Over the years, I have waived back in forth about the usefulness of the desktop for storing more than a few shortcuts to programs.   Yeah, it’s a nice place to drop attachments you received via email or things you need to save quickly before heading home at 5:00, but by in large I have always felt the desktop to be an unorganized, clutter collector.

However, that has recently changed for me.    I found a nifty little program that lets you create containers on your desktop to help keep like items grouped together.   It’s called Desktop Fencesby Stardock, and it’s FREE.   

Here’s how it’s helped me.   

Below is my desktop before installing Desktop Fences:

And this is my desktop after installing Desktop Fences:

Desktop Fences will auto-organize for you if you wish or you can manually create and move your own fences.   Definitely worth checking out if you have a need to organize your desktop.   You can also hide all your fences by double-clicking the desktop.

The download is available at the product’s website.

Editor’s Note: 
Desktop Fences is not compatible with Apple OS X, but I’m sure a comparable program exists.

Chelsey and I have been fortunate enough to be able to do a planning retreat three of the four years we’ve been together.   It has been a great way for us to both reflect on the previous year and look ahead at the one to come.

A few weekends we did out latest retreat, and it proved to be one of our best yet.    Here are some things we learned that helped us make it effective:

Courtesy of Iminfocus on Flickr
Used with Permission

1. Get Away.
   
   If your life is anything like ours, staying home and trying to discuss bigger stuff in our marriage wasn’t an option.   The small things around the house already suck the bulk our time away, and adding a kid to the mix doesn’t make it any easier.   We know that to make our weekend effective we have get away from our normal routine.
   
   Whether you choose to go to a hotel, cabin, or even a retreat facility, finding a quiet place that is relaxing, and conducive to discussion is vital.   Finding a place that has a similar spirit both as an individual and/or a couple  to yours isn’t always easiest park, but can really set the tone for the weekend.
   
2. Have a Plan.
   
   Getting away is one thing, planning for the year is another.  What do you talk about?  How do you use your time?   Those are all good questions.    I’m sure there is plenty of guides available, but I’ll share the one that we used.
   
   Through work, we have financial planning services through Ronald Blue.  As part of that service, they gave us a document on how to spend our weekend.    This document provided a list of questions in seven areas: spiritual, marriage, family, social, financial, physical, and vocational.   While not all questions applied, this provided a great reference for our time.   They have two versions: one for married & one for singles.
   
3. Break Up the discussion times.
   
   Discussing and planning for a year isn’t always an easy thing.   There might be some tough topics which need addressed.  Or maybe finances and numbers are overwhelming.   Either way, you need to plan other activities for the weekend as well.   This might be a movie, a good book, games, or a venture out if you are some place new.   Have fun.  Enjoy the time and when you reconvene to the planning, you’ll be ready to focus.
   
4. Commit to follow-up.
   
   At the end of the weekend we had two pages of notes and action items which we have resolved to look at.   Some are things to buy, some are just things that we need to continue to discuss.   Be prepared to bring home things that need follow-up.
   
5. Begin planning another one.
   
   Anytime you set make a plan, you need to follow-up with time to review it periodically.   Although life is never finished, it’s always good to reevaluate where we are.   Figure out a schedule that works for you, whether it’s ever 6 months or 5 years, make a plan to follow-up this retreat with another one in the future.

It’s been too long since we’ve gotten pictures of Logan up online.  With the holidays and kid on the move, sorting thru the pictures to find ones to share didn’t get done before Christmas, but here they are now.   Please enjoy.

Million-Dollar Man

Newsweek is reporting that it’ll cost roughly $1 million per solider for Obama’s surge in Afghanistan or about $65 billion total for 68,000 troops.   That’s a hefty price tag to send troops, and really brings perspective to the amount we pay for such.

Long-Live Organic Church:

An interested article in Christianity today about the “fad” of Organic Church and what happens when it’s over.   I thought the summary was great – it boils down to obedience.  “But when we focus on obedience to a sovereign heavenly Father, who in love is redeeming his creation in his own time and way (often mysteriously)—well, how could we ever be dismayed?”

Shai Linne – Spread His Fame:

Awesome poetry to an Awesome God.

Phil Wing’s Latest Song:

The worship leader at my church and one of my groomsman just posted his latest song this week.   It’s great!   

Whether I like or not, technology is part of my life, and part of that is helping others use technology to make their lives simpler, efficient, and organized.   In order to share that passion, I am going to start to post a tip or resource every other Tuesday.   This might be a tool, a concept, or something I just really think I need to share.

