It's not an original thought but it is a true one. We are given the same number of hours every day and it's up to us how we chose to spend those hours. Once the essentials such as sleeping, eating and working are taken care of we, each of us, have time at our disposal.

I chanced upon a conversation in the pub last night where a neighbour was recounting a tale of a house he had visited for work purposes which was, according to him, a mess. He described washing up left undone and a heap of laundry in the kitchen and then to cap it all, the owner of the house was sitting on the sofa - Knitting!

Imagine the horror of it!. His tone of outrage and disbelief was palpable. Why would any self respecting woman be sitting, wasting time knitting when there were clearly domestic duties to be attended to.

Needless to say I found all this very amusing. I didn't try to persuade him otherwise - I know from experience that he is a stubborn and recalcitrant man but I did find it very funny. Especially since I had spent most the afternoon with my feet up with my boys watching films and yes...knitting.

Yes, the kitchen floor could do with a clean, yes there was laundry to be done (although school uniforms were done) but we had a fun, snuggly and knitterly afternoon. It made me happy and recharged in a way that no amount of house cleaning would. I'm sure that the boys will also have enjoyed the afternoon much more than if I had spent it cleaning and putting off their requests to snuggle until an unspecified later time.

And I make no apologies for it.