Michelle's Tips on Healthy Living

1. Eat in moderation 
• Snacks and sweets are tasty, but are only meant to be eaten in small amounts.
• When eating a meal, try and gauge how full you are to avoid over-eating. A 7 out of 10 would mean that you're content, but not bursting at the seams. Save the rest of your meal for later and then you'll have room to enjoy some dessert!
• Try using smaller plates to control portion sizes.
2. Self-control 
• Don't go for that second piece of cake. It's not worth it! 
3. Education
• Check the serving sizes before eating or drinking to avoid over doing it.
• Limit eating out and skipping meals.
• Eat often (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack) -- depending on your eating schedule, you may want to omit the afternoon or night snack. Then you won't get to the point where you feel like you're "starving" and just eat whatever is in sight and regret it later. 
• Control your carbs -- about 45-60 grams of carbs for meals and 15-30 grams of carbs for snacks. Then you can better maintain your sugar levels and your body won't need to store any unused sugar as fat.
• Use whole-grain or wheat vs. white if you can for pasta, bread, and rice. It takes longer for your body to process and will help you stay full longer.
4. Exercise
• Do some sort of activity after meals instead of plopping down in front of the couch. If you haven't over eaten, you shouldn't feel stuffed to the point of feeling exhausted. 
• Examples: walking, playing at a park (try those monkey bars out!), active Wii games, dancing in the living room, exercise DVDs, etc...

There's more that I could write, but these are a few healthy tidbits that I've been wanting to share. Healthy living can still taste good and be fun. As long as you're smart about it, you don't have to give up any of those foods and treats that you love. 

Aprender Inglés

Today, I started tutoring a girl in Caleb's class. I was a little excited and nervous to use some of my Spanish skills again. This girl came from Mexico and doesn't really know English. I can't imagine being placed in a classroom of kindergartners and not being able to speak the same language as them.

My goal is to come up with fun ways to teach the different kindgergarten conceptsso she can understand them in English and mark her progress along the way. I found a great website: http://www.esl-kids.com/index.html that has flashcards, games, songs, worksheets, and other links for teaching ESL. So pumped!

Our first day went pretty well. We worked on recognition and naming of letters and numbers. We reviewed colors and attempted naming the shapes. I have my work cut out for me. B can sing the alphabet, but cannot recognize the letter shapes to be able to tell me what they are. The same with numbers. She can count, but wasn't able to point to a number and tell me what it was called. I'm up for the challenge!

We're going to try and meet once a week for 30 minutes while friends watch Sonya. It's not much time to teach, but kindergartners have short attention spans so we wouldn't have been able to accomplish much more if we tried going longer. I'm hoping to figure out a way that I can tutor B after school or something so that I don't have to try and find people to watch Sonya for me. Then Caleb can kind of help with tutoring too!

Well, that's all for now. This next week is a short week for school so we're not tutoring at all. Praying that our next session goes well!

Garden Artistry

Our pastor's wife is amazing with gardening and offered to give me a few plants that she had an abundance of. I had been looking to transform our yard and add some more color inbetween the bushes in the front of the house and then add a few along the side of the driveway. So this was a great opportunity to learn more about different perennials and do a bit of experimenting with their growing seasons and colors. We'll see how everything turns out when spring rolls around. I'm just glad I got all the flowers in the ground this fall already so I can be ahead of the ballgame. So excited!! 

Front of the House

Before... 

Astilbe between the two bushes

Phlox
 Mums (yellow/orange/pink blossoms)
Corieopsis (yellow w/ red near center)

Summer Aster (lilac color)

Corieopsis (yellow w/ red near center) in barrel
Aster (light purple)
Blanket Flower (red with yellow tips)
Mum (pink)
Blanket Flower (red with yellow tips)
Aster (dark purple)
Purple Ground Cover (unknown name)

 East Side of House

Day Lilies (pale orange)
Black-Eyed Susan (yellow w/ black center)
Day Lilies (pale orange)

Daisies (white w/ yellow centers)
Day Lilies (pale orange)
Daisies (pale orange)

Tulips (red)
Black-Eyed Susans (yellow w/ black centers)
Tulips (red)

Patio Area

Primroses that bloomed in summer

Primroses (yellow)
Jacob's Ladder (purple) 

West Side of House

After the grass was removed / Before the flowers

After

Black-Eyed Susan (yellow w/ black center)
Day Lily (pale orange)
Black-Eyed Susan (yellow w/ black center)
Geraniums (purple?)

Sedum (dark purple)
Purple Coneflowers (purple/pink petals)
Asiatic Lily (bright orange)
Purple Coneflowers (purple/pink petals)
Sedum (dark purple)

By the Garage

Before....

Cut-Leaf Coneflower (yellow)
Purple Ground Cover (unknown name)
Yarrow (strawberry red w/ yellow centers)

Along the Back of the House

Tulips (pink and red)  in early spring

Day Lilies (pale orange)
Asiatic Lily (bright orange)

The saddest part of planting was having to cut back the leaves and flower buds so that all the nutrients and water could go to the root. Even though I knew it was important for the flowers to fully establish themselves in the ground, it was hard to say good-bye to the short lived blooms that brightened up the yard. It reminded me of how God sometimes prunes us a little so that we can bear more fruit. We have our set backs, but we're constantly growing. Thinking of how beautiful these flowers will be if they survive my transplanting them, made me smile. God also loves to see the fruit of His labors.

Girlfriends in God

I just found a new favorite blog: http://www.girlfriendsingod.com.

