This is my virtual dream poster board thing

One of the total pluses of traveling a fair amount is you get to read every single magazine ever printed in a given month. Including in-flight magazines, which totally rock if you have ADD like I do (well, not really but it feels like it some days).

Last month I was reading an article in Oprah's magazine about some deal where you take a poster board and cut and paste pictures you like all over it, and then stare at it a lot and then suddenly VOILA! Your greatest desires in life come true. Or something like that. Have you read that article?

I love it. Kind of New Agey, kind of Purpose-Driven Lifey, kind of Easy Peasy, right?

I have yet to cut any pictures out. Partly because the author totally scared me by saying you had to only choose pictures that really rocked your world, took your breath away, made you question your very existence. Things that you connect with on a deep down spiritual protozoan level.

The only pictures I've seen that I even semi-admired recently weren't quite that earth-shattering. Unless bedroom shots out of the Serena & Lily catalog count as earth-shattering? Somehow I don't think they do. Maybe she reads higher literature than I do. People magazine isn't supplying me with earth-shattering inner-core photos. Oh, and there were some pictures of really pretty shoes I saw recently. Except I don't really want the universe aligning to bring me pretty shoes.*

So then I thought, hey maybe I can do the same sort of thing by just writing down what I'd like my life to look like? Kind of like how companies make you write a business plan for your job and the whole purpose behind is it because they know if you write something down you end up doing it regardless of whether or not you ever look at it again?

So here goes. These are the mental snapshots of my Imaginary Ideal Life. Imagine these are actual photos pasted to a posterboard or something.

I have a kitchen that's open to the family room, where I can cook dinner and watch my kids play and fight at the same time. I want to be able to cook dinner for my family. I don't do that very often right now.

My kitchen has a tv so I can watch the news every night and it won't interfere with cartoon time. I miss being able to watch the news.

Raised flower beds full of my favorite perennials. Dappled shade for some. Full sun for others. Conifers mixed in with annuals. A few herbs for the cooking I'd be doing in my open kitchen. No water drainage problems in the yard.

My bedroom is a calm retreat, and positioned very near my kids' bedrooms. Although it would be cool if they were finally sharing a room.

Cooper is in a good pre-school that's helping him develop his brain.

Griffin is potty-trained.

Only one extra car, besides my hubs and my work cars, at our home.

More friends.

OK, it's not a huge list yet. Probably wouldn't fill a poster. But it's a start. Clearly, the kitchen/cooking thing is pretty high on my ideals list, as is the bedroom situation. I'd love to be able to cook dinner most nights and I don't do that. It's probably not entirely because of the floorplan of our house, but I keep picturing myself in an open kitchen so maybe it's pretty important to me?

I might start cutting pictures out. I guess it can't hurt. I wish Cookie magazine hadn't gone out of business and replaced my subscription with Family Circle. Somehow I'm thinking the pictures out of Family Circle aren't going to help me attain my ideal life. Wait. Now that I think about it, even the lame pictures out of Family Circle are way better than what I'm living right now, so I might be on to something!

- H

*Except hey, if pretty shoes come with a peaceful life whereby my children and I are nourished physically, emotionally and mentally, then I am totally signing up for the pretty shoes, too.