Hell's Kitchen Redeemed

Okay--this slack was my fault--but after this Cleaning Club--the Shannon family got a wicked bad stomach flu, and then another round of sickness, and then the fussiest period of Michael's life.

This week we gave my kitchen a very thorough cleaning. We moved and scrubbed all of the appliances. Cleaned all the cabinets. Scoured the sink. Shined the faucet and knobs. We even hit some base board action. It's one of those jobs which doesn't need to be done too often, but which I never on my own seem to get to.

So without anymore freakin' ado---here is the photo fest from that day way back many weeks ago.

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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!

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The Armless Woman

This week's project will resonate with anyone who's ever had a three month old baby in the house. One of my biggest struggles with having a baby in the house is seemingly losing the ability to use my arms for any length of time. This post has been delayed for days waiting to not have to type it one handed, and in bits and pieces. Alas--I am here between nursing sessions typing one handed.

After much consideration, and procrastination, and failure to get stuff for the original project I wanted to do--I decided that what I really needed help with this week was just an all over, top to bottom cleaning. My daughter, Jane, had her 7th birthday on the weekend. My son, Andrew, had his 3rd birthday on Wednesday. I knew that amidst so much partying, there'd be no way I could nongrumpily clean the house.



So on Monday we busted out the vacuums and dust rags, the toilet brushes and window cleaner. One of the awesome Cleaning Club Effects is that a job that you normally would do kind of half-assed, you do really well. I know Jennifer and Rachel vacuumed places in my house they'd not only never do in their houses, but that I also wouldn't do in my own house. For my part, knowing how hard they were working helped me to not slack while working on the bathrooms, which hadn't had a hardcore, deep cleaning since Michael has been born. If they weren't cleaning along with me, I wouldn't have had the (guilt) motivation to do as good of a job as I did.



I was also able to prepare our big meal for the day while I had help around. I'd been craving spinach and feta pie, but knew it was a little more time consuming to prepare than many of the meals which I make. What a great gift to get to prepare a great meal surrounded by love!

It turned out to be a great project, since Michael decided this week that he pretty much wanted to be in my arms nearly all day. And while I am an avid user of various slings and carriers, there is just no way to really clean the tub with a baby strapped to your body.





We finished Cleaning Club with a double round of Happy Birthday and blowing out candles for Andrew and Jane. Not only did the kids love it, but it helped us to eat up cake from Jane's birthday, before there was new cake for Andrew's birthday. Good thing #163 about Cleaning Club: they help you eat cake.

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Creating Manland

It’s really funny that my post is on the heels of Rachel’s, because yesterday I was seriously ready to call this whole thing quits. My kids decided to more or less refuse to clean up the remnants from having their friends here during Cleaning Club. Four hours later the house was still not put all back together. I was sure that we’d just have to skip our house from now on--because I just could not deal with the fallout from Cleaning Club any more. Fast forward to 10:00pm when my husband expressed the. most. sincere. gratitude for finishing up the room he’ll use as his study, and I remembered just how worthwhile it all is- even in the face of the worst post-cleaning club apocalypse.



This room had been the dumping ground since we moved. We had agreed that we’d just leave the unsorted boxes in that room to deal with later. Later was apparently becoming never. It was one of those truly awful jobs that nobody wants to do. I know my husband was completely overwhelmed at the thought of tackling this room. I think it's safe to say that it was a job which none of us wanted to really do either. I honestly wanted to quit about halfway through, and if I was on my own without Rachel and Jennifer, I most certainly would have stopped right then, mid-project, with an even bigger mess than the room had been.



In addition to figuring out what to do with the boxes of complete randomness, this task was also destined to include straightening out the shed so that we could stack the boxes of books that didn't fit on our shelves, as well as the few boxes which would need to be sorted sometime in the future. I hadn’t really planned on that organizing of the shed--but the need became apparent as the task progressed. Well... really as soon as I opened the shed door.







It’s been a rough few months around the Shannon-house. With moving, unpacking, the birth of our sixth baby, my extremely slow physical recovery, my constant battle with postpartum depression, a flooding septic system and crawl space, the subsequent repairs for those issues which lingered unfinished for two months, and most recently the death of my father-in-law things have been super stressful . Things have been especially difficult for my husband, and I know he has felt really kind of inundated when he is home.



Giving him a space, his own space in our new home will hopefully help him feel the love with which his room was cleared and created. And when you get down to it, that really is the essence of Cleaning Club now--love. It is love for one another and for ourselves and our families which drives our projects. We want to make our homes better places for living and loving. And well, the truth is -as we all know- love is messy. Some weeks it’s really messy. But without love- I know I’d be lost.

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Whilst Somewhat Incapacitated

Normally, I go into a complete panic and become rather unbearable for at least a day or two before my parents come for a visit. And this is after years of learning to let most of the little things just go. This visit from my parents coincided with having an itty, bitty new baby, living in a house into which we moved less than 2 months ago, and me feeling very frustrated as my recovery from birth had taken a seemingly giant leap backward over the weekend before Cleaning Club.

However, this Monday when my parents would be arriving, found me not at all stressed about the house or trying to do too much, because this Monday was Cleaning Club day! Rachel and Jennifer came over and not only helped me get everything straightened up, and the bathrooms clean, and the floors vacuumed; they also did most of this while I left and went to the chiropractor to try to mitigate some of the pain I had been in over the weekend.

Not only did they clean while I was gone, they also cuddled and snuggled Michael, changed his diaper and really tried to insist to my husband that he go chill and take a much needed break. Anyone who has had a newborn baby in the house can appreciate how much help it is just to have loving arms to hold the baby while running to a doctor's appointment!! But then to also come home to a house which was clean--well, that's the epitome of Cleaning Club, and the love which Rachel and Jennifer have just poured out upon me in such great measure.

When I returned from my appointment, we all had lunch. Then before heading home Rachel and Jennifer helped me to get some things put away in the entryway closet (where previously they had reassembled the shelves and helped me go through the random debris we had piled there when we moved). They also helped me hang the bulletin board , so I could start pinning up some of the kids' artwork which had been collecting since we moved. The other task--which for short little me would have involved ladders and lifting--that was finished, was Jennifer removing a very, very annoying door stopper which had been keeping the laundry room door from opening all the way. It was a small thing which took her only a couple minutes--but it has already made my life better! And instead of frazzled psycho-woman , my house got to be peaceful and calm for the rest of the day, despite our coming visitors, and I got to curl up in my favorite room with my wee little man drinking in the life I lead so full of abundant blessings.

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Cleaning Club: Birth Edition

Yesterday Rachel and I had the great honor of being present while Shannon gave birth to her new son, Michael Francis.



Shannon had asked me early in her pregnancy if I would photograph the birth, and I was quick to agree! I have never attended a birth other than my own, and I was excited to capture the day with images for Shannon and her family.















And look! Rachel in action doing a bit of laundry before we left the house so everyone could rest. I helped by taking pictures of her :)



Now, I know that this all seems very far outside what you probably would consider normal for a little group of women who get together to clean each other's houses. But we say that this is how things *should* be! Women working together and supporting each other through life. The time we have spent in each others homes; helping with cleaning and organizing projects and supporting each other emotionally through all the daily trials of motherhood; has given us all such an amazing sense of trust and love for one another. It was truly a gift for us to be able to share this day with Shannon and her family, and I know we will never forget it as long as we live.



Happy birthday to Michael! And congratulations to Shannon and Pat- you guys did great and he is just beautiful. I am so thankful you are a part of our lives.



(I almost forgot: Michael's little hat is the Umbilical Cord pattern from Stitch 'N Bitch, adapted for sock yarn on size 3 needles. I used self striping yarn and it turned out so cute!)

**This post was originally featured on LIfe With Girls, with the following comments:

ME said...
that is really great. That looks like a big baby! I wish life was like that everywhere.
October 29, 2009 7:22 AM

Jenny derevere said...
Beautiful pictures of such an amazing birth experience, Jennifer, I am all teary! Everyone looks so beautifully happy, and Michael is so perfectly beautiful!
October 29, 2009 8:44 AM

Shannon said...
Thank you both---for transforming this from something about which I was so tentative and scared and overwhelmed by into this amazing experience and overflowing bounty of love. I cannot imagine this past 9 months without both you.
October 29, 2009 7:45 PM

Sarah Beam said...
Those photographs are so inspiring, beautiful, and love-filled. You ladies are awesome.
October 29, 2009 8:20 PM

Erin said...
sniff, sniff... tears of joy :-)
what an amazing experience for everyone!

welcome to the world, little Michael!
October 30, 2009 1:16 PM

Melissa said...
Shannon is very lucky lady to have such wonderful friends, I just know her from online, and I feel honored to know her just a little. I wish I had a friend like that, Don't take it for granted.
October 30, 2009 7:44 PM

Denise, Iris and Henry said...
Lucky you and lucky friend!

You know you can come take pictures if I ever have another!
October 30, 2009 8:16 PM

Kate said...
you are amazing and congratulations to you all.
October 31, 2009 12:27 AM

Anonymous said...
Jennifer, Rachel...God Bless you both. You are such wonderful friends to Shannon. Thank you for sharing your amazing gifts of love with Shannon and her family. You are such gifts. As Shannon's mom who truly cares and worries about every little thing, you both have really also been a gift to me, in knowing that Shannon and her family are part of a bigger family who loves them.
October 31, 2009 1:43 PM

grousy said...
jennifer, you are such a gem. I'm glad to call you my friend and obviously there are many others with the same feelings about you! OK, I'm crying now- such a sweet thing :)
Ruth
November 01, 2009 11:54 PM

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Saving Dinnertime

Before on here, I think I mentioned that my husband brought home a big table from work. We had a round table at which it was nearly impossible for us all to fit. We also only had four chairs, which meant every meal we'd have to pull chairs from all over the house to accomodate the seven of us.

For my birthday a couple weeks ago, my parents gave me the immense gift of 8 new dining chairs from IKEA. The only drawback was that they all had to be assembled. My husband put together a few late at night after the kids were in bed, but the day before my birthday Rachel and Jennifer of Cleaning Club Posse fame assembled the rest of the chairs while I cleaned my counters.

Now every, single time I sit at the table I am surrounded by love. My husband found us a table, my parents bought us the chairs, and my husband and dear beloved friends put together the chairs. I have hated, loathed, resented mealtime and all it's chaotic crappiness--but now when I sit down I fell like I have a little secret, and it makes it all a little better. As well as us all just fitting at the table, and not having chairs which either spin or are too low.

Thank you all for saving dinnertime in our house!!

**This post originally featured on After the fire came a gentle whisper..., with the following comments:

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