EVERYTHING
FOR YOUR FAMILY
Mother Knows Best
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I love to curl up with the latest issue of Better Homes & Gardens or Family Circle magazine. It's my own little escape into the kitchens, baths and back yards of places I'd love to live. I shy away from Architectural Digest and even Martha Stewart Living. I just can't relate to the Grecian baths of the former and the homemade EVERYTHING of the latter. I know my niche and it's not among the rich and crafty. Identifying with a magazine is like hanging out with friends. You know where you fit in. And, where you don't. I usually flip though such journals while waiting to pick up my kids from school or practice. Sometimes I'll even steal a few moments as dinner is cooking. Each time I pick up a new issue, I'm injected with inspiration. Color schemes, makeup trends, new recipes. Women's magazines are motivation in print. Like any injection, before long the effects begin to wear off, usually just as I close the cover and return to my world. Gone are the cute kitchen window fashions I was admiring. Instead I'm faced with the splattered mini-blinds above my kitchen sink. The lemon- butter paint on the walls of the magazine's featured living room fade as I survey my Navajo-white world. My garden never looks like those showcased and the results of my efforts at "shabby-chic" decorating are always absent the "chic." My life simply doesn't mirror the magazine world's rendition of good living. The other day I found my recipe card for "Sunday potatoes" stuffed behind the divider for "Cake Frostings." The good news is that I found the formula for the solution that makes your Christmas tree last longer right where the potatoes should have been. Too bad it's July. In December it will be impossible to find. Often frustrated, I persist. I have a stack of issues that I'm holding on to. In one of them is a recipe I really wanted to try. I just can't remember what it was. There was an article on clearing clutter I hoped to read, but I've misplaced it among all my stuff. At some point, all this effort becomes too much work - inspiration leading to indignation. Maybe I should start my own national magazine for women. Instead of Better Homes & Gardens, I'll call it Regular Homes & Planters. It will be designed not to inspire, but to console. Not to offer enrichment, but acceptance. It's mission statement, "Relax. It's OK." I'm sure inspiration is a good thing (with apologies to Martha), but the downside is that not living up to your ideals leaves you feeling inadequate. Maybe I'll toss out all those issues full of new ideas. Purging your life of stress-inducers can be very calming. Eliminating unrealistic pursuits can be very cleansing. I know. I read it in a magazine. |
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