Me Without You

June 15, 2019

Me Without You

Yesterday I entered a bit of nostalgia.  My facebook timeline mentioned a memory of Father’s Day a few years ago.

Father’s Day.

This is the first Father’s Day when my Daddy is in heaven.

The first thoughts were sad.  Theadora, who was laying on her tummy in the office talking to Faux, one of the office dogs, has never seen her Granddaddy.  I haven’t written anything in any of my books since he’s passed – more likely because I’ve been working two jobs but it feels like there’s no one to discuss book ideas with.  I wonder if I’ve made the right decisions; Daddy would listen and he’s been in this position before.  On the ride home the radio show host asked “what does your Father want for Father’s Day?” and I remembered all Daddy ever wanted all the time was just to spend time with us.

Then I realized, as I do every time I’m sad about Daddy being gone, that I’m being selfish.  Daddy had spent more than two-thirds of his life without his Father.  None of us ever met our Grandfather Pearson – whom Thea was named after.  This is the first Father’s Day that my Daddy gets to hang out with his father – and with Jesus!  How cool is that?

Daddy isn’t in pain anymore.  He’s running, tending trees, worshiping Jesus, dancing with his Mom, you know… silly things we Earth-bound think about as being fun.  I wonder how many questions he’s asked God – he had a long long list of them we used to discuss.

I realized reading my last few posts leading up to his death that I’d been writing about eternity, “Finals Week” was published one week before he passed.  Odd, in retrospect, it’s like God was letting us know in Daddy’s way – with a bit of humor, as this cartoon was his idea! – that He was about to take Daddy home.

Home (Heaven) is where we belong.  On Earth, we love and learn.  We miss those gone, but we look forward to meeting our heavenly Father (God) one day!

Our love is forever.  I will love my Daddy forever.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Miracles!

May 25, 2019

Miracles!

 I haven’t been writing for my blog often.  I’ve been very busy lately!  (And yes, the picture is an old one, like 4 years ago, but it’s one of my favorites of Becca & Anastasia.)

This past week was totally amazing in how God just orchestrated things to work out for good.

If you’ve been reading, you probably know my little sister has been going through some rough medical challenges.  Read this if you don’t know about it.  (Okay, she’s always going to be “my little sister” to me, even though she’s a very competent adult.)  On Wednesday, my Mom texted me at work (she was playing taxi for Becca) with awesome news!

God had closed up one of Becca’s varicose veins!  But she was already prepped for surgery and had prepaid for it so the Doctor said they’d do the worst vein on the other leg.  That was so amazing!  Actually, they scared her to death before telling her it was good news.  The nurse with the Doppler says “stop talking” and moves the Doppler around with a serious face.  Becca’s heart jumped into her throat.  Then she sets the wand down.  “Let me get the Doctor.” And then Becca had to find her calm place and bite her tongue as they both moved the Doppler stuff around and made comments like “I see it” and “yes, that’s odd.”  Becca said finally the nurse says to the Doctor, “shall I tell her, or do I?” and then they told her it was gone.  They offered, since she was already prepped, to just start in on the other leg (the worst, largest vein) so of course, Becca said yes.

The second miracle happened two days later.  Anastasia has been severely allergic to eggs all her life.  Like so allergic she needs an EpiPen and can’t touch anything that touched eggs.  We have chickens, so you’d think our house was a definite no-no, but we are very diligent about keeping her away from our eggs and washing everything (hands, countertops, etc) to keep any contaminates from her.  And we bake cookies, breads, ice cream, and cupcakes without eggs anytime she’s over.  She’s really good about asking if it has eggs in it.  (Louis picked up a cookie snack from Aldis when she was shopping with us & she asked, “does it have eggs?” so we put it back and Christina made eggless cookies instead.)

Anyway, so much for backstory… at the end of school, the school gives back all medications to the parents.  Normally, that’s on the last day, but they almost gave Anastasia’s EpiPen back on Thursday instead.  Her Dad wisely didn’t take it; he told them her Mom would get it on Friday.

So her EpiPen was at school for the party day.

And that was when she needed it.  She misunderstood somehow and thought the cupcakes were eggless, so she ate one and two bites into it, her body rejected it and it ended with her in anaphylactic shock.  Although she had to go to the hospital, my brave 5-year-old niece recovered fine.  Becca raced from work to get to her.  The paramedics let Becca drive her to the hospital and she was admitted with a “severe level 5 reaction” so the doctors had to observe her in case her reaction returned as the medicine wore off.  (It didn’t.)  The Doctor was extremely helpful and handed Becca his card, which had John 3:16 written on it!

God lined everything up so that Anastasia would have her medicine and get just the right care.

Our family has felt the love of God and amazing miracles in the prayers, support, and love from all of you!  Please continue to keep Becca in your prayers!  I just had to pass along how awesome our week had been in the way God had been letting Becca feel His presence through these challenging moments.

God always has our best.  We give Him our lives with all of our stuff and He blesses us with His constant love and care.  He shows us love and grace and we are the hands, feet, and arms of Jesus on Earth.  Sometimes we are the givers and sometimes receivers.  And sometimes God shocks everyone with something totally unexpected like healing something in our bodies!

Thank you God, for Your warm arms gathering my little sister and her baby in Your tender care!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Finals Week

Cramming for Final Exams: My thoughts on this week.

December 3, 2018

Finals Week

Whew!  I’m finally on my computer again!

We have one internet computer (mine) and for the past little-over-a-week since the Monday after Thanksgiving, the oldest two girls have commandeered it for uploading papers, researching for reports, and taking online tests.

This is their “finals week” for this semester!   (This semester flew by.)  Christina is also studying for CAP and her Cyber Patriot competitions.

So today, I’m up way before them and attempting to finish a few blog entries before they start this hectic week.  (Honestly, most of their stuff is already done, but they will likely be checking and rechecking before they submit it.)

Finals week reminds me of life.

Sometimes, we seem to get really busy with everything else but don’t study our Bible or spend as much time with God as we should.  Then we get convicted of our mortality (i.e. we’re getting older, we attend a funeral, or we get sick) and we study like we’re unprepared students cramming for finals week.  We should be living our entire life “cramming for finals” regarding studying the Bible, praying, and listening to what God says.  That’s like the prepared student who budgeted their time over the whole semester and as “finals week” comes, they just double check stuff, submit the final draft of xyz report, reread xyz chapters, and go into the exam room with a confidence that they’ve done all they can do.

I want to live my life being prepared for the spiritual things.  This includes: taking time to help others, reading my Bible, applying the Word to my life, teaching where I can, and setting a positive example for those who are watching.  (If you are a parent, at least your kids are watching.  Even if you aren’t directly responsible for littler hearts, there are others watching your life that you don’t even notice.)

Our “final exam” may be a long way off, but isn’t it better to live our life doing our best all the time instead of just at the end?

So, as I listen to the chatter of my girls discussing various student attitudes leading up to and during “finals week,” I am convicted to follow the same advice in life that I gave them regarding school; study thoroughly, spread your assignments out over the whole term, and then you won’t be rushed during “finals week.”

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

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