Hey y'all, we're 6 now!

Surprise surprise, we got a new familymember!!

Here's the story:
May was the most busy month I can remember, sertainly from this school-year. Not only because we were 'out', I had a big school subject to finish (Early Church History), I had to rethink the how-and-what about the Winteracademy (arts/painting classes, 3 weekends: Februari, March, April), we as a couple attended the Staff Candidate Orientation Course from Christian Associates International, but we also had to deal with major mindset changes.... -grrrroovy- (have in mind the voice of Jim Carrey)
Of course all this stuff (being out, exams, evaluation, course) is stored somewhere in the mind untill there is a little time to reflect, and of course we were way too busy to have that reflection time.
Result: June is the sorry-ass month: the freaky-spots-decease that did hit the school of the kids, spread around our little family. Debora got the red sports first (we thought it to be a sort of sun allergy), Salome had some little red spots like very tiny pimples first, then this week she had the same red spots as Debora, and Jonathan developped the same little red spots Salome had at first... Accompanied by running noses, some sore throat, some ear pain, not too bad, but very very tired. Of course the adults were just tired, and we felt all very sorry for ourselves.


So, let's go on with the part that started the whole mindset stuff: our little 2 week trip to the northern part of Scotland: Freswick Castle, in the town of Freswick. (okay, need to do a different post about just that!) Our new friends overthere, Monique Sliedrecht and Murray Watts share our dreams and we agreed sort of to help eachother to make those dreams real (thrilling!). (yeah, deserves another different post)
Our dear 'daddy-in-crime' Murray has a lovely dog named Tiffy, and Jonathan, who is usually very affraid of dogs, even liked her.... so... as soon as we were home again, he started asking for a dog. Salome, our little model, agreed, and of course Debora agreed too, because she likes all kinds of adventures. That's where the adventure really started.....

We started searching the internet (thanks to all kinds of clubs, societies and wikipedia) and soon found out that the dog I loved to have all my reading life: The BORSOI, would fit our little family.
I found the one and only "Barsoi-club" in The Netherlands, searched their whole website, found some well known breeders, and found out that there was a breeder who just had had a litter in March! Parents were the most beautifull daddy Drachan and mommy Zadira, and they are both also soft and lovely. What to wish for more? But of course March was already long gone, so I supposed the littleones were long gone too.
Long story short: I send her an email, asked some questions, she answered right back, invited us to the club day with some shows, and of course to come and have a coffea (yeah), to get to know the Pagranitsjniki-family of 6 grown-up Borsois and 8 welps... So, we did dive right in, and especially Jonathan had his first close contact with the big aristocratic breed of the Barsoi. Salome was litteraly facing the huge dogs, and loved them immediately. Jonathan didn't even hide and took only a very slight detour to go where he wanted, by himself... Debora just loved it all, wanted to walk some of the dogs and stroked the ones who were very nice. My hubby and I were just watching the kids, the dogs, and the community around it. We loved it. We even felt accepted. Everyone knew us because we were some of the rare guests and we came with the 5 of us.
There was 1 beautifull white female for sale still, she was one of the best 'build' Barsoi welps of the litter and the breeder wasn't sure yet which bitch she would keep, the beautifull white one or her sister. Breeder and sister made the best connection and we and the white one became family. But, we made a deal: in case our beauty was good to breed with, we would give her back to the breeder for getting at least one litter with her. So now she is co-owned by us and the Pagranitsjniki breeder.

So, we're 6 now: our white Barsoi-lady is called Chaika, which means 'white seagull' in Russian, because the Borsoi is the Russian Wolfhound/Greyhound. She is an aristocrat, very cuddly, lovely. She loves us and we love her. Up to adventure!

Fit Yummy Mummy Challenge 2009

Okay, here's my final status in pictures. I'm going to get fit, get over my pelvic instability, get healthy, and be able to keep up with our kids again! This all by doing some heavy workouts and intense intervals and of course lots of healthy eating. Thanks to Holly Rigsby and her FYM System (check out the link on my blog, somewhere on the right).









