Feeding the Mind

from the mom

I like to read. I also like to finish things and one of my challenges as a mother is never being able to complete a book chapter in one sitting. I've always liked magazines and newspapers. For years I subscribed to a daily paper and read it while I was waking up before work. Though I mainly read internet news now, I still love the feel of newsprint in my hands.

Magazines help fill my need to read and complete something in one setting. I have a much better chance of completing a short article than a book chapter. I can renew my subscriptions online using frequent flyer miles. M and I had miles from our frequent business travel days on a variety of airlines we don't plan to use again so we burned through those. Now United has started charging $25 to check two bags and the likelihood that we'll ever use them for family travel again has become very slim. Of course not all of the magazines I like are available this way. But since selling magazines is a common fundraiser, there are usually plenty of opportunities to subscribe at a discounted rate.

Here's what we currently receive:

Christianity Today: Keeps me up-to-date on the evangelical world

Cooking Light: For $22/year, I get a ideas for menu planning every month as well as new research on health and fitness. Recently I let my subscription lapse and found I really missed the burst of inspiration I get from this mag every month.

The Atlantic Monthly: A great source for book reviews, current events, and thought. The Atlantic does a pretty nice job of balancing conservative and liberal views and has outstanding editorial standards.

TIME: I would never PAY for this magazine. We get it because we have expiring frequent flyer miles and it keeps me up on current events. I liked it better in years past but the editor for the last year or so, Rick Stengel, has taken in it in a blatantly liberal direction. You don't have to look very hard for the bias. M recently wrote a letter to the editor about why the magazine hardly gave any coverage, photos, and not a cover to John McCain when he won the Republican nomination but focused that very issue on Clinton and Obama.

Budget Travel: I picked this one up to help with my job and because travel is a hobby. It really isn't helpful for business travel and "budget" should be interpreted as "for those who have enough money to have 'travel' budgeted" vs. travel for those of us who really can't afford to. But there are interesting tips from time to time and I have benefitted from a few websites I've learned about.

Bazaar: This one is really funny. M and I were using up miles about to expire and thought this was more of a journal. It is a fashion magazine and I page through it in about 20 minutes, laugh at the ridiculous celebrity interview, and hand it off to my friends who care about fashion. We won't be getting it for too much longer and I won't miss it.

Cookie: Another freebie that I don't recommend. It was supposed to be a magazine for moms, and it looked more interesting than any of the other "parenting" magazines (which bore me to tears). It likes profiling wealthy working mothers and designer clothes for kids ($435 for a size 2T dress, comeon!). And then there is the horrible information; recommended porn flicks for moms trying to get back into sex after baby. PLEASE!