water – Page 2 – Nancy Tart: Writing for Life

Celebration: Disney Springs

How better to celebrate a long first day of college semester than to watch fireworks from three parks atop the Disney Springs parking garage?

August 22, 2018

Celebration: Disney Springs

We love to explore free parks and things to do. Like playing tourist in downtown Saint Augustine, visiting the beach, playing kickball or tennis at Treaty Park, or when Louis wants to “get out of Dodge,” exploring a bit farther away: Daytona Beach boardwalk, Jacksonville Landing, or Disney Springs.

This time he decided Disney Springs. If you don’t go hungry or bring some snacks and water bottles, you can spend hours listening to live music, exploring cool sights, taking boat or bus rides, and spend nothing. (Just the gas getting there, which for us is about $20.) We dream of being able to “do Disney” at the actual parks, which will happen someday, but for now, Disney Springs is what my kids mean when they say “Disneyworld.”

Once we touch the edge of Orlando and see all the tall buildings, the entertainment has begun! The girls and Lucas shout about seeing the tops of rides, “castles,” houses on top of big buildings, and roads going over us and under us!

They are building what appears to be a 5-level overpass system on I4! The kids were trying to count how high it would be – they thought four, then realized we were already over two other lanes! (Yes, we get excited about crazy stuff like being on bridges, overpasses, and parking garages.)

Christina, Rebeccah, and Kimberly start telling stories of their one visit to Universal (Daddy’s birthday two years ago for Rock the Universe). They laugh over Kimberly falling asleep on Daddy’s shoulders during the last concert and marvel at the weird purple mountain that is the icon for the new Volcano Bay waterpark.

As usual, it’s one of the girls who reminds me that I have a camera!

Kimberly took pictures of her favorite “cove” in Disney Springs. This twist of sparkling water and beautiful plants fascinates Kimberly.

The beautiful “chess knight” fountain (the girls call it that because the horse heads remind them of chess pieces) is also Lucas’ favorite fountain.

Admiring the giant Lego statues is a must.

The giant water dragon was admired and discussed for almost fifteen minutes!

There’s Buzz and Woody from Toy Story (Kimberly loves that one).

Jillian and Lucas sat with the Lego Friends statues (and Lucas tried to do what he does to everyone else’s Lego creations, take them apart!).

We watched the Rain Forest Café’s Volcano explode with hot lava across the bay.

Kimberly’s favorite place to wander around is in the T-Rex eatery because she loves to jump when the robot dinosaurs move. All lit up, it looks like a Mayan temple from this angle.

Another fountain picture appears since Lucas loves all fountains.

We raced to the top of the parking garage (we always park at the top level) so we could watch the fireworks from Epcot and Magic Kingdom at the same time! A third park’s fireworks were a bit further in the distance, probably Disney Studios, but we weren’t sure.

We were going to stay to go watch the water parade on the Lagoon, but with everyone zonked from a long first day at college and the inability of the stroller to carry four people, we ended on the fireworks and journeyed home.

Yes, they all slept on the ride home, which made for some Mom and Daddy conversation time!

Thank you, Jesus, for our amazing life!

Thanks for reading!

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~Nancy Tart

Laughter

Children create laughter – especially the funny antics of a preschooler!

August 6, 2018

Laughter

On Saturday, Christina mentioned in passing this now rather infamous line: “I have a brother, Mom, nothing embarrasses me anymore.”

Fast forward to Saturday night: we’re at church, listening to an awesome message, where the pastor mentions “taking off” all the things the world assigns to us but God doesn’t want us to carry.

At this apropos moment, Lucas races into the sanctuary holding his clothes, yelping “they got water on them!” (He can’t stand anything dirty on his clothes, mud covering his body, sure, but not on his clothing!)

Christina whisked him away to the bathroom to dress him, red as a coke can. I would have gone but she was too fast – I think, because she was embarrassed to be related to him at the moment.

However, I was grateful he had left his big boy pants on (briefs), and a friend leaned over (she also has a 3 year old boy) and whispered, “well, he did just say to take it off.”

We moms can laugh at that – as we understand that everyone has had at least one embarrassing moment in their life. But my poor teenager is the big sister of an almost-streaker preschool brother who is almost-streaking in front of friends she would like to impress.

I seriously bet (as they are also big siblings) that they’ve been embarrassed by a younger sibling at some time.

That wasn’t the last antics of the night by Lucas – as service was closing, two tennis balls bounce into the sanctuary followed by two three-year-old boys and a toddler. It seems they were playing “doggie fetch” and Lucas was the doggie…

Later all three of them come running in, drop noiselessly, and begin rolling across the floor.

