Where I go to escape

I have a thing for summer editions of home catalogs. When I get home from work and sort through the mail, I'll place them to the side, to be savored after the kids have gone to bed. Then I'll lounge on our couch, a throw around my shoulders and glass of iced tea by my side, and gaze longingly at the deck and patio furniture, like this set from Pottery Barn.


I'll lust after trellises, like this $399 number from Grandinroad.


I'll ponder the allure of an outdoor area that requires curtains, like this scene over at Ballard Designs.


I'll swoon over planters, like this Horchow beauty.


And I'll stare and stare at the hammocks, like this $35,000 Hammacher Schlemmer work of art (handmade in Sweden, man not included, and is it possible to take out a mortgage on a hammock?).

I lose myself in these catalogs because, yes, they're beautiful and because they depict a lifestyle of lounging and lolling that's very different from my R&R one (Rushed & Racing). But they also take my mind away to a perfect place where there's no stressing over therapies, doctor visits, school reports and progress. There is no deflecting other people's intrusive stares or kids' jarringly blunt comments. Catalogland is not a place where a child could have seizures.

Come. Rest. Relax, these images say. Everything is OK.