Inspiration – Page 51 – Pollywog's Place Blog

Momma, come sit with me.

Published on January 16, 2017January 11, 2017 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

‘Momma, come sit with me.’ That’s what my 3 year old said today at lunchtime. He had been picking at his sandwich and sticking around the table after everyone else had went to their rooms for lunch. He gave me that sweet smile with those little blue eyes just a sparkling. Who could resist that smile?

Not me! The neverending To-Do list can wait. The basket of unfolded laundry can wait. The dirty dishes in the sink can wait. The chores that need finished can wait. The millions of other things running through my mind,at any given moment, can wait.

Right now he needs me and he is asking me for my time. I admit that sometimes I feel like I am spread pretty thin. I feel like I just can’t do anything more than what I am doing right now. It’s hard being a Momma.It’s hard being a single Momma. It’s hard being a special needs Momma. It’s hard being a single special needs Momma! Yes, I said it’s hard. It’s almost downright impossible on some days. But then there are the good days or the little moments like this.

The house is quiet-ish as everyone is settling down for naps and/or quiet time. The school work has been finished and put away. He continues to nibble at his sandwich while I grab my glass of watered down iced tea. I sit in the chair next to him and he smiles. A genuinely lit up ear to ear kind of smile. Those little eyes are just dancing with ideas that he wants to tell me.

So he begins by informing me that my feet are in the water. I laugh and pull my feet up and sit cross legged in the chair.

‘Is that better?’, I ask.

‘Yes, Momma, now the sharks can’t get you.’

‘Well that’s a good thing! Thank you so much for warning me.’, I say.

He laughs and then he proceeds to explain to me how a T-Rex would catch a fish. He imitates the T-Rex while eating his fish (peanut butter sandwich) and he laughs a lot. He tells me what he wants for snack later, a dinosaur cupcake from yesterday, and he asks if he and ‘all my friends’ can go outside after naps. He always refers to his brothers and sisters as ‘all my friends’ and he draws a big circle in the air when he says it. It is so cute!

He eats a few more bites and declares he is full. Then he grabs his napkin and attempts to wipe the peanut butter off his face. I help him and he takes off running back to his room before I can finish. He jumps into his bed and curls up with a stuffed toy and his favorite dinosaur toy. Then he closes his eyes and pretends to be asleep. I lean over and give him a quick kiss on the cheek and he giggles.

These are the moments that make my day and give me the momentum I need to get through the tough days. I get a little sad as I know they are all growing up so fast. I know that before long he won’t be asking me to come sit with him anymore. I want to take the time to cherish these little moments and enjoy them while I can.

I walked back to the kitchen to jot down this post so I will have it to look back on in the future. I think about how blessed I am and how precious life is. I am so thankful that God has put me where I am right now. He has given me more than I ever deserved and I know He has so many plans in store for me and my family.

He always knows what we need and when we need it. This morning I read Proverbs 13:4:

It reminds me that I need to keep pressing on towards my goals. I can’t give up and let myself get lazy. I can have hope in knowing that if I stay diligent there will be a reward for all of the hard work I put in here on earth. This little moment with my son was just a taste of that and it was so beautiful! I can’t even begin to imagine what the future may hold for us.

Thank you Lord for your blessings on me and my family!

Would The Real Boaz Please Stand Up?

Published on January 11, 2017January 11, 2017 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog2 Comments

I’ve been reading a lot about Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz. It is one of the most beautiful love stories told in the Bible. It shows how God can use the most tragic of circumstances, the poorest of the poor, and the most humblest people to fulfill His great plans. It shows God’s power and control of our lives, even when we don’t understand what is going on in our lives.

For me, this really hits home. No, I haven’t been widowed, but I am alone. I have been transplanted to a place where I knew almost no one but I am not struggling to get by on a daily basis. Or am I? I do have my struggles but I don’t think they would ever compare to the struggles that Ruth and Naomi faced. Nor do I ever feel that I would be worthy of the blessings that were bestowed upon them.

I do however have hope that there is one out there for me. My ‘Boaz’, if you will. Over the past few months I have met a few men that displayed the character traits of Boaz. I am not talking about men who were rich landowners as I rarely ask about a person’s occupation or income. I am talking about men of integrity and faith. Men that are genuinely kind and give without expecting anything in return. Men that I would consider to be of good moral character and who I would trust to lead my family.

