Small creatures who love art?

Friday, November 21, 2025

The liturgy sets us in the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time. There are only 34 "Ordinary" weeks in a year ... which means Advent is just around the corner. As kids, around this time we'd start learning carols and verses for the children's program on Christmas Eve. Our reward was a goodie bag and a present from our Sunday School teacher.

Christmas Eve was one of the most exciting evenings of the year, and not only because of the performance. Afterward, when we got home, we opened our Christmas presents. We followed that rhythm with our kids too. No dashed dreams about Santa as they grew older - it was a party celebrating the birth of Jesus, complete with gifts for everyone. (As a bonus, the children had toys to play with on Christmas Day so didn't wake us.) I'd get up at 6AM to prepare the feast and stuff the turkey - usually the size of a small child at 25-lb/11kg - and put it in the over for 5-6 hours to cook. Ah, memories.

Today most of the art in the house comes off the walls. There are paintings and pictures from the West, Africa, Asia, and S.America. Nothing from Australia or Antarctica ... yet.

We have everything from prints to originals by local artists and students.

There's even a 30"/80cm target we found at the neighborhood dump. It's one of my favorite things to mix in with "real" art. IbuS gives everything a cleaning in preparation for moving.

In lieu of wallpaper in the powder room (which gets hard use at movie night and other events), I took sharpies and wrote dozens of sentences to stir the imagination into stories. We've had a lot of comments over the years; "What did you mean by ...?" and they're quote something from the walls.

I don't know. Nothing? I just got one sentence after another and wrote them down in various colours. I could easily write paragraphs, short stories, or books with them as prompts.

On the second floor, I decided against a guest book, though we use one for downstairs dinner and movie guests. Upstairs, many overnight guests have left a signature and note on the wall behind the dining table. It makes me smile every time I read what they've written, complete with dates of their stay.

I spot a folder of unframed art on an upstairs shelf. Oh oh. I'm tying up loose ends as things start to shift. Ages ago, we found red frames on sale in As-Is IKEA. Might as well fill them up. I frame a watercolor sketch Clau bought from a street artist in her hometown in Brazil. 

I hot-glue the discarded washers, bolts, and saw blades from the construction site onto an acrylic background. Each time I saw a circle, I put it in my pocket until we got home. We have quite a collection.

At the Project, we hang some curtains to check lengths. I can't finish because we run out of curtain rings. I'll be happy when all the windows are covered.

They're installing mosquito screens in the gaps that ventilate the house. With mild tropical weather, we don't need air-conditioning or heating. Afternoon breezes flow across the mountain slopes to provide relief, even after the hottest days.

Termites are eating their way through several window sills. Those will have to be sprayed and patched or replaced.

Saturday

W takes shelves and mirrors off the bedroom walls. I empty one surface to place things on another. We're not yet moving but want to do some "moving day" things in advance, even when it's temporarily inconvenient. 

I write a dozen book reviews - and find 21 more pages of books awaiting reviews in my NetGalley account. Oh oh. Better get reading! I like browsing what's out there, whether that's new ideas for class, design concepts, how-tos, or good stories. This one was a bit thick and unusual in that it didn't approach Lewis from his base of faith.

Someone drops by to pick up a table and chairs for their children. They change their minds, "Not what we expected." No worries: it's also too big for their SUV.

We enjoy brunch at Maxis with George and Karissa, who are planning their wedding next year. 

Someone else is having a wedding this afternoon - look at the flowers!

It pours as we get ready to go home. The drain grates catch needles, leaves, and street garbage, but there's no flooding at the Project.

There are so many quirks and corners at the Project. Today, workers are providing a cover for an empty pond that captures the runoff from the roof. Without that, mosquitoes and other creatures will make it their home because it has to be manually drained as water comes in. The left space beside the narrow pond has a drainage pipe so it doesn't need to be covered; we'll fill it with a gravel base for pots with fish and plants.

In the afternoon, we continue dismantling the current house. 

