I absolutely love Sunday mornings. There is something magical about the prospect of having nothing looming on the horizon. Obviously this sin’t always the case, there are things to do and places to go - sometimes. But I generally have a sacred space of reading the weekend paper and sitting with a pot of green tea or coffee.

Coffee isn’t really my thing, but I do enjoy it. I just don’t always react well to caffeine, so I am trying to drink it only once a week or once every two weeks. Sunday morning seems to be one of those lovely days when I have the time to sit and really enjoy a cuppa. I don’t run the risk of going crazy with ideas and talking to everyone in the office at a hundred miles an hour.

I love the newspaper and have my favourite journalists and articles that I hunt down first. I don’t make the bed straight away or brush my hair. We have a big breakfast that lingers on - poached eggs and avocado, fresh orange juice, porridge if it’s a cold day sprinkled with coconut flower sugar and almond butter and berries. We are a family of two course breakfasts - a cereal and toast option and then something extra special too. Of course, on a school morning when my husband is working abroad this isn’t a reality as there are school lunches, dog walking, hair and makeup, last minute homework revision and a myriad of other ‘to do’s’ to be done.

Sunday morning is a lovely chance to linger and read. If I can I will plan activities to start a little later on. That way I can also take the dog for a long hike through the countryside and catch up with friends while we walk - perfect multi-tasking: fresh air, vitamin D, nature, exercise, happy dog, energised kids, setting an appetite for lunch and working off breakfast, making time for people that are important to hear what has been happening in their lives and feeling fulfilled. I absolutely love it.

A very good friend said to me before we moved back to Ireland, “Ireland will be a fun place to live. What I would do is to buy everyone a really good jacket”. This is so true and I think about it a lot and wonder if we have good enough jackets? The funny thing is that before Antigua and life in the Caribbean, we lived in an Alpine village in Switzerland where the winter meant being covered in snow for at least 4 months of every year. We should be equipped, right? Well we have all of the ski gear and thermals. Somehow the cold is different in Ireland and it is the cold inside the house that chills me - I don’t mind it being cold outside and rugging up to get fresh air, but I don’t enjoy shivering at the kitchen table in the morning. It makes that cuppa with the newspaper like a little radiator to huddle over. No wonder so much tea is consumed in Ireland.

Yet a highlight of being at home is the culture - I love the newspaper because at last I feel part of something. My Sunday mornings are about a sense of belonging and a sense of routine. I love both of those things, and lingering over a pot of tea before going for a big walk is just perfect too. For me anyway.

I hope that your Sunday mornings are lovely too. Perhaps it is a different day of the week for you or really different pastimes that make you happy?

MY HOME - Sunday mornings - routine and a sense of belonging