Real Simple

I get these emails from Free Snatcher for special deals and samples. My favorite item of note are the magazine samples. I've received free issues of all sorts of magazines: Gourmet, Organic Gardening, Tennis (for the husband), Remedy, and Real Simple.

Real Simple just came today. Oh. my. goodness. I was already aware that I LOVE this magazine, but this was the 10th anniversary edition. That means it was twice as big as normal. It also means that it was AMAZING. I love it. I asked Mac if I could have a subscription to Real Simple for my birthday (3 months away, mind you) and he didn't seem to agree with the idea. Oh well, a girl can wish. It's the little things in life.

Anyways, there were so many good cooking, housekeeping, decorating, and beauty ideas in this one, I can't even share them all. I have pretty much every page dog-eared. It's THAT good. The article that stuck out most to me was this: "22 things that are really, truly worth your time"

I dare you to do one.

-Stop and smell a gardenia
-Read the wedding announcements in the Sunday newspaper
-Curl up with your favorite childhood book
-Call someone's supervisor to praise a job well done
-Make the bed
-Let your toddler set the pace (ok, if you don't have a toddler, just slow down your pace)
-Take an affordable class or workshop not related to your career
-Eat something you grew
-People-watch on public transportation
-Spring the kids from school for the day (or yourself from work)
-Put down the box and bake a cake from scratch
-Hold the door open (for someone else)
-Enjoy a civilized breakfast
-Go on a "man date" (or the female equivalent)
-Write thank-you notes
-Document just one week of your life (photograph daily routine, collect receipts and stuff, write a daily message to yourself, then make a scrapbook of that)
-Spend "floor time" with your spouse (basically talk)
-Listen to an entire cd in one sitting
-Toast the sandwich bread
-Take a road trip and stop at every cheesy roadside attraction along the way
-Train for, then run, a race for charity
-Watch one of these YouTube tearjerkers: Christian the Lion, The Patrick Henry Huges Story, Kseniya Simonova's Sand Drawing (by recommendation of Real Simple)