Welcome to my weekly Slow Day post, inspired by Monica from The Homespun Heart. My Word for 2018 is Slow and, in the spirit of that word, I’m taking one day each week (Wednesday) off — I’ll be unplugged and offline and plan to move at a slower pace, take time to do things that refresh me, and just really focus on being present and savoring the moment.
Each week, I’ll be sharing a photographic peek into my Slow Day — and I’ll let the pictures almost 100% speak for themselves, instead of giving many explanations. Enjoy a little peek into our lives!
(Note: The links in this post are affiliate links, and we will be compensated when you make a purchase by clicking through our links. Read our disclosure policy here.)
I love starting our day with diffusing oils!
(Here’s the diffuser we have.)
I’m loving this book! I spent the morning reading and watching a movie with Jesse… it was the perfect way to spend a Slow Day!
Then, before we picked the kids up from school, we went table shopping. And, good news! We finally found a dining room that we loved and it ended up being below our budget! It gets delivered on Tuesday and I’m so excited about it!
My shoes need to be washed, but man, I just love these shoes! I have worn them over and over and over again. One of my favorite shoe purchases ever!
Silas and I headed to a chiropractic appointment for me.
Then Silas and I headed to a movie!
We really enjoyed I Can Only Imagine. Silas was a little scared in one of the parts, but other than that, it was a very well done movie with an inspirational story line that is fairly close to the true story.
We came home to Breakfast for Dinner — made by Jesse and the girls. Yum!
Denise Hershberger says
No One Ever Asked is such a powerful book! Definitely Katie’s best book yet! I’m so excited you are reading it!!!
Beth says
Crystal, I’m failing at my own slow day. We welcomed a baby boy into our family in December and I decided to cut back my work schedule to four days per week. I arranged my schedule to eliminate Wednesdays at work with the goal of going to chapel service with my son’s school, having breakfast as a family, catching up on sleep or reading, exercising, etc.. But, so far they have been anything but slow. It seems that these end up being the days that I have to schedule appointments (our baby has some minor health issues, so for now, there are lots of appointments), run errands, and try to keep my head above water with household tasks (cooking prep; cleaning; etc.). Honestly, at the end of last Wednesday I was more stressed than I had been on Tuesday. I know that the infant season is hectic and so that is part of it; however, I’d love to hear any other thoughts you have about setting boundaries, setting priorities, when to get all the other things done, etc. Also, I’m wondering if maybe you sometimes still feel overwhelmed/busy on those days too–I know you’re still out and doing a lot of different things. Any reflection you have about how it is going so far would be interesting and helpful to me!
Crystal Paine says
Honestly, this was the first Unplugged Wednesday since the first week of January that actually felt really relaxed — and that’s because I didn’t have Discipleship Group (we’re on break until September). My Wednesdays have been quite full the past two months especially… but I decided not to stress over that because they’ve been full of things that are life-giving to me and completely offline. So even if they aren’t slow, per se, they are differently paced and it’s still been super restorative to me — especially because I don’t have to think about work or doing live videos or answering emails or dealing with the dozens of different demands that are usually part of my work days.
I AM, however, excited that they should be much slower for the next few weeks while the kids are still in school and we don’t have discipleship group.
My encouragement to you would be to make sure there are at least a few life-giving things for you on Wednesdays — even if it’s just one thing each week! And maybe keep meals super simple that day so that it’s more of a break for you? I also think that it may get easier for you once maybe there are fewer appointments or your baby is a little older.
If you end the day feeling stressed, I’d step back and ask yourself why and see if your spouse/close friends have any input or ideas for you on ways to make things less stressful.
Beth says
That’s a good reframe–“not slow per se, but restorative because they are filled with life-giving things.” I think I’ve felt rushed and so felt like I was failing; but there are really good things those days.
I know the pace will ease in the coming months, but I love your suggestion of exploring why I am so stressed with my husband as well.
Thanks!!
Sdr says
Right now I work part time at home, which is different (better and worse in different ways) but there was a stretch where I worked outside the home full time and cut back, ald right after having a baby. Frankly the same thing happens…down to baby having health issues. We ended up thinking of it that instead of having a down day it helped us have family time on the weekends, because anything I accomplished on my free day was stuff that otherwise would have filled our weekend.
Crystal Paine says
That’s a great perspective! Thanks for sharing!
Beth says
Yes, thank you! That is a good way to think about it.