the best babysitters in the world!!

remember when mark and i went to boston ?

well, why we were there, our lovely miss lindsey q. (soon to be lindsey o.) took on the four littlejohn peeps. lindsey has been a life saver and an answer to prayer! when we moved here 18 months ago one of my biggest prayer requests was that we would find people who would love our kids the way they had been loved in starkville. starkville is a college town, so you have this unending list of girls who can and want to take care of your kids. now we live 40 plus miles from ANY college and i thought our search would be in vain, WRONG! now we have this group of girls who have willingly come time and time again to take of the kids for mark and me. they are AMAZING!!! so amazing that i leave my children with them for days :) time away from the kids is of the up-most importance to me. b/c i am with them 24/7, i covet the times when i can sneak away and decompress, knowing full well that they are receiving spectacular care!

so back to lindsey: lindsey also has a very creative and artistic eye. so while she fed, clothed, bathed, cuddled, kissed, and kept the house running; she also took pictures of the kids. aren't they so great?

thanks lindsey (and kathryne, amber, steph, *dave & chris) for loving our kids! you will never know how you have blessed our lives and the lives of our children!

~s

i love cheese!

i really do love cheese.

this past week we were able to observe katie in her acrobatics class (no that is not katie on the mat). she is doing a great job.  after class lucy said to katie, "katie, you did a great job somersaulting on the cheese!"

that girl makes life a little bit easier to live!! ;)

happy weekend!
~s

The Purpose Driven Sex Life.

sex is sacred.

sex is important.

i desire in no way to belittle, mock, or remove honor and awe from the power of a sexual relationship. i believe sex is only blessed and overflowing with richness, security, purity, and freedom, when it is shared in the covenant relationship of marriage.

i respect and cherish the marriage bed.

it fascinates me how little people have meaningful conversation about sex.  every commercial, tv show, movie, book, etc.. is more than happy to sell sex and to promote a sexual agenda, but no one wants to talk about sex. people are happy to joke about sex, and annihilate any shred of true meaning or weight that it represents, but no one wants to really talk about it. except our very attentive God who speaks about sex A LOT in the Holy scriptures. some think that when you surrender your life to God you have to sacrifice exhilarating, passionate, make-you-sweat, kind of sex. not true. if you get a chance read, 'Song Of Solomon', and you will see just how serious, beautiful, and pro-sex, our God is.

they say most couples fight about two major things; finances and sex. lots of churches and community organizations offer financial assistance, financial counseling, financial peace sunday school classes, but you have to go digging for sex assistance, sex counseling, sexual peace sunday school classes. some people skim over a section about sex in their marriage counseling, but often it is done as quickly as possible to remove any type of uncomfortableness for all involved.

not understanding the importance of a healthy, regular, and intimate sex life for married couples, is a quick, painful, and sure-fire way to lose the road to an abundant married life. *

women think that sex is simply meeting the high demand of their husband. but study after study, shows that sex for a man is so much more emotional then one might ever dream. the status of a man's sexual relationship with his wife effects EVERY AREA OF HIS LIFE. when a wife thinks she is simply saying, "no" to the sexual act, in all reality the only thing the man hears her saying is, "no" to him as a man, a leader, a friend, a companion... in other words he hears, "you are a failure." if a man is convinced he can not even get his own wife to love him, then he will feel defeated in all areas of his life.

it's that serious.

mark and i have been married 109 months. out of those months i have either been pregnant and or breastfeeding for 88 months. we had 14 months together as newly weds before we got pregnant with katie. and trust me our life has not looked the same since. our sexual relationship sure hasn't. that doesn't mean our sexual life is non-existent... obviously, we have four children. it means that in the last 8 years we have had to be VERY intentional in our sex life. pregnancy, babies, postpartum, toddler-hood, shear exhaustion, etc... has a way of zapping every sexy feeling out of a mom and even a dad. none-the-less, we have adamantly tried to continue to woo each other, learn about each other sexually, and keep our marriage bed full of life, laughter, fun and precious connection.

