It’s Sunday night at 10:04pm, it’s dark outside and the streets are quiet. We just returned home from having dinner in Long Beach. At the corner of our house, there is a guy sitting on the sidewalk, his legs are on the street. Next to him a walker, it looks like he had just fallen. I […]
“Are you active or just a MOM?”, emailed one of my clients. This question made me furious. Knowing very well what a “yes” answer would mean: less business. On one hand I am happy that they asked me that question. I know now what he thinks, and maybe what more people think about me. Obviously I […]
“Mom, can you move the diaper bag?” asks my 11yo. The diaper bag is where it’s always at. Behind the couch, close to the kitchen. So we can easily restock it in case we need to leave the house with our baby daughter. I answer that I just can’t yet, and add “…but you can […]
“We’re the most unlucky people in the world,” says my 10yo. “Not only did we loose a child once, we lost children TWICE!” I cry. But we are not unlucky, and we are no victims. Although what have these potential adoptions turned out unfortunate for us. Last year we were in the process of adopting […]
Because of privacy reasons, this blog post is written in a non-english language. “Je gaat bij je tante wonen,” bereid ik mijn dochter Elise voor. Ze is nu zes maanden, en kruipt inmiddels achteruit, maar nog niet vooruit. Elise begrijpt er zelf nog niets van, maar bij mij komt het hard aan. De tranen schieten […]
Daar zit ik dan in mijn hotel kamer in Chicago. Twee slapende jongens naast me. De een ligt op een rollaway bed, de andere op een chaise-longue. Zelf heb ik het Kingsize bed bemachtigt nadat ik Krijn eruit heb gejaagd. “Dat bed is voor mama.” De ambulances gieren hier door de straten. Net zoals ik […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Dit is de eerste plek waar mensen mijn informatie vinden wanneer ze via Google op ‘Marieke Hensel’ zoeken.
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 […]