Digging up the lawn, 68 more legs, and a march through the vegetables

Wednesday, January 4, 2023

No language school today. W and I take the dogs for a walk, return them to the house, and walk to our weekly date breakfast. They're fixing the lawn that gets the worst wear. (There's little drainage in the common area.) The dirt gets chopped into big chunks with a mattock and then beaten into smaller clumps. Some strong thin Indonesians haul tools and gravel down the hill.

Our team meeting is hybrid. Those in person enjoy a good cake from Paulina and Rudi.

ChaCha comes for lunch and a few cookies. The last Christmas tree, which gets wrapped and put away with decorations intact, leaves our bedroom table to be stored away. We'll miss the soft light in the evenings. We are officially Christmas-decor-free.

W and PakG head out for the remaining pieces of table and chairs (68 legs, total!)

"Ibu, your house is full!" exclaim the helpers when the furniture shows up. "Where will you put that?

I acquire what feels right at the time. Remember the TV trays from "the olden days?" This will have the same function; it comes apart in 8 rounds and a center circle.

Indonesians are clever craftsmen. When you take the round table apart, you get a lot of small tables for a laptop or a plate.

A friend likes this patio set so we send it over to her place.

The white table from outside becomes an entry table.

As I settle into the morning, these bullet journal questions capture my attention. They're designed for times of overwhelm or confusion. At the beginning of the year, many encourage journaling. It's fun to see "embrace inconsistency" on one. (Lost the source, sorry!)

Yup, inconsistent blurts would describe my journals. They are my ongoing "wild and mean" books. I write what won't find the light of day otherwise: processes and annoyances, as well as hopes and dreams. Hopefully someone burns my journals when I die rather than reading them. I've been writing (off and on) in the latest fat book for almost a year.

Juno is an efficient small-animal killer. Today she captures and plays with a sparrow who tried to pick up some dog food. She's quick, efficient, and her mouth is as gentle as a retriever. She takes her time to play with the little bird on her way to the backyard, where she tosses it into the compost. We have less birds trying to steal from the dog dishes since she came.

Thursday 

We're on a new hike through the vegetable fields that cling to the volcanic hillsides.

Someone finds an empty can of Roundup, a toxic weed-killer. Oh boy, that's not healthy.

The fields are laid out in rows under plastic, with bamboo stakes carrying the taller crops upward.

Lunch at IP Farms is good - it's an organic farm so they use compost instead of synthetic fertilizers. Today it's windy so there are less flies than usual, which is nice.

When we get home, the helpers have made 4 kinds of cookies.

We exhausted the supply of 6000 cookies eaten or given away during the Christmas season. (And I don't even really like cookies ...)

Friday

On our porch, the hoya continues to bloom and scent the whole porch.

After a morning walk and several calls, I remember that we bought silk flowers on a trip to the Philippine, @50-90% off (of course). Using them will save us money on hall flowers. So I find them in a cabinet and spread them out on the nook table.

There are many colors to choose from.

I put a two bouquets and a few green stems into a dry vase, along with grass plucked on our walk. To finish off, we tuck 2 palm twigs on either side. Odd, but it works. I'll look at it again Sunday morning.

I drape a few silk sprigs on a warped piece of wood. Pretty.

The living rooms slips from Christmas Red -

to a quiet purple.

The bookshelves get their black boxes back.

 

The dining room becomes more restful with a blue tablecloth.

Saturday

We stroll the block and pause to watch neighborhood kids at their soccer camp. They work and play hard.

There's a new section of wall going in along the street: the rocks have been set and mortared in for one side of the gutter; the other side will be built with these little boulders.

One end of the new "tall wall" (9' at the far end, 8' here) is an interesting project.

I poke my head through the scaffolding to see how it has evolved from foundation to top course. Every day, there are more rocks, more sand for mortar, and men crawling beside and atop to build it. It's quite amazing. And almost finished.

What are you building at the start of the New Year?

Read more:

*Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Isaiah 60:1

*Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. He prayed to the Lord, and he answered him and gave him a sign. But Hezekiah did not respond according to the benefit done to him for his heart was proud. 2 Chronicles 32:24-25

*God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. 1 Peter 5:5

Moravian Prayer: Give us humble hearts, gracious God, that we may see the world as you desire it to be and that we might know our place in it. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Happy New Year 2023 - and a rat

And just like that, another calendar page turns over. The flowers are beautiful this time of year. This hedge has many colors of flowers in it.

The tropics have a lot of interesting flowers.

These exotic bulbs light up the side of the street.

The neighbor's addition is going well. W and I watch it go up, day after day.

Anytime Bailey is too muddy to come inside, he watches me through the glass door. He follows my path through the house, window to window. He's such a fun companion. In a few minutes, the mud sheds off and he can come inside.

Friday, December 30, 2023

There's a bit of this and that - I start peeling the paint chips off the folders. 532 paint chips later, I'm done.

They're spread onto a black-painted canvas. Each is 1X1.25" (2X3cm). I'm thinking about what I want to do it with it: a face, a landscape, a pattern? or ...?

