Springtime in the Ozark Mountains is a beautiful time of year. The woods are full of the Dogwood, the state tree, and numerous Redbud trees dot the landscape. Even though compared to say, the Rockies, our Ozark Mountains are just hills, they still have a majestic beauty. At the moment, I am diffusing Mountain Air Belle Aroma® No-Mess Fragrance Tarts® in my Belle Aroma® ScenTrio® Tabletop Warmer.

Do you remember when it first dawned on you that water is a precious resource? We, in this country, are so used to turning on a tap and out comes pure clean water. That wasn’t always the case at my house. We were living in the foothills of the Cascade mountains in Oregon, and we had a crystal-clear stream in front of our house. But our well was rusty! It had a metallic taste and was discolored to the point that we couldn’t use it for drinking or doing laundry. This was long before the days of bottled water. What were we to do??

A vivid memory at a very young age, maybe 7 or 8, happened in a forest. Let me back up, though. At age 6 my parents decided to move the family from Iowa to the Pacific Northwest. To my knowledge, we had never been there, or at least my brother and I had not. Both of my parents had lived in California as young adults, but we weren’t going there. We were headed to Oregon.