Even the skin on my face is looking and feeling better (healthy food, better bloodflow, less fat)

Just got to get this on the web, to keep me accountable for working on my future self.

Back to the swing of things

Yeah, we did all survive Christmas (and the food did taste as good as it looked in the pic's in the blog before this one) ;-D so now the normal life is back in full power, with some extras added...

Studying theology is a source of happiness, new things, thoughts, getting to know God's ways better, receiving stuff enough to be present in any discussion... These days are filled with Early Church History, so I'm very into reading the Apostolic Fathers and Eusebius' Church history. Does that time look like this time!

Last weekend we had a seminar about social justice, with Carl Raschke. He was our guest for one night, and we had lots of good talks... to be continued for sure. And, oh my, a good friend of ours is photographer, and he was assigned to take some official pictures of Carl (for a Christian opinion magazine), but after the photoshoot with Carl, he announced that there was time for others to get a little photoshoot too.... -sigh- ... and of course our oldest daughter got me that far... I was in FRONT of the camera to get my face pictured in a serious way (not the freaky things that they accept on passports ;-d) ... for the first time of my adult life... My goodness, was that scary, but after some time I just saw some lens, and my grinn was not that unsure anymore...

Music is a little too much behind: need to finish my introduction course to the part time Conservatoir I'm involved with... my poor sax is hiding behind some dust... just like my piano... and drums... and flute... -sigh- .... even singing is not as much a relaxing thing as it is stressfull... What is that? I used to live on music, and now it's 'too much work' for crying out loud. But, as a lovely teacher of mine always says: "For several artists there is a season for everything, and you have the seasons more strictly seperated than others" So I guess I'm not in the music season then.

Painting is going strong! I did organize the Winteracademy (part of the Christian Artists Union in The Netherlands), and the first weekend was a succes! The new way of doing this course is getting some attention now, so next year will be even more succesfull. The only thing is, though, that I am not allowed to advertise with the course in my own church... too bad I still don't know the painters in our church, so how do I find them then??

Our little group of arts students is happy with the initiative to get them together, talk about life issues and work together on some project or so. They are lovely, kids, in to anything, and vague ;-D so next time there will be more to feed and welcome in our home.

Just church is not what it's supposed to be. The emphasize is on coming to the sunday service. No community stuff. Not able to talk about that too.
I'm dying in there.
So now it's time for the last options to keep the relationship alive.
I feel like trying to stay, because it is a group of people that doesn't have much in common, just the sunday services (two of them). I know there are people suffering from that, not knowing how to change it other than walk away, to protect themselves from spiritually dying. I know there are spiritual gifts among the members of our church, that are not being used for the benefit of others, just because there is NO WAY of talking about it, let alone help eachother with learning it. I know there are artists among us and they don't know how to be the christian artist they want to be without hiding in their own homes, stating their art is just a 'hobby'.

But for me it's time for the last options. I'm slowly dying spiritually. It's in the final stages.

chirstmas dinner for the family

Now this is how it's going to look!

Today I had a nice and busy day of thinking about a Christmas dinner for our little family of now 10. First get into count our little kids, and the even younger kids of my little brother, so: no fancy tasts, no surprises in taste or texture, but almost normal food. Well, to be honest, I did fancy in the thinking, and I really do believe the kids will love this!

The meat is somewhat sweet, the three kinds of veggies are sweet too, and the dessert is just an old jummy typical Dutch "vlaflip-grandma-Karsijns"

we don't accept any more bookings ;-D

Take care, and have a very blessed Christmas, and some super holidays!

H'm

Well... it's almost a year now since I've blogged anything... about anything...

maybe I just don't have enough thoughts...

I really do think that I just have this blog in the vain believe that someone outthere is willing to read it. To really have the desire to know what I think. Too bad I don't think that much, hey.

So, from now on (here's another promise) (again) I will just write down what I think (yeah, little secret: I DO think once in a while!) because I'm the only one who is interested, and sometimes it's just fun to look back and discover the sheer fact that I really DO think. Therefore I am. Proof.