Our gym has an after-school program where our comfy vans pick up from several area schools and bring little athletes back to gym. They do gymnastics, crafts, eat snacks, and do homework. Thea and her other gym baby friend sometimes hang out there. Thea loves it and thinks she’s a big kid! Just like at home, she tries to do school with them!
Especially when someone wants to play teacher! Ellie loves to play teacher and Thea loves to “learn” and she likes the chalkboard.
At home, Thea knows not to eat coloring tools like pencils, crayons, markers, and even paints! At Aunt Becca’s she got introduced to big sidewalk chalk and tasted it. Sister-cousin Anastasia laughed and said, “eww, gross Baby Thea, you color with it like me!”
Once Thea saw that, it was like “aha! this is an outside coloring tool!”
Sitting with Becky one day, she pulls up a pencil and paper and says “yeah!” and starts babbling in her own way, giving us serious glances as she explains what her work is. Jillian said, “Thea thinks she’s doing school!”
Thea and Becky are quite alike. Becky understood before her first year that coloring tools were not to be eaten too. Baby Becky never ate Legos (except for the black squishy tires, she called them gum and we had to remove them temporarily – I think she still secretly stashes them somewhere and chews them). Baby Becky was my earliest potty trainer (at 14 months telling us when she had to go & by 18 months in regular underwear – I have no clue how!) and Thea is already potty training herself. She got super excited when I bought a baby potty for her tiny self – and knows exactly what it’s for (showed us by pulling at her diaper so we took it off & she used the potty, I teased Becky that she may lose the designation of youngest potty trained).
I love watching my little love get more independent. Each one of them unique and special. Each has different strengths and weaknesses. Each helps the other in various tasks to make us a cohesive team – we build on each others’ strengths.
This is how we all should be. Learning, assisting, encouraging; each doing what we do best and helping when and where we can. It isn’t just for siblings or families. This understanding of the learning and growing and maturing process is an important life skill.
And Thea is playing in the grass without eating it – amazing! She is totally a little Becky… until Uncle Buddy came along and taught 2-year-old Becky she could eat dollar weed (and then she wouldn’t quit eating them!).
One of the things I like best in the whole world is to read books. Aloud. To children.
Don’t get me wrong, I love reading personally too, but there is just something so amazing about getting to play all characters in a book for wide-eyed child audiences. My first audiences were my younger siblings – actually, most of them were just trapped. It’s like “not again!” but one or two would be like “yes! read this one!”
One of my biggest encouragers in my writing was my youngest brother. His favorite read-aloud story is actually completed (a trilogy, actually) but because of my perfectionist nature, needs tons of work before I would publish them. So Olivia and Alex will be left right there in our imaginations for now… The next one he wanted me to read was “Web of Deception” in which I created a character to “be him.”
And Becky begging for more “Pirate Baby Story” – I wanted to see the sparks of interest in reading. Reading is the open door to so much knowledge.
Now I’m sitting on my comfy bed with Lucas and Thea, starting “Fibbing Fisherman” (Lucas calls it “the fish boy that Becky draws” because Becky illustrated the cover). Jillian hears and lumbers in from her spot on the couch (did I really just draw her away from a movie). Kimberly hops in, “are you reading?”
The last big one was Voyage of the Dawn Treader. (I love the Narnia books!) I’m always reading something – in progress on a big one and reading through little ones at least one in a sitting. They fall asleep around me – the big kids hadn’t even shown up at the fishing spot yet – as I read and pretend I’m each different character. We discuss each decision as the characters make them because most of the time book readings are interrupted by “why’d he do that?” or “what was she thinking?” questions. (YIPPEE! time for socratic questions to answer these and get their own mental gears turning!)
I hope I’ll always be reading so someone. I don’t really read to Christina anymore. Sometimes Becky will wander in when it’s a book she likes or when she wants to read (she is a great oral expressionist – I expect she could be a great speaker or do drama or some such). Right now, I’m happy to be in the stage I’m at where there are still some younglings begging, “Read me a Story, please?”
Treasure each moment, it turns into a memory as soon as it passes.
With my crazy biology, a little cold turns into a huge respiratory thing and what should last like 2 or 3 days turns into lingering cough and weakness for 2 to 4 weeks. I’m not impressed with my odd biology. And I used to never get sick.