The shelves around our bed are lifted off. Casters are unscrewed from too-tall shelves that will support my office desk. I measure and measure again: what is going to fit where in the new spaces?

Rugs need cleaning. This one sat on the Porch for the past few years. Coffee stains, dirt from bare feet, and grit from dog paws have changed the color.

Fabrics come off the walls. This beautiful sari from Dr Hanna hung in a guest room.

You can only imagine how dirty it gets behind picture frames and bookcases in homes that are not closed off from the outside. Unsealed gaps around hand-built windows and doors let in house lizards, roaches, and ants. We've found garden frogs inside the house after they've squeezed through the narrow openings, too. Today, a big (luckily dead) roach topples out of a suitcase holding new shower curtains and pillowcases. There's fresh lizard poop on some of the just-washed fabrics.

I pull out a book after reviewing tomorrow's work and sit down with a cup of peppermint tea. Ahhhh.

Read more:

* "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Cry out, Save us, God our Savior; gather us and deliver us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name, and glory in your praise. Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting."

Then all the people said “Amen” and “Praise the Lord.” 1 Chronicles 16:34-36

* Rise up, come to our help. Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love. Psalm 44:26

* The God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. 1 Peter 5:10

Moravian Prayer: Lord, we are grateful that you call us to your eternal glory. When the time is right, we will rise up and come. Until that day, may our resolve to create your image here on Earth never waver. Amen.

The whole house smells like banana bread ...

Monday, November 17, 2025

I'm up from 2AM. My watch and phone are in the hallway. I work for a few hours but before I know it, it's time to walk. There's only one meeting. The other two are postponed.  W's in a study but I crash and fall asleep for an hour. I catch a call from K who's made it to Doha.  We're out over noon to do some grocery shopping.

One of our stops is Papaya, a fruit and packaged food grocer. I look up when I see movement: a rat is bounding along the top of the produce section. Ugh.

At lunch, we sit in the Saka Bistro courtyard. We're surrounded by interesting plants.

I order gnocchi, one of our favorite items on the menu.

A breeze blows through and rustles the palm fronds.

A squirrel has trapped itself inside by running along the roof supports. We watch it run back and forth until it figures out the exit. Seems to be a small-mammal day.

At the Project, we hang another set of sheets, these floral ones. Mice have chewed big holes in the bottoms of them so I use an iron-on glue to patch them with a leftover piece of floral fabric.

The fabric is not the same, but similar. Can you spot the repair on the hem? Maybe when I open them up ... For now the pleats are taking shape.

Someone asks, "How are you setting up that as a closet?" I send the sketch from a collection of "we could," and "maybe this," and "how about that if it fits?" Each room has a page or two of possibilities so that I don't have to sort through random piles when we move.

This is an economy project, that's for sure. These old library tables will become the kitchen island. There are 4 shallow drawers on each side and we'll put baskets across the base.

The dogs are happy to take another walk to the Project. In the serving area, there's lots to do. W drills holes for cabinet knobs in the reworked cabinet doors. The electrician has lowered the shop lights that we painted with motorcycle spray paint. When they're level, they'll look good.

The sinks are rusted but we asked the contractor not to replace them: they're old but solid. Boy, are they dirty!

I scrub them with Bar Keeper's Friend (as per Google instruction). I tucked a bottle of BKF into our luggage from the USA. You never know what stuff comes in handy.

More scrubbing lies in the future - but it's already much improved! We stopped in at Daiso earlier, where I grabbed a cereal bowl organizer. It looks like a little pail with slots and holes in the sides. With the base ridge cut off, it fits the 6" wide, 7" deep sink drain. Daiso sells little nets to catch food scraps, too. I pull one over the pail's sides - perfect size.

We picked up baking supplies, bleach, and chicken livers at the big grocery store. W pours five litres of bleach into the pool, hoping to kill the frogs and their foamy clumps of floating eggs. "It wouldn't hurt also to kill some algae," notes W.

