During my husband's long ongoing military career I have come to realize how important scent can be during a separation.

When he was gone for a year, he packaged up one of his T-shirts that he slept in for 4 days and sent it to me.  Opening that baggie and smelling him was like a punch in the gut for me.  It was so...potent.  It didn't smell bad, it just smelt like him, and it made me cry.  I ended up putting that shirt on a spare pillow and sleeping with it alongside me in our bed. 

When I was little girl my mother used to wear lavender scented lotion on her hands and skin.  When it came time for me to go to school, she gave me a little bag filled with dried lavender that she had picked from the bush in our yard and told me that whenever I felt sad I was to hold that little bag up to my nose and it would help me not to cry.  To this day, I find lavender a comforting smell - in fact, I carry a pouch of dried lavender in my purse and knitting bag.

I find that smells evoke more memories for me than almost anything else.  My husband's grandfather, for example, smells like Zest soap.  His house smells like furniture polish.  My dad smells like Imperial Leather soap and occasionally Old Spice after shave.  Anytime I smell any of the above I think of them.

What do you smell like, JU?  What does your family smell like?

I smell of the soap and lotion I use everyday - Bath And Body Works Amber Myrrh.  It's a combination of myrrh and vanilla with a little ginger and rose thrown in.  It's a wonderful smell, and about the only perfumed stuff I have that doesn't break me out. 

My house smells of Pine Sol and sandalwood incense.  Every morning after the kids have gone to school, I gret dressed and light a sandalwood incense stick in front of my kitchen Buddha.  Whilst the stick is burning, I clean - hence the Pine Sol scent.  My living room smells like Yankee Home Candle's 'Fresh Comfort' and 'Clean Cotton' scents, and my bedroom  smells like their 'Storm Watch' scent.

How about you?