It's happening...THE HEAT IS HERE!

The dreaded summer is coming! I'm not going to lie I thought it was here early last week but we had a nice "cold" snap that dropped temperatures to the high 80's during the day and low 70's at night. It was fantastic. And if you missed it well there's always winter because I'm thinking that was the last "present" we will receive for a while.

In the meantime we are changing how we live our lives and trust it's more than just staying inside. Because let's be honest that's not the best living, Covid-19 taught us that! Right now we are adjusting the times we wake up with 7am looking real good...lol Getting up that early sets us up to leave the house earlier for shopping and things of that nature before the sun hits like a Mike Tyson first round.

By noon we are sitting down and not moving around as much, outside of ducking sun strokes. During this time we are also hydrating to the max! Everyone in the home has their own water battle that we use to not only drink from but to measure how much we are drinking.

A typical day goes like this:

Amber: How many bottles have you drunk today? 1 or 2? Drink more.

Kat: Have you filled your water bottle up today? Want me to fill it up for you?

And those questions are directed to everyone in the house, poor Kwesi! He's constantly being told to drink something. Reminds me of basic training when I was in the Air Force. We had to drink 8 glasses of water with every meal. The first few days I felt as if I was swimming in the ocean but the Texas heat set me back on land pretty quickly and I started drinking more than the required 8.

We also keep a cold water pitcher in the fridge along with various fruit juices. Right now we have orange juice, grape juice and cranberry juice 'cause options! And last but not least, we've modified how/what we eat, with earlier lighter meals when it's cooler and a slightly heavier meal in the evening hours after sunset. Surprisingly no one is really hungry in the midday beyond a light snack such as guacamole/pico de gallo and chips (Not my pico).

On a side note, they don't really offer pico here at restaurants. You will get salsa of some sort but don't expect pico.

Because of the heat in the kitchen we've also modified our meals and have went to a lot of light dishes that don't require a lot of baking, sautéing or anything that produces heat for an hour with the exception of our new crockpot! That baby gets hot but doesn't heat the entire house up like the rest of the major appliances do. I foresee a lot of sandwiches in our future!

I know you are saying...why not just turn on the A.C.?

Well A.C. here is not central air system like it is in a lot of homes in the States due to most if not all of the homes being built from concrete/stone. As a result a lot of homes only have them in the bedrooms. Yep that's right, only in the bedrooms. Thank goodness for ceiling fans cause..."it gets hot in herrrr". Thanks Nelly.

Add to that, A.C. units are pricey! Fortunately most rental homes here allow modifications such as adding an A.C. unit if you want one. We won't be adding one here because we will be leaving for sure at the end of the lease.

Another positive is that what ever you put into a home here you can also take with you when leaving. So yes the A.C. unit goes with you, along with anything else appliance wise or heck anything that can be removed.

Well let me go sit it down somewhere as the noon day sun approaches and says hi. Here's a look at my quick walk around the neighborhood before this morning to get some air before the temp rises.

Kat