Keeping Cool

It's been over 105-degrees here all week. I thought I lived in Dallas, not Africa. But we're managing I suppose, as we Dallasites always do, and so far we haven't broken any records so I guess that's something to be thankful for. It's not even August yet though, so we'll see.

In an effort to keep cool, and keep our energy bills from becoming the equivalent of a payment for a brand new Mercedes (like we had last year), here's what we're doing, in case it can be of any help to you...

The Pool
We've purchased a small pool from Target. It's kinda trashy since we have it actually on the side of our house at the end off the driveway (I won't go into our backyard jungle until it's bugfree), but it totally works so I couldn't care less. It actually is so cooling when you come into the air conditioned house that we can keep the air running at a higher temperature through the evening...

Appliances
We're running the dishes and laundry only at night so as not to heat up the house any further. We've turned the "drying heat" on the dishwasher off, and we're running the laundry only in warm or cool cycles, and running the dryer only on "low heat" typically designed for a delicate cycle, but it works just the same on everything else.

Fans
We're keeping a fan in the bedroom for the time being, we have a ceiling fan but it needs to be replaced. We're hoping to make do with the standing fan through this summer, but are considering a window unit if it just gets unbearable.

Extra Tips
- We're keeping damp dish cloths in plastic bags in the freezer to bring to bed with us when it's super hot. It's not sexy, but neither is sweating, so we do what we can.

- We keep all our curtains drawn during the day to keep out the direct sunlight. I was so thrilled when we bought the house with all the natural light, but now we're trying to get it to be more of a cave. Go figure.