I Am Thankful I Can Smell

In order to smell, we’ve gotta have a nose.

This statement is way too on the nose… but a good reminder.

Instead of focusing on the way our nose looks, let’s shift our focus, and celebrate how much richer our lives are because we have a nose that allows us to smell.

Raise your hand if you lost your sense of smell when you had COVID.

I sure did.

Since the time I had my babies, this sense has been magnified.

I have often thought “What a blessing it would be not to have such a super-sniffer,” but it only took a day without this ability to realize how much I count on it.

We use our sense of smell when:

Immersing ourselves in new surroundings.

Cooking food.

Checking food in the fridge.

Monitoring kids’ hygiene.

Making sure the house smells good.

Making sure we smell good.

TASTING food.

Monitoring for possible threats.

And many other situations.

lt brightens our lives.

It also affects our moods, feelings, and emotions.

We do not need to be able to smell to live, BUT…

The great outdoors are greater when we smell the fresh air.

Rainstorms smell refreshing.

The scent of a barbeque is mouthwatering.

Campfires smell cozy.

Freshly cut grass fills our minds with summer.

Popcorn reminds us of movies.

Flowers, bread, books, a bakery, peppermint, evergreens, cookies, melted chocolate… the list goes on and on.

In fact, I learned our noses can pick up over 400,000 different scents.

Great books about noses:

Baby Loves The Five Senses: Smell!

This Baby Love series about the five senses by Ruth Spiro and Irene Chan is excellent. They do a great job explaining the scientific process behind how each sense works in easy-to-understand language. And the illustrations are really cute.

Picture book board book with a little ladybug and most of a white bunny, stopping at the nose.

Whose Nose? by Sue Tarsky & Michael Garton

Your little littles will delight in identifying what creature each nose belongs to. In the back, there are several pages of mixed-up noses for kids to sort out.

Many animal noses surrounding the picture book title NOSE KNOWS: Wild Ways Animals Sell the World."

Nose Knows: Wild Ways Animals Smell the World

This non-fiction lift-the-flap is fascinating. Packed with creatures of all shapes and sizes, this book shows how and why these animals follow their noses.