Tag: honored

New Year, 2024

January 3, 2024

New Year, 2024

Wow!

Read that again!  Wow!  It’s a new year full of possibilities!

I’m always so thankful for new years.  New seasons, new months, a new week every Sunday morning, a new day every sunrise… newness always reminds me of the opportunity God gives us to make a new start.  

Our possibilities this year look amazing!  

Laud got a tooth for Christmas (just one, two more are sitting there in the wings where we can see them but they haven’t popped through just yet).  He’s growing so fast!  I’m so blessed to watch this fast-moving change from totally-dependent-baby stage to exploration-baby-stage!

Thea has learned to read!  She’s officially started her “schoolbooks” aka book work.  We don’t really start books until they can read.  Her favorite school book is “The Beginner Book of Words” – the Dr. Seuss “kid dictionary” that belonged to her dad and uncles!  She announced to me, “mom, since I can read, I need real schoolbooks to do work in.”  I’m not sure if I’m ready for that!

Lucas can do some crazy cool gymnastics stuff!  His favorite thing is to show off his muscles – Kimberly consistently reminds him of the proper muscle names as he’ll flex and say “look at this one.”  Lucas told me his favorite thing he wants to happen this year is “work with Dad and build our house.” 

Jillian has her first gymnastics competition of the 2024 spring season January 13th!  She’s competing Xcel Silver again this year with WGV Gymnastics and is super excited about her routines.  Her confidence has grown with her strength and flexibility the past few months.  Her self-discipline is growing and took a huge jump right at the end of 2023 when she decided to apply herself seriously to both gymnastics and academics.  I’m so excited for what 2024 will bring in Jillian!

Jaquline has set her mind on a goal at the end of 2023 and I’m excited to see where it takes her.  She’s refocused her study path toward law.  She’s been devouring history, literature and debate, and the history of founding documents like our Constitution.  She says she wants to learn the laws, how and why they were written, and how legal changes are made.  Jaquline has been learning a lot about household management in the last bit of 2023 and says she will continue that in 2024.  She’s also deepening and polishing her collegiate writing skills.  She wants to write informational reports and persuasive (as she calls them, “enlightening”) papers well.  

Kimberly has her first gymnastics competition of the 2024 Spring season January 14th.  Kimberly competes Xcel Diamond with WGV Gymnastics this year.  I’m so excited to see her perform with all the training she’s persevered through in the past year.  This girl’s strength continues to astound me as she grows.  Kimberly also starts her first official college classes this semester.  She’s both excited and terrified – probably in the reverse order – about this.  I love seeing her set and accomplish goals!

Rebeccah returns to her college a little early this semester for work.  I’m both selfishly sad because I will miss her smile, watching her exercise patience with Thea, quietly observing as she paints (oh, by far my favorite thing to watch is someone create a masterpiece in front of my eyes – I got to watch her paint on canvas over this break), hearing her laughter, hearing her gaming; in short I will miss everything about her and there’s a Rebeccah-sized hole when she leaves home.  But I love hearing her adventures and chatting with her in her tight breaks between chapel, work, study, and classes.  She has such precious little free time and I’m honored when she chooses to use that time for me! 

Christina will be taking steps into her career path!  I’m so excited to be a part of her next adventure!  Resuming flight training is only the start of her 2024 adventures.  I am thankful she still shares her hopes and dreams and plans with me.  (And I get to borrow her car)

As a family, we bought property and cleared it in the last few months of 2023!  This is our first step toward building a home of our own!  Our designs are hopefully finding an architect willing to perfect a small, compact plan; hopefully we can start utilities and building soon!  

Thank you for reading!

Type at you later!

~Nancy Tart

And We All Made It!

December 31, 2023

And We All Made It!

Butterflies swam in my heart, stomach, mind… anywhere… everywhere all at once.  

I’m sitting in one of the folding seats in the Ocean Center with a baby nursing… I’ve been here, done that before, but never have I been in this venue for the event that is unfolding before me.  

A cycle of pictures of young men and women in more childish images showed on the screen that usually displayed my gymnasts’ scores.  

My gymnasts are sitting in the row behind me because our group of twelve takes almost two whole rows.  They are not in warm-ups cheering teammates, but keeping siblings entertained as they all wait for Christina. 

Marching Music!  

There they come!  Hundreds of young people in black gowns and caps.  Christina has a decorated cap with a quote from The Hobbit.  Her cap is bright green – and that makes her easy to pick out of the sea of black gowns and caps.  

Christina is graduating with her 4-year-degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University!  Her graduation from high school with her AA degree from St Johns River State was the first college graduation ceremony I’d attended.  I look around me at six of my other seven children and my niece.  I smile; it definitely won’t be the last!

