Meet the Parents

The 3 older boys went to a Lock-In with their youth group last night. This entails staying up all night and listening to peer talks on God and morality, playing games, and eating pizza until you're stuffed.That sounds like a full weekend doesn't it? Not quite enough for my second son Peter.Last week I told you Peter had a new girlfriend. Tonight I met her, (and her Mom!). Peter asked if he could make dinner for Lauren. I kinda love that he asked that. For years now I have been teaching my boys to cook. Andrew can do all things breakfast related, but wants nothing much to do with it after that. Peter, John Paul, and Matty on the other hand love to cook. One of the comments I always made when teaching them why it was good to learn to cook was that someday they might need to feed themselves OR someday they might like a girl, and it would be awful nice to be able to cook her dinner! Peter remembered that little gem. Lauren is a new driver and since you've already read my post on my heart walking out the door with Andy and the car, it was no surprise when she asked if her Mom could come along since it was a long drive (about an hour).

Peter made his famous Chicken Marsala and it was delish! Lauren and her Mom Miriam arrived promptly and the house felt like we were welcoming old friends. Honestly, with 10 kids milling around it would be really difficult to not keep up the conversation, but Miriam was really easy to talk to and Lauren is polite and pretty with a smile that lights up the room. She even offered to play the guitar for us after dinner. She has taught herself most of what she knows and my little girls danced around the room while she strummed out some tunes. Since Fred and I got along so well with her Mom, we're thinking of setting it up as a new policy for all our boys-

Dear Sons,
From here on in, please bring your girlfriend and her Mom over for 3 hours of observation time.Dinner will be served. (As a matter of fact, you'll be cooking it.)
Thank you, 
Your Parents 

Quite honestly, there might be huge wisdom in this. I cannot begin to tell you how nice it is to see a family instead of just a person. It seemed so much more natural an environment in many ways,and I am sure it had to be nice for the 2 of them to have each other in the midst of our crowd.I guess it shouldn't surprise me that we all seemed to be on the same page.(Dad and younger brother were away for an overnight, so well have to check them out at a later date!)

In any case, the evening was a success and Peter seems super happy- and super sleepy!