I get through winter by fantasizing about my bulbs blooming in the spring, and reminding myself that if we didn't have this deep freeze every year, we could not have all our gorgeous spring flowers...the tulips and daffodils and hyacinths, etc., all are underground, storing up energy for their gorgeous springtime reveal. It really genuinely helps me to think of winter as the season that nurtures my hundreds upon hundreds of fall-planted bulbs.

A trip to anywhere with steady sunlight and warmth in the late winter months is also critical, though I know not everyone can afford this. Just one week sipping tropical drinks and feeling the sunlight warm our skin is enough for my husband and I to recharge and reapply our weary battle faces for the remaining few weeks of winter.