My brilliant friend Marcia drew this sketch a while back. I love it; it's hilarious. She found her inspiration in her church bag. I peeked in it today. It was gaping with a half-drunk bottle of milk, lots of kids books, and some cookies to help keep her four kids happy. Though I must say, mine is messier and full of stranger things. There's usually a rotten milk sippy cup forgotten weeks earlier. And some diapers that my daughter outgrew as a newborn. And some half colored princess coloring books, bits of paper, and lots of loose crayons, random family photos, cheerioes and other oddities.
It's kind of an old-fashioned thing to have a church bag, I suppose. Even to dress in one's best and sit all together as a family in a pew. I must say, it's one of those vintage activites that I think is worth keeping. Yesterday we were all a bit snappy with each other. After all, who was it that made a hole in the dry wall in the basement? And how in the world did my credit card bill get so big? And who spilled red dye all over the bathroom?
Somehow, today, after going to church, everyone seems a little kinder, a little less irritated with each other, a little better...despite the stinky sippy cup found lurking in my bag.
13 comments:
tag, your it. both of you. come on over and take a peek. btw that drawing is awsome. wish i had a great big purse, but then again it would be another thing to clean.
Would it be Max (from "Where the wild things are") climbing the bag ?
I love it too :)))
Yes, you can't imagine what's lurking in my bag!
my church bag is definitely not a pretty site. but it is filled with mess and memories. soggy cheerios and mysterious dirt at times, but also, like you, newborn sized diapers that got lost in there and old toys and rattles that are now passe to my boys, but that make me smile.
love the drawing.
I love that drawing! I can so relate. My bag is SUCH a mess (and I always have old sippy cups in there, too! I'm glad I'm not the only one who forgets)
Umm, I don't have kids, and my church bag is still interesting. This morning, when I opened it, there was an empty cheetos bag; a bag of silver sheriff's badges that I forgot to put in the church closet (last February); a shopping guide to NYC; and a bottle of Scope. None of which would be particularly useful at church, really. Except for the Scope.
love that drawng...and yes, it's amazing what coming together as a family every sunday to dwell on all those things bigger than us does for the disposition.
It's Marcia. Thanks, Melissa, for including my drawing on your blog. I must have drawn that a few years ago. I'm noticing that those crayons in front are whole... what a luxurious life we were leading! By the way, that little gremlin crawling out was inspired by a picture on Black Apple.
The old diaper! I have that, too! Why can't we just through them away? No one is going to want an old diaper with lint on it that smells like spoiled milk! Very funny post. Thank you.
Anna
Yes! I agree. After church is even more wonderful than before church is hard. Did that make sense? I don't know about y'all, but I feel the most un-religious as I try to get the family into ironed clothes and out the door. But once we're there, I'm always glad I came.
I have older kids now, but my bag is still full. I drop it at least once a month and you should see the stuff roll out. The most embarrassing thing was the hammer. I forgot that was in there!
I just found a bag of week old grapes! Yikes! Luckily Scott empties our church bag every so often on the kitchen counter. Which means of course that I have to clean the counter but better than letting old grapes fester!
Rotten milk isn't very pleasant to find on the best of days.
Melissa! This is YOU! WOW. I'm almost positive I've been to this blog before, although I don't remember right now how I got here. Your home is gorgeous! And I *remember* the picture of your playroom with the great floral playtent (shown on the cookiemag blog) -- I don't know whether one of my sisters emailed me a link as something they thought was pretty, or whether I just surfed upon it. Anyway, I'm going to have to keep looking around at the rest of the lovely stuff here at your blog. How funny that you were hiding in plain sight all this time.
Oh, and some of our Sundays are barely restful, but I was feeling just that way this past Sunday -- like it was a really tranquil, happy family afternoon that was really needed after a snappish week.
-Zina
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