Starting to think of home

Now that we have about a month left of our current stay here in Mexico City, my thoughts are turning to going home to Chicago.  I have started the airline tickets search as well as making a partial list of what will go back to Chicago with us and what will stay here for when we return next year.  I'm planning where I want to eat with my family when we get back, and I can't wait to visit Barnes and Noble and Joann Fabrics.  I want to have a backyard bbq with friends and family and I want to take long walka with the dogs through our neighborhood.  My limit for a stay here in Mexico seems to be five months.  Longer than that and I get too lonely for Chicago and especially for my family.  By the time we leave in September we will have been here for almost six months.

And our time here in Mexico City has been good.  We've traveled with friends to Patzcuaro, visited so many beautiful and fun neighborhoods in Mexico City, and we have visited with our family here.  We have had backyard bbqs with family and friends and have thoroughly enjoyed the garden that Arturo has worked so hard on, as well as the glorious view of the mountains from our bedroom balcony.  We have created a daily routine here that I will miss when we are back in Chicago.  Mexico has been good to us during these months. If my family lived here with us it would be close to perfect.  But they don't, and that is why my heart can never be completely content when we are in Mexico.

The last two weeks we have been so lucky to have our good friends from Chicago, Tom and Goya, here in Mexico.  They have been staying in the Condesa neighborhood in a super lovely condo.  We have spent good days and evenings with them going through Mexico City's neighborhoods and eating at fun places.  They leave tomorrow and we will miss them very much but it is easier because we will see them again in a month.  Next week I'll post a blog about one of the visits we made with Tom and Goya to see the great Mexican artists Rina Lazo and Arturo Garcia Bustos.  That was a super day!

In the meantime, here are a few photos but I have to say that I have not taken many pictures at all during the last two weeks.  Instead, I've been too busy talking with Goya.  I'm hoping Tom can send me some of the ones he has taken when they get back to Chicago!

Have a great weekend!

Simple Things

I can't remember for sure from which book I copied these words, "Simplicity, serenity and spirituality" but I try to think of each one everyday and practice them.  I know some people who actively live the concept behind each of those words and I have to say that they are happy, content people.  At least from what I can see.  So I will keep working on it.

So here are some of yesterday's some simple pleasures:

We spent yesterday walking around the park at Polanco.
Fifteen years ago today my dad died.  He had lung cancer but it wasn't diagnosed until ten days before he died.  He had just turned 67 and I was totally unprepared to live the rest of my life without him.  I thought we still had a lot of time to spend together.  So, hug your loved ones and don't take them for granted!

xoxo

Dogs, Knitting and Quilts

Awhile back I said I was sent a copy of the free ebook "Love of Knitting" that shows easy lace knitting patterns.  The plan was for me to give a review and to provide the link for any of you who like to knit.  Well, I just started browsing through it and the patterns are truly lovely and the instructions are easy and clear to read.  You should have some experience knitting to attempt them but you by no means have to be an expert knitter.  I'm going to try knitting the "Cielo Shell" and I hope in a couple of weeks to have a photo of it in progress to show you.  It really is a lovely book and you can get it for free right here!

Here are a couple of photos of two other projects in the making.  I thought I would be much farther ahead on them but as usual, I'm falling behind my schedule.  These are some of the blocks I'm making from apron fabric scraps that are intended to become twin sized quilts for that girls' orphanage in Patzcuaro that I wrote about awhile back.  I need to make 45 quilts.  Hah!  Like that's going to happen during my lifetime!  I'm serious though about 45 - it isn't right to just hand out a to a couple of girls.  They all need one.  So.  Anyone volunteer to help??  I'm serious.

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You can tell I haven't gotten very far.  I have tons more fabric back in Chicago so it looks like this will be an ongoing project.

These other photos are for a quilt I'm making for a Christmas present.  Looks like that will be Christmas of 2014 because not only is it not pieced yet, or even completely cut out, but I still have to hand quilt it once it is pieced.  Or Christmas 2015.

In my defense on this one:  there have been hundreds of pieces to cut out and sew together to form those blocks.  I'm more than half done with the blocks then I need to cut out more panels and start sewing the strips.  And then hand quilt it.

Finally, you know how much I love the non profit organization It's a Pittie Rescue.  I've posted about Mama Petunia and puppy Caine.  Well, their major fundraiser is on Saturday, August 3 and it looks like it will be a lot of fun.  You can buy your tickets here for $35 until tomorrow and $45 at the door.  It is a casino night theme with lots of prizes, food and drinks.  It's a great way to support this organization!  Thanks!

For those who have shelter, food, clothing and money

A couple of days ago a friend from Chicago shared on Facebook a story about "suspended" coffee and lunches.  I then shared it on my page so many of you have probably already seen it but here it is again with the story:

This story will warm you better more than a coffee on a cold winter day...Please "Share" to spread the news x

"We enter a little coffeehouse with a friend of mine and give our order. While we're approaching our table two people come in and they go to the counter -

'Five coffees, please. Two of them for us and three suspended'

They pay for their order, take the two and leave.
I ask my friend: 'What are those 'suspended' coffees ?' 'Wait for it and you will see' she replies...

Some more people enter. Two girls ask for one coffee each, pay and go. The next order was for seven coffees and it was made for three lawyers - three for them and four 'suspended'.

While I still wonder what's the deal with those 'suspended' coffees I enjoy the sunny weather and the beautiful view towards the square in front of the café.

Suddenly a man dressed in shabby clothes who looks like a beggar comes in through the door and kindly asks 'Do you have a suspended coffee ?'

It's simple - people pay in advance for a coffee meant for someone who can not afford a warm beverage.

