best friends – Nancy Tart: Writing for Life

December 22, 2019

Sister-Cousin Outing

You often read that cousins are usually your first friends. They know all about you, love you regardless of your differences, and enjoy life with you from start to finish…

Gaylord Pearson Family (My parents & siblings) – 2002

I always dreamed of how close my siblings and I would be as adults and prayed our children would grow up together, loving each other as true friends. Just like sisters and brothers. My sister, Katy, even started the kids calling each other sister-cousins and brother-cousins – they act like siblings when they are together. They are tight as buddies and fight like enemies – yet love each other through all celebrations and disagreements.

So this day, Jaquline, Jillian, and Anastasia had a sister outing! Becca (my sister, Anastasia’s mom) took all three of them to go see Frozen 2 in a real theater – oh see those smiles?

Sister-Cousin Outing @ Frozen 2! L-to-R: Jillian, Anastasia, Jaquline

I didn’t hear much about the movie except, “it was good,” but heard all about the jokes, fun ride, giggles, and enjoyment of their time together.

I try to teach my littles to focus on relationships – invest rather than spend time. I also want them to have competent adult mentors to look up to. I pray they never feel they can’t talk to me, but I hope that if they feel they can’t, they know they have dozens of family members and close trusted friends they can go to. Aunt Becca is such a strong, wise aunt (and super fun), my older girls have already gleaned life wisdom from her and ask advice sometimes. (And since Mom is as much a student of makeup as they are… they honestly are waaaaay better at it… they usually ask Aunt Becca for beauty advice!)

I so admire how my very busy sister takes time to invest in my youngsters! They LOVE all Aunt Becca outings!

I try to invest time myself – especially in those little humans I’ve been blessed to raise. I sometimes feel time slips away. (You know, when I realize that was the last Thursday morning I’ll be required to drive Christina to college as she gets her license the day before her next semester starts in January.)

I choose to enjoy each moment

Type at you next time,

~Nancy Tart

April 6, 2018

Cousin Bonds

I love watching the awesome relationships between my children and their cousins. Cousins are something like siblings you don’t live with. They know you, accept you just as you are, enjoy normal everyday things with you, and share one set of grandparents. For my children, their cousins are their best friends. My children are very fortunate to have most of their cousins close by.

The bond seems instant. From crib days, they are inseparable!

They spend long minutes to make bubbles stick to another’s hair as a “crown.”

They turn part of the back yard in to an aerial picture (after two studying about the Hopewell Indians and mounds). Their picture was dugout, in the shape of an elephant and a duck head, created to “hold wasted water.” (The photographer, Rebeccah, and Kimberly who had studied the mound builders, explained while building that this wasn’t heaped up dirt, but it would look good from above.)

Sometimes fun is just looking through a magazine together.

Cousins turn long car rides into parties!

When Grandma joins in, cousin time is even more fun!

Cousins share passions with each other – like a love for waves, wind, and water! (Yes, the dots in the cool March water are most of the sister-cousins!)

When cousins move away, the distance doesn’t stop the love that they have for each other. Even Lucas, who was two when his “baby Isaac” moved to the Midwest, still talks about “when Isaac and Mandy and their baby come play trains with me.” (He’s never seen his “baby” cousin, JJ, except in pictures, but he loves him anyway!) The beauty of cousin love is when they reunite, it doesn’t matter time, distance, or changes, each is so excited to see the other and they seem to instantly pick up where they left off; like the best of friends.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Tag: best friends

Sister-Cousin Outing

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Cousin Bonds

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