I know. You are thinking to yourself that I must have gained it all back, right? Wrong! When you watch Dr. Cheryl’s video below about the challenge and her personal transformation, notice what she says that happened to her body when she turned a particular age. (That will also give you a clue about what age I am turning on Friday
) In the last 6 months I have noticed a big change in my muscle mass, almost strange-like along with a few added pounds, less than ten but with my small frame I really notice it.For my special birthday, I am giving myself the gift of health, not out of hatred and punishment, but out of love and care for myself through a 90 Day Challenge. I am embracing who I am, the age that I am turning, and giving myself what I need to be strong and vibrant. By doing so I can then give from a healthy joy-filled, love-filled cup to my loved ones and to YOU!
P.S. … Have you figured out how old I am yet? The clue is in the video!
The purpose of The Wonder Woman Challenge is to fill yourself up with love so that you can give love to others from your overflow. That way you are giving from a place of abundance rather than one of lack. Holidays like Valentine’s Day is no different.
One way we fill ourselves with love is to be creative, in whatever way that fits us. I love to be creative. It motivates and inspires me not just in the realm for what I am creating, but also spills over into other areas of my life.
Well, for Valentine’s Day my crafty creative bent came out to play. Oh my! When the inspiration hit there was no stopping me … all h#@@ broke loose in my house until I had all the supplies and, of course, that meant staying up late. It was SO much fun and even more more fun giving my homemade Valentines and treats as gifts.
Below are the promised pictures and information for my projects that many asked for on Facebook. I hope that you become inspired to create something … anything! Something that takes you away from the mundane. Something that takes your head out of your to do list. Something that lets you play again like a child! Something that will fill your heart and spirit with love!
Love Notes
This is not the greatest picture but this is so cute. This was a gift for my son’s girlfriend. I made cute little paper fortune cookies with love notes my son wrote for each one. I found this idea at One Lucky Day
Be My Valentine Treat Bucket
I gave these cute treat buckets to my family members. The buckets came from the Dollar Tree. I covered Hershey Bars with very cute Valentine wrappers and made individual Valentine S’more packets. The candy wrapper idea is from Anything But Perfect and the Valentine S’mores is from Welcome to Pittiepat Paperie
Chocolate Chip Valentine Cookies
These are just regular chocolate chip cookie bars but I used Wilton’s Brownie Combo Cutter and piped a little icing on them.
Well there ya have it! Remember, a little (maybe a lot) of creativity is good for the soul!!
Here we are in the month of February already. The time of year we typically think of love and romance.
This year I would like to suggest something that may be a little different for you. I suggest that you express love to yourself filling your own love tank regardless of who may or may not be around to do that for you.
Valentine’s Day is about love. Women of Wonder, let’s step it up a notch or two by falling in love with who we are, embracing, and celebrating the wondrously unique creations that we are … so THEN we can give love to others from our overflow!
I introduce to you … “Love Notes With a Twist”.
Everyday write a love note or a love quote to YOU! Yes YOU! Write about all the things you would love your secret admirer or lover to say to you. Write about all your great qualities, all the things that you appreciate about you. Write about all the things you wish others would say to you and appreciate about you. This is the time to celebrate YOU!
Each love note is going to go into a special love container. It can be a secret treasure box, a decorated jar, a beautiful vase, etc. You will have a month’s worth of special notes to yourself that you will use throughout the rest of the year when you need a lift or some encouragement.
So what’s the twist?
“Love Notes With A Twist” is a gift from YOU and for YOU that will keep giving all year long! And, of course, you can continue to add to the love container throughout the year as you think of things to celebrate about yourself.
Don’t wait until you find the perfect container. Just start now and put them in any jar or mug for now until you land on that special love container. That is my plan.
Whatever you decide on, take a picture of your finished “Love Note With A Twist” container and send it in to me and at the end of the month I will feature a couple of them with the hopes of inspiring others to do “Love Notes With a Twist”.
Below are a couple of really cute love container ideas and where you can find directions on how to make or buy them. You don’t have to get this elaborate, but for those of you who are creative I thought you might find these ideas fun.
There is a video on facebook that will show you how to recycle any kind of jar. Click here => Love Jar Facebook Page
Love Letters Mailbox from I Love Nap Time
Love Jars from One Lucky Day
DIY Custom Valentines Day Sweet Love Notes Jar
Are you in? Let me know in the comment section below if you are going to do “Love Notes With A Twist” with me so that we can be an encourage to one another!
Related Posts: Filling Your Love Tank On Valentine’s Day
“January, the month of new beginnings and cherished memories, beckons. Come, let winter weave her wondrous spell: cold, crisp, woolen-muffler days, long dark evenings of savory suppers, lively conversations, or solitary joys. Outside the temperature drops as the snow falls softly. All of nature is at peace. We should be, too. Draw hearthside. This is the month to dream, to look forward to the year ahead and the journey within.” ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance
As I read the above quote over and over sitting inside Panera Breads watching the sunset on a very cold winter’s day with remnants of yesterday’s snow, I am experiencing such a filled cup of joy, love, and gratitude.
