Randomy Randomness

• It is raining more and more regularly!  We are so thankful.  The smoke got very bad there for a few weeks and it was so gross and depressing.  It is nice to see blue sky - or even gray rain clouds - instead of that dull brown fog.  
• Our electricity has been going off nearly every day.  Usually, it isn't this bad and your guess is as good as mine why this has been a problem all of a sudden.    We've gotten a lot of use out of the generator lately!  We don't turn it on every time the electricity goes out (it is loud and we like to save our gas for true emergencies) but we have had to turn it on a lot lately just to save the food in the freezer!  And to move a little air in the house...it has also been extra-hot.
• The girls and I are on a homeschool break this week.  We've already finished 9 weeks!  I'm very glad I scheduled in a week off in the fall.  It was time!  We haven't really done anything special but the girls did set up the tent in the schoolroom and have been sleeping and playing in there all week.  They've also been staying up way too late watching movies, playing silly games, dressing up their dolls, and telling bedtime stories.  It's pretty cute.
• Cockroaches - where are they coming from?  Much to my dismay there were three scurrying around our bathroom last night, making me feel less clean after my shower than I did before it.  They are gross.  I hate them.  They won't die!  Next time, I will not just grab my towel off the hook and wrap it around me, I can tell you that much.  I am scarred for life.
• My laptop has crashed.  It isn't that old, but I have been pretty hard on it, with all our travels and the heat and bad electricity and my lack of knowledge on keeping computers healthy.  So, I'm down to using just my iPad (more challenging than I thought it would be) until we can get a new one or get this one fixed.
• So, one of our hens disappeared the other night.  I think I figured out where she went.  My househelper is also our neighbor and she was telling me that her son saw a "musang" in our neighborhood the same night our chicken disappeared.  A musang is a civet cat - basically, a weasel - and apparently they love to eat chickens.  I thought they just ate coffee beans.  Ever heard of that expensive coffee made from beans that were eaten and then, um, expelled by civets and then made into coffee for the rich and famous?  No?  Well, even my helper had no clue about that, though Kopi Luwak is one of the things Indonesia is famous for.  All she knew was that they like stealing and eating chickens and in the village they are pests that get cooked up and served with rice as often as they are caught.   I just wish that weasel would have taken the mean, oversized rooster and not a nice, laying hen.

 

Common Civet Cat.  photo credit

• This has been a very "missionary" blog post.  Sometimes, I don't feel like I'm living that different of a life....until I write it down.  Then I realize I truly am a crazy missionary lady.  I even have the long skirts!  (And I'll tell you why we wear them - they are a lot less miserable on hot days than jeans!)