Tag: Kimberly

Hair Day

June 14, 2017

Hair Day

Yesterday was a misty day with the sun desperately attempting to peek through, but the clouds kept winning.  Louis decided it was time for a haircut.  We usually cut hair outside so I trimmed his hair while Kimberly watched.  Kimberly wanted to know how it was done.  Lucas was outside too, occasionally peeking at us from his mud-pie play spot.

When I finished with Louis’ hair, Lucas ran up to the stool, climbed up and gave me the biggest pleading grin, “my Daddy hair, please Mommy?”

Well, I had to smile.  Lucas just turned two years old two weeks ago.  He’s embarking on this “like Daddy” stage.  “Big boy panties like Daddy,” (I’m trying to get him to say “pants” but with six females in the house constantly saying “panties” it may be a while.) “me drive my car like Daddy,” (Grandma surprised him with a motorized ride-on car, and you should have seen his amazed face!) “me Daddy food,” (means he wants whatever Daddy is eating) and anything else that he sees Daddy do, he wants to do.

I LOVE his baby curls!  Lucas’ hair is dirty blonde and naturally curly.  I combed it a bit, wondering if I really was ready to do his first haircut.  His hair was between four and seven inches long!  It was so thick and curled into perfect ringlets!  He repeated with excited eyes, “me Daddy hair, please, Mommy!”

So yes, he got a “big boy” haircut.  He giggled when I took a picture to show him his hair.  He ran to my bedroom to the mirror and touched his reflection, “me Daddy hair!”  He danced around waiting for Daddy to get out of the shower to show him.

Kimberly thought this was the perfect opportunity to do her “Nancy Drew” haircut – I keep asking her, is she sure? But since “you have the scissors and I really want Nancy Drew hair” we did that too.  Add Rebeccah’s trim.  Rebeccah has beautiful thick brown hair and usually decides to cut it short in the summer.

It usually takes me a few days (or sometimes weeks!) to get used to the kids’ new haircuts, but they are so happy with them.  Lucas got up from his nap to run in the bathroom, potty, and climb up on the counter to touch his reflection and giggle – the entire house heard him shout: “Me Daddy hair!”

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Sand

June 12, 2017

Sand

It was a busy, start-at-3am kind of day.  We’d planned on going to the beach but it was almost 6pm and I was still working.  Unpacked boxes stacked in precarious towers in what would be the music nook – if we ever got the piano, drums, guitar, bass, and other assorted nose-makers from storage.  The front room resembled tornado-aftermath footage; shoes without their organizer spilled from the single tomato box, book boxes sat about, awaiting the arrival of a bookshelf, folded clothes waited delivery on the couch, and the dogs, exhausted from barking at every neighborhood squirrel since noon, were sprawled out like black rugs.

I knew we’d been working all day, but while trying to conquer the nightly result of supper, a quick glance at the chaos that reigned was rather disheartening.  It seemed that mood of disappointment had rubbed off on everyone.  Toddlers and preschoolers generally act out when they are upset and the older ones appeared to feel like they’d worked all day for a vain goal (the beach).

The cool thing about Florida is that even an early April sunset is close to 7:30.  The neat thing about technology is that everything for my business can be done from one phone; even on a busy night.  A super thing about our crew is the ability to grab-and-go and pack the van in minutes.

We went to the beach.  We hadn’t been to this beach since the previous summer, after Matthew (for non-Floridians, that’s “Hurricane Matthew”) when our beach spot was covered in debris.  “Our spot is back!” Yelled Kimberly.  We parked at our little spot (not legally ours, just where we always try to park) and the beach was beautiful.  The beach is always beautiful here.  It felt like my soul was refreshed just by walking in the sand.  The water was Florida cold, but we’ll get in the ocean in mid-winter and love it.  Lucas and I didn’t go deeper than ankles, but that was because I was dispatching and the surf was rough.  (Lucas loves the rough surf when the water is warm, not a huge fan of it when it’s cold)

We spied fishing boats and Lucas showed everyone the stars as the brightest ones greeted the approaching night.  We took several relaxing pictures.  I realized I had been allowing the normal side-effects of moving to control my attitude.  I should be more like sand; it moves, being formed and shaped by outside forces (kid’s hands, animal feet, car tires) but returns to normal easily.  I should let God be the waves and smooth the roughness of my irritation and frustration away so I’m smooth and even again.

Smooth and even feels so much nicer than frustrated and irritated.  I love how God uses His creation to remind me to slow down and enjoy life!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Sooty Makeup

June 2, 2017

Sooty Makeup

     I’m not really a makeup person.  (Okay, I almost never wear makeup.)  Someone says “makeup” and I think sweaty post-workout drizzle where my face looked like a tie-dyed T-shirt (which was my teenage inexperience with makeup).  Rebeccah, however, is very artistic and does makeup well.  It’s an art to her.  Makeup is just another type of paint and human faces are her canvas.

Loving, excited aunts have made sure the girls have a colorful assortment of fun, safe makeup to play with as they enter the teenage threshold.  They’ve taught the girls many makeup techniques and how to match colors.  (Sometimes the craziest of color contrasts emerge, but that’s all in the learning game – and clowns need makeup artists too.)

One afternoon I was busily canning marinara sauce (a family staple) when I heard Kimberly announce from the front door, “Mom, come see, we’ve done our makeup in your style!” (Christina was just beginning to explore makeup)

My style?  I was busy, but curiosity won and there’s little I could do before the steam finished exhausting.  I peek and they are coming from outside, where they had discovered some soot from the outdoor kitchen.  All three of them are covered in smeared soot.

“My style?” I laugh.

“Yes!”  Christina says, “just like in the army!”

Camouflage!  That would be my makeup style.  Just let me blend in with my surroundings and disappear – that about described my normal interactions with most other humans.  I didn’t realize my children knew me so well!

“Yes,” Rebeccah adds, “we can look up now, and no one can see us.”

Turns out they were playing spy games, based on the recent string of military movies we’d watched over that weekend.  Of course, in black-and-white, all the face camouflage looks just like soot.

They took off to “finish their mission” and I returned to my hissing canner.  At that point, I was trying very hard to do more than blend in.  That doesn’t come easy for me.  I can write all day and interact with imaginary people in my made-up worlds, but interaction where I make myself open to others is not easy.  I love teaching, playing with, and guiding children.  My own age group?  It’s not easy for me.

I’m learning how to wipe off the sooty face camouflage and try my hand at real makeup.  I’m learning how to be open to others and allowing myself to invest in them – to be real, invest time, to speak instead of being silent.

I’m enjoying this “be the canvas” stage I’ve entered.  Plus, it’s an extra time to listen (and talk) to my daughters because I always want to be open and real for them.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~ Nancy Tart

 

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