slow parenting, craft-averse, and a giveaway!

Are you familiar with Slow, capital s?

Maybe you've heard of Slow Food, the movement that originated in Italy that now has satellite groups (they're called convivia) all over the world made up of people who are passionate about eating deliciously, locally, slowly.

Not in the Fletcherizing "chew every bite a hundred times" way, but in a "direct antithesis of the meals sold at chain restaurants, where the food comes in a truck from who knows where and the whole eating experience is more pit stop than dining."

Phew. Sorry about that.

Out of Slow Food has grown Slow everything. I mean, it makes sense, right? You and I are deep down sick/tired (or sick and tired) from running around like loons trying to keep up with everyone and everything.

Trying to manage our real lives and our cyber identities and feeling that rock of dread when one doesn't match up with the other, usual the latter to the former. It's stressful, like a lie that went over way too smoothly. One of these days you are going to be found out. Sound familiar?

But I digress.

If you have yet to read In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honoré, put it on your list. You can borrow it from any library. It's a simple-living modern classic, nourishing comfort food for the brain.

Recently, I dug into Fed Up with Frenzy, by the very lovely Susan Sachs Lipman (a fellow Frugal Mama contributor). It's chock-full of gentle suggestions for those of us who long to parent more slowly, and it matters not how far your reality is from that dream.

Darlings, I speak from experience.

There's nothing in there that could be called complicated or to which you have to commit long-term. Later activities don't build on former ones, so you won't feel that you've fallen off the Slow wagon come the holidays.

It's a veritable treasure trove for those of us who...

-would call ourselves many things, but "crafty" is not one of them.

-are working with a smaller budget, one that won't accommodate constant runs to every craft and home improvement store in the tri-state area.

-(and I'm not saying that this is necessarily me!!!) you remain baffled by the screw gun and terrified of the one that shoots out staples. 

Many of the projects take only ten minutes, plus drying time, during which you can do whatever you please, sleeping being my main recommendation. It's energizing to wake up to accomplishment.

Exhibits:

popsicle stick airplanes (we discovered that they fly fastest without the horizontal sticks)

puppets out of our singleton socks, puffy paint from Father's Day, and pipe cleaners I dug out of a drawer

 a better dress-up basket (Skippyjon is hiding, dressed as a bandit)

I'm most excited about the seasonal activities, since one of my secrets to the good life is to revel in each passing one.

As well as the outdoor ones like "pinecone bird feeder" and "how to whistle with a blade of grass". All the things our parents grew up doing - playing jacks, shooting marbles, playing pickup-sticks - that seem like anachronisms in our wired, wildly frenetic world.

Suz's publisher was kind enough to send me two copies - one to keep and one to give away! (I am now official - something to give away that I did not purchase myself! Let's toast.)

If you'd like to win your very own brand spanking new copy of the book, please leave a comment below saying something like, "I'm in!".  I'll randomly pick a winner October 6th and mail it pronto! This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only, so I send my apologies to you dear international readers who are this time out of the running.

Anyway, comment away! And good luck!