The Edmiston Family: Three year old theology, parades, and happy summer weekends . . .

My daughter Sydney is almost four but it seems like lately she is going on 14 (with the exception of toyroom cleaning and shopping). Since Josh has been working at night a lot this summer, I have been the one to take over the bedtime ritual of bathtime and prayers. We have started the tradition of teaching Sydney scriptures in the bible to quote before bedtime. We actually got the idea from a friend at church who taught her kids the Lord's Prayer. Sydney had that memorized in a week and from there we moved on to Psalm 23. Well, she can recite both of those scriptures better than me (sad, I know), so Josh and I decided to teach her The Confession of the Overcomer. This is a compilation of scriptures that our high school bible teacher put together. I can just about guarantee that every student that ever attended Santiam Christian can still recall this prayer. It's more complicated than the other two (I have an even harder time remembering it), and it uses very big words! She is doing very well, but has started asking a TON of questions. One night in particular, she asked what it meant to be cleansed by the blood of the lamb, which somehow (don't ask, not really sure) led to a conversation about tithing. This particular conversation was very entertaining because after explaining the principle of tithing, my intuitive daughter said "mom, if Jesus lives in our hearts then why do we have to give our money to the church???" I love talking to her about Jesus because I am reminded of what an honor it is as a mother to lead my children into their own walk with the Lord and to see the insight of a almost 4 year old! What really cracks me up is the fact that she has somehow put Bob Hope in the mix of Jesus and God, so every time we talk about Jesus coming back to earth she reminds me that Bob Hope will come also and we'll take the hot air balloon up to heaven (long story . . . Bob Hope is EVERYWHERE in Palm Springs which is our favorite vacation destination and Syd is enamored with him).

Other than theology, we had a happy summer weekend full of relaxation, church, a parade, a walk and breakfast with Shayla, and our first bike ride of the summer! Woohoo for weekends where we get to stay close to home. The parade was long and kind of silly, but our daughters LOVED it! What fun it is to see life through a child's eyes. As for the bike ride, it was fun but Annie's helmet kept falling off and she cried about 30% of the time. Oh well, it was good exercise and we have decided to go for a ride as often as possible. We'll see how far we get with that resolution. Oh yeah, the best part of the weekend? My little container garden is looking terrific this year - my second cucumber is ready to eat and there are little green tomatoes everywhere. For someone who hates watering and typically kills everything, I am estactic!!