Tag: Lucas

Brantley Station Brain

October 19, 2020

Brantley Station Brain

You know, I’ve been a bit behind on posting blogs the past two weeks. This is because my brain has been in Brantley Station and Feli’tor and Devonia and Nilon. We just finished moving. I finally got my computer fixed after not having it for over a year and a half! (Writer in me dying because I have to borrow a computer and it’s never on my schedule!) The first weekend when we were done moving, I sat outside on the front porch watching Jillian, Lucas, and Thea play and wrote 5 pages in a notebook in my tiny, space-saving cursive with zero margins and front and back top to bottom. Louis came out and said, “you need a computer.”

It is also time.

While I was feeling dark, it was hard to write about happiness and peace. I did some freaky villain handiwork writing that almost freaked me out, but I couldn’t touch my children’s books that are bright and sunshine. I just couldn’t get back into their joyful world despite trying.

Now? I feel free again. I am finding joy everywhere. I am getting to play legos with Lucas and Thea, sit outside in the hot Florida wind and watch them play like the wild crazy children they are, read other authors, and build train tracks and work outside with my family.

Now my brain is back in my worlds.

I’m working on The Apprentice, which will be the fourth in the Brantley Station Saga following The Protector. In this book, Ethan will face another odd change and meet a new set of characters brought by the new cycle! I stepped back into Ethan’s shoes and wiggled my toes around. I’m so excited to introduce Makayla! (Sneak peek will come soon!) I put on Ethan’s determination to find positivity in every task. I looked at the new challenges through his perceptive logic. I felt his warmth at blooming friendships as he understands the connections he has never really noticed. The narrative shifts a little as Ethan begins to see his world just a little differently.

So I’m officially in Brantley Station Brain right now. My dreams are even about Ethan, Makayla, and Corey!

With so much flowing onto the keyboard (my keyboard! yippee!!), I’m hoping to have the final released just after Thanksgiving… in time for Christmas!

Got to go as my Brantley Station Brain is demanding I get back to the pilot barracks and finish Ethan’s next step!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later!

~Nancy Tart

Sharks and Legos

Not this weekend, but still a good story! (I’ve saved up some stories from my month of not writing on here.)

Becky and Dad thought it was okay to watch Jaws with Lucas.

(WWHHAATT??!!) Exactly. Thank you.

This screams through every mom’s head when you have a boy who likes to repeat everything and has been slashing duplo and cardboard light sabers at everything and everybody for years – add on his uncles, big sisters, and “the meats” from Lord of the Rings and yes, Mom is sure someone lost their senses.

What does Lucas do after watching Jaws?

Jump in the ocean at 6pm the next night with no reservations. He actually teases Jillian, “there might be a giant shark in here! Cool!”

Nope, not scared of sharks.

He makes a lego model of the fisherman’s boat and says to Dad, “I think we need a bigger boat.”

Mom facepalmed…

But here is his boat plus Becky’s updates (he went to Becky and asked for her help to make it look “really real”) I added a cute picture of Lucas with Legos ages ago because he wouldn’t sit still for a picture!

So he played with Becky’s updated shark hunter boat for quite some time, and yes, he knows lines from this iconic movie now – this child can replay an entire movie in his head.

Normally, it’s a battle from Star Wars or a scene from one of Jaquline’s favorite swashbucklers (yes, her “movie crush” is Errol Flynn and my family laughs at that because he was mine too) or from the latest John Wayne war movie, but for said entire weekend it was from Jaws. The funny part? The Lego shark was nowhere near the right proportions of the shark from the movie so Lucas kept claiming his hand was the shark and the little lego shark was “his tiny friend laughing.”

…and this is where most of my inspiration for children’s books comes from!

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Growing Little Love

June 1, 2020

Growing Little Love

Thea is getting independent by giant leaps.  I don’t do the whole months thing unless I have to (I love math, but “over one” is just as good as “fourteen point two five months” as far as describing my baby’s age goes) so when people ask, she’s one.

Lucas gets a new bike, and Thea has to try it!

Lucas gets a water balloon maker (thank you, Grandma! The grenades have shredded latex shrapnel all over the yard – so Thea likes to clean all the pieces up)… and Thea is right alongside them filling up balloons.

