About Me

This blog came about from my experiences. I will just start at the beginning...

Where I came from...

I was born in The Netherlands, where I spend the first 26 years of my life. I was raised in a wonderful close family, even though my dad was away lots for his job on a ship. And I have many fond memories of visiting my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents.

Growing up...

After high school I went into nursing, and graduated with our tiny class of about 10 students. I then worked in different institutions and lived in bigger and smaller cities throughout my early twenties. During this time I met lots of wonderful friends.

Farmers wife..

Then, while I was visiting in Canada, I met my husband. Moving to Canada required that I adjusted to a very different lifestyle then I was used to, born and raised in cities, I had hardly ever set a foot on a farm, and now I had become a farmer’s wife!

I had to relearn many things, like getting used to the standard measurements (in Holland we use metric for everything and Celsius), so making recipes from cookbooks was not that easy in the beginning. Also the language had its challenges as my English was not as fluent as it is now.

While we were making a life on the farm, I learned how to grow a garden and preserve the produce from it. When

necessary I tried to help with the cows and other small farm jobs. 

We have 3 wonderful boys and one lovely girl, who are now all grown up and starting to find their own way in life. Including starting their own families. I am proud to be called "Oma".

My interests

All through my live I have had a keen interest in anything creative and have spent many hours knitting, crocheting, sewing, writing, taking pictures, drawing and painting to name just a few. 

While the kids were growing up, I used those skills to sew clothes and fix them as necessary, not leaving much time to express myself in more creative ways.

Being a nurse...

In 2000, I went back into nursing, with the kids in school, I had time to study and eventually I was able to find work in the local hospital. I started on the Medical ward, and then worked a short term on Pediatrics, and eventually I worked a few years in Emergency and Intensive Care.

Then shift work was starting to become too heavy a burden on my family and me. Home care presented an opportunity first as a field nurse, then later as a Case Coordinator. I worked for a while in a personal care home as a Clinical Resource Nurse. 

When this ended I went back into home care as a case coordinator. Wow, looks like I did a lot of different jobs! It has been a privilege to be able to test my abilities and expand my skills. In 2018 I decided it was time to retire, and spend some more time on my creative hobbies.

Back to blogging...

I started dabbing in blogging in 2012 for the first time, then because life was simply too busy finding the time and energy for blogging just wasn’t happening. In 2016 I started making some attempts again, and thus I created a brand new blog. This blog is being upgraded and updated in 2021, so some post will not make it back on the blog and others will have a "face lift". I hope you will stick with me while I go through this process.

Thank you so much for being part of this lifestyle blog!  There are plenty of ways that you can become more involved.  
Follow me on Social media and sign up to receive updates from the blog so you will never miss a new post!