Finding “Slow” When Life is a Chaotic Mess

Eight weeks. 51 days. 11 states. 2 homes. 2 birthdays. 2 business trips. A continuous road trip alone with 3 kids. A big move. An anniversary…. the list goes on. Nothing about this list says “slow”, nothing about this list says “calm”, and yet, that is what I am attempting to do this summer. I have decided this will be my summer of finding “slow” when life is anything but. I figure if I can do it, anyone can.

Finding Slow Moments when life is a chaotic mess

You know, I have to be quite honest with you. I have been seeing everyone else’s “slow” moments. Their warm cuddles on a Sunday morning, their family bike rides to the beach for sunset, and their picture perfect Instagram moments. I have been seeing these moments and I have looked the other way. I was jealous. I wanted what they had and knew I couldn’t have it. For just one brief moment, I actually felt sorry for myself.

Can you believe that? I actually was jealous of other people’s joy. That is when I knew I needed a change of thought. I needed to embrace our adventure and determine to find “slow” sprinkled throughout the madness.

A little back-story…

Just a few months ago, we decided to finally put our house on the market. After one month of home renovations, decluttering, and cleaning the house was on the market and we were thrown into the crazy world of house showings, open houses every weekend and constantly keeping the house free of even one loose toy. This was not an easy task for us since we homeschool and work from home. This was not slow. This was not what I was seeing everyone else enjoying as the weather warmed up.

Then the madness really began. The house sold. There was a catch. We had to be out of our house in 3o days. That, right there my friends, is easier said than done. We were suddenly thrust into a life of house hunting. I am not exaggerating when I say I think we saw 35 homes in one week’s time. We found a house we loved. Our offer was accepted. There was a catch. We couldn’t be in the home until the middle of August (leaving us without a home for over 8 weeks time).

For 30 days we packed every waking hour, up until the moment the movers arrived (and then some).

During these days, the pictures started to flood my stream. All I could see is everyone else’s slow moments. I could see the smiles and the calm in their face and I yearned for it! 

That’s when I decided I would make it happen. I’m not sure if my husband thought I was crazy or brilliant, either way, he went along for the ride. I made a plan to leave the state and travel by myself with all three children during these transient months. I figured, with a change of scenery there would have to be some pretty awesome moments in there. I figured the memories would last a lifetime. That’s what they say, right?

Now, the biggest challenge was going to be finding “slow” in all the madness.

How we are finding “slow” when our life is far from “slow”…

The day the moving trucks arrived, we loaded the car and headed out on our adventure. Our first stop was 3 hours away. We didn’t really have a plan, other than to find our way to our grandparents house 15 hours away. We weren’t sure if we would stop and stay a few days, or stop and get going the next morning. We just knew we were going and I knew we were going to embrace as many of the moments as possible.

There have been a lot of ups and downs along the way (we are only on day 10 of 51 right now), but one thing that has remained the theme… finding “slow” moments and embracing adventure.

So even though the day we planned to go to the prairie on a hot-air balloon ride turned into a rainy, hot mess, we embraced the adventure and decided to take it slow that day. We watched some tv (I know, shame shame on us for the electronics, right), we went to lunch, stopped by Super Target for some new Lego sets for the boys, and went back to the hotel and took a nap. Once everyone was rested, done with their meltdowns (including myself), and ready for more adventure we organized a dinner to meet friends we only knew from the internet. How is that for finding “slow” and embracing adventure.

Embrace Adventures

Our plans did not go as planned. Our trip got derailed. Our attitudes needed adjusting. Then, what happened next was magical.

At the end of our time in our first stop, the only thing we could remember were the moments. The only pictures we had were of smiling faces and calm. Was the whole trip calm? Has the whole trip be “happy” and “slow”?

Not at all. But we have found our way of remembering this summer’s “slow” and “calm” and we are embracing adventure. Just about 40 more days to go!

Rainbow Slow Moment

I almost forgot the best part… as we were traveling to our second leg of the adventure, we drove through several rain storms. When the rain stopped, we were greeted by the most beautiful double rainbow! In fact, we drove right past the end of the rainbow, and in the spirit of finding “slow” moments and embracing adventure, we pulled over to the side of the road and savored the rainbow until it was gone.

How is that for finding “slow”?


I am honored to share this post with you as part of the SAVORING SLOW book tour. My friend, Shawn Fink’s book The Abundant Mama’s Guide to Savoring Slow has been releases in paperback. You can get your copy here!

 

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I am excited to be joined by some amazing women telling their story of how they are savoring a slow day. You can read more posts about savoring a slow day from some lovely bloggers here.

4 thoughts on “Finding “Slow” When Life is a Chaotic Mess”

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