Every year, the moment the first heavy rain hits, I hold my breath a little. Not because of the cold, but because I never really know if my car is about to go for a swim.
If you ask me which season is the hardest, I will not even pause. Winter. We get all four seasons where I live, and I love most of them, but winter and I have a complicated relationship.
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Here is the funny part. The rain itself? I love it. The sound of it, the grey sky, the way it makes the whole house feel cozy, it calms me right down. The rain is not the problem. The problem is what it does to the roads. The drainage where I live is not great, so one strong storm and the streets turn into little rivers. There are days I genuinely wonder if my car will make it through the water.
And then there is the school run. Picking up three young kids in the middle of a flood is its own special kind of stress. By the time everyone is buckled in and we are crawling home through the water, my calm rainy mood is long gone. This year I finally moved the kids to a school right in our neighborhood, so fingers crossed, this winter is a little gentler on all of us.
Winter is also the season of endless sniffles. Some years I am lucky and only get sick once. Other years it feels like the flu moves in with us, and me and the kids catch it two or three times each. So lately I have gone into full prevention mode. I make soup almost every single day now, and we all take our vitamins, just trying to keep our immunity up and get through the season still standing.
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It was not always like this for me, though. When I was a child, where we lived got proper, deep snow, the kind you can play in for hours. I still remember one storm so big that the roads were completely blocked and school was closed for about two weeks. As a kid, that was pure joy, haha. Funny how the same season feels so different once you are the one driving through it.
My real favorites are spring and autumn. That sweet spot of light rain, soft air, not too hot and not too cold. Those are the months I feel most like myself.
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And to the second question, yes, I am very much a patterns person. I like my weather predictable, and I will happily admit I am a little OCD about it. With three young kids, knowing what is coming lets me prepare ahead. Their clothes, their activities, all of it is so much easier when the season behaves the way I expect.
It also lets me plan the fun. When I know the mountains will be full of snow later in the year, I can plan a ski trip well in advance. I know summer means we can swim the whole season, and that spring and autumn are made for picnics and outdoor adventures, when the weather is kind to us. Predictable seasons are not boring to me. They are exactly what lets me plan the good memories.
So winter, we are still not friends. But I am learning to meet it halfway, with warm soup, a stocked vitamin shelf, and a school that is finally close to home.
What about you? Which season tests you the most, and how do you get through it? 💜
Cover image generated by me using Google Gemini.