All Things Supercinski

Josiah, as you can tell, loves it when Daddy hangs him upside down.

Not so long ago, Matt Graham and I were discussing the Body Worlds exhibit in Houston. For two years, this exhibit has toured the country featuring real human bodies that have been preserved with a process called plastination. I was trying to explain to Matt that I was not comfortable with the exhibit and had no desire to see it, but I couldn’t explain why. Recently, we listened to a report on NPR looking into Body Worlds and BODIES… The Exhibition, and it further solidified my feelings.

First, let me state that I think that the human body is a miracle and shows our Creator’s creativity, handiwork and precision. That my body was able to grow a child and birth it while I did almost nothing to aid it along is truly miraculous. I took anatomy and physiology in college and was awed by the intricacy of the systems and how each works together.

The bodies in BODIES… The Exhibition are unclaimed bodies obtained in China. In a country with a human rights record such as China’s, these bodies are likely political prisoners, the mentally disabled and perhaps even persecuted Christians whose bodies were taken, converted to plastic and put on display for profit. Gunther von Hagen, the “artist” behind Body Worlds claims that all of his bodies are donated; however, the NPR report found no clear paper trail, posing doubts about where his bodies were obtained. All of his cadavers are plastinized in China, where he claims the medical students are the most diligent and have the most dexterity.

Regardless of how the bodies are obtained, that people would find dissected bodies displayed as the living entertaining is difficult for me to imagine. It seems so sordid. If one is interested in anatomy, textbook illustrations provide all that non-doctors would need. Do we need to examine the dead? What does this say about our society that we put the dead on display? Even primative, savage societies respect their dead.

One of bodies in the exhibit is a young woman with an 8 month old fetus inside of her displayed. According to Wikipedia (I know) a sign nearby states that she decided to donate her body after she found out she had a terminal disease. Why wasn’t her baby delivered then? Eight months gestation is normally viable outside of the womb. There are plastinized children in the exhibits–can they provide consent? I also read that each of the plastinized bodies in the Body Worlds exhibit has von Hagen’s signature, as if it is his work of art, and his European exhibits include sexual exhibits.

How should we as Christians view exhibits such as these, particularly in light of 1 Corinthians 15:50-56?

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Any thoughts?

This video is not the utmost in quality, but you get the general idea–our boy can scoot! Short distances! He seems to be realizing that rolling is only good for so much. The video is rather poor because the camera was on the window sill while I was enticing Josiah with a toy. Enjoy!

Josiah loves the “new” exersaucer we got for a mere $15 (retail $59.99) from a friend selling her baby stuff. He cried the first time we put him in it, I think because it was overwhelming, but now he really loves it and rolls over to it often during playtime.

My boys. Aren’t they the cutest?

As many of you know, Thomas and I love finding good deals. I think it could even be considered one of our hobbies since we are so diligent about finding the absolute best price on items before purchasing. This was not a quality of mine until I had married my dear husband who has helped inspire me and hone my deal-finding abilities. The other day, we were discussing that it could almost be considered bad stewardship (for us) to not go to at least a few of the many garage sales in our neighborhood on our free weekends.

For many months of pregnancy, garage sales were all dead ends, leading to no good deals as we missed the best items due to getting there minutes too late. How many cribs in pristine condition did we see getting sold signs stuck upon them? Far too many. But now that we have a baby alarm clock, we’ve hit the deals! Our first wonderful deal was the queen-size guest bed (mattress, box springs and frame) from our neighbor for a mere $75. It is in great condition and very comfortable–come visit us and you can try it out. Just this weekend we scored a baby backpack for only $2. Can you believe it, only $2?! It’s perfect for our upcoming trip to Colorado in September. At one sale a few months ago we got four cute, like new baby outfits for Josiah for only 50 cents for all four of them. If you aren’t inspired to go garage-saling this weekend after reading this, I don’t know what will get you going!

All this said, I would like to apologize to my mom for my poor attitude as we garage-saled as a kid. You are a good bargain-hunter and I got my keen garage-sale eye from you. I am not sure if you will even read this because I think all you do is look at pictures of your grandson, but thanks anyway!

Kendra’s post about new mom advice and the Wolf’s recent post got me to thinking about the baby care items that I would recommend to expectant parents. Here are some of the things I thought of:

Rocker/Glider with Ottoman–This is probably the single most-used baby item that we use. If you have a nice Lazy Boy, that would do also. I have spent countless hours nursing and rocking Josiah (and falling asleep myself) in that thing, and its such a treat to have a comfortable place to sit and prop up my feet.

Sling/Baby Carrier–When babies are small, they want to be held. Moms, however, have things to do like brush their teeth, eat, start some laundry, etc. This helps you do both at the same time. Josiah had a hard time napping on his own until he was about 10-12 weeks old, so he could nap in the sling while I did stuff around the house. I still use it! After his shots on Monday, he would fuss if he wasn’t being held so I popped him in the sling and was able to vaccum the whole house and get lunch going with a nice, happy, quiet baby.

Diaper Champ-We got this as a gift from our friend Elijah and it has served us well these six months. It uses regular (or odor-shield) kitchen bags and does a fair job masking the smell. A bowl of baking soda placed nearby helps a lot.

All Free & Clear–Don’t waste your money on Dreft when All makes the same thing (no fragrances, dyes) for less than a third of the price.

Lap Pads-I had no idea what these were until Christine gave me a package at my shower. These little miracle-workers are squares of thick, somewhat waterproof cloth that you can lay anywhere a blowout is likely to occur–cribs, changing pads (unless you want to be washing that every day), bassinet, you name it–so that you don’t have to change crib sheets in the middle of the night, just remove the soiled lap pad. They also can absorb spit up.

Homemade Baby Wipes-We enjoy making our own wipes from Kleenex Viva paper towels. This week, I started using pieces of flannel that I hemmed as wipes that I can wash and reuse, since paper towels can get expensive and Josiah only goes every few days now. I just put the wipe solution in a squirt bottle. But even if you use the paper towels, they are still cheaper than wipes and you know what you are putting in them. Mix 2 cups water with 1 tablespoon baby wash, 1 tablespoon baby oil, and 5-10 drops of tea tree oil in a container with a sealing lid about the size of a paper towel roll, cut in half (you can easily cut these with a sharp knife–our santoku knife slides right through). Put the roll in the water mix, turn the container over and let it sit for 10 minutes or overnight. The cardboard roll magically pulls right out and you can pull from the inside.

Blender-My new favorite hobby is making Josiah’s baby food. I seriously love making his food. Perhaps it is my “acts of service” love language coming out, my enjoyment of making things myself, or my love of saving money, but I enjoy blending up homemade goodness so much that I have a freezer full of baby food! Making homemade food is cheap, cheap, cheap and fun. All you need is a blender and a kitchen. If you are really interested, there are some great resources online to help. I made some organic banana puree from organic bananas for $0.59/pound and pumped milk (free), making at least 10 “jar” fulls. At the grocery store, plain, not organic banana puree is $0.39 per little jar!

Safer Bather-This amazing pad makes bathing a baby a breeze. I first discovered it while babysitting Will Hoover as a baby. The pad lays in the tub and is nice and warm and doesn’t slip all over the place. It is guaranteed not to mildew if you hang it up after baths and you can throw it in the washing machine if and when the baby poops all over it.

Feel free to comment about your favorite baby care product, if you have one. If anyone is interested in a sling, don’t buy one online for $50–I can make you one much cheaper, maybe even cheap as free if you are a friend!