All Things Supercinski

I would really like your comments on this video as well as the 2008 Presidential election in general.

We planted a small fall garden for the first time this year. We had an excellent showing from our broccoli plants and lettuce. The carrot seeds we used were a few years old and didn’t produce much, and we’re still waiting on the few that grew.

We’ve had so much broccoli the past few weeks that we’ve been enjoying dishes like beef and broccoli stir fry, chicken with broccoli cheese and rice, and of course, broccoli as a side dish.

Our lettuce and spinach really came along well. I let some of them go too long without harvesting, and some of the early frosts “burned” the edges of some before we covered them, but they still taste great!

Happy Anniversary, my love.

I have been amazing myself (and some of our single and never been pregnant friends) with how much I can eat these days. Half pound cheeseburger? No problem! I could even eat dessert afterward if I wanted. Two dinners in one night? Just give me an hour and I’ll be ready to eat again. Seriously, it can be frightening, but I know it’s not bad when I am eating good things, especially protein.

Since I’m a Bradley gal, I’ve been working on following the Brewer Pregnancy Diet. It’s not a weight loss diet, but guideline for food intake to prevent toxemia/preeclampsia, premature labor, low birth weight and other problems. After reading a lot about it and hearing talks from Dr. Brewer (via video at my Bradley training), I’m sold. You can read more about it here.

Eating a good breakfast is an easy way to get a lot of the diet items in for the day. This is what my typical breakfast looks like these days:

-Two (fresh if our chickens are laying) scrambled eggs. Notice how yellow those eggs are, there is a huge difference in eggs from ranging chickens and store eggs.
-A bowl of oatmeal made with milk, wild blueberries, 2 spoonfuls of milled flaxseed (protein, fiber and Omega-3s), 1 scoop of wheat germ (B vitamins and fiber), and sweetened with honey
-A glass of orange juice and a glass of milk
-Often, I also have half of a piece of whole wheat toast if Josiah didn’t eat all of his.

I know it seems like a ridiculous amount of food, but it really isn’t difficult to eat it all, and I feel so much better with a good, high protein breakfast in me. I am not as tired and I don’t feel like I am starved and about to throw up two hours later. I highly recommend it!

And this is who I enjoy conversing with over my breakfast. He doesn’t eat nearly as well as I do.

I see so many cute aprons online that I just had to try to make one this year. Since my sister-in-law is soon to be wedded, I thought she would enjoy having one (and she seems like the kind of gal who would actually wear one while cooking). I made this apron using this tutorial. It turned out really well and I was inspired to do more. This picture is of me wearing it, sans waist (baby) so it doesn’t quite do it justice.

For weeks, I have been pondering how to make the perfect pregnancy apron. One that still cute, but not gigantic. Pregnancy necessitates the use of an apron like no other season in life–your belly is bigger than your arms can comfortably reach, so it bumps into counter tops, absorbs water from the sink, gets grease splattered on it, and catches dribbles of taste testing gone awry. I decided to try an empire-waist apron and just winged it. I probably could have found a pattern or some instructions, but I used the skills I gained making the other apron. It turned out pretty well, and I am very pleased.

The gathers at the waist give it a lot of room to grow, especially in the middle. This kind of detailing is hard to capture in a photograph. Anyway, if you are wanting to make one for yourself, I can share the measurements I used, just let me know. One of my other favorite things about this apron is how cute it looks hanging on my refrigerator; it matches my kitchen perfectly!

A process driven by 30-second commercials prepared by the candidates themselves, and so-called debates that ask candidates to explain in 60 seconds how they would bring about world peace or national prosperity, does not help. Nor does media coverage that focuses on whose commercials are moving polling points and who performed well in the last inane debate.

But we voters can still do a respectable job in the CEO selection process. Obviously ideology and our visceral reactions to the candidates matter, since they are also part of job performance. There are, however, three other questions about a candidate’s character that are likely to shed some light on whether that candidate will do well in the on-the-job training school of the Oval Office. These questions have nothing to do with party or ideology.

Read the full article - OpinionJournal - What We Want in a President

These are some links for January 2nd through January 3rd. Enjoy!

• They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 by Milton Mayer, an excerpt - The similarities to our times are chilling. Have we been so distracted by our age of entertainment that we have not thought about what is really going on around us?
  “It provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway.”
• Save Your Trash - You may have seen this man on TV - he saved his trash for a year. Check out what he learned and how he was changed in the process.
• The Top 10 New Organisms of 2007 - This list highlights the hubris shown in our culture today. I wonder how much consideration was given to the possible damage these activities could create.
• Are There Really ‘Continents’ of Floating Garbage? | The Daily Galaxy: News from Planet Earth & Beyond - I sure hope this helps you think twice about discarding as much as you (we all) do. Join the local freecycle group, reuse items creatively, simply buy less.