October is Aging Month!

At least, according to this assortment of Oprah magazines it is. As part of my cleaning out the house, I tossed out several years worth of various magazines that I've been meaning to read Real Soon Now. Some of them I flipped through briefly and either read or removed interesting articles for later perusal. It was interesting to see how regularly various topics came up as major cover headlines. Aging showed up in October four times. Weight loss was either in January or May. Discovering who you are was usually in early spring or fall. I've noticed similar schedules in other women's magazines as well as fitness magazines. It would seem there are a limited number of subjects that attract readers successfully.

In reading through several dozen magazines over the past week or so, I have come to the conclusion that I really need none of them. The answers to who I want to be and what I need to do to create the perfect life for me are not in a magazine. I already have those answers. I merely need to be still and quiet in order to hear them. And to remember to seek them periodically since I expect my answers to change as I grow and change myself. Changing my life is merely a matter of deciding to do something different and seeing what happens afterward.

Food!!
Also in the interest of cleaning up my house, I have started wading through the folders full of recipes that I've clipped or copied from various magazines, books and websites. I'm finally typing them into my computer so I can sort through them later and possibly actually COOK them. There's a concept. My one complaint about having a stockpile of saved recipe clippings is that I have no way to easily search them and they rarely stay organized. Many years ago I started typing up all the recipes in my paternal grandmother's recipe box. Unfortunately with big changes in operating systems and computer platforms, I'll be starting over again but that's ok. My goal is to have the collected recipes printed and bound into a family cookbook. If I get a start on that task now, I might have books finished by Christmas 2009.

My tastebuds are apparently on a sesame kick these days. This week's additions to the recipe repertoire are sesame noodles and broccoli slaw with a ginger-sesame dressing. Brunch today was oatmeal pancakes from the Laurel's Kitchen cookbook. I mixed in a good dose of blackberries for fun. I ate three pancakes when I was cooking, then saved the rest for dinner tonight. My goal is to only eat when I'm hungry and to work to stop eating when I stop being hungry, rather than eating until I'm full. The line between full enough and way too full is a narrow one and I have a tendency to cross it with some regularity. Time to start modifying that behavior.