Pepto Pink

“Sacarle todo el provecho”

Living in Mexico’s Yucatan, I am learning a lot. Yes, my Spanish is improving but more importantly I am learning about another culture and that there are more ways to do something and more ways to look at something than just my way. In simple words, “there is more than one way to skin a cat”.

For example, today as I was walking out to get my fresh squeezed orange juice (this orange juice deserves a whole paragraph by itself but I will refrain and press on), I passed a crew of men painting a large building pink. Permit me to clarify “pink”. This was not a muted salmon or soft tangerine, it could in no way be considered pastel or subdued rose. It was pink, hot Peptobismal pink. This Pepto pink edifice had elbowed its way in between two comparatively bland, blasé beige buildings that hadn’t recently been painted. Had I been the one choosing the color I would, no doubt, have chosen a more subdued color. Beige is safe, conservative and conventional, like I tend to live my life.

Our neighbors south of the border live life with much gusto, intensity and color. Intensity describes how they do many things. They find any excuse to have a fiesta and then they do it with intensity, playing their music loud and partying into the early morning hours. The men wear strong aftershave and the women wear very high heels. They work with intensity in intense heat and eat intensely hot ( as in spicy hot) foods. They live life with enthusiasm, relish and zest. They avoid the bland and blasé.

They have a saying here “Sacarle todo el provecho”, which means; get the most out of it, enjoy all the benefit, grab all the gusto. A quote my brother sent me says it in different words.

"You'll seldom experience regret for anything that you've done. It is what you haven't done that will torment you. The message, therefore, is clear. Do it! Develop an appreciation for the present moment. Seize every second of your life and savor it. Value your present moments. Using them up in any self-defeating ways means you've lost them forever."

I could certainly take a page out of the Mexican’s book and experience more of life! I want some of their warmth and intensity to rub off on me. So I am considering painting my conservative red brick house not Pepto pink, but Pepto purple (purple is my color). What do you think? That would make quite a statement there on Alta North Road now wouldn’t it? Hmmmmm….Somehow I don’t think that would go over real well in the neighborhood nor with my family. They would be whispering amongst themselves that surely the heat and habaneras chilis of Mexico had gone to my brain and made me loco.

No, you likely won’t see a Pepto purple house on Alta North Road but I am considering ways that I might live life with gusto, with keen enjoyment and pleasure. Well, enough of this sitting in front of a computer screen, I can do that when there is 3 feet of snow on the ground and it is freezing outside (next week). So if you will excuse me, con permiso, I have fresh squeezed orange juice and a ripe mango that I am going out on the balcony to eat in the warmth of the sunshine, then I will walk down Avenida Paseo Montejo and delight in the Pepto pink, Pepto purple and Pepto turquoise homes and tomorrow I think I will swim in a cenote.

Sacarle todo el provecho!!!

Reuniones Domingos

Got up early and ran/walked 3 miles (wore my Pearl Izumis).


Returned, changed for church, walked 2 miles to church by temple (wore my Skechers, practical comfortable, frumpy)
changed into my strappy heels outside of church, attended Sacrament meeting. The talks were on Free Agency, Personal Revelation and the Holy Ghost. Decided to attend the rest of my meetings at Santa Lucia.

Walked a mile to Santa Lucia in strappy heels (I was exercising my free agency but without personal revelation or the Holy Ghost, this was not a good idea)
Enjoyed the "meeting" at Santa Lucia, didn't see anyone else in Skechers.

Changed back into my Skechers ( it was a good meeting as now I had personal revelation and was listening to the Holy Ghost). Returned home, soaked my feet in cold water and attended to my blisters. Learned the lessons of pride, vanity and humility

La Casa Montes Molina

The neighbors around the corner have such lovely home and they invited me in. Let me share some of the beautiful vistas.

Tiffany Window

Carmita is 96 years old and has lived and cared for the home and its owners since she was about 20.

Baccarat Crystal from Europe.

La Casa Montes Molina.