Yes, children fill our lives with laughter!

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~Nancy Tart

Fearfully and Wonderfully

I’m so amazed by how God loves us and in awe of His creation.

July 22, 2018

Fearfully and Wonderfully

Have you ever stopped to ponder (seriously think, dwell on thoughts) about creation?

I love to watch nature. I love to watch our animals: fish in their tanks, guinea pigs in the run, chickens in the yard, dogs in the house. I love to watch my plants grow. I can’t wait to have roses again! (Roses are my absolute favorite in the world.) I enjoy the cycles of life that create our world and the natural beauty of it.

Take plants; they need special nutrients in the soil from decaying animals and micro or trace nutrients left from other plants to reach their best. Animals eat plants. Plants “eat” decaying animals. We harvest food from both plants and animals.

The cycle of water amazes me. Water is evaporated from the oceans and other waterways, stored in clouds, and poured out onto the land where it gathers in creeks, rivers, and underground aquifers. The water underground rises (or we drill for it) and we have clean drinking water filtered by the air and rocks.

Each of these systems were spoken into being when God spoke creation into action. Yet He chose to form each one of us by knitting us together in our mother’s womb. Does that boggle your mind? All of these awesome forces of nature spoken into existence yet He takes the time to craft each one of us. He cares for each of us.

God set up our world to provide us with animals and plants for food, trees, rocks, sand, or thatch to make shelters, and a boundless supply of fresh drinking water. (Even in the desert, cacti carry water, the ground holds water, and native peoples have amazing techniques for pulling water from the sand!)

Yet He fashioned us. He molded Adam from dust and breathed life into him. He knits us together in our mothers’ wombs. He knows us before we are born. He surrounds us with examples of His majesty in our natural world. We have been fearfully and wonderfully made. He loves us.

To think that Jesus enjoys it when I speak to Him totally blows my mind. I am amazed by His love. Thank you, God, for Your awesome love!

Thanks for reading!

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~Nancy Tart

My Civil Air Patrol Cadet

July 12, 2018

My Civil Air Patrol Cadet

One day Louis was driving past the Saint Augustine Civil Air Patrol building and saw cadets marching around in uniform. He stopped, asked them what they were, and raced home to tell Christina that he found the perfect activity for her.

She is my flying nut. She loves planes. Just like Lucas loves anything with wheels – she loves anything that flies (except mosquitoes and no-see-ums). Better said; Christina loves anything mechanical that flies.

She’d studied famous flying people, physics, beat her way through math, and taken a helicopter tour for her birthday. She’d talked with pilots as Louis shuttled them to the airport from their hotels.

She had the time of her life when some friends took her to the Jacksonville Air Show! (Photo credit above & below – Hannah Clark & crew)

The poster from that day was the first one tacked to her wall.

So, she “visited” the CAP meetings with Louis for three weeks – but Wednesday morning after her first meeting, she was like, “Mom, I’m going to join Civil Air Patrol.” Of course, Christina’s decisions are never small – “I’m going to get to officer rank and they have all these things I can learn so I can get into programs to help me learn to fly…” and she continued talking me through the book and information someone had given her.

She is a scrimping saver and refused any help with CAP dues, fees, or for her first uniform. (This is a point of pride for her – to be able to cover all her own expenses. She saw God’s love in action, though, when she thought she wouldn’t be able to go to winter encampment but our amazing church family gave her enough money for the trip and the extra items needed!)

CAP gave her a grant to go toward buying her first blues uniform though – something about earning a certain rank. (These are my borrowed shoes for her first day wearing blues. Her real ones have a one inch heel and no decoration.)

Lucas loves Christina’s uniform – especially the caps (aka, covers).

Thanks to CAP, Christina has matured greatly in social interaction (you can order younger siblings around all day, but it is different ordering someone else around!). She is more confident, more physically active, emotionally and physically stronger, and enjoying the company of respectful, goal-driven, encouraging fellow cadets.

Our family has learned some new terms: water is hydration, anything not a uniform is civies, a funny backpack with a water bag inside and a fishtank-hose looking straw hanging around the cadet’s neck is a camelback, among others.

We’ve swelled with pride watching our cadet march in parades (even if we only get a picture of her back half hidden behind another cadet)…

…assist veterans in her blues…

…and attend encampment as a student…

…and staff.

She’s constantly challenging herself to new higher limits – one day, I’m sure, she’ll touch the sky!

Thanks for reading!

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~Nancy Tart

Fireworks Over the Matanzas

July 8, 2018

Fireworks Over the Matanzas

Ask any of my kids what their favorite day is one answer will be… “Fourth of July!”

Why?

