Our desire to embrace a slower paced life only came after we experienced the busyness of societies norms. Both my husband and I went to college, were fortunate enough to get jobs in our respective fields right after graduation, and shortly after got married. Now, when we got married we did move to a small town, which does have a slower pace than living in the city. That alone was a bit of a shock, by 4:30 the sidewalks were empty and the stores were closed. That slowed us down a little, but not too much.
A couple years after being married and working full time (often with opposite schedules) we had our first baby. After my maternity leave I went back to work 4 days a week. We had arranged a schedule so our son would only be in daycare three days a week, and Sunday became our only day together as a family. This schedule was really hard on me. Not only is it incredibly hard to leave your crying baby at daycare every day, it was hard to keep up the pace. There was little time left for any kind of hobby or even relaxation.
Mornings were spent getting up early, saying goodbye to my husband as he left for work first thing, getting myself and my son ready to leave the house, driving across town, peeling him from my side and leaving while hearing his cries, driving to work alone blinking back the tears myself, working all day at a demanding job, driving back across town, picking up my baby, rushing home to make dinner while my son demanded my attention and both of us were hangry (hungry and grumpy for those that don't know the term), welcoming my husband home from a tiring day, eating, cleaning up the mess - for those with kids you know this is a big job, maybe spend a few minutes playing with our son if there was time, and then getting him ready and settled into bed. Taking a deep breath, and then cleaning up the house, packing lunches for the next day and getting ready to start it all over again. (I'm exhausted just writing that)
Sundays, our day off together wasn't too much better. We would go to church in the morning, try to convince our son to stay in church nursery (easier said than done), get home just after lunch and have the afternoon to do whatever it was we needed to do. As most of you know when you are running from one thing to the next during the week, this becomes your only time to catch up around the house, visit extended family, or relax together. Unfortunately, it's often not enough time to truly relax.
Does any of this sound familiar to you? Do you ever start to wonder if there is a better way? A way where you can spend the majority of your time with your family instead of with your co-workers? Now I've had some great co-workers, but my choice in life was to marry my husband and he's the one I actually want to be with. This lifestyle wasn't totally making sense to me. We only have one life, it seemed like it was flying by quickly. I didn't want to see my kids go off to college without actually even getting the chance to get to know them. I didn't want to retire years and years from now and only then get to spend the majority of my time with my husband. That's when I started to wonder if there was a different way, it's taken me a while to figure it out. Well, honestly I'm still figuring it out myself, but we have definitely made some serious head way since those crazy days. I've found a way to spend a majority of my time with the ones I love. The ones I chose to spend life with in the beginning.
Join me as I share what life looks like for us, and receive some encouragement on embracing this lifestyle yourself. Choose the freedom of a slow paced life.