I can only hope someone taught you how to make your bed. It may sound insignificant, but it matters. When night arrives and it’s time to remove all of the throw pillows and pull the covers back to slip into bed, it just feels like a day well lived.

I also hope someone taught you the magic of changing your bed sheets. My daughter and I have this thing we love to do with our sheets. We wash them in perfumed laundry detergent and I think Tyler Candle company started this obsession, but my local hardware store sells one that smells similar by Orleans Home.

To this day, if my daughter wants something special from me, it’s perfume wash and she only uses it for washing her sheets. It’s my favorite way to end the day.

This morning, I changed the sheets and washed them in perfume wash beforehand. When they come out of the dryer and I’m placing them on the bed that smell reminds me of my single Mom days. We didn’t have much money, but every now and then we’d splurge on a small bottle of the wash for our sheets. Laying in a bed of perfume you’d think we lived an extravagant life, but what’s important to us is normally overlooked.

Once, my daughter sold something on Poshmark and thought she would go the extra mile by washing the garment in perfume wash before sending. I remember she was so upset that the buyer gave her an awful review saying, “It smelled like perfume!”

We still laugh about that, but we keep our perfume wash to ourselves. It’s not for everyone, but it one of the things we love. I finished making my bed, laid the linen throw across the middle and placed a throw pillow at the foot of the bed. I had purchased this pillow for my daughter when she was in her ‘yellow’ phase, but it was too loud for her, so I took it back. It’s the perfect size to prop my head to gaze out the window midday.

We laugh together about this pillow as my daughter refers to it as, ‘the ugliest pillow in the world’, which reminds me of the jacket I bought years ago and she tagged it with the same name. I’m bold and loud, but my daughter would rather go unnoticed, so once in a while my inner boldness would emerge in a purchase for her. I can still see the look on her face, like, ‘Really?’ The ugliest jacket in the world looks like you’re wearing a rug.

It even has fringe, so I’m not sure what I was thinking with that purchase and maybe that’s the problem…I wasn’t thinking. If I was a betting woman I’d bet good money that the day I leave this earth, my daughter will search my wardrobe for that jacket and wrap up in it. Maybe the pillow will be laying nearby and she’ll hug that too, because sometimes, my lovelies, the ugliest things can represent extraordinary memories.

What made me smile this morning?

Sheets washed in perfume, a freshly made bed and the ugliest pillow in the world.

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