A Changing of the…..Seasons?

I love the change of the seasons…spring into summer is my favorite.  (I'm a 'hot weather' person).  The descending order of preference from there is summer into fall, winter into spring, and bringing up the rear is fall into winter.  I like to redecorate the house for each season, work in the yard and plant the season's best plants, flowers or veggies.  I like to go from coat to light jacket to tank tops and shorts.  I also like (yes - I am admitting this!!!) to go into the first sweater, fleece sweatshirt or flannel of the fall, walking in the crisp leaves and treasuring that wonderful October smell.  But do you know what my favorite part of each season change is????…….drum roll……………changing out the body scents!  You know - shower/bath gels, body sprays and body butters or moisturizers.

I know that specialty stores sell products for each season, but I have yet to find someone like me that switches them out.  Most people, I guess, just finish the product and don't really care that they may smell like a peppermint candy cane in April, or Lemon Zinger in January.  My type A personality doesn't get that.  If a company makes a scented product to correspond with a season, why on earth would you use it any other time?  I know - some of you are thinking - "Why on earth would you want to smell like food anyway?"  My reason - because I'm not a 'flower' person.  Those products are too perfumey and make me sneeze, so I would only think it would make others around me sneeze.  But food scents….now, who doesn't like food?  Especially SEASONAL food??  Here are the scents I am enjoying thus far into fall….

One of my favorite brands is Philosophy.  Somehow, that company can capture the essence of a food and put it into a plastic bottle.  My mouth actually waters each time I squeeze some onto my spongey thing.  The caramel apple and the marshmallow…..definitely reminds me of autumn weekends near a fire pit, sticky fingers and sticky faces.  The carrot cake is all the smell without the calories.  This time of year Trader Joe's brings on the pumpkin brigade, and I snatched some of the body butter up last year - I am STILL working through that tub - and the smell and feel are divine.  (I need to add my Oatmeal Cookie shower gel into that mix, but I keep forgetting to grab it from the cabinet before getting in the shower). 

And you know what - after Thanksgiving I will put these bottles back into the cabinet (if I haven't finished the marshmallow and caramel apple by then, but I'm pretty sure I will!) and bring out the winter/holiday scents - peppermint candy cane, hot cocoa (a personal favorite - I took notice one time last year that I tend to crave more chocolate on the days I use that set), snicker doodle cookie, oatmeal cookie, chocolate chip cookie (because, as you can guess, they are all good Christmas cookie smells!).  It's just what I do.  It adds a touch of joy to my morning routine, simple as that may be.  Sometimes the smells even get me in the kitchen to bake something similar in smell for my family.  It's comfort smells, something that prepares me mentally each morning for the day/season ahead.  

So go ahead and keep your strawberry scents well into the fall, or the hot cocoa in July….it's mass confusion for my brain, it doesn't provide that comfort feel in the off season because it merely becomes just a scent to use up - - -along with my flannels and fleeces, I'll bask in the smells of autumn.

Dancing in the Storm

Did you ever wonder why there seems to be a golden beam falling on some people and a dark cloud over others?  Do some people naturally draw the flicker of light or, like a leashed dog, pull the dark cloud behind them?  Some people think it's only one or the other, but the reality is that each one of us experiences the good and bad, the funny and freaky, the "you're so lucky" and "can one more thing happen?"  life has to offer.  How you react to each opportunity - for yes, it IS an opportunity to grow and learn as a person - sends messages to those around you, albeit family members or neighbors and friends.

We live in a time when social media spreads news as quickly as jam on toast (at least, the way I slap it on toast!).  What we choose to share  gives a glimpse through our window called life.  Me - I share life - from the lovely to the dull and things in-between - not EVERYTHING, but those things for which I'm willing to rub a clean spot on the window through which to peer.  Sometimes I try to be witty, other times I just lay it out there.  What people tend to remember, though, are the struggles, the junk, the "can one more thing happen" moments.

I recently shared about the torsion spring on our garage door breaking at 4:22 am, with a *BOOM* so loud that it rattled the walls of my room.  That came after sharing that my van broke down, and all the accompanying struggles that went with it.  I have people commenting about all of the atrocities we endure, or how they can't believe the weird things that happen to us.  Yet, if I go back through posts I made before the van breaking down, they are about birthdays, school days, running races I've been in, prayers I'm offering, Little League Championships, wisdom teeth extractions, and accomplishments of my kids.  My last dark cloud post since Sept? - - May 14th.  There are so many golden beam moments, so many positive statements, and yet - - I "should write a book" because of all of the freaky things that happen to us.  I laughed at this and thought, "What a good idea" - and it's actually the reason that I'm back to blogging.  But it also got me thinking that I don't think we, as a family,  encounter any more "freaky" things than most other people.  Is it that I'm more willing to share it with others, to laugh at adversity, because it brings with it a sense of "I'm not alone"?  Don't we all (no matter how much we try to convince ourselves otherwise) inwardly appreciate that someone else is having a hardship and thanking God that it's not us?  I'm not talking about illness or devastation, but the small stuff….(don't sweat the small stuff sweetie!)

I like to think that my small stuff helps others realize that there is always, and yes, I mean ALWAYS, someone else who the dark cloud is visiting that day.  It doesn't bother me that it's here, over my house, because I know that it ALWAYS moves on.  And just like the weather, it will always come back.  It's how you prepare and react to it that will draw people to your window to peer in…and fortunately, perhaps even more appropriately, the Fed Ex man just delivered my new rain boots….I think I'm ready to dance in the next storm!