My daily analog hobbies as a mom of little kids

This past year I really wanted to curb my phone screen time, especially around my kids. I have three kids ages 7, 4 and 2, so my time is still pretty limited in the hobby department, but I’m someone who needs to create things with my hands often or I start to go a little bananas.

In past seasons of life, I picked up oil painting, pottery, jewelry making, home renovation projects and other micro hobbies, but a lot of those just don’t work during this season of my life. I had to find new sustainable hobbies I could do daily for short periods of time when I find small pockets of down time as a busy mom. Outside of just putting my phone out of reach and just being present with my kids, here are a few hobbies I’ve picked up that I can do pretty much daily that keep me from scrolling during family time.

Knitting

At the start of the year I picked up knitting thanks to my sister, Kimberly, who taught me! At first knitting was not something I could do passively while my kids played. It took a bit of time to understand the techniques, but once I got a basic understanding it quickly became my favorite screen-free daily hobby. Now, I’m pretty much always carrying around a knitting project to work on. It’s perfect for the park or when the kids are playing nearby. I’ve mostly knit sweaters or cardigans, but recently started making hats and it’s the perfect size on-the-go project I can drop into any bag.

If you want to learn to knit your first sweater I’d highly recommend this pattern and detailed video tutorial. It’s what I used for my first sweater and it was immensely helpful! The pattern is free and the yarn recommend is very affordable too.

Film Photography

I recently took Sara Covey’s film photography course and now I’m totally hooked on film photography. I had a cheap point-and-shoot camera I bought off ebay a few years ago, but the light seal has started to leak so I invested in Sara’s favorite point-and-shoot camera* and love it! You certainly don’t need an expensive camera for film photography. I loved my Olympus Stylus* and would’ve just kept shooting on it if the light leaks hadn’t been so bad. I also got my dad’s old 35mm camera recently and can’t wait to learn to shoot more manual photos.

Film photography is such a wonderful hobby. I love how it really makes me slow down and observe my kids, watch the light, take in my surroundings and find the beauty in my daily life. I don’t shoot daily, but try to take it out once a week to snap a few shots. I love to pack it when were out-and-about doing something as a family instead of taking photos on my phone. I know I’m limited in shots, so I’m instantly more intentional with what I snap photos of. Plus, the prolonged joy of waiting while you send in your film to developed and wait for scans to drop in your email is just so fun!

Here are some of my favorite shots recently from a trip to the North Shore in Minnesota at the end of summer. (I shot these on my Olympus):

There’s something so special about film photography that I enjoy a million times more than taking photos on my phone. I think another motivation for me to pickup film photography is the overwhelming amount of photos I have on my phone that I need to cull through. So many duplicates to the get “perfect” photo and just unnecessary snaps to use as “online content.” I like how you can create a story with film in a way I don’t get with my unlimited phone photos.

Reading

I know reading isn’t a revolutionary offline hobby, but why I mention it is because I sit in my kids rooms usually until they fall asleep at night and would often scroll my phone. I now try and use my kindle paperwhite (mine has the amber/warm-tone setting) to read instead. I can adjust the brightness way down and increase the warmth of the screen light so it doesn’t bother my kids, but I can comfortably read a book in the dark.

At-Home Barista

A few months ago, we got a more manual espresso machine. We’d had one of those one-touch espresso makers for a few years, but it just didn’t make good coffee. We splurged on a the Breville Barista Touch Espresso* machine when it was on sale and it’s fantastic! It’s easily enough to use as a beginner and once you get the hang of it, makes great coffee. I remembered reading Kim and Scott from Yellow Brick Home’s review of the machine a few years ago and went for it when it went on sale.

To be honest, I didn’t make good coffee at first. I learned there’s a real art to making the perfect shot of espresso after a deep dive into youtube videos on the topic. After a few weeks and lots of bitter, watery lattes later, I finally understood the principles of making a good shot of espresso.

Improving my at-home barista skills has been a fun micro hobby I didn’t see coming. Now, I love trying out new coffees and dialing in the perfect espresso shot for my morning lattes. It brings me a lot of joy and it’s very practical after nights when my youngest sneak into our bed. How do their tiny bodies seem to take up a minimum of half the bed?!

I would love to know what your offline hobbies are! Share in the comments please ;-)

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