Oh my G--
I'll say it again.
OH ...... MY....... G--.
My first issue in my renewed subscription to Martha Stewart Living arrived today. I had been a 2 year subscriber when a friend gave me those 2 years as a gift.
The magazine would arrive. I would thumb through it, think, wow I wish I could do this stuff or be this person. And File the magazine away for future references. I have 24 issues in chronological order in Magazine holders to be stored on a bookshelf that isn't here yet. Or ordered but that's ok.
When that subscription ran out and it didn't look like the friend was coming forth with another year ( not that I expected her to! ), I let the thing lapse despite the year of begging they sent me.
When my students and my friends kids all started the school year off fund raising for this trip and that event, the school fundraiser of choice was magazine subscriptions. I dutifully didn't renew anything and split my periodical reading up across them all.
Then out of nowhere, a kid who never participates and rarely asks anything of me beyond the normal lesson, asked me to buy a mag subscription. Crap.
I flipped through and Martha screamed at me.
Well - not quite SCREAMED so much as suggestively smiled out from the ad for the magazine. Without a thought - I scribbled out the check and taught the lesson.
I totally forgot about it when my first issue was suddenly at my door.
I started reading and felt a sudden "peace" within me. I know it sounds crazy and corny but it's true.
So I slowly and guiltily started reading it. I refuse to read it fast just to move on. I plan to savor every bit of it and even try one thing from each issue. ONE.
I have a lot of friends who naturally exude their inner Martha. Maplemama has been doing this since I met her which predates the magazine by some 10 years...., Vinny's wife also has an inner Martha that I only get glimpses of at parties but you can see it her home, her cooking and the way she keeps her family rolling along without too many gliches ( Yes that means teamed up with VInny!), Lisa also has a Martha thing going on. I had been visiting many many years ago ( before kids no less!) in their lovely home and the beautiful touches they put on dinner when they weren't even expecting to have me there ( bad weather) were so lovely it was as if they expected me and I was an honored guest. Ms. Jax-now-Greg has been tapping into hers since she got married and the baking and cooking that comes out of her kitchen is something spectacular.
To name a few.
I am determined to find my inner Martha in 2009. I know she's in there. Probably screaming to get out but I have to locate her first.
It will probably be a little bit like letting the Genie out of the bottle - once out they rarely go back. But that's OK with me. I don't have embrace ALL of it - just the parts that fit. It will make life better and I know it will make Jon's life better.
Ironically as a side note, the friend that gave me the subscription just rented her home and moved into her husbands. This may not seem like a paricularly eventful item BUT the home she just rented - down the road from Martha - They wave to one another on her runs in the morning.
She found her inner Martha too - she is now the career woman who completed the renovation of her husbands home and cooks a gourmet HEALTHY meal every night for her hubby and wants to retire and own a B&B.
Come to think of it - Jon and I want to do that too. Maybe a joint venture.
