Tag: accident

Mama Bear Baby Wear

Mama Bear Baby Wear

Throwback Story from (October 30, 2021)

I rarely do shout-outs that are unrequested; but this one?  Oh my goodness! 

About thirteen years ago, I was looking for a handmade option to the discontinued Gerber squares I had been using for cloth diapers and found the story of the shop (discovered it online while researching PUL fabric) called “Mama Bear Baby Wear.”  The story made me cry.  The products were really neat.  I was researched PUL fabric because we had been using four washable chux from my work (a nursing home, at that time) for nighttime bedwetter pads – they worked amazing and though my work had thrown them out, we got years more life out of them!

The research on PUL fabric led to super expensive designer washable diapers made with PUL fabric, with lots of reviews about how looooong it took to dry them.  Mama Bear Baby Wear sold “washable training pants” with mixed reviews, mostly good for what I was looking for.  I wanted a washable “oh no mom!” because we don’t do disposable, she was super independent and waiting for us to get to her and remove diaper pins was just “too much,” and I didn’t like cleaning up the baby seat.  Washable training pants that held a small amount of “oops” yet were NOT “comfortable” (aka, whisked the pee away so the toddler never learns that wet is uncomfortable!) were exactly what I was looking for. 

I ordered a four pack of “odds” – bargain training pants in assorted colors that were a dollar and a half less each than the pick-a-color training pants.  See the yellow, red, and one green in that picture?  Yes, those are three of the four original pack!  I loved them and ordered the green and blues (three not pictured were washing) as part of a six pack four years later. 

 Just so you know, these weren’t “occasionally” used.  I literally used all four of them every other day for almost three months, washed with my cloth diapers (I had a toddler potty training and watched a toddler who used my cloth diapers) on hot water with regular detergent (NO softener) and line dried in the Florida sun. 

Skip to next potty-trainer.

Washed and line dried every other day again for about eight months.

Skip to next potty-trainer.  My husband started using them like diapers because we had a magician who escaped from pins but loved the training pants.  I purchased the additional six so we now had ten working pairs of Mama Bear Baby Wear washable training pants. 

Now we had a dryer!  They were washed and dried on high heat every other day or every third day with the diaper squares that we now used as spit rags.  This bout lasted almost a year and a half because we moved twice and toddler reset her potty training every time we moved.

Skip to next potty-trainer.  A friend gave me thirty washable cloth diapers with the snaps (or I would have purchased them from Mama Bear) when our son was born.  I used those until he was potty training and I switched him up to the same training pants his sisters had all used.  No dryer.  They were washed and line dried every other day for almost six months. 

Skip to current potty-trainer.  We again have a dryer!  She started potty training early and we used the same batch of washable diapers (minus a few retired ones, stash started for her with twenty-three) and nine of the ten Mama Bear Baby Wear training pants.  We wash on hot and dry on high with regular detergent (NO fabric softener or dryer sheets) every other to every third day for about eight months.  We are using them now only for gym school because I work at gym and don’t want any “mom, I forgot to quit playing and go potty” accidents to mess up the floor… she’s been potty trained for almost a year.

Still using the same nine of ten!!  Only seven of the ten are in “giveaway” condition (see the worn areas near the snaps?  Those three I consider unacceptable hand-me-down material as I only give away great condition stuff) but all of them are still fully intact and waterproof!  Five of the ten are in what I consider excellent condition! Thank you, Mama Bear Baby Wear for a dependable, perfect potty-training “pull-up” alternative that has served us for nine and thirteen years, respectively – and if we have another potty-trainer or another to hand them down to, will continue!

Thank you for reading! (Check out Mama Bear Baby Wear’s shop!)

~Type at you next time!

~Nancy Tart

Powerfully Thankful!

Have you ever been so overwhelmed with thankfulness that it makes you cry? #AwesomeBirthdayPresent #HealingMiracle #JesusTheGreatPhysician #Reflection

February 23, 2022

Powerfully Thankful!

Have you ever had a day that blew you away with the power of God and made you cry because you are thankful?

I’ve had quite a few since December 1st. God keeps doing amazing miracles and making me thankful – like December 10, 2021 when God saved Louis from being crushed in an accident on the interstate and December 11, 2021 when God saved my sister from dying in an accident.

