Our granddaughters’ sixth birthday party was one of the most fun events I’ve been to in a long time. My daughter was in her element. I swear she should create parties for a living.
Covid caused a postponement from the original date, but for a “thrown together” shindig it was amazing.
Gone are the days of homemade cakes and a small gathering of a few besties. The weather was perfect and a good time was had by all.
DOS TORTAS
While “unpacking” from Hurricane Beryl we’ve simultaneously been packing for a jaunt to the US and Canada.
This year we celebrated the milestones of Lisa’s sixtieth and her mother’s eightieth birthdays. We have been trying for months to plan a trip that would get us out of the tropical heat and not break the bank.
Our house sitter arrives Monday to watch the dogs and manage the house. Lisa and Alice are off to Southern California for a mini family reunion while I head North to visit daughter and family. We meet up in Vancouver for a quick tour before catching a cruise to Alaska.
When traveling with a frail eighty year old, a moving hotel sounds doable. Escaping the steamy jungle of Southern Mexico for the land of glaciers and whale watching sounds divine.
I may be offline for a while. Remember to stay out of the heat, hydrate and be kind.
DOS TORTAS
Lisa and I are visiting the East Coast of the US to gather with family to remember my brother’s daughter. The service was very moving with many friends and family members sharing stories.
I learned a lot about my niece. She was a good friend to so many.
Raegan’s positive attitude throughout her long ordeal was always positive and inspired many.
The evening of our family dinner had an empty chair at the end of the table. Her presence has been felt all weekend.
We’ll miss you Darling that’s for sure.
DOS TORTAS
Off to visit our daughter and family in Northern California. Taking a bit of a break from blogging for awhile.
We leave Monday for Seattle, Washington. Lisa is already freezing. 😆
DOS TORTAS
My first favorite activity to celebrate the US holiday of Thanksgiving is watching the New York Macy’s Day Parade. I remember as a child, sitting with my dad, who loved parades. Every year we said we’d go and never did. At my brother’s house, the TV is so large you can see the performers’ nose hairs.
A newer tradition that I enjoy is the Westminster dog show. I caught the end in time to watch Winston the Frenchy win best of show.
Of course the day would not be complete without stories of Thanksgiving’s past. The family memories that we are making and passing down are what it’s all about. “Remember the time…”
DOS TORTAS
Oaxaca is my favorite city in Mexico. I have spent hours walking the narrow streets, people watching, haunting the galleries and museums, praying in the cathedral and sketching the water fountains and gardens. The ancient traditions can be seen in the parades and fiestas that fill the calendar. Especially important is the Day of The Dead. The venerable are brought to life as in the Disney rendition COCO, a sweet story of a young boy trying to bridge the gap between old and new, life and death.
This year has brought to my alter of memories my dear friend Suze, artist Fili and now a most unexpected guest Leslie Jordan. What a shocker! I guess none of us knows when our time is up.
Enjoy this 2017 blog from Casa Colibrí (House of the Hummingbird) on Day of the Day events in Oaxaca.
When Día de Muertos approaches, the panaderías (bakeries) work overtime to fill their shelves and counters with Pan de Muertos — an egg based bread, sometimes elaborately decorated, but always with a cabecita (also known as a muñeca), a little painted flour dough head, at the top.
The most intricately decorated bread comes from Mitla. For a few years, Mitla held a Pan de Muertos fair and competition, with prizes for decoration. Alas, because their bread is in such demand, the feria was halted two years ago as the bakers put a priority on attending to their customers needs — this is their livelihood, after all!
However, the small pueblo, Villa Díaz Ordaz picked up the slack and last year began holding a Festival del Pan de Muertos. The village is off the beaten path and the festival hasn’t yet drawn much in the way of tourism, but it’s a…
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Time spent in the US has sometimes been surreal. I want to click my ruby slippers three times and be home in my jungle house in Bacalar, Mexico. Dang, I left my ruby slippers home!
While visiting the States I have needed to address some health issues. There is more technology available and I have good health insurance so why not. The trouble is, the outcomes have been a bit disconcerting.
High cholesterol– This is nothing new. I have had the same results in the past. I hunker down with my diet but then don’t follow up to see if what I’m doing is working. In Mexico there isn’t an annual exam per say. I have had my head in the sand.
High triglycerides– Sugar is my Achilles heal. At home I eat almost none. In the US I get sucked in to the SAD (Standard American Diet). Too much nibbling, too much sugar, too much food.
Pre-Diabetic– This diagnosis really threw me. With a Masters in Health Education I have always prided myself in eating well and exercising. Truth be told, I haven’t been understanding how my aging body, well, ages. I have been lazy and am paying the price.
