The Power of Scent

When I was young, I lived with my grandparents in Spain.  My grandmother, a true homemaker, used to spend endless hours in the kitchen cooking for her family; because they had to eat and feeding them gave her pleasure.  Her kitchen, although not very big, contained everything one might need to feed a small army.

With a lot of cooking, comes a lot of dish washing.  She didn’t own a dishwasher until the late 90s, so all the washing and drying was done by her zu-chefs.  I really didn’t mind washing dishes, it just meant I got to stay in the kitchen longer listening to my grandmother’s amazing singing voice while she cooked.

My grandfather, a hard working man, would tend the garden, orchards, and animals (chickens, rabbits, ducks and a few others) after work and on the weekends.  Nearly everything that was served on our plate was a result of hard labor and love.  His dedication and sweat equity in the garden plus my grandmother’s love poured in her cooking made living with them a foodie’s dream.

Her endless stories about how Abuelo and her moved across the world in the 40s and then moved back to Spain in the 60s, her dreams of owning a food company and her patience to explain to me why things were done a certain way and how they were done are memories I will treasure forever.  I am telling you, a lot went on while I stood there washing dishes from an early age (about 5).  There is one another thing she did that made washing dishes more enjoyable.  She used to add homegrown lavender oil to the dish washing liquid.  After thirty to forty-five minutes of washing dishes my hands were soft and smelled heavenly.

As an adult, I am a sucker for everything lavender.  My body lotion is lavender scented, my natural laundry soap, hand soap, and of course… my dish washing liquid.  There isn’t a time that goes by when I think of my grandmother, her stories, an her unconditional love for me when I am around good lavender scent.  I still have these little satchels in my socks and underwear drawers that she made for me filled with dried lavender!  Yes, I’m obsessed but only with natural lavender scent. I don’t like plug-ins or scented candles… they ruin it for me.

Recently, I’ve come across Seventh Generation Natural Dish Liquid in lavender scent while shopping at Target.  After looking it up online, I learned that this natural dish liquid line has scents that come from natural plants and not factories.  In my next Target trip I bought a lavender scented bottle and it was love at first try.

Although I have a dishwasher, there are many things that I wash by hand many times per day.  Between cooking for my family and all the recipe testing done for MOMables™ you could say that my hands are very clean.  So far, I love my Seventh Generation Natural Dish Liquid and while hand washing dishes isn’t my favorite thing to do, the scent brings back memories that help pass the time.  You already know I use a lot of Seventh Generation products and I will continue to do so as long as they work well and they remain natural.

How about you? Do you have a natural scent you like most? 

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Disclosure: I am part of a “Seventh Generation – Nature Makes Perfect Scents” blogging program.  While I will eventually receive compensation for this post, the only reason I decided to enter the blogging program with Social Moms is because this is a product I already use.  The above story and opinions are my own.