I will read and re-read and read again:
1-Quick Cooking (now called Taste of Home’s Simple and Delicious) and Country magazines
I plan my menus from my Quick Cooking magazine stash. I’ll pull out the appropriate month (really, any month would be fine, but the winter months tend to underscore comforting stews and warm breads, while summer months feature grill recipes and fresh fruit–I love a bit of seasonality in my food!) , choose several recipes, make my grocery list based on those recipes ane we’re golden for two or three weeks. I prefer a list instead of a “Monday it’s Meatloaf and Tuesday it’s Southwestern Chicken” kind of a format. Then I don’t feel tied down to one option, and can still make what I feel like making.
And Country: LOVE IT! Gorgeous photography, regular down home people, no models or advertising, high standards and morals, good old country values, funny quips and quotes, poignant and entertaining articles: LOVE IT!
2—Books by Max Lucado
Bring me closer to God. Help me rethink, reevaluate, reorganize my internal meter
3—Baby Blues
Funny before I had children, absolutely fall out of my chair (that only happened once) hilarious now
4—The Mitford Series
Sweet, without being cloying, laugh out loud funny, enjoyable characters, scenery (at least in my head) that would blow your mind, fabulous plots with meaningful messages and lessons, and it’s odd I love these so much because the protagonist is a 60 year old Episcopalian priest, and I just don’t have a lot in common with a 60 year old Episcopalian priest.
5—Greeting cards
I have several cards sent to me saved that I’ll go back through when I’m feeling out of sorts, but if I’m feeling really surly, it’s a good time to give me 20+ minutes in a card shoppe and voila– I walk out a whole new person!