Everyone is waving and trying to get Christina to see them.  Christina’s fiancé was also watching along with some of his family a little higher up in the arena!  Kimberly is impressed with this use of the floor that she’s been competing on for three seasons and will be coming to again in 2024.  

The keynote speaker starts: Rebeccah’s plane hasn’t yet landed.  Louis is monitoring that.  The keynote speaker’s last encouragement?  “Adapt and overcome” – my Daddy said that all the time.  It almost made me feel like he was watching.  

A text.  Rebeccah’s plane landed.  She’s getting a taxi from the airport.  It’s a couple of miles.  She’d managed to get out of her college classes and work early so she could catch the earliest flight from Pensacola to Daytona.  I had prayed she would get to the venue to see Christina walk.  

I walked out to change Laud the same time as Louis said Rebeccah was here but not sure how to get in.  I walked to meet her; she is very enterprising and self-reliant so had discovered the entry herself.

We took our seats.  

Christina’s group of graduates stood.  My crew waved and Christina looked up to see Rebeccah here.  

We were all present.  

Louis, me, Rebeccah, Kimberly, Jaquline, Jillian, Lucas, Theadora, Laud.  Grandma Tina.  Aunt Becca and Anastasia.  Louis had his mom on video phone or something like that.  She said she was watching it live-streamed.  All of Louis’ and my little Tart clan was here to cheer on our Christina as she graduated.  

Our determined, ambitious, perfectionist whose smile lights up rooms.  October had been her 20th birthday.  My mind flew backward to that box of confetti in plane shapes.  She’d been accepted to the only university she wanted to attend: and Louis and I wondered how we would pay for it.  Scholarships, grants, loans, and flight training on a few credit cards – she’d worked as much as possible to make it happen.  We’d helped some.  Christina had made it happen.  

Christina walked up to get her diploma.  With honors.  (My perfectionist was bummed she didn’t make “with highest honors”) She did her little dance move she did at her “high school” graduation.  She looked up and beamed at us.  I am so proud of her!  (And Thea yells “you got this!” – even though it wasn’t a gymnastics meet)  

All of us were there.  Sure, our baby won’t remember it.  He actually slept through the keynote speaker and woke just before Christina walked.  Thea and Lucas will remember playing and being bored, respectively.  From Anastasia up to Rebeccah though; they know it’s a big deal.  They know, with varying degrees of understanding, how much work Christina put into getting to this goal.  They watched, with varying degrees of understanding, as she studied, worked, stressed, complained, forced herself to take fun breaks once in a blue moon, prayed, and pushed on.  

With Little Cousin
Mom, Graduate, Grandma
With Littlest Sister
Our Graduate!
Sister-Cousins

We all celebrated with Christina. 

I am so thankful for miraculous appearing of funding at needed times.  I am so thankful for my determined young woman who made her goal happen.  I will cherish this memory.  

Soar high Christina!  Remember what your determination and ambition made happen!  God opens doors but you have to choose to walk through them!  Your graduation didn’t happen “just because” – there were lots of late nights, missed sleep, forcing yourself to go to work when you wanted to sleep in, exams you stressed far too much over, budget cuts to pay for the next simulator, and other challenges you rose to and overcame.  

Keep on flying high – you are “forever an eagle” now!

Thank you for reading!

Type at you next time!

~Nancy Tart

Growing Young Women

December 28, 2023

Growing Young Women

It struck me with a text I sent: I have the littles at gym with me

I had Jillian, Lucas, Thea, and Laud.  

Half of our “biggers” are actually adults.  That’s a strange place to realize I am at.  I paused a moment, glancing at my phone on my work desk.  The notice underneath my text went from “sent” to “read” and I smiled.  I thanked God for the honor of having so much time with my growing young women.  I thanked Him for getting to mother so many of His children.  (My heart reminded me that we get them for a short time.) 

I don’t want to think about that.  

My heart loves that they love to do stuff together.  Like when they got a “big girl trip” for their combined birthdays.  Such happy faces!

Now we are nearing the end of Rebeccah’s winter break. (I didn’t want to think about that, either.) Soon those giggles across the table at meals, board games, and roblox and minecraft shenanigans, the gamer shouts from the newly re-setup PS1 and Xbox in the playroom, and the kitchen laughter will again be missing our Rebeccah.  I am so thankful for her beautiful life!  I love the connectivity and humor she brings.  I miss her when she’s gone.  I thanked God for Rebeccah.  I pray she will always choose to talk to me when she needs to.  I pray I am keeping our communication open.  I pray she chooses wisdom. 

Kimberly and Jaquline go back to their respective schedules (as does everyone else) and move forward in their busy study, work, and training lives.  Kimberly recently found a friend who encourages her in faith and sports commitment; a very good thing for her at this time.  I thanked God for Kimberly.  I pray she chooses wisdom as she keeps moving toward her long-term goal of studying sports medicine or physical therapy.  She has such a heart for healing (and preventing injury) and an intuitive understanding of how the body works.  

