this morning when we woke up the sky was falling. it was raining and hard! the kind of rain, where i was willing to get everyone dressed and ready for the day, pile them in the car and drop bear off at school. and that was the plan, but then dear hubby braved up and decided he would just walk to school with bear. (tuesdays are his school drop off days.) i was so pleased, because i didn’t want to slide into the car routine so easily and quickly. school has only been on for a week and it’s only about 15 minutes away!

this afternoon, it was my turn to pick up bear and brave the ominous dark clouds sitting in the horizon. i got lion and myself decked out in our rain coats and rubber boots and off we went. luckily, it wasn’t raining as hard as it was this morning.

when i was growing up in finland, i always walked to school. rain or shine or snow, i had to walk or bike. but, there was this one exception. it was winter 1986/87 or so and the temperature had dipped down to some record breaking lows. they were in the mid -30’s celsius for days (maybe weeks) , my dad was away on business is venezuala for a month, so my mom decided to drive some of my friends and i to school. and let me make a point here, i was NEVER driven to school, it’s just something that never happened. ever. so anyhow, it was so cold and about 5 of my little friends came to our house and we all piled into the car. the seats were  frozen solid and the cassette tape (probably paul simon’s, graceland) in the player sounded all wonky. cars are all plugged in overnight in finland, so that they will start the next day, but it had been so cold, even the plugged car had difficulty starting! yikes! my mom and i still laugh about that morning.

[ here’s a pic of me at about a year old, sleeping with my fur hat on. fur hats were big back then!]

here’s hoping we will brave any weather mother nature throws our way, no matter how wet,cold, windy or humid! 

how do you manage the elements?