Mystie suggested a game of tag oriented toward home management, the goal\’c3\’82\’c2\~being to share ideas or at least get a feel for how others manage their homes. \’c3\’82\’c2\~Her first question was:\par
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Geste at Home #1:\par
What is your evening routine in theory? What is your evening routine in practice?
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I would make a link that carried you directly to the post wherein this was asked… but I don’t know how. Sorry.
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In theory I would start making dinner in tidy kitchen which I had been maintaining all day. As I cooked, I would clean up as I went along, so that by the time dinner was served, the only dishes remaining would be the dishes on the table and the serving/final cooking dishes. Then, after dinner, served promptly on time, of course\’c3\’82\’c2\~(when Michael gets home), we would have about an hour left until the boys went to bed. Michael would play with the boys while I did the dishes. We would read the Bible with Judah before bed, then get Judah in his pajamas and put him to bed. After both of the childlets were in dream-land, I would spend 5-10 minutes cleaning off my kitchen bar counter (which collects stuff), and the top of the stairs (same story), lay out my clothes for the next day and spend the rest of the evening\’c3\’82\’c2\~in quiet pursuits.
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I’m glad that Mystie listed the theoretical practice first, because it’s a good idea of what I’m generally striving toward, and sometimes reach.
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In practice, things are almost never that smooth. Frequently there’s at least half a day’s worth of dishes on the counter when I start dinner. While I’m trying to cook dinner, Judah and Ezra both get especially demanding, so I spend the time that I would spend cleaning up after myself trying to sooth/pacify them, nursing the baby, disciplining the toddler, etc. I try to get the table cleaned off and set and the dinner made so that we can have dinner right when Michael walks in the door – but generally it’s more like 5-10 minutes afterwards, due to the unexpected things that happened while I was trying to make dinner. Then, after dinner I might start on the dishes, but Ezra really can’t play with daddy too well yet, and Judah needs his rough-housing so I often spend the time until devotions holding Ezra and watching Michael and Judah play – they’re so much fun to watch! I’ve never laughed so hard as when Judah first started tackling his dad when they wrestled on the bed – he would try to fake him out by looking\’c3\’82\’c2\~off to the side, and then springing…well, anyway. The point being, that after devotions and the boys are in bed (if Ezra goes to bed about 8:30 like I always hope), there is generally a pile of dishes, which I do.. mostly. I mostly just do the dishes that go in the dishwasher, frequently leave the hand-washing, seldom clean off the counter and stop of the stairs, and only occasionally lay out my clothes. By the time I’ve not done everything planned – it’s 9:30 and I’m tired, so I do something not very productive until Michael goes to bed.
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I doubt that would help anybody much, but it was kind of fun – and hopefully not too boring for my vast readership. 
As Mystie said, “If you keep a home, consider yourself tagged.” If you have no blog, feel free to post in the comments section – or better yet, go and post in Mystie’s comment section (under “Because we *do* work” so that there’s more of a discussion! (that alright Mystie?)
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Thanks, Elly! This is exactly what I was curious about. Now I guess I’ll have to respond to my own question, too.
Evenings are usually the best and usually only time for family time, so really that should be a higher priority than dishes that can be done almost as easily in the morning, it seems to me.
Good point – generally I don’t feel too bad about about spending the dishes time holding Ezra and watching Judah and Michael play – after all, the dishes will be done eventually – over and over and over and over – but when I’m 75 I won’t remember doing the dishes – I’ll reminisce about watching my husband romp with my kids.