At the beach she’s looking for shells with Becky and running into the surf with Lucas – not as far as Lucas, at least she still got a healthy fear of the deep!

Building a cage?  Oh yes, Thea is right there trying to screw in the wood… well, Mommy and Lucas were using this tool on the wood: Thea just hasn’t figured out screwdrivers drive screws!

Grandma brought a pool – “Mommy!” Thea wants it set up so she can splash!

Daddy gets stakes for the garden… Thea is helping him drag them to the right spot!

Thea loves her shoes (Thank you, Jesus! Finally a child who wants her feet covered outside!) and will bring them to her bigger siblings since she can only get her feet partway in and she knows that isn’t proper. …and reading – she loves anything Becky is reading. (Actually, anything Becky is doing!)

I love watching them grow.  I drove Christina and a friend to another friend’s graduation and his mom mentioned how much Thea has grown.  I can already see her at 16 and graduating in a year like her eldest sister… time flies.  Enjoy every minute with them! 

Life has taught me, fortunately at a young age, that we are not promised tomorrow.  The byproduct is that I am frank, honest, and don’t hide my care and concern for those I love.  I try to remember that each time I speak to someone may be the last – I have lost many people and none of my losses are plagued with regret at the last words spoken.  I pray that I keep love first.

I watch my younglings grow and I continually pray that I am guided to teach them how to live without regrets.  To love honestly, to speak in that love, to always stand for truth, to live life taking risks so as never to say, “I regret…” wistfully thinking of some word or action they wanted to do but decided against.  I pray they guard their hearts from evil and think on positive things.

I watch Thea grow, as I’ve watched each of the others and my younger siblings, I smile at her growing independence and blooming personality.  I am so thankful and humbled that God blessed us with the honor of raising our children and leading each of them toward their own way. Our time with them is short. Enjoy every moment.

Type at you next time,

~Nancy Tart

Okra & “Fire Lilies”

May 28, 2020

Okra & “Fire Lilies”

Today we planted okra. Three long rows of okra plants just far enough apart to walk through the rows with the mower for easy weeding, pruning, and harvesting.

Yesterday and Tuesday were the 6 by 4 corn patch. The 5 by 4 corn patch already has rows of little green stalks pushing up and it was planted Saturday! We also did a patch of mustard greens and our trio experiment over the weekend. The “trio experiment” is onion seed, three inches, beet seed, three inches, carrot seed in a patch 3 by 3.

Oh, all numbers are in feet… so far.

And my favorite of my blooms at this house (since my gardenia has been reluctant to bloom) is this –

– it’s a bulb with a single straight stalk that ends in this fiery flower! We call them fire-lilies but I know that can’t be their official name. It’s a takeaway from Grandma Jeanette… a little piece of history carried along and the blooms make me think of her every time I see a new one exploding with color.

(oh, and if you know what it is, please comment! We’d love to know what it really is!)

Lucas and Thea ate all six ripe tomatoes themselves before they got inside. I managed to sneak one away for the egg scramble I made for brunch. (I eat shakeology breakfast at 5:45 so at 11am I was practically starving and had to grab something filling and nutritious!)

We have little pets who poop breakfast… and Becky made more of these:

Yummy deviled eggs; Becky is a pro at this now!

YES!

Worked at gym yesterday… REC CLASSES OPEN MONDAY!! Camp fills up quickly & starts June 1st (I can’t wait to see my gymnasts!) and we get to have gym party (Parent’s Night Out) this month!! (Third Saturday of each month: our coaches entertain and feed a boocoodle of kiddos so their parents can have a night kidfree… here)

I’m excited about coaching again! I’m thrilled about our garden! I even got to play Age of Empires with Jillian and Lucas today while big sisters went shopping!

We had a lovely day!

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Popping Pool Days

April 30, 2020

Popping Pool Days

So when Grandma Tina brought Lucas’ new bicycle, she also brought a little pool! The girls were like, “oh, look, a baby pool for Thea!” and “6 feet! Wow, I can lay down in it and not touch each wall!”

It was not just Thea’s pool!

After each empty, they scrub it out with our dishwashing soap, relocate it so as not to totally kill the grass, and start over! The first refill has a tad of soap left – the last refill had a bit too much soap but they made hats out of the bubbles!

Here are some video tidbits!

And Lucas had to try it… he said “let me do it, just me!”

