blue – Nancy Tart: Writing for Life

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.

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

First Try at Makeup

First time I “madeup” my whole face & poked my eyeball many times… Giggle Girl Time

October 3, 2018

First Try at Makeup

So, Sunday afternoon, Louis and I went “out” (with our current budget that means a couple games of pool or walking on the beach or downtown, you know, zero cost but couple time!) and I’d received my Younique package in on Friday. (You are supposed to let the makeup “sit” at room temperature for at least 24 hours after shipping if you live in a hot climate… 96 degrees might be hot.) So I figured this was as good a time as any to try out makeup.

Let me see… (digging around in this really cool purple bag that Becky claims “is so hers” once I’m done with it.) I didn’t use everything in this try, but the pieces in the picture are mine. (Becky or Christina claimed the other goodies that came in the set – the value of the “starter set” and my realization that my girls would be buying makeup from now on were two of the reasons I signed up.)

I knew the hardest part for me would be mascara. I hate anything going near my eyes. Period. Probably, another reason I’ve only tried makeup once before. I used the Epic Mascara and managed to get it on my eyes after only poking my left eyeball three times and smearing it all over my nose, cheek, and eyebrow like five times. I honestly wasted more than I put on.

This brings us to Younique’s Cleaning Stick – it looks like a glue stick but goes on and removes makeup in strategic spots. It is perfect for this newbie. (And I was glad I did mascara first.)

Foundation was easy enough, (I got both the liquid and the cream foundation, this try was liquid because it appeared to be easier!) Younique’s liquid foundation has a dropper applicator so you drop it in a few places across your face and blend in. I used my finger because it felt like lotion going on. I used the setting powder on top lightly – that got rid of the slightly shiny afterglow of the liquid foundation.

I discovered that I didn’t have blush so I used bronzer (I thought “probably not what it is really for”) to highlight my cheeks lightly.

I have done my eyeshadow two or three times before – between that and a few lipstick tries, that was my only “adult” experience with makeup prior to this.

I was opting for a natural look this time, so instead of deep blue, which I’m sure, will be my favorite eyeshadow, I used a nude pink with smoky accents. I think it turned out okay. Next time I’ll use the eyeliner pencil (never done that before!) and the deep blue cream shadow with smoky accents. (Becky was like, “that would look awesome, I’m going to help.”)

I’ve never used liquid lip color either, so this Younique lipgloss in “lovesick” (the name sent Becky and Christina into rivers of giggles!) – I told Louis it was “pink” – was a first. It lasted all night, a first for any lipstick I’ve ever tried.

I was rather pleased with the results. The only “downside” (actually a great thing!) was washing it all off before going to bed. (It was easy enough, warm water, cleanser, scrub, rinse) I’d just never worn makeup that didn’t wear off after a couple of hours. My research told me this would be good, and I’m super pleased! (Plus, I’m allergic to lots of stuff but nothing in this ensemble irritated my skin at all!)

(Oh, and I’ve probably taken just two or three “selfies” ever, and not very good at it because I had the girls trying to give me pointers and giggling along with me at the hilarious pictures that landed on the camera for mere seconds; so the picture was taken by Becky.)

Next order, I’ll remember to get concealer, blush, and lipstick to try!

I have to admit, I’m totally enjoying this experiment with makeup! (AND loving the “giggle girl time” with my little women – should I call this “art class?”)

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Crafting Cages

June 5, 2018

Crafting Cages

Last month we built two big mobile cages for our livestock

One is for the “teenager” chickens (those between just feathered and adult, about 6 weeks to 24 weeks). Rebeccah bought the clearance Buff Orpington straight run (mixed males and females) from Tractor Supply at the end of their chick days and they are now a little over 12 weeks old – time for selling the males before we eat them at 24 weeks!

The other was for Rebeccah, Kimberly, and Christina’s newest project: Guinea Pigs. They had one named Jack, who, just like his namesake, was adept at getting out of cages (starting with a two-day excursion on the day she brought him home!). On one of his excursions, he decided to disappear into the wild for good (I think he’d heard some Wild Kratts: free and in the wild!).

But TobyMac stayed with his two girls, Taylor and Avery.

The bright orange is TobyMac and the pretty one below is Avery. Taylor is camera shy.

Shop day had us designing and building the cages. They are night-time predator proof and easy to move. We discovered that Guinea Pigs are a perfect lawn mower: one day and they graze the grass to ½ inch height. (Formula = 3 adult pigs to 32 square feet of grass.)

Kimberly and Jaquline using the portable drill to make pilot holes and drive screws.

Rebeccah tacking on the chicken wire.

