Category: Everyday life…

2023

2023

Twenty twenty three brought us merry memories, giggely goofs, excruciating embarrassments, jolly jokes and many other awesome alliterations. If anything, I feel a bit as we’ve lived life according to Philippians 3:13; even now just before the end of the year, I’m thinking of an…

Fall-off Rescue

Fall-Off Rescue

Krister and his classmates Alfred Kvendset, Even Grøntoft, Isak Brattgjerd, Lukas Hegge, Ruben Chiorean and Erik Nødtvedt Gilje, have been participating in a project where they built a company from scratch. Their idea: developing a device that registers when a motorcycle (or something similar) comes…

2022

Oh, btw, here is a short description of some of our highlights of 2022: https://van.vliet.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/van-vliets-2022-english.pdf It was so good to have everyone in our family in one place. We even had everyone in one image. Not too shabby eh!? PS: If you noticed the image…

Footprints in the sand (norsk versjon)

En natt drømte jeg at jeg gikk langs stranden med Gud. Mange scener fra livet mitt vistes i himmelen ovenfor. Og for hver scene la jeg merke til fotspor i sanden. Noen ganger var det to sett med spor, andre ganger var det kun ett…

Prayerhands

Prayer and trust

Speaking with the one who created us, who also redeemed us, saved us, and guides us if we let him, that builds our relationship: me with Him and He with me. That speaking has many sides – we talked about worship, praise and thanksgiving on…

Unifi Access Point AC v2

The old UAP ACv2’s have reached End Of Life some time ago. However you can expect them to run just fine for a while longer. They will keep on functioning just fine alongside any newer equipment you might have, so if you’re running on a…

Kodi, Kore, NAS

This is not some strange mantra, but some “nerd”-setup where a NAS (Network Attached Storage) provides MP3 files to Kodi (an Open Source Home Theater manager) which runs on an old Jelly Bean Android (mobile phone); Kodi is then controlled through Kore (Kodi Remote app)…

How to fail effectively..

A friend of mine pointed me to this video: The way the singer takes the time to reassure the guitarist, resonated with me on a very deep level. I don’t think this clip was actually aired, as it would likely be outside the format, but…

Facilitating a small group

If you would like to periodically talk through what’s happened (looking back) and keep a eye on where you’re going (looking forward), the following structure might be beneficial.

Mele Kalikimaka

100% Hawaiian for Merry Christmas, since at least 1904. How so? Christmas, but every consonant must be followed by a vowel, so: Carisimasa, but C is not a letter, so: Karisimasa, but R is not a letter, so: Kalisimasa, but S is not a letter,…

Versio DNS gotcha

Versio is cheap. And, considering the price, solidly reliable. There are a few things to remember when it comes to their control panel, and how they setup DNS, combined with their web / reseller packages. From the overview in the control panel, choose a domain….

Quarantining the Van Vliet family.

Yes, six weeks ago the thought never ever crossed our mind, but yes: we are now in self-quarantine. We thought it would be great to document this so you can see for yourself that we mean business :-). We’ve archived this post under ‘Everyday life’;…

Feedback

Feedback?!

Feedback helps to identify and resolve differences between what is understood and what was aimed for. It is easy to mistake it for criticism (which is ambiguous in nature as that can be understood to express disapproval based on perceived mistakes, or to be a…

God Jul 2019

A merry, happy Christmas!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given … and He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

World-changer

Declaration of a world-changer

TODAY, I will live honorably through my thoughts, actions and speech. I choose to be full of faith. I will serve before I demand, love instead of hate, and give before I take. TODAY, I choose to dedicate my life to prayer, and not only…

Superman

Worship, parenting and church

When I want to worship, I need to sing. Others, I’ve noticed, may wave flags, dance, create paintings, etc. But I feel I need to sing and my body agrees and supports this: even when I don’t feel like singing but I do so anyway,…

Work

Your work is important. But “what” isn’t nearly as important as “how”.

