We've spent the last few weeks both preparing for winter and debating how long we want to stay in the northeast. We have no immediate plans to leave the state, but it's a discussion that we're having. There's a big financial perk to leaving, but we'd also have to do a lot to the house before we can sell it, and renovating a house we're not planning to stay in, and then selling it, all while homeschooling sounds terrible.
But there is something to be said for not having to do all the winter prep. To put the driveway stakes out, to make room in the garage for the snowblower, to make sure there's gas FOR the snowblower. We need to make sure the cars are ready and have the right supplies, just in case. We need to make sure we have one eye on the forecast when we make plans.
Then there's the stuff. The heavy coats for outside stuff. The fleeces we wear out and about. The hats and the fuzzy boots for dry weather and the snow boots for gross weather. The hats and scarves and gloves, usually not where we need them at any given time.
We bundle up and go out, then we're inside carrying coats and sweating. We shiver our way across parking lots, then boil in the mall.
And yes, the snow looks pretty, until it's slushy and gray and the plow knocks down our mailbox (we live on a bend in the road and we seem to lose our mailbox every winter). The worst of the snow always seems to happen when Adam is traveling, and although I am a strong independent woman, I hate running the snowblower and would rather just hibernate and cross my fingers that our neighbor decides to plow.
So I sound pretty much like I'm ready to migrate, right?
But the thing is, when I think of moving to warmer climates, when I see friends of ours in shorts at Thanksgiving and decorating palm trees and taking a Christmas swim, not as a vacation getaway, but because that's the norm, I don't know if I can do it. I love the joy the girls have when it snows. I love letting them cuddle in fuzzy pjs and blankets. I like wearing sweaters and fuzzy boots.
Really, I like all four seasons. There are things that annoy me about each, but I don't think that I could settle on one climate that I'd like to have exclusively.
So we set out stakes and create new organizational systems to corral hats and gloves and boots, and get ready to hibernate!