View From ThE Apple House

April

The greatest compliment anyone can give me is when they enter our house, they take a deep breath and say “Man, it smells good in here!”

Whether it be the sauce bubbling on the stove in the kitchen, a candle I’ve just lit or a bouquet of flowers in the living room, I love that they acknowledge the smell. Even though I may be sneezing my fool head off on the last two, I can’t go without them,

Many of our memories are connected to smells, and that is what I’m trying to achieve. I’ve tried my best to keep the “Sunday Dinner at Nana and Poppy’s” even though not always successful. I understand, I really do. With both parents working or single parents doing it alone, Sunday afternoons are a precious time to sit back and take stock. I don’t much care for the term “scary Sundays”, where one is dreading work on Monday morning and lining up in the mind the to do list that invariably never gets done. Enjoy the moment and be in the now; gather the smells from the group of people you’ve invited, the various perfumes, cut grass or whatever else they’ve brought in with them.

Gathering together for a meal on Sunday does not have to be just for family members either. When my kids were little we always had a houseful around the table, whether it was their friends, our friends or neighbors down the street. Most of the time it was sauce and pasta, as that stretched the most. Greens and beans, crusty garlic bread, a salad and maybe a meat would round out the feast.

Of course, I wasn’t as faithful to my Sunday mantra. I got divorced, throwing a giant monkey wrench into the thought of gathering together. I had also moved away to another state, further widening the gap of being together.

Eventually, I came back, met a nice man who enjoys the same familiar traditions. I knew I didn’t want to lose the connections.

With the arrival of the second wave of grandkids, I knew it was time to adhere to this tradition of gathering together again. Now the older grands bring their girlfriends/boyfriends, looking to reconnect with us all.

Even the babies are noticing the excitement of gathering together.

As I hold the youngest baby in my arms, she looks up at me with a toothless grin, as if to say “Nana, my smellers are happy.”

May you always take the time to make us all happy smellers.