The neice of Tia Josephina and her son who took us through the home. She owns the home and her son manages it for her. It is a superb place for partays, soirees and lunch.

The Lomoges china, service for 150 set out for the upcoming fiesta. This is the company Lamoges, they also have the everyday Lamoges.

His Needs, Her Needs: Building an Affair-Proof Marriage by Willard F. Harley Jr.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A healthy marriage, if it is to stay healthy requires time, attention and yes work if it is to weather the storms that inevitably come in the course of a lifetime. This in a fairly succinct manner gives excellent counsel to help enhance a marriage. He does belabor the point that if the needs aren't met an affair will ensue.

I choose to focus more on what I might do to be a better wife rather than on the prospect of an affair.

I would recommend it to all married couples to be read with an open mind,setting pride aside (such a faithful,familiar and yet destructive friend really a wolf in sheep clothing) and with the thought of "I am not perfect and maybe I could change a few things to make our marriage happier." It may not all apply but some of it will and more particularly if you discuss it together. Isn't your marriage worth a few hours of your time to see how you might make it better?



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Perfect Snow Day

Yeah! School is called off because of snow!!!!! A gift, a bonus, a perfect day!
I will confess these have not always been my thoughts. When I had two preschoolers, two grade schoolers and two middle schoolers I was happy to see that big yellow bus take four children away for a few hours leaving only two under foot (that was before we had the twins). When the call came that school had been canceled my first thoughts were of wet snow clothes and green puddles on the floor from the sheep barn. I thought of kids cooped up in a small house, picking at each other and yowling “He hit me!” “ I did not I only bumped him!” “Bumped him my foot! You can’t fool me now go to your room and don’t come out until you can be kind to your brother!”
I hate to admit that those conversations took place in our home. I really had hoped to be the perfect mother. Then I talked to Joan Durtschi who had eleven children and she shared with me that she loved snow days. I stared at her in amazement. She said she would play board games and do puzzles with her kids all day long, it was an extra holiday. I gave that some due consideration and decided that perhaps I had a BAD ATTITUDE.
But then I was young, I thought that my house was always supposed to be “home show” clean, my children’s hair combed, their clothes matching, and dinner on the table by 6:00 p.m. with all the children sitting patiently at the table waiting for the blessing on the scrumptious well balanced meal. You know the Norman Rockwell type of setting.
I determined to take a page out of Joan’s book and make snow days into happy days. I am pleased to report that I improved. The first step was to recognize that the “perfect picture” and happy kids and mom were not necessarily one and the same. I had to relax about the “home show” house and remember that puddles can be mopped up and melted cheese sandwiches with hot chocolate are perfect comfort food. Then I had to step out of my production oriented mode of washing, cooking, cleaning, mending and remember that my most important job was building a relationship with and teaching my children how to work and play. I often recited a poem that my mother quoted to me.
Cooking and cleaning can wait 'till tomorrow,
for babies grow up, I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs and dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep. –Ruth Hamilton
Snow days became something we all started looking forward to. Days for building snow huts and snow men, playing Monopoly, Battleship and Scrabble, we collected a closet full of puzzles that we have done and the kids learned how to play Rook.
It did take energy, no doubt about it, but it also takes energy to be upset with each other and one has a much better payoff.
Young mothers, RELAX! Don’t sweat the small stuff and just about everything is small stuff.

This morning when the word came of no school there was whistling, whooping and hollering for joy. It was a great day to make what my son calls “The Best Chicken Noodle Soup in The World” (bless him, at that moment he is my favorite child). The twins were home from high school and didn’t have any practices they had to go to, our older son was home on a college break and our married son had his work called off and he came up with his little family.
We had soup and rolls and leftover cake from Sunday. The grandkids scattered toys all over the front room, a puzzle was started on the coffee table and we had a lively game of Rook while the puddles evaporated in the hall.
Today my stars aligned, a perfect snow day and I got an ephemeral glimpse of me being the “perfect mom”.