I Have A Love-Hate Relationship With This Time Of Year

I have a love-hate relationship with this time of year. The love portion stems from it being a slow period. During the months of January and February, people are recovering from the holidays. It's cold. In our neck of the woods, especially this year, Mother Nature doles out frigid temperatures, snowstorms, and other inclement winter weather. It's a great time to hunker down, catch up on stuff, tackle indoor chores and projects around the house that typically get put off during the warm weather months, and whatever else that needs tending to.

On the other end, and much smaller end of the spectrum, I sort of hate this time of year. Yes, hate is a strong word, but I'm using that word more or less to commemorate the term "love-hate relationship."

Anyway...

This time of year, people are cranky; especially those who despise the winter months. Unlike the past 4 or 5 years, this winter has been beyond brutal. We had a 2 week period of what the meteorologists called "the deep freeze." In fact, we broke some all-time records for the lowest daytime highs.

In addition, the flu season is at an all-time high and every year, it gets scarier and scarier. I'm seeing more and more people posting about their households getting hit with the flu and it's no joke. Not only is it contagious, it's becoming deadly.

Last year, Lisa and I were hit with the cold flu virus in January, March, and at the end of the summer. In all 3 cases, Lisa got it first. I came down with it a week later. Knock on wood, we're mid-way through January and haven't gotten it yet.

What's more aggravating on a daily basis is that our kids get restless this time of year. It's cold. When we take them out into our fenced in backyard and let them run around, they don't want to be out for any length of time. It's not like the warm weather months where it's a chore to get them back inside. Even Coco, who loves the cold and snow, has deemed it too cold for any level of enjoyment.

And, we discovered Willa has a very low tolerance for snow and cold. It's her first winter with us. We're at the tail end of getting her used to doggy boots.

Yes, doggy boots. 

When the kids are restless, they're out of sorts. Coco is distracted by every noise and activity in our home just like he was almost 6 years ago when he joined our family. Sophie tends to antagonize her siblings a bit more than usual. She'll make the cutest, tiniest noise when one of her siblings violates her sporadic personal space. Lobo becomes more local and demanding. His daily goal seems to be out barking and out whining his siblings. Instead of Willa being satisfied with 121 games of fetch in a day's time, she now requires 389.

I have gone through this as a Work at Home Dog Mom for many years. It doesn't bother me. I take more timeouts during the day to play with the kids and meet their 'Canine Cabin Fever' demands. On my end, during this time, it takes twice as long to meet a few deadlines, write a blog column, do housework, and meal prep completed.

Again, no complaints. I'm in no rush for flea, tick, caterpillar, bug, bee, and thunderstorm season. As I've gotten older, I've learned to appreciate the seasons as they come. This year is no different.

As of now, we're less than a month into the winter official winter season. Or, if you follow the meteorological calendar, we're midway through winter.

Either way, it's not over yet. Not even close.

Winter happens every year at the same time.

Make the best of it.