August has come and gone. I’m not wishing time away, but I sure won’t miss the Fall Allergy season when that has come and gone. It’s here, has been, and will be for a longer stay than I want (like I ever really want it!)
Weather has been nicer atimes the past couple of weeks. The hold that Summer has is slipping, Autumn is in the air just a bit, length of days, feel of the Sun, how the plants are getting ready for the change, good old crisp, clean air is coming. Eventually.
August begins on a Monday this year. It’s so ‘school’ feeling. 
That’s odd. We homeschool. It’s not anything we don’t ever do, totally. I’m getting a few super-lax weeks souped up today. I set it up as a plan last week, and this is the day.
New Era. I’m using my calendars (google, of course) to be the glue that holds this all together. It’s not that I hadn’t ever had calendars and planning and such, but I’m going from being relaxed about it, doing it that way. I’m trying to MAKE things happen before too much time goes on, MAKE life happen, then have things done instead of me having to say “Did you … yet?” to each person, and get the “nah, not yet” answers.
It still is summer though. We are in a hot southern state and summer isn’t the same for us as many others. We are in A/C with some outdoor ability, but no pool or anything. We are more outdoor oriented in the Autumn and Winter. That goes over fine for me, being the sort of person I am, with husband not around most of the time, we just hang out together and wander the property looking at whatever there is to look at. Some running, mostly not for me, just the younger 2 children, and the Cedar Works structure we have just sits dormant, needing a new swing ladder probably. New swings too. It’s a sad testament to what once was, and what should be, and speaks loudly of what will never be.
I hear you loud and clear climbing structure … all hope is gone. (I’m holding out hope though, for something to happen sooner than later!)
Wow this month has gone fast! Now the Dog Days of Summer are beginning. Hot more often than not. Sun strong, not quite as light as late as it was in July, but this side of the sun’s courses through the cosmos are the hot-dog ones, whereas May and June are just wanna-be’s.
I’m so glad our A/C was changed, it makes all the difference, but it does struggle. The “zones” (digital) are finicky and I have to go check each thermostat, and sometimes (a few times a week) turn every one off, then turn on the upstairs one for awhile alone, then turn on the main floor one later, and leave the downstairs one off until the next day or longer, if it is possible to feel comfortable with that (sometimes yes, sometimes no.)
Why does this have to happen? I’m not sure what it’s doing, but the main thing is, the SUN. It comes up in the East and blasts away at the back of our house all morning and into the afternoon. Our bedrooms are on the top floor. No tree cooling up there. Master bedroom is at the back of that whole area. It gets so hot in there. Without A/C it’s 100 in there in the middle of the night.
With A/C the thermostats are set to 68/69 everywhere. When the system has been restarted with my methodology, which is turning everything off, then turning ONLY the Master Bedroom thermostat on, then the bedroom starts cooling down ever so slightly, then more. Overnight it returns to it’s “schedule”. The Main Floor thermostat does well then, turn that on and it quickly brings things to right.
The basement area is then the question, the “office” (my craft/computer area) is decent, the hallway is where the thermostat is. The big area at the back of the basement, behind interior french doors, is much warmer always. When the thermostat for the basement is turned off, that big space gets too warm (for my tastes) while the other rooms are OK for the most part.
When I turn that thermostat back on the air in the big space gets better, but still, it’s ALWAYS much warmer in there compared to my office, or the hallway.
After 1 or 2 days like this then, the Master Bedroom thermostat really starts struggling. Lets put it this way, the first day after resetting it all, it starts out with the thermostat keeping things OK until somewhere around 2pm it’s behind 1, 2, 3, 4 or more degrees. As the day wears thin it gets closer to the scheduled temperature, overnight rights itself. Next day or the day after that is when it gets too thick, warm not good in my bedroom early in the day and never recoups, so if I haven’t been up there, I go to bed and oh, bleh, blah, no!!!!!
We are talking it is supposed to be 68 and the thermostat registers the temp at 78 or more when it gets to the place where I HAVE to turn it all off, then slow on.
It’s not like 68 is too heavy of a load. It’s not that it has to be “68″ but that is what the thermostat has to attempt or else this entire process is TOO MUCH for me to live with. To get rid of humidity, must run A/C, A/C only runs when it needs to cool based on it’s goal temperature. If the temperature is set to 72 that’s too warm. It’s like letting it all get it’s toes in the doorway, you think the door is closed, but it’s not, and the thing you mean to keep out is coming in.
This all means so much to me since I get so miserable easily when the temperature climbs about 70 degrees much. The further it goes in that higher direction the larger the impact it has on me. So, 68 is my primo position of a trade-off, I’ll let it go that high for you others. I’d much prefer to live in the North Pole.
Our daffodil population is exploding. Every day more and more are popping up. Today our first white & yellow daffodils opened. They are lovely.
It’s very hot again, and this week the humidity went to Southern Summer types. Bad enough outside, but inside it is worse right now, our A/C is totally not working (only the fan will come on, or the Heat Pump [like we want that right now :roll-eyes] – it’s too old and needs overhauled — really needs to be hauled OUT. We need new, better, the one we have NEVER worked awesomely, never was up to snuff most of the summer. Too small and wrong for the space we have.
Baby Q has been 11 Months old for three days already … :veryshocked:
He’s growing up so fast now. He’s not an expert walker yet, but is walking most all the time he’s on the floor in the house, moving around. He rarely resorts to a crawl since the day he actually starting really walking, not just taking a couple of steps, as he did for a couple of days, then was off. (Mid-10 Months.)
On Saturday we were out shopping, it was a hot day, and it was really hot in one store we were at, and then going outside into our van it was even hotter for a long time. I, myself, was over heating, and for me it’s a serious issue when that happens. Our van A/C doesn’t work right, and only the front air works at all, the rear air only blows fresh air temp (we’ve had it looked at but no one, thus far, knows what is wrong.) The front air works, sure, but doesn’t put a dent in the “hot” days in the middle and rear sections of the van, and barely cools the front down “enough” to suffice.
So I wasn’t sure on that day whether or not the heat was affecting the baby, but on the way home he did get sick, Thanks be to God I had only breastfed him that day. He threw up a few more times in the next couple of hours, but then finally slept, and then seemed a lot better. I skipped one feeding, about one, and gingerly let him eat later when he seemed to want to, and he only nursed on one side, then about half an hour later, the other side, and didn’t throw up again. He was tired, obviously not feeling well, but not listless, just didn’t feel good.
He didn’t have a fever or anything, it was just curdled milk throw up, and never dry heaves, not seemingly dehydrated either. It wasn’t a full day event either, so, we are just glad he’s OK. That evening, after I’d finished nursing him he wanted to continue being held, then perked up and became his normal “aren’t I a cool and active baby” self
Baby Q continues to be a big talker, and he’s saying very clear things, to us, “brother” is a big one of late, referring to either of his older brothers. He calls them, greets them, and so on. He says many other things, I should write them down. Of course I wouldn’t expect anyone outside our immediate family to be able to understand what he says.
It’s “summer” here now. May is almost over, and it’ll be June, and then not long after that, Baby Q will be One. It’s less than a month away!