Sometimes just being in the moment noticing the beautiful sights, sounds, and smells is all the self-nurturing I need for the day to fill my cup with joy, love, and gratitude … putting me in place of peace.
Oh I am filled to the brim with what I see, hear, and smell. I wish that I could share it with all of you. In this moment winter has such a romantic feel to it that I am spellbound and I don’t want the spell to be broken.
Yesterday was not quite as cold so I went for a walk in the snow, which is something I rarely do. It, too, filled my cup to overflow with all of its winter beauty caressing my cold cheeks.
January gives us a fresh start to our journey. Winter gives us a time to slow down, to hibernate, and to go within and nurture our hungry souls in warm, snuggly ways.
Allow this time of the year to lay the foundation for your 2011 journey. It is a fresh start. It is a time to dream. It is a time to fully embrace your self-nurture practice in peace and warmth.
Related Posts: Winter Storm Beauty
Make a Charlie Brown Christmas tree! => InstructiblesFor the next few minutes as you watch this clip from Charlie Brown Christmas, be still. Let everything go for the moment, and allow this simple message to penetrate your spirit. Allow the simple message of Christmas to bring you Christmas joy and peace filling your soul with hope.
What does the message evoke inside of you? What does it cause you to want to do? How might you relate to the different characters, even to what we refer to as the “Charlie Brown Christmas tree”? I love it when Linus says, “… all it really needs is a little love”. The gang proceeds to give the ugly little tree some love and suddenly the tree shines. What might we learn from this?
Again, be still in the moment and be blessed by this little 5 minute clip. Don’t judge what might come up .. just let the thoughts come and go and in the moment let all be right in your world.
You can make your own little Charlie Brown Christmas tree as a reminder that there is always hope and with a little love, anything can shine. Let us remember that even about ourselves … offering ourselves love in a way that will allow us to shine! Click here for instructions => Instructibles
So, how are you … really? Do you even know?
We are asked all the time how we are. Most of the time we give a pat answer that we are fine. We go from meeting to meeting, activity to activity, job to job, etc. often times stressed without realizing just how stressed we really are.
Honestly? That is where I have found myself recently!
I have started The Wonder Woman Challenge fan page on facebook where a bunch of us have started a 30 day challenge together. It has just started on Monday. Even though we are only a couple of days into the challenge I am personally amazed with just how much pressure I have been putting on myself, ignoring what all is going on inside … in body, mind and spirit.
So, how are you … really?
When was the last time you checked in with yourself, when you stopped to get quiet long enough to get an answer back? And when was the last time you asked yourself what you needed and actually gave it to yourself?
We get caught up in life with all of its ups and downs. In doing so, we tend to ignore, deny, and even mask what is going on inside of us and unless we take the time to stop and listen, we end up in a numbed out state just going through the motions of life. And I know from personal experience how that state can lead to depression and illness.
I ask you, where’s the joy in that?
So, how are you … really? Are you living in joy?
I encourage you to stop right now and give yourself a check in. How full is your cup? Take some time now to fill that cup of yours up with love and joy.
I invite you to join us at The Wonder Woman Challenge fan page on Facebook for a 30-day challenge. It’s only 15 minutes a day. You’ll get support there as well and you’ll get to read my personal journal.
Love and hugs to you!!
Today is the day of love.
My dear women of wonder, today my heart is full of love and compassion for all of you. On this day of love, I send you all the love that I can muster up because you are so worth loving.
The Wonder Woman Challenge has always been about stepping off of the merry-go-round of life a few minutes each day in order to love yourself … to fill your empty cup with love SO THAT you can joyfully give to those around you. We must learn and practice giving from a full cup.
Today is the day of love.
Regardless of what anyone else does for you, what are YOU going to do for YOU? Don’t miss this opportunity to express to yourself just how much you do care and love yourself. Your spirit will leap with joy!
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” ~ I Corinthians 13:4-7
I encourage you to not only apply this passage of love to those around you, but also to yourself in a balanced and healthy manner.
Today is the day of love.
“What women need is to learn how to nurture themselves. We need to shower as much loving kindness on ourselves as we habitually shower on loved ones, and even not-so-loved ones. We need to be loved for our fully formed selves, not for our dependent, appeasing selves. And the only way we can have fully formed selves is by granting ourselves the same tenderness and fierce protectiveness we’d otherwise reserve for a beloved child.” ~ Alice D. Domar, PhD “Self-Nurture”
I love you!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Shileen
Taking Valentine’s Day into your own hands is a great thing to do! Why wait and hope that someone will recognize you on Valentine’s Day when it isn’t necessary?