The web is filled with a ton of content – some of it’s awesome, a lot of it not so much.   The problem is that sifting through all the good content everyday can be cumbersome.   So I’ve been telling every one I can about Google Reader.

What is Google Reader?
Google Reader is a what many call a “feed reader”.   There are many feed readers out there, but Google’s is just my favorite.   A feed reader consumes RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds, which is a standard for how content can be passed into a reader.    Outlook and even some web browsers have built in feed readers that you can use.

Isn’t RSS just for blogs?
No, RSS is being used all over.    You can consume many types of content such as news sites like CNN, FOX, and most newspapers.   But you can also use it to look at Twitter feeds and other social media information.   But yes, blogs use RSS too.

To determine if a site has a RSS feed, look for the orange icon like the one shown here either on the page, or in the browser toolbar.    By clicking that link, you can get the web address of the feed that can be pasted in Google Reader.

Here are some notable blogs to follow:

• Michael Hyatt – some thoughtful articles on self-leadership.
• White House – stay in tune with what the government is doing.
• Tim Challies – a full-time Christian blogger with some awesome resources and articles
• Free Money Finance – a personal finance blog.

How to get started:

1. Go to the Google Reader website.
2. Sign in or create a Google account
3. Click the “Add Subscription” button to add the URL of the RSS feed.

Advanced Tip:
One of the things that sets Google Reader apart for me is the keyboard shortcuts it has available.   Take a minute to learn the shortcuts.   It helps me browse through 50+ feeds quickly everyday.

I am going to try to regularly post a some of the interesting articles and resources I come across each week while surfing the web, reading, or listening to various different stuff.  

Michael Hyatt on Why You Should Sign Up for a Half-Marathon:

I thought this quote about self-leadership was applicable to more than just a half-marathon:

You will provide an example for others. True leadership begins with self-leadership. When you lead yourself, you inspire others to want to follow. Maybe it’s a spouse, or a friend, or one of your children. They need to exercise, but they don’t have an example to follow. You can be that example.

Taking A Financial Fast:

An article discussing how taking a 21-day financial fast to buy only necessities can help us see how much excess is in our life.

10 Ways to Encourage a Missionary:

If you know anyone serving in the mission field (which really extends far beyond those receiving financial support to share the gospel) here’s a good list of ways to encourage them in their ministry.

For Christmas this year, in lieu of a gift for himself, my brother asked Chelsey and I to write a letter not to him, but to Logan, that he will share with him one day.  My letter was requested to be about friendship, and how to maintain solid friendships.   I liked the idea, and feel lead to share it here.  Hopefully future letters will follow.

December 22, 2009

Logan,

At the time of writing this letter, you are eight months old and full of joy. Your mom and I are pretty overwhelmed with how good you continue to be. You are laid back, cool, love to jump and climb on us – you are great child.

I write this to you as a challenge from your Uncle Josh. He’s promised to give it to when appropriate, but I’m not sure when that will be. I hope that whenever that is, my words below are reflections of what you have seen to be true in my life as you have grown and developed.

At this moment in your life, people comment regularly about the similarities between us. As your father, that makes me proud. But one of the most important similarities between us (and probably even more of me as a kid) is the way we love people. As an eight month old, you are scared of no one - always sharing your smiles and laughs. As a dad, I hope that is always true, and so that’s what I want to talk about: relationships and friendships and how they fit together.

At that time you read this, I’m sure it’s safe to say that you will have met hundreds and hundreds of people. There are people everywhere, everyday that we interact with. And each person has the opportunity to change our life. Some of those people we have brief conversations with and will maybe never see again. But some folks you will spend substantial amounts of time with, and these are friends.

Friends and family are the most important relationship we can develop. They need to be handled with care.

Friends however are different than family because you can’t pick your family (you’re stuck with mom and I), but you can pick your friends. So here are some things I’ve learned over the years with my friends that will hopefully help you as well.

