All Things Supercinski

I leave two kids coloring in the kitchen while I go in another room for just two minutes, and this is what came to find me…

The post-discipline washing:

And then we dressed up for a tea party.

This morning, we went to pick blueberries at a family’s home that grows an amazing amount of blueberries for people to come and pick and purchase. I was amazed at how many they had, and their garden was huge! My sweet neighbor came with me to pick and be an extra set of grown-up hands for the kids.

Annalise and Avery picking blueberries. Turns out, Annalise did not need much help. She was quite the little picker!

We picked for about 30-45 minutes and got all of these. I love the colors in this picture.

We had so much fun and might have to go back and do this again sometime!

Better late than never!

21. What I Thought I Knew by Alice Eve Cohen – I saw this book on some reading list somewhere (I forget), and the description intrigued me. The author wrote this memoir after her experience with infertility, adoption and finding out she was 6 months pregnant at the age of 44 (after being misdiagnosed with bladder disorders, cancer, etc.) Facing an unexpected and high risk pregnancy, she explores her options and shares honestly her experiences. It was an interesting read, but her values are totally opposite from mine, making it very difficult to relate to her and not as enjoyable of a book as I expected.

22. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman – I have intended to read this book for a couple years–ever since Thomas read it and told me all about it. (He wrote a few unpublished blog posts based on this book, I wonder if we can persuade him to post them?) The theme of this book is the replacement of the printed word with television, where everything–politics, religion, news, etc.–is presented as entertainment and the repercussions are a decline in society. There is much more, but I think everyone should read this book. It will change the way you view entertainment. From the author:

When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility.

23. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls – Another memoir, but this one about a woman who was raised by vagrant parents who neglected their children in favor of gambling and drinking (her father) and artistic pursuits (her mother). This book was fascinating, and one of my favorite aspects of it was that the author was not complaining as she shared her amazing story. I feel that many memoirs tend to have a whining tone (see #21), but though the author was neglected by her parents, forced to eat out of trashcans as a little girl, and live in a falling down shack without electricity, she does not complain. Rather, her love for her parents and her respect for their ability to make their life seem like an adventure is what shines through.

We had a little birthday party for Annalise on Saturday. All three sets of grandparents attended along with one aunt and our next door neighbors (minus their dog). We did a monkey-themed birthday since Annalise is quite the little monkey–always climbing on things, and I thought it was appropriate for a two-year old. There is plenty of time for the princess stuff later.

On her actual birthday, Josiah was so sweet and wrapped up four of his cars in paper and scotch tape and gave them to her, along with one of his favorite stuffed animals. I was blown away by his generosity with her! He got frustrated when she kept giving everything back to him. :)

Annalise got a lot of dress-up accessories–the high heels are a favorite.

For her cake, I did Martha Stewart’s monkey cake. I tried a different chocolate icing, but it was so runny, I should have stuck with regular old buttercream. The monkey looks a little scary, but she was tasty.

We had a mini-banana hunt around the living room and played pin-the-tail on the monkey. Annalise successfully roped in all but two grandparents to participate in the blindfolded game. She was a sweetie and led many of them by their hands to the monkey.

She even had a cute monkey outfit to wear.

The afternoon ended without naps and a lot of bouncing and splashing around outside. Thomas’ parents brought this trash-to-treasure find for us that they acquired. It is a little sun-bleached, but it works great. The kids had a blast!

Both kids were asleep by 7:30 that night; it was a nice end to a great day!

For the first time in several months, we are without fresh lettuce and spinach in the garden. All that fresh lettuce made me experiment more with salads as meals. Here are a few of my favorites:

Pioneer Woman’s Ginger Steak Salad – This is absolutely delicious and an easy way for me to use up some of the steaks in our freezer from our portion of a grass fed cow.

Chipotle Chicken Salad – Mildly spicy and so good you will want another bowl.

After eating at the Cheesecake Factory a few weeks ago in Frisco, I had been craving the BBQ chicken salad I split with my brother. Here’s my adaptation:

BBQ Chicken Salad, serves 4
Ingredients
2-3 chicken breasts
BBQ sauce (make it or by some honey bbq sauce)
spring mix lettuce or romaine
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
about 1 cup frozen sweet corn, warmed
1/4 cup red onion, diced
2 roma tomatoes or a handful of cherry tomatoes, sliced
1 avocado
about 1/4 cup ranch dressing

Cook chicken breasts with BBQ sauce. You can do this in the crockpot for a few hours, bake them in the oven, grill them on the grill (basting frequently). After chicken is cooked, but into bite-sized pieces. On each plate, layer a good deal of lettuce. Divide black beans, corn, onion, tomatoes, avocado and cooked chicken among each of your four plates. To make your dressing, combine equal parts of Ranch and BBQ sauce–I used about a 1/4 cup of each and drizzled it over the salads. Enjoy!

We got a a better crop of potatoes and onions than we imagined–30 pounds of potatoes and I have no idea how many onions. Not too shabby considering the potatoes had early blight.

Dear, sweet Annalise,
The past two years have flown by with you adding so many smiles to our faces. You are daily changing from a chunky little toddler into a “big girl” who loves to dance, chase Josiah, laugh, read books and play. You amaze us with your abilities to climb out of things (including your crib already) and your fearless and daring spirit. The only things that seem to frighten you or slow you down are bugs and big dogs.

