Helpful apps and websites

 Here is a list of some helpful websites and apps

For Mac and Android:

• lucidchart - Helpful for drawing diagrams, flowcharts, family trees
• draw.io now diagrams.net - Helpful for drawing diagrams, flowcharts, family trees
• google drawings - access this through Google Docs and go to “insert > drawing"

Mac

• skitch - helpful for marking up screenshots

I’ll add items as I find them.

Yes, Virginia, There is a Savior!

Yes, Virginia, There is a Savior!

Perhaps you've heard the story about the little girl who asked if there was a Santa Claus. The answer was published in the newspaper with the famous line, "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus!" (links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes,_Virginia,_there_is_a_Santa_Claus and http://www.newseum.org/yesvirginia/)

Just like that little girl who had a big concern at Christmas, we have concerns, too!

What are our concerns at Christmas time? Maybe choosing the right gift? Or getting invited to parties (the right parties)? Busyness? Being ready for Christmas?

I know I've had some of these concerns. I know I haven't felt ready. I haven't felt like it's Christmas yet.

In all the hustle and bustle, when will it feel like Christmas? Among all of this crazy preparation, when will Jesus show up? When will I have the "epiphany"?

Talking to someone other day, I asked if they were ready for Christmas. They said they weren't ready for Christmas. What surprised me was that this was a ten-year-old! Even children feel they are not ready for Christmas, let alone us adults!

So, I thought I should write a new headline in the newspaper, for everyone young and old alike, titled:

Yes, Virginia, There is a Savior!

Christmas is not so much about buying gifts, it's about the greatest gift! God loved us all so much that he gave his only Son! That son later died for us to give us eternal life! That's what the true Christmas is all about! (John 3:16)

So, let's be ready! He will show up! He will break through! Listen! He is knocking at the door of your heart now! Let Him in!

(add a comment below and tell us what your concerns are at Christmas and how Jesus broke through for you!)

Take a vacation

Well, I'm on vacation a few days and enjoying it!

Did you know how important it is to take a vacation?

Did you know you can also take a vacation during the day? You can! At lunch, in the evening, or in the morning you can just take a short 5 or 10 minute vacation. If you think about your special vacation place, it will all come back and relax you!

I found some interesting links on vacations. Especially with the economy being the way it is, apparently many people are skipping their vacation when they need it the most!
(note: I can't say that I agree with all principles in these links, but you may find some part of them helpful)

• CNN: Layoff worries keep many from taking vacations, experts say
• About.com: Don't Forget to Take Time Off From Work
• Business Net: Vacation: the Rx for mental & physical health: by taking advantage of your vacation time you eliminate burnout, which in turn makes you a more productive individual
• The Happiness Project: Take a Vacation.

Things to Keep when Your Children are Young

The other night I started pulling out some old notes and cards from when the children where young.

The cards were very encouraging to see what the children (and my wife and parents) had written to me on various birthdays and father's days.

I also found notes where I wrote down some of the things my children said when they were young. One of them I found was that one of the children told their sibling "Santa can't make every kind of toy because some might have patents." Another one wrote "Think about the Guinea Pig, and not just how pretty they look in the store."

I hope to sort these for our children and read them to my grandchildren some day. They'll be worth a laugh!

Are you wound too tight?

Are you wound too tight?
I know I am at times!

It's apparently been proven that "children laugh an average of 300 times per day, while adults only laugh between 15 and 100 times per day."

Sometimes, when someone is very tense and can't "loosen up" and enjoy life, we might say that they are "wound too tight." (We also sometimes say about people "I wonder what makes them tick?" - funny how we talk "clock talk")

Watches and Clocks can be wound very tight, but they need to run in periodic time intervals (for sake of argument, let's say in one second intervals) no matter how tight or loose the spring. There is a very important piece to the watch or clock that regulates the speed to maintain the intervals of time no matter how much pressure comes from the tension of the mainspring. This is called an "escapement." My brother lives near the National Watch and Clock museum. We toured it once and saw how many various escapements have been invented.

We should all take a lesson from clocks, no matter how tightly they are wound, they still get the same amount of work done and the same amount of rest. No matter how much stress they get from the mainspring, they still perform the same. So, let's loosen up and enjoy life a little.

Here are a few ways to "loosen up" and enjoy life:
* Thank God for your blessings - count them!
* Play - do you engage in play? Play is very important to stimulate laughter and to open up creativity
* Spend some time with children, their outlook on life usually has lots of great positive aspects to it. We can learn a lot from their wonder.
* Learn some jokes
* Learn to laugh, especially at yourself - there's someone in my family who's always been good at this, I need to take lessons
* What's your favorite board game? Card game? Get it out and play it again?

Garden Back Rub

I'm posting this for all the parents (and maybe grandparents) out there.

I was reminded the other day of the "Garden Back rub" we found in a magazine years ago and gave to our children many times at bedtime.

The idea is to give your children a back rub with various different types of motions based on a bit of a story of how a garden is planted. It also teaches them how a garden grows.

