Gary explains what it takes to be a close-knit family.

Watch and discover one thing you can do to dramatically improve the satisfaction for your whole family!

Ever wonder why your life is a mess? Or maybe you are thinking about a “friend” or “family” member who’s life is a wreck. Watch and learn the four reasons why people get messed up in life.

The resource mentioned in this podcast is Protecting Your Family: discover how to win the greatest battle your family will ever face!

What a great article and reminder for a healthy marriage:

This past weekend my wife and I traveled to Florida for a family wedding with our two kids, ages 1 and 3, in tow. Admittedly, before the trip we were both apprehensive.

Would we be asked to get off the plane at one of our layover stops due to one of our kids “loosing it” during the flight? Would something happen that we hadn’t planned on while at the hotel?

To prepare for all possible occurrences, we packed too much stuff. This was confirmed when we had a 30 minute layover in Houston and our next flight left from a different terminal.

Upon returning home after the trip, my wife and I discussed what we learned.

First, we can travel with our kids. They did great. My son even had an ear infection while there which allowed me to meet our hotel neighbors. In fact, the introductions began one evening when they banged on the wall and screamed “come on, are you gonna let the baby scream all night again?”

Second, we carried too much stuff. We need to work on traveling light. I now have a vision of our next trip being one where each member of the family has a backpack. That’s it.

In the spirit of traveling light, what if this idea were applied to marriage? Can you travel light relationally? Sure. Here’s a few essential rules:

via Essential Rules For Traveling Light In Marriage | Simple Marriage.

I am posting this from the middle of the ocean! How crazy is it that we can now connect online even from a cruise ship. I do not have much to say, but this trip has been awesome.  Not because of the great weather.  Not because of the great ship.  Not because of Cozumel, Mexico (Which we did not encounter any drug cartels – contrary to what Bill O’Reilly might have you think.)

This trip has been awesome because we have kept it relatively conflict free.  It is not that we are avoiding discipline for our kids, because we’ve had to get involved a couple of times.  But for the most part, we have worked hard at creating an environment where our family is relaxed.

No conflict = fun time! Keep this in mind the next time you take a trip with your family.