Week #44 of 52: Be My Guest...
Have you ever had an experience where you met amazing people and left the evening feeling kind of rejuvenated and re-inspired about this gift called life? That was the experience I had this week for mommy break #44 coming to Mac & Cheese’s Production’s Hand Picked Supper Club. A few weeks prior, I received an email from a friend asking if I could be her guest. Not receiving too many details, I was very intrigued about what little she shared and what I was about to experience. Even more intrigued when I received the email from the host leading up to the event sharing logistics and the request to bring a “verbal goodness” to share. Needless to say, I was open and did not yet have confirmed plans for my mommy break this week.
When we arrived we were greeted by the host who instructed us prior to walking into her space that the guests were engaged in a silent activity of coloring pages out of an adult coloring book. We were asked to join them in the activity and were asked for our drink order. When we entered the room, the host’s home felt warm and comfortable. I felt immediate joy in my heart once I commenced to coloring. It truly allowed me to get present to the moment and leave behind the day that I had.
SIDEBAR: I had one of those “Nicole you doing too much” Saturdays. My brief moment of sanity only took place at the beginning of the morning when I decided to forgo yoga class to get one of the grocery stores out of the way. (Confession: I am a grocery store snob. I have a distinct list of staples for Whole Foods vs. Trader Joe’s vs. Roundy’s and sometimes I am nutty enough to go to all three in the same day depending on my menu for the week). Between the hours of 8:30 and 5, I went to Trader Joe’s, my son’s basketball game, took both the 5YO and 7YO to the 7YO’s classmate’s birthday, left before pizza cake to get her to Daisy troop meeting, took my son to a birthday party, left the birthday party after being there only an hour to go pick up my daughter and friend to bring back to my son’s birthday party. Why did I do it? Because I often put too much on myself to make sure my kids are happy and my to do list is happy.
So you can see why I really needed an event like this. Upon conclusion of the coloring exercise we did introductions based on the following list of questions:
Icebreaker questions ...
The diversity in experiences, ethnicities, and gender was amazing. From aspiring journalists, librarians, educators, life coaches, to someone who has scored music for Cold Play to a CEO of a very well known start up. It was a pretty amazing group of individuals to spend my evening with. After we did introductions we transitioned to the dinner. The host hired a restauranteur and foodie to curate an amazing multi-course vegan Italian menu. I have been vegan/vegetarian for the month of January but admittedly felt a little nervous about the menu. Everything was fantastic! Highlights included a vegan panacotta dessert and a bolognese sauce made of mushrooms and walnuts over pasta.
During the dessert course, we each shared our verbal goodness. Jokes, stories of loss, poems. I took something away from each one. For my verbal goodness I shared “have grace with yourself” (aka my husband insisting that I say “fuck it” more). I constantly need to remind myself that I am running my own race, with my career, this blog, my mommy-journey, my wife-journey. Everything. Nicole have grace with yourself” God’s waiting on me to get that… Thank’s God for another opportunity to remind others and more importantly to remind myself. The evening ended with everyone sharing one thing that they appreciated and one “ask”. My appreciation was experiencing such a unique event. I also shared my appreciation for my husband who continues to create the space for me to be on this journey. My ask for everyone was to be intentional about their self care because if we are not intentional about restoring ourselves, we will never be any good to any of the people in our lives that we love.
Our Awesome Hosts... Saya and her husband Pete!
“THANK YOU" LaTrice for thinking enough of me to be worthy of such an experience.
"THANK YOU" Saya for being the courageous force you are to follow your passion and care enough about humanity to create Mac & Cheese productions and hosting a pretty amazing event”.
