When I was a child, legos were my thing. I was very proud of the fact that I could build anything, especially when the box had a suggested age far above mine.
Pre-teen to teenager: it was the Sauder stuff, you know, that really cheap particle board furniture you bought at Wal-Mart and it might last through one move if it wasn’t damp. I had a coffee tin full of spare Sauder pieces because the same locks, nuts, screws, and bolts were used in all kinds of furniture. I was so confident in my wood-building ability that I charged people to put their Sauder stuff together. Basically, if it had instructions, I was on it. (Even mistranslated instructions, because I had intuition!)
Wednesday, the plan was to get off before 2pm. The kiddos and I were supposed to have an afternoon with my sister and niece. Her internet guy stole the late afternoon (you know, “I’ll be here between 2pm and 5pm”). I went home. Laud, Lucas, and I pull up to… wait, I thought Louis was bummed out because they canceled his order?
This crate, just a little too heavy for Lucas and I to team lift into the garage, was sitting outside the garage. “Stump Grinder” was stamped on the thin plyboard it was packed in.
I couldn’t wait for Laud to load up and get full! I haven’t gotten to build anything solid since the Guinea Pig cages! (The silly three-chicken-run was made of scraps and hurried; not something I was proud of and definitely not solid.)
Bingo! Laud is out and building is on! It came with almost all the tools needed (sweet! 13, 15, 17, and 19 mm wrenches! – yes I’m nerdy enough to love tools.) I love spare 9mm and 13mm wrenches because they are the most commonly lost in my toolbox.
Lots of parts and bolts with locknuts later, I’ve almost finished with the star performer for Saturday and Sunday’s adventures! I enjoy the thrill of completing something practical. I can’t wait to build the giant bird aviary for Becky’s parakeets, our guinea pigs, and baby chicks. I am super excited about the prospect of building! I laughed at my own thoughts while I was building the machine because I actually like the smell of the bolts – weird, right?
I handed the user’s manual and engine manual to Louis – “tada! The machine is all yours.”
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!
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 CousinMom, Graduate, GrandmaWith Littlest SisterOur 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!
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.
*Author Note* Wow, I didn’t realize I have not posted all summer! To say this summer has been busy is a severe understatement; this summer has been a crazy roller coaster jam-packed with life craziness. Hopefully, this happy little story of a new miracle will make you smile! *
August 7, 2023
The Miracle of Laud
There was a day Louis and I took off of work and decided to celebrate our anniversary. As I was reserving tickets for our gym’s Parent’s Night Out for my kiddos who weren’t working it, my boss laughed and said, something to the effect of “no more babies!” Louis wanted to try for a boy and I was not against it! (I love being pregnant!)
Almost two months later we took the last opportunity to let all the kiddos know in person (Becky was home from college). Our teenagers had various hilarious reactions we should have filmed (ranging from “ya’ll are crazy” to a slamming door to “are you kidding?”). Jillian was super excited. Lucas started cleaning a spot in his room for the baby; which Louis was convinced would be a boy since he used “Dr Jack’s method” that worked with Lucas. Thea asked a million questions and kept trying to hear the baby’s heartbeat and talk to the baby.
My babies like to hang around and I love being pregnant. This time around was so different. I was measuring large, but there are lots of factors that impact fundus measurement so it is more just a guide to make sure the baby doesn’t stop growing. I’m forty and my last pregnancy to term was four years prior. Even though, yes, I’m in what I consider really good shape, my body has been stretched out and back seven times. I actually wore maternity clothes a friend gave me this time like normal! I actually looked like I was pregnant from about 5 months on, a real first for me. I loved that!
We went to the team banquet, it was the first one Christina got to come to, and the girls teased me saying I didn’t have any formal clothes… I surprised them with what I considered the cutest maternity dress ever (gift from the same friend – they just hadn’t seen it yet). It felt so cool to show off the baby. Friends who had seen me pregnant before asked if I was sure on the date or if there were two in there. (Louis loved this, the baby inside was doing some movements that I still can’t explain, and secretly, I would have loved twins.)
My “official” date from LMP would have been August 28, 40 weeks from the baby’s start would have been September 4th. I just told people September or early October. I honestly thought early-to-mid-September because most of my babies were about 42 weeks old when they came; I usually carried closer to 10 months.
