Choosing rhythm, losing balance
I was chatting to another mom recently. An inspiring sort of mom, the kind who looks effortlessly stylish with a mom bun, kid on hip and locally-made leather handbag strung over her shoulder. She mentioned that she chooses rhythm over balance. This was a cool...
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Dear first child, dear second child
I wrote this a little while back shortly after having my second child, my daughter Raphaela. I enjoyed reading it now, a couple of years later, to remind myself of that very special (crazy) season and all of the emotions that I was going through. I think any mom who...
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Being a girl, raising a girl
My son asked me yesterday, “Mom, do you like being a girl?” I like being me. I have journeyed to this point, having endured the insecurities of being an adolescent girl, the compromising, quietness of being a young grown up girl and the feisty assertiveness of being...
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The Burger Bar Days: A Beginning
We are Anna and Fred. In August 2016, we decided to spend every last cent we had (and didn’t have) to take a two month break and travel to Northern California to spend time with family. We needed change. While driving around one day I thought, “I wish I could just...
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The big sleep question
When will I sleep again? One of the most difficult adjustments to becoming a parent is the sleep - as in lack of. One of the great things about being an adult is that you can sleep when you want. Of course we have things to wake up for like jobs and exercise, but on...
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I need to because I want to
I wrote this about two years ago, funny interactions with my then nearly three-year-old. ...During an outing to the beach recently, my nearly three-year-old was assisting with the packing up and I noticed him collecting a bucket full of periwinkle shells. He clearly...
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Wait! I’m going without myself!
I recall standing on a London underground train platform at the age of 23, with tears welling up in my eyes because I had just returned from a sunshine-filled holiday in my home country of South Africa. A return to dull weather, a dull job, a dull commute. This...
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Working mom: dealing with the mommy guilt
I am a working mom. My love for my work and my gratitude for being able to get up every day and do what I love is only marred by the guilt that comes with my choice to not be with my children 100% of the time. I have chosen this. I suppose I could argue that in some...
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Five tips for getting things done
Here are my five top tips for getting things done for people who have lots of things to get done and not enough time to do them. I am not a master of these five practices. I do manage to get a lot of things done but at the expense of other things (sleep, healthy...
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We want to live a slow life. A life of connection and simplicity. A life that allows us the space to assess what we really want to be spending our time and resources on. And so here we are, the Slow Down Family, working on slowing down more. We are figuring out how to apply this to all areas of our life, and how to do it while raising small children and pursing our dreams.
Follow our journey here as we share our experiences and tips on how to minimise and create space in our lives for the things that we really want to keep.