Dog Days

Chilling out on a hot day

For this cold-hardy Mainer, this hot weather we're having is a bit much. Give me cold and ice any day over this!  Today the kids went outside at around 3pm and could only stay outside for about 30 minutes because they were simply too hot.  I was considering filling up the toddler pool, or turning on the sprinkler, but I was frankly too hot to sit outside and watch them any longer.  We're now back inside and making the most of our air conditioner.

I was reading recently how some folks actually get along without an air conditioner. I'm sure it is easier to do that when you live near the ocean, with ocean breezes to help cool you off, and with those one-story houses that are much easier to keep cool.  Our two-story house seems a bit too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. I suspect that is partly because of poor windows. It is on our "to do" list to put in some new windows, but it is far down on our priority list right now. 

 Instead, I insulate the windows myself (see previous posts about winterizing) and in the summer I have a habit of putting tinted window clings in the sunnier windows and running 3 a/cs....one upstairs (and a fan is in one of the bedroom windows - with the door closed - facing outwards to blow hot air out of the house) , with a fan at the top of the stairs to blow the cool air down, an a/c in the livingroom (with a ceiling fan on low in the classroom to keep air circulating) and one in my oldest's room (when it is very hot, we open her door and use a fan to blow the cool air into the kitchen/livingroom, creating a loop of cool air all around our first story.

Believe me, if the money was available, I would be putting up solar panels to run those a/c's and fans with. One day, perhaps.  I do shut the livingroom  a/c off at night along with most of the fans. Our littlest ones have been sleeping on small mattresses on the floor of our bedroom, so we close our bedroom door and our a/c keeps all 4 of us cool at night.  It's a nice system...when we have power. The other night we had a lightning storm and our power went out for several hours. It was stuffy and hot upstairs without any real breeze coming in the windows to help cool us off. I kept wetting myself down with water and of course drinking plenty of water while fanning myself. I discovered that those old plastic paper plate holders with a paper plate tucked into it makes a great hand-held fan. Of course, your arms get tired and eventually you just want to sleep. It was at that point that I lay in bed contemplating how we could still be enjoying the a/c if we had our own power. 

In our next house, we'd like to have it more customized.  It will be more in tune with its climate - never too hot nor too cold. It will be well insulated and yet airy. It will require much less energy to keep warm and cold and will hopefully include alternative energies such as solar and wind.  These are dreams of mine, and ones I hope to see realized. Ideally, I'd like to be somewhat off-grid, except that it would be nice to sell some of our energy back to the electric company for some cash in our pockets and to help with the energy crunch.  

I realize this topic isn't necessarily directly related to homeschooling in the typical sense, but it does tie in with my desire to live more gently upon the earth. In my book, perfection is not a goal. Always improving, always doing better...THAT'S my goal. I'm not going to judge other people's progress nor do I want my own judged. I am simply stating that I am mindful of the earth and our impact upon it, and am making plans to do better.  

The lesson I want my kids to take away from this is to feel content where they are right now. They are perfect as they are RIGHT NOW. The idea being that having goals for improvement is a virtue to be celebrated.  I think that is really the best virtue of all is to be very intentional about self improvement. Take the time to consider what areas may need a change or tweaking. Spiritual, physical, mental growth is part of why we are here (in my opinion). It is not to say we should think of ourselves as flawed and in need of doing better, but rather that reaching ever higher is a way to leave everything a little better than we found it....including ourselves.