Saturday

It's quiet. We get ready for tomorrow's New Years gathering. I take apart the wonderful but dying Christmas bouquet. It yields greens and aging roses. I submerge them, flowers and stems, in water. A trip to the garden gives me a pail full of flowers. It toss everything into the full bucket of water to hydrate.

A few hours later, a bit of jostling in the old oasis results in a new bouquet for New Years.

(After the weekend, the roses have drooped beyond repair. The surviving pieces give us one last bouquet in a new vase.)

We decided against a neighborhood New Year's Eve party this year: we're too tired to ask for that much permission. Instead, we contact those we love. We watch a movie, pray together, and go to sleep mid-evening. The neighbor's guests keep coming and going so the dogs are in a furor. We finally put them in crates and things are quieter. They're amazing watch dogs.

Sunday

We wake to a new year. We are at IES early but thing go sideways and back to center a few times before everyone arrives. It's the nature of events with many moving parts (and cultures.) 

When the morning is done, we have had a good gathering. New Years Day is normally the smallest gathering of the year: people stay up late with their families and friends the night before. We are happy to see those who show up!

W feels dizzy so we don't go out for lunch. It's another quiet day. My one self-assigned chore last week was language review, which didn't happen.

Today I finally get to it but my mind is blank. I've forgotten most of what we learned earlier in the year. Oh well - I rarely use Indonesian so the words get lost. I'll relearn them.

Monday

W and I do a quick walk around the block. The wall is going up stone by stone.

Baby Dutch still has their selfie station up. It looks like a Hansel & Gretel cottage.

PakG drops me at the school 15 minutes early - so I sit on the front step. Ibu Roni from my last series of classes comes to say hi. She introduces Etsha, my new guru. Oh boy, have I ever forgotten a lot! We review words and chat in Indonesian. She gently corrects my grammar and mispronunciation. I gratefully accept.

It was much easier studying with someone else (Kristi, last round). In a bigger class, you hear the words repeated and have time to think them over. My brain is tired after 2 hours and I'm happy to go home.

From ground beef and other stuff in the fridge, IbuS & I make meatballs. We eat lunch before W shows me how to upload the classroom files so I can retrieve them. I study and listen to past lessons most of the afternoon.

W's project is replacing a broken fan in the upstairs (guest) bathroom. When he's done, both our bathroom fan and that one are purring.

Supper is meatballs with chili and fresh-baked bread = a taste of home. As I'm cooking, a rat jumps up on the counter from behind the oven, sees me, and jumps back down. It runs into the living room and climbs up into the ceiling, where we've heard it gnawing wood for a week. Ugh.

W catches the rat in a glue trap within a few hours and disposes of it. We leave a few more traps out just in case more rodents live in the ceiling.

We watch Glass Onion, the sequel to the Knives Out movie we recently watched. It's interesting to compare reviews with our reaction to the film. I hope parents don't let their kids watch it. I'm trying to think of what my reaction would have been at ages 13, 15, 17 ... Beyond its suspenseful plot, it contains violence, sexual content, and foul language. It's like bathing in mud - and confirms that Hollywood-style movies and my soul don't get along.

Tuesday

2 more hours of language school. I get another 20 words to absorb. Once I'm done, I wait on the street and spot this strange tree "across the street" (sebarang jalan - see, Indonesian is nothing like English!). The round spiky fruit is not edible but it's pretty.

When i get home, the big Christmas tree has been taken upstairs. The rest of the living room is reset with broken glass on the ledge (from 2 mirrors that smashed last year). It's a reminder to shine with all the broken parts of the past. The art will come down later this week.

Someone broke a big ceramic tile (used on the kitchen counter) over the holidays. The pieces create a nice line behind a panting in the dining room.

The day fills with calls. People want to pray together as the New Year begins. What a privilege to share the joys and burdens of life.

Read more:

*I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us. Isaiah 63:7

*My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? Psalm 42:2

*For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:8

*If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Romans 8:31-32 

*God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. Ephesians 2:4-5

Moravian Prayers: Lord, your promises are sure. You guide us and guard us, protect us and save us, but best of all, you love us into eternity. As this year ends, walk with us into a new beginning, dear Lord. We thank you for the gift of curiosity, the hunger to know more of you, and the desire to grow deeper roots into the soil of your grace and love.

We ask, Lord, and you respond. Merciful God, we are grateful for your tenderness and patience with our failures and flaws. Help us to fix our hearts on the power of your love and the transformation it brings, as we journey with our imperfections. AMEN.

Christmas week Part 2

I love the space between Christmas and New Years Eve. When the kids were home, it was my custom to pack up the tree and decorations on Boxing Day, December 26. We'd clean and reset the house. I still do the reset but with many people in and out, the dash for post-Christmas order takes more time.

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

We have two quiet days because W's caught a cold and is not going anywhere. The helpers and I tidy and wash up after Sunday's crowd. The beds are refreshed with new linens as usual on Tuesdays. With all the leftovers, no one has to cook. IbuA bakes banana bread from the fruit basket J sent over.