The drain of energy means I get up, go to work, come home, and go to bed with very little in between. Like absolutely zero in between. If I try to watch a movie on the couch with them before bed, I fall asleep before the movie is done.
One of my favorite things to do with my girls is to braid their hair into updos. I can generally do whatever they want. Bobby pins and strategic pulls of hair from here and there forms a beautiful church hairstyle. I honestly can’t wait for one (or more) of them to get to gymnastics competition so I can have the privilege of doing their competition hair!
On this day, Jaquline and Jillian wanted special braids and were up early on Sunday with plenty of time to accomplish said task. So…
Jaquline (left, rose bun) and Jillian (right, tiara with “poofy back hair”)
Just some little something I never take for granted. I love doing their hair. The first person I enjoyed “doing hair” for who taught me to appreciate being able to do such a “simple” thing was a younger friend when I was 13. She was 7/8 when I was 13/14. She was the first young person I met with cancer. Erica was such a beautiful soul. She had only a little hair when we met her, it was just growing back from the last chemo round and she always giggled when Katy or Becca put headbands on her head to highlight it. They would braid her flower tiaras with gorgeous Georgia wildflowers and Erica would giggle and walk around on our shoes to show off her “new hair” and she wanted us to “do” her sister’s hair too. Danielle was her twin. They loved each other and taught me so much about love and life. One of the biggest lessons for me was not to brush off the “mundane” small things… like doing hair.
In the time we knew her, her hair would disappear at least twice before she passed to heaven. Her beautiful soul left such an impact on my life.
I enjoy every day with my girls. I know that one day they will grow up and, like my little sisters, will no longer come with an elastic hair tie begging for a “fancy braid in my hair please!”
Try to savor the small things in life as you are blessed with them. You will too quickly discover those are the important bits in life.
My Daddy always said the internet was just another tool. I’ve chosen to look at all social media platforms in the same way. They are just tools. Use them but don’t allow them to steal time and energy from you.
One of my favorite things about Facebook is the “Memories” that pop up occasionally.
Like this one:
I laugh! I love our crazy, nerdy, quirky family! I want to watch the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy again – this will be a first for Jillian and Lucas. Sunday afternoon plans just made… epic Lord of the Rings Marathon likely while we play boggle, mancala, Catan, or labyrinth at the table.
What are you going to do with your family this weekend? At least find one thing that you can all do together to build a family memory… even if it’s swatting flies and randomly spitting out movie lines.
Once there was a little girl who
loved dogs and prayed for a little black dog.
Her mom had already agreed to take the least wanted puppy from a litter
about to happen. Her mom prayed the
puppy was black.
A few weeks later, Mom got a call – the mommy dog had shoved one baby puppy away and it needed special care. Mom said, “we’ll take it” and the tiny “runt of the litter” fluffy puppy came to her furever home. That was February 25, 2008, almost 12 years ago. And yes, other than a white spot on her tummy that grew to cover her belly and some brownish tan on her paws, the puppy was black!
Sheba with (L-to-R) Kimberly (Sheba loved snuggling on the couch), Jaquline (Sheba would sleep on the walker to keep Kimberly and Becky from “racing” the baby around!), and Thea.
Sheba became the Tart family’s
perfect dog. She loved the three little
humans who grew up with her. Kimberly
was only five months older than Sheba!
Sheba ran around, grew up, played, made doggie friends, herded chickens,
mothered lost dogs who wandered in, loved on chickens when the Tarts lived on
their farm, snuggled with baby chicks, guinea pigs, the two rabbits, and Christina’s
baby puppy, Prim.
Sheba had a wonderful doggie
life.
L-to-R: Sheba with Jaquline (Jaquline insisted Sheba loved “Snow Dogs”), Kimberly had “dressed” Sheba in a beaded necklace she made, Sheba’s favorite sleeping position on any couch.
L-to-R: Sheba in the playroom, Sheba loved the tile floor in that house!, Mom said “no more movies” and the girls couldn’t find the remote… (Sheba had it!) Sheba loved to sleep on that table for some odd reason.
(top) Sheba with puppy Primrose, (bottom)Sheba with Lady (one of our doggie friends), (right) Thea climbed up on the couch to snuggle Sheba, who was sleeping in her new, weird, favorite position.
