Because lists are fun to make, especially when you’re waiting on your wash to finish so you can go to bed.

And they’re random, not neat little lists of ten.

Books I have read lately: (Not an exhaustive list, and not all read all the way through. Just books I’ve read in the recent past)

1. Go Dogs Go, by Dr. Suess
2. The Thread That Runs So True, by Jesse Stuart
3. Growing Up Amish, by Ira Wagler
4. The Atonement Child, by Francine Rivers
5. Belles on Their Toes, by Earnestine Gilbreth (this is a sequel to Cheaper by the Dozen. I reread it recently and embarrassed myself by squealing with laughter at a coffee shop. This and anything by James Herriot never fail to make me laugh out loud. Henk, henk, henk)
6. Intended for Evil, by Les Sillars, a book about a Cambodian Christian who survived the Khmer Rouge.
7. When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalinithi
8. Rivers to the Sea, by Sara Teasdale
9. Saving My Assassin, by Virginia Prodan
10. Nang Ai, a Thai novel
11. Reclaiming Surrendered Ground, by Jim Logan
12. The Insanity of Obedience, by Nik Ripken
13. The Wall, by Gloria Jane Evans
14. Anne of Avonlea, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
15. Curious George, by H.A and Margret Ray

Things I love:

1. Mist on mountains and rivers
2. Airports and the excitement and pain that go with them.
3. Snowflakes falling down in little whirlwinds, under the glow of our yard light at home.
4. A young man helping an old lady or a small child.
5. Familiar faces waiting at the airport after a 36-hour journey
6. Lisped “I love you’s.”
7. Rain
8. Hot lattes on rainy days with a good book
9. Speaking languages other than English
10. Poetry that says exactly what you were feeling when you didn’t even know that you felt that way.
11. Kind people at immigrations

Things I dislike

1. People complaining about foreign food, and worse yet, making faces (woops, just a few weeks ago, I found myself doing this)
2. Loud karaoke coming from the bars in the backyard at 11:30 at night
3. Reckless drivers, usually those with Bangkok license plates, careening down the road. (If you kill yourself, that’s one thing. If you kill others, that’s another.)
4. Seeing young Thai girls with dissipated old rich white men.
5. Losing my keys, again
6. Having no milk in the fridge
7. Racist or ethnocentric attitudes
8. Pens that don’t write smoothly
9. Cool people who belittle the less cool as a way of climbing up the social ladder

Things I miss about home:

1. Fresh chocolate chip cookies and tall glasses of raw milk with windows opened to green lawns and fresh air
2. Snow, snow, snow
3. Abundance of cheese
4. Family (really that goes without saying)
5. Long solitary horseback rides in the moonlight
6. Being able to go anywhere or do anything that you want to (like lying out in an open field) without fearing that it is either: improper, dangerous, or weird.
7. Magically having food in the fridge without having to be the one to buy or make it.
8. Cows
9. Living off the land, instead of the grocery store, or even the market
10. Youth group
11. My mom’s pies and cinnamon rolls
12. The sound of horse feet on the highway
13. Nice cuddly pussycats
14. Talking Pennsylvania Dutch