facts.

I have neglected my blog.  However, I think that when I say that we've only had 2 days without house guests and/or dinner company in the past 34 days... maybe you will understand.  :)

We are no longer without power 3 days each week!!!  Hooray!!  We still have occasional "load shedding" blackouts in the evenings for a couple of hours, and the electricity is often still too weak to turn on the internet at some periods during the day, but wow.... it is so nice to have electricity again 7 days each week! We are thanking God that this situation resolved much sooner than we expected it to!

This morning our dog Merry found a lizard in our hallway.  He loves (eating) lizards so he was chasing this one up and down the hallway.  Eventually he knocked off its tail, which started wildly writhing around on the floor.  I thought Elijah would be frightened, but instead he burst into laughter and started dancing wildly around it, trying to stomp on it and jump on it!  Hearing her brother's hysterical laughter, Ketzia (who was in my arms) starting laughing hysterically also. It was funny.

We only have one dog now.  Our older dog, Saurus, became very badly behaved and completely unmanageable.  It is true that you can't teach an old dog new tricks.  So we gave him away and hopefully he will be happy in his new home.  Our remaining dog, Merry, who is 1 year old, is a marvelous pet.  We will probably get a second puppy sometime soon to keep Merry company.

We have two children teething at the same time.  I am finding that my chitenge comes in handy, because I often am "wearing" at least one of my children!  They find it extremely comforting.  No wonder the African women are always wearing their babies on their backs.  It makes my shoulders very sore, but at least it soothes the screaming.  :)

Elijah is going through a hard stage just now, because he is nearly two.  Can I say that I understand how it is that at this almost-age they become raving little monsters?  No.  All I can say is, I never thought a child of mine would behave this way.  I always thought those were the badly behaved children whose mothers spoiled them. But apparently it happens with the "good" children, too, the ones who are consistently disciplined.  Shows what I know!

Ketzia is going through a hard stage just now, too.  Thankfully hers doesn't involve throwing tantrums and screaming until she is blue in the face.  Hers is the frustration that comes with becoming more mobile.  She can roll over, but sometimes she ends up hurting herself by so doing.  She can scoot across the floor by pushing with her feet, but she can't crawl.  She is just mobile enough that she gets wedged into tight spaces, and gets very frustrated.

We have two weeks to go before this semester ends, and David and I are both feeling a bit burnt-out, but the end is in sight!  We are working on a newsletter to send out, hopefully within the next couple of days.  I'm having computer issues, which is another factor in the newsletter delay and the absence of blog posts.  But I will try to keep up with the blog posts (now that the electricity is on 7 days a week, that will be easier).