The topic of today, Day 8 ‘Blog every day in may’ is ‘a piece of advice you have for others’.

When life is hard

when you need to clear out your head

And just when you want some fun!

GO TO THE SEA!

I’m a big fan of the beach and the sea. I love being outside. Feel the wind in your hair. The sun on your face. The sand between your toes. Watch the water touch the shore. Look at the birds in the ski.

Next month we’ll go camping near the beach for two weeks. I’m looking forward to it. I hope the weather will be great. 

(when I was in high school in the second year, there was a sentence we had to learn in English class: ‘let’s go to the beach’. During high school we used this sentence every time we were going somewhere. Whether it was the bathroom, outside or home, we always said ‘Let’s go to the beach’. The last two years we finally took it seriously and went every month).

That went well. After 2 days I quit the job.

I guess I find the transition from blogging once a month to daily a bit too overwhelming. Especially during the weekends. We had a great weekend. Friday night I played some tennis (of course) with my sister. Saturday we went to the swimming pool.  Our son was more into walking around than swimming in the water. Nonetheless we had fun. Sunday we went to church and in the afternoon to a first birthday party.

The subject of today {Blog every day in may} is ‘the things you’re most afraid of’.

The first thing I’m most afraid of, by far more afraid than any other thing is losing my son. When I see/read stories on TV or books about parents losing their child, it just breaks my heart. I cry for them.

Over the last 10 years I have sometimes the feeling that my life isn’t started yet. When I have these feelings, I think that the life I’m supposed to be living is in the future, when I have a big family. When we have foster kids and when my husband has a farm/ his own company. I have to remind myself that THIS very moment is life. That I must stop looking at the future and live today. My pelvis problems makes these feelings even stronger. Every 2 hours I have to rest at least 15 minutes. When my son is taking a nap, most of the time I’m also laying down (not sleeping, just relaxing) because otherwise I have too much pain and not enough strength to be there for my son when he is awake. So it feels that I have loads of time when he is asleep but I can’t do anything with it because of my body.  And sometimes it scares me that this will be it. Just one kid and laying all day in my bed reading and watching TV (I love to exaggerate).

But I know there is HOPE. When I look at it physically I know that the past half year my body is greatly improved. When I look at it spiritually I know Jesus paid everything at the cross for me. Because of his stripes I am healed. I know He suffered, gave life and resurrected so I can live abundantly. That is a hope that will not be ashamed.

Our pastor says: the opposite of believing is not un-believing, it is anxiety. It is the root cause of condemnation and there for the root cause of not living abundantly.

via

So how many fears I may have, I believe in the life He gave for me. Even for this very day.

Well today is the challenge to educate you on something I know very much about or I’m good at (Blog Every Day in May)

My problem is I know few about a lot.

So I thought I’m gonna educate you about my favourite sport: TENNIS.

Why is tennis my favourite sport?

Reason nr. 1:

(source)

This is Roger Federer. History’s best tennisplayer. He won 17 Grand Slam tournaments (and many many others).

Reason nr. 2:

(source)

Fernando Verdasco

He is a leftie, just like me.

Reason nr. 3:

(source)

 Grand Slam tournament

4 times a year there is a big tennis tournament:

Australian Open

French Open (Roland Garros)

British Open (Wimbledon)

US Open

The player who wins 4 tournaments in a row wins the Grand Slam. There are only 2 players in history who did the job (in one season).  Don Budge and Rod Laver.  (as you may notice I’m only interested in Men’s tennis).

I am such a tennisnerd that I wake up at night to watch a game (because of the time difference).

Not only do I love to watch tennis, I love to play too. To be outside, to be exhausted and feel energetic at the same time, perfecting your return and play with someone else.

A short lesson but I hope you learned something (and otherwise you had something fun to look at ;)

When I read this blogpost by Jenni from Story of my Life, I immediately knew this was going to be a huge challenge for me. But also a very welcome one.

These days I have so much time yet so little to do (still because of my pelvis problems) so I thought that this month could use a boost.

The challenge is to write EVERY SINGLE DAY of may. Whohoo! She made suggestions what to write about.

“Day 1, Wednesday: The story of your life in 250 words or less (or one paragraph… no one will be counting your words… probably)”

So here it goes,  The Story of my Life.

I was born the 17^th of July in 1984. The third in a family of 4 daughters. And yes, on Monday’s my dad was always happy to go back to work (no this is not my joke, he made it over a hundred times..).

I grew up in a very small town and lived there till I went to university at 18. If I am honest I have mixed feelings about my childhood. On one hand I loved playing outside, play with friends and do great stuff with my family.  For example I went 4 times camping with my dad. Alone. (and yes people looked always very strange at us but it was just normal father – daughter time). But on the other hand I felt like there were always tensions at home. Between my parents and between my sisters and me. Luckily I have a very good relationship with them now.

