Tag: artist

New Year, 2024

January 3, 2024

New Year, 2024

Wow!

Read that again!  Wow!  It’s a new year full of possibilities!

I’m always so thankful for new years.  New seasons, new months, a new week every Sunday morning, a new day every sunrise… newness always reminds me of the opportunity God gives us to make a new start.  

Our possibilities this year look amazing!  

Laud got a tooth for Christmas (just one, two more are sitting there in the wings where we can see them but they haven’t popped through just yet).  He’s growing so fast!  I’m so blessed to watch this fast-moving change from totally-dependent-baby stage to exploration-baby-stage!

Thea has learned to read!  She’s officially started her “schoolbooks” aka book work.  We don’t really start books until they can read.  Her favorite school book is “The Beginner Book of Words” – the Dr. Seuss “kid dictionary” that belonged to her dad and uncles!  She announced to me, “mom, since I can read, I need real schoolbooks to do work in.”  I’m not sure if I’m ready for that!

Lucas can do some crazy cool gymnastics stuff!  His favorite thing is to show off his muscles – Kimberly consistently reminds him of the proper muscle names as he’ll flex and say “look at this one.”  Lucas told me his favorite thing he wants to happen this year is “work with Dad and build our house.” 

Jillian has her first gymnastics competition of the 2024 spring season January 13th!  She’s competing Xcel Silver again this year with WGV Gymnastics and is super excited about her routines.  Her confidence has grown with her strength and flexibility the past few months.  Her self-discipline is growing and took a huge jump right at the end of 2023 when she decided to apply herself seriously to both gymnastics and academics.  I’m so excited for what 2024 will bring in Jillian!

Jaquline has set her mind on a goal at the end of 2023 and I’m excited to see where it takes her.  She’s refocused her study path toward law.  She’s been devouring history, literature and debate, and the history of founding documents like our Constitution.  She says she wants to learn the laws, how and why they were written, and how legal changes are made.  Jaquline has been learning a lot about household management in the last bit of 2023 and says she will continue that in 2024.  She’s also deepening and polishing her collegiate writing skills.  She wants to write informational reports and persuasive (as she calls them, “enlightening”) papers well.  

Kimberly has her first gymnastics competition of the 2024 Spring season January 14th.  Kimberly competes Xcel Diamond with WGV Gymnastics this year.  I’m so excited to see her perform with all the training she’s persevered through in the past year.  This girl’s strength continues to astound me as she grows.  Kimberly also starts her first official college classes this semester.  She’s both excited and terrified – probably in the reverse order – about this.  I love seeing her set and accomplish goals!

Rebeccah returns to her college a little early this semester for work.  I’m both selfishly sad because I will miss her smile, watching her exercise patience with Thea, quietly observing as she paints (oh, by far my favorite thing to watch is someone create a masterpiece in front of my eyes – I got to watch her paint on canvas over this break), hearing her laughter, hearing her gaming; in short I will miss everything about her and there’s a Rebeccah-sized hole when she leaves home.  But I love hearing her adventures and chatting with her in her tight breaks between chapel, work, study, and classes.  She has such precious little free time and I’m honored when she chooses to use that time for me! 

Christina will be taking steps into her career path!  I’m so excited to be a part of her next adventure!  Resuming flight training is only the start of her 2024 adventures.  I am thankful she still shares her hopes and dreams and plans with me.  (And I get to borrow her car)

As a family, we bought property and cleared it in the last few months of 2023!  This is our first step toward building a home of our own!  Our designs are hopefully finding an architect willing to perfect a small, compact plan; hopefully we can start utilities and building soon!  

Thank you for reading!

Type at you later!

~Nancy Tart

Fireworks Over the Matanzas

July 8, 2018

Fireworks Over the Matanzas

Ask any of my kids what their favorite day is one answer will be… “Fourth of July!”

Why?

Because we always go downtown to watch the best fireworks show ever! (Okay, maybe I’m a little prejudiced because I live here, but I get a travel magazine and it listed our “Fireworks Over the Matanzas” as one of the top 5 annual fireworks shows!)

