I was searching for something on the BTD website and I found an MP3 of a radio interview with Dr. D'Adamo. I wondered what his voice sounded like, so I saved the interview on my MP3 player.

I tossed the MP3 player in the car, and when I got tired of thinking, I listened to Bible studies from the book of 1 Samuel and the Dr. D radio interview. I thought I understood the background of the BTD pretty well, but I learned some things from the interview about lectins and secretor status that I had never understood. I'll probably quote from the interview in future blogs, but if you want to hear Dr. D explain it himself go to the home page and look on the left for Media Center.

One of my favorite recipes when I was growing up was Swiss Steak. My husband liked it too, and was always happy when my Mom fixed her own special version. Here is her recipe - not BTD compatible for either As or Os.

Cut top round steak into small pieces. Rub Worcestershire sauce into each piece. Pound flour generously into each piece. Brown lightly in oil in a skillet.

Cook 1 chopped onion, and 3-4 stalks chopped celery in cooking oil until tender. Combine 1 can of tomatoes (cut into small pieces) and 1 can of tomato sauce.

In a pressure cooker layer the meat with the onions and celery. Pour the tomato mixture over all. Cook 10 minutes in the pressure cooker.

When we went on the Blood Type Diet, I realized that the steak and tomatoes were no good for the As. The flour was not good for the Os. The recipe has been idle in my recipe box.

Yesterday at the store, I saw a package of turkey cutlets. Tonight I made some adjustments in the recipe. It's not My Mom's Swiss Steak, but it was very tasty and everyone enjoyed it.

I browned the turkey cutlets in a skillet. I layered them with cooked onions and celery in my pressure cooker. I cut the canned tomatoes into small pieces and poured them and their juice over all. I cooked it for 10 minutes in the pressure cooker.

Some of you As will recognize that I left the canned tomatoes in the recipe. I highly suspect that my husband may be a non-secretor. If that is the case, tomatoes would be neutral for him. My daughter ate the cooked celery, but picked out the tomatoes, so she was fine.

I served it with homemade spelt/rye bread and a big tossed salad.

The turkey was wonderfully tender and moist. I didn't miss the tomato sauce or Worcestershire sauce at all. I did miss the breading on the cutlets a little, but not enough to compromise my energy or my health. The family agreed with me. They want to see Swiss cutlets again soon.

The question I am asked most often - both in discussions about the Blood Type Diet and in e-mail - is "What do you eat for breakfast?" A conversation last week got me thinking about how culture has affected what I eat for breakfast.

A number of dedicated Type Os have e-mailed me that they eat meat and vegetables for breakfast and lunch. They eat a light supper - often fruit or salad. I've tried eating that way on a few isolated days, and I like the way it makes me feel. Yet I've never adopted that way of eating. I think the reason is partly cultural and partly practical.

When I was a little girl, we would go visit my grandparents who lived in a town of about 400 people. My grandfather was a grocer, banker, school superintendent and farmer. He had five farms where he raised cattle and chickens. He got up very early in the morning and ate a huge breakfast - eggs and all the trimmings. The mid day meal was always the big meal of the day - meat, and lots of vegetables. At night, my grandparents ate cereal. My mother remembers that this was the way it was when she was growing up. Even on school days, my grandfather and all of the children would come home for a hearty lunch, but the evening meal was cereal or leftovers.

I was raised differently in the city. My Dad worked several miles from home, and could not come home for lunch. Big city public schools frown when parents pull their children out for lunch. So, we had a light breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and our big meal of the day was in the evening.

My cousins, also city kids, were raised like me, and we though it very peculiar that our grandparents ate cereal for supper. At our grandparents' house, our parents would scurry around making sandwiches for us at night, while our grandparents wondered what the fuss was about.

Raising my children in the city, I followed the pattern of my own childhood: light breakfast of whole grain carbohydrates, sandwiches or leftovers for lunch, a big supper with meat, vegetables, and rolls. When I started the BTD, I began making changes. Lunch time sandwiches became meat and vegetables. I learned to make rolls with grains beneficial to the Type As and I increased the number of evening meal vegetables for me.

