Showing posts with label Sentimental September. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sentimental September. Show all posts

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Life is a Dance

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One of my favourite collage of the girls
from
a blog published 9th of May, 2011
It shows their love for movement, and for dance

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul”
Martha Graham


A quick snap in from of the Music Center in Hilversum
Muziekcentrum van de Omroep

3 months ago to this day eldest daughter had her first ballet recital in the Netherlands.  It is one of the high moments shared by the family this Summer.  As this month nears it ends, I would like to share some of the images (and hopefully the small video clip! will edit it in after our weekend in Berlin) of their performance. 

It is an experience and a memory very dear to me because of how much the eldest love dancing.  What a joy to know how much ballet gives her freedom in movement and expression.

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.”
William W. Purkey

Below are some of the images I took in the dimly lit studio (I apologize for the quality!), where the dance school presented all the end of the year performances of all classes of various dance genres.






The eldest enrolled in this ballet class together with a classmate she met in her first year class in VWO-HAVO (the equivalent of high school here in Holland, a pre-university education as they are described).

Print screen image of a rehearsal for their end of the year presentation
taken from the phone
of her classmate and good friend L, who attends the ballet class with her

Print screen image of a rehearsal for their end of the year presentation
taken from the phone
of her classmate and good friend L, who attends the ballet class with her

I could not help feel very nostalgic, and dig some of the eldest ballet pictures in the external hard drive from archive dated 6 years ago, when she was 7 years old, and still attending ballet in Hamburg, Germany.




Here she is by the window of our old flat in north Germany.  She was always happy to prepare for ballet.

2007

And here she is 6 years later...

2013
After their class' performance

Our littlest 5, turning 6 y.o. in November is following the footsteps of her older sister.  I am contemplating on enrolling her and middle daughter to dance classes in the Fall.


I am worried though on taking on too much myself (again!), and loading the younger girls schedule.  It is always a balancing act between wanting and knowing the boundaries of my strength and capabilities to juggle everything.

Eldest is pretty independant now; she's been responsible about balancing her school and extra curricular activities.  After her regular class she goes to ballet school with her friend/classmate, after doing their home-work at the place of her classmate's Aunt; it is very practical and convenient for her.

We'll wait and see how we all feel after the Autumn school break.

If it would be too much to add to our daily schedule, I would still get both of them pretty clothes to wear at home to lend a bit of  fun & magic to their dance during leisure time.  I think, it is the least I could do, and a way to simplify our currently busy lives.

Mayoral Girls Pink Tulle Skirt
from Mayoral Clothing
seen @ Cheeky Monkeys


“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Swooosh! There Goes September...

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The sail of Mijn Liefste P's old boat hangs over our back garden

“How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?”
Dr. Seuss


Next week, we will say goodbye to September!  I should no longer be surprised but each month I can't help exclaim, "How can time fly by so fast!?!".

At The Lightness of  Being on the Bike, I am doing a 30 Bike Rides Challenge, and so far I've blogged 2 of my bike rides, and today rode my 6th and 7th Bike Ride Challenge*.

*(FYI for followers/readers of this challenge, I'll be blogging about the rest of the bike rides, once we are back from this coming weekend's Berlin trip)


The two pictures below from this bike ride challenge illustrate clearly my love and fascination for the four seasons.

Autumn 2013
- September 24

@The Lightness of Being on the Bike

These images are 20 days apart!

#30BikeRidesChallengeLate Summer 2013 - September 5
@The Lightness of Being on the Bike

 My 7th bike ride challenge gives a peek to an update blog I will be writing @ Happy Feet in the Netherlands. Watch out for that post! :)

My bike aka Frodo and I went
#ShoeShopping!

As for updates on how our house is doing, specifically the renovations.

Well, let me just say, that although we are "taking our time", "taking it easy" and a lot are still left unfinished, we are enjoying our home sweet home.

You have not missed any blogs about changes, or progress in how we are improving our house since I have not had time to share any!
Be assured that they will be a lot of them in the coming months.
Very first picture together with our tree

7 months later...


Spring & Summer Time

27.04.13 - a much awaited day! 
The gardener finally arrived to put some order to our front garden. :)
04.06.13
Our front garden, still bare and full of possibilities (currently full of weeds as well)! 
Hopefully, I can show all of you soon what mijn liefste P, the family and I have done for improvements

Below P with our tree this month....

Mijn liefste P before driving off for work


As for the girls...they have been busy during the Summer.  This year is the first time they spent the full Summer school break here in the Netherlands and not half of it in Germany.