July 31st started braxton-hicks contractions, the baby was still sitting up high right under my ribs and had not yet “dropped”. That was spot on for me because braxton-hicks contractions usually come 4 to 6 weeks (even 8 weeks, in two instances) before the baby comes. My babies tend to drop 3 or 4 weeks before. The baby-mapping information, which is super cool to research if you have time and want to be amazed, was telling me the baby was up to one side. My milk usually starts leaking a week or so before the birth too and there was no sign of that yet,
We went to the beach in the late evening of August 2nd. It was beautiful! I always feel like praising God for everything when I watch the majesty of the ocean, hear the laughter and joy of my children enjoying the water, and slow down to consider how honored I am to be so blessed. The others did gymnastics drill competitions in the soft sand (handstand holds, perfect Ts, candlestick holds, etc.) while Becky and Thea made a sandcastle from dripping sand – absolutely breathtaking.
(beach shenanigans and laughter)
On the way home, it felt like the baby shifted to sit sideways. I mentioned that I would like the baby to drop soon so sitting in a car wasn’t so uncomfortable. Christina laughed. The sing-along music at the top of their lungs and windows open made it so no one else heard.
I woke up on August 3rd a little after midnight. I thought my body was doing Braxton-Hicks contractions; it had been off and on since July 31st. These stretch-and-prepare contractions came and went in tiny spurts and historically clusters of three to ten stretches that disappear after I move around, shower, or stretch was “normal” for my previous births. I remembered seeing a facebook post about one of my best friends getting home from the hospital with her son; she often didn’t have night nursing and I hadn’t meshed schedules with her in a very long time. I texted to see if she was awake and able to chat. God knew I needed to hear her voice and we chatted for a couple of hours. Just after 4:15am, what I thought was Braxton-Hicks contractions about midnight (I had showered and they went away completely), became an intense contraction that came in a wave. I paused talking to breathe through that one and mentioned that it was different. I said, “this is early,” or something to that effect and told Hannah I was going to wake Louis & call Misti. As I stood up – or tried to – another contraction came in which the baby shifted from sideways inside me to “in position” and dropped all in the same intense contraction! I’ve never felt that before!
I made it from by the couch to the just inside the bathroom (didn’t get to my bedroom to get Louis) and another seriously intense contraction came. Someone had left two of the deep soft towels laid out flat on the floor on top of the bath rug (a nice, soft place to pause where clean up would be easy). I heard Christina coming out of the barracks and she asked, “mom, are you dead?” I was in full relax through the contraction mode and answered “I’m fine” with a tiny voice she knew meant baby was coming. She woke Louis and went to get mom. Louis came in the bathroom and rubbed my back, “this is coming fast” my bones were doing the separate-thing they do at transition (feels like my spine is coming apart). With the next contraction, my water broke. I texted “my water just broke” and called. Misti ended up being on speakerphone with us the whole birth. I remember wanting to double check my “official” LMP due date that was in my phone memo with all the other baby measurements for this pregnancy (my phone appears to be my notebook for everything to keep me straight on facts– I sometimes call it “my memory” because I upgraded from a purse-calendar-planner to that). I couldn’t focus on anything but listening to my body because I didn’t want to move too fast; my brain kept trying to slow my body down – nope, body wasn’t listening.
One more contraction at total relax and the next one came with a burning urge to push. I felt the baby moving to crown and said something, likely incoherent at this point, about the baby crowning. I heard what I thought was Louis repeating what I thought I said. I heard Misti say something too, but I was focused on listening to my body and slowly (in my head it felt slow, but time is so relative when you are in concentration on something – it was likely fast) pictured what the muscles in my body were doing and focused on working with them instead of fighting against them. I remember praying and feeling God say, “listen” like a soft ocean breeze in my ear. He made my body to do exactly what it was doing now. I relaxed – rested – in my trust of Him.
Louis told me the baby crowned and to push, I didn’t feel a contraction but refused to panic, I waited and breathed deep to calm and listen; another contraction came and pushed our little one out. There was a cry followed by a choking sound. As I looked to see the baby in Louis’ hands, the baby’s fingers then arms and toes then legs started to turn from a bright pink-red to blue! The baby had come out with the umbilical cord wrapped and Louis unwrapped it.
Time here slowed for us. It felt like an eternity.
