Slow Living in September

_{*This post may contain affiliate links*}

Today marks the first day of September. And for a lot of us that mean back to the daily grind of juggling homeschooling and homemaking. Personally, I love this time of year, making new plans for our homeschool days (as if I didn’t already plan that back in April), making new routines and reassessing my life after a very busy, although kind-of relaxing, summer.  I think we are all in need of a slow living themed month ahead.

Fall has always been my favorite season! What’s not to love about flannels, sweaters and a dreary rainy days? Those things are all well and lovely, but I want to encourage everyone to sit down for a minute and hear my idea for this September. 

Let’s take this September to really focus on slow living. I’ll call it Slow September. Let’s hone in on our ability to live slowly. This could be taken in so many ways, and here I’ll list a few, and please enjoy the alliteration: (because apparently I can’t write a blog post without a list lol) 

• no spend – how can we live slowly, if we’re consuming so quickly. Try and spend (punny?) this month being aware of your transactions and if you actually need something or just want it. 
• screen conscious – instead of aiming for no screen time, which can sometimes lead to us just getting mad at ourselves (or our spouses), let’s try and just be aware of how much we pick up our phone instead of being fully present. 
• slow days and evenings – starting a relaxing evening routine with your family. Maybe popcorn and a board game after dinner. Maybe a family devotional during dinner. Maybe just sitting on the front porch, watching the leaves fall.
• scribe (verb) – using this time to slow down and write. Put pen to paper, even if what we’re normally used to doing is typing in our phones. There is such power in physically writing something down; goals, dreams, thoughts, and prayer.
• soups and stews – nourishing our bodies with warm food that’s cooked slowly and intentionally. Using our harvest creatively to provide sustenance to our family.  
• Savor September – really enjoy who you’re with and what you’re doing, in every moment. Being completely in awe over the changing leaves, appreciating all of the changes that are happening all around us.
• sourdough – take these slow evenings to learn something new with your children or husband and learn from wise old traditions how to create slow bread. See my blog post here for more information on maintaining a low maintenance sourdough starter. 
• sunrise/sunset – sitting for 30-45 minutes before the day starts and allowing your body to soak in the sunrise seriously makes a difference, combine that with the following “s” and you get a really, really great start to the day. And on the contrary, ending your day with soaking in the changing colors of the sunset really shows you that you need rest, too.
• Scripture – and lastly, but surely not least, let’s spend time reading and dwelling in the scriptures.
  

These are all words I want to embody in September. And I hope I’ve inspired you all to take this month to really BE here and be slow! 

I would love to hear any additional ideas for slow living September you have below in the comments section!