It is time.... to say thank you

I have been doing Children's Liturgy at Church for about 16 years.. I think. I have always worked with Kay, who is the mom of 5 children, mother in law to their 5 spouses and Grandmother to their 8 grandchildren. But when I first met Kay... she was supermom.. to 4 girls and one boy. Not only do I work with her on a weekly basis at Church, but I get to see her often at school where she is a super mom to 400 kids outside on duty most days of the week.

Kay and I get together at least once a month to go over the readings for each Sunday of that particular month. We then have to gear our talks and crafts to the 4, 5 and 6 year old kids, and make them relate to the readings. Kay is an expert at it. I have learned so much from her about what all these mystery readings mean, what they stand for, and how we learn from them. She has given me a deeper faith, and confidence to teach this to others... That is the bonus of knowing her.. the real meat and potatoes of Kay is her patience, her knowledge, her wisdom on how to be a good mom and gramma.

In every one of our "meetings" we not only dream up crafts and invent "how Jesus and folded jumping frogs" relate to the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary time (for example).... Kay also guides me through some of my parenting heartaches, my fears, my challenges and my celebrations. With 5 children of her own, and 4 of them girls... she certainly has lots of ideas, successes to share and failures for me to learn from. And I always leave Kay's home with a fresh and sometimes still warm loaf of homemade bread...

Ok... that is the history... this is the reality. When ever Kay is globe trotting around the country visiting her family, I do Sunday Morning lessons with the kids on my own. We each have a Church bag.. filled with story books, magnets, scissors, bells, paper projects and "the books" we do the readings from. When Kay leaves for a couple of weeks, I get her bag, because she carries all the story books, the action story scribblers and the hard covered book that the Father hands to the kids.

I just couldn't stand to drag that decrepit bag around any more. It was made of thin cotton, with ripped handles, torn in several spots and way to flimsy to be carrying all the heavy books that are treasured by both of us..

Now, Kay went away two weeks ago, and I thought this might be the perfect opportunity to make a replacement for her ugly bag... I got my sister and her awesome sewing machine to make a couple of "Kay" patches and she sent them down with Michelle. With no pattern to follow except experience, I designed a sturdy bag, with heavy duty handles, and lots of space for her books and a row of pockets inside to hold the magnets, ribbon, pencils, scissors and even the gold bells I found at the bottom of her old bag! I choose funky and modern flowered fabric to accent the canvas and to make the lining....

Thank you Kay, for all you have taught me, shared with me, talked me through, and laughed with me. I love you and your whole family.... but I hated "the Ugly bag"! It was time for it to go! Hope you enjoy the new one....