While you love to run fast and play, you also love to sit and read books and give snuggles. Your sweet little hugs and kisses make all of us–Daddy, Josiah and me–just melt.

You are so funny and are constantly making us laugh and smile. You are talking more and more these days, and you make funny words, words like, “nopey”, “catty”, “yeppy.” It is getting more difficult to baby you these days since you are getting so big, but you still make plenty of time for being held and cuddled.

You are such a beautiful girl, Annalise. Full of energy and excitement for life. I pray that God draws you to Himself and that He uses your vibrancy and sweet spirit for His glory. We love you, sweet girl, and I am so thankful for these two years to be your mother.

Love,
Mommy

Last week, we had a most disturbing visitor in our garage. I opened the garage, and the kids were running around as I gathered our belongings and ushered them to the open car door. Suddenly, Josiah yells, “I see a snake!” I follow his pointed finger to see a HUGE snake just outside our open garage door, slithering (I’m gagging just remembering it) INTO our garage! I am shrieking and grabbing children and hurling them into the open car door. Thankfully, I already closed the door into the house. I cannot stop shaking and shrieking.

The snake curls up into the corner of the garage behind some old chicken wire and fishing poles. I still cannot stop shaking, and Josiah says, “Momma, call Daddy! He will know what to do!” So I call him. I don’t really remember what he said except that he was coming home and that we should stay in the car and watch to see where the snake goes. I back the car up into the driveway and the kids and I sit there watching to see if the snake moves, and in our rear-view mirror, I see our neighbor across the street, watering his grass, having witnessed everything, but not offering to help. Anyway, I end up calling Thomas and he calms me down and I talk with him until he gets there.

He ends up poking around (apparently the snake moved to the other side of the garage on my watch, I’m not sure how I missed that, unless there were two snakes and I cannot believe that or I will go insane). Thomas pokes at it with some garden tools, but the snake keeps striking at him, so I call animal control (which I have programmed in my cell phone for both CS and Bryan, you never know when you will need it–I have actually called three times in the past year, but I digress.) Thomas gets impatient waiting, so he ends up taking care of the snake himself with the hoe and some other hoe-like garden tool. The animal control man arrives shortly after to identify the slain–a rat snake, the third one the CS Animal Control man has been called about that morning.

Watch where you step, folks. Watch where you step. I kindly (and hurriedly with no editing experience) edited this photo to spare you the blood and dismemberment of our intruder. You can click it to view it larger. I’m second-guessing this whole live-in-the-country-and-grow-our-own-food idea.

For reference, that raised area of the garage where the snake is lying is about 2 feet deep.

Our little monkey is growing so fast! It is hard to believe she is almost two. She really has grown a lot lately as evidenced by the tightness of her clothes and the shortness of her dresses.

At almost two, Annalise still loves playing with her babies. She loves feeding them, nursing them, reading to them, rocking them, kissing them and lugging them around with her just about everywhere she goes.

Annalise also has a love of small dogs, thanks to our sweet neighbors who let Annalise torment their puppy almost daily. She lets that puppy (Posy) kiss her all over, holds the leash, pets, and tries to carry poor Posy around with her. If you ask Annalise who her friends are, Posy is at the top of the list. I must get a picture of the two of them together. She reminds me of Elmira from Animaniacs–you know the little girl always squeezing and holding anything smaller than her? She even tries to hold Josiah sometimes.

One of her other favorite friends is her brother, “Siah”, whom she plays with a lot these days. They really seem to be playing together better and better lately, their favorite activity being the marble race thing in Josiah’s room.

Annalise also loves accessorizing, with whatever accessories she can find. Lately, her favorites include her winter hat and mittens. Another random tidbit is her love for watermelon–she asks for it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. She is talking up a storm these days and getting her point across well. We sure love our sweet little Annalise!

17. The Road by Cormac McCarthy – this was my mom’s group book club book for March. I put off reading it for a long time since it is not my normal genre, but I finally gave it a go, and whew! What a book! I don’t think I have read anything so suspenseful in ages, and it had a great story. I don’t recommend it to anyone pregnant, anyone who as a heart condition or fragile nerves. When I checked it out, the librarian told me it was his favorite book. Then he looked at me, paused, and told me not to expect a happy ending. I appreciated the tip as I was reading. The book was so thought-provoking and I could not put it down.

18. Don’t Make Me Count to Three: A Mom’s Look at Heart-Oriented Discipline by Ginger Plowman – I read this book ages ago when Josiah was a toddler, and I am so glad I read it again this month. I found her book to be full of encouragement, tips and loaded with practical examples lacking in Shepherding a Child’s Heart. I highly recommend it.

19. The Spellmans Strike Again by Lisa Lutz – book four of the wonderful Spellman series. The sequels in this series have not disappointed–I have enjoyed every one of them. Lutz’s character development is great–I felt like I was reuniting with old friends when I picked up this book after waiting about a year for it.

20. The Blind Side: Evolution of the Game by Michael Lewis – my book club’s April book; this is the book that inspired the movie with Sandra Bullock. I read the book before seeing the movie, and it was a great read, even though I knew the story already. I am not sure if I ever gave football strategy and positions two seconds of thought, but this book, with several chapters dedicated to the history of football strategy, were surprisingly engaging and easy to read. Who could have imagined I would ever say that about football?