Month: November 2018

New Story Release! Fibbing Fisherman

New Release! The fifth book in the Devonians children’s series ~ check it out!

November 25, 2018

New Story Release!

 

Greetings!  I’m so excited about the fifth book in the Devonians Series!  One of my illustrators (Rebeccah) did an amazing job of sketching out a scene for cover art again! This time her scene sketch is within the village of Covenant instead of along the banks of the Creek.  It’s currently available in ebook format on nook and kindle.

20181117_Dev_FibbingFishermen_Small

The Devonians are space castaways who have developed a colony on a strange new planet (they name it Devonia).

This newest story, Fibbing Fishermen, begins after Alena’s Baby.

Michael Summers, who loves to go fishing, is listening to a Meeting lesson about Peter and the other fishermen who followed Jesus long ago on Earth.  He starts daydreaming about going fishing.  He knows they will have a long week or two of planting tubers so figures he’d better go fishing right now!  But he doesn’t get permission.

For a peek into this newest story, read this excerpt from “Fibbing Fishermen!”

The big barn was open at the middle with the two big ladders and as tall as three houses stacked together!  Michael had three fishhooks in his pocket. He always carried stuff in his pockets.  He discovered a roll of the very slender braided twine in the big barn.  While he was cutting two lengths of the twine that were twice as long as his arms outstretched, as his dad had taught him, Stephen Taylor showed up.

“What are you doing with fishing twine?” Stephen demanded.

Michael froze.  He stammered, “nothing, why?”

“Nothing?” Stephen snorted, “looks like you’re going fishing to me.”

Michael didn’t say anything for a moment.

“If you let me go along, I won’t tell your dad,” Stephen offered.

“You don’t have permission to go fishing,” Michael said.  He started looping the cut twine into a coil.

“Neither do you.”

Michael stammered, “I’m just fixing stuff.”

“You’re lying.”

Michael weighed his options quickly.  No, he hadn’t yet left the meetinghouse grounds, so he wasn’t technically doing anything wrong yet.  He could stop now and go back to listen with the others.  But then he remembered how much work there was to come in the next week or two and how he wouldn’t get another chance to go fishing until all of the planting was done.

“I’m going to Ice Cube Creek to help with dinner,” Michael sighed, “two fishermen would catch more fish.”

Stephen smirked.  He knew Michael didn’t have permission either.

The two boys sneaked off to the creek with their fishing gear.

 

Michael wasn’t sure what time it was, but his stomach was saying it was nearly suppertime.  He’d skipped out on lunch, anyway.  But they hadn’t caught any fish.  His excuse didn’t really work without any fish.  Michael was wondering if God had ordered all the fish to stay away from the two disobedient boys when a rustling disturbance pulled him from his thoughts.

 

… (be sure to find out what “disturbance” they encounter and continue reading Fibbing Fishermen here!  Or browse all my titles and formats here!)

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

 

Surprise!

Our children surprise us for our anniversary! <3

November 23, 2018

Surprise!

Wednesday evening when I came home from work – the girls had this waiting!

20181121_202558_15429017727445477753141754396485.jpg

It was a decadent chocolate sponge cake with a chocolate buttercream icing and melted chocolate sauce.  They had decorated it beautifully with “Happy 16th Anniversary” piped across the top.  (Aunt Becca, pastry chef, had helped by telling them how to get the eggs “all white” – Christina goes, “it took 10 minutes!” and Daddy had been delivering special ingredients.)

20181121_202510_15429017730002869566306959281220.jpg

It was three layers!

20181121_204746.jpg

I took a picture of the crew trying to take a picture of their masterpiece.

20181121_202626.jpg

And they wanted a picture of us…

20181121_202928_1542901772055.jpg

20181121_202931_1542901771693.jpg

20181121_202945_15429017701226533981816432041521.jpg

20181121_202953_15429017695777643137520468476234.jpg

It took a few tries! (But I love these pictures!)

I’m so blessed to be surrounded by such love!  Thank you Jesus for my family!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

 

Thankfulness

Time to reflect: thankfulness

November 21, 2018

Thankfulness

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow is also my 16th wedding anniversary!