Time and time again I have been let down. There have been various reasons, sometimes they get tired of keeping up the false front, sometimes I may have been to blame in some ways. I know that feelings of rejection can creep up from hurts I’ve had before and affect the way I feel. I do have a hard time trusting people when I’ve opened up my heart to them and they use my weaknesses against me. This is not what my real Boaz would do, he would never want to hurt me or see me hurt. He would want to guard my heart and wipe my tears, not be the cause for them. I still have faith and hope that God is working and I will keep waiting and praying for this man.

I try to pray daily for him even though I don’t know who he is, where he is, or what he is doing. What am I praying for? I pray that he will love God more than anything else and that he will pursue his relationship with God above everything else. I am praying for his health, safety, and protection. I am praying that God will work in his life to help him develop the traits and character qualities, like humility and integrity, that will bring honor and glory to God. I pray that God will guide him to be the leader that I will need him to be. I pray that God will teach him how to love, unconditionally, as he will need to accept my children unconditionally if he is truly my Boaz. I pray that he is successful in whatever he sets his mind to and that God will bring him peace and rest after his hard work. I pray that he is surrounded by friends and family that support him.

I also try to pray that God will shape me and mold me into the person that my Boaz will need me to be. I want to be ready for whenever he comes my way. I pray that God will teach me to be a good help meet. I pray that God will help me to develop the qualities that he will need from me so that I can support and encourage him. I pray that I will be the love of his life, and he will be mine also. I pray that God will give me wisdom and discernment in the choices I am making now that may affect my future. I pray for the strength to overcome any weaknesses I have and that they can be turned into strengths. I pray that I will learn to love unconditionally and accept him for who he is. I pray that God will heal my heart from my past relationships and not allow those feelings to creep into future relationships.

God knows me better than I know myself. He knows my needs and my wants. He knows my strengths and weaknesses. He knows my likes and my dislikes. He knows what I need and when I need it. He shows me glimpses of traits and qualities that my Boaz will have and He gives me hope and encouragement. I trust that He will bring my Boaz along in His perfect timing according to His will and plan for me.

I pray for patience and faith while I am in this state of waiting. I am not actively searching for My Boaz because I know that God will put me where I need to be for him to find me. Who knows maybe he has already found me and God is still working on us before He opens ours eyes to see the plan He has in store for us?

Back to School!

Published on January 9, 2017January 9, 2017 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

You know how it is when you have taken a break from school, whether it be public school or summer school, and then you have to go back to the regular routine. We had two weeks off for the holidays and today was our first day back. A lot of the schools around us are closed because of the weather but seeing as how we didn’t need to go anywhere to have school I decided that we wouldn’t procrastinate any longer. Below are a few of the activities that have been included in our first day back.

First Momma needed to get ready for the day and have a little bit of quiet time as I knew it was gonna be a bit chaotic as everyone got back into school routine. My verse for the day was Proverbs 14:30, and it was such a good verse to start today out with. As usual I got myself ready so I would be prepared for whatever the day may hold.

It is a Monday so that means the little boys need to do have their laundry washed. They brought it in and loaded it. They also switched it over the dryer and then unloaded the dryer. Jacob (3) loves to clean the lint filter. Then he offered to take care of pushing it to my room as Joey (4) was feeling a little under the weather today. I admire the empathy they show at such an early age.

The older kids took care of the morning chores like wiping the table, sweeping the floor, and cleaning up the playroom. Momma took out the trash and cleaned the bathrooms.

Jacob and Joey did their work on the Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool first. They were on Day 77 of the Getting Ready 1. (I use Ctrl F to find the day easier.) They loved painting the farm and adding animals. They made a mud pit for the pigs and a pond for the animals to drink from. Jacob also found that he could make the rooster ‘fly’ backwards by tapping on the screen.

Then they went to Discovery K12 and worked on Jacob’s account (Pre-K) On here they practiced some phonics. and learned the proper way to brush their teeth.

