Five Question Friday

1. Do you wake before the alarm or stay in bed until the last possible second?
Last second. I'm one of those crazy folks who would rather set the alarm for the minute I need to get up and then just GET UP ALREADY. My husband, who actually uses the alarm (I get up and go to sleep with the Baby Boy these days), prefers the "set the alarm for an hour early and then hit snooze every nine minutes until he finally gets up" method.

Drives. Me. Nuts.

2. Who should get a baby shower? Is it just the first baby or all babies?
I grew up in Tennessee where they threw a shower for every baby.

Now I live in Ohio and it's One Shower Per Customer Per Lifetime.

Naturally, I'll admit that I prefer the Tennessee way. But, I also appreciate those folks up here who, though they do not throw a shower, still help out the growing family and celebrate each new baby.

Babies are always an occasion for celebrating, even if you don't have a shower.

3. How will you spend Memorial Day?
This is the first year in a long time I won't be spending it with my paternal grandparents and extended family. I am sad about that.

However, my in-laws are coming in for a visit and we get to spend the weekend with them and I am happy about that. We'll probably grill something and play games but I have no idea what our specific plans are.

4. Do you have a Storm/Hurricane/Tornado/Fire plan for your kids, house..?
Well, we did at our other house. We just talked about what we would do here in the rental house this week. We need to spend a little more time on this, honestly.

5. What is your favorite morning drink?
I drink a hot cup of Constant Comment tea every morning. I also usually drink some OJ to take my allergy pill and a vitamin. I'm not sure those are my "favorite" morning drinks ever but they are pretty set routine.

So, what are your plans for the long weekend?
This post is linked to Five Question Friday at My Little Life.

Spiritual Lessons from Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea has been talking to us - serious talks - for several months about salvation, baptism, serving God and such like things.

She has talked to her granddad (also our pastor) about these same things.

On Mother's Day Sunday night, she told our church that God has saved her and that she wants to be obedient to Him in baptism.

This is all, of course, very exciting.

Now a confession for you: I'm a confident mom. I do not second guess our parenting decisions very often. I do not worry about my kids not having their own rooms, or the latest gadgets or really, about a lot of things that other moms seem to worry about.

But I do feel the burden of spiritually raising our children. I'm afraid they just know the "right" answers without truly understanding what they mean. I'm afraid of putting them off too long when they do know what God wants. I'm afraid of raising Christian-ized Hypocrites. But I'm also afraid of raising Couldn't Care Less Rebels.

The Spiritual aspect is the Real Deal, Important part of parenting and it scares me. Which is when I need to realize, yes, I am inadequate. But God is not.

So, anyway, after Sweet Pea's big announcement we were back home and getting ready for bed. She walked by our computer where the digital wallpaper changes and it happened to change to a scene of Egypt.

"Mom, do people in Egypt still worship idols like in the Bible?" Sweet Pea asked me. I explained how Egypt is a Muslim country now. She thought about this for a second - a very brief second.

"I might need to go there when I'm a grown-up," she declared. "I need to tell them about Jesus - they need to know!"

And my mind immediately thought, oh, I hope not. I thought of the dangers, of the political situation, or the reasons why that would be a difficult life for my daughter.

She thought of the people who need to hear about Jesus.

Clearly, spiritual lessons aren't just imparted from parent to child. Sometimes - often? - it works the other way too.

So, please pray for Sweet Pea. Pray that she will follow God's leading in her life. And pray that her mom doesn't get in the way.