But breakfast was a dilemma. For my whole life breakfast had been a pastry or cereal or toast. There were no beneficial grains for a Type O, and even in those early days, I knew that I wanted to start my day with beneficials, not neutrals. So I came up with a breakfast mix that was highly beneficial, but had the texture of cereal. That's what I eat 6 days a week - sometimes 7.

I grind nuts in my blender and keep 3-4 varieties in my refrigerator. They include pumpkin seed, almonds, walnuts, pecans, and flax seed. Breakfast starts with two tablespoons of ground nuts. I mix and match them for variety. I add 1 Tablespoon of lecithin granules, 1 Tablespoon of brewers yeast, and 1 Tablespoon of rice bran. I toss in 2 or 3 fresh or frozen fruits. The combination possibilities are endless - banana/blueberry, pineapple/mango, cherry/peach. I moisten it with water or pineapple juice and eat it with a spoon. It gets my blood sugar up for the day, it tastes good, and it "feels" like breakfast.

Now we've moved out of the city. My husband is approaching retirement, and my daughter will graduate in the spring. I've begun to think radical thoughts. I may switch to my grandfather's way of eating. I may eat a hearty breakfast of leftover meat and vegetables. I may cook the main meal of the day for lunch. I may have my cereal imitation of fruit and nuts for supper. I think my body would like that. I can't make the switch now. The urban school and work schedule still has too great a hold on us. But it's something to look forward to in the future.

By way of background, one of my earliest blogs was about how I came up with the breakfast mix I use every morning. If you're interested, you can read it at this link. http://www.dadamo.com/bloggers/h/archives/00000037.htm

The summer flew by for my Strong Son. The first two months he returned to Kanakuk as a middle school camp counselor and basketball coach. Then he came home to our new home for a month. Now he is in Kentucky working on a 3-year graduate program in physical therapy.

When SS was at Texas Tech he ate in the campus cafeteria one meal a day. He knew he would get meat, vegetables and lots of salad. He fixed his own breakfast, and I suspect most days he ate as he walked to class. The third meal of the day he sometimes fixed for himself at the house, and sometimes ate out with friends.

I wanted to know how meals were working out in his new environment. He says he can get a fair meal at the hospital for a fair price. Even better is an all-you-can-eat buffet near the hospital. It is a little more expensive, but there are more vegetables. He is still buying groceries for two meals a day.

Then he began to talk about how he has adjusted what he eats at fast food restaurants because of the Blood Type Diet. "You know I eat sandwiches, Mom. I know that the wheat isn't good for me, and one of these days I'll probably stop it, but right now it doesn't bother me, and it's hard to get a fast meal without wheat." When he was in high school, he said he would get a combo meal - a burger or sandwich, large fries, and a large drink. Now he looks on the value menu and puts together his own combination. Sometimes he gets two sandwiches or a double meat sandwich. Sometimes he gets one sandwich and a salad. He says he gets more meat that way. He also saves money.

"I rarely get fries any more," he told me. "If I do, I get a small order. And I just drink water. It's better for me."

SS eats many more avoids than I eat. I could complain about that. But then I remember that he eats a much healthier diet than I did when I was 22! I'm pleased that he considers the BTD when he chooses his food, and that he is adjusting even fast food to be a bit more Type O.

Speaking of adjustments - getting used to him being so far from home is a big adjustment for me. But I'm thrilled to see him pursuing a career where he can be a blessing to so many people.

Everybody in America knows about low fat diets and low carb diets. A frightening number of people know about grapefruit diets, chocolate diets, and other fad diets. But the Blood Type Diet is misunderstood. I'm just waiting for someone to ask, "Duh, what kind of blood do you eat anyway."