My to-do list this week includes planning next year's IES talks, writing 2 newsletters, and reviewing the Indonesian we learned April to June. When the hard drive stalls, I get diverted from language study.

Soon, I promise myself. Soon. I look through pictures from Christmas events.

These people make life interesting and wonderful.

I write a review for a friend's book and putter, waiting for inspiration. PakG spray-paints a canvas black for me. I brought back 533 paint chips (2.2X3 cm) from a USA building supply. I don't know what will emerge. (If this attempt is awful, I'll leaven something for next time.)

The math is a pain; it used to take a quick minute to figure stuff out. I end up with a choice between a grid of 16 (3 cm edge) X 33 (2.2 cm edge) --or-- 20 (2.2 cm edge) X 27 (3 cm edge). Once I figure out the maximum number of rectangles that fit, I'll calculate the spacing and mark the canvas.

I draw two grids in a RocketBook and send them to the printer. I scribble outlines and patterns over the copies and pull out illustration markers. The canvas will move itself along in whatever direction it chooses. The end result is rarely what I originally imagined.

Wednesday

Sam's clearing out his food business in preparation for returning to the USA. We drive to south Banudng (1 hour) for some folding tables, totes, kitchen supplies, and small appliances.

As I make supper, a rat runs into the kitchen and back out when it sees me. Ugh. W puts out glue traps. When I go back into the kitchen, one of the traps has slid a few feet away from the door. After two hours, I hear flopping around. W goes to check if it's caught. Nope, it's running around in the ceiling. Ah, life in the tropics.

It's our last night with every memory on the Christmas tree. I love the glow of lights in the dusk and miss it each year when the tree is packed away.

Thursday

We skip the mountain walk, though W is improving. It's Bandung's cool and rainy season before the summer winds of Australia warm us up again. 

"We gained a day by not walking," W says optimistically. Actually, we're home for other things, which is a treat. But not restful.

We start by checking the IES hall, where Alice and helpers have taken the Christmas trees down. I strip the lime green off the bulletin board. By Sunday, it will have a New Year's theme: red and ? .

We missed our date breakfast yesterday so we walk to #NaraPark. The big wall for the new house is emerging, stone by stone. It's now 8' high (with 2-3' below ground anchoring it.)

W and the guys won't hoist the big Christmas tree upstairs until next week but the helpers and I pack away garlands and fragile ornaments ... everything but the tree. This beautiful centerpiece on the terrace?

Without the Christmas silks, it's a well-known counting game that children play.

Set upside down, it could be a stand or base. Can't wait to use it ... though what it becomes depends on the day.

I write 2 newsletters, have W check for edits, and schedule them for tomorrow. That monthly chore doesn't take much time but can't be omitted. I scan FB and see that a "writing friend" has died of cancer. She was full of encouragement through our last exchange.

Many people pass away at year's end - including W's dad and mine. Christians anticipate a joyful welcome from our Savior and the certain reunion with loved ones. Jesus said,  "Do  not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for  you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:1-3) Now that's hopeful!

It's the ones left behind who grieve.. Yet, the Apostle Paul writes: "Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him." (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14)

And so I look forward to seeing Judi again in the presence of God, along with my grandparents, Dad, and friends who loved Jesus. What a blessed hope, especially in the Christmas season when we've celebrated the coming of God among us.

In the afternoon, Angela invites me for tea at her place. When they built the house, there were rice fields behind it. The village across the valley has sprawled; those fields are gone. 

However, the back balcony feels enclosed and private: her passion fruit vines and mango tree have grown tall. Look at the 2' blooms on this 15' shrub beside the porch railing. They glow like miniature red Christmas trees. She shares a classic Christmas taste: Lebkuchen. Oh yum - it's the taste of my childhood: the German version of gingerbread.

Her 10-yr-old orchid is flowering again. It looks like the tail feathers of an exotic bird or speckled kite.

Dr Hanna, Alice, and Esther with her husband and son drop by for a visit after I get home. We drink tea and share a few sweets, including IbuA's banana bread. DrH is planning her 80th birthday, a special occasion for her family and many friends.

In the kitchen, frozen broth is thawing. I needed the freezer space earlier in the day so put it in a pot. I toss in a can of creamed corn, stir in 4 T soy sauce, 2 beaten eggs, chopped lettuce, and a minced leftover potato. I let it simmer for 4 minutes. = Supper! (egg drop soup?) Tastes great with a bit of sesame oil at the bottom of our soup bowls.

Thunder rolls between the mountains in accompaniment to the evening chants echoing across the valleys. Someone is reciting a long version. Maybe it is a religious holiday?

Read more:

*Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. Psalm 42:11

*Just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord. Jeremiah 31:28 

*Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. James 5:7 

*Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness. 2 Corinthians 3:12 

Moravian Prayer: Gracious Lord, hear our prayer for trust and patience. Help us to trust the promise of your presence, and to patiently wait for your guidance. Forgive us when our impatience takes over, and renew our faith in your guidance.

God of hope, when our spirits fall and our hope is challenged, remain with us. Send your uplifting Spirit to lift us to a new awareness of your love and grace in all matters. Be with us, we pray. Amen.