Last Saturday Carrie and I spent the day in the Austin City Limits studios, at the inaugural Tedx Austin conference. It was an amazing event with the theme of Play Big!  Tedx is an offshoot of the amazing Ted series which is an annual event celebrating the world of ideas worth sharing. Tedx is its younger sibling so to speak – the x signifying that it is an independently organized Ted event. There was nothing smaller about this day though as speaker after speaker after performer hit the stage sharing their big ideas, big notions, big lessons learned, big projects and big dreams for ways we, as creative humans, can Play BIG!

Our own Carrie Contey was one  of those speakers and spoke on the idea of allowing and appreciating the pauses in life. Starting with the explanation of the growth and development of the infant brain, she explained to us all that taking a pause isn’t just a nice idea, it’s necessary to the unfolding and integration of knowledge and understanding.  In less than 15 minutes she taught all in the room, a roomful of people no doubt highly plugged in to a variety of devices and people, that the pause isn’t wasting time. It’s crucial to our human development. When we’re infants and all the way through childhood and adulthood too. We can’t keep taking in, if there is no pause there to allow for integration of information. Well, we can but that is when there is overload and possible implosion. In order to find the balance we have to do. be. do. be. do. be. Always ending on the being.

I have found ways throughout the day to take these necessary pauses. Waiting at a stoplight I close my eyes and tell my children to alert me to a green. Standing at the kitchen sink I spread my feet shoulder width apart and slowly drink a glass of water. I have learned the art of the 20 minute nap. I know that turning off the phone on occasion connects me more to self and to my family. I have learned that time for conscious breathing can/should come as the first item on the list. Not the last. I have learned all of these things and yet I was both in need of and grateful for the scientific reminder from Slow Family’s own Dr. Carrie Contey.

Her message wrapped up at the end: Do less. Be More.

Stay tuned for the video of Carrie’s talk and, lucky us, of the entire day. In the meantime, how are you going to take a pause?

I have known Ginger Webb for many years now and have long been a fan of her herbal work known as Texas Medicinals. She makes a wide variety of tinctures, teas and tonics of the herbal variety – gathering many of the herbs herself during her wild harvest walks. I could list a whole host of my favorites -  with the number one being the mama’s little helper known as Stress Less. The names alone give comfort with tinctures such as Cough Calm, Digestive Cordial, Mental Clarity and more. And her teas too with names such as Strong Mama tea and Romanticka, which tends nicely to the heart and all it encompasses.

Ginger occasionally leads wild herb walks around Austin during which she shows and discusses the edible and medicinal plants that live amongst us. This month we are honored to be included in the first, of what we hope will be many, Slow Family Wild Herb Walk.

If you are going to be in Austin over Thanksgiving weekend we hope you will join us as we walk through Roy Guerrerro Park in East Austin and explore the edible and medicinal plants in our fair city. Here’s the details…

• Sunday, November 29th
• 10:30 a.m. to noon
• $15.00 per person or $25.00 per family
• 8200 Grove Boulevard, 78741 – (oddly it is not allowing a link to the proper address so just type it into google maps!)
• Please r.s.v.p. to Ginger Webb if you plan on attending

Seems like a way better option than heading out to the mall.

Saturday November 21 from 3-5 pm. in Butler Park.

Bring your balls, bikes, blankets, bubbles and bring your friends too! We’ll make it a Slow Family party in the park.

Thanks friends! We look forward to gathering with all of you.

Our good and incredibly poetic friend Liz Garton Scanlon has a new book which came out out just a week ago. It’s one of the most beautiful picture books I’ve ever read. And as if her lyrical words aren’t enough, the illustrations by Marla Frazee are a perfect match.

If you’re in Austin on Saturday 9/26, Liz is having a big release party for her new book this coming Saturday at Austin’s Book People. Future Craft Collective will be there to honor Liz’ latest and greatest picture book by way of a little Prayer/hope/wish flag making crafting.

So come on out this Saturday for a little  celebration, a little crafting, and a reading and signing of what will surely become a classic. It’s at  Book People at 11:30. We’ll see you there. No library voice necessary.

We’re getting ready for back to school at our house. Sort of. We’re still swimming until dark at Barton Springs and sleeping in late in the morning and taking each day as it comes, but in our heads, we are preparing. Sort of.

Our big nod towards back to school comes this Saturday at Zilker Elementary school in Austin, TX where we’ll be holding our 2nd annual Back to School Don’t Shop;Swap! We’ll have sewers and silk screeners and sorters on hand ready to rad-ify any finds. We’ll have oodles of piles of clothes all sorted by gender and size. And we’ll have hundreds of folks from the school and the community there to swap out what they don’t need and get what they do. It was a huge success last year and a definite example of abundance – enough for EVERYONE!!! And all the kids were back to school in total Green fashion following the Future Craft Collective creed: Reduce, reuse, recraft, UPCYCLE!!! Join us if you can as a sorter, a sewer or a swapper.

Then in September, if you’re a mama looking for a night out and a little crafting fun too, you can join me at our Mama’s Collective Craft night where we’ll be making totally cool postcard and greeting card collage. No muss, no fuss and a totally creatively crafty night out. You can read more about it here…

Back to school means major shifting in our house. We just have to figure out how to make it work for everyone.

Carrie represented Slow Family Living on The Today Show today with Kathie Lee and Hoda. She did a great job sharing the information and spreading the word on ways people can really slow down, connect and enjoy family life together.

Check it out!

This is an amazing act of love put together by my friend Rachel Hobson. It’s a list of free and fun things to do in Austin this summer with kids. Check it out. And submit some ideas if you have some at http://austinfamilyfun.wordpress.com/. This is a much needed and valuable resource!