Me too

Last week, I saw several Facebook status's that read "Me too".  Every "me too" had a story behind it.  Feelings....experiences...memories.  As a couple of my friends went to visit a shelter set up for recovering victims of sex trafficking, I thought of all the "me too's" that were there.  I can clearly remember my "me too" moments.  The thing that I liked best about this campaign is that it allowed those who would have never otherwise said anything, to voice their experience.  It takes courage.  Vulnerability.  All too often we want to keep our "me too" moments tucked away, but there are times when freedom comes with those two little words.

Tonight, I sat with two friends.  One of them is going through a very rough time in life.  As my other friend was trying to encourage her, she commented something along the lines of, "I can think of several times when I have felt with this way".  What really triggered my attention was when she said, "Me too".  How many times have we been in situations where our thoughts are "Me too"

Feeling empty and although you have nothing left to offer the world.....me too
Being so bitter than it seems like only hatred spews out......me too
Feeling alone in a world full of friends, acquaintances, and loved ones....me too
Being looked down upon because you have a certain opinion or viewpoint.....me too
Looking at your spouse and wondering why in the world you married them.....me too
Being gossiped about...me too
Looking in the mirror horrified at what you have become or the situation you are in....me too
Feeling like a failure and that you can't seem to get any area of your life together.... me too
Knowing what you want to do, but only doing what you hate.....me too
Being made fun of....me too
Being manipulated or controlled....me too
Being so overwhelmed and out of control you don't know which way is up...me too

The list could go on and on.  No situation is the same, but we can relate to the feelings that others have.  We can relate to their experiences.  Sometimes, if we allow them to, these "me too" moments can bring us together as victims.  Victims in the sense of now we can throw pity parties for each other, recounting all the horrible things that have happened to us.  Victims in the sense of recounting all that we have missed out on and all that the world should owe us.  If we really want our "me too" moments to mean something, have them bring us together into "Me too.  It sucked.  Let me walk through your me too moment with you"  Let us have our "me too" moments bring us together to make us stronger.  While we don't all share the same moments (hallelujah!), we are probably all connected by something. Let us have our "me too" moments help us to not become victims of our circumstances, but victors over the darkness we each experience.  In all of our "me too" moments we have the opportunity to grow and become stronger and most importantly be there for those who need to know they aren't alone.

Finally, don't forget about those other "Me too" moments we need to share together:

That proud feeling you get when your kid makes the right choice when you weren't around to make them; when they chose to do it all on their own....me too
That ooey, mushy feeling that just makes you smile when you look at the one you married and can't imagine how you got to be so lucky.....me too
When you realize how loved you are by someone who decided that the world would be a better place with you in it....me too
The feeling you get when you give just a little of yourself to make someone else's day brighter...me too
When your stomach hurts from laughing with friends....me too
When you made it through the day and that was your biggest accomplishment....me too

French New Year

It has been a while since I have blogged anything.  Nothing better than to share our 2016 New Year Eve with you!  As a reminder, our New Year Eve tradition is to pick a country to learn about and complete different activities based off of that country.  We then celebrate New Year's when that country would. Last year, the kids had picked France for the country we would celebrate, but unfortunately, we missed being able to participate because we were at Brad's Grandpa's funeral :(  We promised the kids that we would do France this year.  So here is the recap!

Brad started the morning off by preparing cream filled crepes with a blackberry sauce.  I hate breakfast, but stole a bite and declared it delicious!

We learned that in France, they don't send out Christmas cards, but New Year's cards.  So each of the kids picked a friend they hadn't seen in a while, and sent them a New Year's greeting.

For the next activity, I was very thankful for my engineering husband.  I had seen this great picture on Pinterest where the creator took wafer cookies and modeled the Eiffel Tower.  We could do that right??  Uh, it almost because a Pinterst fail.  Well, the second picture is Matthew's tower that lasted about a whole 2 seconds before falling!  I didn't complete mine past the first layer.Brad was the success story and he assisted Anna in completing hers.  

Normally, we color the flag of the country, but Anna realized that the colors we chose for our frosting were in the French flag so she decided to frosting color her flag :)

Next we glanced through some non-fiction books about France to learn more about the culture, geography, and history.  Then we read "Beauty and the Beast".  In the picture below, you can see the books we read.

Our next activity was to a short biography about Coco Chanel and then the kids had to design their own outfits.

One of my favorite artistic time periods was the Impressionist Era.  So, of course we had to learn about Claude Monet and create our own masterpieces!  One of Claude's fascinations was with bridges, so we taped a bridge design and then used our fingers to paint the landscape.  Obviously, I am the rebellious one and had to do my own thing :P  If you wanted to see the gorgeous finished paintings, I guess you will have to come visit me as I forgot to take after pictures!  All of us agreed that that was a fun project.  

France is seven hours ahead of us, so we celebrated New Year's with sparkling apple-peach cider at 5 PM!  Happy New Year!

For dinner, we had a four course meal.  Our first course of a mozzarella and tomato salad is not technically French.  However, I was able to justify serving one of my favorite things when I read that the French do eat this on a regular basis!  Next, we had parmesan encrusted tilapia with a side of ratatouille and rice.   Next, Brad excitedly whipped up a creme brule.  He received a torch for Christmas and was anxious to try it out!  We ate these courses while watching one of our favorite movies, Ratatouille.  As the night worn on, we ate our final course of cheese and fruit.  The kids got to try Munster cheese, Gouda Cheese, and Brie.  

That completed out French New Year.  The kids also received a book to share...Geronimo Stilton an the Mystery in Paris. They loved it!

We did also start a new tradition and work on an old one.  I found these black balls at Target this year.  I saw on Pinterest where you write down fun memories each year on the ball and then it becomes an ornament.  Each of us picked two things that happened in our year and wrote them down.  Another of our old traditions is to cut out a copy of our hands and then write down a verse we want to focus on for the year.  

I am wishing you all a Happy and Blessed New Year!