Help Is On The Way

This week's Cleaning Club began long before Monday morning. The Shannon family had been down and out with a very bad cold. We were sicker than we have been in years. It was such a great relief to know that we could just be sick without worrying about the house for the whole week. My mantra was "Cleaning Club will be here on Monday."

It turned out that I had a bit of reprieve over the weekend and was able to get some work done around the house, but not having the pressure of feeling like there was no help allowed me to clean the house and do laundry in a completely stress-free way without resentment.

Monday morning then found us with a clean house, so I decided that we'd go into the room which I'd pretty much avoided since we moved in September: Bernadette and Andrew's bedroom. These guys just turned 5 and 3 respectively and have a bunch of toys in their bedroom. It's been just chaos pretty much the whole time we've lived here.





So with the help of King Michael's direction, we sorted and recycled, trashed and cleaned. It was another time where I was just so glad to have Jennifer and Rachel there--because I started feeling worse again as the morning wore on and left to my own devices would have ended in a far more chaotic state than we began. We stripped all of the bed clothes . Using the tutorial from preparing for Michael's birth, Rachel washed and dried all of the bedding. Jennifer and I flipped the mattresses.





The results were just fabulous! It's one of those projects for which I am so glad we have before and after photos. The difference in that room has been phenomenal and has endured an entire extra week of mommy being dreadfully ill. Bedtime is better. Nap time is better. In fact everything about that room is better.





And what is the first thing all kids want to do in a newly cleaned room? Why dump out all of the the toys, of course, and play in this wonderful "new" space! Lyle and Andrew got right to playing with the trains on the cleaned and cleared floor. Since we cleaned--Bernadette and Andrew both have really enjoyed playing in their room. It's been so much easier for them to pick up, since everything now has a place and is easy to put away.



Even King Michael looks pleased at our offering. Huzzah!