The back to school teacher dinner was a perfect example. This year it was at a gourmet hamburger restaurant in an upscale new shopping center. I received a menu the week before and had to place our order. My husband immediately chose the crab burger. He knows it's Type A avoid, but he loves it. I had to choose between a 1/3 pound hamburger that came with chips, or a spinach and chicken salad. The meat in the burger was natural Angus, but if I didn't eat the bun or the chips, it would be a slim meal. The salad came with portabella mushrooms and some other veggies that sounded good. That's what I picked.

When my salad arrived I was aghast. It was tiny. To my way of thinking it was a pre-dinner salad. There wasn't even half of a chicken breast in it. I sighed and realized I'd have to eat again when I got home. I looked at the huge burgers and wished I'd ordered that instead. However the salad was delicious - very flavorful.

The wait staff began bringing baskets for all of the burger eaters. Someone at my table took a taste and said, "Oh, these are sweet potato fries. I've always wanted to try them." My mouth began to water, until I began to realize that everyone had a basket except the two of us eating salads. When a waiter walked by with an extra basket I grabbed it. Everyone looked at me in puzzlement.

What was the point in my eating a salad if I was going to eat sweet potato fries? I got questions about why I was trying to lose weight when I didn't need to. I had people remind me that the fries were loaded with carbs and fat. I tried to explain that I wasn't on a diet and that I ate lots of carbs, but I didn't eat wheat. I got the deer-in-the-headlight eyes.

I did my best to explain that a Type O diet is not low fat, neither is it low carb. Someone said, "I couldn't eat like that." I thought about saying, "You shouldn't eat like this unless you are a Type O. But I decided I'd rather enjoy my salad and fries and let the conversation turn to a more understandable topic.

I've had an off and on headache for a couple of weeks. One of the nice things about menopause has been no headaches. I rarely had headaches when I was young, but they nagged at me all during my 40s. They were never severe, just irritating. Then I turned 50 and poof they were gone - until two weeks ago.

The worst thing about this headache has been the psychosomatic aspect of it. You see, one of my best friends was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of brain cancer three weeks ago. I knew that concern for Lynn and horror of brain cancer made the headache worse.

I tried Advil, and popped some tiny blood vessels in my ankles again. I guess I'm through with Advil for good. I tried Tylenol and it didn't help much. I tried Aleve after someone wrote that Aleve was better for type Os. It didn't seem to work much better than the Tylenol.

Yesterday it almost went away. I was delighted. This morning it was back, and that made me mad. I've had it with this headache. So I grabbed the BTD Encyclopedia and found out that Type Os are less susceptible to headaches than other blood types. I'm not sure why but that was encouraging. The encyclopedia recommended anti stress and anti inflammatory protocols and exercise. This got my attention, because I had cut back on exercise because of the headache. I thought that getting my blood pounding would make it worse.

I started on rhodiola, bromelain, glucosamine, plus extra B vitamins and extra calcium. Just being proactive made me feel better. As I put the encyclopedia back on the shelf, I spied a headache book I bought when I was learning about my son's migraines. I began to scan it and read this about tension headaches:

"Along with the head pain, people with these headaches frequently experience sore shoulders and possibly a sore neck as well." My shoulders were sore, when I shrugged, I could feel the knots. My neck was tense as well. I read on:

"A frequent pattern for muscle contraction headache people is that they will work intensely for days at a time…The work may be of the type where people are constantly trying to get a large amount of work done in a fixed amount of time…Then on their first day off, they will awaken with a headache…These headaches can last for days without relief - except while the person is asleep."

That precisely described my headache. The last 12 months have been busy, but the last 4 months have been at a breakneck speed. The headache started the day I went to my parent's house for a relaxing visit. I have had no trouble sleeping, but the headache would revisit me within a few minutes of waking up.

Knowing what was happening to me was such a relief. My neck loosened a little right away. I continued taking the protocols and I got in some exercise. I'm feeling rather normal tonight.

