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.