Hi, I'm Jen — and this is the slow part of my week.
A mom of two, married to my college boyfriend, living in a little yellow house in the Blue Ridge foothills. I started Slow Mornings in 2023 to have somewhere to put the quieter parts of my life.
Before the blog, I spent twelve years in brand marketing — long days at a laptop, a phone that never stopped buzzing, and a lot of meetings that could have been emails. I was good at the job and mostly unhappy in a way I didn't know how to name. In 2022, after my son Sam was born, I took a longer maternity leave than I'd planned, watched more sunrises than I had in my entire adult life, and started writing little notes to myself in the margins of my planner. A year later, those notes turned into this blog.
Slow Mornings isn't a program or a method. It isn't a ten-step morning routine or a thirty-day challenge. It's a collection of what's worked for me and what hasn't — the cooking we've settled into, the little family rhythms that make our weeks feel steadier, the books I'm thinking about, the trips we've loved, and the gentler way I'm trying to live now that I'm in my late thirties and mostly, finally, home.
What you'll find here
I write about the things that fill my days: simple, unfussy recipes that my family actually eats, the morning and evening rhythms that keep our house from spinning, small travel with kids (and the occasional weekend away without them), the books that have left a mark on me, and the ongoing, unfinished project of living a little more slowly on purpose.
I don't write about politics, or dieting, or anything I haven't actually tried, and I try very hard not to write about anything I don't genuinely mean. I'm not selling a lifestyle. I just have one, and I like thinking about it out loud.
- Raised in Ohio, now living just outside Asheville, NC
- Mom to Ellie (7) and Sam (almost 4)
- Married to Mark — an electrical engineer, great cook
- Dog named Biscuit, age unknown, spirit of a retiree
- Reader of essay collections and the occasional novel
- Three cups of coffee a day, no apologies
- Former marketer, current gardener-in-training
- Pilates once a week, long walks most days
The house, the town, the life
We moved out of Charlotte in the fall of 2022, right after Sam was born. The move wasn't part of any grand plan — Mark's company opened a satellite office closer to the mountains, and we'd been quietly saving for years for something we couldn't quite articulate. When the right little house came up on a street lined with old oaks, we just said yes. It was built in 1951, has crooked floors and one very loud radiator, and it is exactly where I am supposed to be.
Our town is small — there's a Saturday farmer's market, a library I'm at constantly, one excellent bakery, and a coffee shop where the owner knows my order. Ellie walks to her elementary school with her best friend from two doors down. Sam is obsessed with the rooster that lives three houses away. The mountains are twenty minutes up the road. On the days when I remember what a privilege all of this is, I try to write it down.
Why I'm writing
Honestly? Because I missed writing, and because I was tired of the version of the internet that only exists to sell you something. I wanted somewhere plain and pleasant, where the recipes actually work, the routines are actually mine, and nothing is advertorial. I don't take sponsored posts. I don't do affiliate links. I write because I like to, and I share because I hope some of this is useful to someone.
If you're here, thank you for reading. If you're here and you also think life should feel a little slower, a little warmer, and a lot less performative — I'm so glad you found the blog. Make yourself a coffee and stay a while.