The Arsenal

I have three boys.  They play sports.  They play outside in the dirt.  They are stinky.  And it's a different kind of stink than I have ever smelled before.  Therefore, I have an Arsenal. 
An arsenal of cleaning supplies, deodorizing sprays,
homemade potpourri, plug-ins and room sprays that not only make
the house smell good, but help to keep my life manageable. 
Here's how I survive:

The Car Arsenal: packages of pine tree air fresheners ready to be ripped open at a moment's notice and a half-size bottle of glade spray for immediate relief.  Ryan took the young men skiing a couple of weeks ago which meant 7 teenage boys in and out of my car, after working up a sweat skiing.  When I got in the car the next day I started to dry heave.  The stench was so bad I rolled down all the windows even though it was 20 degrees outside to air out the car and it took a good 48 hours, even with my arsenal of supplies, before the car was back to herself.  I can't imagine this will be any different when my boys are teenagers. 

The Bathroom Arsenal: I have many of the same supplies that other families have.  The difference?  They use them once a week for cleaning.  I use them at least 3 times a day.  From disinfectant wipes to toilet bowl cleaner and room spray, these supplies help keep my sanity.  Ryder's finishing up the last stages of potty training, which means I'm still finding pee on the bathroom mirror, in the heat vent and on the shower curtain.  I don't know whether I should be proud or concerned that he has the ability to launch bodily fluid this far.  Nonetheless, I have to clean it more than once a day and Jackson and Logan (and Ryan) aren't much better. 

If they lose focus, the fluid goes flying.

The Bedroom Arsenal: from stinky shoes in the summer to sweaty basketball shorts, finding the right combination of scents to rid their rooms of stench has been difficult.  Glade plug-ins seem to do a pretty good job along with hourly shots of room spray, but I think it's only going to get worse. 

Here are the boys "in the wild" at the cabin. 

The perfect recipe for stinkiness. Bugs, animals, dirt, and fishing.

 

But if the worst means that my boys are outside in the dirt, playing sports and running wild doing the things boys should be
doing, then I'll take the stink any day. 

I think boys and their stink can be summed up in this quote:

“Where there is a stink, there is a smell of being.”

- Antonin Artaud (1896–1948), “The Pursuit of Fecality”