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We make is a production! (Yes, that was not this year, but our longest “train!” because it included me – taking picture – and the buggy!)

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(Jaquline at the Fireworks Over the Matanzas years ago – photo credit, my amazing friend, Stacy Moorehouse)

This was the first year we went without the baby buggy – took a foldable wagon instead. And yes, it doubled as Anastasia’s buggy from the van to downtown and Lucas’ back to the van.

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We bring snacks, water (hydration, as Christina calls it – thank you, Civil Air Patrol), juice (Becky wanted juice to refill the water bottles this year), and lots of energy! The girls always make new friends at the bayfront.

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This year a new friend family from Atlanta, Georgia shared their bag of glowsticks with the girls and Lucas! (This made them very excited! As you can see, Lucas made glasses to “see very far away.”) Even though Christina said she was “too big” for glowsticks, between Becky and Kimberly, they had her wearing one! (Kimberly has “a pirate earring” and Christina is covering her bracelet!)

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Finally, after enjoying awesome music (before the city music came through the speakers, we could hear Evan D’s music from Harry’s! He’s a local artist I like to hear.), playing and talking with new friends, snacking on lots of fruit and sweet potato chips from Currie’s and Aldi’s, and having Aunt Becca join us, we got to the main event

The best fireworks show on the bayfront! (I can’t record more than about 22 seconds at a time on my camera, so we only caught a few snippets of the show, but it was amazing!)

We trudged home, (Lucas slept in the wagon, in a picture back up there^ somewhere) laughing, singing, and enjoying our family time! Oh, and yes, Lucas fell asleep during the fireworks! 🙂 I was so excited and even mentioned “this is the first year everyone is awake to see the fireworks!” haha! Then he was out.

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Will we face huge crowds, packed potties, and no-see-ums again? Oh yes! And look forward to an amazing 6 hours or more next year at our special bayfront spot, making new friends and enjoying each others’ company!

We love the City of Saint Augustine’s Fireworks Over the Matanzas!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

The Fallen

May 27, 2018

“The Fallen”

Sometimes art inspires me.  Sometimes it’s hard to visualize large numbers.  These memorials do an excellent job.

I’ve heard of the origin of Decoration Day (Memorial Day) and often thought about the hearts of the women decorating the graves of fallen soldiers during the War Between the States.

Today, I learned of a beautiful memorial done on the Normandy beach on September 21, 2013 that memorialized the enormous loss of life in the absence of peace.  They called this project “The Fallen.”

Over 9,000 soldiers and civilians died on June 6th, 1944 as part of the liberation of France during World War II.

The artists chose to etch a human-sized body into the sand of the beach for each soldier and civilian who was reported to have lost their lives during the invasion.

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Hundreds of volunteers came and 9,000 sand etchings were created to show the huge loss of people.  (above picture from Sand In Your Eye)

This picture from the cliff speaks volumes.  (picture below from Sand In Your Eye)

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This memorial lasted a few hours until the tide slowly washed it away.  The image of this memorial reminds us of the human costs of war; as was quoted from Sand in Your Eye, the artists responsible, “[each figure was] a representation of a person that once lived, they had parents, family, friends… those people that lost their lives are no longer with us but on [this day] they spoke.” (quote from Sand In Your Eye)

Studying history, I understand the necessity of war to rescue people from hopeless situations of oppression, but that doesn’t lessen the sadness of loss.  I thank those who serve to protect us, the families of those who perished, and those who were not trained soldiers yet fought when they were needed.

As Memorial Day approaches, I remember those who sacrificed their lives for others.  If you can ever visit the memorials in Washington DC, do it; and remember that each name on a memorial is all we see of an entire life – family, friends, and dreams.  It hits home when your teary-eyed ten-year-old holds her hand an inch from the reflective black marble wall and says “that could have been granddaddy’s name and then we would be missing all his children and grandchildren.”

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Whether we agree with the war or not, we honor and remember each of the fallen.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

 

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