Catholic Librarian turned parish catechist?

For a while now, I've wanted to become more involved in my parish. There are some Bible studies that I would *love* to attend, but it's just not in the cards right now. They are held either during the day, while I'm working, or in the evenings, when I feel that I need to be home with Hank and Mike. There is a parish woman's group, but they meet Monday evenings when Mike is teaching and obviously I need to be home with Hank. I would like to teach religious education, and if it were on the weekends, it might be doable. However, our parish holds religious education on Tuesday or Thursday evenings, so once again I run into the family issue. As a mother working full-time outside the home, I'm very sensitive to maximizing the time with my husband and child that I do have in the evenings. I figured that once Hank started religious ed. in first grade, I could volunteer the same night that he'd be there, so then I wouldn't be missing out on time with him.

Well :) Now with the baby coming, I doubt I'll be volunteering next year. The baby will still be very small next autumn, and will need my undivided attention in the evenings.

Out of the blue, the Director of Religious Ed. called me yesterday to ask if I'd be interested in volunteering as a catechist for Liturgy of the Word for Children, held at the 10 am Mass each Sunday. I'd only have to do it once per month, since they rotate their volunteers, and she thought it might be a good fit for me.

At first, I was a little anxious, given that these will be small children. Remember Vacation Bible School? It's like herding cats. Liturgy of the Word for Children is geared toward kids that haven't yet begun traditional CCD or Catholic school yet. I do see some kids older than that going up, but still, we're talking about second graders and under.

But. And this is a big but. This will be material that I'm comfortable with. You go through the readings of the day with them in an understandable manner. You look at a worksheet together based on the readings. As opposed to my stint as games coordinator at Vacation Bible School when I felt completely out of my element.

So, I accepted the invitation to come over to the church tomorrow and have a look at the materials and the set up. I'm also going to observe next weekend when an experienced volunteer leads the the program. I'm kind of excited. I tend to want to control things too much (big surprise, right?) and often don't just 'wait on God.' I feel like this fell into my lap, and this may be what God would like me to do in the parish. Plus, Hank will be right with me, so perfect. Hopefully, he won't lead a revolt against his teacher the way he did on the first day of VBS.

*excitement exudes*