All Things Supercinski

It happened–I missed a month updating on Annalise. I know, so many of you were looking for the post… (bear with me, this makes scrapbooking so much easier on me, and it keeps the grandparents informed.)

Annalise is full of energy and always busy these days–running everywhere she goes. Her favorite things are pushing push toys all around the house, riding the riding toys around the house, baby dolls, trucks/trains that go by themselves and pushing trucks and cars around. She has finally taken an interest in the multitudes of trucks, cars, and trains in Josiah’s room. She also loves books and will sit and look at pictures on her own or in your lap for a long time.

She is officially only taking one nap and has not had two naps in almost a month. She takes a two hour nap in the midday/early afternoon and sleeps about 12-13 hours at night (not straight, we still have about one night waking each night). Almost all of her first molars have come through and she is now working on her canine teeth.

Annalise loves being outside and digging in the dirt, rocks or sand. She tries to climb up the ladder on the playground by herself and can make it about halfway up. She really enjoys swinging and likes to slide some days more than others.

Very much a girl, she loves shoes, hats, bags, and accessories. She can make so many things into necklaces and wears play doughnuts and ring stacks on her wrists a lot.

She has started talking more this month, but is not as verbal as her brother. Any question that you ask Annalise is answered with a shake of her head and “no,” even if she means yes. For instance, I asked her if she wanted a banana, and she shook her head and said no, while running to the kitchen and signing “banana” and pointing at them. Hmmm. She calls Josiah “Ya-Ya” or “Bwaaa Bwaa” (brother).

I am hoping to run the White Rock Half Marathon in December. There are a few reasons I am really excited to run this specific race. One being that I got to cheer on Thomas as he ran the full marathon when we first started dating six years ago, and the other that the race benefits Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children (TSRHC). TSRHC provides extremely high quality medical care for children with orthopedic problems and dyslexia, all free of charge. TSRHC is very near and dear to my heart, quite literally, but more like my spinal region than my heart.

I found out I had scoliosis in junior high, and I was treated at TSRHC for several years, ultimately having a rod placed in my spine to straighten me out. The care I received at TSRHC was amazing (and free!), and I am so thankful for all they did for me. I want to start giving a little back through this race and any sponsorships I receive.

The half marathon I hope to run is only three days before the tenth anniversary of my back surgery. Cool, huh? All that to say, if you feel like sponsoring me in my race and donating to TSRHC, just go here. Thanks!

Some of you may be shocked to hear that I am hoping to run a half marathon since I’m not much of a long-distance runner. This spring, I had a really difficult time getting the kids to sleep at the same time so that I could have time to workout. So I started jogging with them in the jogging stroller. As my friend Sally says, jogging is one of the fastest ways to burn a lot of calories while your kids are awake. So true!

When I first started jogging again in April, I could barely run for two miles (with both kids), but kept with it and began jogging two or three miles most days a week. This continued through the summer, and somewhere in the middle of all of that, I started to enjoy running more. Which brings me to seven weeks ago when I decided to train for a half marathon–13.1 miles from a gal who barely finished the last 10K (6 miles) I attempted in college. Training is going great. I love my alone time running longer distances. I think running with kids in the jogging stroller got me in shape so that running alone is so much easier.

I have been intrigued by the idea of freezer cooking for a long time and have successfully dabbled in it since we got our garage freezer almost two years ago. The idea of once-a-month freezer cooking sounds fantastic, but the execution of a huge shopping trip and day of cooking is out of reach at this point in my life. For the past two years, I have made a point to cook double of meals that freeze easily (namely soups and casseroles), with one to eat and one to freeze for busy days.

One of my Bradley students told me about the cookbook, Fix, Freeze, Feast, that she was using to stock her freezer in preparation for her birth. I was intrigued and used some birthday money to buy it. It was totally worth it, and I am hooked on freezer cooking.

The authors’ premise is to purchase meat in bulk at Sam’s or other warehouse stores for savings. I just use the quarter of the cow we have in our freezer already, whole chickens from our broiler adventures, and other chicken from Sam’s or the grocery specials. Rather than making a month’s worth of meals, each meal makes 3-6 meals. Some are casseroles or soups, but most are not, which I love. One of my favorites is called Sweet Asian Chicken. It is basically sliced, raw meat in a marinade. Just thaw and add veggies and you have a great stir fry.

Every recipe I have tried is delicious. There are no cream of whatever soups used in the recipes, and all are very made from scratch. Some recipes call for boullion granules, which I have yet to find locally without MSG, but I think you could use broths instead.

Bottom Line: two thumbs up from this cook who enjoys a night off a couple nights a week without eating out.

• Agriculture critic’s appearance angers university alumni — latimes.com – At the University of Wisconsin, where his book was part of a campus-wide reading project, a state farm bureau official called him "narrow and elitist," saying that he "sees an evil empire behind every item in your refrigerator." At Washington State University, an alumnus dug into his own pocket to pay for Pollan's appearance after a similar reading was canceled.

  "It's part of what appears to be a more aggressive industry push-back against critics of industrial agriculture," Pollan said.

