If you missed it earlier, I announced that I will be revisiting the topics discussed during the 30 Days of Self-Love. Many newer readers have shown interest. I also believe the topics discussed can always benefit us. So, I will re-publish one of the topics each week on Sunday evening to guide us into the week. I hope its enjoyable for all, newer and older readers alike. Time for topic one!

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When trying to decide what topic would best suit the start of self-love reflections only one thing came to mind. Confidence. Confidence portrays so much beauty and strength, yet somehow always seems just out of reach to achieve. Why? Because we don’t believe we deserve it or fail to see what we have to feel confident about.

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That’s right. We each have something in which to lay confidence. All of us have unique strengths and qualities that we should not ignore or gloss over, but instead lift up into the light and proclaim as our own with pride and joy.Those things which we can take ownership of in confidence come in many shapes and sizes. You can see it in your mad cooking skills, your ability to make others laugh and laugh with them, your giving of love for a friend/spouse/child, your ability to push your body in a workout, your smile, your good sense of style, your mind and ability to problem solve, your compassion on others, your go with the flow demeanor…ANYTHING!

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Do not forget your strengths by focusing on weaknesses, because we all have those too. BUT those do not define us. Our strengths define us. Something else to remember. You are stronger than you think. You may not believe so, but you have the power to change everything. You have the power to turn your life into something beautiful. You are reading this post and stepping out to love yourself more, then in turn love others more, and then have the potential to change more than you imagined. Yes, YOU! Each of us have that power and simply moving, or even desiring to move, towards a positive place speaks volumes.

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Be confident in what you can do! Trust in yourself and the changes YOU can make and that can happen in you. We all start somewhere. I did too. I knew I couldn’t keep half living and things didn’t change in one day. It hurt and many tears fell on my path. They still do. BUT I knew change was possible and that I could be that change. I did gain confidence in God, but I still had to do the actions. If I can do it, you can too. Take those steps and remember how wonderful you are. BE CONFIDENT TODAY! Tell yourself you can do this. You can change your outlook, your focus, the message you share. You can!

It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not. ~Author Unknown

We have to learn to be our own best friends because we fall too easily into the trap of being our own worst enemies. ~Roderick Thorp, Rainbow Drive

Take a few moments to quietly reflect on confidence and recognize what you have to offer. You have something! Whenever you feel down, remember who YOU are and what you have to be proud of. What do you have to be confident about?

On one hand, I can’t believe its already Sunday! Then, on the other hand…that means baby B is only 5 days old and it seems like he has been here forever. Crazy how time works.

Yesterday was a fairly busy day. After getting things situated around the house in the morning, we headed out for a couple of errands. We had to stop by Babies R Us to stock up on a few essentials…like diapers. They had a deal this weekend for a $15 gift card back when purchasing 2 boxes. You  have to take advantage of things like that.

After our Babies R Us trip, we headed over to Peter’s parents’ place for a birthday celebration. My little niece, Avi, is now 7 years old!

We had lunch while there. The Italian family always dines on pasta at get-togethers, so my lunch consisted of a small bowl of fettuccine alfredo and some salad.

Normally I am a hater of alfredo…but when breastfeeding, you eat. I was starving! I even managed to down this plate of dessert (scoop of icecream and a brownie) plus another brownie before leaving.

Even after that, I still felt hungry. Breastfeeding hunger can rival pregnancy hunger. I guess that will happen when your body is fueling itself for a kiddo that likes to eat every 2 hours on average throughout the day. I don’t mind. I think it helps him sleep for those longer stretches at night.

I continued to eat well with dinner last night. Remember when we bought a share of a cow from a local source to get higher quality beef? We pulled some steaks out for dinner last night with my parents before they leave today. I had a small filet alongside a baked potato with chives & plain Greek yogurt, some sautéed mushrooms, and a small salad.

I have to say I could get used to people cooking for me. It helps us so much!

A New Idea – Your Thoughts?

Before I sign off this post, I wanted to let you all in on an idea that struck me this morning. In September of 2010 I shared a series of posts called the 30 Days of Self-Love. I adored writing these posts and reflecting on the various topics.

I know many of you were around during that time, but I have had some new readers (hi friends!) show up around these parts. Quite a few have emailed me or left comments about the 30 Days and shown interest in the series. I quickly learned during the posting of that series that these topics were fairly heavy to reflect on each day. The thought struck me today, however, that I would still like these messages to hold a special place here on FFF.

For that reason, I am going to see how it goes posting one of the messages each week (on Sunday night) as a topic to reflect on for the week. Hopefully this will allow us to continue thinking about and discussing such topics, but not overtake FFF with super serious topics day in and day out. If you have already gone through the series I hope you don’t mind seeing these posts re-published once a week. If you’re new, I sincerely hope they bring a message to brighten your day as they did mine. I think it will be rewarding to go back through them again a bit slower and more informally. I’m excited for it, in fact! Look for the first post to go up tonight!

Question of the Day – What do you think would be the BIGGEST help to you after something like having a baby, being ill/injured, etc?

Were you around for the 30 Days? Thoughts on the 1x/week republishing of these topics?