~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~
Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
The winner of The Way of Beauty giveaway is Donna Marie! Congratulations Donna Marie — look for an email for us about how to get your hands on your new book! Thank you to everyone for your lovely comments.
{pretty}
(That's sidewalk chalk, not a black eye…)
We are so. excited. about the approach of fall here. I only see two highs in the 90s in my 10-day forecast, and it's cooling off at night — down to 60, and below!
I feel about these days the way I felt for most of my life about the first days of spring. It's like rediscovering the world after being cooped up inside for months — but instead of being huddled around the wood stove all winter, we've been hiding from the heat and humidity in the air conditioned house.
How did people even live in the southwest before a/c? How did they keep their babies cool? Were they really just that much tougher than I am?
{happy}
Speaking of the weather not being scorching hot, we have this adorable little lion sleeper that my kids have each put on at least long enough to take some pretty darn cute photos. Luckily, it cooled off enough to be able to justify dressing Eleanor up before she's decidedly too big (it's size 0-3 months, and she's six months and counting now! But not as tall as her big siblings, or we'd really have missed the boat on this one, I think).
You can see a half-as-old Molly As Lion in this post here, which also includes a side-by-side comparison of Lion Molly and (an even younger) Lion Pippo.
You know, cute babies, sibling comparisons, outfits with ears… if you like that sort of thing.
{funny}
“We're pretending to plant the stick.”
They plopped down on the blanket with the baby, and all three of them watched entranced as their dad changed a flat tire. (We're filing that part under {real}…)
And, for good measure, let's just throw in one of Molly's recent looks she pulled together from things she can reach on Mama's dresser (in this case, a handful of headbands).
(Note to self: move EVERYTHING higher up.)
{real}
This is one of those “where I blog” photos, except it's more like, “how I get anything done on the computer, ever.” I'm sitting on the floor, because the baby is playing on a blanket next to me. The laundry hamper is pulled out of the bedroom so that if the baby ever goes to sleep, the next load won't be trapped in there with her. (Nothing thwarts a mom's productive naptime like having the chores in the same room as the napper…)
And of course, a glass of iced tea, because I am my mother's daughter.
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Dia says
My dad grew up in Mississippi before a/c and used to talk about “swamp fans”–an electric fan that blew into a cloth that was suspended above and in a container of water. The air moving through the wet cloth was meant to be cooling. Ugh. But, yes, I think people were tougher back then, and also had different expectations of what needed to be accomplished during the dog days (hence the reputation for lower productivity in the South). Finally, I think people were more comfortable with sweat. I notice that in Minnesota we really don’t think it is acceptable to be sweating, unless we’re “working out.” In the south, even now, people seem to be more comfortable with sweating–they are okay with a wedding dance in an unairconditioned hall in the summertime. Here, that would be a disaster.
Oh, and also…people used to die of the heat. A/c is a good thing, used in moderation.
Rosie says
Good points! I also remind myself that significantly fewer people DID live here before a/c!
Kathryn says
We lived in Tucson for 14 years and I never got used to it (grew up in PA). I felt the same way as you do about Autumn – finally time to get fresh, unchilled air again. We moved to MD this spring and now that there is a chill in the air, we are trying to figure out how we will survive a whole winter!
Rosie says
I think about that often (especially when my friends in the Northeast are battling the long winters). Since having kids, we’ve only lived in Southern California and now Oklahoma — we haven’t had to do a real winter with them yet! By the time we get back to someplace that has one, we’ll be soft.
Laura says
I love the photo of your kids watching your husband change a tire.
The quilt they are sitting on is beautiful – is it handmade?
And the little lion! So sweet!
I don’t know how anyone got anything accomplished before a/c! I can handle the heat as long as all I have to do is lounge all day! 😉
Rosie says
Thanks, Laura! The quilt is handmade; it was a gift from the church that sponsored my husband’s battalion in California. They gave sweet gift baskets to all the new babies!
