“Chef Cheryl’s knowledge of cuisine spans the globe from classical French, contemporary pan-Asian, Pacific Rim, Moroccan, right down to home-style American. As a result, she is a culinary celebrity! Chef Cheryl starred in her own show—Melting Pot—on the Food Network. She’s been featured on Soul Kitchen, My Country/My Kitchen, Emeril’s Holiday Special, as well as many others.

Chef Cheryl's professional career began not as a cook, but as a dishwasher. Without a culinary diploma, she worked her way through all the stations—salad, fish, meat, and dessert—mastered the tools of butchering, and then earned the rank of executive chef. Everything Chef Cheryl needed to know about running an efficient, organized, and profitable kitchen was learned hands-on and working along side top chefs.”In October of 2006 Cheryl opened her first restaurant called Cheryl's Global Soul!

This song by Honey Cone is PURE poetry and truth! I am sure many of you have made the journey through these lyrics within your own love lives at some point in time. I think the lyrics are simply eloquent and illuminates some serious inspiration for when that once special man decides to leave your love abandoned. The full lyrics are typed out below. Enjoy!

The Day I Found Myself by Honey Cone

There's probably a lot of you girls out there

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. ~ Maya Angelou

During these challenging economic times it is important to understand that you are not equal to the adversities that you are facing. In other words, you are not equal to job loss, you are not equal to home foreclosure, you are not equal to bankruptcy, or any other adversity that you may be facing. These are only temporary situations. They are not the whole of who you are. Our ancestors and elders faced these adversities and many more and came through them stronger, wiser and more determined to create a better life for themselves.

This song may come across as a bit dark, yet truthfully, I think many of us have felt this way at sometime in our lives and Ayo sings about it so beautifully! Just remember on these days things will always get better if you're willing for it to be! Keep your energy and focus up ladies! Life can get hard and filled with uncertainty, yet through it all, we have to remember that we may feel like this on some days, but through positive thought, we can get through it, learn from it, and inspire someone else with it! Thank you for being you Sisters...you are all truly amazing and don't let life get you down because there is much more to look up to!

YMIB is looking for Guest Editor-Writers for the month of May(and ongoing) & we would love for you to submit an article/bite to be featured on ymib.com. Here are the details:

Submission Deadline for May Features: April 25th, please include a short bio about yourself and a link to your website/blog

Maximum Image WIDTH Size: 516pixels, images must be crisp & clear & professional

Word Count: No minimum, no maximum!

Submit Articles To: contactus (at) ymib.com

Topics: Life inspiration, video tutorials/vlogs(via youtube), poetry, health & holistics, fashion, beauty, career, recipes, natural hair care, arts/crafts, decor & design, sewing, music, and of course family, motherhood, homeschooling & baby.

I personally LOVE this movie: religion, government, money! It's the full movie, so sit back and enjoy and leave your comments below. It's definitely one for discussion filled with a lot of "conscious philosophy"!

Warm love ladies! The talented, fabulous, and beautiful duo of Indigo Brown has shared one of their new songs with us and I especially wanted to dedicate this one to all of you, because despite the days when we just feel like things are not working in our favor, remember...you're STILL FLY ladies! The lyrics are on point and will make you smile towards the end(I won't lie it had me crackin up). I cannot wait until their album drops and I can already envision a music video for this song! Thanks to Indigo Brown for the lyrical inspiration, and if you have not already, be sure to check out our write up on them by clicking here! Click the image below to hear "Still Fly" by Indigo Brown. You can find the lyrics below.

Loving this poetic video by the beautiful Lilakoi Moon(aka Lisa Bonet) Enjoy!

Be inspired by the classic sound of Camille Yarbough and three wonderful childrens books perfect for your little girls collection of self-love and natural beauty!

I am in love with the classic sound of Camille Yarbrough and her hit classic "Take Yo Praise" makes the perfect anthem for all of those with an upright man in your life, so ladies if you got him, then play him this song or print out the lyrics below..he deserves it right!!

Take Yo Praise - Camille Yarbrough

we've come a long long way together

through the hard times and the good

I have to celebrate you baby

This bite goes hand in hand with the Article: “Editing Your Life: Becoming The Editor-in Chief Of Your Daily Life.

Editing & Creating Your “Staff”: So, when you are an Editor of a large company such as your LIFE, you most likely have a "staff", those that offer support and are in line with the life that you are trying to write.

Inspiration is contagious and is a necessary vitamin that we all must intake to keep moving within this world. Without inspiration, there would be no new ideas. Without Inspiration, there would be no growth. Without inspiration, there would be no hope...there would be no "new" you. So live each of your days with the intentions of inspiring yourself and others in both small and big ways. We all need it, so let's share it. So, do your part in keeping our world creative, healthy, sane, moving, touched & intrigued, & recycle your inspiration on the daily!

I would like to dedicate these two songs to you all...remember..inspiration can come from all things, good and bad, black and white, love and pain, old and new...but just keep it inspired, keep your spirit shining, listen to your heart..and just do the best you can, and know that we are all in this cycle of life together!