I cook the chicken livers with a clove of garlic and cut them up for dog training treats. Tomorrow will be a baking day for the helpers. Christmas cookies are coming! This year we need 2000 instead of 5000 like last year.

Tuesday

Up again at 2:30AM and I feel rested. No watch, no phone by the bed; I check the time on the kitchen clock. When my body is ready, I guess I wake up. Hmmm. I get some work done in the wee hours and have a one-hour nap before getting up to walk.

Today the house starts to unravel. If you ever doubt the power of art, here it is before ... 

And after the art and art shelves come off the walls. That feels like we're saying goodbye. The same shelves will be mounted in the Project.

All kinds of art hang on the walls and are stored in the attic. We've been given paintings and portraits. We've lucked out in finding $1.50-$30 originals. We've repurposed canvases that were being thrown out by painting over them. It adds up to a variety of styles, mediums, colours, and sizes.

A friend drops by to ask if he can host an event in the Project. Why not? We're happy if it blesses others. By the time they get around to the date in the next year, the yard should have filled in with creeping grass (Axonopus compresses) and look less scruffy.

Everyone's working today. Between dog walking and sweeping, PakG transfers a few dozen potted plants to the new yard. Veronica sends 6!!! hands of bananas, which will make their way into banana breads on Thursday.

Today the women bake cookies toward Christmas giving.

We run the robot vacuum for 3 hours in the new pantry. We change to the wet cycle and run it for another 2 hours. The floor gets soapy with Dawn detergent in the water tank = oops, too much soap. I have to push a clean wet rag around the room with my feet a few times, mopping up the foam.

I walk back and forth between properties so many times that I have to change shoes to ease my soles. We have no trouble reaching 8-10,000 steps every day, even when only half that is from our morning loops. They've been promising a strong downpour for the past 3 days. The wind kicks up, the banana leaves and bamboo fronds rustle, the chimes clang ... but so far, no tropical deluge.

Kirsten has a few good things happen on her three flights from Malaysia to Austin, including a premium seat for the longest flight. However. she also encounters flight delays and 2 unexpectedly rude Qatar attendants, one in Doha and the other in Dallas. (Cmon Qatar, you can do better than that. They're rated in the top 5 airlines in the world? Not this trip!)

"Go up the ramp and walk to see if you can find a wheelchair," says the Dallas Qatar employee to K, pointing to a passenger slope, not once but thrice. She's watching dozens of passengers being pushed through immigration and then walking away miraculously healed. K has fused ankles among other joint challenges. Slopes are difficult. She reminds the attendant that she's booked a wheelchair. The attendant shrugs and after the third brush-off, K gets up and tries to limp toward the ramp.

The attendant sees how painful it is and says, "Never mind. Sit down again." That's only one of the strange and unhelpful things K encounters in the Dallas airport. We're relieved when she makes it home, safe and sound. Her house-and-pet sitters welcome her to a clean home and a happy Mika (toy poodle).

W and I notice many fake disabilities on Asian flights. People demand a wheelchair to get on the plane first, then are apparently healed mid-flight ... unless they have to go through immigration. Then the healing miracle only happens after their passports are stamped. Sigh. Such abuse prevents care for those who truly need help.

After everyone has gone home and the kitchen is cleaned, we have an online team meeting. Our help lives nearby but for travellers, we're trying to avoid the rainstorm that arrives about 3PM. When it pours, the danger of flash floods and overflowing gutters is great. The lightning flashes and thunder rolls but it's over quickly today.

Wednesday

Middle of the night, I'm up for a few hours thinking about the goodness of God. Finally I get up to I write Sunday's talk and finish other tasks. Then it's back to sleep.

"God in his mercy doesn't show us the future," says my 90-year-old mother. I look at college photos from the 1970s and 80s. Now these students are 50-70 years old.

Those young hopefuls had no idea of how wonderful and how difficult their lives would be. They looked like today's students - maybe a little more optimistic without social media and lawsuits warping their prospects. But they were just as energetic and dressed the same. After graduation, they spread across the planet, raising families, working, and traveling to serve or for pleasure. We still know many of them.

