Use the good stuff.

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I received a package in the mail a few weeks back and it contained a lovely thank you gift. A pretty bracelet and  a yummy bar of soap. My 4yo daughter was with me as I opened the package. I smelled the soap through the paper and said “oooh that smells nice”. She smelled it and agreed.

I was about to go bring it upstairs and she stopped me. She wanted to know where exactly I was bringing the yummy soap that I just said smelled so pretty. I told her that I was going to put it away so we could save it.

“Why?” She said.

So I could’ve told her a bunch of stuff about how we save stuff for guests, or holidays, or special occasions and really meant it. But I looked at her face and how truly puzzled she was by my impending action. She stopped me in my tracks that day and things really haven’t been the same around here since.

Lately I’ve been feeling like, why not? Why not use my good face lotion everyday? Why not use the pretty glass pitcher for water when we don’t have guests? Why wait for a party? Wear that pretty sundress to Macy’s! That champagne in the back of the cabinet? As Chef Ming Tsai said “Champagne goes with everything, including mornings.”

Why not use the good stuff?? I think that this is a sentiment that my grandmothers would wholly disagree with. These are women that would pack away the good plates as soon as the holiday dinner was over. The notion of saving things has been taking up a lot of space in my noggin these days. But all this stuff? And no one is promised tomorrow.

So my daughter and I opened that soap right then and there and put it in the downstairs bathroom for everyone to enjoy. She uses it every day and encourages everyone that comes over to check out how pretty it smells.

What the heck are you saving your yummy smelling soap for?  Use the good stuff already.