Jaquline has recently started to focus her studies on law and debate – her new goal is to be a lawyer.  She does have a way of getting people to see merit in her direction.  I laugh sometimes at her logic.  She has such a wonderful attitude about life and her cheerfulness is catchy.  She takes the responsibility of helping raise children so seriously – she assists in the nursery and I often hear her say “my babies.”  She has a helpful heart and wants to see everyone treated fairly.  I thanked God for Jaquline.  I pray she continues to seek God and chooses wisdom in her life’s path.

Christina, our first with a Bachelor’s degree, is stepping forward toward her career.  She continues to live with us.  I am so thankful that she stays close.  I feel honored that she chooses to keep talking with me. I thank God for Christina.  I pray she seeks God in all aspects of her life.  I pray she chooses to chase her dreams and grab opportunities that arise.  I pray she chooses wisdom and can live with no regrets.  Christina has a mothering soul.  Her determination and ambition have served her well so far!

I love all stages of our family life.  Today I’m grateful for being able to watch our little girls grow into vibrant young women.  I am thankful I still get to be a part of their lives.  I am reminded that just as we can contain multiple emotions at once, our homes can contain multiple stages at once.  Thank you, Jesus, for the honor of being a mother.  

Thank you for reading!

Type at you later!

~Nancy Tart

Dating Decisions (Part 1)

Part 1 of Dating Decisions – dissecting real life and true love

September 16, 2020

Dating Decisions (Part 1)

WHOA! What is meant by this title?

Nothing. It’s a history story. Ancient history if you ask my children. I am a writer of stories; why would it surprise you that I would pull stories from my teenage decisions? No crazy thoughts. Take a deep breath, empty your presuppositions, and read: you may learn a little about the psychology behind decision making.

Once upon a time, (No, this is not a fairy tale… it is my truth tale.), I was just understanding love. Real love. I was curious about my parents and other couples around me and in my church. My mom and dad had at this point been married for 13 years. I was 11. I considered them ancient. Now I am older than my mother then and close to my dad’s age at the time – wow, I’ve reached the 11-year-old’s idea of ancient! One of my daddy’s mentors had been married to his wife for over thirty years. My daddy’s parents had been married for over 40 years when my grandmother died and granddaddy didn’t remarry. My mother’s parents had been divorced before my mom met my daddy and two of her siblings had been married and divorced. I had been sitting at a concert at a church with mostly teenagers where the girl asked, “raise your hand if your parents have been divorced.” Everyone in my row raised their hands. Most of the auditorium raised their hands. I had watched “The Parent Trap” from the sixties, but in that movie the parents got back together and all was well. I started to understand that divorce was the norm for most of the children I met. My family, with their short 13 years together, was already 7 years beyond the “normal” for divorce; according to research in the “Focus on the Family” newsletter my daddy received. I began to understand that most of the problems facing my peers were related to their broken families. I realized that my mother broke the chain and her baby sister was breaking the chain. I wanted to be like the couple in one of my churches who stood up on the day they honored families and claimed 73 years of marriage.

Research started.

I read marriage and family books (my daddy had two bookshelves full of them in his office to start my journey). I analyzed relationships in movies, in books, and in history and began to learn how to predict problems based on family stability. Stories of great hardships with intact, supportive families morphed into strong, successful, loving children. What was the binding tie?

In every personal interview I did over the next six years (and beyond, but I’m telling the story of teenage me) the common thread for successful marriage was that both loved Jesus, both were willing to love the other without expecting anything in return, and both went into their relationship committed to making it last. Repair it rather than throw it away. I already had a waste-not-want-not mentality. This matched.

Along came 12. The first boy asked me out. I thought he was sweet. He liked to carry my books from Sunday School for me. He was nice to his baby sister. I found myself already studying potential mates. I was scared of that. I told him I couldn’t date until I was 16. That became my pre-programmed response to all of the offers in the next 4 years.

I was already journaling. I told God I was going to be 18 before I dated. I told Him I wanted Him to be in control. I told Him I wanted to focus on being the best big sister and daughter I could. So began my journey of discovering and morphing myself into what I thought God wanted.

At 16, my Daddy started getting worried. My 14-year-old sister was already dating and my 12-year-old brother liked to whistle at girls. I was deep into studying. I took time to develop relationships with all of my siblings as they allowed. It wasn’t that I wasn’t “interested” in boys. I plain and simple told my daddy once, “I’m not old enough to do anything about it, so why would I play with someone’s heart?” (As a teen, I thought he was shocked with my logic, but now as an adult I wonder if he was also scared of what I meant by that.)

And that was the first dating decision I realized I had made.

…continued next time!

~Nancy Tart

Follow me!

Get my latest posts delivered to your email: