Tag: collection

Atrina Serrata

April 20, 2020

Atrina Serrata

What in the Earth? Actually, in the oceans. It is the scientific name for the Sawtooth Penshell.

Becky discovered two of these perfect shells, each about 6 inches long, on the high tide line at our favorite St Johns County beach. On the ride home, Becky researched them and we learned all about their life, their predators, how they likely died (based on their skeletons aka shells), and how they are cooked.

Yes, these particular bivalves are a seafood with a taste and consistency “quite like a scallop” according to the articles Becky found.

We have a rule of never taking living shells for our collection (this particular beach time would have been a great harvest of beautiful specimens if not for that rule!) but Becky said that now when she is ever stranded on a desert island (been watching too much Gilligan’s Island, I guess), she will know one good item to eat.

Perfect specimens have full shells and these both are broken on the fan edges. The bumps are actually raised sharp points like spikes. Their texture is almost leathery for a shell, and when they are in the sun, they shine with an oil-like sheen.

Beautiful.

A lovely addition to our seashell bowl (we may need a bigger bowl)!

Hope you enjoyed this educational tidbit (and maybe you can find some Atrina Serrata skeletons yourself on the lovely Florida beaches)!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Choosing to Rest

Ever feel overwhelemed by the busyness of life… especially around Christmas?

December 14, 2019

Choosing to Rest

The busyness of life can overwhelm us if we allow it.

Especially when your heart is troubled.

Anybody relate? 

This is the first Christmas season where all the kids have been shopping and I haven’t gone with any of them.  My Daddy passed away one year ago the tenth.  My little tradition of carefully penning the newest addition’s name in glitter glue on a silly felt stocking and adding it to our collection to hang was done by one the of girls this year.  I almost found myself feeling unimportant and stressing out because I wanted to be there…

I’m standing on the floor beam and use my standard line when my gym girls are racing.  On beam that means they end up wobbling and the exercise doesn’t look pretty when you are bouncing and wobbling. “…don’t race.  If you feel wobbly…” I demonstrate so they will laugh and pay attention, doing one passé step and wobbling as I come down “…pause…” I stop with both feet firmly planted “…take a breath to steady you…” I take a deep breath “…and now go on.” I start doing the steps again without the wobble.

This works great for my excited littles at gym.  Sometimes they race because they want to do more and more and more, but really they just need to focus on the task at hand.  They need to control the landing of their foot on the beam so the direction is perfect and they land with confidence.

—BAM—

Life.

It’s the same as walking the beam. 

Don’t race.  That one hit me; don’t we all race when we feel wobbly (overwhelmed)?

Pause.  REST IN JESUS! 

Both feet firmly planted. In the Word – while I’m pausing, I’m resetting by “planting my feet firmly” in the Word.

Take a deep breath.  Worship and pray.

Then you can go on without the wobble. (Worry, feeling of drowning, feeling of uselessness, etc)

Now we take our life and everything whirling around us one step at a time, focusing on each day as it exists, allowing God to control our steps, and we will walk with confidence!

Oversimplified?  Maybe, but that mental picture that God gave me as I was coaching certainly is helping me rest and enjoy this season instead of feel “wobbly” with worry and feeling useless! 

Thank you, Jesus for planting cool visions in my head from sometimes the simplest of things… God uses the simple to confound the wise!

Type at you next time,

~Nancy Tart

Waffle Blocks

April 23, 2019

Waffle Blocks

Well, we have this thing in our house where we give away everything we aren’t using.  This goes for toys too.  We don’t keep more than we actually use.  We find toy drives, needy families, or other causes to give away the overage.  I have found that the kids enjoy giving away favorites that they’ve outgrown or donate to those in need.

When I “sift through” them after donations, I end up seeing the “sets” of toys like Legos, Duplos, mega blocks, fisher price trains, Lincoln logs, polly pockets, Playmobile builders, and small cars and animals.  These seem to stand the test of time – even Louis and I will build duplo bridges over Lucas’ train tracks.

When I started working playroom duty at the gym, I discovered another “set” of toys many ages enjoyed.  I came home and told Louis “if Heather gets rid of those toys, I’m buying them from her.”

Then my sister brought a bag of them from her neighbor who was moving!

WAFFLE BLOCKS!

The girls made minecraft arms and walked around like this: (Primrose is very impressed)

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Lucas loves them. (Jillian too!)

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And they even came with a pair of wheels and tracks!

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So we squeezed them into the playroom collection – and many will have fun with these funny-looking brain teasers!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Makeup Gifts!

Some “makeup” gifts for my teens & making sure I listen.

December 17, 2018

Makeup Gifts!

I knew part of my reason for being a makeup presenter with Younique was that my girls would be or are interested in makeup and it would be gifts to give them…

Today, some of my presents for the two older girls arrived!   Becky loves my lip gloss – she gets her own now in the shade she said “she would have bought herself” when we were discussing my lip gloss.  Christina gets a neutral shadow she likes because it can hide “messy” acne.  Not that she has any normally, but you know, we’ve all been teens (and my face still thinks it should act like a hormone-driven sweat-covered teenager with pimple pop outs every so often).  She likes to use shadows like face paint too – but few neutral shades exist in their collection yet.

I’m so excited to be getting things they “would have bought themselves” – I do try to get something little that works for each one.  I get a bit of a discount as a presenter, and some of the rewards are redeemable as makeup credits, so…

You can order last-minute gifts here… make sure to get an extra something for you too!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Birthday Dolls

A childhood collection becomes a family tradition.

October 20, 2018

Birthday Dolls

Do you have something unique that you do and sometimes you laugh at yourself and think, “this is so silly!” but your family wouldn’t stop it because it means something to them?

For us, one of these “silly family traditions” that I accidently created is the Birthday Dolls.

We have a display of “Growing Up Girls” birthday dolls that represent each of the children’s ages.

Currently it looks like this:

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Christina (15), Rebeccah (13), Kimberly (11), Jaquline (8), Jillian (6), Lucas (3), and Anastasia (5).

It started with my collection of age-dolls from when an aunt and cousin bought the first three each of my first three birthdays.  I loved them and once I was old enough to make money babysitting and mowing grass, I started collecting the rest of the blonde ones.

Fast forward to when I have two young girls and we didn’t have much display space so Louis suggested I just leave a few out.  I left Christina and Rebeccah’s ages.  When Kimberly was born, we added the baby one.  This became a tradition from then on.

Through twenty-odd years many have broken (by little siblings and my children! Super glue is a porcelain doll’s best friend) a few shattered irreparably, and since my girls are mostly brunettes, any replacements we tried to find with brunette hair.  When Anastasia was about 2, she wanted to add her “age” to the dolls – so we added her age doll.  Lucas came along and I discovered the same company made “Growing Up Boys” age dolls so we started collecting those as well!

I always check resale and thrift shops for any ones I don’t have (right now, boys from 7 up).

Just a cute little story about how a collection became a family tradition. (Yes, they have already planned that I’ll have to buy more of those to display my grandchildren’s ages someday.)

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

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