Hot

How to beat this heat? Well, there's no beating it. I remember sitting on a porch for over an hour in my childhood, rocking or bouncing in a wrought iron chair, and realizing it was safer to sit there than to play. I remember lifeguarding all day under an umbrella and seeing the bank thermometer read 104 at 4 p.m., then jumping straight into the pool at 5. I remember passing out after softball games in Savannah, revived with Gatorade (I love it to this day), bananas, and a mint-alcohol rub down.

This heat, really, after all that, is just not that bad.

But we've been hot for sure. Here are some of the things my family has done in a muggy June week:

1. Frozen our tubes of yogurt for a quick snack right out of the freezer.

2. Filled empty Gatorade bottles with water and frozen them to take in coolers when we go out and about.

3.Went to the new North Carolina Museum of Art and enjoyed the cool, then jumped in the fountains (where, by the way, one kid got a hell of a cut on his knee - friends don't let friends wear Crocs!)

4. Rented an Alfred Hitchcock movie. We went with North by Northwest as recommended by this site.

5. Pool time at our friends' delightful, landscaped backyard getaway and at our pool club. I took watermelon and cantaloupe balls in a cooler, and cucumber sandwiches with hummus spread. The children were noshing maniacs when they weren't flipping, diving, and throwing the ball.

6. Went to the mall to check out the Lego store, eat an international meal at the food court, and play with iPads.

7. Drove to the beach for a quicky trip, rode in the waves, ate shrimp, and fished in the surf.

8. Did a yoga tape in our arctic den. We used throw blankets for yoga mats.

9. Made banana blueberry ice cream - kinda sorta low fat - very tasty! Low fat sweetened condensed milk, 1 quart half and half, smushed banana, and I added blueberries at the very end of the freezing process.

10. Currently? We are lying around, reading, singing, and playing online Scrabble.