• Some friends will move on (like kids in the neighborhood or at school) and some will only be present while you are participating in an activity (like soccer or baseball). However, some of those friends will transcend those boundaries, and continue to be part of your life regardless of the activities and location you have in common with them – these are likely to be or become your closest (aka, best) friends.
• Friendships go through seasons. They are always changing. Even close friends will at times seem distant. These times can be really good but hard as well. Be patient and know that even though it doesn’t seem like it, they probably miss your companionship as much as you miss theirs.
• Everyone is different. You and I are different. Mom and I are different. Each of your friends are different. You must remember to treat them each as their own person. Everyone has something to offer you - you just have to find out what that is.
• Similarly, if we expect everyone to be the same, then we will likely hurt someone feelings because of unfair expectations we are holding them too.

So those are some basic ideas and guides that hopefully help build friendships. However, as with every relationship, the hard part isn’t typically the initial stage, but rather the ups and downs of maintaining those relationships in the long run.

I think if you were to ask around, as this has been true for me, that some of your closest friends are the friends that you have the healthiest conflict with. I believe that how we deal with conflict with our friends will have the greatest impact on those relationships. Here’s a few things I’ve learned specific to conflict and dealing with it:

1. Conflict is normal! It will happen. Don’t run away from it.

2. Your best friend(s), no matter how similar you are, is different from you. You will disagree with them. Again that’s normal.

3. Most disagreements that you have with people are just plain dumb things to debate about. Unfortunately, we don’t always see that until we have gone different ways.

4. You will lose friends over disagreements. It’s never easy, but it is true.

5. You will become stronger friends with some because of disagreements. These are the people you know will have your back.

I am reminded of a quote I heard once from Thomas Jefferson –

“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”

Friendships can be very similar. Some will come and go, but lasting ones will hold up over time. You’ve got to know when to go with the tide, and when to take a stand for yourself as well as to respect each other for their values too.

Courtesy of Fatmanad on Flickr
Used with Permission

Over the past year, I have read numerous places about the importance of reading the bible cover-to-cover.  It’s a daunting undertaking I know, but as I mentioned in my most recent post, it’s one I am going to challenge myself to follow through on.

There are many ways some one could go about this, as there is virtually hundreds of ways in which you could divide up the chapters and go through it.   If you are an tech-geek like me, then YouVersion (www.yourversion.com) might interest you.   YouVersion offers an online version of the bible in almost all major translations as well as 31-different reading plans that you could choose from (some just cover pieces of scripture, like the Gospels, others plans offer a guide through the whole thing).  It provides a way to check off each day’s reading, tag, journal, and bookmark them.     

If everyday reading seems like it could be too much, then you might check out the new plan released by Journey Church in Denver, called Engage.   This plan offers the reader every 4th day off, which might be very appealing to some.   They also are offering some videos to supplement the readings as well.

For me, this is not the first time I’ve started down this road.  I’ve tried this a few times in the past, but I can tell there exists a new passion to know the Word, especially the Old Testament, inside of me.   So I am putting it out there for anyone to keep my accountable here.

And if publically blogging about it enough, I read the following  quote in the book Primal, that I just finished a few weeks ago from a present-day theologian:

“Any Christian worth his salt ought to read the Bible from cover-to-cover every year.” – J.I. Packer

I enjoy new beginnings, even when they are a simple as a change in the date.  The start of a new period of life - whether it’s a new year, a new day, or a new job - brings a renewed hope for change and growth to come.  It’s a chance to look back and reflect, as well as chance to prepare and pray for what’s ahead.

2010 came in quietly.   I spent a quiet evening at home with the wife, doing what we do most every evening.   Our ability to venture out to parties has decreased with Logan, and that’s fine with me.   It challenges us to slow down a bit which is a good thing.   We spent the evening reflecting back on 2009, but also the past decade.   One thing is for sure: life looks really different then it did in 2000.

New beginnings doesn’t always mean our concerns and problems go away.  Sometimes we wish they would, but we still have to deal with the hard stuff that was challenging us before.   And sometimes, new beginnings bring new challenges.   I look forward to how these things will continue to help us grow.

I haven’t set many resolutions for 2010.   I’m a goal-oriented person, but haven’t sensed the need for a list of goals like I had for 2009.   The one goal I have set, and started already, has been to read the whole Bible this year.   I think that could be the most important things for me to do, so to have goals beyond that one, seem like they could be more distracting than beneficial.

I did decide to start 2010 with a new design for my blog.   If you are a subscriber in Google Reader or another RSS reader, click over to check it out.   I still have some clean-up to do, but I’m happy with what I’ve come up.   I hope to write more in 2010, so I felt there were some things I wanted to change before I could do that.

I hope all of my readers had a wonderful 2009, but even more, I pray you have a great 2010.