The time leading up to Thanksgiving is when I usually reflect on the amazing things that God has done for us.  I often start with how every move in my life led to new experiences that helped build who I am – and the time I wrote in my journal “I’ll move with them one last time.”

That was to Saint Augustine when I was 18.

Just after that move (January 2002) I went to a family reunion where every adult teased me about not having a boyfriend (had never dated) and I remember replying with “in God’s time it will happen.” It was an awesome fun time where I met many relatives and learned many stories about my late grandparents.

January 2003, one year later, I was married, carrying our first child, and working in the town where my husband’s family had lived for generations.  The roots I’d wanted as a child I married into.  I instantly had two amazing grandmothers.  Grandma Jeannette taught me amazing things like crochet and canning food and cooking or preserving local Florida produce.  I loved learning by her side.  Grandma Honey had the most fascinating stories of Cracker life as a young girl and her journey as a mother, wife, and artist (she painted amazing landscapes).

If I had planned my life (as I did in notebooks since being ten years old) it would not have included a 4-month courtship.  I always planned on “knowing someone” for years – generally all the way through 6 or 8 years of university – before marrying.  God had other plans.

I didn’t plan on immediately getting pregnant – married in November and baby’s beautiful face is framed in our wedding cake topper on our first anniversary photo.   God had other plans.

We both planned on having a big family, but then our naïve thoughts of “big” were relative to the world around us – he thought 7 like his grandparents, I thought 7 like my parents.  We agreed early on that we’d let God decide our family size.  I don’t think either of us were truly thinking we’d ever be blessed with 7, maybe 3 or 5; maybe, and that would be “big.”  God had other plans.

Our little blessing growing within me now was totally not “according to plan” as I’d gotten sick and we’d decided it wasn’t a prudent time to start new life.  God laughed; this little one was already growing.  And the hormonal imbalance caused by my reaction to multiple medications which my research said would take 18 to 24 months to reset, was reset by the pregnancy within 5 months.  Although we thought we were planning well, God had other plans.

I love how my life didn’t go according to my “plans” – and I’ve kept diaries since I was ten, so I can look back at plans I made.  I didn’t stop making plans, I am a planner and organizer by nature, but I so love it when God’s plan intervenes and “surprise” life things happen.  I love God’s plans and how they are so different (sometimes) from my “plans” but so reflect my true heart.

From little things like my future sister and I working at the same place at the same time without knowing each other to amazing life events like marriage and births; in each, I see God’s powerful hand.  I’m so thankful for His direction and for the wisdom to allow Him to lead me.

I’m thankful for the ability to keep our family sustained.

We’ve always had jobs.

When one door closes, God always had something else waiting in the wings for us.  Sometimes far different from what we expected, but still awesome.

I was at an interview and someone commented on the variety of jobs I’ve had (Software Developer, Customer Service aka Ride Operator, Bank Teller, Business Office Manager of a Skilled Nursing Facility, Co-owner & Manager of a Transportation Company) – I had to add my recent update to that list as I’m currently a Gymnastics Coach.  His question was what could I bring to this job (food retail)?  Well, each position has taught me new skills and the list proves I can learn anything.

This official job experience doesn’t list that I’m a published author of over 50 books in children’s, educational, and young adult genres!

It’s amazing to me that God found me a job where I can combine my love of teaching, physical fitness, and a childhood dream!  (Gymnastics Coach)  I love the environment in which I work and the people with which I have the privilege of working.  Someone said it’s a step down to go from business owner to working for another small business.  Nope.  Not at all.  I bring a work ethic with me where I understand the challenge of being a small business owner and I always work my job as if it’s my company – even far before I was a business owner.  Ask me, it’s “my gym” – just because I get to work there!

I’m thankful for all the steps along this life journey.  I’m thankful for the people I’ve met along the way.  I remember faces and some names – people like Mrs. Joy up the big hill when I was 8 in Eutawville, South Carolina who baked cookies with my sister and me and gave me my first cookbook.  I remember Grandma Jeanette telling me after I’d been married a year or so, “honey, you were going to be my granddaughter, no way out of it” because she had prayed for me after meeting me at church (before I met her grandson).  I’m thankful for mentors, family, and friends.

I’m thankful for all I see before me; God has been so gracious and generous to me and my family.  We’ve been blessed so very much.

