To the mama that sacrificed her body to give life to a baby:

STOP. Stop hiding in pictures. Stop refusing to be in pictures. Stop hiding behind sweat shirts, and sweat pants. Stop beating yourself up because you sacrificed your body so that you could bring a life into this world.  Stop listening to Hollywood and media saying you have to look a certain way or be a certain size. BE YOU. For you are beautiful. You are beautiful for you were made in the image of God. You are beautiful because you sacrificed your body so that a baby can be born. You sacrifice your body daily so that your children get what they need. I'm not giving you an excuse to eat unhealthy or to skip out on exercise. We all need to do that. I am telling you to give yourself a break. Being a mom is HARD. Weather you birthed, adopted or chose adoption for your child. Motherhood is hard enough as it is without the added pressure we put on ourselves when it comes to our body. Don’t shame your body. Your children don’t. They love you just the way you are.   

Sincerely, a mom.

Girls and their Drama

Ive got all the kids on my bed watching a movie while I get some computer work done before church tonight. ZoeLynn comes to me crying and stressing out. She has a slice of orange in each hand and a piece of orange in her mouth. She can barely get out her cries of frustration due to the orange slice taking up so much room in her mouth. I ask her whats the matter, and not even the baby whisperer herself could make out what this child is trying to tell me although she show no signs of you not comprehending. I don't know how she is still breathing. Chaz causally says "She upset that I wont give her an orange." Ok, I think to myself, lets pretend we were to give you another orange slice ZoeLynn, WHERE WOULD YOU PUT IT? So realizing she is simply throwing a fit I take her and put her in the tub (that is empty) in my bathroom and walk away. She lets me know she disproves of her current situation by letting out a scream. This continues for roughly 45 seconds. Then all of a sudden, silence. I walk in the room and ask her, "are you done?" She shakes her head yes. I lift her out of the tub and she waddles toward my bed and sits with her brothers to watch TV. Girls and their drama. Homegirl had a rush of hormone and emotions run over her and she needed to get all of them out (hence the screaming). And once she did, she was good. If only it will be this easy in 10 years when she will be almost 12. . . I can dream right. . . 

a day in the life of Jaden

Do NOT get used to this: 2 posts in one day. It's a record for me. WOW setting records on the first day. I might actually be good at this! Enough rambling, here is the point of this post. I have 4 children. Chaz is 7, Jedidiah is 6, Jaden is 4 and ZoeLynn is 1. I would like to take a moment to talk about Jaden. This kid is hilarious and I have no idea where he comes up with the things he says or does. I am going to share with you some dialogue that happened tonight between Jaden and his dad and then a "situation" I happened upon. Girls make sure you go to the bathroom or have extra padding on. You have been warned.

Chuck is sitting on the bed with Jaden playing his guitar. 

A little back story here, Chuck comes from a musical family. His mother is a classical pianist and his brother has a band and is a pretty awesome worship pastor. He has another brother that is a recording genius. And has 2 other gifted siblings who plays the drums and sings. Chuck was never one for playing instruments growing up. He was either playing baseball or reading a dictionary, concordance and Bible at one time. BUT the boy naturally has a talent. He is not "get on stage and lead worship" good, but he is "play around a fire" good. So just keep that in mind as you read the following.


So Chuck is sitting on the bed with Jaden playing his guitar. Jaden closes his eyes real tight and rolls away from him with his hands over his face... 
Chuck: Jaden, are you ok? 
Jaden: I'm having a bad dream. A REALLY REALLY bad dream. 
Chuck: Well are you ok? 
(We have a history of night terrors within our family, more on that later.) 
 Jaden: not yet. I'm trying to get it out of my head. 
Chuck: well what is it about? 
Jaden: I'm having a bad dream. Really, really, really bad. 
Chuck: Well? 
 Jaden: (with his eyes still covered) I wanted you to stop playing and I was going to punch you in the face. That's why I covered my eyes. So it would go away! (uncovering his eyes).....ok. It went away. You can keep playing now!

Who's kid is this???? But the night gets better. Earlier today I am at walmart and I found this heavy duty plastic 4 drawer thing.  It's made to put in your garage and store things. Well I look at it and think it would be perfect to put the boys clothes in. I would need at least 2, 3 would be nice but they aren't cheap. So I got one to test it out. My boys are 500% boy and rough on EVERYTHING. So in all honesty I wanted to see if it would live up to its "heavy duty" name. All 3 boys share a bunk bed with a trundle underneath. The older 2 boys are asleep and Jaden is wondering the house (trying not to punch his daddy). I go in to check on the boys, who were sleeping peacefully and I hear Daisy. Daisy is our almost 1 year old puppy rescue. I quickly remember the boys wanted Dasiy to sleep with them. I look for her in their beds and she is no where to be found. So I call to her and I hear her whimpering. I start getting nervous that she is stuck under the bed or in a corner or any other horrible scenario my mind can come up with in this 15 sec time slot which was actually many horrifying senarios. Nope. None of the above. Jaden decided it would be fun to stick Daisy in the bottom drawer of his new "heavy duty" dresser. Well its "heavy duty" all right. Enough to keep Daisy for wiggling her way out! Poor thing jumped out as soon as I pulled the drawer open. That poor dog. I just hope she will understand that is Jaden's unique way of showing his love for her.

WHAT WAS HE THINKING < this is a phrase the comes across my mind often when I think of my sweet Jaden Pierce Johnson. This kid is going to unashamedly preach the Gospel from the mountain top in a way that only Jaden can with a heavenly atonement. I can't believe I get to be his mom!!!!

I hope your night was as fun and eventful as mine!
Blessed

Mama B

Something "new"

For the love of all things random. I am the Queen of needing things to start very particularly. Anything "new" has to start on Monday. Sunday isn't the beginning of the week for me, Sunday is a week in and of itself (can I hear an AMEN from all the Pastor's wives out there). So since Monday is my "day 1" that is when all things new must start. (repeating myself, get used to that). Well today is Sunday, and I'm starting a blog. And because I'm being random I'm not gonna do a fun fruity intro blog. You will figure out real quick who I am and who my family is, because we are REAL. People say Pastor's families live in a glass house. Well I embrace that glass house. I don't have anything to hide. Nobody benefits when you start to hide things. We Christians are here on this earth to help each other grow in Christ while sharing the Gospel all around. Galatians 6:2 tells us to carry each others burdens. How can we do that if we all try to hide whats going on in our hearts. See their is freedom in Christ. There are no unrealistic expectations, for we are covered in the blood of Christ. When you try to do things on your own, and hide the problems you are facing you force unrealistic expectations upon yourself. You don't have to be perfect. I will say it again. YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE PERFECT. Jesus took care of that and everything else we could possibly worry about. Trust Him. Relinquish your expectations and abide only in Christ.

I hope you all have a blessed Lords Day!!

Mama B