“What happened?” Misti seemed to be able to see everything though she was just on the phone, we said he was turning blue like he choked, she said to suction his mouth. I remembered that from Kimberly’s birth – her cord was really short and the midwife had stopped me from pushing to unwrap her cord, then used a long tube to suction out her mouth – she had been blue. I couldn’t see using a nose suction thingy, it was too short. I had heard Louis say he was a boy as he first cried. Now my mind said “he” instead of “baby”. “How do I do that?” I remember not panicking although the back of my mind was screaming at me “he’s blue! Not breathing! He’s going to die!” Misti said to hold his nose and suction him with my mouth. It was like she could see that I wasn’t pulling strong enough, I remember, “no, pull like you’re sucking a milkshake through a straw,” I prayed and sucked up a ton of mucus which I just spit on the floor. “Blow into him, firm but gentle,” I heard. I blew a breath as I prayed again. He shuddered and breathed in and cried out! I cried.
Christina had called 911 when he started turning blue. He’d been not breathing. It had really been less than a minute between choking sound and his next full cry. It had felt like ten minutes. It had felt like eternity. Everything had happened so fast but in my mind it had happened in slow motion.
Fire rescue came in. My mom said one guy heard the baby crying and whispered, “thank God,” as he entered. Misti told us to rub him so we had been rubbing on Laud all over to get the circulation back. We’d recently watched Thea’s “pongo dog” aka “101 Dalmations” and one of the kids mentioned, “just like the puppy.” I didn’t know which of the girls were awake just yet. I did suddenly realize when there were strangers in my house that I was naked and bloody and there was a giant mess in the bathroom – I made a mental note to throw out the towels on top of the rug and I didn’t care if they were the big nice ones or not. I had been focused on Baby Laud. Louis covered my shoulders with a big towel. The Fire Rescue guy looks at the cord, which was wrapped around my leg, the placenta hadn’t delivered yet, and Laud is at my chest height being rubbed. He said, “wow, that cord is long.” They waited a moment for the pulsing to stop so all the blood from the cord went into Laud. Cord was cut and they did some stuff checking out Laud. I told them, “we called for him, not me,” because “blue and not breathing is scary” and I told them what I needed to do for me (deliver placenta, get blood off to see if I am actively bleeding, etc). The guy agreed and said the baby was good asked if he’d urinated. Yes, with his first big cry after I suctioned him, he’d peed all over, which honestly had made us laugh. Since Louis and the rescue people had Laud, I washed to get most of the blood off and stimulate my body to contract again and get the placenta out. Misti was still on the phone and had all the times and such. Someone (likely Louis, Mom, and Christina) cleaned up the mess on the floor (I hoped the towels just got tossed).
One of the rescue guys said they couldn’t leave until they made sure baby and I were good – for me, that meant delivering the placenta and not actively bleeding. Placenta delivered along with huge blood clots. Louis goes, “I know what to look for.” He says the placenta is a fascinating organ and knows what the whole one looks like. The placenta was whole. I’ve seen them too, but usually I’m a little occupied with the baby and only once do I remember examining one because I was curious. No active bleeding. Sweet. Just that drainage, which honestly appeared too light to me.
All Laud’s vitals were good! His little fingers and toes were pink by the time the placenta delivered and I’d cleaned up a little so I felt ready for the baby. They checked my blood pressure, which was “a bit low” so I had to explain that my blood pressure is always low, stress makes it “normal.” They were so nice and it was amazing how quickly they arrived. Everything was good so we opted to stay home because I never sleep in hospitals anyway. Laud was perfect!
From the “my water just broke” text at 4:36 to when he was born at 4:43 was literally 7 minutes. I am still in complete awe of how quickly everything went. Rescue guys and lady left somewhere before 6am (that was when I texted someone, Misti or Hannah likely)
Our little Laud Arik “stole” Christina’s title of “lightest” at his new 6lbs 4oz. He tied Kimberly for the shortest at 19 inches. His name means “Praise” and “Lion of God” in Hebrew. The teenagers pointed out he is a Leo. He is such an amazing blessing! The girls of course, are vying for who gets to hold him. Lucas commented, “you have two brothers, he’s my only brother.” (Although that is literally true, it’s also a little funny that he decided that was why he should be able to hold him more than the girls.)
Our littlest love is here!
He’s ready to be loved on and spoiled by big sisters, his big brother (who has been his shadow since birth), family, and friends. We’re so awed and blessed and honored to have another little “arrow” to raise up! Thank you, Jesus for friends, family, quick rescue workers (even though he was all okay when they got here, it was provision in case he wasn’t – not breathing is scary to watch)! Thank you, Jesus, for Your perfect timing! Becky gets two & a half weeks with him before she’s gone until November, Christina gets a week & a half before her final senior semester craziness, I only missed the last two days of camp at gym and will be ready for driving with the start of school, my mom travels over summer and was here for just a four-day stay in between visits & got to be here… I have always teased that babies don’t read calendars… and my cumulative experiences with births keeps showing me every time is different and God has all of it in His hands!
