| I love my big boys and men. I do. Aromatherapy air | | | | some hint of femininity. My dependence on |
| freshener has helped me go right on loving them | | | | aromatherapy air fresheners has everything to do |
| through puberty's ravages, late adolescence's | | | | with waging war against the unmistakable...well, we |
| awkward stages and early adulthood's long days of | | | | will say "musk" of feet, armpits, and nether parts. |
| hard work and long nights of hard partying. For the | | | | So, of course, in my guerilla campaign against all |
| most part my boys and men have grown-up pretty | | | | things distinctly boy-smelling, I use an aromatherapy |
| well, and I have toughened-up as they have grown. | | | | air freshener everywhere and in all its forms. I feel |
| Still, without lemon, pine, cedar, and my own favorite | | | | pretty confident I have invented, adapted, innovated, |
| fragrances, I do not feel certain I would have | | | | and mutated aromatherapy air freshener in solutions |
| survived. One aromatherapy air freshener after | | | | and applications Mother Nature and all the domestic |
| another has kept our house smelling like a house | | | | demi-goddesses never imagined. In the clothes |
| instead of a locker room. | | | | hampers, my formulas dominate. In the dryer, |
| I live in a house filled with boys and men-one | | | | softener clothes drenched in one of my formulas |
| husband, four sons, and one large blonde German | | | | work clothes, school clothes, jerseys and jockstraps. |
| shepherd. One girl managed to squeeze herself into | | | | In the bathrooms, candles and diffusers, strategically |
| the middle of the pack. Since that one and only | | | | located sacks of cedar and pine, and even in the |
| daughter took off for UCLA, sadly determined to | | | | toilet tanks-places boys imagine girls cannot venture. |
| have a life and career of her own, I egg-beater kick | | | | And, in the kitchen, I sometimes battle my own the |
| and tread water in seas of testosterone, battling | | | | smells of beef, pork, onions, and garlic. Just because |
| dirty socks, even nastier boxer shorts, and collected | | | | my ravenous hordes must have their slabs of meat, |
| debris from baseball, soccer, and lacrosse fields mixed | | | | nowhere does it say I must live with the day-after |
| with the unmistakable bouquet of 90-weight | | | | smells of their feasting. |
| transmission oil. Surely, then, you must understand | | | | Most of all, though, the use of an aromatherapy air |
| how an aromatherapy air freshener has become my | | | | freshener has become my secret seductive tool for |
| very best friend. | | | | those rare moments when I have time alone with |
| Trust me: If ever I once was the least bit girlie-girl, | | | | my man... Candles work well, linen spray works |
| sensitive or squeamish in any way, the boys and men | | | | better, and my hair, wrists, and nape seem to have |
| have sent my weaker double-X chromosome qualities | | | | superpowers. And just to show what kind of girl I |
| into remission. My reliance on aromatherapy air | | | | am, I confess I mix essential oils with fragrances for |
| fresheners has little or nothing to do with delicate | | | | him-not my favorites, but the ones that drive him |
| sensibilities, over-sensitive olfactory functions, or | | | | wild. Okay, maybe those essential oils have become |
| disdain for things out of order. Believe me: my chaos | | | | my favorites, too, because of their sweet |
| tolerance has soared off the top of the charts. It | | | | associations. Women's magazines have claimed |
| takes only one slightly desperate telephone call, | | | | women respond to pheromones more than men do. I |
| "Mom, I forgot my jock and cup," to blast the Barbie | | | | really do not think so. When I lavish seductive |
| right out of the girl. No, aromatherapy air freshener | | | | aromatherapy air freshener around the boudoir, my |
| around my house has nothing to do with maintaining | | | | man seems to pick up the scent just fine. |