This past weekend Melody was helping me change the bag in the diaper pail in her room. She wanted to pull out the full bag and cut off the liner, etc., but I told her that was a job for Mom. She was squatting next to me and beside the changing table. Smart little gal reached in between the basket of socks and extra doodads I have there and pulled out the can of Lysol spray. She pointed it at the diaper pail and said “smelly” then made a “shhh” sound like spraying. Yes, at this age, she is aware of smells.

Having a child still in diapers, you could say that I am aware of some smells that I would rather not be aware of. After a particularly spectacular dirty diaper the other day, our back room really smelled bad. But don’t worry, I’ve got Orange Clove room spray for that. In the past I have opened up all the windows and allowed the fresh scent of the southern tip of Cypress waft in to cleanse the air. Need I mention that the southern tip of Cypress is just a block from the northwestern edge of Garden Grove? No, I didn’t think so.

Have you ever noticed how focused we as a culture are on smells? And on avoiding unpleasant ones? We buy Lysol with the smell of fresh clean sheets and Febreeze Fresh Scent to ban the pet odor from our furniture. There’s Spring Rain scented laundry detergent and Eucalyptus Mint bathroom cleaner. And let’s not forget the Orange scented kitty litter or Mountain Berry dish soap. [All these products are in my home, yikes.]

Soon we’ll be having Thanksgiving and Christmas with their inherent good smells of pie, turkey in the oven, stuffing, cinnamon, spices, baking cookies, and of course the ubiquitous “pine room spray” since we are using our fakey Christmas tree for another year. These are a few smells I don’t want to cover up, because they definitely make me think of this time of year.

The sense of smell is really important to tasting food, too. How would you enjoy a cup of coffee as much if you could not smell that “mountain grown aroma” or the vanilla creamer you added to it? Certainly, if I have a cold I find a way to choke down a bite of chocolate even if my nose is completely out of commission, but boy would it be even better if I could inhale. Who am I kidding, when you have a cold, just inhaling is a good thing!

Back to my point. We are determined to cover up the bad smells in our lives. There is recirculated air in the car so we don’t have to smell the diesel exhaust from a passing truck; there are all the sprays and additives I’ve already mentioned; we’ve got 169 matches for “deodorant” on a Target.com search, for heaven’s sake! Are there seriously 169 different smells of deodorant? Including “unscented,” the scent that doesn’t smell like anything? That may be true. Due to a trick in making all the packages look alike, I failed to buy the unscented type I prefer and currently my pits smell like an Ocean Breeze.

Hopefully, it’s an Ocean Breeze from one of the cleaner beaches and not from the stinky harbor Dad and I visited in Mexico a few years back. That particular ocean breeze consisted of rotting fish and trash and was just horrible. And me without my room spray, too. And I haven’t even touched on the perfume and cologne available for men and women. You can smell like anything from a sweet 16 to a cagey cougar all for under $25. Target really is amazing. Why are we so obsessed with smelling like anything but ourselves? Very strange.

Hope your Thanksgiving is filled with delightful smells, good smelling people, and lots of love!

PS Operation Baking Gals is open for Round 5 to ship in time for Christmas. If you are interested in taking some deployed military person under your wing at this time of year, when most of us are blessed to have our family and friends right around the corner, please stop by the website and join a team. I’ll be on Team Just Ducky once it’s opened. It really makes a difference to have a bite of home out there in this great big world.