Monica

“I dedicated almost 12 years to the music industry before having children.”

“Smudge your eyeliner. It creates a smoky effect.”

“I do like reality TV like 'The Voice.' I enjoyed working there every single day. It was amazing.”

“Some things make me emotional in a good way. When my son does well in school, I get real emotional because that's a testament to what I'm feeding him at home on a daily basis as far as knowledge goes. I wasn't so emotional until I had my first son.”

“I'm a traditional wife in every sense.”

“I think that you are what you speak a lot of times, and there's power in the tongue. I feel sorry for the people who always have something negative to say. If something happens bad in my day, I don't tweet about it - I pray about it, or talk to my husband about it or my mother about it, and get it off of me and move on.”

“I always tell people that the music industry may be frustrating sometimes, but the singing never gets old. It's something I grew up doing, and I take the bitter with the sweet.”

“My husband is my part of my greatest joys, so it doesn't feel like work or like I'm balancing anything. My husband and my kids absolutely come first, so work is just something where I figure out where it will fit.”

“I think that in the blogosphere, the idea is to have the most controversial stuff up.”

“The best part of being a mom to me is the unconditional love. I have never felt a love as pure, a love that's as rewarding.”

“I am a firm believer that God has already ordered the things that have taken place in my life... and I'm just learning to follow the path he's laid before me.”

“I am blessed to have married the man that God sent me. He's loving, compassionate, strong and supportive of my children, family and career. I look forward to our lives together.”

“I would love for people to look at me as a great singer but also know exactly who I am, the way that we have loved and respected people like Gladys Knight and Patti LaBelle, having gone through the different stages of their lives with them. That's the type of history I want to have.”

“My image is me. I talk for myself. I didn't become this person others wanted me to be.”

“I've been more conscious of my salt intake, sugar intake, making sure I'm not eating as many processed foods.”

“Multitasking is a part of my everyday life.”

“My first priority is my children. If at any moment I put aside something that I want to do to be a better parent than that is more than okay for me.”

“I talk a lot about strength, faith and love, but I don't ever talk about the fact that I am one of the most sensitive people in my family. That might be the most shocking, because you always see me fighting the good fight, with the strong face on, but I am the most emotional.”

“I don't know why I love cherries and I love pickles. I eat about two or three Claussen pickles a day. Those are just things I snack on.”

“I find the positive in the negative all the time. Any time you give something power, it wins, and it can continuously happen, so I just let negative people know they have no place in my life. They have no place around my children.”