When daylight comes, we read through Sunday's talk, order a few things online for the Project, and walk with the dogs. We stop in to measure open cabinets for doors (from IKEA's As-Is, the next time we go.)

We return the dogs to our house, then go for our date breakfast at #NaraPark. We live in a beautiful part of the world. We talk to K while we wait for out food. She catches us up on her travels and arrival.

I have an hour-long appointment. The topic is transitions. We're in more than a few right now. W and PakG head off to pick up some furniture while I work from home. They're delayed by a flat time and eat out - so when they come back, the prepared food gets packed up for another meal.

I sort my closet in preparation for moving. I pull out things I have worn and begin passing them on. Four people sort through them separately, choosing what they'd like.

Thursday

We're off to the mountains for the first time in a month. First, a breakfast of spicy sauce along with leftover spaghetti and eggs.

We are committed to this group - it's wellness for us all. Between one thing and another, we have missed the past 3 times. I miss the opportunity to support another friend but can't skip more with these friends. We start down the hill we usually end on. Tea roots stretch downward on either side of the broken paving.

We do the trail in reverse, turning around to the starting place from where the trail is under water. We squeeze by on the sides elsewhere. But where the path is completely submerged, none of us wants to get any dirtier or wetter than we are (= the dogs running by give us mud showers.)

Anton is funning full steam, playing with the other big labradoodle. He slams into me and knocks me off my feet halfway through the hike, twisting my ankle. Luckily my ankle is bruised but not sprained. It's not a long hike today: +7 km (4.5 miles) of paving, rocky trails, and overgrown grasses. The view over the volcanos and tea fields is spectacular.

The sides of the mountains are stacked with tea bushes in this area. They flourish in the volcanic soil and cool air. I take a picture as we head down from the mountains.

We choose Mike Pizza for lunch, with its attentive servers, good food, and ambiance.

As usual, we start with bruschetta - fresh tomatoes on hot bread.

Today we even meet Mike of Mike Pizza, which is the best Italian-style restaurant in the city.

Even construction debris is beautiful. I've picked up circles at the Project for the past months. Maybe they're meant for this painted backdrop. What do you think?

The helpers bake 8 more loaves of banana bread and 4 boxes of ginger cookies, which are taken to the hall in the afternoon.

Read more:

* Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Psalm 90:14

* The aim of such instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith. 1 Timothy 1:5

 Moravian Prayer: God Almighty, we trust that the sun will rise in the morning and set in the evening, but we do not always trust in the things we cannot see or feel. Help us to trust in you—the rock on which our faith depends. Amen.

Fun and food with family and friends

Thursday, November 13, 2025

It's Kirsten's last day in Bandung. Tomorrow she flies to Malaysia for the next leg of her travels. We have some fun on the main tourist street.

We're looking for travel pillows. There are many funny characters to choose from.

K orders a croissant at #MomsBakery for lunch.

I have a sourdough beef sandwich while W tries a chicken schnitzel on foccacia bread. The food is always fresh and nourishing.

We browse the galleries and street artists nearby. I like a rough sketch-like painting but leave it there.

On the way home, motorcycles buzz around the slow traffic by driving in the lane of oncoming cars.

We relax when we get home; K's knee is acting up. We hang out and before we know it, it's time to pack her suitcase into the car and head for the airport shuttle station. We hug goodbye and pray together. 

W hops into the car with her to make sure she gets off without a hitch. We usually go in the day before to stay in the city overnight when we're flying out. Traffic is unreliable; it can take from 3-8 hours to get from Bandung to Jakarta airport, 100 miles/160 km away. Luckily, K catches an earlier shuttle which leaves minutes after her arrival.

The trip is bumpy: she's on the bucking bronco flyover, a poorly constructed part of the highway. While it is level side to side, the paving droops between supports so that the neck is yanked up and down every few seconds. The driver stops for the usual rest break so passengers can use the toilet and eat snacks. Finally she checks in to the airport hotel for a good night's sleep.

