Kelley shares how Tamara has continually supported her as she confronts rheumatoid arthritis on a daily basis.

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Posted under Friend for Life.
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The other night we hosted a meeting at our house.  If you’ve ever hosted a meeting, either at your home or at work, church, or somewhere else, you know there are challenges.  You have to stay focused and keep on task while not boring everyone out of their minds.  Here’s three ingredients we had at our meeting that could help.

1. A relaxed environment – We hung out in the living room and just had good discussion on the topics at end.  We didn’t stay too uptight but instead took an attitude of “hanging out” during the meeting.

2. An on-task person – At our meeting, this was my wife Amy.  I love having a relaxed meeting but that always presents the danger of straying off topic or not staying focused.  Amy is good at reminding me to keep at the work at hand.

3. Decaf coffee and cappuccino brownies – They taste good and food always make any meeting better.

Posted under Life at the Lansers', Show Notes.
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Jennifer shares about her friend Brenda.

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Valentine’s Day is coming up quickly, and I finally figured out a good gift to pick up for my wife, Amy.  Except, I don’t know that gifts are what Valentine’s Day is all about.

It’s not about the cards and candies we’d set on everyone’s desks in grade school.  It’s not about celebrating S.A.Dd (Single’s Awareness Day) because you don’t have a special someone (though I did think that for a while when I was younger).  I think Valentine’s Day is a reminder about intentionality.

We throw around the term “I love you” a lot.  We say it every day to our friends, our parents, our kids, or our spouse as we run out the door.  But love is about more than three words.  It’s about a lifestyle.  When push comes to shove, our love for someone else is written in our actions.

So I encourage you to take this Valentine’s as a reminder, and a challenging question: How are you going to be intentional to those you love?

Posted under Show Notes.
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If you have kids who love video games, particularly boys, you may have heard them talking or asking about some recently released games like Bioshock 2 or Mass Effect 2.  Don’t worry if you feel like your kids are speaking a foreign language when they ask you about games;  I want to help.  First of all, make sure you familiarize yourself with the ratings system for video games.  Just like movies can be rated PG-13 and R, games can be rated T (for Teen) or M (for Mature, 17+).

Second, use the tools you have at your disposal.  One resource I’ve appreciated is a site called What They Play.  This is a site for parents full of reviews on the games your kids are talking about, what’s in them, which games are good, and even games you can consider as positive alternatives to the games they want and you don’t want them to have.  You can reach the site at www.whattheyplay.com or by clicking the link above.

Posted under Cool Websites, Helpful Info, Show Notes.
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