When we get together to worship God, we are easily aware that we are not alone in that, and that easily results in a unified focus and a godly response to His greatness. Aka worship. We can also be aware of what other might think…

Smiley face

Your friend is better than your idea of your friend

Faces are like keys. If you know a face, you know the person who owns that face. Seeing or just thinking of that person unlocks many of the things you know about that person: some of the good, some of the not so good… but…

Prayerhands

To worship is to sing is to worship?

I don’t believe the saying “Show me your bookcase and I’ll know who you are” is actually true. Your book collection does show who you want to be. In some cases it’s also a display of your aspirations. Your music collection on the other hand?…

Sharing - categories

Sharing is caring

Sharing is caring as the saying goes. Nifty ways to get small talk going can be found on more and more tables every day, and this sure helps people to add some depth to their relationships.

Van-Vliet Facebook group

Facebook-gruppe ( <- Norwegian title, I finally realized)

We’ve come to realize that we don’t have enough time to experience all we do, then process and talk through things together, correcting and giving feedback, and then to also word it all in a nice blog post for the world – and you! –…

Merry Christmas 2017 van Vliet-family

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. If we bumped into you this past year, we hope to meet you again in the coming. If we didn’t, we sure hope we will soon!

Happy Christmas & A Merry New Year

Seriously. We hope your Christmas time is a happy time. May you be merry throughout the entire 2017!

Fail! Fail?

“Brother? Hey brother!” The woman calls me as I walk down Likana Lane. I hardly listen because I’m trying to find a parking spot for our car, and she’s clearly a person without a home – actually one without flipflops even.

Like a buddhist celebrating Christmas

That’s what – I think – I felt like a bit, these last days. This is the second time we celebrated Thanksgiving in the US of A, and the depth of the event is evading me. Thankfulness is a great thing – I had to…

TGIF

Today is Friday! But still school aww, but guess what tomorrow no school yay! I have a song about Friday here it goes: Its Friday Friday everyone upp on Friday everybody is looking for another napkin partyi’n party’in hey party’in party’in hey everybody’s looking for…

How to play AJ

How to play Animal Jam. Tips: best on ipad or tablet. 1. First go on app store and install Animal Jam 2. Go play it when its done. 3. First u are a guest jammer 4. Make an account. 5. Design yourself how u want….

Man-dag

HHeia, det e mandag hør man-dag haha. Så på fredag da flyttet jipp t Ålgård! Det betyr at de kanskje ligger ganske nærme oss, å  mamma sa at eg Kan besøke ham etter skole hvor tid eg vill! Eg savner ham kjempe mye. Men eg…

En tidlig morgen

Hi memo, ‘Sighs’ I really want to play with the kids but…….. I cant its still 06:55 and I woke up at 06:04 I think and started to play with my kitten and her name is gonna be mittens isn’t that cute for a kitten…

Superpower

Hei…… jeg gidde ikkje å sei Heia mer…… det e fordi eg lekte med jentene på daycare men når jeg fant boby min baby kylling da tok jeg ham og da kom alle på daycare det e syyyykt mange og eg var i et tre…

The swimming pool

Today me, my brother, mom, and my grandparents are gonna go to a HOTEL where it is a SWIMMING POOL and it is in GHANA! Im soo exited to go there. And the fiirst time we were there we just ate POPCORN! And we got…

The jam

Hi memo. Today the sun is shining bright. So it was a little disaster today, I had the jam and I didn’t hurry up so krister my brother tried to take the jam but I took it back and then I tried to give it…

My AJ friend

Hi memo today ill tell you little about my AJ friend.

Friday: AJ and MC

I have school today and I always need to write a blog on memo. And today its FRIDAY YAY. Tomorrow its no school at all YIPPY!!!! And after tomorrow its home chirch. And always when we are with our grandparents me and my brother Krister…

Best AJer eva

The Animal Jam story begins or adveture begins… Hi Diary memo today ill tell u about Animal Jam its gonna be very fun! Ok lets start up with me. The first time I played AJ then I saw peck! Oh and I designed myself and…

Herbert’s and Maria’s Instagram feed

Here our latest Instagram moments. Every day life can contain adventure if you let it / look for it / want it. Does going places help? I don’t know… you’re already someplace right?

