flower – Nancy Tart: Writing for Life

Exploring Big Sister’s Campus

I love watching the younglings do something new; why I love just walking and exploring. We can always find something to enjoy when we slow down and ignore the overbearing stresses of life. Take a break. Make yourself take a break.

Exploring Big Sister’s Campus

Throwback Story from (October 24, 2021)

I am sitting with Thea at the side of a pool on the Embry-Riddle campus because we chose to ride down with Christina for her Sunday afternoon flight block. Thea is laughing at pictures “Anastasia and the Bunny-Bear” from Easter at gym. (The Bunny-Bear is the Easter Bunny outfit Jaquline & Kimberly wore.) “The Bunny-Bear loves my gymnastics!” Thea says and laughs.

She jumps around; we’ve already walked the campus and she’s pointed out “safe” lizards (I told her here the lizards are not allowed to be chased) and flowers and bumble bees and honeybees and “boys and girls at Christina’s school.” She’s asked me almost everyone’s name. “What’s that boy’s name?” “Who is that girl?” “Are they all Christina’s friends at school?” (She goes to gym-school and all of those participants are her friends, so she assumes everyone at the school you go to are your friends.)

After listening to my stressed-out teenagers discussing life in the early afternoon, I’m convinced I didn’t do a great job of teaching them how to enjoy life and be grateful for the moment they are in. Sometimes that is really, really hard. Sometimes life’s circumstances don’t seem good. Sometimes it’s hard to be grateful – but you have to! I usually feel like I’m enjoying what I am in. I am grateful for the life I have; I love my family, my job, my church – those are the important things! I am so happy for the amazing things God keeps doing in our lives!

Christina and her educational journey is a continuing story of how God keeps answering prayers!

I’m so thankful for the people God has put and keeps putting in the path of my teenagers and young children through church, gym, and friendships. Becky has learned so much from the mentors in her life. Kimberly has positive role models who keep encouraging her.

Our journey has been full of ups and downs like any life story. We have to find the positive and focus on that. Like right now. Thea is running around on the “Water-bridge” after touching the “scary man” (metal statue of Wilber Wright) tentatively. She’s singing something I can’t figure, likely made up, and I’m typing.

Perfect contentment while exploring the strange surroundings that are Christina’s school. I’m sure I’ll hear lots of stories about the man, the critters, and the “boys and girls” she discovered.

Enjoy the slow down.

It makes life more fun!

Type at you later!

~Nancy Tart

Improvising

April 10, 2020

Improvising

Sometimes things don’t go as planned.

So you have to learn to improvise. In the words from a movie I used to watch with my Daddy, “adapt and overcome.” (Heartbreak Ridge with Clint Eastwood) Daddy used that phrase all the time, along with “think outside the box,” and “look at it from every angle.” He loved how the scientists and engineers basically dumped a box of items on the table in front of themselves when trying to bring Apollo 13 back to Earth and said “this is what they have, fix the problem with this.”

This kind of thinking is what I try to teach as an educator. I try to have my characters in books use it to solve problems so my readers will grasp the concept that sometimes there are various ways of solving a problem and all of them aren’t obvious.

These deep thoughts came from this: We wanted to watch a family movie and I wanted popcorn. We always air pop popcorn with a new movie! Not a kernel in sight (a 2^nd Lieutenant and an Airman, but those wouldn’t work).

Jaquline said, “I’ll make popcorn tangerines!”

She presented us with this

And we continued our family movie night.

Sometimes, you have to do with what you have. Silly thoughts from no popcorn and eating tangerines from a flower instead, right? That’s my crazy writer’s brain.

What have you done to improvise lately? Something that you normally do one way but now are doing differently?

Thank you for reading.

Type at you next time,

~Nancy Tart

Spring Blessings

March 24, 2019

Spring Blessings

March 20^th 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

Elephant Ears

May 24, 2018

Elephant Ears

One of my favorite garden bulbs is what we call “Elephant Ears.”

These are from three bulbs that we dug up in some weeds when we first moved in. They were tiny, neglected, and crowded. With good fertilizer and plenty of water, (we didn’t have to water them, God did it with the rain!) those three multiplied into fifteen by January when we replanted them in this nice half-shady strip between the carport and the side of the house.

We also leave the wild flowers that don’t crowd out our bulbs. Tiny white flowers that spread like ground cover are some of Jillian’s favorite because they look like “stars on green sky.” (Those are under the star lily in the above picture, but their blooms look like dots in the picture.)

These are the smallest ones. The elephant ears are now growing alongside a few lilies, six pineapples, tomatoes, and squash. (The clump of bushy leaves on the right corner are tomatoes.) The plants are called elephant ears because their leaves get to be the size of African Elephant’s ears. I’ve grown some before, which by their third year, had leaves that were five feet wide! (Since you have to clip the ears off at the stalk when the ears fall to help encourage new growth, the girls would save the clipped stalks for umbrellas!)

These are some of the “wild” tomatoes. This means we didn’t sow them there, they just came from our fertilizer/compost and we tended the plants as they sprouted. Jillian has the worm-picking job because we don’t use pesticides.

I love Florida bulbs, they are easy to grow and propagate quickly. I can give the many extras away and cover my yard in little groves of them within just a couple of years. Now if I can just get fruit trees like fig, citrus, kumquat, pineapple, and bananas to grow as well!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Results of the Rains

May 22, 2018

Results of the Rains

In late Florida Spring, we get rain. Who am I kidding? We get flooded. Our meteorologists have a very easy job. They can say, “we have a 100% chance of rain at some point today with clouds and a chance of thundershowers.” We do get a few slivers of sunlight, just enough to remind us that the sun is still battling for dominance.

A result of this rainy season is a slight change to the adage “April showers bring May flowers;” in Florida it’s “A string of showers bring beautiful flowers.”

Aren’t they gorgeous?

We had only a few small bulbs in neglected clusters when we moved in last year. We dug them up, separated them, replanted and fertilized the soil at least monthly with organic non-toxic high-nitrogen fertilizer. They reward us with amazing blooms after the showers!

Our fiery orange and yellow blooms are Kimberly’s favorite. (We had just three bulbs last year!) These are our front yard background flowers with their huge oval leaves and tall stalks.

Our bright white and fuchsia lilies make the bulk of the garden blooms.

These little buggers were in four clusters all dejected. A total of 34 bulbs – now they cover in a checkerboard pattern the front, center, side, one beautiful cluster, and lines between the cedar trees along the driveway. There are easily 100 bulbs now and we’ll have more in January when we replant.

Then there are my awesome tiny purple blooms with straight stalks called “Mexican Petunias.” Grandma Jeanette had a yard full of those! These are actually great-grand flowers off of some cuttings Grandma Jeanette gave me about ten years ago. So they are our “heirloom flowers.” (Yes, that’s a collard on the right.)

I love the results of the rain!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Fort Matanzas

May 15, 2018

Fort Matanzas

If you’ve read anything else I’ve written on this blog, you probably know by now that my family is an outdoor loving brood. This adventure is one of our latest: a trip to Fort Matanzas.

Fort Matanzas is a nice place to wander around and walk the half mile covered boardwalk. It feels like you are in the old Florida jungle – except the snakes and gators are going under the boardwalk and you are on top.

Fort Matanzas has the most amazing trees! They are windswept toward the intercoastal from all of the fierce ocean winds they’ve endured. You can picnic right under them (exactly what we did!) and walk through them. You are even allowed to climb them as long as you don’t mess with the hurt limbs or the really small ones.

Lucas loved climbing them – with a little help.

We tried for a good picture… (I love digital cameras, because I can delete the hundreds that look like this and keep the one or two that might have almost everyone looking!)

The ferry was closed but they said it will reopen soon.

Lucas found some beautiful flowers at the base of the building. He said, “Mommy, take my picture with the pretty flowers for you!” If you look closely, there are two orange lilies to his right!

Days like these linger like warm sunshine in my memory and I hope the kids remember them as fondly as I do.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Pineapple

May 2, 2018

Pineapple

One of our favorite fruits is the pineapple.

The best of the best is fresh cut. (We will get them straight off our bushes someday!)

Pineapple is great with pork, in oriental dishes, on pizza, in a cake, in muffins, or just plain and juicy sweet.

Up until a few months ago, I’d never cut a fresh pineapple! It’s really easy if your kids are like mine and want to eat as close to the rind as possible. My mom cuts the rind off and then dices the meat for a no-mess-later snack.

You cut off the top. (Be sure to leave a little meat so you can plant the top in a sunny spot and a year later you’ll have more pineapples!)

You cut off the base. (My kids call it the butt because the pineapple sits on it.)

Now stand the pineapple up and slice through it from top to bottom in two or three cuts. I always use three because I like narrower bites for small-child mouths to make less of a mess. Lay these four or six strips flat and slice into wedges. They will look like pizza slices. The yellow pineapple meat is pretending to be the cheese and the rind is being the crust.

And voila! Easy treat to grab and eat! Our chickens love pineapple rinds. Prim always thinks she wants them when we are cutting, but that’s just because we have the cutting board out and she thinks she’s a human.

Pineapple is loaded with vitamins and minerals needed for healthy bodies. It has an enzyme called bromelain that is anti-inflammatory and helps sooth coughing too. For the calories (82 per cup), pineapple is considered nutrient dense and low sugar. One cup of fresh pineapple has about 180mg potassium, 2g dietary fiber, 0.6g protein, 0.7% Vitamin A, 40% Vitamin C, 6.7% Vitamin B6, as well as copper, iron, folate, magnesium, thiamin, niacin, and 130% daily value of manganese! (Among others, check it out!)

So, for a healthy, easy snack that tastes great, try some fresh pineapple! (Just watch out for the “burn” you can get on your lips after a few slices.)

Fun facts:

Did you know that adding a little salt to pineapple makes it taste sweeter? Just not too much!

The pineapple is technically a berry! It is formed by several flowers fruiting together at the core (the hard central “Stem” through the middle of the pineapple) and fusing together into the soft, yellow meat of a single fruit per stalk.

The core and rind are edible! The core can be too tough to eat in an unripe pineapple. The rind is traditionally used to make a fermented drink!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Tag: flower

Exploring Big Sister’s Campus

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Improvising

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Spring Blessings

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Elephant Ears

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Results of the Rains

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Fort Matanzas

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Pineapple

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