Thank you, Jesus, for the miracle of love and life! Thank you, Jesus, for the miracle of Laud!
*Pictures because my girls say I can’t write about him without sharing pictures! (photo credit to Grandma Tina, Christina, Becky, and Kimberly because I was way too busy to think of pictures!)
Probably the first oneChristina, Laud, and TheaBecky and LaudChristina and Laud (she made him a “burrito”Grandma Tina and Laud (with a hat)He’s all dressed up!Mom and LaudHappy Big Brother (Lucas and Laud)Lucas and LaudJillian and LaudMy preemie clothes fit, Mrs. Hannah!Anastasia and Laud
Sister-Cousin Spring Camp & Making Memories! #2023 #Family #Sister #Cousin #Blessings #Connections #SistersAndCousins #TartSpringBreak2023 #SpringBreak2023 #Friends #WateringFriendships #PurposefullyBuildingRelationships #FamilyAndFriends
March 27, 2023
Sister-Cousin Spring Camp
The week of Spring Break for our county was also the Spring Break week for one of my nieces!
While I had an adjusted work schedule because rec classes were taking the week off, Spring Break Camp at WGVG was in full swing and my also-on-break-college driver wanted to make her own “cousin camp” with fun trips, crazy baking escapades, and lots of memories made!
The girls spent time making crafts, dropping in to Spring Camp to do fun stuff, took at least one beach trip, at least two “mushroom park” trips (aka Trout Creek Park, where there is a mushroom you can swing from), chased the escapee bunny that they let loose quite a few times, used the big floor blocks to make several castles and rooms, baked all kinds of egg-free Anastasia-safe goodies (I got to taste some), Christina and Jaquline made unique suppers and lunches, Christina went to a Celtic Festival,
I love that Christina is making these amazing memories with her sisters, brother, and cousin! She doesn’t have many limits on where they can go – and just like we’ve always done, everywhere is usually “free” (aka just the cost of gas). Christina filled her few days of break with loads of “taxiing mom and gymnasts” back and forth (competitive team didn’t take off spring break). She also got to drop all the siblings and cousin at gym one day to spend a perfect day with her best friend – who was also home from college!
When I was watching Katy, Buddy, Becca, Charley, Stacy, Dorothy, and Mary doing special outings and making memories with my oldest girls, I dreamed of my older girls continuing with their siblings, cousins, and friends. There were memories like “Monster Truck Show outing,” shopping with aunts, Alligator Farm trips, “Special Day” outings, long walks to the ice cream shop, beach days, park days, camping nights, firepits and roasting marshmallow visits, and other just “visit” days.
Now I see my not-so-littles being purposeful in their connections to their friends, younger siblings, and cousins – continuing to water those friendships. It makes me so happy! (A few pictures included to enjoy)
Random faces at the Mushroom Park
Hair SweepingSpider-Swing gone oopsLaughing!
Swinging Antics
KimmyJaqJillyAnastasiaLucas & Thea
These were their “look like yourself portraits” that crack me up! Christina perfectly captures each of their respective personalities in these funny pics!
Beach Trip…
…and they are always at the top of something or trying something daredevilish….
Each one is now looking forward to summer and the next trip(s) they get to do… even if it’s just friends and cousins over at the house playing with critters outside, swinging, reading, having a mega Frogger challenge, or the fifteenth Among Us game with every mobile device in the house, or the next life, monopoly, clue, or catan board game and resulting laughter! And food… my family does revolve most everything around cooking, eating, and cleaning up food (who really doesn’t?).
Dress-Up Meet and Impromptu Visit – Sometimes we need to reconnect and slow down! #2023 #Family #Friends #Friend #Blessings #Blessing #FriendshipIsAwesome #ILoveImpromptuVisits #GymnasticsMeet #WesleyChapelTrip #CharityChallenge2023 #GodsHandIsInEverything #SpecialVisit #IHaveTheSweetestSisters #TheaShowsOff #SistersAndCousins
March 24, 2023
Dress Up Meet And Impromptu Visit
My kids are a little strange (don’t we all think that at one point or another?). Sometimes, even my 19-year-old likes to dress up. Today’s story has my competitive gymnasts dressing up for their final meet before states!