It's filled with so much inspiration as well as conviction. The reason I stumbled upon it was because I was looking for a devotion to do at Girls' Night last night. It was also a celebration of baby Lincoln so I wanted it to relate to motherhood as well as being a wife and a friend. The one I chose was about words -- how to encourage others, how to control our tongue especially when we have negative thoughts that want to spill out.

As a mother, I try my best to show my kids how much I appreciate them. I know I can always do a better job of recognizing the positive qualities in them and actually telling them versus bragging to friends and family or blogging about it. Today at lunch, I told Sonya why I loved her. She may not have contributed to the conversation or even really understood what I was saying, but I could tell that she was devouring the attention. She even laughed at the appropriate times.

Lord, help me to be a cheerleader for my friends and family by encouraging them and loving on them. Help me see through the distractions of my life so I can manage my time better so I can spend it by glorifying You. I don't want to be careless with my words. Guide my thoughts and actions so they can build others up instead of focusing on the negative. Give me the words with which to train my children in your Word instead of becoming counteractive by yelling or getting angry.

There are so many other things I could write about this topic, but I'll keep this short for now. I'm just so thankful for finding a blog that can help me get my daily dose of God in.

Babies....

I want one! Well, I'd like another one. I keep seeing them everywhere and I can't help but having baby fever a little bit. Why do they have to be so darn cute?

We're going to wait to have baby #3 though because we'd like to do a road trip next summer out to Colorado. So it'd be easier to do if I wasn't pregnant or trying to care for a newborn. We'll probably hike a little in the mountains and who knows what else? That just means my baby fever has to be satisfied by holding other peoples' babies for now.

Temptation in a plastic cup

I think I found a new friend. Her name is pumpkin cheesecake. Mix her up with some vanilla custard at Culvers and this is what you get: 

It tastes so GOOD! I'm so glad I only got a mini sized one and shared it with Sonya. I can only imagine how it'll go to my hips. haha... It's so worth it though. I love you pumpkin cheesecake! Shh... don't tell Tim! :-)

Friends that Last

I've been on an "Ugly Betty" kick for a little while. I had watched episodes here and there when it was on TV, but missed quite a few because it was on while Caleb was awake and I chose to spend time with him. So when I saw the season DVDs at the library, I decided to watch every episode. I'm still not done yet. For some reason, they were missing season one so I have to look those up on hulu. But, the character of Betty seems quite familiar to me in a lot of ways.

Betty is very passionate about the people and things that she loves. She's punctual, responsible, and has a big heart. I couldn't see anyone not liking her. You know what though? Kids in high school and even her co-workers couldn't look past her appearance to see what she was actually capable of. The only reason she got her big chance at Mode magazine was because the owner didn't want his son, the editor, to be tempted by the secretary. In grade school and even parts of high school, I was far from popular and far from being stylish or "pretty". I was the shy, smart kid that did all her homework, listened to the teachers, and read a lot. I didn't have many friends, let alone good friends that have stayed with me up until this particular chapter of my life. The one thing that Betty had that I didn't was confidence. She saw past what others thought and was exactly who she wanted to be. I've always admired that quality.

One of the episodes that I watched made me question who my real friends are and why. Betty's friend/ex-boyfriend, Gio, didn't want to talk to her anymore mainly because she broke up with him. She couldn't understand why he was avoiding her. She tried apologizing and thought that would help them be friends again. It wasn't enough. Why should she try and repair a broken friendship with someone that didn't even want to talk to her anymore? Was she being selfish? Yes, a little bit. She couldn't stand the thought of someone hating her or disliking her. That's the part I can totally relate to. I've always drifted from one group of friends to another. It seemed like I was never good enough to be a friend or I was the one that kids turned to as sort of an adoptive friend when they were having problems with their current friend. Once they were fine again, I was the friend left in the dust. I strived so hard for them to like me only to be left on the wayside. Talk about a real confidence shattering. I didn't see friendships as a give and take relationship since I did all the giving and didn't experience much of the taking. I was "friends" with other kids for selfish reasons -- to feel needed and loved. I really thought they'd like me and that I could finally have a bosom friend like Anne of Green Gables. I was naive and thought that anyone could be friends with anyone else if they really wanted. It wasn't rocket science.

We all have a desire to be wanted. For me, I became someone else when I was around different people. I liked the things that they liked because I didn't want to lose their friendship. Instead, I lost my identity. Now, I have a lot of interests, but I wonder if they're really mine. I think so, but it's hard to tell. Who is Michelle Nikolai? Well, I'm still a bit of a dork or a geek. (Just ask Tim!) I like conversations that make me think. I love learning and would go to grad school in a heart beat if I could. I'm horrible at remembering names of books and movies. (I could watch or read something 5x and still be surprised in parts of the movie or book). I wear my heart on my sleeve even though I try to be strong. I'm better at communicating by writing than talking in person sometimes. I enjoy singing even though I could never make it past the auditions for American Idol. I love Jesus and try to be a better person everyday. I'm working on being a better friend. It's hard when I feel shut out though or when I feel like I'm carrying the weight of the friendship. In that sense, I don't think I'm being selfish anymore. I've made progress. I'm growing. Friendships are blossoming while others fade. I don't need to be the center of attention. I don't need to be popular. I just need to be there when you need me. That's what true friendship is all about. Thank you to all my friends out there that truly care and take the time to give and take. I love and appreciate each of you. :-)

Love,
Michelle