I love new year. I can’t bring myself to be cynical about it. I can’t resist the lure of the fresh start, the idea that I’m finally going to be that person or do that thing. Of course I know it’s arbitrary really but there’s a sense of momentum that I find hard to ignore and each year I start emotionally investing in my remarkable new lifestyle weeks ahead of time. Inevitably I stick with these resolutions for approximately 2 weeks (although one inspirational year a vow to eat more fruit lasted a whole 6 months) but this time…

This time I really want it to work. 2016 was… Well, we all know how that went. And my response to the global turmoil has been a bit of a backlash against the structured chaos of my personal life. This isn’t just some yearning for respite from the tide of mess and clutter that besieges our house, nor merely the desire to be on time (ever), nor even to know what is happening next in my life rather than being consistently taken by surprise. No, what I really want goes beyond that: to slow down the pace of my messy frenetic days and to make space for the things that are really important – sharing amazing times with friends and family, having adventures and reconnecting with nature, living sustainably, embracing the changes in the seasons and celebrating along the way. And definitely, definitely less laundry.

And how to do this for more than a fortnight? Well, I think writing about it might just keep me at it. Over the next weeks (hopefully more than 2) I’ll be trying to incorporate some of the inspiring stuff I’ve read about slow living into my and my family’s life, reflecting on some seasonal celebrations and, I really hope, some of the adventures we have along the way. While parenting a 4 and 2 year old and with a natural disposition to be pretty disorganised. Let’s see how it goes!

In my next post I’ll be sharing where the idea for this blog first began. And if you’re curious as to why “big stick little stick” take a look at the “about” page.