Today, I’m just so thankful! A young man my family is very close to got sick on Monday – we all prayed for him. Last night (actually early morning today just after midnight), Louis led us praying that when the doctors went to do surgery, they’d find that he was healed. He asked God to touch his body and heal him completely as He is The Great Physician.

This morning, we were told he was waiting for final testing and would go into surgery. It made me so sad – I could only think of how my heart would be ripped apart if this was my Kimberly I was praying for. I love this young man and have seen God constantly work in his life. I know God can heal everything – he made the entire universe with words he spoke; He can touch a human body and repair it. In His will. That is the toughest part for me as a mom; my mind and heart fight over why God would think that my baby sister dying or a child being seriously injured or a young man slowly withering away because of a genetic disease is in God’s will.

Faith. Trust. Hope.

My faith reminds me that if I can trust God for salvation, if I can trust that the gravity and physics he set up will remain, then I need to trust His will in my life and, yes, my children’s lives and my friend’s children’s lives. Trust and pray in everything.

I have hope in that I know I will see my baby sister in heaven. I know I will see Gideon and my Daddy running and jumping and playing dodgeball and kickball in heaven. (Hey, those were favorite games so why not?) My hope is in Jesus.

When the report came back, this young man’s test came back with healthy! No surgery. Healthy on other tests for other organs! I was so happy! God, what an amazing, perfect birthday present!

I’m so thankful for healing, for life, for love, for family, for friends. So many things God has given us to enjoy – beautiful days (I bicycled to work Monday morning, we finally hung the Christmas gift swing yesterday), discovery (finding shoes Lucas hid because he prefers being barefoot), goofy games (trying to keep assorted Thea birthday balloons in the tiny square made by the couches and the wall by batting them with longer balloons), amazing gifts (homemade sugar-type m&m cookies are my favorite and I LOVE roses), traveling mercies (thankful Louis and Becca are alive), late night giggles (my favorite sounds even though I have to say, “girls, go to bed!”), healing (too many times to list!)… this list is endless.

Thank you, Jesus, for your amazing miracles!

Today, I’m so thankful, I cried.

Reflect on what amazing miracles God has done in your life and that will surely make you smile too!

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Truly Thankful

Give Thanks in ALL Circumstances

January 21, 2022

Truly Thankful

(Note: This post was written December 11, 2021 while I was in whomever-banned-my-computer-operating-system-from-the-internet limbo.) 

I am thankful for grace today. 

Louis was at a standstill in interstate traffic yesterday waiting to turn off on our exit and glanced up in his rearview mirror to see a white car racing toward him without slowing down.  He twisted the wheel to avoid hitting the cars in front of him and accelerated to lessen the impact – and our car is still crushed so bad the back doesn’t exist anymore.  All of the doors were so damaged he had to climb out the window and even his driver’s seat is broken.  No airbags deployed though, our $5,000 worth of rebuilt engine we did four months ago is still in great condition.  Car starts, engine runs, no fluid leaks, but without a working rear axle, that sweet engine is meaningless. 

I’m just happy Louis looked up and turned the wheel.  Without it, he would have been crushed between the stopped cars in front of him and the vehicle that hadn’t noticed everyone else was stopped.

Thank you, Jesus, for his being alert. 

I am beyond-words thankful that my husband is still alive. 

I picked him up at the gas station while he was on the phone with the insurance.  She said after listening to his description of the crash, “I’m so glad you are here and able to talk to me now.”  He said he thought he was going to die but refused to just sit there and watch the car kill him without trying to do something. 

Sometimes life flashes before your eyes.  It was December 10, 2021 – my Daddy died on that day three years ago.  Three years ago in the middle of work my mom called and I left to meet her at the hospital, but my Daddy was already gone.  Without his being alert, December 10th could have been also the day I lost Louis.  That thought was bizarre. 

Logically, since he had called and said he was okay, would be busy calling 911 for the lady behind him, and would later need me to pick him up, I told my boss he was in an accident and I’d need to leave to pick him up.  Christina was almost at the gym.  Plan was she could cover for me. 

