This is who I really am…

Hensel Family

It’s been 6 years now since I last updated my About page on this blog. It’s not like nothing happened in the past 6 years. I would love to share with you what has made me to who I am today. Here it goes: I’m a risk taker, a challenger and a hard working idealist. [...]

The Dangers of MineCraft and the one thing you should do to prevent problems

MineCraft Parenting

If you have boys in the ages of 8 to 14 years old, most likely you have heard of MineCraft. MineCraft is a computer game where you get dropped into a world where there are creepers  and monsters, and you can build your own world, at the same time trying to survive with these kreepers [...]

Don’t follow the American Dream, it’s a myth

The American Dream

What a journey! in 2007 we arrived in the United States for what we thought was a 3 month family vacation. Now, more than 5 years later, we have build a living for ourselves. Rutger (my husbands) web hosting company celebrates 10 years. Run from 3 different continents. Branding Personality celebrated 5 years in the [...]

Why the pressure to perform at school is not healthy for your child

Child under Pressure

The kids in todays world are pressured to perform, not pressured to learn. Achievements, achievements, achievements. It looks like it’s all about the end results. And it shouldn’t. Especially for kids. Suicides happen more often nowadays. Cheating is happening everywhere. It doesn’t matter what your kids think or what they care about, it’s all about [...]

Why my kids are not in school anymore

School is Out

This summer I took my kids out of school. Forever. It wasn’t an easy choice when I though of the convenience of having free daycare. But it was an easy and obvious choice when I thought about what is good for my kids. Ask many kids and they will tell you they don’t like to [...]

Tell me 10 things I didn’t know about you

Blogs are a great way to share things about who you are. It is awesome to find things that connect you with someone else. Here I’ll be sharing my top 10 of things you probably didn’t know about me. What is your top 10? Please share a link if you write your top 10 on [...]

Saturday night – time for a Pinterest craft: Melted Crayon Art

Pinterest Melted Crayon Art

It was the perfect night to finish a project I had started. One of those ideas that were pinned like crazy on Pinterest: melted crayon art. You probably saw the pictures. For less than $20 you can make two great artworks. 2 canvasses at Walmart for $6.99 and for $10 worth of Crayola crayons (Crayola [...]

My Website now wears Polkadots, and yours?

Website in Polkadots

I just had to do something about it. Something about this site. This site is already 7 years old. I started it in 2005 and after I found it, I have always been loyal to WordPress. I was pretty active blogging in 2005 and 2006. You could consider them experiments at that time, but they [...]

Achieving Writing Goals Together

National Novel Writing Month

November. It’s the month of mustaches, the month of Thanksgiving, and also the month of writing. One major national event this month is #Nanowrimo. National Novel Writing Month. If you are up for the challenge, many people across the world participate for 30 days in a writing challenge in which they try to write 50,000 [...]

I’m starting my Personal MBA program, you can too!

Anobii book reading stats of Marieke Hensel

What’s better than spending $100K or more on an MBA, getting a diploma that is not necessary for an entrepreneur, and learning about things that are not all that relevant to your career path? We just returned from a vacation to San Francisco, where we spent a day at the Stanford campus, and that brought [...]

5 things you need to know about The Netherlands that nobody will ever tell you

Be careful, this story is full of generalizations. If you are allergic to that, please move on and don’t bother reading, it will definitely itch. Since it’s vacation time, I’d like to share about my country and hope that it expands your horizon; geographically, but also culturally. To do that, I will start with the [...]

Mijn verhaal over Zelfmoord van Heleen nu in “Vriendin”

Deze week kun je het verhaal lezen van mij in de Vriendin, over Heleen, mijn zusje en hoe ze 3,5 jaar geleden alweer overleed. Ik vond het erg moeilijk om weer het hele verhaal te vertellen, en weer de emoties te voelen die er waren. Maar ik vond het wel fijn dat ik het heb [...]

Een kleine update – website makeover

Dit is de eerste plek waar mensen mijn informatie vinden wanneer ze via Google op ‘Marieke Hensel’ zoeken.

Dankbaar voor het leven in Californie

Dit weekend is het Thanksgiving, kalkoen eten & heel veel meer eten. Maar bovenal dankbaar zijn voor alles wat je hebt. Wij zijn vandaag heerlijk met z’n allen thuis gebleven en hebben een lang weekend, heeerlijk! We werken erg hard allebei en de kinderen gaan veel naar school, dus er is niets liever dan nu [...]

Vuurtje? Vlakbij de bosbranden in California

Wij zitten deze keer nog dichterop het vuur. Maar gelukkig zijn we wel veilig. Wel raar hoor, het is iets wat er hier bij het leven hoort. In de herfst, wanneer het heet is en er staat wind is de kans op bosbranden hoog. Zo ook de afgelopen week, het was 30-35 graden, heerlijk weer [...]

Life is fun when you meet people

Awesome video by Meetup. I also love Meetups. [youtube]mhpf-CcPy-s[/youtube] Meetup – Meet people

Terug van vakantie in Nieuw Mexico

We zijn terug van vakantie, en alweer druk aan het werk! We zouden eigenlijk naar Chicago vliegen en dan de Route 66 terug rijden naar Los Angeles (waar we vlakbij wonen). Maar 2 dagen voor vertrek hoorden we dat Joep een spoedoperatie aan zijn arm moest hebben, ivm een botontsteking. Op de dag dat we [...]

Top 14 quotes by 6 historical heroes

1. Walt Disney “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” “All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them” “All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth [...]

Meer kinderen?

Wanneer je meer kinderen wil, en je hebt er al drie, wordt het steeds lastiger om je wens te delen met anderen. Het komt vaak over als vloeken in de kerk. De grote vraag wordt dan ook regelmatig afgevuurd: ‘waarom?’ Of: ‘je hebt er toch al drie?’ En keer op keer trap ik er in, [...]

Kinderkampen Juf Jet

Ik heb besloten de kinderkampen van aanstaande zomer uit te stellen. Ik heb er nog steeds veel zin in, de opzet is er, maar het team is er nog niet. En ik hoop dat ik in de komende jaren de juiste mensen tegenkom om dit project van de grond te krijgen. Ik heb geen haast, [...]