Happy New Year!

Dear friends and family, we wish you a blessed,  healthy and great 2016 full of love and joy!

Sad vs angry

So here we were at the local supermarket. Maria and I had just paid for our stuff with our bank card and the guy at the counter laughed when I said out loud that the amount of 67,76 Euros was the same as our bank pin code. People…

Jeg drar på ferie og tar med ..

Som regel tar jeg med for mye, men ikke denne gangen. Det er masse plass i Bingel Am sin ‪#‎barnehagebag‬ som er kjempeflott som reisebag. Det er lett å ha den på ryggen, f.eks. Så nå har jeg til og med plass til overs, og…

The power of repetition: a walk around the mountain

Driving to a new place usually takes more time than driving back. So many new impressions and your mind has a lot to work with. Repeating the same route will initially bring confirmations “I’ve seen this before”, and eventually you’ll get bored bored bored. To…

A blessed Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas 2013 in Palau, and it’s quite the contrast with this year’s celebration. Very different, on a number of levels. Since we got back to Norway, a few things have happened. In no particular order: Marthe finished 10th grade with an A+ in…

Cockroaches the size of mice..

Disclaimer: This story is not for the faint hearted! Or at least.. well, you know, it’s fun anyway, so go ahead, but put your smily-glasses on! :-D

It’s a new day, a new year.

January first, 2014. A new year and we were among the first to experience it. Palau’s timezone is way ahead of Europe, and of Hawaii. Palauan local time 7 am meant it was still 2013 back home. Strange. Today, we were supposed to leave for…

Lederskapsstil, gruppedynamikk

Oppstarten her i Palau her ikke vist seg være veldig enkel. Såklart: endring er aldri lett, og krever tid. Jo mer brått og stor en endring er, jo vanskeligere. For meg fra vest Europa 2013 betyr faktisk ikke omstendighetene like mye som jeg ville forutsett,…

Belief Tree

The Belief Tree is a simple model that identifies the unseen assumptions we operate with in our lives. Let’s see if I can get down the basics of it in 5 minutes WITH you remembering something useful about it (let me know if that worked,…

Parent-teacher meetings

Today we had the parent-teacher meetings at the Foundation School, the kids’ school. We had all 4 in a row, so ‘ran’ from 1 to another. Here are the teacher’s comments: Bente: Strong-willed (oh, really?), but sooooo funny. Very social, playing with all kids, above…

California

Hello world! As some people maybe know, we are in California right now, and if you didn’t, then you know now! We came tuesday, and we are staying here about two weeks. I was very fancied by the size of things here, as it’s the…

Caninus Nervous Rex – aka Overconfidentii Vulgaris

Spoiler alert! Coyotes win, rabbits loose.

Jet lag

‘All the physical inconveniences with your body responding to the later timezone can be circumvented,’ they said, ‘by taking a later plane’. If it only were that easy :-).

Jesus and the stolen cup

Yesterday Krister suddenly asked me: “Mom, when is Jesus coming back?” “Ehm… I don’t know darling. Why? Do you want Him to?” Krister: “Yes, we should give Him a call”. I then told him that he could talk to Jesus if he wants to, it’s…

Queen Beatrix visiting Norway

The 2nd of June, during her 3 day visit to Norway, queen Beatrix of the Netherlands held a reception in Oslo for Dutch people living in Norway. Herbert and I were amongst the 300 Dutch people that were invited. Since my parents were visiting and…

Freeport Bahamas

We have arrived safely in Freeport, Bahamas. We just haven’t had an internet connection until now, so that’s the reason for not having updated my blog. About Freeport…. well… it’s a harbour faaaaaaaar away from city, beach, shops or anything else. It’s just harbour with…

Logos II – our story

How did we get the idea of packing up all our stuff and do volunteer work on board a ship for 4 months with 4 kids age 0-10?? Most people think we’re crazy, we think we’re just blessed getting this oppurtunity! :-) Herbert is a…