He didn’t go underwater then, but normally he does! My little wave-crasher is now a small pool fish too. Thea stands in the pool and flings water at everyone else, when we can get her in it!

Someone asked, “wow, how can they have so much fun out of one little pool?”

Because they enjoy time, have vivid imaginations, and enjoy each other’s company… and we try to cultivate an atmosphere of gratefulness. Always trying to find the good and enjoy it. Life is so much more fun when you enjoy it!

Thanks for reading!

Type at your later,

~Nancy Tart

Bike For My Longer Legs!

April 28, 2020

Bike For My Longer Legs!

Lucas has a unidirectional purposeful mind when it comes to what he wants. As a three year old he told us for over six months that all he wanted for Christmas was a bike. That was it. Nothing else. He didn’t break it up like the girls do (tell Grandma Joanne one want, Grandma Tina another want, each Aunt a different want, and each sibling a different want), no. Mister Super Focused always just asks for one thing only.

Well, for the past four months, actually since just after Christmas, Lucas has been asking for a “bike for my longer legs” or “a boy bike that fits my long legs” for his upcoming May birthday. He’s been singularly focused on that one wish.

I figured that if the thrift stores ever open back up I would get a boy bike with 16″ wheels.

Instead, Grandma Tina came over to drop off the coolest little pool – pics on that one in another blog! – and a special surprise for Lucas.

He was one super happy boy!

And being the lovable big brother he is, he let Thea ride it too! Just because “she loves to ride my little bike which will be hers now!”

Thank you, Grandma Tina! Thank you to Grandma Tina’s landlord whose son had outgrown this one and wanted to give it away so another little boy could love it. I promise you, this bike will be loved for as long as Lucas can fit it and in his fond boyhood memories when he’s older!

We had to drag him off of the “coolest long leg bike that fits me” well after dark and he kept going back out to check on it in the shed. The following two days he was outside bouncing from the pool to the bike without stopping for the entire day to break only for food (most of which he took outside to eat while on his bike).

Typical boy.

No. Wait a minute… Typical Tart child.

I asked him yesterday, “Lucas, what do you want for your birthday now?”

He said, “my house with stairs!” Me too, dude. Me too.

Thank you for reading!

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Big Building Blocks

April 24, 2020

Big Building Blocks

On our shop day last week when we were building the bird cage stand, Lucas and Jillian discovered some big building blocks!

Lucas made some boats with tall sails.

Jillian hopped out and made more boats!

Lucas made the tiny ones sneak up on the big ones and I heard “Boom!” and “Thud!” the blocks (the bad guy pirate boats) fell to the floor! Everything is a toy. I love Lucas’ wild and crazy imagination. Everything he finds is a new something with a story. His boats had many adventures while Becky and I built… and his big sisters took pictures.

I love cultivating their imagination! He learns so much letting his stories come alive.

Enjoy the imagination of those around you. Follow along with them and see just where it will lead… you never know what kind of adventure a few beads, sticks, crayons, chalk sticks, or bits of board will take you!

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Our Beach Morning

April 22, 2020

Our Beach Morning

On Saturday morning the beaches of St Johns County decided to open back for restricted times. No “gathering” though so we couldn’t take the baby shade tent which meant limited time for us due to not wanting baby burned. But we went!

Sunday at sunrise we gathered ourselves, tried to wake the more sluggish members of the family, and trouped to the beach. It was a gorgeous morning with nice steady surf and almost high tide when we arrived (well, arrived, changed Thea into her beach romper, let Lucas go potty, and walked over the ramp). There were dozens of surfers out and several fishermen with their coolers and pole stakes. Normal beach life. Actually, quite crowded for our experience, but then after the hurricanes the beaches are always full! Guess quarantine has the same effect as an extended hurricane on beach gatherings.

Thea was excited about the water today and ran out into ankle-deep water. It was cold enough to stop her. Lucas, though, wanted to go out where the surfers were! He couldn’t talk any of the big girls into going with him, so he would run into a wave, jump and land in a push up position half-floating and laugh heavy belly laughs. Tiny conch, mussels, clams, and assorted bivalve sea creatures were washed up under our feet by the thousands! Baby Thea loved them! She kept wiggling her toes and saying “tickle tickle!” The little critters ticked her toes as they burrowed back into the soft sand.

