My Big, Fat, Dodger Blue Cuban Family

I have amazing news! I'm proud and privileged to announce that I was invited to be on the planning committee for Cuban Heritage Day at Dodger Stadium this year! (I know. Shut up.)

Seriously, if I was going to add an item to my Bucket List, this would be it. Of course, I didn't know I would have added it until they actually asked me, but that's not important right now.

So our very first meeting was at Porto's Bakery. (If I was writing the script for the movie of my life and adding this chapter, I swear I couldn't have written it any better than this. Pinch me.)

And even though I was completely driven to distraction by the giant plate of pastelitos de guayaba (guava pastries) they placed in front of me, I think I was able to contribute something of value besides, "Can I please have another?"

I have a lovely Facebook friend/MBFCF reader, whose name is Ed. He was following my Hey-I'm-on-the-Cuban-Heritage-Day-at-Dodger-Stadium-Committee excitement on Facebook (if you're not following the relajo on My Big, Fat, Cuban Family Facebook page, you totally should) and he sent me and my family an amazing gift.

Shirts! Beautiful Dodger Blue Shirts! Not only that, they say, "Los Doyers." Also, he sent them for the entire family. I was overwhelmed. (Again, I couldn't have written this part of the book better myself.)

Amy Kikita and I put ours on immediately and Instagrammed the awesome. (If you're not following me on Instagram, you totally should. I'm Smrtqbn. That is all.)

How cute and happy do we look in our Los Doyers shirts? (Didn't I tell you they were awesome?)

Lucy and Jon decided they would rather do a "photo shoot." Of course.

"Look at my shirt!"

I don't know which makes me happier - being on the Cuban Heritage Day at Dodger Stadium this year, or having such a thoughtful and generous reader bless our family in this way. (I'm thinking it may be a tie.)

Also, having my kids be so excited and proud to represent makes my cup runneth over.

Eric got a shirt, too. But he was busy doing some work in the garden, so he missed the photo shoot. (Or did he?)

Thank you to the Dodgers ("Viva Los Doyers!") and the Cuban Heritage Day at Dodger Stadium Committee (if you're not following them on Facebook, you totally should) for including me in this awesome event.

Thank you to my friend, Ed for the beautiful and generous gifts.

Color me happy! (Of course, you realize that happy is now officially Dodger Blue, but that's not important right now.)

The Best of MBFCF in 2013

I'm looking at my calendar and it's already the 8th day of 2014. I was planning on taking a few days off at the beginning of the year and wow, did they go by quickly!

Come to think of it, 2013 feels like it went by pretty quickly also. Is it just me, or is this one of those things people tend to repeat a lot as they get old? Shut up. Don't even say it!

This past year has been quite eventful in lots of ways, which makes me happy that I blog (and scrapbook) because I would otherwise forget the thoughts and events and conversations I've had this past year. I know. There's that getting old thing again. Stop it.

Here are the top posts for each month of 2013. (Time is seriously flying, isn't it?)

Drum roll, please.

1.The Things I Didn't Blog About in 2012 - Luza - in which I confess my growing discomfort with my mom aging and how our roles are shifting.

2. #LookAtMyFood in which I continue to overshare what exactly I had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner via Instagram. (Also, if you don't already, you should follow me. I'm Smrtqbn.) I'm really very good about sharing my food.

3. Cuban Word of the Day - in which I share my delight at being honored by the wonderful artists from Wassup En LA? in their Cuban Word of the Day segment. (Technically it was 3 words - Pastelitos de Guayaba - but that's not important right now.)

4. 99 Red Balloons in which I share how we celebrated my mom, Luza's 99th birthday. Cute video attached to that post, too.

5. Ahora Sí! in which I tell about the night I finally got to meet Andy Garcia. (I know. I still can't believe it. Pinch me!)

6. Hello, Outdoor Movie Nights - in which I list all the great movies we have to choose from for our Summer Backyard Movie Theater. Also, it always marks the official beginning to our summer. And this pleases me greatly.

7. "If you build it..." - in which I celebrate the wonderful farmhouse table that my kids built for me.

8. Hurry up...and wait - in which I tell the story of Jonathan's first acting job in a feature film. (Now that I told you, I'll probably have to kill you.)

9. We Visited Coffee Heaven and Lived to Tell the Tale - in which I describe (in great over-sharingly detailed detail) our wonderful visit to the Gaviña Coffee plant.

10. My Big, Fat, FROZEN, Cuban family - in which I gush (yes, there's gushing) about my day at the Walt Disney Animation Studios and the making of the animated feature, FROZEN. Also, the Disney Animators made me a personal video which totally put me over the edge.

11. ALL the Picadillo at the Blurb Books Food Fair in which I share about my visit to San Francisco and how I got to cook for lots of hungry book buyers. Also, there's a very cool video they did about me and my picadillo.

12. Cuban Picadillo Pies^® - in which I developed a new and fun way to eat and share picadillo. (<--also, what a weird descriptive sentence that was!)

Thanks to all of you who have been faithfully following MBFCF for all these years or who have just found me in the last year. I write this blog mostly for myself, so it genuinely pleases me when you respond so generously to my over-sharing.

Also, did the year just fly by for you, too? (I know. Old. Shut up.)

Happy New Year, my friends!

Documenting the Magic

As you know, I take pictures every day. No, seriously. Every. Single. Day.

With the advent of smart phones, it's too easy not to. I think that I still have some deep, internal scarring left over from when my family had to leave Cuba and we had no pictures of ourselves from that time, but that's not important right now.

So I'm always taking pictures, because, as I like to tell my kids, "I'm documenting the magic of our lives."

I already do Project Life, which means I document our lives week to week. And I love the hybrid quality of digital and traditional scrapbooking.

When Instagram came along, I fell in love. It feeds my artistic side and lets me tell our story in bright day-to-day photos.

This past week would be titled...

The Last Week of June 2013 in the Land of the Darbys

Sunday afternoon swim at the local YMCA. I try to get in the water at least 5 days a week. Sometimes I bring my people with me.

Festive patio lights and Fiesta-colored flags decorate our outdoor movie area. Lucy sewed up the flags. It makes the whole place like so bright and happy.

If you come over for a Darby Outdoor Movie Night, there will be concessions. (Don't judge me.)

Wednesday was a perfectly perfect beach day in Southern California.

My Bleeding Heart vines are in bloom. They go completely dormant in the winter and I always hold my breath because I have such little faith that they'll return. I'm always amazed and delighted when they do.

Coffee & muffin & computer. This pretty much sums up most of my mornings.

Eric went surfing early one morning this week and Nefret found a happy place to shelter from the heat.

Surprise gift of "Pamagranate" Jelly. And it's not even Christmas. Totally made my day.

I make a whole, Roast Chicken at least one night a week. (Two if we're having company.) It's just too beautiful, isn't it?

My kids saw this in the dumpster area of the local market. Score! I'm keeping the sign on it, too.

We're having a heat wave in So Cal and our air conditioner conked out. So we made the best of it by turning on the outdoor lights and they made music. I can't even tell you how much I love this.

I know it doesn't look glamorous. But that's how our days and weeks go. Of course, I will always take pictures at birthdays and holidays and all that. But this? This is the stuff of our everyday lives. This is where the magic happens.

“The days are long, but the years are short.” ~Gretchen Rubin

“My job is to document the magic.” ~ Marta Darby

Celebrating Every Day or My Week in Instagram

Most people start the new year with big plans and a "let's do this" attitude. And I do, too, mostly...

But this year started off with crazy. Here's how I documented my week via Instagram. (Photo sharing app for smart phones.)

Jonathan had his first semester performances the very first week, which meant we were at the theater pretty much every single day.

The cold, drafty, no-warmth-to-be-found-anywhere theater. It was at that point that I caught what started as a cold and is now settling nicely into an upper respiratory infection, but the show had to go on, thankyouverymuch.

Which is how I ended up with not just a little sniffle, but a full-blown, old-school, sneezing-coughing-my-head-is-about-to-burst cold.

In between rehearsals and shows I took as much downtime as possible.

And I was so grateful for my husband who made sure I started the days with protein. (And coffee, and my iPad, but that's not important right now.)

It was a wonderful cast and the kids put on a great performance (even if the theater was as cold as a meat locker).

We all went and supported Jon. He's quite entertaining, you see.

I was so grateful that Lucy was doing the lighting for the show so she was able to drive every day. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that we ate a lot of our meals in the car. Luckily we live in Southern California and there's an In N Out Burger practically on every corner. (Thank you, God.)

In between supporting Jonathan, we were supporting Adam's new Farmers Market venture: Pirate Pancakes. Lucy made the signs.

Adam made the pancakes.

So I pushed myself in spite of feeling so sick. There was one comfort in all this...

I have the long weekend to rest and get better and the Vicks VapoRub (Veeex Bah Poh Rooo) to help me recover.

You see? It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.

It says so on my wall.

When I'm not here on this blog, you can find My Big, Fat, Cuban Family on Facebook.

Or every day on Instagram documenting my daily life. I'm Smrtqbn.

Because over-sharing in just one place is just not enough for this Cubana. Happy Weekend, everyone!

I'm. On. Vacation. (via Instagram)

Every year, just like my parents used to in Cuba B.C.* (*before Castro), we enjoy spending a beautifully relaxing time at the beach. In this case, we're in Del Mar, California and the weather is perfect.

If you follow me on Instagram, you would already have this information, but that's not important right now.

Here's the documentation of the beginning of our vacation week (with captions), via Instagram.

This is where you'll find me all week.

Right now.

They're both good at boogieing, but she excels at frolicking.

My husband participates in vacation sports.

I'm. On. Vacation.

As you can see, we're working really hard at this whole vacation/relaxation thing. I think I've done really well with the documentation part of it, too.

If you want to enjoy some more of my personal vacation "relajo," please feel free to follow along on Instagram. I'm Smrtqbn. Coming to you live from my beach chair in Del Mar, California. ;-)

Lessons from the Garden

My roses are blooming.

All of them. All at once.

And although they look very beautiful,

and some are quite spectacular,

they require my attention. Right now.

And it feels like quite an overwhelming task.

But I'll grab my pruning shears and go through each bush, dead-heading as I go. It's quite a big job when they're all going crazy at once.

I'll spray for bugs, and I'll cut some of the more beautiful ones to bring inside to create a centerpiece.

Once again, God is using my garden as a metaphor for my real life. I have to stop all that I'm doing and pay attention to the beauty that is right under my nose and metaphorically tend to the garden that is my life.

If I don't, I'm going to miss it.

Taking some time off from blogging to enjoy my garden, my husband, my kids, my kitchen, my family. I'll be back in a week or so. With stories. And opinons. And giveaways! But until then, I need to get the pruning shears and get to work.

If you want to connect with My big, fat, Cuban family, the relajo continues over on Facebook.

I also share a slice of my life every day on Instagram. I'm Smrtqbn.