Category: Special Needs

I don’t have enough time to get it all done!

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

How many times have you said this or thought this? How stressful does it feel when you feel this way?

Maybe it’s not that you don’t have enough time but maybe you have too much to do, too much to take care of, too many unnecessary obligations. When you have young kids that time can slip by all too quickly and in the blink of an eye your toddler will be towering over you with keys in his hand.

I know that things can get really crazy, really quickly around here and I’m sure it’s the same in other homes as well. The past week was a train wreck with us being sick and not being able to do many of the things we had planned to get done so now we are almost a week behind already for the New Year!

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Special Holiday Meals: Polar Express 2023, Sourdough Gifts & Recipes, and Other Life Updates

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

Well, our Polar Express Party was full of family, fun, food, and lots of love. I think everyone had a great time and it all seemed to have gone well despite the bad weather we were experiencing.

The cousins had a lot of fun visiting, playing hide and seek, enjoying all the sweet treats, and having a special movie night experience. The grown-ups also got to talk and enjoy the movie… I love these special memories that our kids will be able to fondly look back on when they are older.

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Update with more pictures! Preparing for Christmas… St. Nicholas, Gifts in a Jar, and so much more!

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog5 Comments

We’ve had a busy weekend… well, I have. I’ve been working on my pantry makeover and I’ve completely moved things around 3 times already! I will post pictures as soon as I have it the way I like it but it is an improvement already and I think it makes better use of the breakfast nook space that just didn’t work for us.

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Free Printables for Holiday Shopping plus some tips for buying for special needs kiddos!

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog8 Comments

It might be a little late in the game for these goodies but I needed to make some for my Holiday Planner anyway and I figured I’d share them here just in case anyone else could use them. They really aren’t anything fancy but I did try to make a couple of festive options to help you feel a little more in the Christmas spirit.

We plan to start implementing the 3 or possibly 4 gift rule in our home because things are just so expensive and our kiddos really have everything they need and a lot of what they want so we don’t want them asking for tons of things that they won’t or can’t use. We really want them to stay focused on the reason for the season … we are dedicating these weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas for an Advent Study. We also want them to think about gifts and appreciate the time, thought, and money that goes into each gift they receive and not what they expect to find under the tree.

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Preparing for Daylight Savings Time

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

It is almost that time of year again and when you have so many kiddos with so many unique needs then this is something that can cause complete CHOAS in your household… along with weather changes, moon changes, and just about any kind of unexpected changes.

‘Losing’ that hour of sleep can wreak havoc on your body and upset your circadian rhythm which isn’t good. Here in our house, it’s really not good because we have kiddos who don’t understand the concept of time change and they just get unbearable to be around.

This year we’ve been trying a little experiment to hopefully prepare us for the upcoming time change and maybe keep things under control around here… fingers are crossed.

We’ve been setting our alarms 15 minutes earlier every Sunday night for the past 2 weeks and getting in bed a tad earlier at night… with the idea that when Daylight Savings Time actually rolls around they won’t have so much trouble with the adjustment… fingers and toes crossed now!

The kids have been a little grumpy the first couple of days of the week with the earlier wake times but it doesn’t last long. We usually head outside first thing in the morning to feed up and that seems to chase the grumpies away… yay! It has been shown that getting some daylight early in your day can help with your circadian rhythm and we already know that fresh air can work wonders.

On the night before the actual change, we always set the clocks ahead to prepare for the next day. Sometimes we do it directly after dinner so they go to bed a little early without realizing what going on… lol.

I will also try to have a ‘light’ school schedule for that first week after the time change so kids can get outside to work those grumpies out or take some naps if they need to. We already have some good routines in place so hopefully, they will help to keep us going on the right track without too many interruptions in the next few weeks.

What are your favorite tips for preparing for Daylight Savings Time?

You can read more about how Daylight Savings Time affects your body and ways to adjust HERE and HERE.