Our friends went back to Charleston today. We miss them already. The visit this weekend was riddled with Heath-isms and Stella-attacks and Lucie-ways (like an angel!), and a small degree of physical sickness, but it still managed to be full of delightful treats and low-key adventure and child-raising, life-living inspiration.
My lady BFF is a preschool guru and she came to town loaded with books and lists and ideas of how to teach, entertain, and gently guide my children in the direction of feeling happy, emotionally healthy, independent, and accomplished. As I was planning my day with the kiddies tomorrow, I consulted one of the books she gave me, a 365 creative things to do with preschoolers bible. It had a list of activities that they cutely classified as "Crazy Cans," for those times when it "starts to get crazy." I zeroed in on that list immediately and settled on giving the Paper Punch fun a whirl. Supplies needed: hole puncher, colored paper. Grows the attention-span. Strengthens the hand-grasp. And should be pretty interesting to see Heath go to town on some hole punchin' in the morning. Bonus: You have a nice selection of confetti for future art projects. Or, more likely in the Ropko house, we will be sweeping up pieces of wayward confetti for weeks. Oh well. Good thing sweeping is listed as an excellent "calming" activity.
So not only am I getting set on what I need to do to keep Heath on track, and help Stella along with her ever-progressing interest in the world around her, the Ropkos are completely stocked up on all things hygiene-related. My lady BFF's husband (who is also pretty much my second BFF, tied with Mark) is a money-saving, coupon-using genius. He's the kind of shopper that actually leaves the store making money, because his coupon using skills are that amazing.
A couple of days before their visit, he sent me an email and asked about Mark's razor preference and body wash interest. Seems he had some coupon-related 5-star razors (the kind we NEVER splurge on) and a few other items to share with Mark. Their first night, we were showered with a gift bag o' goodies that were all buy one get one free, then use a coupon that can be doubled, and if you take it to CVS, they'll honor any coupon, then suddenly you've bought $35 dollars worth of products and they're paying you.
We were loaded up with Old Spice High Endurance Body Wash, Dove Man Care, Nivea Manly Wash, toothpaste, dental floss, deodorant, lady products (Heath was squealingly thrilled with these, oddly enough), razors of not one, not two, not three, but FIVE blade variety. We will be clean, hairless, free of tooth grime, and completely ready for all days of life, heavy and light.
I had to be somewhere tonight by 7:30, so I took a quick shower, forgetting that I had not put a new bar of soap in the dish. But there was the Old Spice High Endurance Body Wash in its Man-Sized Red, White, and Manly Blue patriotic tough guy packaging. I could smell the fragrance before it even got sudsed-up in the wash cloth. Strong overtone of man-musk with a hint of ocean sweat. I checked the ingredients. Water was first. Sodium Laurel Sulfate was second, then every other sodium, aluminum, laurealethelene, petroleum, benzo came after. The fourth ingredient was fragrance. Of lemon? Of orange essence? No. Just fragrance.
I don't know what happened. Maybe I just simply got used to it, or the strong scent burned the inside of my nostrils, but I started to like it. It seemed more ocean breeze, and less 7th grade school dance Drakkar knock-off. After I got dressed, I went downstairs to give everyone a kiss goodbye. As I leaned in to give Heath a smooch, he said, You smell like man soap.
Yes. Yes, I do. And with four free bottles in our possession, I probably will for quite some time.
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