Cleaning the toilet, otherwise known as ‘me time’

I read a passing tweet* the other day that made me laugh: “when did cleaning the toilet become me time?!”

I laughed because I so know this.

Because, although I have my weekly yoga sessions and book club and a few nights out with the girls now and then, on a daily basis it’s the mundane moments of time to myself 

that really matter. And in reality those moments mostly seem to consist of weeing with the door closed, cooking dinner without children clamouring around my ankles and yes, also cleaning.

There are some days when the thought of kicking Paul and the kids out of the house for a couple of hours so I can clean in total peace and quiet seems so much more appealing than anything else. I mean, the chance to potter round a quiet and clean house. alone? Oh the happy! It’s a sad state of affairs, but oh so true.

In fact, nowadays if I get the chance to do any basic mundane task by myself, in my own time, just the way I like it, it most definitely counts as me time. It’s why I have little daily rituals that ensure I find those all-important five-minute sanity breaks throughout the day. Like having to be the last one out of bed in the morning, even if it’s just for one extra quiet minute by myself {I have Paul to thank for this one}. Or hiding in the kitchen having a sneaky read of a few blog posts on the iPad, all under the pretense of ‘just getting you a snack darling’.

Tea is another - when Lila sleeps and Ollie is happily watching his daily dose of Ceebibs {that’s Cbeebies to you}, I boil the kettle, make a cup of my favourite green tea, fruit tea – in fact any herbal tea – and allow myself to sit somewhere quiet amidst the chaos while I drink it hot. Oh the luxury of not having to microwave my tea three times.

It’s definitely the little pleasures.

And now, in the run up to Christmas I'm finding these moments are few and far between. With Ollie at home for the next three weeks we’ve been extra busy, in a very lovely way - choosing his own presents for his Daddy, baking gingerbread reindeer, making paper snowflakes, watching the Polar Express on DVD. Lots of snuggles and playing ‘the night before Christmas’ {I'm the little boy who's asleep and he's Father Christmas - of course} and walks in the park. I’m thoroughly enjoying it, but we’re all pretty exhausted, so those hot-tea breaks are even more important that ever.

Now, please tell me your me-time moments are just as mundane as mine?!

This post is sponsored by Twinings, all words,opinions and images are my own. Thanks to Twinings my hot-tea breaks are currently spent enjoying green tea with jasmine, Vanilla Chai {amazing!}, white tea and pomegranate and double mint. Go try some immediately…

*Apologies to the tweeter – I have no recollection of who you are, but thank you for making me smile.