A Country Escape: A New Perspective

Following our recent farm stay, I found myself re-evaluating the busy, full on life I lead in Sydney and how I liked the slowed down, relaxed and old school approach to life that we enjoyed in Tasmania. At the moment, life never stops; time is flying by and I am constantly stressed. The farm stay helped me to re-evaluate a lot of what we are stressed about and also to understand what I really enjoyed in Tassie and wanted to replicate here in busy Sydney.

Farm Freshness. I like the idea of growing your own produce, and while this doesn’t mean by any means becoming self-sufficient I certainly want to expand our herb/veggie garden to create a bigger more useful crop. At the moment, there are times when we I do not feed my children certain fruits as they are simply too expensive to buy. It would be great if we could grow some of these. While research shows that my climate cannot do all the fruits I wanted, I am going to try to grow strawberries, blueberries and a range of melons – all fruits the children love and will eat. See our tips for kids in the garden to see how easy getting your family gardening can be.
Buying direct & supporting the farmers/small businesses. Having a small business of my own I have always been keen to support small businesses, especially farmers who put so much effort into growing their items. Living in a large city; buying direct can be easily overlooked as it is so easy to buy your fruit and veggies whilst grocery shopping. My aim is to find, visit & support local farmers markets. By supporting them I find you get better produce at a similar or better price. Alternatively if you cannot visit the markets direct, look at getting your fruit and veg delivered. These businesses are often a small family run business that buys direct from the larger farmers markets.
Slow Down. Truth be told, most of us should slow down and smell the roses, but how do we fit that into our busy schedule? The answer quite simply is to better arrange the schedule. I always say I should walk the kids to school and then never do, because I’m rushing somewhere afterwards. After recently breaking my wrist and being unable to drive I found that I really enjoyed walking the kids to school often and with better time management (in my case it was simply the inability to go to the shops as often) and refusing to rush to the shops all the time there was less shopping to do. While you may not be able to change your work schedule, what could you do more or less of to better enjoy your day to day life? Some ideas: Walking the kids to school ticks an exercise health goal, better list planning/ grocery shopping means less overall shopping – giving you more time. Catch up with a friend and either relax and enjoy their company or meet at a park where the kids can play and you can do a few laps or run after them – exercise and fun goals. Look for easy quick meals, make meals you can freeze or take advantage of a slow cooker to make long hectic days easier at dinner time.
Family experiences. I am always wondering if I am doing the right thing as a mum and being on the farm made me realise that family experiences are invaluable and they don’t always need to be fancy or expensive. In general, a farming life is harder and children are expected to help out and to do more chores than their city equivalent. Yet they are also spending more time as an active, participating family, working together. There is a time for work and then a time for play. This lead me to realise that if I utilised the same mentality at home, I could ask the children to help out a bit more with the chores (putting away laundry, setting/clearing the table) then that in turn frees up some of my time which I can then reinvest into spending with them; playing together or watching them play

I am trying to implement these activities and so far am enjoying the benefits they are bringing. My youngest loves helping to water the veggies and it provides a fun 5 activity for us to do together.

Have you had a similar change in perspective or aims for your family? What has worked for you?