Tag: church

Easter Cuteness

April 30, 2019

Easter Cuteness

Easter Sunday was so much fun for us this year!

Not only did our little Thea officially turn two months old on Easter, but neither Louis nor I was working, neither of us was tired, and we had the whole weekend to ourselves!

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Baby Thea dressed up (minus her cute socks and shoes) in her Easter dress from Aunt Becca & sister-cousin Anastasia!

Louis and the girls dyed eggs – our brown and pink eggs made some unique color experiments and tasty “angel eggs.” (Grandma Joanne started that; she redeemed the deviled eggs so they are “angel eggs” now.)

Louis was waking me up almost every night in the week before Easter as he excitedly told me about the newest item he got for the girls’ baskets – crazy plastic grass, cool candy, a bag of change for the plastic eggs and such.

We love family time!  On Easter, we got up early, went to church, and talked all about the first Easter Sunday and Jaquline decided we had to watch a Jesus story movie – “The Greatest Story Ever Told” is the go-to for us.  About lunchtime, we snacked on angel eggs and fruit while Louis crafted an amazing ham – this would be early dinner.

And… Egg hunt.  The girls learned that Spring Egg Hunts were a result of people letting their hens and ducks out to range in the spring grass and then having to find their eggs for food – young children were tasked for this job and finding the eggs meant the end of winter harshness and the beginning of spring’s bounty.

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But for us, Easter Egg Hunt means “see who can hide it best” (for the hiders, adults and teens) and “see who can find the hardest eggs” (for the younger ones).  Kimberly decided she is still a youngling for Easter and joined the hunt as a hunter!

Becky took some pictures.

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Christina’s hardest eggs were teal, Becky’s were green, and I hid the hard-boiled ones.  Mine I wanted found quickly, so most were just rolled in the patches of clover so their stickers showed.

Down to four remaining eggs… One Teal, one Green, and two Boiled!  Mom ended up winning with the “hardest” egg being inches from the walkway in plain sight!

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Becky made up some adorable pictures with the baskets.  Check this link to see her Guinea Pigs in the Easter Basket pictures!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Spring Blessings

March 24, 2019

Spring Blessings

March 20th was the official first day of spring.

I live in Florida, so “Spring” as we see it means beach weather – at least for those of us who don’t consider 70 degrees too cold for sand, surf, and sun.

The flower bulbs are coming back.  The songbirds are singing and making nests.  The woodpeckers in the Maple tree are arguing about who gets the best insect hole.  My baby Thea is a month old (on the first day of spring & two of her aunts’ birthdays).  I’m shifting from part time to full time at my office job.

This job is a God-sent blessing anyway (read that story here); increase of hours = increase of income and that is super sweet!

Anyone seen White Christmas?  Bing Crosby sings “Counting My Blessings” and that became a theme song in my head.  Songs will pop into my head when I think certain things… I’m just musically wired… auto-correct tried to put in “weird;” maybe weird is the right word!

So, I’m “counting my blessings” this spring:

Job with a growing company where I get to take my Baby Thea to work with me! (Thank you, Jesus!)

Dream job where I get to teach and encourage young athletes while working out and having fun.  (Thank you, Jesus!)

Health, (finally!) as I’ve found a technique that works to keep my black mold allergy from turning to throat-constricting asthma. (I can keep it at just a post-nasal drip, which is irritating, but not debilitating.)

Family.  I live for family.  (Why I haven’t been writing for a bit… busy with jobs, helping sisters, and spending time investing in family.)

Finding a church we hope to be able to call “home” as our church closed.  (Louis’ cousin and several friends attend there.)  We’ve been three times and most of the kids like it so far.

Spiritual growth in my girls.  Watching that bloom is the best!

Provision.  We have a house to rent, food to eat, and gas to get us to and from work.  Paying back debt and then shifting focus to our long-term goal of saving for our own house.

Thank you, Jesus, for the blessings in my life!  Thank you for healing, love, family, and life!

I’m enjoying a jolt of energy from counting my blessings, what about you?

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Awesome Job

God’s Timing is Perfect!

October 22, 2018

Awesome Job!

Louis and I operate a small business that pretty much shrunk from seventeen co-workers to one in the span of four months starting about two years ago.