Lucas and Thea also waved and greeted everyone who passed. Anyone they noticed, they wanted to say hi to. Thea wanted to run to every other child and every dog she saw. One actually stopped to let her toddler greet Thea. Both babies were enthusiastic about seeing each other! It was so cute!

Suddenly, a creature was on a shell on the high tide line where I was looking for shells – and I called Becky (seriously, she did Marine Biology, she knows all sea life) to find out what it was. “Oh my! It’s an anemone!” and she gathered it carefully and rescued it by putting it back in the water. After a few more live anemone discoveries and “oh my!” shrieks by Kimberly and Becky, Thea grabbed a random shell, yelped “oh my!” and raced back to the shallow waves to fling the shell into the water like a frisbee. It’s the thought that counts, right?

It was a short visit as Thea’s tender arms let us know it was time to leave (Each person has a limit that we figure out and we go in when the first “red flag of warning” lets us know we are about to get burnt.) About an hour and a half of rescuing sea life, collecting beautiful shells, watching Jaquline and Lucas build a sandcastle, watching Lucas bellyflop into each oncoming wave, seeing Thea no longer be scared of the crashing waves, and watching the beauty of the morning sun in the length of the spring day.

The beach always refreshes me. I love it. I can breathe! This morning felt like a worship service. Our church has been closed for 4 weeks but being in nature is close – everything, including the little mollusks, the variety and beauty of their shells, the glorious waves, the sweet-salty spray opening up my lungs, all of creation shouts God’s glory!

Each of thousands – maybe tens of thousands – of those tiny creatures were each magnificent in their own individual beauty. Just like us. Each of us are independently unique and individually beautiful in our uniqueness. I glanced in my memory at the surfers on the waves; all different, each individual with the common bond of a passion for the stoke of riding the waves. Each of us beachgoers; all different, each individual with the common bond of our enjoyment of the beautiful beach.

This is the beauty in creation. The exquisite beauty of each small piece. Tiny grains of sand that look like gemstones under the microscope. We are more precious than diamonds – knit together by God.

Thank you for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Muddy Water Day

April 6, 2020

Muddy Water Day

We are a crazy outdoor family. After one 6am epic three-player (connected our little old computers together with LAN – the girls’ new love) Age of Empires (old school from like the 90s) game, we are technologically pooped.

As we are winning our Age of Empires, Louis made amazing waffles with homemade whipped cream (yummmmmmmmy).

Next step: Monopoly.

I’m having a bummer of a start… all the properties are gone except two and I have two railroads, one red, and electric company. I bought the last yellow. Louis quickly offered both railroads for the yellow (he had the other two) and I figured, sure, why not help him up on my way out.

WELL… turns out having three other people landing on my $200 a pop spaces continually led to me winning the first monopoly game in years!

Lunch was bean and rice burritos. (Louis cooked, I cleaned)

Next was outside. Waterslide (plastic sheet with a hose), mud, and gymnastics routines to whole songs pumping from one bass speaker that Louis DJ queued up. Thea took a nap, I typed up blogs, bread dough (for pizza dinner) was rising, and we spent the afternoon playing outside.

Thea had a little cup for her soda, but decided to learn how to pour her sister’s soda into her cup, then her cup back into sister’s soda can, and leave soda footprints on the carport:

Lucas left the waterslide to play in the mud pools:

The girls practiced their gymnastics routines. They did both the Show Routines to real floor music and did the ones they made up for each of the really popular songs they hear at Parents’ Nights Out because they want to do them with their friends during free time one night. The Speechless song from Aladin is by far the favorite. Jaquline’s “routine” is more interpretive dance than Kimberly’s focused skill-by-skill connected with dance moves gymnastics routine, but both were quite entertaining!

Just a little glimpse into our fun, crazy life.

Louis just left to go start the pizza. Thea and I are enjoying listening to Tron Legacy music as I finish this last blog for the week on my borrowed computer, then we’ll head inside… turns out they want to watch “Cheaper By the Dozen” with Myrna Loy and Clifton Webb and we’ll do “Yours Mine and Ours” with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda (Lucy is their favorite!) while we eat.

Slow, relaxing day with our crew. Hope everyone is faring well through this trying time. Slow down and enjoy what you have.

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

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