As a mother of three with a newborn, I gave myself permission to sit outside with a cold glass of wine and enjoy the spring breeze with a sweet babe in my lap and the kids playing outside…all because of this article! I needed a little push to elevate the so called “witching hours”. 🤍 Thank you!
i've been doing something similar for months now and i swear to you it completely changed the way i look at my days. and i love using a walk as a 'commute', since i work from home. i usually do one with my dog right before i start the workday at 9am and another right after i finish, at 5pm. it makes all the different for me and, like you said, helps me unload the day and just relax.
I love your list your suggestions and a link to the cup. As much as I love all of this, though I have to ask where is the room for the other things that need to happen in the evening? I love to walk have time for enriching activity is not turn on the TV not scroll but what about those of us who aren’t scrolling or TV because that’s when you can fit in the vacuuming for the week or the laundry or the cleaning of the bathroom or have to do yardwork so it doesn’t consume your entire weekend, clean up the piles go grocery shopping menu planning cooking… So many things crammed into at night that it’s like the evening is just another job… That’s my problem. There’s so much to take care of with the house yard life…. it’s like to continual full-time job one that pays one that doesn’t
Karen, thank you for this! I totally hear you. I have plenty of chores, appointments, and errands throughout the week too. I try to make one or two of these evenings happen per week, more if I'm lucky. I also try to knock out as much as I can on the weekends (grocery shopping, meal planning, the bigger tasks) so my weekdays don't get completely swallowed up. It's definitely a balance, and unfortunately not every night can be sipping wine on the patio, haha. But even just prioritizing these moments once or twice a week has helped me find a lot more joy at the end of long, stressful days!
This post made me slightly regret having kids! (ok not actually) By the time I'm done with taxi service...I have to start my homework proctor job that happens at the same time as tidying. But maybe some nights (ok, only Thursday) I could squeeze in a 15 minute glass of wine on the porch with the dogs!?
Do you live completely alone? If there are other people in the house that are over the age of 10, “many hands make light work” as they say. If you do live alone, why are you only doing these things on weeknights? Is every moment of every evening spent mired in chores? I doubt it. The point of her article is to change your mindset. For example: Vacuum while a load of laundry is in the machine/dryer. Do your yard work on the weekend, instead of through the week. It’s about to be summer if you live in the northern hemisphere so it’ll be too hot to do that it the evening anyway. Order groceries and have them delivered to your house or straight to your car. Take an hour to meal plan and choose meals that don’t take a lot of prep work (meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, Pasta Thursday, etc). Then make enough either for dinner for more than one night or that can double as lunch for a couple of days.
It sounds like you’ve set yourself a whole host of things to be done and because it’s houseWORK, you’re not even considering way that you could make it more pleasant for yourself. Folding laundry or making dinner? Have some music on. There’s no reason why you can’t sip a glass of wine or lemonade while you clean or cook. She’s saying how she fills HER evenings when she can. It’s up to you to figure out how to incorporate some joy into the tasks you’re doing or how to make your evenings the best part of your day. Wear a cute apron, listen to music or a podcast. You automatically went to what all you COULDN’T do and ignored thinking about how you can make your evenings more enjoyable/relaxing for yourself. More than likely, not every minute of every evening from 5-10:30 isn’t spent doing chores, nor should it be. That’s unhealthy. Somewhere in there is 15-20 minutes a day at the absolute least, where you can do something that isn’t drudgery. You seem to have set in your mind how overrun your evenings are but, unless you have very small kids, you’re an adult who can choose to do things differently. I’d wager if you write down what you do every minute of every evening for a week, you’d see that there’s more free time than you think. And even if there isn’t, if it feels like another full time job, you’re doing it wrong or your house is too big for just you, or both. Make it more fun for yourself. No one ever said housework had to be boring, and while doing something every day keeps things from getting out of control, you don’t have to do everything every day.
Looking forward to the day that I can enjoy these after work hours!! As a full time student and employee, many of my hours after 5 have to be spent studying and doing homework 🫠 So close to the end, this was a beautiful essay that is helping me see the light at the end of the tunnel!
As someone who wakes up at 5am I really love this. It’s a great reminder that there are many things you can do in the evenings to be at peace and even energized. Part of the reason I go to bed early is to minimize the time I previously wasted scrolling before bed, but this takes it even a step further and offers ways to be even more mindful and present. Thank you for writing this!
I love the reframe of the dinner prep.. the decompress from the day. I need to think more about this being a destress or a way to calm down after the day, whilst creating something nurturing for my family. I really love this whole post - thanks so much for writing it!
So inspiring I must admit my evenings are a bit of a shambles, other than our hour evening walk. Going to give some of these a try have been thinking of finding a new crafting hobby x
As a mother of three with a newborn, I gave myself permission to sit outside with a cold glass of wine and enjoy the spring breeze with a sweet babe in my lap and the kids playing outside…all because of this article! I needed a little push to elevate the so called “witching hours”. 🤍 Thank you!
This brings me so much joy.
i've been doing something similar for months now and i swear to you it completely changed the way i look at my days. and i love using a walk as a 'commute', since i work from home. i usually do one with my dog right before i start the workday at 9am and another right after i finish, at 5pm. it makes all the different for me and, like you said, helps me unload the day and just relax.
I love the "commuting" idea. A time in the day to turn on and off, especially when working from home.