Since just before then (I’m an analyst, I did see that we would shrink due to changing marketplace), I’ve been applying for various jobs all over in any industry I have experience for or my degree fits with.  I’ve been turning in applications for almost two and a half years.  Nothing.  That’s rather tough for my ego, but hey, I had a three-inch binder with book and article rejection letters that kept coming for fourteen years before my first book was traditionally published.  So I can say I’m used to rejection!  (Honestly, when it came every other job I walked into the business and three of the four was hired on the spot, the fourth I was called back that week – so it was a bit frustrating being well-qualified but not getting any offers.)

I answered an ad that I almost didn’t.  I knew the lady who owned the business, so I knew I would like working for her.  Although the ad was for a gymnastics school, it did say “no gym experience,” and when I arrived, I was asked if I liked working with children.  I LOVE teaching and working with children; I’ve taught and worked with children all my life – literally oldest sibling of 7, volunteered at schools, churches, and groups since they would let me (10), student taught, tutored, and I have 6 children.

The idea of teaching children a sport and getting paid for it is totally amazing!  I consider myself active, so a job where I’m working out a bit while teaching is perfect.

It’s really cool when God’s timing ends you at a place you know you’ll love being, a boss you know you’ll enjoy working for, and the schedule you’ll have really doesn’t mess with anything you already do!  (The girls’ college classes are during morning or early afternoon, we can still pick up Anastasia, it doesn’t change my ability to work early AM shuttle rides, it doesn’t interfere with the farm or schooling, and we can still  do weekend craft sale events and church!)

Bonus was that I didn’t have any workout pants, but the weekend before I started training, my brother and sister brought us bags of clothing and in them were three workout pants and socks!  So I didn’t need to spend money to start!

God’s timing is always perfect and sometimes what plops on your radar isn’t what you thought you would get, but it’s just perfect for you!  This job is almost too good to be true for me.  I’m going to get paid to teach children a fun  sport on a schedule that works with my family’s lifestory… Amazing!

I’m feeling so blessed and a bit awestruck.  Thank you, Jesus!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Microscopic Giants

The mind of a fiction writer: microscopic giants marching off to war…

August 26, 2018

Microscopic Giants

“What kind of giants does God mean to fall by your hand?”

That question in church this morning instantly made a crazy mental picture.  I saw the mold spores that constantly attack my body and affect my breathing marching like microscopic Goliaths toward my lungs.

The words of the last praise song caught my mind, “This is how we battle… I may look surrounded but I am surrounded by You (God)…”

So in my mental picture, thousands of bright lights like electric flashes start shooting the microscopic Goliaths and keep them from my lungs.  I imagine my lungs are Elisha and God’s armies are fighting for me.  This is how we battle… with faith, prayer, hope, love; our worship.

Weird?  Silly?  A little of both.  But though it seems trite, it’s what I saw.  Sometimes overactive imaginations and cartoonish images are what God uses to remind us that He is bigger than anything.  It’s easy for me to trust in the big things, but how about realizing that God isn’t too big to take the time to destroy the things we think are microscopic in the grand scheme of things?  I am someone who is quick to think, “Lots of people deal with medical conditions that are far worse than this,” and I discount that my issue is not important enough for God.  Sometimes just because I can use medicines to manage my symptoms makes me think I should just deal with it.  So at times, I will relegate my issues to being microscopic in the scheme of the world.

What is important to us (and yes, breathing unaided is a very important thing to me!) is always important to God.  He says he knows the numbers of the hairs on our head… that in itself is awesome to me.

Thank you, God, for reminding me that You do care for all parts of us.  Thank you for this amazing life, for removing the shackles keeping us from dancing, for giving us hope, joy, and peace, and for giving us a wonderful community to be a part of!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

Life & Love, Unscripted

Life doesn’t have a template, neither does love. It’s all unscripted until it happens.

August 13, 2018

Life & Love, Unscripted

I love our church.  Landmark Family Church has been my home for almost 11 years!  I love that we do life, unscripted, instead of follow a template and expect everything God does to fit in tiny boxes.

Like Sunday morning.  The past two lessons have been right on what I’m studying, feeling, and hearing from God.  Wow.  Blows me away.

But this Sunday past seemed to blow away two people near me as well.  This is because God knows exactly what we all need to hear and somehow he manages to put just the right stuff into the speaker’s mouth so it affects everyone just as God wants it to.

God’s Word smashed in and messed up some apple carts yesterday and I love it when that happens!  (It’s like what you need to hear because you sometimes try to reason your way out of what you feel, so when someone else says it, you’re like “maybe I ought to listen.”  God does that a lot to me.)

We have this corporate thing about squirrels (you’ll see them everywhere) so the girls and I designed “The Landmark Tribe” squirrel stories as a way to give back.  (Everything we make from those books goes to our church!)