i am also convicted that i often run to the Lord with loads of needs, "please encourage mark at work today, please help katie be confident, please help julia control her temper, please help lucy focus, please help anderson grow into a Godly man," but i hesitate when i bring before the Lord this very deep and personal issue of sex. if we all were to consistently ask the Lord to grow our sex lives, to sustain the intimacy in our marriage, to initiate desire where it is lacking, and glorify Himself in our marriage beds... this world would be a lot more populated!! ;)

happy marriage bedding,
~s

p.s.
*please understand,  i realize there are situations where physical and emotional limitations have to be taken into consideration.  the lack of intimacy b/c of these circumstances does not mean a couple has an unhappy or unfulfilled relationship.

p.p.s.
literature plug:
intended for pleasure by ed and gaye wheat
sheet music by dr kevin leman
the act of marriage by tim and beverly lahaye
red-hot monogamy by bill and pam farrel
the language of sex dr. gary smalley & ted cunningham
no more headaches: enjoying sex and intimacy in marriage by dr. julianna slattery

i want to hold your hand

parking lots are a scary place for me sometimes. i can not hold the hand of all four of my children. so instead, i hold anderson in my arms, katie and julia hold hands, and then i find myself continually saying, "lucy, hold my hand!" but in reality it's me saying, "lucy, come over here so i can clamp down onto your pea sized hand, squeeze your fingers til they turn blue, so you can not jolt away from me!" her holding my hand only lasts as long as her whimsical thought lasts. but me, firmly gripping her hand, motivated by the fact that if i let go she could quickly find danger.

sometimes we desire to commune with our Holy God only as long as our whimsical thoughts will allow us to be focused on Him. but He is passionately dedicated to always being near us, pursuing our pea sized and wild hearts, motivated by the fact that if we are without Him our soul is desperately in danger.

i love Him for never letting me go.  i love Him because He WANTS to hold my hand. knowing all that He does about the state of my heart... He wants me. and that is motivating.

~s

a boat vs. a vote

me to lucy: you need to get your shoes on so daddy and i can go vote!

lucy: we are going on a boat?

me: no, lucy we are going to go vote.

lucy: what is vote?

me: a vote is when we go pick the people that we would like to serve and represent us locally and in DC.

lucy: i want to ride on a boat!

me: lucy, we are NOT going on a "B" oat, we are going to "V" ote.

lucy: silence

30 minutes later we enter the polling place:

lucy: where is the boat?

yes, phoebe buffay resides in our house some days!

GO VOTE!

~s

Happy NOVEMBER!!!!!!!!

My Kids Only Eat Dinner on Halloween

"if you want to go trick-or-treating than you better eat a your supper!"

you know you said it.

don't even pretend that you didn't. ;)

our kids ate well and trick-or treated well. VERY little drama for the littlejohns. *sigh* maybe we are growing. little red riding hood and a lady bug joined us for the fun festivities (eleana, elisa, jason and emily chamness too!)

people always claimed that our neighborhood gets 200-400 kids. last night we did. SO, SO, fun walking around with the streets blocked to the public automobiles, and droves of children scampering about for a treat. katie kept saying, "i love this, i love this!!" i knew exactly what she meant. a beautiful star filled sky,on a cool evening, going door to door interacting with people that we might not typically get to interact with; walking, skipping, giggling, the perfect evening for us extroverts!

here is a glimpse:
katie and julia:snow fairies
lucy: butterfly
anderson: spider

both costumes that were purchased were not used. i am sure someday they will be used!

happy holiday hangover day, ( a little history for our new readers. the day after any holiday is acknowledged around here as "holiday hangover". not due to a alcoholic hangover (though i am sure some readers might be experiencing this (*LOUD BANGING NOISE INSERTED HERE*), RATHER, restless, cranky, spoiled, kids who have been off their schedule and are looking to be entertained instead of entertaining themselves. if i were independently wealthy i would hire someone to cover all holiday hangover days....)

~s