Jiji in the last week of her school break - she had one week more than her younger sisters

And they jumped wholeheartedly to the daily routine, as soon as school started again. Well, perhaps not wholeheartedly but they were very enthusiastic! :D

Kiki with Littlest and her classmate at our nearby playground
Finally able to fulfill my promise of hosting a playdate for her!

 I was not able to give each of the girl the individual date I had planned to do during the Summer.
But as part of my #SimplifyLife project, I will not be hard on myself with deadlines regarding fun times I want to share with the girls.

Ice-cream date with the Tator

 We are simply proud of the girls, and truly enjoy seeing how they are growing up, each and every day.  It does not seem so long ago, that they were all still little babies.

Tator almost off to school
Speaking of baby! The family finally welcomed little D two weeks ago. :) Mijn liefste P is a grandfather!

image courtesy of P's younger sister W

P has of course seen the little one a couple of times now but the girls and I still have to meet him in person.  So far, we have only seen his awesome pictures.

Tator has been fighting one virus cold after another that we postponed our visit because we did not want Little D to catch it.

But before we leave for our Berlin weekend, I am hoping we can see him.  We still have not had a chance to give him a welcome gift!

I wonder if he will like this?! :)
Inch Blue Baby Boys Leather Shoes (Sailboat)
from Inch Blue Shoes
seen @ Cheeky Monkeys

It would be great if we can contribute in anyway in making his "first baby steps"  a fun experience.

After all big dreams are reached with baby steps!  And we have been reminded of this a lot this month of September.

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Wednesday, September 4, 2013

How Many Years to Travel to Neptune?

Neptune
source: Google Images
“Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation.”
Graham Greene, Ways Of Escape 
 originally written 20th of August,2013 on Facebook 12:26 am

This is for all those I knew/know from SC ♡ . . . (or for any sentimental, dreamer friend! ). {SC is the anonymous blogging site I discovered in September, 2006. It is where I regained my writing spirit after suffering from writer's block for a long period of time}

September is nearing, and I always start becoming very sentimental, remembering how I discovered blogging - soulful blogging, 7 years ago.

We seldom get the chance to talk now like we did then - not because we don't want to, and not because we are too busy; the medium (Facebook) simply does not have the SC magic. 
It has a different kind of magic we are also grateful for; it still keeps us connected until we all have a grand SC reunion in RL.

I am a dreamer & very sentimental ...and will always be. Even if we don't write each other (with regularity or intensity), or no longer share the same place we can share our thoughts in forms of blogs, you are all in my thoughts, in my heart when I write. 
A group of angels all gathered behind me (as you can count me being behind you!) sending me good thoughts. Thank you for letting me have you in my life.
Thank You
source: Google Images
When I experience something soulful - from watching the sunrise, when I wake up with P (or when we stay up until the sunrises!), to admiring the sunset with my family on the beach after a beautiful Summer day - I think of all of you, and send you thanks.
2011Taken during our morning bike ride to school

Winter 2010/2011
Taken during our morning bike ride to school
Summer 2013
At Wijk aan Zee during one of our Summer Evenings on the beach excursions.

Tonight, after dinner we were all collapsing with laughter during a simple card game by our dining table (it was cleared very quickly because magical small hands helped like happy elves ) - I did not have the camera with me, nor did I even have a fleeting thought to stop and take a picture of what we were doing so I can remember...this only occured to me now while writing these words...
Christmas Season 2011
It was okay. You know? You know. I may not make complete sense but it also okay.

There are many moments in my daily life now, when I catch myself completely soaked in the moment of what I am doing, and no longer feeling afraid, no apprehension, no more rushing thoughts, no over-worrying, no hyper-active plans. Most of all, I am able to let go easier...and easier...and easier. Sublime state.
August 2013
Relaxing after our picnic at 's Graveland Natuurmonument
Not to say, that I am now always in this state! P would be deliriously happy if I was! I would not be delirously happy. I would be quietly happy. hahaha <--- still the hyper me
August 2013
Front of our house.
After another attempt at a careful run...nope toe still giving me a hard time!

It's late but I had to write all these thoughts down. 
Today was like any other day but special. Special because I went through my day completely unburdened by the old me.

How long does one travel to Neptune? I googled that to see if it was 7 years. Since, it took me 7 years to feel at home in my own body. If this was a screenplay, and I am at the part of ending a film, it would be nice to say - VO Morgain Freeman - in conclusion, it will take 7 years to travel to Neptune, the same time she needed to travel home to herself.

But my life is not a film, and it's not yet the end!
Smile after stormy tears
August 2013
After accepting that I will not be able to run Berlin Marathon this year.
Selfie
03.09.13

Selfie
03.09.13

Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling. ~James E. Starrs

When I am not running, I am biking through the seasons.

@The Lightness of Being on the Bike