Academic Aroma

Back in the day, when I taught school, we could burn candles in our classrooms. I understand that's not allowed now (for good reason, I'm sure!) but I enjoyed it at the time. Third graders, especially after recess in the Texas heat, have a certain... aroma. I had a specific candle that I ALWAYS burned: Yankee brand "Spiced Apple." Once I came home to be a fulltime mom I would burn it once in awhile, and it always made me think of school. Well, when I began homeschooling, a Spiced Apple candle was as essential to me as a planbook and a cup of coffee. Each school day I would light our "school candle" in the schoolroom. Last year I went to Linens n' Things to pick up another candle and found out that that particular scent had been :::gasp!::: discontinued. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't imagine. I supposed I would just have to put the kids in school and be done with it, for I didn't think I could actually teach without the aroma of "Spiced Apple" filling the air. Not just any old spiced apple, either. Yankee. It had to be Yankee. I looked a couple of other places and couldn't find them, so I ordered the three I could afford off of Ebay and decided I would just make them last by burning them v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. Maybe only one day per month until the kids graduate.

I happened to mention it one day to my sweet friend, Debbie. If there's anything hard-to-find shoppingwise, she can find it. And at a good price. We all tell her our homeschool curriculum needs and she'll sniff them out. (Most recently she found me my Rosetta Stone French at a ridiculously bon prix!) One night at Awana, a couple of weeks after I had mentioned my candle conundrum to her, she handed me a small gift bag. In it was... a Yankee Spiced Apple candle! I was so excited, I actually jumped up and down. Well, she told me, there was more... In the back of her van, she had sack after sack of them. She had gone to the Yankee store and a few Hallmark stores and had bought all that they had. Big and small jars, votives, tarts... I was in heaven! I have enough to last until the kids graduate and go to college, and Bethany told me she wants me to save her a tart, so she can always remember the "smell of school."

So each day during our school year, I light our candle for awhile in the morning and the scent lingers the rest of the day. Today is a major day of planning for me, so I've lit my school candle in the room where I'm working, just to get myself in "school mode." However, the candle now holds added significance for me because it is the scent of school as well as the fragrance of friendship.