L-to-R: Baby Lucas, Jillian, and Sheba at the end of the bed (right next to the crib), Sheba’s favorite spot in that garage (next to the food bag!), Thea rubbing Sheba (she loved her soft fur and had just learned “dog!”)
Last year she started to slow down a
bit. In December of this year, she
started feeling sick some days. The vet
said her stomach was failing. Vitamins and special food helped a little. She wasn’t able to digest all her food and
she would get skinny and we had decided once she was in pain, we would put her to
sleep. None of us wanted to lose our
Sheba. She loved being outside when it
was cool because she was bushy furry (we
teased she was an a/c dog because she slept on one of the air conditioning vents
in summer and almost refused to go outside in summer daylight!). On cooler days, she would play on our run
while we were outside. Christmas Day it
was gorgeous. Sheba said hi to both
Grandmas when they visited and ran outside almost the whole day in gentle cool
breezes. We were petting and snuggling
with her by turns. She sleeps a lot since
she’s been over 10 so when she curls down to sleep we usually let her rest. We were enjoying a Christmas campfire and
telling stories. Louis went inside to
get some water. I knew Sheba was fully
asleep when Louis stopped by her longer than just to stroke her and turned his
flashlight on. I handed Thea to Mom and
we verified that she was fully gone. I stroked her soft, fluffy coat one last
time before I wrapped her in her blanket.
The older girls came out to
help. We buried her and said goodbye to
our best furry friend. Sheba had spent
more time with me than any other dog.
She was our first family dog. My mom said, “Sheba probably found Boompa
and Aunt Mary in heaven.” Christina laughed, “oh, yes, she instantly found Aunt
Mary!” Because every time Mary would stay with us, Sheba would seek her bed out
and snuggle with her – I’d be like, “no dogs in the bed, Mary,” and she’d
giggle, wrap Sheba in a bear hug and say, “but she’s a big, fluffy stuffed
animal!” and Sheba would give us the sweet sad eyes so she’d get to sleep with
Mary. Sheba always snuggled up with
anyone who wasn’t feeling well – she always seemed to know before we did.
Kimberly said she had prayed that
Sheba would get to run loose outside, thinking of us having a fenced yard at our
new house, but Sheba had been running loose anytime she was outside lately and stayed
near the house because she didn’t feel good.
Louis set candles out on her grave
for the night. We’ve planted flowers
now. Each pet we’ve lost, we’ve buried
and planted a tree over it as a reminder. Louis called Sheba our perfect dog. That she was.
The Garden Bed we planted for Sheba
Thea’s first Christmas was Sheba’s
last. Our furry family treasure went to
heaven, “raced over the rainbow bridge” as Jillian said, after spending a full
Christmas Day with her family and “Grandmas.” It had been Sheba’s favorite
outside day, gentle cool breezes with a mild, wintery temperature where she’d
stand, face in the wind and wag that super fluffy “duster” tail. I’m going to
miss my Sheba. Two months shy of 12 full
years from her February 25th birthday – rather long for a dog. Goodbye, my sweet, lovable, playful furry
baby; I love you Sheba, run free and fast with no leash and no borders! Your
human family will miss you!
You often read that cousins are
usually your first friends. They know
all about you, love you regardless of your differences, and enjoy life with you
from start to finish…
Gaylord Pearson Family (My parents & siblings) – 2002
I always dreamed of how close my siblings and I would be as adults and prayed our children would grow up together, loving each other as true friends. Just like sisters and brothers. My sister, Katy, even started the kids calling each other sister-cousins and brother-cousins – they act like siblings when they are together. They are tight as buddies and fight like enemies – yet love each other through all celebrations and disagreements.
So this day, Jaquline, Jillian, and Anastasia had a sister outing! Becca (my sister, Anastasia’s mom) took all three of them to go see Frozen 2 in a real theater – oh see those smiles?
I didn’t hear much about the movie except, “it was good,” but heard all about the jokes, fun ride, giggles, and enjoyment of their time together.
I try to teach my littles to focus on relationships – invest rather than spend time. I also want them to have competent adult mentors to look up to. I pray they never feel they can’t talk to me, but I hope that if they feel they can’t, they know they have dozens of family members and close trusted friends they can go to. Aunt Becca is such a strong, wise aunt (and super fun), my older girls have already gleaned life wisdom from her and ask advice sometimes. (And since Mom is as much a student of makeup as they are… they honestly are waaaaay better at it… they usually ask Aunt Becca for beauty advice!)
