It’s just a few minutes after 6am. Bone broth is simmering in the kitchen. My coffee is cooling beside me. Gentle music is playing. The sun is almost up on another hot, sunny day. Soon I’ll release the horde—my five hens—and start watering plants. When this is published, I’m hoping we’ve had a breath of coolness. I’m hoping the sun is moving into a more merciful gradient. I’m hoping the breeze has started to bring a hint of change.

Have you ever thought about how the weather and the seasons affect the homemaker?[1]

I think it is easy, especially in suburbia, to ignore the weather and the changing seasons. We have roofs over our heads and air conditioning to keep us comfortable. Our lawns and gardens are respectable and controlled. Some of us spent years working in cubicles or office buildings, unaffected by the seasons except for the occasional ice storm. As homemakers, we no longer live this way. We should take note. Why? Because seasons and weather are gifts that do us good every day—yes, even the heat.

There are two ways we are affected by the weather and seasons:

They Dictate: Weather and seasons are something entirely out of our control, yet they impact our home management day by day. Cold days require sweaters. Hot days require shorts, tanks, and bathing suits. Rain brings mud that we’ll have to clean up. Animals react to the weather and have to be cared for. Dogs can’t be walked on hot pavement. Chickens don’t sweat. Heat stroke can affect any living thing. Plants freeze in the winter and need more water in the summer. Herbs need to be harvested at particular times. Sunny places can grow some plants while killing others, and the same is true for shaded areas. Lots of rain at one time of year can be as destructive as no rain at other times of the year.

Seasonal changes change everything in our homes. Our daily dance switches from stone fruits to apples, salads to soup, outside projects to inside projects. For some of us, the dance switches from playing in creeks to bookwork at the kitchen table. For others of us, the dance switches from doing errands as early as possible to doing them later in the morning. Even the rising and setting of the sun affects the homemaker. Summer days require more from us because the light comes earlier and lingers longer. More play and more work fill our days. As the autumnal equinox grows closer, the mornings come more slowly and the evenings more quickly. There may be a moment to linger over the coffee because the sun isn’t up quite yet, like I’m doing now.

Weather and seasons nudge our management here and there because we are the tenders. We tend the people, and the people need shorts, sweaters, umbrellas, waterproof boots, hot chocolate, iced tea, beer, soup, sandwiches, and blankets. We respond to that nudging because that is our calling and our work and our play.

They Serve: As we grow in our abilities and can handle more and more of the management of the home with grace and calm, as we become accustomed to the weight of the work, its ebb and flow, we can use the weather and the seasons as ways to bless our people. The unbearable heat can become a time of early morning refreshment and outdoor time. It can be cartoons-while-mom-gardens time, giving children summer fun and mom some dirt time. It can be declared reading time during a random thunderstorm. Light those candles, pop that popcorn, and cozy up. Or switch it up! When that summer storm blows in, go dance in the rain. We don’t control the rain or the heat or the snow or the ice, but we do control how we respond to them and how we use them.

I struggle emotionally when July and August—sometimes September—roll around. The heat feels like an oppressive trap I can’t escape. One moment of inattention and plants start dying. Running errands and grocery shopping is just moving in and out of a hot car in a hot parking lot. This year, I decided to try and find anything, no matter how small, that I liked about summer. I gave the summer its own dedicated décor—deep, cool green and white. I bought a linen topper for my bed. I started noticing. I noticed the coolness in the breeze in the morning. I noticed the green of big leaves, grass, vines, and trees. I noticed sunlight edging leaves with gold early in the morning. I’ve noticed butterflies, ladybugs, brightly colored grasshoppers, and iridescent beetles. I’ve noticed birds raising families. I’ve noticed cosmos, raspberries, lantana, milkweed, and sunflowers. I’ve doused myself with water from the hose before working in the yard. I’ve listened to the cicadas sing their summer songs. I’ve watched my hens do all the things God made them to do to survive—dust baths, panting, wings out, feet in the mud. I’ve gained a greater appreciation for wind and shade. Do I love summer? No. But I’m not allowing myself to focus on the bad. I’m not allowing myself to complain. This has helped me delight in the season, in the summer weather more.

The weather is good for us. It seems funny to say that, but it is. It can show us where we need to work on our attitude more. It can provide us with opportunities to change up our rhythm. A little spontaneity is good for the soul. Seasons can provide broader, familiar rhythms to our lives as we cycle through Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. All HearthKeepers must bow to the fact that the weather and seasons affect our work. They do dictate elements of our housekeeping—the cooking, cleaning, and laundry. We simply can’t send our people out in shorts when it’s 20° outside, any more than we can send them out in sweaters and boots when it’s 105°. We don’t run the heater in summer or leave the down duvet on the bed. There will be more mud tracked in in the spring and summer and more boots in the hall in the autumn and winter. Denying these things doesn’t change them, but leaning into them makes them useful. Leaning into them brings a cyclical beauty and a natural pace to our lives.

We were tailor-made to appreciate God’s creation. We are healthier—mentally, physically, and emotionally—when we are outside, when we notice the weather, when we are aware of seasonal changes. It may not always be safe, but it is good. Homemakers, especially those of us blessed with being home full-time and free of a 9-5, are in the enviable and unique position to take part in creation-delight. We get to bring our children in on this, and we get to bring creation into the home. There is a magic to noting the Summer Equinox and watching each day get a few moments shorter. There is a magic to heat and cold, life and death and life again. There is a majesty to storms and a wonder in flowers. There is a childlike awe to rain when the sun is shining and to fireflies. Let’s throw open the curtains and blinds, open the windows, go barefoot, and really delight in the fact that our calling includes weather and seasons.

[1] Some of you are laughing because we’ve done so many bonus episodes about how to use the seasons, and we’ve written about the seasons, and we’ve talked about the seasons. But, there is always a new taste of wonder on the breeze, a new flower blooming, a new shift—as old as time—coming.

Weather, Seasons, and the Homemaker

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