Rebeccah has been carrying a passion for helping at church in a specific way for over a year, but never said anything because we couldn’t always be at church on Saturday nights (they had been doing Saturday night services), but now, they are restarting regular Sunday morning service!  Rebeccah was ecstatic.  She spent all week preparing her “presentation booklet” to have all her ideas organized.  She was so scared she would be told no, and so thrilled when she was told yes!  (She spent all of today making notes look neater and printing up other ideas.  She kept saying “I can’t wait for Sunday!”)

Life is real.  Love is real.  I love that our church is real.  We are real people doing life together and coming together with the expectation of hearing God’s Word in a real way.  That’s how God uses us; you may sit down and a song speaks to your heart, or is seems the speaker is talking just to you.  That’s real.  That’s God’s love.  He does speak just to you.  He leaves the ninety-nine and makes a special trip to heal your heart.  That’s real Love.

Thank you, God, for Your love!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Laughter

Children create laughter – especially the funny antics of a preschooler!

August 6, 2018

Laughter

On Saturday, Christina mentioned in passing this now rather infamous line: “I have a brother, Mom, nothing embarrasses me anymore.”

Fast forward to Saturday night: we’re at church, listening to an awesome message, where the pastor mentions “taking off” all the things the world assigns to us but God doesn’t want us to carry.

At this apropos moment, Lucas races into the sanctuary holding his clothes, yelping “they got water on them!”  (He can’t stand anything dirty on his clothes, mud covering his body, sure, but not on his clothing!)

Christina whisked him away to the bathroom to dress him, red as a coke can.  I would have gone but she was too fast – I think, because she was embarrassed to be related to him at the moment.

However, I was grateful he had left his big boy pants on (briefs), and a friend leaned over (she also has a 3 year old boy) and whispered, “well, he did just say to take it off.”

We moms can laugh at that – as we understand that everyone has had at least one embarrassing moment in their life.  But my poor teenager is the big sister of an almost-streaker preschool brother who is almost-streaking in front of friends she would like to impress.

I seriously bet (as they are also big siblings) that they’ve been embarrassed by a younger sibling at some time.

That wasn’t the last antics of the night by Lucas – as service was closing, two tennis balls bounce into the sanctuary followed by two three-year-old boys and a toddler.  It seems they were playing “doggie fetch” and Lucas was the doggie…

Later all three of them come running in, drop noiselessly, and begin rolling across the floor.

Yes, children fill our lives with laughter!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

 

Winners

May 28, 2017

Winners

It’s been an awesome day.  I covered morning reservations and we went to church.  I always feel refreshed and ready to conquer the world after church.  Today the discussion was about winners.  We talked about how all believers are winners in the end because we get to go to heaven.  (You know, we all start out winners too… only the fastest one made it!)

Everyone loves to win.  It’s embedded in our genetics.

The whole “winners” thing is just an attitude adjustment.  It means looking at life like we know the end.  (We do!)  Seriously, people in the early church thought it a blessing to be persecuted for Christ’s sake (it’s there over and over in the Bible – “counted it an honor” means the same as us saying “blessed”).  How can someone say “it is an honor to be persecuted for Christ’s sake,” after the verse before says they were beaten, and be like “but that’s awesome!”   They tell us why!  Because they know they will win.  They know they will go to heaven.  They know the end.

You see, if we equate our life as “everything will be smooth and easy” we are really missing it.  We aren’t really touching people if we aren’t messing up some applecarts.  Our life here is meant to touch others – to “win” others to Christ.  Does God bless His people?  Amazingly!  Are those blessings always financial?  Nope.  We miss things like the sunrise, oxygen to breathe, babies to snuggle, friends to laugh with, clean water to drink, and food.   Being a winner means focusing on all of the many gifts God gives us every day and rejoicing in any situation – finding the good in anything.  There is good in any situation.  Sometimes it’s a challenge to find it.

Bankruptcy – we can start fresh.  Moving – new people to touch.  No dishwasher – be thankful for running water.  Hard day at work – be thankful for a job.  Remember the story of the little girl who was always finding something to be glad about?  Always looking for the good in people?  She is ridiculed and rejected often, until finally her positive attitude changes a whole town!  That’s how people are touched, by our lives standing fast and having the joy that comes from within despite what’s raging around us.

But we do have an advantage.  We do know the end.  We are winners because the battle is already won.  If we believe that, how can we not be a winner?

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time,

~Nancy Tart

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