Latest news.

The latest news is that my dad's cancer is spreading through his bones. That's why he was in a lot of pain! We already knew he had cancer (of the prostate) for 3 years but the doctor told us that he could easily live another 10 years or so. They don't give him chemo but hormones to stop the proces of spreading the cancer further through his body and he feels less pain already. Soon he will be going to another nursing and rehabilitation centre nearby, where they will focus on healing the decubitis and on exercices to give him back his strenght so that he can come back home. The doctor in hospital is very optimistic about that and so we are too! My dad is eager to go home so that will help him through the proces of getting him back on his feet and it gives him a goal. These last couple of months he was just laying in bed with a lot of pain and there was nothing positive in his situation. If the hormones do their work properly and stop spreading the cancer any further he can live a couple of more years. But we already know that it will come back sooner or later and so we have to accept that he's going to die within 2 or 3 years. But first we are going to celebrate his 82nd birthday next Saturday!

So for now life is going on and today Cor and I went to see the Liberty Tour. It's 65 years ago that Vries was liberated from the Germans during World War II and because all of the province of Drenthe was liberated it was celebrated with a Liberty Tour. About 150 old army vehicles were parading through our Province and today they were coming through Vries.

After the Liberty Tour we went to De Wijk because we promised Cor's mother we would take her to see the flowers at the estate near De Wijk. Cor and I also went there last weekend and I took some beautiful photos of the Hollowroot (a plant that is growing at the estate in a large quantity) and an owl.

We also went to see the goats Cor takes care of for his former employer because it is very close to his place. Most of the goats are pregnant and Cor has to give them extra food and check in every other day to see if there are little ones. We also went to see them yesterday but there were no kids to see yet. But today when we were on our way to Cor's mother we passed over the highway by the pasture where the 19 goats are staying and Cor thought he saw a little one. So we had to go and see if he was right. He was, because one of the goats gave birth to 2 little ones. They were probably born this morning and they were so cute!!! One of the other pregnant goats (not the one on the first photo) has very large nipples (they are almost reaching the ground!) and her little kids are doomed to die if they aren't been found soon after they are born because they won't be able to drink from the nipples hanging that low. If Cor finds them in time and none of the other goat mothers want to feed them, they are probably coming to stay at my place so that I can feed them with a bottle by hand. I think that will be fun to have 2 or 3 little kids to take care of and have them jumping around in my back yard. This particular mother goat really is HUGE (much bigger than the one on the first photo) and she probably has 3 kids carrying with her. I really hope Cor will find the little ones in time!

Edited: The 3 little kids are born in good health. The owner of the goats has taken the mother and her little ones to his farm where they will be fed with a bottle with the milk of the mother.

Pfff .... I know

.... I'm a terrible blogger lately! It's just that I have so much on my mind that I can't keep up with everything.

Things are still not going so well with my son and after having so many people around the house for years now to help me with him, I really get tired of not having more privacy.

And then there are my parents (81 and 82) who need my attention. My dad's in hospital for a week now and before that he was staying in 2 different nursing homes for about 6 weeks. In the first one they didn't take good care of him and now he has a huge decubitus spot on his tailpiece. This is going to take months to heal and in the mean time he can't be operated on his hip which needs to be done ASAP because he's in a lot of pain. I'm going to see my dad as much as possible and I also try to help my mother.

My relationship with Cor is still blooming and it makes me feel blessed!! Even Zander is accepting/tolerating my relationship with Cor. We can finally sit down and have a meal together!!

When I'm not busy taking care of other people I try to work on my mixed media art projects.

I'm still following Suzi Blu's workshop Angels and I also started with the workshopThe Goddess and the Poet. It's really cool!!

photo 1: mixed media art portraits in my art journal

photo 2: detail of left face

photo 3: drawing with graphite pencil on paper and wood

photo 4: final result of mixed media art portrait on wood

photo 5: another mixed media art portrait on wood

Snow!!

It has been snowing all day over here! In the afternoon we measured 16 cm of snow. I bought some Canadian snowboots at the Aldi and did some groceries for my parents. I took the sled to transport the groceries. It took me quit some time! Back home I decided I wanted to make some photos of the winter wonderland and went out again for a walk near my house.

Finished my angel!

So this is the final result of my first angel in my new Moleskine art journal! I added a couple of more layers with paint, lettering, stamping, ribbon and stars.

For the last couple of days I'm working on 2 angel paintings on wood. One traditional angel and one primitive angel as Suzi likes to call them. The primitive one is like the "les petits dolls" class I did last year. I finished the woodburning and have to start painting. The traditional angel is halfway.
I won't have a lot of time painting in the next week or so because I'm making some changes to my house. I'm going to swop my bedroom upstairs with my scrapbookroom downstairs. It'll be a lot of work!! I'm so glad that Cor is coming to help me!! My son is going away for some time because he doesn't like to be at home when I have to make alterations to the house.

Angel

I started with a new workshop from Suzi Blu a couple of days ago. It is all about Angels!! I love it!!! On Friday I went with Cor to Assen to buy some birch plywood, because I have to work on wood most of the time. But for starters I made some sketches in my large sketchbook and I'm working on a 2 page angel in my new Moleskine sketchbook. Suzi recommends them for using as an art journal and they really are great to work in.

So this is how my angel looked this morning before I started to work on it again. I hope to finish her tomorrow!

Note: If you want to buy a Moleskine sketchbook and you live in The Netherlands you can order them here.

Besides making scrapbooking projects I also like to make other creative projects. Yesterday I went to a glass workshop and made this lovely hanger. It was a great workshop and I would love to make another hanger with an angel figure.

As you can see I have also finished the mini album about Sweden. Well I haven't finished it completely because I still have to write down our adventures on the right pages but I want to keep the journaling private.

I've had a stressfull week with my son. He refused to go to school, claiming that he felt sick. He didn't have a temperature though. After a couple of days (not going to school) he told me that school was very stressfull for him and that he had way too much home work to do. Because he didn't go to school and also didn't want to make his home work, I had to take away his computer and X-box (that's a rule we have here). Normally he gets very angry when I take away his favorite toys but this time he didn't care at all. So now I'm getting more worried about what is going on. It looks like a depression to me! I've already talked about my concerns with Hendri and we're going to decide about what to do next this Tuesday. I don't want to give him medication (he would refuse to take them anyway!) but we have to find something else that'll help him to overcome this depressive mood that he's in. Any suggestions??

Working slowly but steadily ....

on my mini album about Sweden!! Just want to show you the pages I made thusfar!

It's going slowly because I get distracted a lot by the daily problems I'm having with my son (like getting him to school) and ofcourse my relationship. It takes a lot of time to be in a new relationship! But I love every minute of it and it feels so great to be with him. I sometimes just can't believe that I finally have a relationship with a man who accepts me for who I am and who even wants to deal with my autistic son, whom for now, doesn't want to have anything to do with him. But there are some signs that my son is caving in and that he will accept Cor before X-mas dinner at my parents! So, fingers crossed!!!