A Visit to the Campus

Imagination & enjoyment at any place.

January 19, 2022

A Visit to the Campus

(Note: This post was written November 30, 2021 when whomever had decided my computer’s operating system can’t load wordpress anymore – or any other website haha!)

We found ourselves ending the month with a visit to the Palatka campus of St John’s River State College.  Becky and Kimberly were doing college stuff.  The littles and not-so-littles-anymore found themselves doing schoolwork at a stone table in the warm sunshine on a frosty morning.  By 11am, though, it had warmed enough to allow for shedding of jackets.  (This is Florida anyway, locals know autumn calls for bundle with layers in the morning, regular clothes by noon, swimsuit at 2pm, all clothing back on by 6pm, and windbreakers at 8.)

Lucas took a little stuffed animal and started playing hike (his version of one-boy football).

Thea yells, “look, scissors jumps!” *does a few scissors jumps, “tuck jumps!” *does a few tuck jumps (I’m impressed, she’s landing on both feet simultaneously) and other gymnastics steps as she stays in “the warmness” (aka sunshine). 

Jillian finishes with bases and exponents after too many, “Mom!  X equals what am I doing?” because when she’s in a hurry, she forgets to read the directions.  She promptly joins in the grassland fun (now Lucas and Jillian start a wrestling match). 

Jaquline lags a bit behind as “poetry has too many grammar errors!”  (Her assignment is to edit the grammar errors and rewrite.

We meet people we know!  (Okay, people whose children I know.)  Lucas lands in a prickly bush and waddles up with “prickles in my butt like Pooh” (Pooh Bear landing in a gorse bush, anyone?) which I have to pick off without laughing. 

Jillian wants to do pull ups on the big tree limbs but can’t reach them.  Even with her biggest high jump, she is still too short.  Jaquline’s attempt to help her up is hilarious. 

Thea plays with squinkies at the stone table.  Jillian says “both college schools have stone tables.” (They had given nicknames to places we did school at the Saint Augustine campus before Christina was a driver.)  Lucas “made friends” with the ants – not something I would suggest. 

Throwback pictures to The Tortuga aka the gazebo over the center of the water at the Saint Augustine Campus of St Johns River State College.

I love how my children can find entertainment in any situation.  From grass, trees, imagination, or teeny tiny toys they bring along with them everywhere; there is always something to do even if we are at a brand new college campus on a lazy late autumn day! 

Thank you for reading,

Type at you later!

~Nancy Tart

Electric Season

Energy resonates in the clear skies of the seasons changing to autumn.

October 31, 2018

Electric Season

It’s officially autumn.

To me, it never seems like autumn until the sky goes that gorgeous “sky blue,” gentle cooler breezes tousle our hair, and there is a crisp energizing feel in the air.

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During these days, I remember the exhilaration I felt as a child when they first approached.

Our first “autumn” day we’d race outside, full of a new form of energy that totally required an outdoor escape.  If there was a swingset in the yard, (sometimes just a rope with a stick at the bottom) we were trying to touch the sky with our feet!  On our bikes, (we called them horses, since we loved horses but never had a real one) we would ride round and round the house, singing Sunday School songs at the top of our lungs.  If I ever had to describe the feeling in one word, it would be “freedom.”

Today the gorgeous electric blue sky makes me think about how God arranges things in seasons in our lives.  Sometimes, when a new season comes, it brings the exhilaration of freedom.  I’ve felt it before and not understood why.

Life seems to say, “you are trapped more than before, why are you happy?”

But my heart answers with a song called “Happy” because one verse basically says: bring it on, I’m happy and nothing can change that!

I imagine myself telling life that sometimes.

Because I have my root of happiness in Jesus, His joy is my strength, and even if life wants to throw stuff at me and claim I’m worse off in this new season than I was before (usually it’s that I can’t see the positive just yet), I know God has me in His hands – and I choose to be filled with that freedom exhilaration that comes with this new season!

Whatever God has for us, I sense the excitement, and I choose to focus on joy!  Let this next season begin!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

The Exuberance of Life

“Look Mom!” and what else is Lucas excited about?

October 6, 2018

The Exuberance of Life

Today we had impromptu tennis.  Christina and Becky rode their bikes to the park, Louis, the younger children, and I drove.  It was a lovely day and since the “cooler than 90 degree” weather has them all excited, we have been outside most of the day.

Lucas was shouting songs in the backseat; periodically announcing “Stasia loves this one” or “Stasia said her Mommy has this!” or “this is one I like!” (Since Anastasia is not there to announce such things, Lucas must in her absence!)

We claim an open tennis court (okay, two, but that’s just because not all eight members of our team are great with their aim yet).  Lucas has his own special racket and claims every ball that hits the net – the inaccuracies of learning kept Lucas entertained for over an hour!

At home, we’re now enjoying outside.  Christina is texting the UCC team, Kimberly is running her scooter (kid powered), Jaquline is on her bike, and Jillian has a chicken – no, it’s a guinea pig.  Lucas is driving his “Green car” (a 2nd birthday gift from Grandma Joanne that has seen daily use except for one six-week stint while we waited for the replacement charger).

“Look, Mom, the pig-pig is driving!” Lucas has Custard contentedly chewing on grasses in his lap!  (Custard is one of the 4-week-old Guinea Pigs.)

A few moments later…

“Look, Mom!  The chicken is driving!” And Jillian is sitting next to Lucas with a different chicken (this one is the biggest of the young cockerels we have for sale) sitting on her lap.

A few moments later…

“Look out below!” followed by giggles.  Lucas is driving the car under a rain of pinecones Jillian tossed in the air.  He catches one in the empty passenger seat, laughs, picks it up, and throws in into the little tykes car (human-powered) as he passes it.

A second later…

“Mom!  A train!” And Lucas is pushing his car, in reverse, with the little tykes car centered behind it, rolling along like it is the engine of a two-unit train.

Then he tries to join Kimberly and Jaquline’s soccer game while driving the car!  “Kim!  My car wants to play!”

He jumped out of the car when Jillian and Kimberly started with the foam football… “I love football!”

We should have such energy and exuberance toward everything in life!  Lucas looks at everything as an adventure, challenge, or treat; as a gift.  Life is a gift.  Thank you, Jesus, for this amazing life and all the fun moments we experience in it!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

 

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