Me time

Phew, time for a break methinks. There is a tureen full of tomato soup on the kitchen side, 1 pan and 1 big bowl full of tomato sauce cooling down to go in the freezer and 2 batches of bread dough on the oven top proving. Definitely time for a sit down and a cuppa. I still have stuff to do but the kitchen is a bit tropical at the moment and I need to wash up (again) before I can do anything else. Plus I really should get the bread done before I try to much more. Our kitchen is rather small and although I am clearing as much side space as I can there is only so much I can do.

So a moment of reflection. I'm inside seeing to the culinary needs of my family and Spadger is out in the garden breaking apart pallets to make planters for the next season's crops. This morning we harvested the last of the produce that is in the ground. This added up to abut 3 and a half pounds of quite misshapen parsnips (gotta love ugly veg!) and around 11 pounds of jerusalem artichokes. We've never even tasted them before but thought we'd have a crack at growing them. There are 2 of their flowers in a glass on top of the piano at the moment which Spadger gave me in exchange for a cuppa. He'd have gotten the cuppa anyway but I'm not adverse to the flowers hehehehehe.

It's days like today that make me realise how much I love my "simple" life. It's hard work and definitely takes more effort than the conventional life but I feel so much more enriched for it. The amount of people who ask me how I get the time to make all our bread or shake their heads in wonder at the fact that I knit, sew and bake every week. I can tell you now that getting rid of the idiot box (television) is one of the reasons I have the time and the inclination to do these things. Not feeling the need to update my status on Facebook every 5 minutes helps as well. I'm not adverse to technology or being up-productive, I wouldn't be on here if I were, but these things do just eat time. Not having a TV means that when I normally would have sat down in front of something I didn't really want to watch but I couldn't be bothered to do anything else I now have to find something to do.

Having this extra time means I have finally learnt to knit properly. I have a beautiful, 100 year old sewing machine that I use to make beautiful things and I am learning to cook new things. What makes it even better is that on average I do all this and STILL have time to play on here, indulge my love of taking photos and read all the books I want. I can spend and evening every week at the knit and knatter night that the local wool shop runs. I can go to the market on a weekend and spend plenty of time actually connecting with my family.

When Spadgersdottier is visiting we watch films together occasionally but more often we can be found playing board games. Rather than having her comatose in front of whatever passes for children's programming she is in the kitchen or garden with us. All this time that has suddenly "appeared" to do all this in was there already. Time is totally relevant and there is a lot more of it than we think.

We have this belief that we have the right to "me" time. This time must be spent doing something we enjoy. However it cannot be spent doing something productive, that goes against the concept of me time. Well my me time is spent on the above mentioned things. Crafting, cooking, reading and taking pictures are things I love doing. I get a great amount of pleasure out of them and a feeling of satisfaction that shopping and vegging in front of the TV never gave me.

What do you do in your Me time?