Every time I reflect on the blessings God has given me, I am overcome with gratefulness.  I can’t help but whisper a prayer of thanks.  Even though we won’t be “coming together” for “thanksgiving dinner” on the actual Thursday this year, we’ll get together on a different day with family and celebrate our thanks!

I pray blessings on you and your family as we reflect on all that we can be thankful for!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Lit and Relit

When big siblings are helping research baby names – sometimes there is silliness!

November 16, 2018

Lit and Relit

I’m sitting with Rebeccah trying to research the meanings of baby names when she slaps her hands and giggles evilly; “Mom, you need to name the baby Lucia Irene Tart so she can be LIT!” (we already had discounted all the L I T names for boys because all she could find was “Lucuis” and we already have “Lucas”)

“I love this name!  Lucia means bringer of light and so does Lucius, I’m going to find a guy whose last name starts with a T so I can have kids who are LIT!”

By now, she was writing names on her old Six Flags pass; using “Tank” as the last name.  Christina heard the boy name of “Lucius Ivan Tank” and exclaims from the barracks, “Becky!  Not Ivan!  All I can think of is Ivan the Terrible; please don’t call my nephew Ivan the terrible!”

So now her Six Flags card holds “Lucius Ivan Tank” and “Lucia Irene Tank” – and Christina is like, “seriously?  You just named your kids so they can have cool initials?”

Other such exclamations from the peanut gallery burst forth:

Jaquline: “You don’t even have a boyfriend, how do you know your end name will start with a T?”

Jillian: “I love Lucia Irene!”

Kimberly: “L I T; awesome, Becky!  But then you’d still be RLT.”

Lucas: “Aaaaahhhhhhh!” (I think his car fell off the train track again.)

Christina: “Yeah, she’d be ‘relit’.”

Rebeccah: “Relit!  I love that!  So I’m relit and my kids will be lit!”  *(Starts a funny sashay walk back into the dining room to put the permanent marker up)*

Just a glimpse into my funny world – and then as I start typing this, Becky shrieks, “Mom!  Are you seriously writing a blog about this??”

(Yes.  What else do I do with funny stuff?)

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

The Rumble of Life

How I love the blessing of carrying life!

November 14, 2018

The Rumble of Life

Today I’m very thankful for life.

My little unborn angel is rolling around and kicking, punching, or whatever inside me with such force Lucas and Jillian keep giggling at my stomach bouncing!

What an honor it is to be able to carry a new life!

From the first flutter-kicks I felt of Christina’s 15 years ago, I have been awed by the honor of being pregnant.

So, maybe my body isn’t always so happy about it, but that’s fixed.  With Christina it was routine, wake up, eat, attempt a prenatal vitamin, upchuck said prenatal, get to work, run to the bathroom, there goes breakfast, and snack on some grapes or tuna salad very slowly throughout the day praying for no puking.

When I was pregnant with Becky I was under a midwife’s care and learned a ton about how nutrition affects pregnancy – then I managed to only upchuck every prenatal vitamin, mix, or powder I tried.  So I stopped trying new supplements and simply focused on very healthy foods.

Just as Kimberly started along, my sister introduced me to Shakeology (a meal replacement nutrition drink) and the nausea with every successive pregnancy was gone!  Great nutrition and my body tolerated it!  I was over that hurdle.

Today, as our baby entertains older siblings, I’m answering standard questions: “How big is my baby?” (Lucas says this baby is HIS baby) “What color will baby’s hair be?”  “When will my baby come out?” “How can baby be so strong already?” (This as Jillian’s hand was kicked off my belly.)

Their curiosity about new life reminds me of how fascinated I am by the whole process.  I have general answers to give: “about this big,” (thanks to our scientific knowledge) “only God knows,” “when Baby is ready,” and “because Baby is strong like his big sisters and brother.”  (I don’t like to say “it” when referring to the Baby, so if I have to use a pronoun, it’s going to be a masculine one – most of the time I can manage to just use “Baby” instead.  The kids pick the one they want to use.)

My favorite question comes from Jaquline today (and I know she’s a veteran of two water births and about ready for a deeper explanation, but for now she’s still just eight): “How did Baby get inside you?”

“God took a bit of Daddy and put it in Mommy and mixed it together and He started Baby growing.” (Very simple, but literally truth.  God set up everything and if He doesn’t choose to give the spark of life, the other stuff doesn’t matter.  That has been my standard answer to that question for 14 years.)

This makes Jillian giggle while Lucas lays his head, ear down, on my tummy and says, “I love you, Baby!  Thank you God for my baby!”

I wish I could pause that moment for a while.

Seconds later, they have raced back about daily things: Jillian is outside helping with morning chores, Lucas is vrooming a vehicle (I think it’s a wooden car) up the side of the couch, Jaquline is doing her schoolwork at the big table where Kimberly and Christina already have work laid out (although they popped up to take a break and feed livestock and pets) and Becky is lumbering about as she slowly wakes up.  Life.

Today is full of impending activity: midwife appointment, college classes for Becky, college field trip for Becky (Louis will drive everyone to the park and make a fun day out of it; perks of big sister in a marine biology class), work (coaching) for me, work for Louis, normal stuff.

I’m swiping a few minutes just sitting here relishing this rumble in my tummy and thanking God for allowed me to hold His little child.  Baby seems to realize the audience is gone and slowly curls up to rest.  Baby is always most active with Lucas comes and explains something (why cars roll, what the sky looks like, how the big rooster is scary to snakes, how an orange tastes, how excited he is for “Baby to finally come out so I can see you”).

I love you, Baby Tart!  Thank you, God, for my baby! (All of them!)

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Reset, Again

Resetting the brain of a PS2 inspires me… really?

November 10, 2018

Reset, Again

In the last blog (Proper Burial) I mentioned that Rebeccah likes to tinker with stuff.  She often fixes electronics when we think they are broken.

She had our playstation 2 unit scattered apart on the table (for the 5th time).  After hours and her final conclusion of “I have no clue what’s wrong with this thing!” she decided it was truly trash.

She always puts the garbage electronics back together like they were supposed to be – search me as to why (maybe because I once told her that sometimes resetting something was all it needed to come back to life) but she claims “a proper burial” for broken electronics is with the item totally back together.

So after Rebeccah put the Playstation 2 console back together for its “proper burial,” it now works.  (It was bought used and had a short since day one, sometimes the CD tray got stuck, and lately it would just choose to die.)  For days, that console has been working great.  She reset it back to “original” after cleaning every part in it and it has new life!

I’ve been considering that for some time.

Sometimes God wants us to close the doors on something old and leave it buried.  Sometimes he wants us to reset it.  Maybe what we’re resetting isn’t so much the item as it is our way of thinking.

The playstation console’s brain just needed all the dust cleaned out, everything disconnected and reconnected, and the source of power reset.  Yes, this was the 5th time!

Maybe we need to allow God to reset the way we think – clean all the garbage out of our brain and connect all the synapses to what we’re supposed to think about (remember, whatever is good, just, lovely, think on these things?) instead of dwelling on misfires like our failures… hmm.

Is that a lot to think about because I saw the inside of a playstation brain cleaned and now it works?  Maybe.  But I like to analyze things… maybe I analyze stuff too much.

I try to allow God to renew my mind daily.  (He says each new day is fresh in Him.)  Thinking about the things I see in life (like a silly piece of electronics) working according to God’s design helps me think that all things obey God.  (I know, silly, but if it helps me be encouraged, maybe it will help someone else!)

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Proper Burial

When you can’t fix it, it needs a “proper burial” – for electronics… but maybe for more than that.

November 8, 2018

Proper Burial

Rebeccah likes to tinker with stuff.  She always has.  Most of the time, she can fix electronics when we think they are broken.

If it is headed for the trash, she always gives it at least one try (and she likes seeing the “guts” of the item too).

Today it was the playstation 2 unit (for the 5th time).  We bought it used in the first place and it had a short from day one.  Rebeccah has fiddled with it four times successfully, but this morning, all of her efforts led to naught.  She had it completely apart.  Every breadboard, wire, connection, screw, etc. was separated in her ordered little piles.  (Conclusion was “I have no clue what’s wrong with this thing!”)

