#MicroblogMondays: J.

This morning when I opened the FB app on my phone I had two notifications. One was a 'like' someone had given on a photo I posted, the other one was to let me know it was my FB friend J.'s birthday. Only J. is no longer with us.

The weird thing was that I had actually thought about her when I woke up. I don't know why because besides being FB friends, we weren't really friends in real life (and I didn't know today was her birthday). We had met once a few years ago, when we were living in the same city and she was looking into daycare/babysitter options for her baby girl. We had some things in common as new mothers and expats - the need to have some 'me-time' again but the struggle of handing our baby over to a sitter when we didn't have a real need (ie work) for it, and the feeling of being a bit lost in a new environment/country/culture. My sitter did have an opening, but J. didn't take it. She moved back to the US with her baby and French husband a few months later.

Her FB friend request came this Spring, which I accepted because I had a nice memory of that one time we met. I didn't post anything on her timeline or send her a message, but I did scroll through her posts and I saw funny stories and happy photos. Until two months ago, when my newsfeed showed something that had been posted on her timeline by a friend. J. had taken her own life.

I went back into her posts and realized that social media can paint a completely different picture of someone than what's actually going on in their life. I felt bad for not writing something after accepting her friend request (not that I think it would have made a difference - but maybe it would have if all of her 254 FB friends had reached out somehow instead of thinking it wouldn't matter). And it breaks my heart when I think about her beautiful daughter, who turned 4 just three weeks after her mommy died.

Happy birthday J. - may your soul rest in peace.


#MicroblogMondays is another great idea from Mel at Stirrup Queens. Join in!

#MicroblogMondays: Staycation

Start of the 2-week school holidays. The living room has been taken over by the boys...

#MicroblogMondays is another great idea from Mel at Stirrup Queens. Join in!

#MicroblogMondays: mussels

Yesterday we had mussels for dinner. Or at least, hubby and Mr Sensible did. Mr Gourmand and me don't like mussels. For Mr. Gourmand it might just be his "I am 2 and I don't like anything besides junk food", for me it's psychological. I don't think I ever really tried, I just can't bring myself to eat them. So I had thawed some salmon from the freezer for myself, and Mr Gourmand would have his beloved fish sticks. When it was time to cook it turned out the salmon was looking and smelling a bit funny, so I threw it out. Having no alternative, I put some more fish sticks in the pan...
However when we all sat down for dinner the fish sticks didn't look and smell appealing to me at all. So I started on the carrots and the fries. Hubby asked if I really didn't want to try a mussel (with my eyes closed if needed). Oh well, ok then. I tried, it wasn't bad at all (don't I sound really French here? C'est pas mal... the most positive reaction you can get). I'm not a big fan, but I ate at least ten (eyes open). Never too old to discover new tastes (and I hope it won't take that long before Mr Gourmand decides to try out some fruit and veggies - otherwise I'll have to come up with a new nickname for him)!

#MicroblogMondays is another great idea from Mel at Stirrup Queens. Join in!

#MicroblogMondays: Done!

Submitted all translations this morning. I'm going to catch up on some sleep this week...