Fun Things To Do Before 11:00 pm

When my mom was sick and I was serving as her caregiver, I felt exhausted all the time.  10 pm felt like the middle of the night.  Staying out with friends was almost completely out of the question.  When I got back to school, I would collapse on the couch or directly in bed around 5:30 pm after getting home from the lab.  I tried to continue salsa dancing but leaving the house after 8 pm was just too much.  If I pushed it for a few days, trying to get back to my previously normal routine, I’d get a fever and need to stay home for a day or two.  This lasted for months, and well into my own cancer diagnosis and treatments.

Finally I learned to just embrace my new need for rest, relaxation, and some structured calm in my life.  🙂  Eventually my friends learned to embrace it a little too…otherwise we would have never seen one another!  These are a few activities that you can do when you are looking for something fun, but don’t want to go out on the town like you might once have done.  These activities would be great done by yourself, with a sweetheart, or with a group of friends!

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[list_item]bake a pie.[/list_item]
Have you tried baking a pie before?  I made my first one last week!  I found a fun and easy recipe here and just decided to go for it one rainy day last week 🙂  For my first try, I used a store bought crust but I’m all jazzed now to make one from scratch.  I love creating whole evening experiences out of cooking or baking something new!

[list_item]play a board game.[/list_item]
Board games are definitely experiencing a resurgence of popularity.  I spent some time working in Huntsville, AL and my housemate there was a HUGE fan of board games.  We would play a different one almost every week (unless I talked us into playing one from before that had become my new favorite)  🙂  My current favorites are Agricola and Galaxy Trucker.  My husband and I actually just picked up an old version of Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego? at a ReStore in our area for just a few bucks!  Once you get the hang of each of them, you can even play a few games in an evening 🙂

[list_item]host a bring-your-own-food-to-bbq, bbq.[/list_item]
This is a great idea when you want to host people over for a meal but you also want to save on costs.  Hosting a bring-your-own-meat BBQ is a great way to do just that!  Everyone brings their own main dish to cook on the barbecue and you can supply the sides (or have other people bring those too!)  🙂  Potlucks are totally an “adult” and “mature” thing to do…try it out!

[list_item]decorate your own cupcake get together.[/list_item]
Making a dozen cupcakes from a box mix is pretty easy-peasy.  Grab a couple of different colored icings and some cute decorating tools online or straight from your grocery store and now you are all set to invite some friends over to decorate their own cupcakes!  Create a theme or let everyone just do their own thing.  You could even try and replicate something from this book  🙂

[list_item]movie night.[/list_item]
Need we say more?  Movie nights are awesome!  Click here for another post with lots of fun ideas to spice up yours 🙂

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What kinds of things do you like to do when you also don’t want to stay out too late?  We’ll add them to the list!

P.S.  Some Relaxing Activites & Cancer Mom 101