Chere Mama says
I’ll bet that hair- band- do will catch on in the fashion world! Love that HAPPY baby! And the mesmerized flat tire crowd on the blanket just made me laugh…like something right out of Norman Rockwell.
Heidi says
My dad grew up in Hobart, just west of you, in a rock house with big windows that let in cross-breezes. He seemed to have survived. We’re living in Mumbai right now, and I am constantly wondering how those colonial English women survived without air conditioning OR saris – not the climate for high collars and long sleeves and starched organza. Similar, in fact, to SW Oklahoma in the summertime, but all year round…
Rosie says
It’s true that the houses here that have been built since the spread of a/c are definitely NOT designed to be lived in WITHOUT a/c! You’d definitely need a rock house with big windows. And some trees for shade!
Mumbai! You are tough. (But no, not as tough as those colonial women!)
Tia says
Well, many of those colonial women died in droves, of course — maybe not directly from heat, but from malaria, sickness, etc… and being inappropriately dressed for the climate certainly couldn’t have helped!
Robin says
My mom grew up near Gotebo! They actually just took cots and slept outside in the summer. And used lots of fans!
Katherine says
Mumbai?! Good heavens. I shall now try to stop complaining *quite* so much about central Texas…
CMerie says
Yes! Fall in the southwest is a beautiful thing. We live in the Phoenix area and suffer being trapped inside from mid-June until the end of September. And then October comes and its only 97 or 93 or (like yesterday) 85! Glorious! There is a big picture in the cafeteria at the science center here that shows a family in the early 1900s eating dinner on an enclosed porch. And I always think to myself that I would never have survived that. I position myself right in the stream of cold AC and pray for the person who invented it (or rather ask for their prayers, because surely inventing the air conditioning has to give one a direct path to heaven, right?).
Rosie says
Lol. Definitely.
Kristina B says
Yes! I’m here in Mesa loving this cooler weather as well! I mean, we have another week in the high 90s coming up but still, the end is in sight 🙂
My kids honestly don’t seem to mind the heat. They want to be outside all the time, all summer long… what really helped me this summer was getting a little kiddie pool and putting it in a shady area so that we could all be outside for a couple hours a day at least. Otherwise they just want to go on walks and that gets hard on me (they’re still too young to go off on their own, unfortunately!)
The comment above about our modern aversion to sweat also rings true. I don’t mind sweating but then I get a little embarrassed if I go anywhere because everyone else is pristine and fresh from being in their air-conditioned sanctuaries 😛 As long as you slow down a bit and don’t mind being a bit sweaty and gross the heat is doable, at least for me. But AC makes it a lot nicer!
Katie says
Like Molly, my toddler girl has started tiptoe raids on my dresser. Comb, brush, bobby pins, etc. have been making unannounced appearances around the house. Actually, she’s figured out how to carry around her little wooden stool to fulfill her inspirations of curiosity; so moving things up, as of this week, means another good fourteen inches or so. Or else I’ll constantly be rescuing ink pens, piggy banks, eyeglasses, etc. from her clutches. =) I figured the stool-as-housewide-tool day was coming, and indeed, the genius has struck!
Rosie says
Yes! She’s been carrying around the little stool, too. The little stinker! It doesn’t help that our home is all on one level, so it’s not even like I can be reasonably sure the bedrooms are safe when she’s downstairs. It’s all vulnerable!
Habou says
The kids are pretty darn cute – my darling great- grandchildren. Can’t wait to see them in a couple of months.
Houses every where used to be built with cross ventilation in mind. I once, in the 60s stayed in an attached house in Miami Beach in July for two weeks. No a/c. It was very cool because there was always a breeze running through when windows were open. Nicer than air conditioning. I almost died getting into a non-a/c car to go shopping.
Dixie says
Historically, adobe was key. Ever been in an adobe house? So cool, even on a hot day. Many (most?) of the native tribes in the Southwest used some version of adobe or dug right into cliffs, or both, to make their homes cool.
I grew up in Southern California with no AC and, alas, no adobe. I didn’t mind as a kid. But I sure bet my mom minded when she was pregnant!
Kristi says
I’m with you, Rosie, on fall-is-the-new-spring (we’re in Dallas) — though I don’t have as good an attitude about those 90s in the forecast! WHERE IS THE REAL FALL WEATHER?!
Ellen says
Nora’s left hand pulled up and hanging delicately in the “tire” picture — this is something I used to do subconsciously all the time in high school, and it became a goofy joke for my classmates to catch me in that pose. Glad to see Nora is following in the family tradition!
Ellen says
Also, Rosie, her eyelashes. Holy cow.
Tamara @ This Sacramental Life says
As an Upstate New York native, now living in Austin, TX I TOTALLY agree with you about fall here being like spring up there. I even get symptoms of that Seasonal Affective Disorder everyone up home talks about every winter. Like I need to make sure I get enough daylight even though the sun’s been blazing mercilessly for days on end — I just avoid it like crazy. It’s weird.
Lovely photos of your sweet family, as always!
Michele says
Rosie, I can’t believe how big your little ones are getting! Too cute!
We used to live in northern Indiana and now we live in Missouri and I can totally relate to what you’re saying about emerging from the heat after summer. We practically live inside all of August and I am soooo happy when fall rolls around!
Amanda says
Love all of these photos! And Eleanor is absolutely adorable! Fall and Spring really do awaken my little soul so much! Unexpectedly! Every single time! It’s fun and lovely and fun!
Sarah says
My husband and I feel the same way about fall these days. We both grew up in the north (Chicago and Ottawa/Montreal in Canada) and remember the delirious joy when the first balmy breezes started to melt the snow. The Army had us in south Texas (San Antonio) and now in North Carolina, both “huddle indoors and avoid the heat” climates. We’re like giddy little kids on the first genuinely brisk morning of Autumn now. We do try to get out regularly for hiking etc. even in the hottest weeks, but we mostly deal with summer by getting out first thing every morning to let the kids play before it heats up, and setting up a kiddie pool under the fan on our screened porch in the afternoons (killer mosquitoes outside the porch). Summer is really hard with the stir-crazy kids, but I am wondering about what will happen when we move back to Chicago next year. I firmly believe there’s no such thing as bad weather, only poor clothing choices. However, bundling four small children in and out of appropriate clothing for said frigid weather multiple times each day….well….
Lisa G. says
The tire-changing photo is the best – and Nora’s expression priceless. She looks dumbfounded, although I know that’s just a baby expression she’s got there. Too cute!
Marie-Claire Oman says
Fall is so wonderful. We were living in Southern Ontario before moving to the Pacific North West (still in Canada – on Vancouver Island). Back there, it was amazing to finally feel there air *move* again after a dreadful summer of hot stagnant humidity. Here, and especially with the drought this year, Autumn is like another spring… Everything gets green and lush again. People plant gardens! There are even monstrous sized crocuses! It’s confusing and amazing all at once. 🙂
Joy in Alabama says
Rosie, your beautiful children are getting so big! I love it when y’all post photos of all the kids!
I’m born and raised in Alabama and we didn’t have air conditioning when I was growing up. Not as hot as Texas or Arizona, but hot enough. We found shade wherever we could and kept the shades down in the late afternoon and had window fans which ran non-stop. I remember when we first got a window unit for the kitchen and how heavenly it was! Mom would just run it late in the afternoon so the kitchen would be bearable for supper.
We would go to the cool library (taaaaallll ceilings and that lovely musty smell and air conditioning), I had a little pool, we would sit in the swing under the tree (my parents yard only had 2 trees) and read and eat plums or green apples. And my mom would buy my fall clothes right about the time school started in September and all the kids would wear their new clothes (knee socks and plaid dresses) and sweat. haha Great memories! So thankful for AIR!
Mary Virginia says
Oh man! My laundry is so often stuck with the sleeper-hate it! 🙂
Woman of the House says
Summer can be pretty intolerable here in mid-Missouri, too, though I suspect Oklahoma is worse! So glad you can get outside now. The baby is adorable in the lion sleeper! 🙂