Zae said. Rae said.

So yesterday I was in the kitchen busy preparing dinner. Zae filled the gallon-sized pitcher with water, mixing the lemonade contents. The window was cracked open and we could hear the faint swish-swsh of the broom as Israel cleaned the driveway. I glanced out and smiled, commenting aloud, "Boy! Your sister sure does like to sweep! I'm so glad!"

Without interrupting his stirring, Zae said, "Yeah, but she needs to not do it so much! She's becoming a workaholic!"

*******

The other day I was at my little kitchen nook, reading my Bible, journaling, and sipping a cup of tea. The sun was still making its debut for the day and pale pink strips streaked the horizon. Dishes clinked and clacked as Israel busied herself unloading the dishwasher. (She is so stinkin' adorable!!)

"Mom," she paused to wait until our eyes met, the signal that I was listening. "I like it when you come down in the mornings and read your Bible and drink your tea. It's cool!" She turned to pick out another plate and then as she set it in the cupboard I heard her say, "It's romantic."

Oh! That my daughter would know the ongoing pursuit of her heart by an intimate, romantic Savior!

*******

But my daughter isn't getting all the messages with such clarity. Obviously, there's some confusion in some areas.

At bedtime a couple of weeks ago, Israel and I were laying on my bed reading when Israel put her book down and said, "Ma..." (She's calling LeRoy and I 'Ma' and 'Pa' these days since watching seasons of "Little House on the Prairie.") I put my book down and turned my head on the pillow, our faces mere inches from one another. She smiled mischieviously. "I know why you and dad lock your door to have private time." She definitely had my attention.

"Oh?" I said.

"You lock your door so that you can lay in bed together and talk about sex."

I giggled briefly before asking, "Really? How do you know that?"

She continued confidently, as if she was about to enlighten me about her amazingly intellectual sources of information. Inwardly, I thought she simply got the information from conversations between she and I a little... misconstrued. "I learned it from 'Everybody Loves Raymond.'"

Now, I have to give you a little backstory. We had television in the States but it got like a whole three stations, one of which was Channel 7, the Public Broadcasting Station. I'm not even sure we got 'Everybody Loves Raymond' or if we did, we didn't know it. This was not a big deal... until we'd find ourselves in conversations with friends and they'd slap their knee, let out a big whoop, and proceed with, "Oh! So did you see last night's episode of 'Everybody Loves Raymond?'" This was the moment where we were supposed to join in the joke, throw back our heads, and laugh with the hilarity of last night's truths shared in sarcasm and slight cynicism. Well, needless to say, we sorta always ruined these moments with our not "being in the loop." Over here in Germany, we don't have television at all. And so, we watch movies... and the television series we can borrow from the library on Base. (This is how we went through all the seasons of 'McGyver,' which I didn't realize when I was younger, but they got somewhat dark further into the seasons. And now we're watching all the seasons of 'Little House on the Prairie.' See, we're not deprived after all! Except for the football season, during which there are long faces on Monday nights when they remember what they're missing...)

So back to my point. The library had 'Everybody Loves Raymond' and I thought that maybe we'd have a few family nights, eat popcorn, and find out what we've missed all this time. At this point, I naively thought that this was a family-friendly sitcom. Perhaps I've misunderstood the nature of sitcoms in general.

Anyway, I asked Israel, "You did?" I looked at her, me the confused one at that point.

"Yeah!" she said, "Remember? That's what they do! Raymond and his wife lay in bed at night and talk about sex. So now I know why you and Daddy lock your door and have your private time!"

I smiled at her, "Uh-huh." I thought about un-confusing the situation... but then I decided to just leave it at that for a minute. We'll have more conversations. I'm sure. For now, we just chuckle to ourselves as LeRoy and I lock our bedroom door, cuddle up, and talk about sex.