If you ask most people, they’ll say the weather is one of Chicago’s biggest negatives. They usually mean the winter and the cold, which I don’t hate as much as most people do. I love having seasons, and I’m a Christmas freak so 1/3 of the winter is basically my happiest time of the year. What does get to me, though, is rain. My coworkers joked that they noticed a pattern of my working from home days lining up with rainy days… which turned out not to be a joke at all, because it was totally true.

Today’s been rainy or forecasting rain every. single. hour. In the interest of not soaking my infant, we’re staying indoors, but I’m already looking forward to heading out for a walk or two with Hudson tomorrow. Since we’re not going anywhere, I had some (nap) time on my hands and drew this girl pushing her little one around.

Living in the city for 14 (!) years now, walking is my primary mode of transportation.  J and I don’t even own a car. We can both walk to work and our neighborhood, Streeterville, is particularly easy for the car-less: we’re within blocks of the grocery store, Target, Michigan Avenue shopping, a tiny and weird Ace Hardware, the doctor’s office, and I even walked home from the hospital after I had Hudson. (I think I was still drugged, by the way. Not sure I would recommend that!)

But beyond just being a convenient way to get from A to Z, I LOVE walking, especially along the lakefront. You can probably still see my footprints along the path from the miles I walked along the lake in the long, long weeks before Hudson was born. It’s great exercise, but I’m really walking more for the mental benefits: when I’m out there, I do some of my best thinking and always come home feeling de-stressed and relaxed. Now that Hudson’s usually with me in the stroller,  walks are more relaxing than ever since my hands are not exactly free to flip between songs or podcasts on my phone.

In the last few weeks, walks have become a big part of our days. We’re out at least once, but usually twice: once in the middle of the day to break it up and run a few errands at the end, and once in the early evening when there’s no nap to be had and we’re a few hours from Dad getting home for relief 🙂 Luckily, Hudson seems to love walking as much as I do — or that’s what I’m choosing to believe he means to communicate by passing out almost immediately every time we start rolling.

I hear this winter is going to be a mild one (thanks, global warming!) so I’m hoping even then we’ll be able to get out often. And hey, there’s always Nordstrom walking when it’s really chilly 🙂

Cheers friends, hope you’re having a great Wednesday.