Tag: fly

Let Thea Do It!

January 1, 2021

Let Thea Do It!

My almost 2 year old thinks she’s a gymnast and the gym is her second home. She thinks she’s a member of Civil Air Patrol like Christina and Kimberly. She thinks she can ride Lucas’ bike. She thinks she can build shelves like Mom. She also thinks she can hide from everyone in plain sight.

She thinks she can fly. (From any object straight into a big sister’s arms without warning!)

She’s been going to WGV Gymnastics attending the Parent and Tot classes (yes, we have classes for those just walking to 3 years old) for a few months and Lucas (big brother) has been doing the Preschool Program for a few months.

Kimberly is in competitive team and set up a workout area on the wall marked with degrees (set up with sticks, a protractor, and a pencil) and was like “I need to go from here to here.”

“I can do that!” Says Lucas.

Bingo.

“Let Thea do it!” Thea says.

Bingo.

Kimberly tosses her hands in the air playfully, “I give up!”

We laughed and asked, “Why?”

“My baby brother has a bigger split than I do!” Kimberly laughed, “actually,” she tries it, “maybe not.”

We all laugh because the littles are so enthusiastic about everything. They love anything and everything big siblings or friends are doing. Thea consistently tries to do everything her big brother and big sisters do. She walked into the front room last night and turned on the game computer, “play a game with Becky!” and the mouse pointer went straight to the correct icon for Becky’s game.

Thea loves to do it! Thea loves to do everything!

“Mom!” (I’m washing dishes, Thea is dragging the stool over to the sink…) “Thea can wash dishes, please?”

How do I say no? I hope she always keeps the can-do will-try attitude she currently possesses.

Type at you next time!

~Nancy Tart

Keep Flying High!

November 28, 2020

Keep Flying High!

Remember how we did a tour at Embry-Riddle University back in January? Christina told the tour guide that she was going there. She’s spent years dreaming of it. She’s focused all of her college classes at St Johns River College toward the basic degree requirements at Embry-Riddle. Her entire track since her freshman courses of Algebra has led toward her goal of Aeronautical Science with Flight. She wants to fly. She wants to go to what (according to her) is the best university for flight careers.

Well…

Today, I was taking stuff to the sink, and said, “Hey, there’s a box outside the gate that says Guess What? want to go get it?”

Christina screams “WHAATTT?” and jumps outside to grab it. I first thought oh, they ordered some Christmas present from Guess. But as I leaned out and yelled through the screen, “grab the rest of the mail while you’re out there, please?” I noticed the colors. Blue and Gold. Embry.

Christina had been finishing her application months ago, worried that we moved during her application process, worried that the address on her Transcript didn’t match the new address for mail, worried that her scores (really?) didn’t make it, worried that they were going to restrict the number of students and it wouldn’t be her. I just told her then, God will take care of it.

“No mom, let me check inside first! It might be a no.”

I wanted to take a picture – she was like, “no, let me check it first! It might be a no.” They send a box that says “you did it” on the side for nos? But I didn’t say that. My phone is not a great camera, but I got a couple pictures. Everyone who was home gathered around and squealed, playing with the confetti popper and hugging their excited big sister. I sent one picture to all the grandparents, aunts, and uncles. “She got accepted!”

She’s still sitting here, going through the box, shaking and grinning. In 9 months, my oldest baby is going to be taking classes at her dream university. Education goal #1, check!

I am so excited for Christina!

All I want is for each of my children is for them to set and accomplish the goals they strive for. I want them to reach for their dreams: flying, drawing, orthodontist, marine biologist, veterinary medicine, collegiate gymnast, avian vet, or whatever the future holds. I want it to be their dream. I want to guide and help them as much as possible, but it has to be their dream. You will only succeed when it is your passion and desire.

I’m so excited for her! I’m excited to be a part of her success. I’m excited to see her work so hard toward one goal and accomplish it! This is what I love to see!

Congratulations, Christina! I know this is just the start for you!

Do what you love. Work hard for what you want. You will accomplish what you dream!

(Oh yes, and enjoy the confetti mess because, according to Jillian, that is the fun part of big sister getting accepted!)

  • Can’t really see the blue and gold bits of paper
  • Jillian says “the confetti is the fun part”

Thank you for reading!

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Two Flyers

October 27, 2019

Two Flyers

Christina has been in Civil Air Patrol for a little over two years now.  She got to fly an airplane before she could legally drive a car.  (This freaked mom out a bit!) Now, I have two cadets!

C/2nd Lt Tart and C/Airman Tart

Yes, my little spunky Kimberly has been dreaming of the day she would be twelve years old for over two years (she got to hang out each time we stayed as a Civil Air Patrol unofficial “junior cadet” aka little sibling close to joining age who participates).  She discovered gymnastics and loves it!  She’s even planned to save Tuesdays (Team girls get one day off a week) just for CAP. 

Kimberly wants to be a large animal veterinarian specializing in genetic research, reproduction, and rehabilitation.  Although this doesn’t have much to do with flying planes, rocketry, space, or cyber-security, she wants to be in CAP for a while.  She wants to do any medical training, explore the education they offer, and do UCCs and other fitness related competitions.  She may discover her second love is really fitness… someday. 

That being said, part of our educational philosophy is to encourage the students to explore all experiences they can…

Including my just twelve year old, been officially in CAP two weeks, airman to try her excited, scared, jittery hand at flying.

Yes!  (Mom is less freaking out because C/2nd Lt. Tart was with her too, but still!)  My twelve year old has flown a plane – and my just-sixteen-at-the-time had “run out” of o-rides.

Type at you next time,

~Nancy Tart

Thea is Mobile!

August 15, 2019

Thea is Mobile!

Yesterday was a day of firsts for me to watch.  Theadora is just beginning to want to explore.  She has this cute portable baby holder (looks like a walker, but baby just stays put in it and plays with some toys you choose to attach), you know, like a camp chair only for babies.  She liked that fine for a few months – at home, outside, at work, she was happy standing there, doing squats, and playing with her turtle.

Thea in my office with her portable baby holder

Then a friend gave her a baby bouncer.  This thing is like a walker, except it’s attached to springs on the frame and stays in one place with built in activities and a seat that spins 360 degrees!  Epic.  Thea loves it.  When we get home, that’s what she wants!  Christina introduced her to the drum set – and Thea loves that too.  Banging on stuff with both hands is now a bonafide activity.

And this is the bouncer Thea loves!

Now the portable baby holder doesn’t cut it.  Thea jumps in it and makes the whole thing move.  The dogs in my office have differing opinions on that – Faux is cautious, Beau thinks “Yippee, new toy,” and Lily looked up at me, whined, and vacated the office.

She loves the floor too!

Thea wants the floor or the bouncer.  No in-betweens.  On the floor, she’s been pretty static.  She has been rolling for about three months, but carefully, as all the floors in her environments are hard – she seems to have figured that slow, controlled rolling is how to do that without pain.  She’s been doing what I call “Superman Baby” since about the same time, but swivels round and round in a three-foot radius.  I could put her on her blanket and she was good – wouldn’t leave it.

Yesterday she discovered two new things:

  1. She grabbed the baby holder, pulled it over to her, and pulled herself up to sit!  Mom is not ready for that!
  2. “Spiderman Baby” aka being spread eagle like an X, pushes up with her arms like a push-up and toes to feet with a shove and rockets about a foot at a time forward!  Mom is really not ready for that!

Mom is not ready for Thea to be mobile!  I thought this as my mind replied, “were you ready for Christina to fly? Drive? How about Becky taking college classes? Kimberly flipping around in gym? Jaquline wearing high-heels? Jillian making lunch?  Lucas finally tying his own shoes?” Everything in life is a next level.  I love baby mode aka infant level, but also enjoy watching them grow and mature.  I enjoy being a part of their fantastic lives. 

Thea just jumped from infant level to mobile baby level – watch out world! (Or, maybe just watch out house.)

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Watching & Analyzing

Watching & Analyzing

April 27, 2019

I’ve always been a watcher.  I watch the world around me and (most of the time) analyze it.  I look at a beautiful blue sky and my mind says “wow, how pretty,” and quickly follows with “it won’t rain for the next few hours.”  (Yes, hours, we live in Florida – if you walk outside and don’t like the weather, go brush your teeth and check again.)

Honestly, I analyze too much.

I shouldn’t catch a glimpse of something and try to analyze it.

In relationships, that is nosy.  See someone and instantly turn on your inner Sherlock Holmes… (Four different cat hairs on her skirt, four cats – her house must be smelly… unless she uses that whatever-name-it-is-I-saw-on-tv multi-cat litter.  Is her purr-fume laced with tuna?)

That just isn’t nice.

In normal life, it can suck out the joy.

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I catch this glance of my angel sleeping.  Instant thought: “My Mom will love this.” Second thought: “She was two months old on Easter Sunday.”  Third thought as I’m sending my mom the picture: “Daddy never saw her.”  Followed quickly by a flood: Daddy didn’t get to hear about Christina flying, Lucas will not remember his Grandfather, they won’t get to learn how amazing Daddy’s brain was – like talking to an educated encyclopedia with an open mind.  He was always listening, always talking, always making connections where we couldn’t see them; always the analyst.

Within two minutes (from the time I took the picture until Mom texted back), my mind had sent my mood from joyful to sorrowful.  From excited about young life to regretting the passing of my Daddy.  I had just rode an emotional roller coaster at work and nothing had changed on my face.

I forced myself to refocus.

Daddy always expected Christina to achieve her dreams – he once told me to “look out, she has your determination and a friendlier world; just you watch what she does!”

Lucas loves watching family videos and listening to stories of his “Santa Boompa” told by his big sisters.

I inherited Daddy’s knack for soaking up knowledge (probably why I can make myself learn any new job rather quickly) and if you want to start me talking… (yes, the girls call it lecturing) enter at your own risk because I’ll make strange connections, see beyond what is easily seen, and read into situations for what “could be.”

I remind myself that we can always shift our focus to the positive, and that’s what Daddy would have wanted.  He didn’t want anyone sad when he left us.  He always wanted the joy, smiles, and laughter that he tried to cultivate.  So, now I’m back to joyful.

Then music runs through my head: “I Choose Joy!” (For King & Country – I love that song!)

Yes, I choose joy.  Everyday.  I pray you do too.

 

Type at you Later…

~Nancy Tart

She Flew!

March 30, 2019

She Flew!

I’m just coming in from work.  Thea’s diaper bag and my purse is on my left shoulder, Thea in her carseat is in my hands, and my shoes and phone on top of her blanket.

I maneuver through the gate as Jillian opens it and tell the dogs to back up.  They go about their normal business of sniffing everywhere on Thea’s blanket and clothes where my office dogs left a trace of an odor while I try to shoo them away and Thea giggles.

Lucas and Jaquline start telling me excitedly about their day – it seems Lucas wrote ones and twos today with Daddy.  Jaquline fixed her bicycle by herself.  Jillian rushes the dirty diapers to the laundry.  I ask about Becky; she’s “hiding” in the playroom making doll movies.  Kimberly is bouncing around like she borrowed Tigger’s bottoms.

The sweet chaos of returning home is silenced by Louis’ one sentence from the kitchen.  I smell yumminess.

“She’s in the air now.”

“What?” Time stopped.  The air didn’t smell like anything.  Silence as I puzzled out that meaning.  Louis is grinning.  Fresh rolls get pulled out of the oven – or was it one long French loaf?  I can’t recall.

“Who’s in the air?” I ask.

“Well,” Louis smiles, “Christina’s major called and they went up today.”

Oh. My. Goodness.  Great gravy train and gollywompers!  My 15 year old is in a Cessna!

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This tiny thing. Seriously. (Yes, I always wanted to fly one too!)

Actually, there were two cadets who went flying.  They went from Saint Augustine to Jacksonville and back.  It was just an O-flight, and they each only got to fly for a few minutes, but still… she’s dreamed of this for years!

Christina came home so re-energized to dive into physics, more math, and an enthusiasm to continue toward her goal of pilot because, “I never wanted to come down!  That thrill was so amazing!”

I haven’t even been in a plane yet ~ likely, Christina will be my pilot the first time!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

The King’s View

A very short story about the hawk that lives near our tiny farm. Enjoy!

October 8, 2018

The King’s View

(Today, enjoy a view of my “farm” from the eyes of “The King” – a large, beautiful hawk who lives in a nest in one of the pine trees in a neighbor’s property.)

Soaring over his domain, The King doesn’t think to look up; nothing flies higher than he.  The calls from his chicks in the nest remind him that this trip’s fare needs to be a feast.  The chicks are growing larger, hungrier, and bolder.  Soon his mate must shove them from the nest to go soar into their own territories, but today, he must hunt to fill their ever-growing bellies.

The sharp images below relayed by his eyes present a veritable feast of opportunity.  Tree-rats, overgrown frogs, and a few fat lizards sunning on the porches and driveways below all present easily caught but less than desired prey.

A cluster of rodents catch his eye, but he knows the hexagon-shaped glimmers mean they are protected by that horrid human invention called “chicken wire.”  Though he refers to it as “the shiny barrier” instead of “chicken wire.”  Six rodents are stretching in the afternoon sun, nocturnal in nature; they are fat, lazy, easy treats if it weren’t for that glimmering hexagon protection.

Cackles erupt from the wooden box under some shade trees – no, those chickens aren’t easy fare anymore.  They used to be.  He used to be able to outsmart the checkerboard rooster despite his three-inch spurs and heavy wings – he would get the younger chickens as they wandered away from the big rooster’s protection.  Now there were two long-spurred giants.  The checkerboard one was always outside chasing the wanderers back into the brush or waiting for a hawk to test his power.  The second was a giant red one – that one was missing a spur that had fatally wounded a previous hawk.  The King is wise enough not to attempt those chickens.  But he always looks.  If one wandered too far away or if that effective team was ever unwary…

No, today’s fare will have to be a few tree-rats.  The King settles his decision with a precision dive and catch.  He swoops in with amazing speed, executes his prey mercifully, and glides high on majestic wings to drop the prize in his anxious chicks’ nest.  He returns to gather another partial meal for his growing offspring.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

My Civil Air Patrol Cadet

July 12, 2018

My Civil Air Patrol Cadet

One day Louis was driving past the Saint Augustine Civil Air Patrol building and saw cadets marching around in uniform.  He stopped, asked them what they were, and raced home to tell Christina that he found the perfect activity for her.

She is my flying nut.  She loves planes.  Just like Lucas loves anything with wheels – she loves anything that flies (except mosquitoes and no-see-ums).  Better said; Christina loves anything mechanical that flies.

She’d studied famous flying people, physics, beat her way through math, and taken a helicopter tour for her birthday.  She’d talked with pilots as Louis shuttled them to the airport from their hotels.

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She had the time of her life when some friends took her to the Jacksonville Air Show! (Photo credit above & below – Hannah Clark & crew)

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The poster from that day was the first one tacked to her wall.

So, she “visited” the CAP meetings with Louis for three weeks – but Wednesday morning after her first meeting, she was like, “Mom, I’m going to join Civil Air Patrol.”  Of course, Christina’s decisions are never small – “I’m going to get to officer rank and they have all these things I can learn so I can get into programs to help me learn to fly…” and she continued talking me through the book and information someone had given her.

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She is a scrimping saver and refused any help with CAP dues, fees, or for her first uniform.  (This is a point of pride for her – to be able to cover all her own expenses.  She saw God’s love in action, though, when she thought she wouldn’t be able to go to winter encampment but our amazing church family gave her enough money for the trip and the extra items needed!)

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CAP gave her a grant to go toward buying her first blues uniform though – something about earning a certain rank.  (These are my borrowed shoes for her first day wearing blues.  Her real ones have a one inch heel and no decoration.)

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Lucas loves Christina’s uniform – especially the caps (aka, covers).

Thanks to CAP, Christina has matured greatly in social interaction (you can order younger siblings around all day, but it is different ordering someone else around!).  She is more confident, more physically active, emotionally and physically stronger, and enjoying the company of respectful, goal-driven, encouraging fellow cadets.

Our family has learned some new terms: water is hydration, anything not a uniform is civies, a funny backpack with a water bag inside and a fishtank-hose looking straw hanging around the cadet’s neck is a camelback, among others.

 

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We’ve swelled with pride watching our cadet march in parades (even if we only get a picture of her back half hidden behind another cadet)…

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…assist veterans in her blues…

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…and attend encampment as a student…

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…and staff.

She’s constantly challenging herself to new higher limits – one day, I’m sure, she’ll touch the sky!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

 

 

 

 

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