Till I was 17 I never thought of school as a place where you learn stuff that brings you further in life. I went to school because it was fun to meet with friends. The last two years of high school were the best. We had a great group of friends and every month we went to the beach to hang out, drink, swim and have some fun.  Maybe, maybe someday I’ll post some pictures of these days. Sigh.

But when I was in college I found out that the study I was following didn’t satisfy me. It was too practical. I worked appr. 30 hours a week besides my study.  And had fun with friends of course.  During this period I met my husband (a story in itself) and I decided to go to university. I studied Orthopedagogiek, it’s a mix of Developmental Psychology and Special Education.  After the first semester I knew I was at the right place.  I went to live in Utrecht, the town of my university. But my husband – boyfriend at the time – was living near my hometown. So we saw each other only during the weekends. And we phoned a lot. After three years I received my Bachelor’s degree and for my Master’s degree I went back to my hometown because of an internship nearby. We also decided it was the right time to get married. Both studying. We found a tiny little apartment and planned the wedding.

We had an amazing day and were very happy (still are).

I completed my internship successfully and started my research. And it was HELL. After 9 months of struggling (with my teacher and other reasons I can write ten blog posts about)I decided to quit because I was emotionally exhausted. I chose to do nothing at all for 2 months till I started a job search (I had a job for one day a week but that wasn’t enough to pay the bills). After a couple of months I found a job as a recruiter at a big health company. I work there for 3 years now. The job I had during my study was at a roof tile company. Although I worked there for just a couple of hours I was promoted after a year to be the assistant of the HR manager. Because of that experience I started my current job.

So at the moment I do nothing with my education. Sometimes I feel sad about that because I love to work with kids. But I love to work with kids individually and when I searched for a job I could only find jobs with groups. I know that it will come in the future anyway.

And last but not least: last year I became a mother and it’s the best thing in the world! I just love my son so very much. And of course I think he is the sweetest little man on the earth (the sweetest big man is my husband ;)

Wow, not even close to 250 words.

Well at least I stick to the assignment :)

 Tomorrow I will educate you about something I know a lot about or good at.  Hmmm…. Thank God I have one night and day to think about that one.

Story of my life

Every time I open Tumblr on my phone I read all kind of blog posts and I feel the urge to write something too. But when I open a blank page I have no clue what to write about. There is none specific item I want to talk about. No specific event happening to write about. Well there are some changes but it doesn’t feel like I need to cut my hair (always when things change, like a new job, movement etc. I cut my hair in a different model, weird I know). Since April first I started a new job at my compagny, same collegues but different tasks. I also work less hours, just 8 a week till the end of summer. I’m no longer ‘sick’ anymore. It is such a releave that I don’t have all these obligations to try to work longer, talk to the Social Services, talk to the compagny doctor and to talk about my disabilities. I work 8 hours and that’s it. For the ‘attachment’ to my work I think it’s too few but for our little family it is so much better! I can do more cleaning and some cooking. My husband has cooked for 1.5 year. So he is very pleased too as you can understand. I think my son is also happy that I’m more at home. He has really become such a little boy. He loves to play outside. When I take his jacket from the hallway he reacts very happy and is standing by the door waiting to go outside. We can’t get over how much fun it is to have him around. Last week we went to the toddlers gymgroup and on one hand he was overwhelmed with the noise and on the other hand he was very curious to play around. Tomorrow I have a High Tea with my collegues and I’m really excited, all the yummy food and great conversations. There’s a possibility that I have to take my son with me. He will be such a little gentlemen I know for sure but my focus will be completely on him. It’s also nice to have adult time… (suddenly I’m not sure if I can put it like that, adult time… Does it sound 18+, like in….?)

And my mind made a jump. I should cut my hair! There IS a major change in my life! I have, after 1.5 year, tennis lessons! As you may notice, I’m excited about that. Like REALLY excited. I have missed it so much. To be outside, to sweat, to have extra energy. It feels so good. And what I’m really excited about is that my pelvis didn’t hurt.
So after all I filled the blank page with all kind of randoms.

Last week we went to Austria. We stayed at de Berghut.We had an amazing time. It was so good to be together. 

Trying to take a picture with the three of us

A beautiful river with snow

How much snow had fallen this winter!

This looks actually more fun than it was…

The second after I took this picture I felt on the ground and they felt too :(

The adventure lasted about 10 min.

This was absolutely stunning! It was bright, sunny, cold and so quiet!

.It was a long drive to Austria and in Germany we were taken of the road by the police. We got a speeding ticket of €30. That is according to Dutch standards really really little.

My husband thought the experience was worth every money.

Our son was a trooper, he did really well (maybe because I gave him so much Bifi’s (sausages))

The highlight of his week were the swing in the backyard and the car/shopping cart at the supermarket.

I suppose we didn’t have to drive 1000 km to give him the time of his life….