One other thing the book said was that the first symptom of brain cancer is almost never a headache. Lynn's first symptom was loss of muscle strength in her leg and arm. That is common, as is unexplained vomiting. If my headache returns, I won't be worried about me, but I will take it as a reminder to pray for Lynn

You may remember from previous summer blogs, that my sister and her family live in Europe and come home to visit every summer. This year my 8th grade niece has spent several days with us. We have had so much fun with her.

One day my son, daughter, and I took her to a water park called Schlitterbahn. It is advertised as the "hottest, coolest time in Texas." There are more double meanings in that advertising campaign than I want to explain in this blog, but suffice it to say that the rides are "hot" and we had a "cool" time.

One of the best things about Schiltterbahn is that they allow you to bring your own food into the park. Most amusement parks forbid outside food because they want to increase their profit by forcing you to buy their food. Rarely does an amusement park serve anything that a Type O can eat. So I'm stuck with eating avoids or trying to sneak in contraband food.

For our day at Schlitterbahn, I packed turkey sandwiches, fresh plums, and raw nuts. My "sandwiches" were turkey, mozzarella, and ghee rolled in a sushi nori paper. My niece thought the seaweed was a little weird. I made the sandwiches for the rest of the group out of pita pockets. I've used pitas a lot this summer. Though wheat is neutral for my Type As, I don't like to give them big fluffy rolls that dominate the rest of the food. Pitas are thin and cracker like. Since my Type O son wants an occasional sandwich, I feel a little better about the thin pita than two full slices of bread. In addition, I can stuff quite a few veggies in them along with the turkey. The nuts were in place of chips.

There was an interesting irony. As we explored the park, I kept getting whiffs of delicious meat cooking. It turns out they serve barbeque, which makes a Type O's mouth water. Here is an amusement park that offers two good choices - serve the customers something beside junk food, and allow them to bring their own food from home.

We have had an unusually rainy summer, and that has created some interesting challenges in at new house. The area right around the house is all dirt - rather in this rainy weather it is all mud. Behind the house is a rocky area, then some oak trees with heavy underbrush. Behind the trees is a grassy field going down into a seasonal creek.

For the most part, we want to maintain a wild hill country look. We don't want a manicured lawn. Right now we are taking out the thorny vines and the shoulder high Johnson grass. We are leaving the native grasses, wildflowers, and bushes.

The rain has led to high grass, and that has led to chiggers. After being viciously attacked we looked for a more natural solution than insect repellant. Here is my anti-chigger program.

I wear calf high boots when I work in the yard or walk in the underbrush. I dust the boots with sulfur powder. A Viet Nam Veteran at the hardware store told me about this trick, and it really works. When I'm finished with yard work for the day, I change into my swim suit, and swim laps at the pool. I figure any chiggers that brave the sulfur powder will drown in the chlorine water.

I haven't had a chigger bite since I started using this technique. As I work in the yard and swim I am getting lots of strenuous Type O exercise. I feel good in the day and I sleep good at night.

I had my semi annual dentist appointment. I have noticed an increase in plaque since my last visit. For most of my life I have had very little plaque or tartar. The dentist tells me that increased plaque is due to dry mouth - sigh - another tissue drying out because of hormone changes.

He recommended xylitol gum. I have been buying xylitol gum, but have used it sparingly. The dentist encourages me to use it more often. He cited a fascinating study where pregnant women were recruited. The women thought they were the subjects, but in reality it was their unborn children. The scientists involved wanted to test their theory that mothers passed the bacteria that causes tooth decay to their children when they shared or taste-tested food. Since xylitol reduces mouth bacteria, the scientists expected to see reduced mouth bacteria and tooth decay in the children of the women chewing xylitol gum as opposed to women chewing another gum. Indeed that is exactly what happened. When the 2-year-old children were tested, the ones whose mothers had chewed xylitol gum had less mouth bacteria. Those mothers also had fewer cavities.