So I’m trying to work on “Fibbing Fishermen” (#5, it will be out soon) in the Devonians series when I hear Kimberly show up:

Kimberly: “Becky, what are you doing?”

Rebeccah: “Putting it back together.”

Kimberly: “I thought it was really garbage this time?”

Rebeccah: “Yes, but when something dies, we should at least bury it in a proper casket.”

…

Seriously?  For me, this was just apropos timing.  We’ve closed a business, I’ve started a totally unexpected but awesome job, life is shifting into a strange limbo for us right now, and every time we turn around it appears something else is stealing something of value from us.

Bury it.  Wrap it and every part of it back in the casket and hide it from sight.  That so made me laugh.

Perhaps that’s what God wants us to do with these remaining bits of the past; bury them completely.  Hide them away so we are fully open to what God has planned next!

For me, right now, it’s pretty awesome: my job is teaching children (I love this!) and I get to expose each of y’all to something I’ve always wanted to do (gymnastics) as a perk!  Granted, we can’t live on this income alone; but it is something I can do very well.  I’ve felt a peace about our life right now despite the fact that our insurance is due in 8 days and we are $1350 short, I can’t focus on that.  All I can do it do my best and let God take care of the rest.

God will provide a way.

***NOTE*** You know what’s really funny?  After Rebeccah put that Playstation 2 console back together for its “proper burial,” it now works.  No short, no sticking CD tray, no dying.  She and Lucas have been playing football for almost an hour now and no issues.  Even though she couldn’t find the problem, just resetting everything back the way it was supposed to be fixed the problem. (It is almost time to go to work so, I’ll think about that more later!)

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Plans Change

Sometimes plans change; some life encouragement 🙂

November 3, 2018

Plans Change

Sometimes life just doesn’t go the way you want it to go.

You have to let it go.

Tonight I wanted to go to a get-together.  I’d been planning for about a week

Everything seemed to be working out okay; the washing machine showed up early (Amen!), Anastasia got dropped off before 4, Christina had packed up her “civies” (I still mentally laugh hearing her call regular clothes that.) in her bag when I dropped her at the Cyber Patriot qualification in the morning, and we just had to get the house clean and get everyone ready before 3:40, pick up Christina at 4, and head to the get-together – we’d be late, but there.

Then there was a reservation for 5:15pm.  No one else was working and I can’t cancel on them because it’s morally wrong to promise someone something and cancel an hour and a half before you have to pick them up.  My word matters.  And, I’m really thankful for my jobs!  I know God gives us the jobs we get and we are expected to do our best. (I look at it as “God wants them in my car for some reason!”)

Honesty.

I had an obligation to them.

Adjust plan: girls clean up and get ready by 6:15, when I was expected back, and we’d be late, but would still be able to hang out for a little bit.

Well, the plan got seriously adjusted!  I ended up having to cover starting at 3pm.  Picked Christina up at 4, then as I’m on the way there, another ride for 4:30 (yikes! I can’t teleport through traffic!) rolls in… long story short – it’s almost 7pm when I get home because I was late to both rides after Christina.  No one was ready.  And I can’t (legally) pack all 8 of us into the 4-Runner.  We are a 30 minute drive (usually 40 minutes with me driving because every traffic light in Saint Augustine always turns red when I’m three carlengths from it!) and it would take me about 15 minutes to get everyone ready.  Plus, to use the 4-Runner, we’d have to have left at least 2 people behind.  Nope.  So, we end up spending the night at home.  This was “cool” (per Jaquline) because we have awesome toys (per Anastasia), Christina can cook something good, and we’ll turn the front room into a dance party!

Sometimes a monkey wrench gets tossed into your plans, but if you learn to roll with it, you can turn it into a “look for the positive” teaching moment.  I love finding teaching moments in life!

Plan changed.

I have to let my plans go.

Accept that plans change and I have little control over it.  All I can control is my attitude toward it.  (I’m super thankful for my jobs!)  The last ride was a guy who had spent almost 40 years in the military (he chatted with Christina about the pros and cons) and a lady who had been a teacher and principal in St John’s County for 34 years (at one job her whole life)!  So just maybe, God wanted us to pick them up and encourage each other.  Only God knows!  (That’s me, looking for the positive!)

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Follow me!

Get my latest posts delivered to your email: