Let us Give Thanks and Be Glad

God is good. I don't speak much on the blog about my faith because I don't want to seem like I am forcing my beliefs on anybody. I accept all different views, but lately my heart has been so full of gratitude towards the Lord and all the goodness that my life has been blessed with. With Thanksgiving on Monday, what better time than now to acknowledge a small sample of those joys?

Image via Stephanie Sterjovski / Print via SS Print Shop

 1. Firstly, I am thankful for my family. My crazy, loving, incredible family. I miss living in the same city as you. Thank you for all of your support. I am so blessed to have parents like you and two big brothers who always looked out for me. I love you.

2. Secondly, I am thankful to have a roof over my head. That I moved to a new city and was able to find a job related to my field of study that allows me to pay for this roof over my head. That I can fill my space with things that make me smile - little luxuries I know not everyone has and that I do not take for granted.

3. I am thankful for the lessons that God has instilled in me that have led me to where I am today - to a place where I feel like I am a good woman following the path that was intended for me. Thank you God for teaching me kindness (even when faced with negativity), for teaching me to follow my heart (even when it hurts), for teaching me to work hard at my craft (even when I want to give up).

4. I am thankful for friends, new and old. Thank you to my old friends, who I've known for years. Even though we don't see eachother as much now that I'm living in Toronto, I know that I can always count on you. Thank you to my new friends, who made moving to a new city less lonely and showed me I can make a life for myself here surrounded by people who I love. And thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to all of my blogging friends. Without this amazing community I would be lost.

My heart could burst with all of the joy I feel for these incredible things - and there are so many more not listed here.

via my personal bible Psalms 106:1

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving? Have a great long weekend! xo

Losing our best friend

What a sad news I have to tell you today.

We lost our beloved and sweetest friend Ralph.

Last Friday we had to let him go… our sweetie, our baby, the centre of our family, our heart, our Ralph.

Ralph suffered from mitral valve disease, which led to heart failure. This appears in most Cavaliers King Charles Spaniel at some point in their lives and is the most common cause of death.

Our sweetie was only 6 years old. I can not express how much pain we feel, it is unbearable at this moment.

Our sweetest Ralph

We loved you so much sweetie, you were the centre of our family, our closest friend. You meant everything to us…you were our family therapist. We can’t believe we won’t see you, won’t hear, won’t feel you anymore.

You will be in our hearts forever. We are so grateful we have had you in our life and we are blessed we have been given the chance to take care of you the past years.

Thank you for all the love and joy you have given us, dearest friend, we will never forget you.

" Grief is the price we pay for love "

Greet

Oh wonderful Summer…

 

Reading all your nice and sweet words on my previous post about the 4th anniversary of Belgian Pearls, really touched me! Thank you so much everyone of you !

Yesterday was the warmest Belgian summer day untill now! Jan and me spent a wonderful day together with our grandchildren Alexa (5) and Tristan (4).

August 2 – 2013

I do hope you all enjoy this wonderful time of the year and might have the opportunity to spend some quality time with your family and friends.

 

Summerly images for you…

 

Axel Vervoordt   Source Spanish Magazine Habitania n°122

 

Victoria Hagan   Source Book Victoria Hagan : Interior Portraits

 

Via Home Bunch

 

Source Belgian Magazine Juliette & Victor n°31 2012 - Photo credit Lois-Philippe Breydel

 

Talk to you soon !

xx

Greet

Happy Birthday Anthony !

 

Today it is my son’s 17th birthday!

Happy Birthday Anthony !!!

xxx

Mom

Sweet sixteen

 

I remember the day you were born as if it was only yesterday!

The day I gave birth to a boy! You ! My son!!!

I was so proud to hold you in my arms.

 

Anthony was born on February 7th 1996.

 

Anthony 1 day old.

 

Me and Anthony at the hospital.

 

You brought so much joy and energy into my life!

France, Cannes summer 2008

 

I have always wanted to take care of you, to protect you! And to hold and comfort you when you felt sad.

I took you along the journey of life, with memories of good and bad moments, as life is.

And I tried to explain you as good as I could why things happened.

 

Summer 2011

Now I realize that you are grown up and that you need to go your own way. And I understand…I do!…But please don’t forget to share with me lots of beautiful or even the more uncomfortable moments in your life. I’ll be there to have fun with you, to listen to you, to support you, whenever you need me.

 

A few months ago.

 

I am so proud of the wonderful and good hearted person you became now.

 

  Anthony and his godchild Alexa.

