Be the Real You!

I was typing up notes from my Life After Work meeting from October. Renee Burt is the speaker at our meetings. She said something so profound that I have to share it with you.

Renee said, "Often times we think that we need to be perfect, but all people really want us to be perfectly real." For a former perfectionist, this is good news! I think that the world longs for us, as Christians, to get out from beyond our masks and be real! The churches that are being real and authentic are the ones that are seeing phenomenal growth! Make a determination in your spirit to be perfectly real with people!

Happy Belated Birthday Jessica!

This is my sister, Jessica, on Halloween this year with her little boy, Troy. He was born in July.

Jessica's birthday was yesterday, November 24th. She turned the young age of 29. The big 30 is next year. I think that I am going to have to make a special trip to Texas for her birthday next year so we can have a BIG 30 party for her. What do you think, Jessica?

Hope you had a Happy Birthday with our parents in town. It is always nice when you get to spend with family that lives out of state on your birthday.

Many birthday blessings to you!

Picture-Perfect Holiday

While David was enjoying an episode of Tom & Jerry this morning on the WB, I was reading the December 2006 issue of the Focus on the Family magazine we receive. If you want to receive one, visit www.family.org. There were four articles that really resonated with me. One of them talked about whether or not our joy during the holidays was dependent on a picture-perfect holiday. I don't know about you, but I grew up as a perfectionist. Over the years, God has given me freedom in this area of my life. While the ugly perfectionist tries to rear its ugly head at times, I have learned how to let go and simply enjoy my everyday life (to quote Joyce Meyer).

Our focus this Christmas season should be on the reason for the season which is Jesus. You may not have the finances to purchase everyone the gifts you would like to or you have been very busy with work, so you claim you do not have much Christmas spirit. However, what we need to do is focus on Jesus. Jesus came to give us peace, joy, and eternal life. Jesus has many names. Some of them come from Isaiah 9:6 Amplified Bible, "For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father [of Eternity], Prince of Peace."

The role that Jesus plays in our lives is something to be thankful about. Christmas is not about how many gifts you receive or give, how beautiful your house is decorated, how many Christmas cards you sent out, or making all the wonderful Christmas cookies. Christmas is about the birth of our Savior. We need to slow down and appreciate the season and what God has done for us.

I don't know about you, but without God I would be miserable. The last week Ed, David, and I realized how much the Lord has blessed us. We may not live in the biggest house on the block, but we have a roof over our heads. We may not be eating steak and seafood every night for dinner, but we have more than enough food that we can eat until we are full and even have friends over. We may not have the most expensive car on the lot, but we have a car we love and one that gets us where we need to go. We have family and friends whom we love very much and get to see quite often. God has abundantly provided for us in our lives on a daily basis!!!

This year I encourage you to get your eyes off the materialistic aspect that has taken over Christmas in the United States and focus on the true meaning of Christmas: the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. If you do not know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, either email me at gulland@wh-link.net for more information or visit www.freshmanna.org.

Future Artist?

What do you think of our Picasso? That is really the only artist's name that I know, so if you think that his drawings reflect another artist's style than you will have to leave that in the comments.

I hope that this note finds you all doing well. Our family is doing the countdown until Ed's last class for his MBA. On November 30th, he will finish his last "Strategic Management" class. Then all he needs to complete is his two Capstone class sessions in January. Yahoo!!!

David has been working on his writing, phonics, reading, and math. He loves doing addition and subtraction. Crazy, huh? He is working on worksheets that according to the developers of the workbook are for first grade. "WOW" is all I have to say! I am constantly amazed at how much he loves to learn. We are doing everything in our power to nurture this love, so he will continually love to learn and take on new challenges. I have seen way too many kids who settle on doing the easy work and never push themselves to their potential. I want David to be all that God created him to be.

I have been keeping a VERY FULL schedule! I had all kinds of plans for getting things done today, but right now I am going to give myself a break and lay down with a good book. :-) I have been trying to do one Mary Kay pampering session a week. It hasn't worked out to be that, but I will continue to try because I love the products and love the girl time!!! I also have been working full-time as a nanny to three kids: Matthew (7), Mary Kate (5), and Michael (3). They are completely adorable and full of love! Our entire family absolutely adores them and loves spending time with them. I also work once a week with the Covenant Kids Ministry at our church. Finally, I am adding to my plate watching my a friend's two kids occassionally. We are trading off time, so she will watch David for me some time without costing me anything. I like that deal!!! :-)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my mother-in-law's home with her (Lois), her husband (Roger), Roger's son (Dan), Dan's wife (Amber), and their daughter (Mary). We had GREAT food and some AWESOME weather! The kids and I played kickball and other variations of the game outside for quite some time yesterday. I cannot seem to turn off my love and desire to play with kids even when I have the day off! :-)

We will be going to my father-in-law's (Jim) next weekend. I am not sure if we are celebrating Christmas with him then or not. We will be spending the Christmas holiday with my family in Mississippi. I am BEYOND EXCITED!!! It has been seven months since I have been down there, so the trip is well past due. I am looking forward to seeing my sister, Dawn, my brother, Travis, and my niece and nephew, Addison and Alex. I cannot wait to spend time with everyone!!! It is going to be pretty low-key, so that is another bonus! We will have some good relaxing family time (I am sure we will go to a movie or two!). It will be nice for our family (me, David, and Ed) to just have some solid quality time together as well. Ed is planning on having all of his projects for his Capstone class wrapped up, so it will be like he is already done with school even though he will technically have two more classes in January.

Please let me know what is going on with all of you. I am looking forward to hearing what everyone did for Thanksgiving and how they plan on spending and enjoying this Christmas season. I am hoping to take down all of our fall decorations today and get our Christmas decorations up. David is excited for that, and I am looking forward to listening to Christmas music!!! Remember, Jesus is the reason for the season! Don't let yourself get SO BUSY that you forget why we celebrate this holiday!