Summer + Slow Living = love.

My favorite season used to be fall.  I loved everything about it from the layers of clothes to the warm drinks and gusty winds.  And the leaves! Don't even get me started on the leaves.  

Then along came my life on the farm and little baby gal and then another baby gal and before I knew it, summer snuck up on us.  It surprised us with its carefree spirit, even though-wasn't our routine the same as all the other seasons of the year?  There was no work to take vacation from, no school breaks yet.  There's something to this season called summer though....it invites a sense of slow living into our lives we didn't know we were missing before. 

(excuse the food in the mouth, but is this not the cutest?!)

The words "slow living" showed up in my thoughts last week.  "Structuring your life around meaning and fulfillment.  Less is more" is how google defines it.  Rocked my world, this definition and these two words.  In a world of more, more, more, more.....sometimes I feel like I'm sitting in the cheap seats of life when God is expectantly waiting for me to take a front row seat, or even join the game itself!  Life up close.  A little slower, more passion, more tastes to savor, more breaths to exhale.  

This concept has wrapped itself all the way around my mind so I'm sure I'll have more to say in the upcoming months.  For us, we're choosing the slow life.  To sit on the back deck with a gal in my lap all morning long if we like.

To slow down and notice the exact way my girls' hair looks....from the very color to texture.  Slow living this summer means playing and kisses on the lips from Betsy Grace....

ring around the rosy, 

hide and seek. 

here

More books, magazines, things read on paper....

less screen time. 

Slow living means preparing for winter with a "Books to read" list in anticipation of sitting by the fire.

Making and savoring every single crumb of zucchini bread,

painting in colors that make you feel alive,

(painting here.)

Studying bugs,

dressing yourself to play in the rain.

Wandering in the rain in the prettiest, dreamiest skirt ever,

delighting in baby legs.

Slow living is playing outside with my girls,

leaving the to do list (even mentally) inside.

Pretend enjoying "spinach" that Anna Ruth made, 

complete with compliments for the cook.

Slow living is time spent on the porch,

soaking in the bath during afternoon nap just because I can,

sitting during the day instead of always being on the go.

Time spent exercising off the treadmill and in real life instead-picking weeds, chasing the girls, farm walks.  Climbing fences and gathering wildflower bouquets.

Slow living for me equals a month without sweets but a body that feels drastically different,

savoring fresh garden food and lots of bread instead,

plans to spend the evenings canning instead of in front of the t.v.

Slow living means stopping the worry train that races through my thoughts and takes over,

instead intentionally acting on some dreams I've let fear stop before they even happened.

It means farm retreats this fall,

where for an evening you can step into our slow living world too.

What do these words mean to you? 

How do you make this lifestyle possible in our fast-paced world?

A favorite blog of mine to read concerning a slower lifestyle is Foxs Lane.