This time of year seems to be a little busier for us, so I thought it might be helpful if I just got all my special meals and recipes gathered for the month. I checked the menu plan and have made a list of the holidays that we want to celebrate.
If you haven’t seen our Perpetual Meal Plans yet, then you really need to check them out, as they have all kinds of special and unique holidays listed. Now is the time to start making your bucket list for Fall things, if you haven’t already.
Pip: Welcome to Pollywog’s Place Blog — where the questions are ancient and the stakes are genuinely personal.
Mara: Susie at Pollywog’s Place Blog has been writing about things that actually matter at home and in the heart — what it means to know your own worth, and what it looks like to tend a household with intention. Let’s start with identity and what scripture says you deserve.
Biblical Worth And Identity
Mara: The posts in this segment are asking a question that sounds simple but cuts deep: do you actually believe you are worth something, and does that belief shape who you let into your life?
Pip: The anchor text opens with Proverbs 3:15, and then the post speaks directly to daughters: “You deserve to be loved, but not just loved like the general idea of love, you deserve to be cherished.”
Mara: That distinction matters. The post is not talking about settling for affection that shows up occasionally — it is talking about being someone’s active priority, the person they protect and keep in their thoughts.
Pip: And the post is practical about it. Don’t chase, don’t lower your standards to accommodate someone else’s excuses, and don’t assume you can change a person — that kind of change, the post argues, comes from above, not from patience or pressure.
Mara: The companion piece, “Cherished,” works through exactly what that word means in practice. It defines cherishing as making another person your priority relationship — shown through daily small acts, touch, listening, encouragement, and showing respect in public as well as in private.
Pip: So the two posts are really one argument in two directions: know what you deserve, and then actually demonstrate it when you’re in a relationship.
Mara: That thread — worth informing behavior, not just self-esteem — carries right into how those values play out inside a home.
Home And Family Stewardship
Pip: If the first segment was about knowing your value, this one is about what you do with it once you’re building a life — specifically, what it means to take a home seriously as a responsibility, not just a location.
Mara: “Keeper of The Home” opens with Proverbs 24:3-4, then states the core claim plainly: “We are responsible for our homes and that our homes and families should be a priority for us. It means that we are each responsible for setting the tone of our homes.”
Pip: Setting the tone. That is a bigger job than it sounds — it covers what comes in, what goes out, whether people inside feel safe, and whether guests find rest there.
Mara: The post is also honest about the gap between the ideal and the reality. It names the experience of being a single mother working multiple part-time jobs and still holding the household’s emotional climate as the first priority. The practical sections — meal planning, cleaning routines, budgeting, time management — are offered as tools, not judgments.
Pip: It reads less like a lifestyle prescription and more like someone handing you the manual they wish they’d had at twenty-two.
Mara: The post closes by framing all of it as intentional work. A keeper of the home is not something you drift into — it is a decision made deliberately, then built on through routines, prayer, and the goal of passing those habits forward to the next generation.
Pip: Worth knowing. Cherished at home.
Mara: Both threads come back to the same idea — that what you believe about your value shapes everything downstream, from the relationships you accept to the household you build.
Pip: And apparently the work is never quite finished. Next time, more from Pollywog’s Place.
This recipe was a variation of Shyanne’s Two-Kind Cheesecake. Someone accidentally messed up and made the cake part according to the box directions, but it was still pretty amazing! The cake just wasn’t like a brownie but still good. I had to add a little liner of parchment paper around the top of the pan to hold everything in as the cake was a bit taller than the original recipe but it all worked out well.
We used a whole family pack of cookies but not all of those actually went into the cake… there was a lot of quality control happening. If you are looking for an easy to make dessert to impress, then this is it!
I am hoping to make a new devotional for each month this year… that’s a big challenge, but it is something that has been on my heart. For JULY, our monthly theme will be SELF-CONTROL. We will be trying to find ways to show a little more SELF-CONTROL through routines and habits.
Here is the FREE printable, if you’d like to join us: