My Children's Memories of Me When I'm Gone

On my lunch hour I went to New York. Really! I did! I went to go visit my bloggy friend Kathryn at From the Inside...Out. Kathryn is an amazing blogger! She's the kind of blogger I want to be when I grow up. She's witty, imaginative, friendly and she smells like someone threw up an entire basket of fruit! Don't believe me? Go and read her post today entitled Lather.Rinse.Repeat.

Wait, wait...don't go now! I mean go AFTER you read my post. Whew, almost lost you there. Ok...so Kathryn's post is about the scents that remind her of her mother and she wonders what scents will remind her children of her. That made me stop to wonder about what scents my children will smell someday when I'm no longer here that will remind them of me.

That made me remember a conversation one day a long, long time ago when my daughter April was only about 6 or 7 years old and she asked me how come our home didn't smell like Nana's house (my mom). I asked her what do you mean, what does Nana's house smell like? She said, "Nana's house smells good, like food." So I asked her, "Well...what does our house smell like?" She said, "Our house doesn't smell good, it smells like Clorox and Pine-Sol!"

See, I have a very sensitive nose, just like Kathryn. And it is both a blessing and a curse. One thing that I can't stand is the smell of food in the house. I mean I love it when I'm hungry, or when I'm cooking; nothing is better than the smell of my home cooked Meat Loaf Pie! But once I've eaten or when I'm not hungry, I hate the lingering smell of food.

My mom taught me a long, long, long time ago to always add a couple of tablespoons of Clorox to the dish water to disinfect & also make your dishes, counters and hands smell clean and Cloroxey! So while April was still basking in the lingering scent of meat loaf or burgers or taco's or peach pie; her mom was busy in the kitchen washing everything with Clorox to get rid of that smell that she loved.

And then to make matters worse, after washing the dishes I would take a paper towel and put a bit of Pine-Sol on it and walk through the house rubbing everything that didn't move with that paper towel to freshen up the rest of the house!

I can think of worse scents for my kids to remember me by, Clorox and Pine-Sol aren't that bad. My mom is still with me but I can't smell Noxzema or Jergens Lotion or beans cooking on the stove without remembering my mom. What smells remind you of your mom, your childhood, happy times?