My answer came from a friend who recommended an online application to keep me accountable. In just a few days I have learned that I am not exercising as much as I think I am, I am not eating as well as I think I am and I need help.
My seventieth birthday is in February and I am using it as both a goal and a marker. The doctor in Austin gave me little assistance other than take this pill and eat less carbs and red meat. As much as I hate to document everything, research shows that it works. Simply keeping a food journal reduces weight and most of us can use to loose a few. If you’re interested in knowing more about the application, leave your email in the comments.
DOS TORTAS
As my time to return to Mexico from Austin, Texas looms on the horizon, I have such mixed emotions. I wish I could be in two places at once, which always happens when I have to leave my dear wife. My departure requires her to be more independent, fixing her own meals, arranging transportation and most of all, finding support that is not me. All of it while juggling medication and healing from major surgery. She’s a trooper, I’m the one who’s nervous.
I do get the bennies of returning home to the jungle of Southern Mexico, seeing the dogs, returning to daily swims and sleeping in our bed. There is also much to be done. We have been navigating a lot from the US, including my mother-in-law’s care and clogged toilet. Daily messages from our workers, house sitter and MIL do not make for peace and quiet.
This week we will celebrate the US holiday of Thanksgiving. It will be a lovely visit with family and a delicious meal round a large table. A day devoted to gratitude while gazing on the faces of those we love is a good thing. We haven’t been in Austin for Thanksgiving since 2012.
Whether you’re in the US or somewhere else on the planet, take a whole day to devote to being grateful. I find that listing things I’m grateful for and WHY helps me to connect more to my heart.
Blogging has afforded me the opportunity to write, connect and hear from followers around the world. I appreciate each of you. So Happy Thanksgiving and catch my socially distanced hug.
DOS TORTAS
During my time working for the State of Texas, I flew frequently for my job. I arrived at the airport with just enough time to slip on board the plane to Houston, Corpus or El Paso. If meetings ended early, it was easy to jump on an earlier flight. And there was no additional charge!
When 9-11 happened, the addition of a security line increased the amount of time necessary to arrive at the airport. An hour flight from Austin to Houston took so much additional time in a security line, that it was often easier to drive. Fees began to pile on for rescheduling flights. Flying became less fun.
Our recent trip to the United States from Mexico, after a year and a half in quarantine has us thinking twice about the future of travel. Add to the experience is the fact that none of us is getting any younger. There are additional fees for everything, checked luggage, seat selection and even water on the plane. Each airline has different requirements for proof of health, an application to to be downloaded and filled out or paper to be signed. So much screening! To leave Mexico City we had to get up at two a.m. to be at our flight three hours ahead of time. We knew it would be different but nothing prepared us for the actual experience.
At the same time, we are excited to see family and friends. We can no longer isolate in our jungle paradise, although I will be supremely happy to get back when our tasks are completed and we make our way home.
DOS TORTAS
My grandmother died a few months before her 95 birthday. I remember coming home from somewhere to my husband and youngest in arms waiting at the door. Before my foot crossed the threshold, my baby blurted out, “great Nan died”.
Nan had been sitting on the bed with my mother helping to dress for the day, when her heart just gave out. I would say that it wasn’t a bad way to go, except Nan was mostly deaf and totally ornery. As her 24/7 caregiver, I’m sure that my mother had mixed feelings though she’d never admit it. She adored her mother and repeated frequently how she could never make rice pudding nor potato salad as good as Nan’s.
I was named for my grandmother which didn’t keep our personalities from clashing on more than one occasion. She once prevented my six year old daughter from joining her grandparents for weekday mass because, “you can’t go to church dressed like that.” I had been looking forward to a quiet hour sans daughter. I got mad and told my grandmother to mind her own business. Not my finest hour.
This Mother’s Day I am thinking of her. She was a single mother during the Depression, working as an operator for Bell Telephone and just about any job she could find, to provide for her family. She loved to drive and frequently flirted with truck drivers by honking and waving. She always had a lifesaver or some other sweet in her purse to delight a grandchild. Nan thought nothing of inspecting me and my four siblings for dirty ears and sending us off to the bathroom if we didn’t meet her standards.
Today her twelve grandchildren (actually there’s two more, but that’s another story)have managed to produce twenty-six grandchildren, and forty-seven greats, as far as we know. Her Irish Catholic blood is passed down from a line of strong women. Her own mother Anna outlived three husbands and was married mother and widowed in one year.
Happy Mother’s Day out there, today and every day, however you mother, whoever you mother, and whatever you mother.
DOS TORTAS
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