I love to see you laughing and enjoying time spending with your dearest godchild Alexa.

 

Anthony and his school friends.

I am so pleased to hear you enjoy making fun with your school friends.

  Surrounded by ….girls, girls, girls.

 

  Anthony and me a few weeks ago.

 

I do hope we will still share tons of beautiful moments together in future!

 

Happy Birthday Anthony!

xxx

Your mom.

Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve…

First of all I want to thank everyone for all the lovely Christmas Wishes I received! So nice reading all of these nice words and wishes!

I do hope that you all enjoy a wonderful Holiday time!

Tomorrow Jan’s daughter Nele and her family will arrive to spend some time with us. So we are preparing their stay.

We will celebrate New Year’s Eve together! So we are looking forward to their arrival.

I might think we will spend a lot of time gathering around the fire place and watching Alexa and Tristan open their presents which are still under the Christmas tree. And we will certainly go for a walk in our neighbourhood, do some horse riding,…etc.

And yes of course we will prepare a wonderful New Year’s Eve dinner!

A precious time together with family!

This is a collage of pictures of passed New Year’s Eve.

Jan and me give everyone of you our best wishes for a Happy, Healthy and Succesful 2012!!!!!

xx

Blog anniversary & our summer holidays so far

Although I was planning to slow down blogging a little these days, I wanted to announce my 2nd blog anniversary today! I can’t believe I am blogging since 2009, July the 31st !!

And I want to thank all of my readers, followers and blog colleagues, for supporting me to go on with my blog and for all the nice comments on my posts!

Without all of you there would be no BELGIAN PEARLS blog at all !

So thank you so much!!  I hope to bring you more of inspiring blogposts in future!

___

As you know already we enjoy our summer holidays these days and I promised myself to spend not that much time on my computer because I really need to relax and to have some quality time with my family. We are not traveling, we hope to enjoy spending some time in our garden and inviting friends and family.

But today I wanted to post some pictures of the things that kept us busy during this first week of our holidays.

Jan’s daughter Nele, her husband Tom and the children Alexa and Tristan joined us for a couple of days. We were looking forward to their visit!

 

The family (and the half of their household!) arriving at our home.

 

A drink on our time together.

 

Alexa was proud to offer Jan the drawing she had made for pappie and mammie (= Jan & me).

 

Alexa & me.

 

Preparing the meal.

 

The weather wasn’t that nice the passed days, but fortunately it wasn’t raining so Tristan and Alexa were able to cycle !

 

 

In the afternoon we went to my mum’s house, where there is a swing in the garden.

Jan and Anthony installing the swing for the children.

 

So Jan had to push his grandchild of course.

 

Anthony tried to teach his godchild Alexa how to use the scooter.

 

Aren't they just cute ?!

 

The other day we went for a walk in our neighbourhood and had lunch in an idyllic situated restaurant 'De Zwalmmolen’.

 

 

In the afternoon we all went to the manege ‘De Paardebloem’ where Nele and me wanted to practice horse riding.

Tom and Tristan walking along the horse stables.

 

This is me on the back of Mango.

 

Alexa is watching her mum.

 

Nele and Mango.

 

Jan is encouraging his daughter.

 

 

A future horse rider?

 

Alexa and me, Ralph and a friend !

 

I hope you enjoyed this holiday post.

 

Talk to you soon!

xx

Spring

 

Yesterday I redecorated some of the kitchen cabinet shelves. 

 

It feels so good to bring in spring blossom branches.

 

 

I grouped some of my chinese celadon plates together with my Syrian vases.

Last week the painters painted the inside of my kitchen cabinet niches in a more ‘verdigris’ color . I love the new color in combination with the oak shelves and celadon pottery. Don’t you?

 

And I brought in a new slipcovered chair.

Libeco linen of course!

 

A few days ago we went to visit Jan’s daughter and son-in-law and their children Alexa & Tristan. Because they live rather far from our place, we don’t see them that often. So it is always so nice to visit them to see the grandchildren growing!!! And Alexa, who is almost 3 years now, has made us some beautiful drawings!

I scanned and resized them to fit in these photoframes.

Lovely isn’t it?

 

Our sweetest Alexa & Tristan.

 

Brother and sister are hugging!

 

My husband and his dearest granddaughter! 

 

Do you also feel these spring tickles?

To end this spring post, a beautiful saying :

“Spring is nature’s way of saying : let’s party!”

(Robin Williams)

Hope you will all enjoy this new week!

xx

All pictures by me.