Everybody loves getting mail.  Fun mail, I should say.  I suppose there are some out there who do enjoy finding bills and solicitations in their mail boxes, but I am willing to guess that most of us would prefer to find cards, catalogs/sales flyers (I enjoy these, maybe not everyone does), and magazines.

Magazines are the best, because you know when you can count on them to arrive.  You can hopefully look forward to receiving holiday cards and birthday cards in the mail, but that’s only a few times a year (that is, if other people send out cards for several holidays, like I do).  Magazines come as frequently as once a month (maybe even more often, if you’re a subscriber of one of the weekly entertainment periodicals), and because we are usually super busy, I often lose track of when my favorites should arrive.  It’s always a lovely surprise to open the mailbox to find one.

We get a lot of magazines right now.  I’ve found that some subscriptions are inexpensively available, thanks to loyalty rewards points (Mark drinks a particular kind of soda, and I cash in points from their rewards programs for free magazine subscriptions) and even “free trials” (which are highlighted by deal-finders via their blogs).  If you can keep up with all of that, you can score a nice freebie.  I will admit, though, that sometimes I do get carried away and we end up with publications featuring electronics, skiing, and other topics that simply don’t interest us.  But it’s the allure of getting something fun in the mail that usually sucks me in.  Plus, I feel like the kids could benefit from looking through these magazines, cutting out pictures, playing school with them…basically, whatever I can use to rationalize my slight obsession.

The kids do receive a couple of rags. I recently signed them up for a kids’ nature publication (got sucked into a school fundraiser) and they enjoy finding the Lego Club magazines in our mailbox every now and then (and those are free!).  My daughter loves pouring over the American Girl catalogs every few months; to her, this is just as great as getting the magazines, and then I can save the money I’d spend on that subscription to put toward her next doll.  I’m sure as they kids get older, they will be more interested in other periodicals (I remember how excited my sister and I would be to pick up the new Tiger Beat issue, in hopes of finding pull out posters of Luke Perry or Jason Priestley, ha!).  For now, though, even a toy catalog fulfills that hope of getting mail, so I’m going to enjoy that while it lasts.

My favorite magazines right now are Taste of Home and Better Homes & Gardens, which is kind of hilarious seeing as I do not enjoy cooking and my house is usually a wreck.  But hey, flipping through magazines is all we had before Pinterest, right?  I consider leafing through a new issue a form of stress release.  The glossy pages, the appealing colors, the impossible results…ok, maybe that part is not really a stress release, but whatever.  I still love it.

As a matter of fact, I have the new issue of BH&G burning a hole through today’s mail pile, so I think I shall retire to the sofa to linger over the lovely pages of what my house could maybe look like some day.  You know, the day after I’m caught up from all my reading.