Because we always go downtown to watch the best fireworks show ever! (Okay, maybe I’m a little prejudiced because I live here, but I get a travel magazine and it listed our “Fireworks Over the Matanzas” as one of the top 5 annual fireworks shows!)

We make is a production! (Yes, that was not this year, but our longest “train!” because it included me – taking picture – and the buggy!)

(Jaquline at the Fireworks Over the Matanzas years ago – photo credit, my amazing friend, Stacy Moorehouse)

This was the first year we went without the baby buggy – took a foldable wagon instead. And yes, it doubled as Anastasia’s buggy from the van to downtown and Lucas’ back to the van.

We bring snacks, water (hydration, as Christina calls it – thank you, Civil Air Patrol), juice (Becky wanted juice to refill the water bottles this year), and lots of energy! The girls always make new friends at the bayfront.

This year a new friend family from Atlanta, Georgia shared their bag of glowsticks with the girls and Lucas! (This made them very excited! As you can see, Lucas made glasses to “see very far away.”) Even though Christina said she was “too big” for glowsticks, between Becky and Kimberly, they had her wearing one! (Kimberly has “a pirate earring” and Christina is covering her bracelet!)

Finally, after enjoying awesome music (before the city music came through the speakers, we could hear Evan D’s music from Harry’s! He’s a local artist I like to hear.), playing and talking with new friends, snacking on lots of fruit and sweet potato chips from Currie’s and Aldi’s, and having Aunt Becca join us, we got to the main event

The best fireworks show on the bayfront! (I can’t record more than about 22 seconds at a time on my camera, so we only caught a few snippets of the show, but it was amazing!)

We trudged home, (Lucas slept in the wagon, in a picture back up there^ somewhere) laughing, singing, and enjoying our family time! Oh, and yes, Lucas fell asleep during the fireworks! 🙂 I was so excited and even mentioned “this is the first year everyone is awake to see the fireworks!” haha! Then he was out.

Will we face huge crowds, packed potties, and no-see-ums again? Oh yes! And look forward to an amazing 6 hours or more next year at our special bayfront spot, making new friends and enjoying each others’ company!

We love the City of Saint Augustine’s Fireworks Over the Matanzas!

Thanks for reading!

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~Nancy Tart

Elephant Ears

May 24, 2018

Elephant Ears

One of my favorite garden bulbs is what we call “Elephant Ears.”

These are from three bulbs that we dug up in some weeds when we first moved in. They were tiny, neglected, and crowded. With good fertilizer and plenty of water, (we didn’t have to water them, God did it with the rain!) those three multiplied into fifteen by January when we replanted them in this nice half-shady strip between the carport and the side of the house.

We also leave the wild flowers that don’t crowd out our bulbs. Tiny white flowers that spread like ground cover are some of Jillian’s favorite because they look like “stars on green sky.” (Those are under the star lily in the above picture, but their blooms look like dots in the picture.)

These are the smallest ones. The elephant ears are now growing alongside a few lilies, six pineapples, tomatoes, and squash. (The clump of bushy leaves on the right corner are tomatoes.) The plants are called elephant ears because their leaves get to be the size of African Elephant’s ears. I’ve grown some before, which by their third year, had leaves that were five feet wide! (Since you have to clip the ears off at the stalk when the ears fall to help encourage new growth, the girls would save the clipped stalks for umbrellas!)

These are some of the “wild” tomatoes. This means we didn’t sow them there, they just came from our fertilizer/compost and we tended the plants as they sprouted. Jillian has the worm-picking job because we don’t use pesticides.

I love Florida bulbs, they are easy to grow and propagate quickly. I can give the many extras away and cover my yard in little groves of them within just a couple of years. Now if I can just get fruit trees like fig, citrus, kumquat, pineapple, and bananas to grow as well!

Thanks for reading!

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~Nancy Tart

Matanzas Inlet

May 19, 2018

Matanzas Inlet

I thought I had visited all of the beaches in the Saint Augustine area. Vilano Beach Pier, Vilano at the Crossover, Saint Augustine Beach, Anastasia State Park Beach, Crescent Beach, and Butler Beach. (At least, I think I’m not leaving any names out.) But then we went to Matanzas Inlet.

Oh my goodness! This place is so beautiful! We were able to walk the inlet onto several sand bars with our rolled up pants. Okay, so the adults and wanna-be-adults rolled up their pants and waded carefully, but the children just jumped into the water and got every strand of hair on their body soaking wet.

In the inlet we observed turtles in the sand, crabs and fish in the water, birds overhead and in the dense bushes on the other side of the inlet, and humans floating on boats and a giant duck float in the inlet.

