For Donna Carraway, Saturday afternoons are a time to prepare for Sunday church services and time with her family.

After shopping in Alexandria Saturday morning, Carraway, 46, came home to get to work in the kitchen, preparing chicken and dressing and a strawberry shortcake for the next day’s lunch.

Carraway and her family are members of Vidalia First Baptist Church.

It is important to Carraway to keep the Sabbath and make it a day of prayer and rest, she said.

“And that’s what I want to do is slow things down,” she said.

“Keep the tradition of the way Sundays were when I was little because that’s what we did. We spent time as a family.”

Church is also important to Carraway’s two daughters, Sarah Carraway Armstrong and Rachal, she said.

On Wednesdays, Carraway and Sarah teach pre-school children about various stories in the Bible in a class called Heart Shapers.

And on Saturdays, Rachal baby-sits at the church.

“I’ve never had to make them go to church,” Carraway said.

“It’s just something that we do. And that’s important to me, because when I’m gone, I want them to have something to fall back on. And that’s their church family.”

Even the food Carraway prepared Saturday has its roots in her church.

“This particular recipe was passed to me from a former pastor’s wife,” she said.

Carraway said she puts the food in the oven Sunday morning to cook while she and the family are at church.

“We’re so rushed, you know, trying to get ready for church, by the time we come back we’re ready to eat,” she said.