July 18, 2024

Evening Hours Challenge

I recently signed up for an "Evening Hours Challenge" - one of the tasks was to think through current evenigns and try to add something fun.  My current evenings are chaos leading directly into terror over how little sleep I may get, so it's not a great situation to start with.  But as the babies are sleeping better (they are semi reliably sleeping untill at least 4, and sometimes till 5, and a couple times till 6!!) I figured i may as well think about how to use my evenings better.

I was asked to set three intentions of fun things to do in the evenings this week.  My goals were as follows:

  • Do evening exercise
  • Do a yoga video in the evening
  • Write a blog post
I have done none of these things.  I am not an evening exerciser.  I was an evening yoga person until the babies started pulling 2am shenanigans and I started going to bed at 8pm.  And... I have not written a blog post.

Until now!

However, on Saturday Andy and I decided to watch a movie! We spent our free time deciding what to watch.  We picked American Fiction
Of course by the time we picked a film it was past 8:30 so far too late to start a film.

We watched it 40 minutes at a time on Sunday and Monday and Tuesday .  We really enjoyed it.  I don't know that it was "best picture of the year" and a lot of the characters were weirdly one dimensional but maybe that was the point.  

I guess that was a good use of my evenings, if not yoga or exercise or a blog post!

On Wednesday I met a friend for dinner.  It was great to leave the house in the evening and wear normal clothes (not kid running around clothes which is what I seem to mostly wear).  We met at 7:30 which is a crazy late dinner time for me.  It's amazing how quickly I've become accustomed to eating at 5:30.  I stayed out until 10:30 and didn't sleep until 11pm... but even waking at 5am today wasn't as bad as expected because I felt like I had done adult human things and not perpetual house/life/kid things.

Also I cycled to dinner, which is my longest cycle since signing up for Strava earlier this year:

I guess that counts as evening exercise?  So maybe I did do an evening goal??

It's currently 8:45pm on a Thursday.  It's far too late for Yoga.  Maybe tomorrow.  

Have you done anything exciting or usual with your evenings this week? Have you seen American Fiction? Are you an evening exerciser?

6 comments:

  1. Hey, if it makes you feel better, we are a childless couple who regularly tries to get dinner on the table by 5:30 or 6, so that we can make our bedtime. LOL.

    There are some great bedtime yoga videos out there on YouTube that are 10-15 minute long that might be an option on those days when it's late, but you haven't done any movement yet. Maybe a consideration?

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    1. Oh I have so many yoga videos I like that are 10-15 minutes long. I just... don't. I will do them again. Next week or the week after. I think 10 minute videos are the key though - I gave up pretty quick on Yoga with Adrianne because of the length of some of the videos.

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  2. That's awesome, Rachel! I managed to type up bits and pieces of my novel-in-progress a few nights this week, so that felt good. And I've been rereading Anee of Green Gables for the first time since I was a teen and really enjoying that before bed. -rachel

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  3. I watched American Fiction on a plane (work trip) a couple months ago and thought about it for a few days after, which counts it as a good movie by my system. But I don't know that I'd say it's best picture calibre. - Kat

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    1. There were a few good scenes in the movie that were very well done. Most of them were in the trailer though. I still thought it worth watching - definitely a good airplane movie.

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  4. Evenings... The kids are in bed by 7:30-8 and by that time I have absolutely nothing to give, let alone exercise or yoga or writing. My brain is completely fried, even in the summer. During the school year, fuggedaboutit. We do have to play wack-a-mole with the kids to get them to stay in their rooms ugh
    My dream evening? Dinner at 6, kids showered by 7, stry time till 7:30, lights out for them, and alone time for me.

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