I so admire how my very busy sister
takes time to invest in my youngsters!
They LOVE all Aunt Becca outings!
I try to invest time myself – especially in those little humans I’ve been blessed to raise. I sometimes feel time slips away. (You know, when I realize that was the last Thursday morning I’ll be required to drive Christina to college as she gets her license the day before her next semester starts in January.)
The one who first called me mother
is sixteen years old. Thank you, Jesus. I am so grateful for being blessed with
Christina! I can’t imagine life without
her.
I truly understand that God entrusts
us with raising his children. There is
such a wonderful humbling feeling in being able to watch my little baby grow into
a young woman of God.
For nine months I felt this tiny life growing inside of me. We prayed over her (not knowing who she would be yet) and loved her from the time we imagined she would come. She was born the eldest grandchild to both sets of grandparents – imagine such a crazy double blessing!
Fast forward to today: she’s driving and we’re on the way to her job and Kimberly’s classes with Thea and I riding along (so I can take the car back home and Thea was just up with us so got to serenade us – she sings to music now).
I thank God daily for each of my children. I know we aren’t promised tomorrow. I treasure every day. Every time I get to hear Thea sing notes (no words yet, just “aaaahh-ooooh-aaah”) to music, every time Lucas builds a train track that snakes all over the front room, every time Jillian is jumping like a pogo stick because she learned a new skill or mastered a math concept, every time Jaquline makes something new, every time I get to see Kimberly march (in Civil Air Patrol) or practice some new flip (gymnastics), every time I see Becky snuggle with Lucas, Thea, and Jillian on my bed reading “Angel and the Ring” (Lucas’ favorite), every time Christina ranks up or encourages someone else… every time I get to spend life with my children.
They don’t have to come to me when they need to talk about something or ask personal of difficult questions – I thank God that they do. They could bury themselves in isolation from “the parents” but I’m super thankful that they choose to be around us when we are home. In this precious time while they are close, I want to talk, snuggle, read, play games, cook together, watch them build, invent and grow, and see them climb closer to Jesus. I am so thankful for the time we’ve been given together.
I became a mom on December 24, 2002. My little life began inside me and I excitedly whispered it to my mother on Christmas Day because I knew she wouldn’t think it odd that I “felt” my angel start inside me. My first pregnancy journey ended with my beautiful young woman who is driving beside me now. There is something humbling and awe-inspiring when you hold that first tiny human and realize that God has gifted you with one of His children to raise up. Once through that, I felt the same huge responsibility and humbling gratitude each time I felt the little life start.
Life is a vapor; you look at your tiny child in your arms and when you open your eyes again, she’s been flying a plane and driving a vehicle, doing college classes and working a job. Though she is nearing the time she can choose to leave your home you carefully built for her, you continue to enjoy each day, each opportunity to be around her. You pray thankful for the time you’ve had and for her safety and future.
Those years speed by. The love you carry never leaves. No matter if your youngling is plucked early to fill heaven with joy, your love remains as strong as the day you discovered them growing inside you – a mother’s love never stops.
There’s this wonderful place a few
dozen miles over the Georgia line that pops up out of the long fields of cotton
and orchards of pecan trees with vibrant colors, exotic animals, and fun!
This place has a great history for me. I heard my first concert there as a teenager (which introduced the “new” band DC Talk with NewSong & later was the same two bands we saw together at a winterjam concert!), I went back as a young mom with Christina (her first amusement park), then back again in 2013 with everyone for two days, and a few weeks ago, we went back on a coupon.
Actually, Wild Adventures has been the first Theme Park experience for all the girls (when babies don’t ride, they haven’t experienced it) – Lucas’ first was Six Flags.
And Thea – yes, the baby! – rode her
first roller coaster! Lucas and I were
walking around the kiddie section, he was riding spinning bees and such, when
he wanted to ride the roller coaster and needed a fellow rider. I told him, “when Daddy comes over here, you
can ride it, I have to stay with Thea.” The operator smiled, “can she sit up by
herself?” Yes. “Oh, then all three of you can ride.” (WHAT??)
I’m not good at selfies… but Thea’s face!!
