My Favorite Scents & 10 Questions About School

Today I am combining two fun writing prompts for the week; Leslie's 10 on the 10th (which is all about back to school this month) and a fun new fall favorites link up with Emily & Sarah (which is all about our favorite scents this week).

My favorite fall scents all focus on food!  It may be a candle or a lotion or even scented lip balm but you'll see a very definite food theme-- pumpkin, cinnamon, apple, maple, caramel, brown sugar-- these are the scents that just scream fall to me.

My favorite lotion scents are the Dionis brand Warm Apple Pie & I just have a bit of their Caramel Pumpkin Spice (that doesn't seem to be available anymore!) left.

My boys and I often shop at the Yankee Candle flagship store in the fall and I pick out so many delicious smelling scents like:

I have these new candles I found at Michael's

How about you? What are some of your favorite fall scents?

Now onto this month's 10 on the 10th.  A few of these questions are similar to those I answered for last month's Monthly Musing but I think they're different enough that they're worth answering.


1.  What does back to school look like in your home this year? Alec started at a local high school that offers trades with culinary being one of them. He's spending the first 14 or so days in the building taking a different shop tour each day.  He then spends 2 weeks at home distance learning all his academic subjects (with a day or two in the building too).  In Oct he'll pick his favorite 3 shops and spend more time in each one before making his final decision.  The other two boys are homeschooling and so far we've been finishing up all our schoolwork by lunch.

2.  Does your state offer a back to school tax free weekend? If so do you plan back to school shopping around it? What kind of things do you buy? Our state does have a back to school tax free weekend but I rarely tend to buy anything during it.  Typically we don't need back to school supplies and this year we only bought Alec a backpack and lunchbox; both of which I ordered online. 

3.  Do your children wear school uniforms? If so what do they look like? If not is there a dress code in place? What are your thoughts on school uniforms?  Did you wear a uniform? Alec's school does have a uniform; each shop has their own but for this exploratory phase they just wear a polo shirt with pants or jeans (no holes/ rips), work boots, and safety glasses with their masks since it is 2020.  They have a different polo and can wear chino pants or chino shorts on academic days.  There is also a gym uniform. 

I love school uniforms as it makes getting dressed in the morning a quick and streamlined process. My boys have attended private school with uniform, public school without uniform, and then we've homeschooled where more often than not they wore pajamas (shown in the above picture of my youngest) and out of the three uniform came in second (nothing tops pjs!).  I too went to private school up until 3rd grade and wore a uniform. 

4. What did you want to be when you were growing up?  Did you plan to go to college? I don't really remember having one dream job for when I grew up.  I know at some point I wanted to be a wife, mother, teacher.  I did toy with the idea of becoming a fashion designer, interior designer, or art teacher when touring colleges.  I even made/ designed my prom dresses and a few outfits in high school. I'm not so much convinced I planned to go to college as it was just understood that I would. 

My husband and I at my junior prom

5. What sports did you play, what clubs were you in?  Were you a cheerleader? I played softball in elementary school but that's about it for sports.  I was on the yearbook committee, in both chorus and select chorus,  and involved in a few other clubs I can't really think of at the moment.  I was cheerleader starting when I was pretty small and then did that sporadically up through high school -- cheerleading for one basketball season.

6.  Did you buy lunch or take lunch?  If you took lunch from home, who made your lunch?  What was your favorite school lunch? I think I mostly took lunches from home and depending on how old I was either my mom made them or I made them.  If I bought lunch it would only have been on pizza day.  Though in high school we had the option to buy warm homemade pretzels and I think I ate that just about everyday mixed with one or two snacks from home.

7.  To what group or clique did you belong? Where did you fit in?  Were you in a sorority? The clique and circle of friends I had varied through the years.  I was part of the popular crowd in elementary school but they were pretty mean by middle and high school.  I did get along with everyone though and tended to move from group to group a lot. I did have a close group of friends by the end of high school that I felt comfortable being me with and that was fabulous.

8.  Did you spend much time in the library? What was your favorite class? I spent lots of time in the library and still do!  It was always so quiet and peaceful in there.  I had many favorite classes as I was a real good student that enjoyed learning-- I just often got in trouble for talking.  Usually any favorite subject depended on how well I got along with the teacher that was teaching it that particular year.

9.  What are some of your favorite high school memories? Homecoming? Prom? Have you returned for any class reunions? I have lots of great memories from events like school dances & proms as well as day to day things like helping out with the set design for the school play and participating in our select choir.  I have not been back for any class reunions though. 

10.  How old were you when you started school?  Did you have a favorite teacher? I was 5 when I started kindergarten. I had many favorite teachers along the way-- Mrs. Viens, Mr. Neal, Mrs. Wade, Mr. Peters (my chemistry teacher), Ms. Dunn, Mr. Sword, just to name a few. I'm pretty sure I was at least a few of their favorites as well. 

Linking Up With: Spread the Kindness, Lovin' Life,