The Seasons

What I Love About the Fall:

• Nice warm days without the humidity
• Getting out the boys’ cool-weather clothes – especially their adorable little sweaters!
• The colorful leaves on the trees
• The piles of leaves the kids can jump in
• Kids excited for school to start
• Pumpkin pie, pumpkin cake, and other autumn treats
• It should be getting too cool for the mosquitoes before too long, right?
• Things seem to calm down a bit after the summertime
• No more using the air conditioning
• Broiling yummy winter squash
• It’s cool enough to cuddle up in a warm blanket, but not so cold that you have to
• Soups and stews for dinner again
• I wore my fuzzy slippers around the house for the first time the other day
• Walking in the woods with the sunshine and a light breeze
• 3 little boy birthday parties in the next 2 months
• Traditions: cute Halloween costumes for the boys, Thanksgiving with all it’s yummy food and spending time with friends
• Going to pumpkin patches
• Trying to fit in as many outdoor days as possible before it gets really cold

What I Dislike about the Fall:
• The occasional rainy days
• The hustle and bustle of getting kids off to school and all their activities
• I suppose we probably won’t be getting vegetables from our garden for too much longer
• Winter is Almost Here!

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Actually, there are things I like about each season (yes, even winter).

What I Love About the Spring:
• Winter is over
• Snow melting
• The new flowers that start to come out
• Birds coming out again
• Those first few days you can walk outside barefoot and feel the sun on your face again
• Putting the space heaters away until next winter
• The kids wearing their rubber boots when it’s wet out
• Planning to plant a vegetable garden
• Easter
• Getting out all the short sleeved shirts and shorts again
What I Dislike about the Spring:
• Lots and lots of rainy days
• It seems to trick me: it will be hot for a week so I think summer is here, then I have to pull out all the coats and boots again for another little snow storm
• Impatiently waiting for summer to come after so many months of cold

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What I Love About the Summer:
• Not being cold
• Walking outside barefoot
• Getting out the flip flops
• No more school – we’re free to do what we want when we want, with no rushing to catch a school bus or drop someone off at preschool
• Michael's birthday
• The boys playing on thier swing set
• Weekly visits to the library to bring home a big bag full of books for the week
• Garage sale-ing
• Long summer days
• Spending time at parks and going on hikes (especially hikes to waterfalls or cascades where we can wade)
• Michael cooking dinner on the grill at least once a week
• Trying out all sorts of yummy grilled vegetables
• Eating almost every dinner at the picnic table in the back yard
• Swimming (when the water’s not too cool)
• Going on walks and bike rides
• Camping (which has gotten even more fun each year as the boys have gotten a little older and more independent)
• Eating tomatoes and strawberries right off the plants out in the garden
• Going to the beach (I mean at the ocean, not a lake – Michael)
• Gardening
• The 4th of July: the parade, picnics, and firworks

What I Dislike about the Summer:
• Mosquitoes
• Humidity – don’t get me wrong: I’d prefer any hot humid day over a freezing cold one, but the perfect day would be about 80 degrees with no humidity at all
• Michael has to spend time mowing the lawn

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And Last but Not Least, What I Love About the Winter:
• Christmas! All the decorations, songs, cutting down a tree, family traditions, planning special gifts (sometimes I wish Christmas was at the end of winter, so we could spend the whole long winter preparing for Christmas to come)
• Snow days – I love it when everything shuts down and no one is expected to drive to work, school, or doctor’s appointments. Everyone is home with family, and we can enjoy a day playing out in the snow because Michael is home and can help me with getting everyone dressed and then undressed and warmed up again afterwards
• Our family tradition of having hot chocolate (or warm chocolate, for the boys) after anytime we’ve gone out to play in the snow
• Walking outside barefoot in January (oh wait, that’s winter in San Diego)
• Wearing my boots and my nice coat and sweaters again
• Babies and toddlers in sleeper pajamas
• 2 more little boy birthdays (and my birthday too)
• Taking the boys sledding
• Skiing
• The boys enjoying their basement playroom, especially when we hang their swings from the ceiling for the winter
• Beautiful, shimmering, undisturbed snow after it has just fallen
• Wrapping up in a warm blanket while wearing fuzzy slippers and just relaxing

What I Dislike about the Winter:
• It is just so long! Why can’t winter be 2 or 3 months instead of 6?
 Lots of grey days
 Shoveling snow because our minivan can’t make it up the little incline on our driveway, then having to take all the kids and groceries in the house after shoveling for almost an hour (I got a snow blower at a garage sale this summer, so I’m really hopeful that will help this winter)
• Bare, dead-looking trees and bushes
• It takes a long time to get all the kids layered up to go out in the cold, then one of them gets wet from the snow or needs a diaper change and you have to come in and take all the layers off again after just a few minutes (I do think winters won’t be so hard once the boys are a bit older)
• Being in a cold house because I’m not willing to pay the cost of turning on the heater
• Having to get out all the space heaters (if you forget and turn on the microwave while the space heaters are on in our house, the power goes out and you have to go flip the switch in the basement)
• It takes a lot longer to put on 5 pairs of little socks and shoes than 5 pairs of flip flops
• Dirty, black, mucky snow/slush lining the sides of the roads after a few months of winter
• Not being willing to run to the store and get some milk because it takes so much time and effort to get all the kids ready to go out
• The boys wear through the knees of thier pants so quickly sometimes -- you don't have that problem with shorts in the summertime
• Getting impatient waiting for summer to come again