Spring Cleaning Can Wait

When my daughter was very little, many years ago, this poem by Ruth Hulbert Hamilton touched my heart. So, for this week's Spring Cleaning tag I put Kanga in a rocking chair, rocking her Roo. The cobweb is embroidery floss with a tiny, jeweled spider dangling from it. The rocking chair is made from a palm leaf, the broom is a painted toothpick, red thread and yellow paper strips. the dust is black embossing powder and I drew in the dustpan. The little blue tag at the top, has the last stanza written on it.
Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.