Valentine’s Day can be a fun holiday, it can be a bummer of a holiday. As women, we always hope that our loved ones will recognize their love for us on this day. The waiting can be unnerving … will he/they do something or won’t they? Will someone think of me?
Let me ask you… who really needs that?? I sure don’t!
Many years ago I decided to take Valentine’s Day into my own hands making it whatever I wanted it to be. I thought about what would bring me great joy on this day. How can I express love to those close to me that would also fill my own love tank?
I started by giving a tea party to my family, which consists of two boys and a hubby. You are probably wondering how I pulled that off. Although at the time they would not admit it, they all loved it! It was food! Tell me what boy or man who does not like food!! =) Plus they knew it was important to me and we always enjoyed conversation around family time (we still do). Our tea parties over the years have always been very lovely and meaningful.
It has been a few years since I have thrown a Valentine Tea party. I will always recognize my guys on this day and they typically do me as well, but I seriously count their recognition as a bonus.
Listen, it is just as important to love on ourselves as it is to love on others. When we love on ourselves it frees others to love on us. While you are recognizing your loved ones on Valentine’s Day, what can you do to recognize yourself? Plan a special tea for yourself, a bubble bath, buy yourself some flowers, take some time to work on a hobby, etc. Think of a way to treat yourself special, something that will bring you joy.
Here’s a fun idea! While I was putting together a gift for a friend, I put one together for myself as well. I love it! It is simple. I always say it is the simple things of life that bring me the most joy!
I made a cute set of Valentine’s Day coasters, bought a new mug (I am a sucker for a cute mug!), made up some of “My Famous Hot Chocolate Mix”, and added some of my favorite tea. It is so very cute! Just looking it at fills me with joy!
The coaster idea came from one of my favorite websites Cupcakes and Crinoline in an article called Sew Happy 30 Minute Coasters.
Taking Valentine’s Day into your own hands is a great thing to do. In the end everyone feels blessed with a full love tank.
Do you have any Valentine’s Day ideas to share?
You have more value than you can imagine!
We live in a world where we are bombarded with negative messages. Consciously or unconsciously these negative messages absorb into our consciousness and begin to toy with our self-images and can lead us down a path of feeling unvalued.
Add to that the pains and hurts we experience within our relationships, which by the way, begin the very moment we enter this world. Whether you come from a solid family with minor dysfunction or an unhealthy family where dysfunction reigns, pains and hurts cannot be avoided because we are all human … we live in a fallen world.
And, as I am sure you are well aware, our friendships can add insult to injury. It is no wonder so many live their lives with low self-esteem, anxiety, and even depression.
Is that it? Do we just go with the flow and allow all this negativity to invade our personal environments causing us to believe we have no value?
The answer is a big NO!
You have more value than you can imagine! It’s time to ditch the lies and embrace the truth about you.
Think of someone you highly respect, someone you hold in a very high esteem. What do you think and how does it make you feel when this person notices you and calls you by name? It’s a sweet sound, isn’t it?
More than that, how does it make you feel when this person remembers your name? Makes you feel good, doesn’t it? A kind of “Wow! He remembers me”. Makes you feel important and, yes, even valued.
“But now, God’s Message, the God who made you in the first place, Jacob, the One who got you started, Israel: ‘Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you. I’ve called your name. You’re mine.’” Isaiah 43:1 The Message
Do you realize the King of kings, our heavenly Father, calls out our names? As a child of God, He says that we are His!
What a beautiful thing. Take the above scripture verse and put your own name in it like:
“But now, God’s Message, the God who made you in the first place, Shileen, the One who got you started, Shileen: ‘Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you. I’ve called your name. You’re mine.’” Isaiah 43:1 The Message
I love that! The Creator of the universe knows my name, calls it out and tells me that I am his. It fills my heart with love and joy and peace.
It’s time we stop believing all the lies that we have taken in over the years. Refuse them. When you catch yourself going there, just say, “NO! That is no longer true of me!” and recite Isaiah 43:1. Then allow His love, joy, and peace to fill your soul.
Believe me! You have much more value than you can imagine!
It truly is amazing that Somebody of such high esteem … who is pure high esteem loves and values you and I so much. It is His love that carries us through the rough points in our life. And it is in and through His love that we find our true value in this life.
God bless you as you journey to discover your truest value.
1 Corinthians 13 Christmas Style
©By Sharon Jaynes
If I decorate my house perfectly with lovely plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights, and shiny glass balls, but do not show love to my family – I’m just another decorator.
If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals, and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family – I’m just another cook.
If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home, and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family – it profits me nothing.
If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties, and sing in the choir’s cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.
Love stops the cooking to hug the child.
Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband.
Love is kind, though harried and tired.
Love doesn’t envy another home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.
Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of your way.
Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return, but rejoices in giving to those who can’t.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
Love never fails. Video games will break; pearl necklaces will be lost; golf clubs will rust. But giving the gift of love will endure.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~