Being that we now live in a climate that allows us to have our windows open all day, each morning finds me throwing open every one in the house and breathing in the crisp, cool air. When we lived in the desert, opening windows during the summer was akin to opening a big oven door, which, you know, wasn’t too helpful when it comes to cooling the house down.

But the thing I’ve noticed since we’ve been here is that in addition to cooler temperatures, we also have much, much, much more greenery. And sometimes… that greenery puts off an interesting odor. Now, we’ve established before that I am a plant murderer (although I can’t link for proof–it was on the old blog), so it is safe to say that with very little exception, I have no idea exactly what kind of plants reside around our beachy home. What I do know is that on some days–particularly the hotter ones–some of theses plants stink.

Lots of open windows + Stinky plants = Stinky house

I don’t know about you, but I’m not too keen on having stinky house.

So. My usual wonderful combat tool is burning a whole lotta candles… because, ah, how I adore candles. Of course, we all know that the only REAL candle is a Yankee Candle, but I do confess to keeping a little stash of cheapy ones from Wally World for when I’m in a pinch and need a new candle for an empty holder.

But, really, even an obsessive candle person like me has a hard time burning candles all day when it’s hot outside. It just seems… odd. I usually light the candles before John comes home as part of my “clean up the toys, tuck the slipcover back in, turn on a CD and light the candles before Daddy gets home” routine. But I don’t like to have them burning all day long, you know.

Today, the windows are open, it’s relatively (important word, that one) hot outside, and the greenery outside is making my house stink. So what did I do?

Grabbed a bottle of my body splash and splashed it around the house.

I know, we are all just in awe of such homemaking cleverness, now, aren’t we?

Now my house smells like Sweet Pea. (From this place, of course… because no matter how close the other brands try to get, they still can’t quite match the original… not that I’m picky about brands, mind you. That would just make me far too Southern for where I live.) Because Sweet Pea happens to be my signature scent. The one I splash on every day. The one my family puts bottles upon bottles of in my stocking at Christmas, because a girl can never have too much of it. The one that when my husband catches a whiff, he thinks, “Ah, how I love my bride!” Well, okay, maybe he doesn’t think that exactly, but he thinks something a little less dramatic, with the same meaning.

I love my stash of Sweet Pea stuff. I just love it. So much so that Sweet Pea deserves Capital Letters as I’m sitting here breathing deeply the light, flowery aroma filling the house (which is also covering the Stink, but that’s beside the point). And also so much so that I try to get as many different forms of that particular scent as I can. The only problem at the moment is that I happen to be completely out of my Sweet Pea lotion. I’m out of the body wash, too. And the hand cream. And the bar of soap. The only thing I actually have is that one bottle of body splash. How we came to be in this state of affairs is beyond me, except for the fact that in The Craziness of the past few months, I’ve just forgotten to pick up any new bottles. So I’m resigned to either using regular old white lotion in combination with my body splash, or–what I’ve actually been doing–using up some of the other lotions and perfumes I have in my bathroom, but don’t use on a regular basis.

Tonight when John gets home, the house will smell like Sweet Pea. I’m fully positive that when he walks in the door, he’ll think something along the lines of, “Ah, how I love my bride!” as he is greeted by the oh-so-sweet aroma. I’m just sure of it.

Hopefully he won’t think, “What is that overwhelmingly strong scent of perfume in this place?” Or worse yet, “It smells like Ash has been tilling the soil and working with those stinky plants while wearing her perfume stuff.”

Because that’s not quite the reaction I had in mind.