Notice the painted guinea pig on the door when it’s open.

Even Lucas was helping! He painted, held screws, fetched tools, and helped measure boards to cut.

The best drill ever! Plus wire cutters for the chicken wire.

Three different lengths of screws and our poultry staples

We precut all of the lumber for the second cage!

The girls learned and practiced using power tools, critical thinking (this looked good on paper, but in reality it will cause this problem, how can we fix it?), planning, budgeting (looking prices up online and estimating our actual cost before we went), and applying this knowledge in a practical way to create a final product. We painted the walls to help keep them from rotting, but Rebeccah, who is never satisfied with leaving something plain and functional, turned them into a work of bi-colored art. (I only had white, so she had to mix dyes to get another color!)

Although this was a “day off” from school, the girls learned and used various practical skills and developed two products for our family livestock. They had a blast! They learned a lot. They had a very successful and memorable day creating and a huge surge of pride when they look out there now – something they made is being used everyday by cute little animals!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Matanzas Inlet

May 19, 2018

Matanzas Inlet

I thought I had visited all of the beaches in the Saint Augustine area. Vilano Beach Pier, Vilano at the Crossover, Saint Augustine Beach, Anastasia State Park Beach, Crescent Beach, and Butler Beach. (At least, I think I’m not leaving any names out.) But then we went to Matanzas Inlet.

Oh my goodness! This place is so beautiful! We were able to walk the inlet onto several sand bars with our rolled up pants. Okay, so the adults and wanna-be-adults rolled up their pants and waded carefully, but the children just jumped into the water and got every strand of hair on their body soaking wet.

In the inlet we observed turtles in the sand, crabs and fish in the water, birds overhead and in the dense bushes on the other side of the inlet, and humans floating on boats and a giant duck float in the inlet.

Lucas is running from the water to Daddy, who is building a sand castle in the middle of a sand bar. Beautiful place, isn’t it?

Blue water is slightly deeper than the muddy-looking water. Louis is on the far sand bar, that big yellow blob is the duck float, and the figures headed to Daddy are Jillian, Jaquline, Kimberly, and Lucas.

This picture reminded me of me and one of my little brothers, Charley, as kids! It’s Kimberly helping Lucas get to Daddy.

Our wanna-be-adults carefully wading like Louis and I were. (Christina and Rebeccah, the lovely young ladies who suddenly appeared in our house – where did the toddlers go?)

Another sand bar, another picture of my completely wet fun-loving crew and Daddy guarding the far side (actually, he’s either taking a picture or dispatching to Papi).

Matanzas Inlet has become a favorite place for lazy-day water fun. It’s not the ocean with fun waves for the thrill of surfing, but for lazy, wander-through-the-water days or days when the ocean is still a little too cold for Daddy’s liking, this will be our go-to!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Counting by Twos

My preschoolers turn our birthday tradition into color and counting practice for the toddler! 🙂

January 31, 2018

Counting by Twos

“Mom, you have to change my doll so we are all twos!” Jillian bounced this morning. Jillian turned six on the 29^th. We’ve been very busy with school, work, and two events (Jillian’s cake and ice cream birthday on Monday & Christina’s CAP movie night on Tuesday), and we’d forgotten to change her age doll. (My Aunt gave me the first three of these collectible figures as a toddler, I began filling in my collection when I was twelve, and although most are half super glue from the effects of pets’ tails, sisters and children “playing” them, and moving accidents, I now have one of each age and am collecting the “Growing Up Boys” figures to keep up with Lucas.) What started with Christina, we have continued. (I display the figures that match the girls’ ages.)

When Lucas was born, we discovered they used to make a boy version and we started collecting those too.

Now, since we have Anastasia’s age doll in the lineup too, with this birthday, the dolls change to 14, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, and 2. They will stay that way until Lucas levels up in May. Jillian and Anastasia call it “the twos.”

Lucas likes to find patterns in things right now. Each of the dolls has one of four dress colors. The clothes colors are blue, lavender, blue, lavender, blue, lavender, blue. Lucas calls them “blue, not blue,” and giggles when the girls say “lavender.” He’ll repeat, “la-ven-der!” giggle, and say “blue, not blue!”

This makes Jaquline, Jillian, and Anastasia say, “no, Lucas! Blue and lavender!”

He laughs because that is exactly the reaction he wants!

But when they point out the numbers, Lucas says, “two-four-six-eight-ten-twelve!” (He yells them all together like one long number and misses the fourteen.)

Anastasia and Jillian clap, “yeah! He can count by twos!”

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Tag: blue

Electric Season

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Counting by Twos

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