I love your list your suggestions and a link to the cup. As much as I love all of this, though I have to ask where is the room for the other things that need to happen in the evening? I love to walk have time for enriching activity is not turn on the TV not scroll but what about those of us who aren’t scrolling or TV because that’s when you can fit in the vacuuming for the week or the laundry or the cleaning of the bathroom or have to do yardwork so it doesn’t consume your entire weekend, clean up the piles go grocery shopping menu planning cooking… So many things crammed into at night that it’s like the evening is just another job… That’s my problem. There’s so much to take care of with the house yard life…. it’s like to continual full-time job one that pays one that doesn’t
Karen, thank you for this! I totally hear you. I have plenty of chores, appointments, and errands throughout the week too. I try to make one or two of these evenings happen per week, more if I'm lucky. I also try to knock out as much as I can on the weekends (grocery shopping, meal planning, the bigger tasks) so my weekdays don't get completely swallowed up. It's definitely a balance, and unfortunately not every night can be sipping wine on the patio, haha. But even just prioritizing these moments once or twice a week has helped me find a lot more joy at the end of long, stressful days!
This post made me slightly regret having kids! (ok not actually) By the time I'm done with taxi service...I have to start my homework proctor job that happens at the same time as tidying. But maybe some nights (ok, only Thursday) I could squeeze in a 15 minute glass of wine on the porch with the dogs!?
This. Also who working a “9-5” can log off at 4pm for a glass of wine and a stroll? This felt delusional in a very aggravating way
Do you live completely alone? If there are other people in the house that are over the age of 10, “many hands make light work” as they say. If you do live alone, why are you only doing these things on weeknights? Is every moment of every evening spent mired in chores? I doubt it. The point of her article is to change your mindset. For example: Vacuum while a load of laundry is in the machine/dryer. Do your yard work on the weekend, instead of through the week. It’s about to be summer if you live in the northern hemisphere so it’ll be too hot to do that it the evening anyway. Order groceries and have them delivered to your house or straight to your car. Take an hour to meal plan and choose meals that don’t take a lot of prep work (meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, Pasta Thursday, etc). Then make enough either for dinner for more than one night or that can double as lunch for a couple of days.
It sounds like you’ve set yourself a whole host of things to be done and because it’s houseWORK, you’re not even considering way that you could make it more pleasant for yourself. Folding laundry or making dinner? Have some music on. There’s no reason why you can’t sip a glass of wine or lemonade while you clean or cook. She’s saying how she fills HER evenings when she can. It’s up to you to figure out how to incorporate some joy into the tasks you’re doing or how to make your evenings the best part of your day. Wear a cute apron, listen to music or a podcast. You automatically went to what all you COULDN’T do and ignored thinking about how you can make your evenings more enjoyable/relaxing for yourself. More than likely, not every minute of every evening from 5-10:30 isn’t spent doing chores, nor should it be. That’s unhealthy. Somewhere in there is 15-20 minutes a day at the absolute least, where you can do something that isn’t drudgery. You seem to have set in your mind how overrun your evenings are but, unless you have very small kids, you’re an adult who can choose to do things differently. I’d wager if you write down what you do every minute of every evening for a week, you’d see that there’s more free time than you think. And even if there isn’t, if it feels like another full time job, you’re doing it wrong or your house is too big for just you, or both. Make it more fun for yourself. No one ever said housework had to be boring, and while doing something every day keeps things from getting out of control, you don’t have to do everything every day.
Exactly! Once a while we can pull off a wonderful evening like this but I don't believe it is most people's normal.
I already totally romanticize those magical evening hours but somehow your beautiful writing here made me love them even more. 🤍
God I really gotta quit my eating in front of the tv habit, this wind down sounds so peaceful and lux!
It's so hard, it's just so comfy. I'm trying to eat at the table at least 3-5 days a week, but everything else can be on the couch.
Looking forward to the day that I can enjoy these after work hours!! As a full time student and employee, many of my hours after 5 have to be spent studying and doing homework 🫠 So close to the end, this was a beautiful essay that is helping me see the light at the end of the tunnel!
As someone who wakes up at 5am I really love this. It’s a great reminder that there are many things you can do in the evenings to be at peace and even energized. Part of the reason I go to bed early is to minimize the time I previously wasted scrolling before bed, but this takes it even a step further and offers ways to be even more mindful and present. Thank you for writing this!
As a single woman, I don’t have any externals like kids bed times to shape the timeline of my evenings. This is great!!
I love this! Feel like I need a morning routine write up from you to inspire me for peaceful mornings too 💕
Love the après work day blueprint!
I love the reframe of the dinner prep.. the decompress from the day. I need to think more about this being a destress or a way to calm down after the day, whilst creating something nurturing for my family. I really love this whole post - thanks so much for writing it!
So inspiring I must admit my evenings are a bit of a shambles, other than our hour evening walk. Going to give some of these a try have been thinking of finding a new crafting hobby x
love the apron idea! definitely going to try that
Such a fun, easy way to elevate the cooking experience!
I have one and have never worn it, gonna try it tonight!
Wait I’m not even kidding this is exactly what I do each day just about to a T and it is truly magical!! I love that you shared this!
This was such a relaxing read 🤍
I find making the most of your evenings is the most heart-lifting thing you can do. Taking walks in the park at Golden hour is the best!