While the little boys were working on the computer William was at the island with the new touchscreen laptop. It took him a few minutes to get adjusted to it. He stands while doing this work or he will fidget with everything around him. He started off on the Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool site with the McGuffey Primer Day 189.

We work on each lesson for more than a day. Usually a week or two until he is comfortable with the words and can recognize them easily. I have also found that by highlighting the words as he reads them it helps him to focus on each individual word as we go along. He did start independently on his Discovery K12, he is using the K level like Joey, but he ended up joining the boys when Joey started his work. I have to set a timer when William is watching videos or playing games as he will click on something else, that he thinks is more fun than his assignments, and will not get his work done.

I also let him keep a ‘fidget’ beside him as he works to help him stay focused on what he is doing.

When all the boys were

caught up to the same assignments William joined the little boys. They worked on the Discovery K12 site at the K level. They watched some phonics videos, a counting to 100 video, and a video about reading maps which they really enjoyed.

Then they worked at the table on their workbooks. I had also printed out a peacock coloring page from the Discovery K12 site. I printed one for all of the kids as they all like to color.

Around 9:30 we had some snack. Today was Cinnamon Toast….yummy!

After snack it was time for some fun videos. They picked out some nursery rhymes, some counting videos, and some videos about daily routines.

William stayed at the table to color in his new dinosaur book. The little boys were tired of sitting and went to the playroom to play and draw for a little while. Jacob had lots of fun with the dinosaurs while Joey played in the floor.

The workbooks for the boys consist of a variety of things. They have a Daily Activity book that I put together. It has lots of activities with letters and numbers that I put together from free resources on the internet.

I also found a couple of work books at the Dollar Tree and put those in their boxes as well. At Dollar Tree I also found some dinosaur books which are also in the workboxes. We have to have a little fun mixed in and it motivates them to get the other activities completed.

While the boys were working on the computers and doing their school work the girls were also busy. They started out at the table working on spelling and reading.

The reading and math workbooks come from the Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool site. Isabella is on Level 2 while Caitlyn is on Level 3.

The spelling was something I found free on the internet a while back and I printed it off and made a book with it. I have their daily activities on the front page and they write it all down in a notebook. (We use one notebook for everything and just label the days.)

The copywork is also a random compilation of things I have found on the internet. The books include bible verses and famous quotes as well as occasional information related to social studies. I found the Disney math books at the Dollar Tree and threw them in the work boxes to give them a little something fun to do.

The girls then take turns on the laptops. Normally we would be using the Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool site for our group studies like science and social studies but I got a little sidetracked earlier in the year and decided to use the Discovery K12 site.

They were on Day 77 here and learned about the Constitution and Red Cloud for Social Studies. The site had a lot of reading so I used Youtube to find some videos related to the subjects that were on todays lesson plan.

For science they were learning about the life cycle of frogs and tide pools. Again I used Youtube to find some videos for them to watch.

I am pretty relaxed, at least a lot more than I once was, about the way they learn. I know the girls, especially Caitlyn, have some trouble with comprehension. I try my best to incorporate as many different teaching and learning styles as possible to help them learn and retain the information. We experiment, a lot, to find out what works best for each of them.

The girls use the Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool site for their Math and Reading. There are a few other activities that they do on there as well.They do a lot of math games as well as a lot of different grammar games.

I like the Xtramath site as it shows the progress that they are making. The girls really enjoy working on it as well.

After the computer work they go back to the table to finish whatever book work that they may have and then they do some fun stuff.

Usually about 11:00 or 11:30 we start to clean up. The kids put their finished work in their folders. The folders, notebooks, and a few other supplies are color coded. This help them to easily identify where their things belong. It also helps Momma know who left their ruler, notebook, or whatever out on the table or in the floor.

Today we had planned on eating leftovers but there was nothing left over! So we had some good ole PB&J with a banana. (Looks like we may be having banana muffins on Wednesday.)

After eating lunch the kids did a quick cleanup and headed to their rooms for naps. Momma did her ‘House Blessing‘ with big sister’s help. I then decided to upload all of these wonderful pics and write a post. I did not plan on publishing this post right away but sometimes technology gets a little ahead and is quicker than my fingers are. So I thank everyone, who may have seen the published but unfinished draft, for their patience.

