“Everything that could go wrong went wrong. I burst into tears’

Ciao a Tutti! It is thirty degrees outside, I see my oldest and middle one driving around the yard together on their electric tractor, the donkey is waiting at the gate until he is fed a carrot from the children.

I see Pipi the horse and her two-day-old foal lying in the sun and realize: this is my life now.

The love of my life traveled to the Netherlands yesterday to work from 9 am to 11 pm for five days, he is a hairstylist and the plan is that he will cut all his clients in the Netherlands every seven weeks.

While I’m thinking about what I’ll write weekly in my columns for Kek Mama, I’m disturbed by my youngest’s crying. Feed him first and put him to bed, doing five professions on my own for five days will be a challenge. Tonight was already a night without sleep. I was on night shift, paddling from one thirsty child to another crying for Daddy, then back to the youngest who wanted to breastfeed and had a poo diaper.

This is me

But who am I? Let me start with that.

I’m (Jaco)Bien Schumacher, here they call me Giacobiena sounds a lot more erotic. I am a mother of three children, Fleuri (6) Brunello (2.5) and Barolo Dolce (5 months) I am engaged to Arjen, the love of my life a world guy.

Three years ago, the Dutch newspaper Het Parool published my first documentary about a Moroccan immigrant, a portrait of a very sweet man and his launderette. The documentary about Rik Felderhof followed a year ago, most know him from Villa Felderhof. After his TV career he started writing, I visited him on Bonaire and made a portrait of him.

I have been working on my third documentary for a year now.

I have been vlogging for a while and as a travel influencer I was allowed to work with a number of 5 * hotels and Michelin restaurants.

A year and a half ago, as a family of four (with my dog ​​mietze) we traveled through Italy for three months, the Corona struck and our work came to a standstill. We had savings and decided to travel through Tuscany and finally ended up at the Amalfi Coast.

During that trip I photographed the places we visited, some of which are in the Italian restaurant Ferili’s in Amsterdam-South and with many of Arjen’s customers in Amsterdam-South.

Busy, always

We left the Watteaustraat and got the chance to move in a door further after our Italian trip, we thought it would be nice for the children. Back again in the same street, the same school and about the same house.

After a year we were already tired of the hard mentality, the “me” culture, the weather, the expensive groceries, the crowds, the terrible schools in A’dam South, all the rules in the Netherlands it drained us. It no longer fed us, it was time to change course. No sooner said than done. We moved to Italy.

I’ve been in Italy for almost eight weeks now, in Puglia to be exact. We are currently actively looking for houses, every week we visit a few houses, because we also want to rent out, or whether it will be a B&B, suites, an apartment or a kind of campsite that still has to take shape.

When I think back to how we left compared to where I am now, it makes a world of difference.

On the day of the key transfer, everything that could go wrong went wrong. The movers were two hours late, the warehouse we reserved weeks in advance turned out to be less m2 than they had said and had to be converted while the moving van was already on the sidewalk ready to unload. The moment I put the key through the letterbox, Arjen yelled: “Honey, the car won’t start!”

The battery turned out to be empty, while I had just put the children in their belts, the rabbits on the suitcases in a cage were ready to take to the babysitter, everything was neatly packed and we were parked in front of our door but couldn’t leave at all.

After so much effort, so hard work to pack everything together, including taking care of our three children (because we don’t have parents to turn to or a nanny to help us out), the world fell. just under my feet. I was dead tired, I couldn’t take it anymore and burst into tears. A kind of release and despair at the same time.

I got the children out of the car again and went to an Italian restaurant on the corner of our street to eat pasta with the children while Arjen was waiting for the ANWB. That same afternoon our new Range Rover was delivered, which we had bought from a “reputable” car dealer.

This looked like a really bad movie scene, bad because there was too much bad luck in a scene that was too short. Fortunately, there was a follower through my Instagram who offered to babysit the rabbits.

Eline had a large farm where the rabbits had a huge yard to whirl around freely. I placed my dog ​​Mietze with our girl next door, she felt alone and she was just very happy that she could have such a faithful four-legged friend with her for a few weeks. An hour later we left for Limburg to St. Gerlach who welcomed us with open arms for the umpteenth time in a fantastic suite.

We were put to the test for a while, but just then you have to persevere and not lose sight of your goal.

We had taken the step and the ride from Amsterdam to Limburg was little talked about. Arjen and I only held hands with the occasional laugh and sigh.

We arrived in the middle of the night putting our children to bed and admiring our sleeping children from the doorway of our suite, we both cried and kissed each other with happiness.

Bacio Bien.

@bienschumacher