Tag: fire

Thanksgiving Week 2022

Much to be thankful for!!

December 6, 2022

Thanksgiving Week 2022

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house for those who could come.  It lasted from November 22 (our 20th anniversary) to November 27 (Sunday).  This was our “vacation” from gym/work.  It included lots of traveling (for me, Becky, Christina, Jaquline, Lucas, and Thea), lots of fun, and lots of food!

For my anniversary, we still had to work (thank you, Hurricane Whatever in September – I don’t commit names to memory) because we had school and a make-up day at gymnastics.  This started our Thanksgiving Break because I started out just before midnight on 11/22 with Christina to go pick Becky up from college.  

This car trip was super fun!  Christina and I drove.  Lucas and Thea went with us as Kimberly had early practice (Xcel Platinum) on the 23rd (a friend played taxi), Louis still had work like regular, and Jaquline & Jillian were cleaning and cooking with Grandma Tina.  

We got home to take naps, help finish cooking, cleaning, and such.   The table was set so pretty! (Yes, that is a marble chessboard that we use as a hot plate to set the turkey on! – Louis had it when we were dating and after some “accidents” happened to the pieces over the years, it was just too pretty to toss so was repurposed.)

Uncle Buddy came.  Anastasia came.  Gavin came.  Aunt Becca sent yummy desserts! We had so much fun!  Louis brought in new chairs.  (our table was used when we bought it and was missing chairs – we originally used the piano bench, but since the piano & bench are in storage for lack of room…) We played games.  Okay, yes, most were group video games or Frogger Challenge (two players, winner takes on next player…), but there were a few Boggle games and it seems we can’t have Thanksgiving fun without a campfire!

Uncle Buddy wanted to play Age of Empires with Lucas & Becky; even Louis and I joined in on a 5-person hot-seat Heroes 3 game that lasted all day (and we didn’t finish).  The kiddos (will leave anonymous which adults joined in as well) did a super-multi-player Minecraft / Imposter with phones and computers.  The shouted directions in the living and dining room had everyone else laughing! 

My Angel Eggs were a different story.  I made two platters.  I love making food look beautiful but most of the time we are short on time so I can’t.  (I used to even make everyone’s birthday cakes from scratch & even made two wedding cakes!)  Today I made beautiful piped eggs. 

One platter was gone in T-5 minutes!  Jaquline did warn us she was going to eat more than the eggs she shelled!  I love making food people enjoy.  

Being around my family when we aren’t rushed always reminds me to be thankful for them!  Uncle Buddy had prepped his head for military service (more on that next time) and Lucas thoroughly enjoyed playing video games with and snuggling with his uncle.  I am super thankful for this life God has given me and I pray my home becomes the gathering point for family and friends always on any Sunday we have family day or any holiday.  Food and good company is always a reason to gather together!

Thank you for reading!

Type at you next time!

~Nancy Tart

Movie Thoughts: Knowing

March 28, 2019

Movie Thoughts: Knowing

The other night we had a movie night.  This had to be something mostly family friendly because everyone was awake.  Yes, even Thea was awake, but I’m sure she wasn’t paying attention to the movie just yet.

See, maybe because I’m old, or a morning person, or was exhausted from the work week, or… I’ll figure out an excuse later… short of it is, I go to sleep early.  Okay, earlier than my teens… okay, even earlier than my almost-teen.  My husband works late.  He is a night-owl.  So they usually watch anything that has too much blood, bad words, or unsafe-for-little-people-stuff after I’m asleep.

SO… queue the air-popped popcorn with yummy butter and salt, some fresh-cut potato French Fries and Sweet Potato Fries, and lemonade… the movie was on.

We watched Nicholas Cage in “Knowing.”

Louis said it was a horror film.  (I asked if he had lost his marbles… I wanted the little ones to sleep in their beds!)   Honestly, I think this designation was to entice the teens to watch it with us.

Oh my goodness.  What a strange, twisting, amazing movie.

**SPOILER ALERT**

If you want to watch the movie without knowing all the twists, stop reading now and go borrow it from the library.  Seriously, this is worth the watch.  We will likely watch it again.

The story acts like a psychological thriller.  Strange dark-cloaked “apparitions” aka “ghosts” aka “spirits” appear and disappear through the 50 years of time reflected in the film.  “Whispers,” as the affected children call the voices in their heads, keep relaying numerical information and give visions to the children after the dark-cloaked strangers give them an otherworldly rock.

Dad (Nicholas Cage) is a grieving widower astrophysicist pastor’s son who has turned his on faith and believes, as he tells his students, that the universe is a collection of haphazard mistakes and there is nothing but chaos.  He drowns his hopeless unbelief in a variety of alcoholic beverages to self-medicate his depression.

The son is hard of hearing (wears a hearing aid) and deeply misses his mother and the happiness that lived in his home before her death.  He happens to be given a message from the first child (written 50 years ago and locked in a time capsule at her/his school) that is a sheet of apparently random numbers.

But the numbers aren’t random.  They are the date (in short form) of a catastrophe and the number of people who died from it… and the “unknown” digits following (which if you have been listening to a Civil Air Patrol Chief talking about orienteering and navigation by GPS, you see that these same length “unknown” numbers are latitude and longitude).

What clenches it for Dad is when he finds the date of his wife’s death (a fire that claimed many) as one of the catastrophes in this list.  He realizes this message is personally meant for his family.  Now he launches into investigation to find out who wrote the message, where she is, why she wrote it, and to find the connection to his family.

Symbolism begins to appear here as the audience starts figuring out the story.  The first hint for me was the fire vision with the animals fleeing but nowhere to go.  (Destroy the Earth by fire.)  The dark-cloaked strangers have shielded eyes but bright faces.  (How would you hide glory unless shielded by darkness yet there’s still light in their faces?)  This is revealed at the very end with the darkness falling away and now they are bright, amazing beings.  (And the viewer whispers, “every time a person sees an angel, they have to say “fear not,” no wonder!”)

When “EE” is revealed to be “Everyone Else” the title is explained.  Now, they know.

At the end sequence, notice the “Pearly Gates,” “streets of gold,” “white linen garments,” and other symbolism played out – how they make it come to life is pure amazement.  Everything is explained in such a unique way.

This movie is rated PG (likely for the alcohol and “disturbing images”).  It’s actually very well put together.  The storyline seems fractured but falls into place and you wonder how you missed it.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Yard Work Day

June 30, 2017

Yard Work Day

Today was a yard work day.

I love yard work day because I love to mow grass.  With our push mower, it’s a walking workout where you can sing your lungs out and no one can hear you.  Today I was interviewing Ethan while I mowed instead of singing.

The girls love yard work day because after we spend hours yanking stumps and sticks and dead wood out of the ground (this yard was Florida brushland 8 months ago, so it was loaded with hidden spikes where bush stumps stick out of the ground), we can burn them in our fire pit (8 concrete blocks set in the dirt off the backyard in the middle of the dirt pit – I like to pretend that’s the summer kitchen; it might be, someday).

The dogs love yard work day.  Primrose likes it because she gets to be outside with us.  Sheba gets the whole house to herself – and we’ll come in to find her stretched out on top of the couch with a nest made out of her blanket.

But the critters who make the absolute best of yard work day are the chickens.  They follow the mower like rats following the Pied Piper, each hoping to snatch more dislodged bugs and fresh, juicy greens than every other chicken.  They race to whoever is raking and scratch the hay all over finding bugs. (10 adult chickens can smooth a leaf pile flat in less than a minute!)  They spy a child toting the full hay bucket toward their henhouse – Crow Cackle Cackle! – they call all other foraging chickens as they race back to the henhouse to inspect and rearrange their new hay immediately.  Soft grass cuttings make hay.  Thicker, brush-type cuttings make the hen yard mulch.  We fill this “hen yard mulch” about 6 to 10 inches deep and the chickens continually scratch and add nitrogen to it for a few weeks.  We use this finished, fertilizer-infiltrated, shredded indigestible plant material to mulch our bulb beds and for our future garden.

The bonus of yard work day is that everyone feels like we’ve accomplished much, we all clean up, eat dinner, and sleep.  The children all go to sleep as soon as they are out of the bath.  Even Mom is tired, but after the last outside chore (herding the reluctant chicken flock back into the hen yard for the night), I breathe in the sweet smell of cut grass, fresh earth, and wood smoke.  And we finish our yard work day with sticky, gooey roasted marshmallows over the dying fire’s embers.

Working outside always relaxes me.  I totally love how when God made us and put us in the perfect environment; perfection was a garden!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

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