The tradition with the suspended coffees started in Naples, but it has spread all over the world and in some places you can order not only a suspended coffee, but also a sandwich or a whole meal."

Then I started looking at some of the organizations to which people donate for whatever cause or reason and I saw many donations marked "anonymous".  Then one of my cousins wrote in the comments section of Facebook,  "Truly anonymous gift, double blind actually.  Interesting."

I think that it is hard for most people to accept charity. They may feel anger, shame, sadness and many other emotions.  But if it is a donation that is made anonymously, perhaps that makes it easier for them to accept.   And we don't need the recognition of having donated.  If we have that need, then we are giving for our own egos and not because we really care.

So, try to start and spread the word of "suspended" coffees and meals in your neighborhood.  Or if you are eating lunch somewhere and you see someone there who is obviously in need, as you walk out of the restaurant, casually put a $5 or $10 bill by them without their seeing your face and just keep walking.  There are a thousand things you can do without showing your face or giving your name.  It is the small kindnesses that often make a huge difference to people.  A bigger difference perhaps than what you can even imagine.  And isn't that the whole point?

Slowly learning

At times it's hard to believe that we are already two thirds of the way through our six months here in Mexico. It was hard for me to leave Chicago back in March - much more difficult than it was to leave in January, 2012.  Maybe it was because I knew from past experience that I would miss my family, friends and familiar haunts.  As well as Thai food, Chicago pizza and the Athenian Room.  Mostly I was just being a big baby because Mexico is a beautiful country and I'm perfectly happy here.  There are days when I get lonely but who doesn't?   We have family and friends here in Mexico and we have spent many happy days with them.  I miss them when I'm in Chicago.  All in all I am very fortunate and I'm well aware of that.

So what is the point of this post you may be asking?  I'm not really sure other than to say that I'm learning to enjoy life day by day and that actually is a hard lesson for me to master.  I was so accustomed to fast paced, crazy days at work, then running home to start my second job - all the time frustrated because I didn't have time to do the things I longed to do or more time to spend with my family and friends.  Then all of a sudden I have that time and I have to admit that it has taken me almost two years to get used to that.  Sounds insane I know.  But I'm getting there and part of that journey has taught me to sometimes just sit still and look at the scenery.  To watch a bird hopping around our garden. To literally listen to the birds sing.  I don't feel so guilty over "wasting time" doing those simple things because in the end, maybe they are more important for the soul than worrying about finishing the next article I'm working on.  Being here in Mexico has helped me learn those little lessons.  Like I said before, Mexico is a beautiful country.

Here are a few more pictures from Patzcuaro, el "Pueblo Magico" and the surrounding area.

The house of the "once patios" - eleven courtyards

Zirahuen

Patzcuaro through a courtyard

Zirahuen

The church in Cuanajo

Our street at night

I can't remember which lake this is.

You know this little guy

So, the point of this post is to take each day for the blessing it is.  And although this is a non sequiter, pay it forward!

Have a great weekend!

Patzcuaro

We got back Sunday night after spending ten days in Patzcuaro.  During that time we hosted the opening reception for the "Viajeros" or the butterfly exhibit, and spent time with old and new friends traveling through the countryside and in Patzcuaro.  It is the rainy season in Patzcuaro so the surrounding area was a beautiful canvas of green.  When we were there in April it hadn't rained for awhile, it was hot and things were looking brown and dusty.  Now it is the cool, rainy and gorgeous.

This is the Estribu - the top of a mountain where you look down into the valley.  

 The people in the above photo are sitting on the edge of land with their legs dangling over hundreds of feet of nothing.  I got close to the ledge but not quite that close.

Part of the monastery in Tzintzuntzan

This was taken one night from our roof after a rainstorm.  The sun came out briefly and looked like this:

It almost looks like heaven opened up.

For the butterfly exhibit we had an author from Chicago in attendance, Victor Cortes; a musician who used to live in Chicago, Benjamin Anaya; and Elvira Arrellano, an activist for immigrants' rights to keep families together.  A number of Americans from Patzcuaro and Morelia came by and I had a good time speaking in English for most of the night.  I have realized that days will go by without me speaking in English unless I Skype with one of my daughters.  Or talk to the dogs in English.  I've been doing that a lot lately.

Anyway, back to the butterfly exhibit:

Victor Cortes and Gilda Solis

More on Patzcuaro later.  They are soon coming to tear up my patio to lay a new tile so I have to get some things ready.

We are getting there!

The constant pounding outside of my window has slowed down my blog writing. The headache doesn't help. But there is progress!  As of Friday, I have a stove and sink again.  Plus, the kitchen is all in one room as opposed to being scattered all over the house.  It is all temporary because our plan is to buy new cabinets, stove, sink and put in counters.  As of now I don't have counters so the kitchen table is doing double duty.   So we have gone from this on Saturday:

(The dogs had to be tied up - they were getting into everything and ran the risk of being drilled).

To this:

Arturo was quite creative with the cabinets.  We got the electricity in that room hooked up yesterday so now we are pretty much set for the moment.  While it's not my dream kitchen, I'll tell you that it seems like one right now after not having anything for two weeks.  Not having something puts the world in a better perspective.

When we get back from Patzcuaro we are going to paint and do a few other changes.  They are still working on the patio but the house is no longer covered with concrete dust so we are much saner than what we were a week ago.

Tomorrow we leave for Patzcuaro for Arturo's opening show of his museum.  We will have between 4-6 people staying with us for a bit over a week so it should be a lot of fun.  I won't be online as we don't have any internet service in our house so I won't be around until after July 21st.  Hopefully I'll have some good photos to post when I get back.  Enjoy your July!
Naomi