This sounds great, but I have to think of the BTD. Xylitol is unrated, so it is considered neutral unless it gives me trouble. Gums used as thickeners are avoid for type O. But I don't see a reference to chewing gum. I can't imagine it would be a problem, because you never swallow it.

So I've been chewing more xylitol gum and drinking more water, and the plaque situation is improving.

The dentist joked about making a chocolate bar sweetened with xylitol. He said current research is showing that chocolate is really good for many health problems - it's just the sugar that's so bad. He said, if there was a xylitol chocolate bar, parents would say. "Johnny, did you eat your candy bar before bedtime. Remember not to brush your teeth after you eat it."

I went on the internet, and a British company does make a xylitol sweetened chocolate bar. A company in the US makes a bar called Chocoperfection. It is sweetened with erythritol. The website says that erythritol is a sugar alcohol similar to xylitol. Erythritol inhibits bacteria in their ability to ferment lactose and reduces production of acid on the dental plaque.

My dad has been using unsweetened bakers chocolate quite successfully to combat uneven heartbeats. I'm going to order some Chocoperfection for him and sneak a taste myself.

The yard at our new house is not fenced, and our very active dog is not happy being inside or being tied up outside. I've been on the phone and internet looking at fence options. Wednesday morning I decided to take the dog for a run and see what some of the neighbors have done.

When I run I like to get going at a steady pace and keep going. When the dog walks, he likes to stop frequently and sniff all of the new smells. This run was a compromise that didn't fully satisfy either of us. However we did see a lot of fences!

This was my first run in my new neighborhood and I could tell immediately that it is going to be very different here. The terrain is very hilly. I'm either panting as I run up hill or relaxing as I run down.

Yesterday I got my Type O exercise in another way. The grass at the back of our property is thigh high. That is a real nuisance for the contractors who have come to give me fence estimates. I put on boots and cranked up the lawnmower. Two hours later I have a path around the perimeter of the property. It's wide enough for two people to walk side by side.

I mowed over a lot of prickly pear cactus. At some point I remembered that it is a neutral fruit. Perhaps I should harvest it instead of destroying it.

I need to go back and update a June blog. Unfortunately, I didn't conquer the urinary tract infection. Though the symptoms were better, they were still there going into the weekend. The next week I was traveling to my parents' house to take both of them to doctor appointments. I didn't want to get caught with a painful infection on a weekend or when I was out of town. In addition I felt like the continued infection was dragging me down. Antibiotics took care of it very quickly.

Though I gave in again, I was really encouraged that I fought it as long as I did. It's the first success I've ever had. I have hope that if I started treatment earlier I might have beat it. If I didn't have such a busy schedule and could have rested more, I'm sure that would have helped too.

Several of you wrote with advice about UTIs. I really appreciated all of the suggestions. Two of you wrote about cranberry capsules. I have bought some and am taking them every day. This seems like the best preventative measure I can take.

I'm going to summarize the other ideas that were sent, just in case some of you are also trying to fight off an infection.

"What helped me besides the antibiotics was a long soak in a warm tub with plain old white vinegar. That really helped the discomfort."

"Remember to use cranberry juice without sugar."

"Soothe the tissues with marshmallow root powder or tea. I find it very soothing and helps me tremendously when my bladder gets irritable. Also licorice root tea."

"Have you tried Uva-Ursi for your UTI? I'm a blood type O and I think it works great!"

"Have you tried drinking parsley water? It will help you to eliminate more water and to take bacteria out of the urine. I usually boil 1 bunch in a stock pot of water for about five minutes. I drink it warm or cold."

"I changed my underwear to pure cotton that helped a lot. I learned to just gently cover myself with toilette paper when doing a bowel movement because the fine almost unnoticeable "splash" of the toilette water carried microbes to the wrong places. That made a huge difference as stupid as that sounds. I sometimes just wash with an iodine solution to cleanse the area if need be."

I am always amazed by the amount of experience the people on this website have. I hope it will be a long time before my next UTI. When it comes I'll be ready to fight again.

There is going to be all kinds of strenuous exercise in our new neighborhood. For starters, it is a 1.2 mile round trip to the mailbox! This is quite a change for someone who has had home delivery all her life. We have decided that unless the weather is really bad, after dinner we will walk the dog to the mailbox.

My husband or my daughter watch out for the dog. I carry hand weights to make the trip a little more rigorous. One night the dog took off after a deer. He nearly pulled the leash out of my daughter's hands.

If we eat dinner early, we get to watch the sunset as we walk. If we eat dinner late, we get to watch the stars come out.

Good news today. We closed on the sale of our old house. We are very thankful.

I have been a bit nervous about my ability to find BTD food in a small town. I've been in lots of small town grocery stores, and there wasn't much variety. The first grocery store I went to here, was just what I had expected. Standard produce selections - apples, bananas, carrots, lettuce, etc; but nothing exciting like Swiss chard or kohlrabi. Lots of prepared frozen food - most of it with MSG. It was depressing.

I tried another grocery store on my second shopping trip. Oh my! It was like going to a BTD smorgasbord. They had all sorts of fresh greens in their huge produce section. They even had kohlrabi, and it was fresh. They had soy milk and soy cheese. They had hormone free chicken and fresh fish. They had 100% rye flour and Ezekiel bread. They had grass fed ground beef. This will be a delightful place to shop.

I unpacked the last kitchen box today. I've gradually started cooking more fresh food. My husband and daughter are ready for me to resume baking.

Now that I'm in my new house I can grill onions to my heart's content. No more worries about whether the house smells good to someone coming through on an unexpected showing. Tonight I grilled sweet onions and portabella mushrooms. They were delicious.

I also grilled chicken breasts. For my Type A husband and daughter I fixed tortillas and a salad of fresh spinach, carrot sticks, and cucumbers. My husband ate his mushrooms raw. My daughter does not like the idea of eating fungus, though many types of mushrooms would be beneficial for her.

For myself I fixed a large spinach salad with chopped carrots. I cubed my chicken breast and added it to the salad. I topped it with the grilled onions and mushrooms and some extra virgin olive oil.

What a feast. And personally, I think the house smells a lot better than it would if I used one of those store bought, plug in, sickeningly sweet, air fresheners.

We are in our new house. The boxes aren't all unpacked, and things are far from organized, but the beds are made, the computer is on line, the TV is functional, and the kitchen is operational

An interesting thing happened a few weeks before we moved. I went into my health food market that I've written about so many times, and they were rearranging the shelves. A number of the items I buy on a regular basis were gone. Bladderwack capsules, fava beans, and rice bran were just three of the items no longer on the shelves. I was told that they wouldn't be stocking them any more. Not only that, but the prices were higher.

I mentioned my disappointment that night, and my husband said he had read that the store was being bought out by Whole Foods. Now I know some of you love Whole Foods, but having had a choice for years between Whole Foods, and a local chain, the local market consistently had better quality and lower prices. The next time I was there I asked, and my husband's information was correct. Whole Foods was buying out their competition. I knew it was time to move.

Our old house was in a big city. Our new house is out in the country, six miles from a small town. I wondered whether I would be able to buy supplements locally, or whether I would have to start ordering on the internet. My first visit to the health food store assuaged all my fears. Everything I was used to buying was on the shelves. I was so excited. I immediately felt at home.

Yesterday I got a Type O workout in the extreme. I brought everything down out of our attic. We have lived in this house since 1979, and we have accumulated a lot of stuff. My husband and I opened every box in the attic prior to the garage sale last spring. We sold some and gave a lot to the Salvation Army. There is still a lot that we are moving with us to the new house…wooden puzzles, favorite children's books, pictures that didn't fit in this house, but that might be just right for the new one.

I made countless trips up and down the attic stairs. I carried and stacked box after box in the garage. Both cars will be parked on the street until the movers come on Monday, because the garage is filled with boxes. This was a brutal activity in the South Texas heat and humidity. By the time I was through my clothes were drenched.