The final meet before states was the Charity Cup Challenge. One of the longest drives, but the girls got to dress up in cute tutus and thought that was fun. Kimberly’s team of teenagers even started dancing in them – that was cute! Louis took Jillian down for Friday. I didn’t get to see their antics, but I can imagine from the pictures…
WGVG Silver Team at the 2023 Charity Challenge in Wesley Chapel, FL
Jillian came home saying the “entire place” smelled like fish nets. I couldn’t stop laughing at that!
Kimberly, Jillian, Thea, and I drove down in the wee hours of Sunday morning for Kimberly’s meet. Most of the time they slept and I listened to “My List to Joy” (a youtube mix I created ages ago).
We passed a sign that said “50 miles to this city” (where a sister lives now) early in the morning and I wondered if texting this early was a good idea. Nahhh… I’ll wait until normal nightowls have had coffee.
At the meet, Jillian found Ellie (another Silver Team member whose sister is also Platinum) and Thea got into the gym-sister encourager mode. Girls weren’t even doing anything but dressing up and Thea was like, “Marie’s got this!” and “Go Ellie!” (this made Jillian and a random team mom or grandma from another group laugh) Thea didn’t see how funny it was being a sideline cheerleader while the Platinum Team was wiggling around in their tutus.
WGVG Platinum TeamOur CharityWGVG Platinum TeamThe three travelersJust Kimmy and the mascot
We watched the girls do their amazing thing! Honestly, as my youngsters move up in skill and level, the competitions get more and more interesting to watch. Thea keeps going, “wow! I want to do that!” I had to grab this wanna-be-future-gymnast from hurting her neck as she was showing off on the awards floor trying to push up in her bridge again – she sang as she did: cartwheel, cartwheel, handstand, bridge! (but bridge arms were not straight!) It’s the mom clash between, I let my kids do stuff and I am not watching you break your neck, toddler! I pulled a protesting Thea into my lap with, “careful, your arms have to be straight first.” My just-4-going-on-teenager-attitude goes, “I know mom, I know,” with crossed arms. I heard quite a few chuckles from other random experienced moms on the benches behind me! Thea is definitely part of the entertainment wherever she goes.
On the ride home, we stopped to visit Aunt Becca and Anastasia!
I love visits when we can. It’s so easy to think things like: it would be bothering her, she’s not expecting a visit, maybe she’s not in, maybe they have plans… etc. Every one of those and many more popped into my head trying to prevent me from considering the visit – and we were literally passing by!
NO! Don’t think that way!
Text, call, or just drop by! It’s the human connection part of us that loves that!
(Yes, I did use my car’s voice-text to have almost an hour texting conversation with her letting my sister know we were coming – which was funny because my Platinum in the back seat was so engrossed in her texting with friends and totally ignoring my Silver in the front and our conversation that as we stopped she went, “wait, this isn’t a gas station, why are we stopping?”) And this is why in the wee hours when my moody teen snapped, “I don’t want you to come” to Jillian, I responded with, “well I do; she’ll talk with me instead of disappear into her phone.” I always try to stop and see family if we travel close to their home (close to me is like within an hour – more if we’re traveling far).
We chatted, Jillian ended up staying over with Anastasia (next day started Spring Break and Anastasia was coming to stay with us anyway), Kimberly, Becca, and I played a nice game of Upwords, we snacked on stuff (my sister being a chef, even her “thrown together” snacks taste amazing), and enjoyed each other’s company. I got to see the grand tour of the lovely oasis my sweet sister and niece call home. The girls played basketball – of course, as they are our children, it got competitive very quickly!
I love just being together! I love car trips because usually, the people trapped within play word games (i.e. I’m going on a trip, Famous People First-and-Last, Alphabet or Numbers game) or talk to each other. I love visits where we just “hang out” – nothing planned, nothing crazy, just board games or talking over food or watching the kids play. Becca said it was a “God-timed visit.” I love it when God lines everything up to fill our spirits with reminders of His provision. I needed the dollop of Becca time too – God knew it. We needed each other’s encouragement and smiles. The cool part was that I didn’t realize I was missing her so badly until we got to connect for those few hours, but God knew.
Sadly, a bad thunderstorm cell was coming our way and Louis warned us to “please not get stuck in that driving” so we said goodbye and Kimberly, Thea, and I headed home less one passenger. At least now, Kimberly was in a very chatty mode and we were able to talk about all kinds of stuff all the way home!
