I hear that admitting you have a problem is the first step in recovery. So here I am today, admitting it out loud.
I have a secret addiction.
There, I said it. I feel better already. Or, I would feel better if I didn't have stacks of magazines covering every inch of my house....
See, my problem is that I can not seem to say no to a cheap magazine subscription. Even if I already have 10, or 12, or maybe even 17 current subscriptions. If I see an offer for a year of Bon Appetite for just $5 (!!!) I am going to take it. If there is a deal for two years of Family Fun for just $6 (for TWO whole years!) I am physically incapable of passing it up. You can see how this can become a real issue.
I have managed to keep my dark secret from the rest of my family for a while, because as soon as I would get a magazine in the mail I would read it, tear out any recipes or articles I wanted to keep, then I would recycle it right away. No one was the wiser to my growing collection of monthly subscriptions. Unfortunately, life got busy the last couple months and instead of reading those magazines in a timely manner as they arrived, I began to stack them. Far away in a dark corner on the bookshelf, but once they started accumulating, it became harder and harder to hide my secret. After a while, even the kids started to notice. Watching me walk in from getting the mail, Killian would cry out "Is that ANOTHER magazine, mom?!?!"
Seeing that stack of magazines grow and grow, I started dreading that daily walk of shame home from the mailbox. I decided it was time to face my addiction head on, and started chipping away at that stack, taking 10 minutes here or 15 minutes there to read a quick article, or bookmark an especially tasty looking recipe. Over the last couple of weeks, I have been squirreled away on a corner of the couch, reading like a mad woman and leaving piles of dog eared magazines in my wake. Making progress emboldened me to sit down this weekend and finally deal with the last step of magazine sorting.
That is time consuming chore that consists of leafing through each already read magazine, finding the pages I have dogeared for one reason or another, tearing them out, sorting them into stacks by topic, and finally, filing them away in their final destination which is most often in a protective plastic sleeve in the 3 ring binders that contain my every growing collection of recipes.
This is not a small project (would you believe that this picture was taken with only about half of the magazines that have been acquired over the last few months? No? Yeah...I didn't want to believe it either).
That's about 25 magazines right there, otherwise known as my deep dark secret, out in the open and taking up the entire counter for a whole afternoon of tearing, shuffling, sorting and wondering why on earth somebody didn't stop me before I got to this point.
Now if you will excuse me, I just saw a deal for a free years subscription to Popular Science, and I know Killian would love to have it. And then there is that National Geographic kids magazine that Rowan has had her eye on for a while. If its not for me, it means I don't have a problem...right!?
I have a secret addiction.
There, I said it. I feel better already. Or, I would feel better if I didn't have stacks of magazines covering every inch of my house....
See, my problem is that I can not seem to say no to a cheap magazine subscription. Even if I already have 10, or 12, or maybe even 17 current subscriptions. If I see an offer for a year of Bon Appetite for just $5 (!!!) I am going to take it. If there is a deal for two years of Family Fun for just $6 (for TWO whole years!) I am physically incapable of passing it up. You can see how this can become a real issue.
I have managed to keep my dark secret from the rest of my family for a while, because as soon as I would get a magazine in the mail I would read it, tear out any recipes or articles I wanted to keep, then I would recycle it right away. No one was the wiser to my growing collection of monthly subscriptions. Unfortunately, life got busy the last couple months and instead of reading those magazines in a timely manner as they arrived, I began to stack them. Far away in a dark corner on the bookshelf, but once they started accumulating, it became harder and harder to hide my secret. After a while, even the kids started to notice. Watching me walk in from getting the mail, Killian would cry out "Is that ANOTHER magazine, mom?!?!"
Seeing that stack of magazines grow and grow, I started dreading that daily walk of shame home from the mailbox. I decided it was time to face my addiction head on, and started chipping away at that stack, taking 10 minutes here or 15 minutes there to read a quick article, or bookmark an especially tasty looking recipe. Over the last couple of weeks, I have been squirreled away on a corner of the couch, reading like a mad woman and leaving piles of dog eared magazines in my wake. Making progress emboldened me to sit down this weekend and finally deal with the last step of magazine sorting.
That is time consuming chore that consists of leafing through each already read magazine, finding the pages I have dogeared for one reason or another, tearing them out, sorting them into stacks by topic, and finally, filing them away in their final destination which is most often in a protective plastic sleeve in the 3 ring binders that contain my every growing collection of recipes.
This is not a small project (would you believe that this picture was taken with only about half of the magazines that have been acquired over the last few months? No? Yeah...I didn't want to believe it either).
That's about 25 magazines right there, otherwise known as my deep dark secret, out in the open and taking up the entire counter for a whole afternoon of tearing, shuffling, sorting and wondering why on earth somebody didn't stop me before I got to this point.
Now if you will excuse me, I just saw a deal for a free years subscription to Popular Science, and I know Killian would love to have it. And then there is that National Geographic kids magazine that Rowan has had her eye on for a while. If its not for me, it means I don't have a problem...right!?