Gemma The thing I love most about the summer holidays is the opportunity to slow down. For me that means simple things like no set wake up times, no rushing to get out in the morning and the opportunity to connect as a family on our summer holiday. To spend hours on the beach with little distraction. To cook, play and be together.
In the busyness of term time I feel pulled in all directions. My days feel rushed and full and urgent. Almost nightly when I go into give the children one last kiss before I go to sleep, I take a moment to watch them sleeping peacefully and I will time to slow down. I will myself to slow down, to be more present, to cherish every moment. And yet in our waking hours busy family/work/school life resumes and that presence feels hard to hold. So as best I can I hold an intention to slow down in school holidays. Here’s some themes that help me hold that practice of slowing.
Mini adventures.
It’s not always possible to have a whole day together as a family in the holidays. For most parents juggling is necessary to make it all work. Going on an adventure together can seem impossible if you are still busy and pulled in different directions. We love a mini adventures. It gives us a way of finding opportunities to have family time every day.
What is a mini adventure? It’s whatever you want it to be. Board games, den making, lego for all the family. For us an adventure is being outdoors. We might pack a picnic for our evening meal and go outdoors. It might be packing some croissants, fruit, colouring pencils, paper and taking it to Dunham Massey park for breakfast. I think about mini adventures as a way of creating meaningful time together even if it’s only an hour long. The other week we woke the children at 4am to head to our local out door pool for a summer solstice swim. It was glorious. The children were excited and it was a special memory of family time. We were all back home for 7am and we had the rest of the day ahead of us.
I try to reframe the holidays as way to invite mini adventures and I am often surprised to see how many opportunities we have to spend time together.
Disconnect from tech
I disconnect from social apps most weekends but during the holidays I often disconnect for longer periods. So many things in life take our attention to our screens and before we know it replying to a quick message can become 20 minutes of something else. I find I am fresher and more energised when I don’t have my phone on me.
Set an intention
Last summer I set the intention to eat lunch outdoors together every day. Some days that was in the garden, most days it was in outdoors even if it was sat in the boot with our legs dangling out. Either way the intention I set changed the course of our summer as I looked for more ways to make it happen each day.
I set an intention that can be adapted and flexible. I am always looking for flexibility and balance. I’m sure there was the odd day that our outdoor lunch didn’t happen at all, though I can only remember the ones that did.
Noticing simple delights
I have found that life is full of tiny moments that can pass without notice if we aren’t looking for them. I studied film making at university and I have always documented things that capture my attention and delight me. You don’t even have to film or photograph the moment, often times I don’t. But sometimes I do and then at the end of last summer I made a little video of moments I had collected that delighted me on our holiday. When I notice the beauty in the simple things, in the every day I start to see more and more of these little tiny wonders. The simple act of noticing and observing them slows me down and makes me grateful.
