I am sat at the dining table in the dining room helping my little boy by feeding him his lunch and passing his water bottle every now and then.

The layout of our house means the dining room is the central hub of activity. With the front door leading into the coat area just to the side, this room is the entrance to our home. This is where we have home date nights, where we host friends and family, where me and Bertie sit daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner whilst Dan is out at work.

Here our dog relaxes in one of her two comfortable beds. Here there are pictures on the wall showing memories and there is a mirror above the coat hooks.

We exist around our dining room and I’m so glad we do. So often you see the dining room as a dusty space devoid of character, only used for ‘special occasions’, and often for family birthdays or holiday celebrations.

Ours is well used – not as clean as it should be (typical farmhouse!), and we have a secondhand table with 3/4 chairs remaining. Bertie’s highchair dominates the head of the table and you will often find the dog snooping for crumbs of his meals left behind. But it’s perfect for us.

I’m fully embracing slow living. It’s an adjustment that I’m working on and one of the most recent changes is to connect my calming Spotify playlist to the Bluetooth speaker that is often just set to play the radio.

Having calming music playing over mealtimes just seems to make me naturally slow down and enjoy the food. Also, to enjoy the experience of sharing a meal time with my baby boy.

I hosted a dinner party last Friday evening (slow cooker chilli followed by a rhubarb crumble) and I got to dress the dining room table up a little bit for the event! Nice glasses, a candle, tablecloth, that kind of thing.

There’s a time for relaxing with food in front of the TV but for me, the dining room is where we get to communicate and make memories.