Lucas is running from the water to Daddy, who is building a sand castle in the middle of a sand bar. Beautiful place, isn’t it?

Blue water is slightly deeper than the muddy-looking water. Louis is on the far sand bar, that big yellow blob is the duck float, and the figures headed to Daddy are Jillian, Jaquline, Kimberly, and Lucas.

This picture reminded me of me and one of my little brothers, Charley, as kids! It’s Kimberly helping Lucas get to Daddy.

Our wanna-be-adults carefully wading like Louis and I were. (Christina and Rebeccah, the lovely young ladies who suddenly appeared in our house – where did the toddlers go?)

Another sand bar, another picture of my completely wet fun-loving crew and Daddy guarding the far side (actually, he’s either taking a picture or dispatching to Papi).

Matanzas Inlet has become a favorite place for lazy-day water fun. It’s not the ocean with fun waves for the thrill of surfing, but for lazy, wander-through-the-water days or days when the ocean is still a little too cold for Daddy’s liking, this will be our go-to!

Thanks for reading!

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~Nancy Tart

Cousin Bonds

April 6, 2018

Cousin Bonds

I love watching the awesome relationships between my children and their cousins. Cousins are something like siblings you don’t live with. They know you, accept you just as you are, enjoy normal everyday things with you, and share one set of grandparents. For my children, their cousins are their best friends. My children are very fortunate to have most of their cousins close by.

The bond seems instant. From crib days, they are inseparable!

They spend long minutes to make bubbles stick to another’s hair as a “crown.”

They turn part of the back yard in to an aerial picture (after two studying about the Hopewell Indians and mounds). Their picture was dugout, in the shape of an elephant and a duck head, created to “hold wasted water.” (The photographer, Rebeccah, and Kimberly who had studied the mound builders, explained while building that this wasn’t heaped up dirt, but it would look good from above.)

Sometimes fun is just looking through a magazine together.

Cousins turn long car rides into parties!

When Grandma joins in, cousin time is even more fun!

Cousins share passions with each other – like a love for waves, wind, and water! (Yes, the dots in the cool March water are most of the sister-cousins!)

When cousins move away, the distance doesn’t stop the love that they have for each other. Even Lucas, who was two when his “baby Isaac” moved to the Midwest, still talks about “when Isaac and Mandy and their baby come play trains with me.” (He’s never seen his “baby” cousin, JJ, except in pictures, but he loves him anyway!) The beauty of cousin love is when they reunite, it doesn’t matter time, distance, or changes, each is so excited to see the other and they seem to instantly pick up where they left off; like the best of friends.

Thanks for reading!

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~Nancy Tart

Summer Storms

Finding the fun even in storms.

September 13, 2017

Summer Storms

We are an outdoor thrill-seeking kind of family. So, what do we do when the winds die down and there is water everywhere? (And the kids are stir-crazy because it’s been thundering for most of the outside-time hours?)

We go outside…

In our bathing suits…

And get muddy.

Sometimes we ride boogie boards on flooded lawns. (Last year we “boogied” where hurricane Matthew created a pool in our front yard that reached 10 inches deep!) Sometimes we march through the trough of water in the driveway. (This year, new place, new storm, new water adventures.)

The screams of “I found a real pool!” happen when a puddle is more than 3 inches deep.

The big girls make a funny Lego video about Hurricane Irma preparedness. (My favorite part was the guy in line behind the mini-cooper!)

The most fun after the storm is discovering the unique toys in the yard (Like the two felled trees that became “teepees” covered in branches shed by other trees.) and the new “swing.” (A grape vine attached to the maple tree but hanging enticingly low enough and sturdy enough to be used as a temporary swing.)

After a storm, especially a major one, I always try to help everyone focus on the positive.

Bored? We can help the lady next door by cleaning her yard.

An oak tree is gone. But it became a teepee!

The chinaberry tree, a favorite climbing tree, split and fell. But the leaves make a great mulch for the chicken yard and help reduce odor.

The power was out for two days. But we had plenty of maple and oak wood to grill yummy meats and tin foil to bake sweet potatoes! And we had good no-see-um screens & strong, cool breezes!

We couldn’t get out of our street to go to work because of three big trees blocking the roads. But that meant we could stay home and play every board game in the house! (We shifted to the backlit electronics like Scrabble Twist and Catch Phrase once the sun went down.)

We thank God for family, for the opportunities to help others as they presented themselves, for teaching us to find joy in any situation, and for keeping us safe through all summer storms.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Tag: water

Celebration: Disney Springs

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Laughter

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Fearfully and Wonderfully

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Fireworks Over the Matanzas

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Elephant Ears

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Matanzas Inlet

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Cousin Bonds

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Summer Storms

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