It may have taken me almost 20 months, but I’ve realised what weekends are all about, in fact what life is all about.

I’m so used to jam-packing our weekends with social activities that it leaves very little down-time for us to enjoy together as a family.

This weekend, we made no social plans so just relaxed and enjoyed time together – on Saturday we took Tommy to his swimming lesson as usual, went for a walk and had time to relax at home together as a family, without having to rush off anywhere, be anywhere for a certain time or arrange child-care plans.

My fiancé works full-time (fairly long hours) and I work four full days and we both commute for at least an hour and a half each day so our weeks are very routine driven, we need to be organised and prepared and things have to run like clockwork to make sure we drop Tommy off on time with family or nursery.

We accept this routine (although it can be tiring and certainly can be difficult being away from Tommy for four days a week) and know that we have to work to keep our lifestyle and provide the best future that we can for Thomas. I just think I’ve admitted that I can’t do it all and with such busy, frantic weeks, our down-time at weekends is such precious time.

Today, we took Tommy to Heaton Park (and the sun was finally shining – hooray!) and we had such a lovely morning. Mr S usually plays football on Sundays but it was called today off so it was a double bonus that we got a whole family day to ourselves!

When I saw Tommy wrapped up running about and jumping in muddy puddles I thought these are the moments, right here. These precious, simple moments when we’re together relaxing, having fun, enjoying nature and each other’s company; these are the little, ordinary moments that make our lives so extraordinary.