So Thea, Lucas, and I rode Thea’s first roller coaster. Thea was five and a half months old! Did this baby enjoy it? She giggled with Lucas and chewed on her teether the whole time. The operator called out, “you get two rounds, does she like it?” Lucas answered by making Thea giggle and clap.
Of course, everyone enjoyed multiple
rides and between Christina and Becky we have plenty of pictures, but I managed
to take a couple.
All the girls except Thea!
Kimberly
Kimberly & Me
Jillian & Me
Flying!
My baby… and her first amusement park ride was a roller coaster!
I watched my little girl exude confidence for the first time in public. At our gymnastics show on Mother’s Day, my Jaquline performed her practiced routine with a cloud of confidence I’ve never seen in her before. She LOVES gymnastics. She feels beautiful and strong doing her routines. She stood up on the mat and told everyone she wants to be an Olympic Gymnast.
Wow.
So much for “maybe they’ll have fun”
– my thoughts when I was blessed to get them into classes.
For my family, discovering the sport of gymnastics has improved and amazed us. In brief, I answered an ad which I thought was part-time clerk help at a gymnastics facility; nope, was a coaching job and I am so totally in amazement that I get to work a dream job in a sport I always wanted to do but my family was unable to afford. From there, my girls (less Christina, who laughed and said “CAP is enough for me.” – oh, but she’s now a coach) joined classes. Kimberly came with strength and pushes to work her way up to the amazing skills she watches the team girls do. Becky and Jaquline had no interest in fitness before gymnastics but now are working out with determination. Jillian and Lucas have fun.
Jaquline’s new semester includes her
gymnastics classes, reading everything she loves (She graduated up from the Magic Treehouse books to A Little Princess,
The Secret Garden, and The Princess and the Swans the last couple of months!),
practicing gymnastics outside (no jumps
or flips – that’s mom’s rule, but I watch her do her floor routine from the
show over and over and over…), learning nutrition (what builds muscle? I need x
grams of protein before workout), and playing word games with her super
increasing vocabulary! Louis says he’ll
glance at the table after breakfast and everyone is sitting around doing work
except Jaquline. He’ll go looking and
she’s curled up in her bed with some fat book in front of her so he leaves her
until she comes out. She’s sometimes not
wanting to do regular schoolwork (it
seems every child goes through at least one “I don’t want to do school” phase),
but we aren’t worried because right now is a nutrition, fitness, grammar,
literature, and vocabulary focus semester.
A few more books in that level and she’ll either be scanning the library
for more like them or moving up a notch! (And
she thinks she’s “not doing schoolwork” by reading unabridged classics!)
Sometimes we all need a “break” from the ordinary (yes, mom and dad still ask, “did you finish your math, history, and science?”) and our focus shifts to what we find fun. Jaquline is doing math she doesn’t realize while planning her savings goals. She’s stepping into real history and culture with “Little Women” and “A Little Princess” (1860 – 1880 United States and 1800s English Empire, respectively). She’s learning science by watching Becky and Kimberly’s experiments, reading her nutrition books. She’s doing practical learning by watching how Dad prepares food and analyzing the nutrition in her meals (plus, math and science here too).
Although her semester finds her
trying to be stubborn and “skip regular lessons” this time around, we know
she’s still learning. God is working on
her heart now too – “Heidi” is a story of forgiveness, redemption, and return
to reliance on God. (Just one example…I LOVE the unabridged versions of
classics.)
Don’t be discouraged, parents! Even if they are “refusing” to learn, they
are learning anyway! Find something they
love that is natural learning and encourage that! They’ve got plenty more years to get
“lessons” on track… build relationship and understanding.
This doesn’t mean we as parents
aren’t constantly reminding her to “finish her math” or whatever lessons, it’s
just that we don’t fight over it! Life
has taught us that she will come back to “formal lessons” soon. We had a teen freak and slam forward in her
algebra once her sister below her was “catching up” – Jaquline did the same last
year when Jillian “graduated” into the same math book Jaquline was using. Our philosophy is never to alter one person’s
progress because of another’s lack; instead we encourage self-growth. Thankfully, human nature among our children
includes a fierce competitive spirit!
They will learn. They will
grow. Sometimes, though, a sidetrack on
a different path is needed. (Don’t you ever feel that way as an adult? –
I do!)
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!
