All Things Supercinski

I often wonder how many books I read in a year. I read a lot last year, but our “now reading” part of our blog wasn’t working and I forgot to tell my webmaster for many months. So, I am going to attempt a monthly book review, or at least list of completed books for that month, mostly out of curiosity of how many books I read in a year. One of my goals for this new year is to manage my time better and read more, let’s see how long it lasts.

Breastfeeding and Human Lactation by Jan Riordan – I plowed through this 850+ page textbook in a mere six weeks. I fell asleep many nights with that book in my lap, but I learned so much. I am pursuing certification as a lactation educator, and this was required reading.

The Nursing Mother’s Guide to Weaning by Kathleen Huggins and Linda Ziedrich – another lactation educator book and one that I was interested in reading to gain some encouragement in nursing a toddler, not because I am interested in weaning anytime soon, but for ideas when the time comes. This book met those goals, and could be a good resource to a mother considering weaning at any point in her nursing relationship. I really enjoyed their insight into why Western countries nurse their babies for such a short time compared to the rest of the world. From the authors:

Americans tend to fear their children’s dependence… the same fear provokes questions and warnings from well-meaning people about the wisdom of long breastfeeding, and drives many women to wean before they are ready. We should remind ourselves that American individualism, in many of its forms, is not born of confidence and trust, but of alienation. As Elizabeth Hormann (1982) points out, ‘We are bent on weakening bonds in the name of growth and independence, then spend our adulthoods wondering why we have trouble getting close to other people.’”

Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices by Frank Viola and George Barna
I read half of this book earlier in the fall and finally finished it this month. I found this book to be very interesting, but I read it through the lens of knowing the authors’ agenda–the house church movement. Basically the authors are making three points: 1) A great deal of what we do in church today does not come from the New Testament. 2) Much of what is practiced originated out of Greco-Roman customs and traditions (paganism, not Judaism), and/or human-made inventions. 3) Many of these practices actually hinder the church from being what God designed her to be. The over-arching question the authors seem to be asking is: Do the practices of modern institutional churches reflect a God-ordained/inspired development, or are they a departure from it?

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks
This was my mom’s group February book. It was entertaining, but I’m not sure if I would recommend it. It only took two days to read it, and I just realized this was made into a movie to be released soon… hmmm… it was okay but I’m not sure I want to see a movie about it.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett — I loved this book and could not put it down. I was so sad when it ended as it was one of those books where you feel like you know the characters so well. Based in Jackson Mississippi during the early 1960s, this book is about three main characters–two black maids (“the help”) and a young white woman recently graduated from college who sets out to write the stories of black maids working in white homes during the turbulent beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement. It was thought-provoking and very well-written. I highly recommend it.

January total = 5 (not counting the four Happy Hollister books I read aloud to Josiah… please, let us move on from Happy Hollisters soon, son!)

Our sweet girl is growing so fast. She is very social and talking up a storm these days. I attempted to catalog all of her words the other day, but I gave up, there were too many. Some of her funniest words involve emotions. Every so often, she will scream out “Appy!!!! Appy!!!!” and squeal. She knows happy. She also learned “scared” well this month. When Daddy gets home, they play a variation of hide-and-go-seek that is more like Daddy-go-hide-and-jump-out-and-scare-the-kids-to-death. Now, Annalise lets me know when she is “scared” (with a ‘w’ instead of an ‘r’) often. Things that scare Annalise are dogs, cats, garbage trucks, loud trucks going down our street, the heater turning on, and dogs again. It is precious that when she hears these things, she yells, “Scawed!” and comes and runs into my arms. She also learned “shy” and will say it while pretending to hide her head when strangers talk to her… sometimes. She loves attention, so it seems she is just practicing her emotions.

Some of her favorite things continue to be digging in dirt or sand, swinging, playing outside, coloring, reading books, dressing up, Baby Love, babies, other kids, tea parties, Josiah, Mommy and Daddy. She carries Baby Love (“Baby La”) everywhere she goes. It is the first thing she asks for when she wakes up and the last thing she puts down before bed.

She and Josiah have been playing together more and more. I love this picture, though the quality is horrible–I took it from the kitchen across the living room. Josiah was reading books to her one night while I got dinner ready. They read several books together and laughed and talked. When Josiah is upset, Annalise is the first one to give him a hug, pat his back say, “Sowwy… okay…. awww…”

She has also mastered taking off her shirts (no matter if they are snapped on the bottom) and socks. Thankfully, the pants and diaper tend to stay in place! She is very interested in all things potty and tells me if she is dirty and sometimes if she is peeing. I’m not ready to start potty training, nor do I think that she is, but it’s nice that she is showing interest.

She loved getting a flower from Daddy one day. Now, if she sees a flower, she says her word for flower and “tank too Daddy.”

We eat a lot of yogurt and granola around here. I perfected my yogurt-making skills (seriously–the huge thermos makes it such a breeze!) and have delved into the world of granola. I tend to prefer expensive granola and can run through a $5 box in a few days. For snacks. Anyway, I tried a bunch of different recipes and never really liked any of them… until now. I can’t get enough of this stuff. I’ve made at least a batch a week. It is a little expensive to make with all the maple syrup in it, but you can get maple syrup for at Sam’s at a huge savings compared to the grocery store. I’m talking pure maple syrup here, not that HFCS flavored with artificial maple flavoring junk they pass off as food. This is my modification of this original recipe.

Granola
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup shredded coconut (not the sweetened kind)
1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted on the stove
1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons pure maple syrup

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Mix oats, almonds, shredded coconut, brown sugar and salt in a large bowl. Combine melted coconut oil and maple syrup and pour over dry ingredients. Stir to mix. Pour onto a large, rimmed baking sheet. (I don’t worry about using two sheets, it’s okay if it is not all in a single layer.) Bake 40-45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. If you follow the original recipe’s baking time, you will end up with a nasty burnt mess.

This is great with milk or yogurt, fruit or by itself. Enjoy!

Since Annalise was a few months old and wanting to be upright at all times, I have always held her that way. However, she still lets Thomas hold her like a baby. He says, “Can you be my baby, Annalise?” and then cradles her and walks around talking to her about her day. It is so precious. She babbles to him and answers his questions with rapt attention and sweet little grunts and words. They do this almost every night. I finally got a few pictures of it. And this was just some snuggling and reading time the other night.

Can you tell? Did the cookie residue around her mouth give it away? Or was it the balloons?

I saw this on my friend, Megan’s, blog, and I thought it was so interesting that I had to do it myself. Our blog tends to be a little kid-focused these days, so perhaps this will give some of you a bit more information about me than you ever wanted to know.

2000
Celebrated Y2K asleep in a recliner at my best friends’ house on my first outing after back surgery.
Spent about four months in a fog recovering from said surgery.
Started my freshman year at Texas A&M University, majoring in education, thinking I was going to be a math teacher or go to nursing school.

2001
Spent spring break in London.
Decided teaching wasn’t really what I was supposed to do, changed my major to community health intending to go to nursing school someday.
Spent eight weeks in Nepal that summer. Got worms, made some great friends, experienced an earthquake and was robbed at gunpoint by Maoist rebels who stole all our stuff and attempted to burn down the house I was staying in. It was a life-changing summer, if you couldn’t tell by my brief description.

2002
Junior year of college, got really involved in the college ministry at our church, met Thomas and made more wonderful friends.
Applied to a bunch of nursing schools to transfer to a BSN program. Didn’t get into a single one though my grades were really good. God firmly closed that door, though it was shocking to me at the time.

2003
Lived with a wonderful family who taught me a ton about marriage and family.
Thomas and I started dating in November.

2004
Internship at Hope Pregnancy Center the semester before graduation.
Thomas and I got engaged in August.
Graduated in December.

2005

Thomas and I were married on January 8th. Had an awesome two-week honeymoon in Paris.

Found out we were pregnant in early May.
Bought a house in September.

2006

Josiah was born in February.
Made some great mom friends who helped in the transition to motherhood.

2007

Lived it up with one kids and lots of fun friends (that picture is horrible, but one of the few I have of most everyone.)
Started training to become a Bradley Method childbirth instructor.
Found out I was pregnant with Annalise in October.

2008

Annalise Claire was born in May.

Became fully certified as a Bradley instructor.

2009

Enjoying life with two beautiful kids and a wonderful husband.