She's left her pastries from @MomsBakery in the car - W enjoys them and shares the rum balls.

W and I are on a Zoom call from 10-11PM. International meetings are a vital part of our work but they're disruptive to rest. It takes a long time to fall asleep.

Friday

K catches her flight without any problems. She is thankful when a porter walks her from the hotel to the check-in desk. Our friend Tabitha picks her up from the airport and takes her to the hotel.

W and I hang some paper globes around a few lightbulbs. W takes down the cheap drapery tracks and puts a sturdy curtain rod up in the bathroom. I clip and pleat each curtain, tying up the folds. The pleats probably won't last with day to day use but they have a good start.

W finds a sale price on ceiling tracks for the blackout curtains in the bedroom so we head to town to pick them up. Besides the tracks, we find some knobs for furniture doors.

"Old price," grumbles the owner as he hands over 35c cabinet hardware. Will we like them? If not, spending $3.50 on 10 knobs isn't too painful.

For lunch, we stop at #FatPho, a Vietnamese eatery that's moved to a new location. The owners remember us and stop by to say hello.

They've combined several eateries. Featuring Japanese, Vietnamese, and Indonesian cuisine, there's lots to choose from. The food is excellent and inexpensive.

We order a mashup of sushi, fresh spring rolls, pho (my favorite hot soup) and bun (W's preferred cold noodles.) We've enough for supper, too.

After we drop the building supplies at the Project, we head home to read, write, and nibble on homemade popcorn.

Saturday

On our walk, I spot an extension cord hanging from a tree. A bar with 4 sockets is wired into the electrical wires overhead. That provides electricity for elections, special events, and concerts in the park. An open garbage bin leans under it - which is probably collecting water. What a combo.

W hangs the drapery tracks and I wander around planning what goes where. Some glass tiles found in the yard slot perfectly into 3 wooden brackets = shelves in a bathroom. Does anyone know what this kitchen cabinet is for? The door is propped by a diagonal piece of wood. I can't figure out its purpose. We'll remove the brace and put a shelf insert inside.

I write book reviews and eat pho leftover before falling asleep. A few hours of rest make up poor sleep in the past weeks.

Sunday

There are no flowers left in our garden. So I arrive at the hall without an updated bouquet. But the three-week-old structure by Titik is on the stage. Doesn't it look like a fall bouquet with its combination of leaves and dried flowers? I pluck a few greens from the yard near the hall to fill it out. Done.

We serve with core volunteers from many countries.

After, we lunch with another international group. That's the blessing of an international community; you can befriend people from around the world.

I order oncom rice, a favorite when combined with a few tablespoons of sambal (chili sauce).

A friend tours the Project with us, praying a blessing of peace over the property and its future use. Walking home, tall flowers catch my eye. As they fade, toothlike protrusions emerge.

I fall fast asleep in the afternoon. My phone and watch were outside in the hall overnight so I had no idea what time it was but I lay awake for hours. I'm trying a new routine of no tech in the bedroom to see if sleep improves. (Last night = nope!)

Monday

I wake without any idea of time but feel rested. So I get up, flick on the light, and edit a journal article for a couple of hours. Then I check the time: 4:30 AM. Back to sleep, I guess.

Read more:

* You must not be partial in judging: hear out the small and the great alike; you shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s. Deuteronomy 1:17

* Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Psalm 90:14

* The aim of such instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith. 1 Timothy 1:5

* All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

*But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. James 2:9

Moravian Prayer: God Almighty, we trust that the sun will rise in the morning and set in the evening, but we do not always trust in the things we cannot see or feel. Help us to trust in you—the rock on which our faith depends.

God of justice, so often we take it upon ourselves to judge others by appearances, social status, or petty grievances. Help us to remember that, as your servants, our task is to love, forgive, console, and understand. Amen.