Thanksgiving Week 2022

Much to be thankful for!!

December 6, 2022

Thanksgiving Week 2022

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house for those who could come.  It lasted from November 22 (our 20th anniversary) to November 27 (Sunday).  This was our “vacation” from gym/work.  It included lots of traveling (for me, Becky, Christina, Jaquline, Lucas, and Thea), lots of fun, and lots of food!

For my anniversary, we still had to work (thank you, Hurricane Whatever in September – I don’t commit names to memory) because we had school and a make-up day at gymnastics.  This started our Thanksgiving Break because I started out just before midnight on 11/22 with Christina to go pick Becky up from college.  

This car trip was super fun!  Christina and I drove.  Lucas and Thea went with us as Kimberly had early practice (Xcel Platinum) on the 23rd (a friend played taxi), Louis still had work like regular, and Jaquline & Jillian were cleaning and cooking with Grandma Tina.  

We got home to take naps, help finish cooking, cleaning, and such.   The table was set so pretty! (Yes, that is a marble chessboard that we use as a hot plate to set the turkey on!Louis had it when we were dating and after some “accidents” happened to the pieces over the years, it was just too pretty to toss so was repurposed.)

Uncle Buddy came.  Anastasia came.  Gavin came.  Aunt Becca sent yummy desserts! We had so much fun!  Louis brought in new chairs.  (our table was used when we bought it and was missing chairs – we originally used the piano bench, but since the piano & bench are in storage for lack of room…) We played games.  Okay, yes, most were group video games or Frogger Challenge (two players, winner takes on next player…), but there were a few Boggle games and it seems we can’t have Thanksgiving fun without a campfire!

Uncle Buddy wanted to play Age of Empires with Lucas & Becky; even Louis and I joined in on a 5-person hot-seat Heroes 3 game that lasted all day (and we didn’t finish).  The kiddos (will leave anonymous which adults joined in as well) did a super-multi-player Minecraft / Imposter with phones and computers.  The shouted directions in the living and dining room had everyone else laughing! 

My Angel Eggs were a different story.  I made two platters.  I love making food look beautiful but most of the time we are short on time so I can’t.  (I used to even make everyone’s birthday cakes from scratch & even made two wedding cakes!)  Today I made beautiful piped eggs. 

One platter was gone in T-5 minutes!  Jaquline did warn us she was going to eat more than the eggs she shelled!  I love making food people enjoy.  

Being around my family when we aren’t rushed always reminds me to be thankful for them!  Uncle Buddy had prepped his head for military service (more on that next time) and Lucas thoroughly enjoyed playing video games with and snuggling with his uncle.  I am super thankful for this life God has given me and I pray my home becomes the gathering point for family and friends always on any Sunday we have family day or any holiday.  Food and good company is always a reason to gather together!

Thank you for reading!

Type at you next time!

~Nancy Tart

Okra & “Fire Lilies”

May 28, 2020

Okra & “Fire Lilies”

Today we planted okra. Three long rows of okra plants just far enough apart to walk through the rows with the mower for easy weeding, pruning, and harvesting.

Yesterday and Tuesday were the 6 by 4 corn patch. The 5 by 4 corn patch already has rows of little green stalks pushing up and it was planted Saturday! We also did a patch of mustard greens and our trio experiment over the weekend. The “trio experiment” is onion seed, three inches, beet seed, three inches, carrot seed in a patch 3 by 3.

Oh, all numbers are in feet… so far.

And my favorite of my blooms at this house (since my gardenia has been reluctant to bloom) is this –

– it’s a bulb with a single straight stalk that ends in this fiery flower! We call them fire-lilies but I know that can’t be their official name. It’s a takeaway from Grandma Jeanette… a little piece of history carried along and the blooms make me think of her every time I see a new one exploding with color.

(oh, and if you know what it is, please comment! We’d love to know what it really is!)

Lucas and Thea ate all six ripe tomatoes themselves before they got inside. I managed to sneak one away for the egg scramble I made for brunch. (I eat shakeology breakfast at 5:45 so at 11am I was practically starving and had to grab something filling and nutritious!)

We have little pets who poop breakfast… and Becky made more of these:

YES!

Worked at gym yesterday… REC CLASSES OPEN MONDAY!! Camp fills up quickly & starts June 1st (I can’t wait to see my gymnasts!) and we get to have gym party (Parent’s Night Out) this month!! (Third Saturday of each month: our coaches entertain and feed a boocoodle of kiddos so their parents can have a night kidfree… here)

I’m excited about coaching again! I’m thrilled about our garden! I even got to play Age of Empires with Jillian and Lucas today while big sisters went shopping!

We had a lovely day!

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Muddy Water Day

April 6, 2020

Muddy Water Day

We are a crazy outdoor family. After one 6am epic three-player (connected our little old computers together with LAN – the girls’ new love) Age of Empires (old school from like the 90s) game, we are technologically pooped.

As we are winning our Age of Empires, Louis made amazing waffles with homemade whipped cream (yummmmmmmmy).

Next step: Monopoly.

I’m having a bummer of a start… all the properties are gone except two and I have two railroads, one red, and electric company. I bought the last yellow. Louis quickly offered both railroads for the yellow (he had the other two) and I figured, sure, why not help him up on my way out.

WELL… turns out having three other people landing on my $200 a pop spaces continually led to me winning the first monopoly game in years!

Lunch was bean and rice burritos. (Louis cooked, I cleaned)

Next was outside. Waterslide (plastic sheet with a hose), mud, and gymnastics routines to whole songs pumping from one bass speaker that Louis DJ queued up. Thea took a nap, I typed up blogs, bread dough (for pizza dinner) was rising, and we spent the afternoon playing outside.

Thea had a little cup for her soda, but decided to learn how to pour her sister’s soda into her cup, then her cup back into sister’s soda can, and leave soda footprints on the carport:

Lucas left the waterslide to play in the mud pools:

The girls practiced their gymnastics routines. They did both the Show Routines to real floor music and did the ones they made up for each of the really popular songs they hear at Parents’ Nights Out because they want to do them with their friends during free time one night. The Speechless song from Aladin is by far the favorite. Jaquline’s “routine” is more interpretive dance than Kimberly’s focused skill-by-skill connected with dance moves gymnastics routine, but both were quite entertaining!

Just a little glimpse into our fun, crazy life.

Louis just left to go start the pizza. Thea and I are enjoying listening to Tron Legacy music as I finish this last blog for the week on my borrowed computer, then we’ll head inside… turns out they want to watch “Cheaper By the Dozen” with Myrna Loy and Clifton Webb and we’ll do “Yours Mine and Ours” with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda (Lucy is their favorite!) while we eat.

Slow, relaxing day with our crew. Hope everyone is faring well through this trying time. Slow down and enjoy what you have.

Thank you for Reading!

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

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