Go visit! Find or make a break in your schedule to pay a visit to someone you have been missing. There is so much work and schedule and life that sometimes we miss the part of our soul that whispers slow down and sometimes that close connection is just what we need to help us reset. It gives us a recharge to jump back into the craziness of life and makes a happy memory we cherish – and it can be so simple as a quick lunch, a brief hello, or even a phone call when visiting isn’t practical.
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 SwitchThree Best Buddies!Photos by Louis Tart & Mikaela ReppertSilver 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!
New Phase – Making Offers! #2023 #Family #Encourage #PropertyHunting #Land #PuttingOffersIn #ExcitedForMovingForward #PrayingForFavorAndWisdom #FutureTartFarm #OpenRuralLand #GenerationalHome
March 15, 2023
New Phase – Making Offers!
Finally!
It feels like I haven’t written in a century! We finally reached the phase of savings where our available investment capital (aka cash in the savings account) is enough to make some offers on certain pieces of property!
We know that the only way we are going to find and afford a simple house with enough family room for our dreams is to build it from the ground up on property we own outright. We are consistently told we don’t make enough. We know this. Oh well, the mortgage on a $160,000 property (15 years, after down payment) is approximately $1400/month ~ guess those who have been renting for $2800/month can’t afford a loan. Can’t change the system, you just have to think outside the box!
Anyway, back to the seriously amazing excitement! We’ve been looking at properties and placing offers within our budget. Our budget will grow as our savings slowly does. Someone will agree to let us buy a property from them – or a miracle will pop up where someone owner-finances half a property or some investor decides our family is worth the risk and does a private loan. I’m open to pretty much anything. We want OR land; our family dream is back to a farm with chickens, our aviary, rabbits, the ability to help shelters again, growing 95% or more of our own food again – we are only offering on spots with at least an acre. A miracle would be 5 or more acres close to the WGV area (like that cool little abandoned spot near the turn to trailmark). Our goal is a generational home. Space for our family to stay close. A farm to share food from. Somewhere our children and grandchildren could always come home to. Saving a tiny bit of Florida’s agricultural heritage (teaching things Grandma Jeanette taught me).
Just sending out offers is super exciting for me! We’ve designed and planned and researched. I keep praying this is our family’s next step.
Hopefully we find something before September (when rent goes up again)! I’m just so excited about seeing the light at the end of this tunnel – it’s been a long road. It’s like a restart. I love restarts!
Uncle Buddy was purging his apartment and there were two truck-loads of stuff he thought we could use. (Yes, we could, not that we knew it before it came) One such item was three packs of floor blocks, you know, those spongy warm mats that you cover hard floors with to have a softer play surface. We already had six squares of it under our swing in the back yard to keep feet from digging a ditch under the swing and nine squares in the playroom to bring out when it was too cold for bare feet on the hard floor.
Lucas has a fantastic imagination and turned said floor cushions into… A house. The original one was 1×2 squares in a perfect rectangle with a “door” panel they sealed behind themselves and “busted” out of with a sharp kick from both feet.
It started in the living room, but there is more space in the playroom! The house became 2×3 squares with a “portal” doorway complete with blanket carpets and pillows so they could sleep in it!
Louis shook his head, “I don’t think they were made for that.” And I shrugged, “no, but they work fine, don’t they?” (Until a rambunctious boy-who-will-remain-unnamed dropped on the ceiling and broke it aka caved in the roof, made Thea cry and Jillian mad, and they had to rebuild said house.)
Soon packing boxes (also from Uncle Buddy) were added to make rooms inside the house and prop up the roof as going bigger than 2×3 meant less stability in the middle. They were finding ways to overcome the structural weakness and still expand their play house! I loved all the problem solving that was going on!
These large blocks also store in their bags when not in use. I don’t know how often this will happen, but what I was saving for play surfaces in our shed while moving and in our future house when we finally get one, is now a house-building toy. Lucas is always building big complex structures in his mega blocks, duplos, and legos. I’m hoping to get him interested in carpentry or construction because once his football career (now he wants to be a football player in high school and college and the NFL – he better pray he gets height from Great-Grandpa Jim and Boompa!) is done, he might enjoy building things. I totally encourage any type of hands-on skill as even though yes, the foam block houses won’t last long, the building and problem solving will present itself in other forms.
What neat things have your kids done with their imagination lately? I love to watch with sonder as they explore new things! Sit back, let them play, and watch a world of wonder explode from their untamed imaginations!