I tend to look at things logically.  Cars and things can be replaced but people cannot.  I could be mad about it, but that doesn’t do any good.  Instead, I’ll choose to look at the positive.  We’re here.  Louis is still doing life with us.  We have a temporary fix to our down to two cars with five people working issue.  And Monday we move…

Thank you, Jesus, for deciding December 10, 2021 wasn’t Louis’ time to go home.

Thank you for reading,

Type at you next time!

~Nancy Tart

Loss and Love

June 23, 2019

Loss and Love

Standing excitedly on the screened porch steps, 6 children stand about squirming, giggling, jumping, and otherwise trying to pitifully contain their excitement.

“What is it, Daddy!” chorus a half-dozen voices.

Daddy pulls out a stork – plain, white, six-foot-tall wooden stork.

“No, Daddy! It is a boy or a girl!” “Is it a Bobby or a Mary?” “Daddy! That doesn’t tell us anything!” “Daddy!”

He’s grinning under that “Indian Jones” hat he always wore. He loves the suspense. The oldest boy sits on the steps; he’s been telling us it’s a girl since he knew Mom was pregnant. He jumps when Daddy finally pulls out a bow – a pretty, humongous PINK bow.

The children scream with joy and start dancing about, following Daddy as he plants the stork in the yard and ties on that giant pink bow – announcing to everyone speeding up and down our county road that God had gifted this family with a new beautiful baby girl.

Our Mary.

Our treasure.

It was 24 days before my thirteenth birthday 23 years ago that I first heard my baby sister’s cry over the phone. (No skype or video phone back then.) Mom would bring our new baby sister home the following day all wrapped up in blankets against the South Carolina January cold. We loved, spoiled, and thanked God for our baby.

Our Mary.

Honestly I was an odd big sister; I read tons of parenting books and practiced techniques on Charley, Dorothy, and Mary, so they felt like my children instead of my siblings.

My Baby Sister.

Two days ago at work, just settling in, going happily about my day, I get a call from my Mom that made a part of my heart die. Mary was gone. She didn’t have details, but just that turned me numb. I went into split mode. Six months and ten days ago it was my Daddy; this was ripping my mother’s heart from her chest. Her baby girl was dead. My baby sister was dead. My niece and nephews would never see Mommy come home from work. My boss helped me gather my things and Thea and I started trying to call my rocks (phones are hands-free now so your voice and your car does everything, Daddy couldn’t call us from the road when she was born). I needed to talk. Louis told me he was with her babies. My Mom had gone to tell Becca in person. I cried, I screamed, mad at the waste – I didn’t even know nor care how she died yet. I was so irritated that God had let this happen to us. Mary was just getting on her feet again. She had found a home to rent, she had enrolled the kids in school, she was starting a real job on Monday… her life was moving in a positive direction.

She was 23.

23.

A baby. Her children needed Mommy. But she was gone. Talked with my baby brother. It was a car accident. An accident, a blink of an eye; everything about two families changes.

“Praise you in the Storm” came on Hope FM. Music is my life. God knows me. The next few songs playing while I made the 35 minute ride home seemed like God talking to me through them.

Mary had told me the day before that she kept seeing Daddy with his arms out to her like he was going to hug her. I told her that was God letting Daddy give her a hug while she slept. Now that popped into my head to make another river of tears before I got to the house.

I never understood having to walk into your own house, look your children in the eye, and tell them their Aunt is dead. Two of my daughters were closer to Mary than I was. She had been coming to stay with us for summers when they were young (my Daddy’s idea of “parenting classes”) until she married and divorced… I called her ex.  (They’d been seperated off and on for the last three years but officially divorced on June 11, 2019.)

Death is horrid.

I don’t know how those without God can handle death. My hope is in Jesus and I know I will see those I love again. I know my baby sister is in heaven with my Daddy – her Daddy.

The roller coaster of emotions still races through every vein and artery in my body.

“You have to take care of her,” Daddy is saying – I’m 13 & she’s a bright-eyed 6 months. “Don’t let anything happen to her.”

But I can’t always be there! I can’t always stop bad things! I am so powerless a protector!

I walk in to Mom’s house (Mary was living there until she got her place) and there’s Mandy, Isaac, and JJ looking up at me all excited, “Yea! Aunt Alice!” and they grab sister-cousins and brother-cousin and disappear into the playroom (their bedroom).

