For a better life : evening routine

 

 

 

This week, I'm dealing with my evening routine. What do I do when I come back from work ? 

 

In an ideal world, when I get home, I would love to remove my coat and shoes, sit down with a nice cup of herbal tea or fizzy water and cool down  at least 5 minutes before I get to things. Honestly, most of the time, that's not it. But I should. In the real world, I get up at 5.20 to get to work, my youngest daughter gets up at 5.30 to catch the morning school bus at 6.30, I come back late from work (I work far from home) so as soon as I'm home, I get busy ! My commute is 2 hours long when everything's ok, it's a choice that I made to get away from the Paris suburbs, noise and ugliness to live in a peaceful corner of the country so that my daughters would have a better life... and that I would have better week-ends ! To be honest, when I first moved here, we had more trains and it took less time to commute (1h20)...

 

• I generally unpack my backpack of almost everything it contains : breakfast box,  bento for my lunch, a little box for snacks, the thermos of water that I refill for the next day.  Then I head to the kitchen to hand wash the bento and boxes and to start the evening meal, or warm up the evening meal. I'll go back to my food organization another time - next time, probably - but all the menus of the week are pre-planned and, with a bit of luck, already cared for (batch cooking helps *a lot* !). If the table hasn't been laid, I ask somebody to. In another ideal world, things would be ready when I get home, but reality hurts !

• Then I see to the laundry : is the previous washing up dry, do I need to launch another, do I have to tell the owners of said clothes to put them back to their place ? I don't iron : I lay the clothes on the line very carefully and we fold them very carefully, that's good enough. When there is still a little ironing to do, the owner of the clothes takes care of it.

• Then I ask somebody to watch that the meal doesn't burn, head to the bathroom, have a quick shower and prepare my clothes for next day. I place them in the bathroom so as not to disturb my partner who often gets up after me, then back to supper time.

• After we have finished eating, everybody helps cleaning the table and put things in the dishwasher and we launch it. I clean the kitchen sink, then prepare my backpack for the next day : the bottle is filled, I take a part of this evening's meal leftovers that I'll eat at work the day after, fix the bento and place it in the fridge. Then I place a fruit in a box (it's usually an apple, it stands the travel - pears don't) and some snacks. The snacks can be energy balls, or a soy yogurt and a couple of biscuits. I always keep a special extra box in my backpack with some dry fruits : apricots, nuts, almonds and the like : it's for when I feel a bit hungry or, as it has happened before, when the train breaks down and I'm up to 3 hours late at home. I'm usually grateful to have something to eat ! 

• Then I prepare my overnight porridge, my favourite breakfast ever and easy to make : 2 tbsp of chia seeds, 2 tbsp of oat flakes, 2 fruits that I cut into pieces, almond milk (home made) and, ifever I feel like it, apple purée or peanut butter, a pinch of vanilla. I stir it, place it in the fridge for the night. I'm usually not hungry when I go to work (too early for that), so I used to eat in the train, practically empty at my station, before the Covid happened. After, I ate either in my car on the parking lot or once I got at work. I love this porridge, I've been eating the same for year because it suits me. I can change the vegetable milks, I change the fruits according to seasons and sometimes, I use frozen fruits that defrost overnight, I can have a different breakfast every day with different flavours on the same basis.

Finally, when my backpack is ready, my stuff for the next day is all ready, when the kitchen sink is clean and shiny, either I have time for an series episode or I  go to bed and read some before falling asleep.

 

And that's all for now ; next time, a big topic : food...