Cleaning and Scrubbing

During the month of October, I am running a Kickstarter campaign to record my fifth album, “Interior Gaze.”  Over the course of this month, I am going to share the stories and lyrics from each of the 10 new tracks for this CD.  I will simply start in alphabetical order.  Towards the end of the campaign, I will recap the entire project, explaining how the "Theology of the Body" inspired each song.

Here is the background story for song #2, “Cleaning and Scrubbing.”

Our daughter, Chiara

David and I were married in the Catholic Church.  We vowed to receive children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the faith.  True to our word, our first child was born one month after our 1st wedding anniversary.  Our second child came just 18 months later.  Without a doubt, becoming parents has been the best and most challenging adventure of our marriage.  

As a young mom, the most popular comment I receive from more experienced parents is, “They grow up so fast!”  I am not sure if I completely understand the gravity of those words yet; our children are still just babies.  However, my (almost) two-year-old son, Jamal, recently learned to sing, “All done!” when he wants me to stop hugging and kissing him.  So, I might be catching on.

In my song, “Cleaning and Scrubbing” I hope to capture the gentle blend of joy and sorrow that seems to accompany the best job in the world -- receiving children lovingly from God and raising them in the faith.  I began writing it when I was pregnant with Jamal, incorporating a nursery rhyme my mom taught me when I was little:

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
Babies grow up, we’ve learned to our sorrow
So quiet down cobwebs, and dust go to sleep
I’m rocking my baby, and babies don’t keep.
-Author Unknown

After our daughter, Chiara, was born, I completed the rest of the piece.  If we receive enough preorders for my new project, I will sing this for Chiara on the album.  At home, I often tailor the words for Jamal before we tuck him in for the night.  He usually gives me an encore.  The longer I sing, the longer he can stay up!

To read the lyrics, visit the updates section of my Kickstarter webpage by clicking here.  Would you like to hear this song in a studio recording?  Consider backing my project by making a pledge, and please join me in praying for success in this campaign.

More Story Lines & Lyrics, coming soon.

Amanda