Our focus is on these angels now. On helping their guardians (another sister & her husband have custody) as much as we can. On being there to tell them stories about their Mommy. On praying for them. On always being there for them through the life journeys they will take without her.

Oh, God, I know death was never in your plan! It hurts so bad. It rips our soul. I pray constantly that we will know peace. I pray that all those who lose loved ones find peace. I pray for my Mom – God, only you can comfort her. I pray for Mary’s babies.  Wrap your arms around them and whisper to their ears that you are holding them and you will guide them.

Oh God, death is so hard to bear!

Go hug those you love, speak without anger, treasure the time you get with friends and family. Life is a vapor – you never know when it will end.

~Nancy Tart

Double Break

Once upon a time, the princess had a double break

July 12, 2017

Double Break

Once there was a princess.  She was seven years old and she loved climbing in trees.

She had a pretty purse her aunt had given her for her birthday.  For four months, it had never left her arm.

She also had a favorite pair of shoes.  Not active, sturdy, outside shoes, but dressy magic boots so worn out that the bottoms were falling off (mom had tossed them into the trash can multiple times, but magically they appeared back on Jaquline’s feet).

It was the end of a long, fun day.  Mom called everyone in for dinner.  It was almost 7pm.  Jaquline, Jillian, and Kimberly decided to play one more game of tag.  Jaquline raced to climb up base (the tree) and got about 5 feet up before her shoes slid, purse got caught, and she fell.

Echoing through the neighborhood was the type of pain scream that Moms dread.

Within 5 minutes, Christina had gathered the other 4 kids into the SUV, while Rebeccah (with her awesome bedside calming manner) soothed Jaquline and Mom carried her into the vehicle.  We could see one of the breaks easily – it looked like a crumpled, tiny T-Rex arm had grown just above Jaquline’s right wrist.

Mom sped to the hospital.

Christina called Daddy so he could meet them there (he was at work).  Jaquline had her call Grandma so she could pray with her.  Rebeccah sang funny songs and told jokes while she held Jaquline’s body and arms still.

Jaquline had broken her right distal ulna and radius (within 2 inches of the wrist joint is “distal”) in a “closed break” (it didn’t break skin, but was “compound” because the break was completely through the bone – in 3 places on both bones) and her left distal ulna was broken, distal radius cracked, and scaphoid (a wrist bone) dislocated.  She told every doctor, nurse, and CNA who came in that as she fell she didn’t want to hit her head or neck, back, tummy, legs, so caught herself with her arms.  When they gave her some “funny juice” to make her not feel the pain while they snapped the bones back in place, she told us about unicorns, a palace in the clouds, and flying.  She told the doctor that “God is sewing my bones back together.”

She was limited (barely! she was still only for the first few hours) for a few weeks in two casts.  We had to keep telling her she was a princess and couldn’t get up off the couch (this was the first time she didn’t want to be a princess).  She had the right cast on for an additional three weeks.

There were many miracles during this time.  First, God put strong, capable medical staff in our path.  Several even prayed with Jaquline.  Jaquline’s bones started knitting back together quickly.  At her 6 week appointment (removal of second cast), her x-rays showed complete healing.  The doctor said “normal” regrowth would have been 1.5mm, Jaquline’s was over 5mm.  There was a bone “spur” (part angled out that wasn’t straight, it looked like a bump on the bone) but by the 3 month appointment, it was completely gone.  They were concerned about range of motion in her wrists, especially the right one because of being in the casts so long, but that was fine too – she did hand and finger exercises every day.  (She did all kinds of stuff every day!  We moved while she was in her casts!)

We learned a lot about our bones, how our bodies heal and grow, and about the various medical professionals who were part of helping Jaquline.  She is considering orthopedic medicine because “I want to help people like my doctors and nurses helped me.”

The picture is from the one week when she had matching purple and pink camo casts (the nurse even put glitter on one).

Although she hasn’t been climbing many trees lately, she’s back to 100% and has learned a lot through this adventure.  She taught us about her faith in God.  She never even considered that her bones wouldn’t grow back straight or that she wouldn’t be able to “work” her thumbs and wrists.  She always trusted God and never quit trying.

I learned about the faith and determination of my Princess Jaquline.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

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