On Mother's Day I noticed that some of the seeds I planted are starting to sprout! That was a nice way to start the day. I try to just relax on Mother's day and make it fun for my kids. My five year old is old enough to understand it and gave me quite a few little surprises throughout the day. My husband helped our 2 year old to make me a card at church nursery. It was a good day. My biggest and best present was a long nap...just what I always want!

Now my spring garden bed is filled in, and I'm finishing the second bed. I had to dig into the ground a bit for it, to get it level, but it's all put in place now, minus the soil. I'm waiting for a windless day to mix and add the Mel's mix. Today I planted most of the Jerusalem Artichokes on the hill, and saved a few for a couple squares in the second garden bed. I also made it to Ikea to buy some cheap terra cotta pots so I can line up my tomatoes along the slope next to the tall back fence. My heirloom tomato starts are still alive and slowly growing, so maybe they'll do well, I also have some more guaranteed hybrid types to put in, just in case.

I tried some turnip greens from the grocery store today for the first time. I figured I ought to try them if I'm going to be growing them. I like them quite well. They're similar to collards, and more exciting than spinach. They'd be great as a wrap for something like cabbage rolls or Dolma. (I think cabbage and grape leaves are both black dots for gatherers).

I even found some Seven Top turnip seeds at a local nursery, that are solely for producing turnip greens, so that was a nice surprise. I couldn't find them online at the places I was ordering other seeds, so I thought I'd have to compromise and get regular turnip seeds. They'd make ok greens, but I'm only interested in the greens so I'm happy to find some just for greens.

I didn't actually need to order as many seeds online as I did. I've found the variety of seeds in the local nurseries to be quite adequate, and it's easier to tell that it will grow well in my area. Even the grocery store down the street had seeds for Bright Lights Swiss Chard, which saved me a trip back to the nursery after I changed my mind and decided I wanted them afterall. Next year, I'll probably have enough seeds saved from this year (both from the packets I bought and some I'll collect from the plants). I'm keeping them all in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator, so they'll keep well. I had been keeping them in my garage, but the older ones still germinated well.

I've always spent a lot of time analyzing things, trying to figure out why I cheat and eat foods that are in no way good for me. This week I've been reading "Stop Whining, Start Living" by Dr. Laura. I've come to the conclusion, after listening to a caller with a similar problem on her show today, that I am in control of my life and what I eat. Some people just inherently know that, others of us, like myself, forget all too often.

I am in control of what I choose to eat, and my choices will affect the choices my children learn to make... that's a big responsibility. Not to mention the fact that I want to be around and healthy enough to enjoy seeing my boys grow up, and eventually enjoy being a grandma.

I did pretty well today. Honestly, my avoids were 2 grams of avocado, 2 tiny sips of root beer, and 3 grams of dark chocolate. Not too bad, and it'll get better. May the scale be my honest friend again.

I love the new blog software, though I'm not sure I can handle all the power it gives me... I'll get used to it.

I had a great breakfast this morning. Last night I steamed some jerusalem artichokes to go with baked tilapia and green beans + rice for the boys...a common dinner at the last minute in my house. The artichokes aren't really a last minute thing though, they take a while to peel! They're worth it though. When I was a kid we'd buy canned potatoes and roast them over the campfire, I'm sure that sounds weird if you've never tried it, but they were very good...and that's what jerusalem artichokes taste like. My husband began to complain about the potato famine in our house, but once he tasted them he admitted that they are tasty.

Anyway, this morning I sauteed some mushrooms and the leftover jerusalem artichokes (about 1/3 inch pieces) in some olive oil. Then I added 2 eggs and scrambled them with it, later adding some fresh spinach and ume plum vinegar. It was really really tasty. Green onions would have been a nice addition.

Hopefully I can stay on track for the whole day, without any snack attacks.

This weekend I ventured out to my favorite Thai restaurant, and found quite a few good things with no (or few?) avoids. Egg Flower soup...it's soooo good there. When I asked if it was thickened with wheat the waitress said that she didn't think they had any wheat flour in the kitchen, but she double-checked. Very cool. I avoided the curries, all made with coconut milk, and had some beef with vegetables and a little rice. It was all so good. Since it was my birthday though, I had my favorite dessert: mango with sweet rice. The rice is like a pudding made with coconut cream. It tasted great, but I could feel a difference after eating it. The other food energized me, the dessert made me feel quite tired. Better than cake, though! I did buy a cake mix with only a couple non-secretor avoids in it (tapioca flour and sugar), but I didn't get around to making it. Maybe it will last until my next birthday! I've never been a huge fan of cake. Brownies, on the other hand, if i weren't a secretor I'd make them every few weeks.

For all you secretors out there, the trick I found for brownies is to use Sweet (glutinous) Rice Flour. It isn't sweet, and doesn't contain gluten, but it makes a better brownie than wheat flour. Use a recipe that calls for cocoa powder, because then you don't need much of any type of flour.

I did a search on TypeBase, I put in the search term of non-secretor, and I searched by type O. That way it showed all the foods for Os that have different values for non-secretors.

It turned up 115 differences in values between secretors and non-secretors.

There are 58 foods only secretors can have.

Then 41 neutral vs. beneficial differences

And finally only 16 foods that only non-secretors can have (I think they're all neutral for us):

Avocado - yummy

Catfish - never tried it

Coconut Oil - surprising, too bad we can't have coconut milk too.

Goose Egg - never tried it

Lentils (all types) - pretty good stuff, lentil soup with greens is good

MSG - surprising, one fewer food additive to look out for I guess

Mushrooms (domestic button type) - yummy

Mustard Greens - never tried them

Nutmeg - yummy, get your own nutmeg grater, surprisingly good on Italian food or soups.

Pinto Bean - good, I used to eat them all the time

Quail Egg - I like these okay, I can only find the canned type around here.

Quail - they're too cute, I'm not sure I could eat them

Salmon Roe - uh, never tried it

Turtle - never tried it

Now my task is to find a treat that includes some of these, for times when I feel sorry for my non-secretor-ism. I tried making an egg tortilla (similar to an omelette), then I put refried pinto beans, ground beef with Taco Dust on it (Taco Dust has no avoids, fillers, or preservatives), then some fresh salsa, lime juice and avocado slices on top. The egg tortilla was ok, but it probably would have been just as good without it. The rest was tasty. I'd love to find a o-nonnie gluten-free tortilla that works out well, but I haven't found one yet. I have a tortilla maker that I haven't used for years, but it's nice, if I could think of a good reason to dust it off. I've heard that mesquite pod flour makes good tortillas, but it's an unknown and an iffy one at that, not that I've ever gotten hold of any.

I can't believe I survived my eating out adventure last night. We went to a Japanese Steakhouse. I asked them to not use soy sauce, so everything they made at our table was fine, but I wasn't sure about the premade sauces, so I only had a little of the mustard sauce. I also had salad dressing. I was sure there was something that would make me sick, but when I got home I took some deflect and cut up a fresh pineapple. That helped. I did have some dairy and for the first time I noticed a reaction to it. I had been having some trouble with my ears due to inflamed eustacian tubes. That started up again after dinner. I could even feel some discomfort in my eustacian tubes. I'm doing better today, but a bit stuffy.

Before I got my blood type tested I thought I was a B, because I didn't think I had any trouble with dairy, and I did react badly to chicken. Going on the type O diet got rid of my chicken reaction.