Oddly, though I smelled terrible and was covered with dust, I felt great. My body really does thrive when it is doing physical work. All of my grandfathers were farmers and ranchers. Their professions gave them the exercise they needed. In this modern world, on most days I have to invent physical activity like swimming or running. My daily work is usually much to sedentary to count as exercise.

A week from today we will begin moving into the new house. The process will probably take several days. I'm not sure exactly when we will get the computer hooked up.

Right now we are trying to eat up as many of the perishables as we can. I've already defrosted the deep freezer. Now I'm working on emptying the refrigerator. I told my daughter that we'll soon be like people of yesteryear, going to the market each morning to buy food for the day.

Tonight we're having barbequed chicken with artichoke hearts, salad, and parsnips.

I also have to plan for food for the first few days at the new house. Everyone tells me, "Eat out. You'll be too tired to cook." That may be true, but I don't usually get the amounts of vegetables I want from restaurants. There are exceptions, but the closest restaurants to the new house seem to be in the sandwich shop and barbecue style. It will be easy enough to get a salad, but I don't want to live on salad for several days. I think the thing to do is to pack as if we were going on vacation. We'll picnic on our back porch for breakfast and lunch, and have salad at a restaurant for dinner. I can be happy enough with canned vegetables and canned meats. It seems to me that it is going to be very important to stay with the Type O foods when I'm stressed.

If you are uncomfortable with descriptions of female problems, skip this blog.

However, if you have tried to battle a urinary tract infection with the BTD, read on.

I blogged last fall, that the thinner, drier skin that comes with menopause had left me susceptible to urinary tract infections. It has been several months since I had one, but suddenly Sunday night I had all of the symptoms again.

My rule of thumb is that I will try to fight them until I reach the point where the water in the toilet bowl is pink and I have tears in my eyes from the burning. It is now Thursday and I am still fighting. This is the most success I have ever had, but I haven't won yet.

The Antibacterial Protocol in the Blood Type Encyclopedia recommends Astragalus, Kutki, and Polyflora O for Type Os. I had Astragalas on hand. I had another probiotic that contains most of the strains recommended for Type O. I started both of those. The Urinary Protocol recommends Bromelain, Bearberry, Horsetail, and Polyflora O. I had Bromelain and Horsetail. Vitamin C is also recommended. I started those three as well. My doctor, who isn't oriented toward nutrition, natural health, or the Blood Type Diet at all, recommends cranberry juice, so I'm drinking lots of that as well as lots of water.

I have been almost symptom free at night. The time of day that I know I still have the infection is late afternoon. That is interesting because when my children were little and getting over a virus, they were often fever free most of the day, but would pop a fever in the late afternoon.

I will not kid you. It would have been less expensive to take antibiotics than to take all of these supplements. The only reason I am hanging in the fight is because I believe it would be the best if my own immune system could conquer this.

I am encouraged because this is the most success I have ever had in even trying to fight a UTI. I am discouraged because 4 days is a long time to drink huge amounts of fluid and still know that I'm not entirely normal. For now, it's still worth the fight.

I haven't made any Beneficial Veggie Trio since we put our house on the market. Onions don't make the kitchen smell good, and kale is even worse. What I have been doing is mixing several of the beneficial beans from the Menopause book with frozen greens.

Some greens like spinach, Swiss chard, and beet greens are just delicious plain or with a little olive oil. Collard greens, turnip greens, and kale are good, but they are better when I add something to give them extra flavor. Seasoned salt is good, and chopped meat is good. But I really like mixing in a half cup of beans. Adzukis, northern beans, and black beans are all really good. I like the texture and the flavor. Even better is when I add left over beef or chicken to the beans and greens.

Very simple lunch, and very beneficial.

My toe is improving. I didn't think I could possibly survive if I slowed down, but the toe forced me to slow down, and the world did not come to an end.