We told our story and gave a Garden Back Rub with each of the following parts:

1. First, ask what the person wants you to plant - this is a good way to find out what they like. Flowers? What type? Vegetables? Fruits?
   
2. Turn over the soil - this was a sort of rotating motion
3. Use the rake and/or hoe to smooth it down - use the fingers spread (like a back scratch) for a rake or the edge of the hand like a hoe.
   
4. Make rows - draw straight lines down the back with a finger
   
5. plant the seeds - use your pointer finger to poke, poke, poke those seeds
   
6. Cover over the seeds - pat it down with the palm
   
7. Water it and let the rains come - gentle taps of the fingers all random, almost like randomly typing keys on a keyboard
   
8. Wait for God to make it grow - sometimes you can let this linger until the person getting the back rub tells you it's been long enough.
   
9. Pull the weeds - gentle grabbing motion
   
10. Pick the garden - gentle pinching motion - you could also ask here what we planted: are they flowers? Vegetables? A little variety?
11. Eat the vegetables and fruits - take an imaginary fruit or vegetable and put it in their mouth. Ask/tell them what you're giving them. This is the part when I had some fun: after they got used to me giving them the fruit, I'd not say anything and "give them something to eat" then I'd say "that was dirt" or "that was a rock" or "I forgot to peel that one" - It added a bit of laughter and joking.
    

The Garden Back Rub is also a good lead-in to a story about some of the parables Jesus told of the seeds and the sower from Matthew 13 or Mark 4.

Enjoy!

How to Plan and Lead a Family Reunion

[note: I may update this with more information every now and then, but for now, here's a good first bunch of information]

Our family, the Will family, has had family reunions since I can remember. I remember as a child going to Grandma and Grandpops house for the reunion. We had root beer in a keg with ice all around it, my Aunt Martha running games, dancing to records (I remember Chubby Checkers "Twist" record playing so many times in the heat that it warped right on the record player), and watermelon.

So, you'd think we'd be pros by now, and I think we all are. For some reason we stopped having them after about the year 2000. Lately, several of my cousins and family have been saying we should have one again. So, I took the lead and worked with a bunch of family members and we got it together.

Our family must be the best at having family reunions because it really was very simple. I think because we've done it so long, we make it easy. Here are some pointers to a great family reunion and then I'll share some fun pictures from our day today.

1. Best tip: Have everyone bring their own stuff (their own food, drinks, paper plates, plasticware, cups, etc.) and one item to share. This makes it so easy because everyone takes care of themselves and there is so little care for the planner!
   
2. Rent a local picnic place - Then you don't have to pay too much for an expensive place. And, your not imposing on a family member. We just had my dad talk to his town and rented the picnic pavilion. It was a great place and was pretty inexpensive compared to many family reunions.
   
3. Have a few conference calls to plan - we had a few conference calls in advance (we used freeconferencecall.com)
   
4. Use emails to get the word out - we used a yahoogroup (yahoogroup.com)
   
5. Get volunteers to help - I had some great relatives who did things like sending out announcements, calling relatives, making name tags, setting up the games, making signs
6. Plan a schedule for the day - Print it so people have it. Make it approximate to allow for flexibility
   
7. Bring Family Photos - people love to see them
   
8. Announce a core time of the day when most events will be held
   

The Day of the Reunion:

1. Have someone start the BBQ grills early - if you're using charcoal, have someone start the grills in advance and set up the tables, put plastic table clothes on tables, etc.
2. Bring the family tree - have people update it, and bring forms for them to enter informaion on
3. Make announcements - let everyone know at least a few minutes in advance what's going to happen next
   
4. Insist eveyone wears a nametag - this is such a big help. I still don't know the names of lots of relatives
5. Give lots of free time - Let people talk and get to know each other
6. Play some games for all ages - Let the young be with the old
   
7. Do a mixer game - find a mixer game that get's people mix and meet others they don't know
   
8. Announce Photo time ahead of time - let people know they need to let you know about an hour in advance before they want to leave so you can get everyone in a photo
   

A few other fun things we did

• My sister and niece made a pinata
• We always play bingo - everyone just brings a few "prizes" - almost everyone can play
• We had a copy of the family tree that people could makes notes on
• We had a sign-in sheet so people
• We had a dessert competition. Everyone voted for their favorite. We gave certificates and took pictures of the first, second, and first place winners. We collected and traded recipies. Eveyone elso who brought a desert won honorable mention and got in the photo.
• We always have family photos of each of the oldest siblings (oldest Generation), then their children, then their grandchildren, then their great-grandchildren, etc. This year we had 4 generations. We also take a photo of everyone. Then we take photos of each of the oldest siblings families.
• We played the White Elephant game (also known as Yankee Swap) - http://www.wikihow.com/Organize-a-White-Elephant-Gift-Exchange or
  http://www.yankee-swap.net/yankee_swap_rules_official.PDF
  

Some family reunion websites:

http://family-reunion.com
http://www.familyreuniontips.com

Pictures of our reunion today


4th Generation:




















Everyone that came: