Tag: helpers

The Miracle of Friends

The Miracle of Friends – aka down to one car on a meet weekend with college and work too!! #2023 #Family #Friends #Friend #Blessings #Blessing #TheBlessingOfFriends #TheMiracleOfFriends #OpenHearts #FriendshipIsAwesome #GymnasticsMeet #SavannahTrip #Kupets2023 #GodsHandIsInEverything

March 21, 2023

The Miracle of Friends

It was Wednesday, March 1st.  I was on the floor stretching with my little preschoolers and talking about what color butterflies they were pretending to be today.  

My phone, however, received this from my oldest daughter who was on her way to work from college: 

Car trouble rn

I am going to be late to work.  I actually don’t know if I’ll get to work.

Followed thirty minutes later (I still hadn’t come off the floor so hadn’t seen these) by:

Daddy has me.

I’m not gonna make it to work

Letting Thea know

Thirty minutes later (I still hadn’t seen anything):

ACTUALLY

Nvm

I will be there right on time.

I only saw her arrive at her normal time (4pm) as I was working.  I didn’t even know something was up until about 7pm when I finally looked at my phone!

Our Buick decided to shut all electrical systems down on the interstate!  We had a meet in Savannah that weekend!  Louis and Christina took it to the closest dealership because this poor car was new when Louis got it but has spent a greater percentage of time getting fixed than any used one we’ve had!  (Nice that it is still under warranty!) 

Thursday arrives: at noon, the dealership still hasn’t even looked at the Buick!  Christina has to go to college on Friday.  Louis had requested the day off work Friday to take Jillian to her meet in Savannah.  All the potential rides for Jillian weren’t able to do this one. (So many meets would have been missed without all of the amazing friends who have driven one gymnast or the other over my three years!) We looked into renting a car for the day – so far out of budget.  Christina looked into staying over with a friend so she wouldn’t need a car for college but no one could get her back to work in time and she just doesn’t drop school or work.  I was going to ask Jillian’s coach how to go about scratching (missing the meet, we’ve never done that), when Louis called (I was sitting at a school waiting for kiddos to get in the bus).  He had contacted the dealership at 2:30 & they said they would look at the Buick on Monday. He had told his boss he didn’t need the day off because he didn’t have a way to get Jillian to Savannah – his boss loaned him a van!  

Jillian didn’t even know.  She didn’t know how close she came to missing her first meet.  (She did hear the story through when she’s like, “wait where’d we get this van?” on Friday in the wee hours.)  She and Lucas went down with Dad and had a great time!  

His Best Buddy is here!
Sharing the Nintendo Switch
Three Best Buddies!
Photos by Louis Tart & Mikaela Reppert
Silver Team at the Kupets Meet 2023

Sometimes we get busy and forget about the amazing miracle of friends.  God gives us friends.  People who honestly care about us and whom we care about.  The miracle of friends is that they are always there.  Sometimes we miss out on a blessing and being a blessing because we forget to ask.  How do we know someone needs anything unless they ask us?  How can friends know we need anything unless we ask?  I love how children don’t have these “I shouldn’t bother them” issues because they ask friends everything!  From, “your sandwich looks good, can I have half?” to “help me fix my ribbon, please!” to “I’m sad, can we sing?” and everything else in between.  

A scene from an old movie makes me smile: a girl says “oh I forgot to buy a ladder!” and turns to go back inside the general store.  Owner of said general store laughs, picks up his ladder leaning against the wall and says, “country folks don’t buy ladders, they borrow them.”  He is trying to impress on this family that people around care about them and want to help in any way possible.  

I love that God gave us the miracle of friends.  Sometimes we don’t see them for a long time (ages, it always seems) and sometimes a pop-in visit is needed and God arranges that.  

I’m so thankful for the friends and family around us.  Our people bless us so much!  I pray we can return blessings when they need them!

Thank you for reading!

Type at you later!

~Nancy Tart

Being Lifted Up

April 4, 2020

Being Lifted Up

See Lucas? See Louis? Yes. Louis is lifting Lucas up to get ice cream out of the freezer so they can use that milk on the counter because Lucas wanted to make cookies and cream milkshakes.

Sometimes you can’t reach what you want without being lifted up.

This made me think of how everyone where I live is helping each other. It’s like when a hurricane comes and everyone seems to band together and help each other. Those who cut trees up so people can get out of their driveways, those who give water or make lemonade for linemen, someone who shares their firepit or grilled food with the neighbors.

The same thing is happening now. Only instead of being shut down for a couple of days max, we are currently on the third week of shutdown. The end doesn’t seem to be in sight; especially for the young as my daughter’s senior friends are afraid they won’t get to walk for high school graduation.

Look for the helpers.

Look for the need and fill it.

This is how we pull together and make our world better.

This is how we will rise again stronger than before.

Help won’t be a pork barrel stimulus package passed because it included raises for those who passed it.

Help will be from the local community – friends, neighbors, family, churches, local businesses. We will stand up together and help each other as we haven’t before. I see it already in bits.

So instead of feeling helpless alone in your home wasting time worrying about what you can’t control (like the stimulus bill, a virus with long incubation, or the fact that your household just lost 3 of 4 jobs) do something!

  • Call your friends and give them an encouraging voice.
  • Call a church or community organization and offer to help in whatever capacity exists.
  • If you are one of the few with extra, support your local businesses right now by utilizing their services or buying gift certificates for later so they can pay their bills and open up when this is all over.
  • Brighten someone’s day (yes, especially if they live in your own home!).
  • Pray for wisdom in leadership.
  • Text and say “hi! hope you are having a lovely day!” just to do it… and expect a call or text conversation because they realize you care.

We can do these things to keep our sanity and help encourage others. Remember what a great man said after beating polio firsthand, living through the Spanish flu epidemic, and leading our country through the Great Depression… “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” (Franklin Roosevelt)

Instead of just looking for the helpers… BE a helper! BE an encourager!

Thank you for Reading!

Type at you next time,

~Nancy Tart

My New Gym!

August 22, 2019

Our New Gym!

Have you ever moved? 

YES!  I can remember 19 different homes in my early years.  My husband and I have shifted houses 10 times in almost 17 years. 

I am intimately aware of moving.

I know just how many boxes can fit in a 5×8 moving trailer.  I can look at your furniture and see it morphing into place inside a moving van like blocks in Tetris – just with some blankets and pillows strategically placed here and there for padding.

WGV Gymnastics (which yes, I call “my gym” even though it’s not mine, I coach there… but I love it!) just moved from their old facility to the new one at 135 Center Place Way, Saint Augustine, in World Golf Village area.  (They literally moved across the pond!)

We helped with loading a trailer and cleaning.  Our monster was the pit – do you know how many giant trash bags are needed to clean out 15,000+ 6”x6”x6” foam pit blocks?  We have no clue, but it’s upwards of 500.  And that doesn’t count those wrapped up in the tarp! 

Our new facility has amazing new equipment, huge cooling fans, the climbing rope (Kimberly’s favorite), and I can’t wait to teach classes in the new preschool area!  Our after-school program is very nice.  We have two vans that pick children up from area schools. (Mill Creek, Pacetti Bay, and Palencia Elementary, to name a few – check with the office if you want to find out if your school is covered!) In this program, you can pick which days you need pick up, and your students will have assistance with homework, crafts and games to entertain them, and snacks while they wait for you to pick them up!  Since we are a gymnastics facility, the bonus to the program is access to specified gymnastics classes.

Dozens of people helped out in this massive move.  Teamwork.  That’s why I only know a small facet of the whole picture. 

We finished by sorting all the blocks into good, bad, and ugly. Good went to the new pit, bad to be shredded to make new mats, and ugly to the trash bin. Our teamwork system was separated into groups of various sizes doing specific tasks: One pulled bags up out of the pit, one opened bags, one put good blocks neatly into uHaul boxes, one bagged up the bad & trashed the ugly, and one took “train cars” (aka uHaul boxes loaded with pit blocks) to the door to wait for the “engine” (aka the truck to the new gym).

Lucas and Jillian loaded the bags out with a rope (before it got reassigned to another task) while Kimberly tosses bags up to be sorted! This teamwork went on for hours.

While I only know the pit blocks intimately during this move, I am super excited for the new facility and our growth from here out.  Come and see us at 135 Center Place Drive at WGV Gymnastics!

Type at you next time,

~Nancy Tart

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