Do any of you feel that you have given out more love in a relationship than you receive? These poetic lyrics by songstress Maria Jensen goes out to all the ladies who are feeling this way. I hope you all find balance within the love that you desire! Enjoy The Lyrics!

"I Give, You Take"

If you cut, I will bleed, bring me down to my knees

You make me feel what I am is never good enough

Can you help me understand, thought I made you a better man

I guess somehow along the way, things just change

It seems just like a distant memory

That you used to be good for me

But, baby, now it's clear

I wanted to post this commencement speech given by Oprah to Stanfords Class of 2008 this past June. I love her choice of words and the wisdom that she shares and found it to be quite inspiring! Enjoy!

How quickly Friday came around...YAY! I hope everybody has a wonderful weekend! So, how do you all usually spend your weekends? Do you have set goals that you want to get done or do you just go with whatever? Most of the time I seem to have a running list of tasks and projects that I would like to get done, and many times they do not, so my list just keeps getting longer and longer.

Anyhow, This song by Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth got me thinking about how we would want our children and friends to remember our characters.

Hi Everybody! We wanted to share some great news! YMIB and a host of some of our favorite websites and blogs have been nominated for the 2009 Black Web Awards! We would like to thank everyone who nominated YMIB for “The Best Site For Sistahs”! Yay! So, be sure to vote for YMIB as well as any of other sites that you love within their offered categories. Here are some of our favorite nominees below. They allow you to vote as many times as you like, so have fun!

Best Site for Sistahs:

Our Favorite Nominees: YMIB, Nappturality, My Soy Onlines Mahogany Mama, and Sister Speak Online

Best Style & Fashion Site:

Our Favorite Nominees: Fly Girls & Afrobella

Better Get To Livin Ladies! Oh, I love this song by Dolly Parton. The lyrics are fantastic and a great anthem for any woman who is going through those tough times or just having a bad day or suffering from low self esteem. Inspiration can be found in so many different mediums and I love when I run across those songs that are from the least expected places that offer up so many good feelings. So, please do listen to the lyrics and you can also read them below!

Better Get To Livin' Lyrics

People always comin' up to me and askin'

"Dolly, what's your secret?

With all you do, your attitude

Just seems to be so good

How do you keep it?"

Well I'm not the Dalai Lama, but I'll try

To offer up a few words of advice

What makes a woman?
 
Womanhood is not defined from the outside, but from within.
 
It is how we choose to express ourselves from our creative cores.
 
It is our innate capacity to nurture seeds of potential into the miraculous.
 
It is…
 
the blending of strength with warmth,
 
the balance of hope and knowing,
 
the union of dignity and grace,
 
the merger of radiance with humility,
 
the fusion of femininity and brilliance.
 
the mélange of wisdom and wonder.
 
Womanhood is an amalgamation of all that is and will ever be.
 
Womanhood is a gift that desires cultivation…a perpetual work of art.
 
Respect who you are.  Nurture who you are. Be who you are.
 
Trust that it is more than enough.

Sometimes his love hurts...it cuts you deep, leaves you with wounds and scars, and sometimes his love is reconciled beyond the hurt, and sometimes it's not. One thing is true...his love is an emotion that can change in a heartbeat and unfortunately for your emotions, your heart has to reform with it. His love sometimes grows to fast and sometimes it leaves in a haste...leaving stretchmarks upon your hearts that carried his love for months and years. Sometimes his love makes you smile and many times it makes you cry, but one thing is true...his love is a cycle, sometimes long, and many times short; and while you might not feel the warmth and comfort of his love caressing your spirit now, know that you still have a love reserved...and SHE LIVES WITHIN.

I never knew that Smokey Robinson performed on Def Poetry Jam! Nevertheless, I think his poem was fantastic, and I really enjoyed listening to him. Snaps in the air for Smokey! Excuse the video quality...it was the best that I could find. It is not bad, but it is not exactly the clearest either. Enjoy! Do any of you have a favorite def poetry jam performer?

There are so many heartbreaking images of all of the destruction in the Sudan with Darfur, yet I thought I would do a little tribute to celebrate the beauty of the culture of Sudan with a focus on our Sisters there as well as the beauty of Sudanese music and a simple Sudanese dip recipe! One of my favorite Sudanese/Arabic singers is Rasha. Her first release of Sudaniyat is quite lovely. You can also hear full samples of her music by visiting her rhapsody page.

Leave A Comment: What has all of the happenings in Darfur and Sudan taught you or made you realize about life and the media that portrays it?

Excerpt from 101 Ways Black Women Can Learn To Love Themselves by Author Jamie Walker:

“At last I have a moment of clarity I can cling to. I meditate. I find the path of stillness even though I do not know which tradition calls me. I know only that I am called to love. That to love is to serve.” —bell hooks, Wounds of Passion

"My personal motto is live life to the fullest and to spend your time doing what you love. You have to enjoy each day as if it were your last." - Hil St. Souls

There is just something refreshing about hearing old songs again, whether it's from your era or well before, listening to old songs can keep you feeling young

There is just something refreshing about hearing old songs again, whether it's from your era or well before, listening to old songs can keep you feeling young, vibrant, and can possibly keep your memories in check by taking us back to our younger years. So check in every Friday for your "Remember That" fix!