• The Farm Blog: Thoughts from Joel – Anyone who thinks the heritage based, nutrient dense, pasture-based, low-energy, life-honoring model is winning has not kept up with the new attacks from corporate food. As long as our side stays below 1 percent of the food supply, we're just an annoying gnat. But as people drop
  out of industrial food, the food lord elitists ensconced in their corporate castles unleash their campaign to marginalize, demonize, and criminalize us.
• U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time –
• Greg Mankiw’s Blog: Medicare and Freedom –

We took a break from doing our little preschool homeschool lessons for a couple months this summer, or we did them off and on and just never picked up the pace and it dwindled away. I blame Annalise phasing out her morning nap, me not being so interested, and Josiah already knowing his letter sounds. I read this great post from Gina and it really got me thinking. Thomas and I had some discussions about it, and decided not to work on reading stuff as much with Josiah, unless he was really interested, and do our more formal “school time” based on science.

He is really interested in reading and loves to practice writing and sounding out short-vowel sound words and writing words. We just do that when we are hanging out and make it more fun. I had to stop doing the BOB books with him for awhile because he was trying to memorize them too much. As an overachiever in some areas (what, me?) I am tempted to work really hard with him so that I can have a kid that reads early, but that is ridiculous so we are taking it at Josiah’s pace.

Anyway, we discussed these things with the other family we do our little preschool group with, and agreed to make things more fun and have lots of science experiments and art stuff during our weekly group time, with some reading, phonics and math in there, too. A unit study, I guess. Last week was our first meeting and I chose the broad topic of water. It was a lot of fun.

First, we did a little math, counting raindrops.

Then the boys learned about and felt different states of water–solid, liquid, and gas. After that, they raced beads of water across the wax paper while blowing them with straws. They made lots of beads and worms of water and then ate a snack.

While they ate everything but the celery, I read a book about rain and about Noah and the first rainbow from Josiah’s little Bible book. Then we started our floating experiment. The boys had to make predictions about whether the objects would float or not and then we would draw them and the results on our chart.

Then we attempted to make rainbows with crayon shavings. It did not go so well and the colors got all mixed together.

Afterward, the boys went outside and continued the floating experiment with every small object on the back porch. And before you think that everything is always rosy in Supercinski-land, things took a downward dive as Josiah spent the next half hour having extreme difficulty playing with his friend and sharing toys.

Next week… insects!

I think they like it!

The pumpkin patch near our house arrived Monday (via a big rig truck), and Josiah just had to go as soon as he knew it was there. So the kids and I walked to pick out a few pumpkins to paint yesterday afternoon–it was 90 degrees out and extremely humid, note their red, sweaty faces. We’ll have to go back sometime when it is cooler and more fall-like.

This was my favorite pumpkin:

Josiah came home and immediately painted one of the pumpkins. He also painted the paper I put underneath the pumpkin. On the right you will see the three little pumpkins we bought. The green is some grass, and on the left are three little people. They are orange and yellow–Josiah, me, and Annalise.

The artist, posing with his picture.

In some ways, I think I prefer a fall garden over the spring and summer one–less heat, I like the things grown in fall a little more, and did I mention the heat factor?

Currently, we have a mess of sweet potatoes and their vines growing in the garden. I had no idea they would take up so much space and I have had to cut them back to keep them from choking out any more of our tomato plants. They are spilling out into the yard and would probably be clear across the garden if we let them.

We also have some tomatoes, which are looking nice and big thanks to all this rain, swiss chard still hanging on from the spring and summer, and green beans, broccoli, beets, and sugar snap peas. I hope to plant lettuce, spinach and carrots today or tomorrow and remove the remainder of our pepper plants that are still in the ground.

How is your fall garden coming? What did you plant?

Two weekends ago, Thomas enjoyed a nice, long weekend of camping and rock climbing at Enchanted Rock with his friend, Elijah. Thankfully, Elijah’s wife was willing to come and stay with me to keep me company and help with the children. On Monday, we packed up and drove to Austin to meet the menfolk and spend the night in a hotel in downtown Austin.

We Supercinskis splurged on the hotel and got a huge two room suite with windows all along two walls overlooking Town Lake. The view was amazing–Josiah woke up early on Tuesday morning and spent a full hour looking out the window and observing the city, water, rain and rainbows while I slept. We also got to see the famous bats flying out from under the bridge on Congress Avenue–that was incredible. I never imagined that there were so many of them–the black swarms in the sky in the picture below are all bats. You can imagine the smell.

Tuesday morning, we packed up and headed a few blocks over to the Austin Children’s Museum. We could have spent all day there, if we didn’t need to eat, Annalise didn’t need a nap and we lived in Austin. If we are ever traveling to a bigger city, hitting the children’s museum there will be on our list of activities. It really made our local museum seem so tiny in comparison.

Josiah enjoyed working in the construction zone. He refused to let me take his picture that weekend, so this is the best you get.

Annalise loved playing with this tube in the science room. It was constantly blowing air out of it, so we gave her little objects to drop in, but they kept flying out. She thought it was hilarious.

Annalise played in the baby area and climbed into the pretend bed in the little house and pretended to sleep.