Green Cooling

It has come time to figure out how to live without air conditioning in 90+ degree weather.  Both Matt and I grew up in homes that did not have the luxury of central air and we made it out alive.  Though the last few houses we lived in were equipped with what I came to believe as the greatest invention of all time.  No more sleepless nights spent jumping in and out of the cold showers.  No more repositioning of the oscillating fan that seems to always miss you but hit your sister. Most importantly, no more sweating! I have no problem sweating while i run or dig in the garden, but I loath the sensation of effortless sweat dripping down my still body.  Nature's cooling system my ass! So now we must decided on fans, open verse closed windows, a window a/c unit or all turning into people-raisins.  So far we are people-raisining it.  One window fan that worked poorly 7 years ago and a couple of ice packs.  Pathetic right?  I even googled "how to stay cool without air conditioning". The results were poor.  Really poor.  Like: "take a cold shower" and "eat spicy foods".  Things that certainly won't help an overly tired 3 year old who can't seem to understand that she should just suck it up because this is what the homesteaders did.  Seriously, someone explain to me how people have lived this way and continue to in places much hotter and more humid that here.  I would love to live without the window unit, it would force us outside into the cool shaded yard and keep the bills lower.  I would stick to fan but am worried that after buying one for each room, we could have gotten a small window unit and had a summer family bed.  The drawback being that Emme is finally sleeping the majority of her night in her own bed.  A very, very, recent victory. One that has been too good to be true.  That could set us back another year which I firmly believe could cause emotional damage due to lack of sleep.  I have yet to learn the art of sleeping with a foot in my ear or more commonly a HAND ON MY NECK.  I can only hope that June is not as bad as May, funny joke right? Excuse me while I go for my third cold shower followed by my spicy dinner.