This is just one day out of our crazy lives here. We did not do everything that we usually do but it was a day of adjustment as they haven’t been doing the normal school routine. The important thing is that they did learn and they had fun while doing it. I think they will be much more apt to remember these things than if I had sat them down and tried to force them to learn. As you can see, by the choice of ‘fun activities’ that the little boys made, kids have a natural tendency to seek out interesting things and a desire to learn. Everyday is a learning experience for them as well as for me.

I will slowly add in a few other things that we didn’t do today. I will try to post on them another day. But naptime is over and I hear the pitter patter of little feet coming to find me. Ok, who am I kidding? It’s more like the stomping of mini dinosaurs who are looking to devour the first thing in sight that I hear. So I better get off of here and head to the kitchen to find something for these little raptors to munch on.

You can also check our Facebook page for more current things we have been doing.

Afraid To Love

Published on January 9, 2017January 8, 2017 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

I’m sure all of us, at one time, or another have thought about how nice it would be to live secluded away from others for a time. I have thought about it more than once in the past little bit. I have come to realize that this would be selfish and a bit self centered. It would not be at all what God has called us to do.

Sometimes it is because we have been hurt by those around us. Other times the weight of the world just seems too heavy to bear any longer. There could be a million reasons why we would want to withdraw and hold back our feelings but that is not what God wants us to do.

He has called us to love one another. Time and time again it is mentioned in the Bible about loving others. It has been explained and modeled by Jesus himself. He does not want us to withdraw or to withhold love from others. No matter what we are going through we should always show compassion towards others. No matter what they have done to us we still need to love them just as He has done for us.

We are all, each and every one of us, sinners that have or can be saved by grace. There is not one of us that could be held blameless. We are not to judge the sins of another because we have our own sins that could be judged. We need to be a constant source of encouragement to them. Yes, we have our bad days but that is when our lights can shine the brightest.

Each of us, to some degree, have a yearning to be accepted. We want to feel like we belong to something or that we really matter to someone. This may be a little selfish or self focused but it is natural for us to feel this way. We want to be loved and respected by those around us. We want to have a close relationship with others. Sometimes though past experiences can make us afraid to love or to accept love.

The sermon at church today touched on so many of these points. I have been studying a lot of the same verses the past couple of weeks. It gave me a new understanding and perspective to see this from. How can we show a Christ like love towards others?

Let brotherly love continue.Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

— Hebrews 13:1-6King James Version (KJV)

We can do it through our hospitality. By welcoming others into our lives and showing them kindness. We can help them to feel accepted, welcomed, and loved. We can do it by showing empathy for others. We can do this in person or through prayer. There are so many others that are in worse situations than we could ever imagine and need our prayers on a daily basis.

Of course, we should show this love towards our families. We should show love towards our spouses and our children. By modeling this love in our families we can be a role model to others and to our children.

We can do this also by having the proper outlook on life and towards those we meet. We don’t know what others are going through or have been through. For this reason we are not to judge them but to accept them. We are not to look down on them but to see them as equals. We are to help them without the thought of what they could do for us. We are to show them unconditional love.

We each need to renew our commitments to God and ask Him to help us show brotherly love towards everyone we meet. When we experience God’s love to the fullest it will overflow and spill out onto those around us. His love will be the driving force behind your desire to show love to others.

Don’t be afraid to love others. I know sometimes it is hard to forgive others for things they have done or to look past things that have happened. If you can overlook those things and let God’s love shine through you and through your actions you will be bringing honor and glory to our Lord.

January 7, 2017

Published on January 7, 2017January 8, 2017 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

Well today has been a day. Oh, what a day!

Full of tons of excitement as the boys have been pretending to be super heroes for the past two days. Which means that they have been dragging blankets around, tucked into the back of their shirts, everywhere they go. They eat with their capes, their sleep with their capes (using them as blankets), and they play with their capes.

Jacob has been getting up super early and this morning was no exception. He wanted peanut butter apples first thing this morning.

For breakfast we had Dutch Puff with applesauce. Joey has decided this is his new favorite food and has requested it for his birthday dinner next week. Not so sure that is going to happen but we’ll see.

The kids saw the how windy it was and decided that today would be a good day to fly a kite. Well, it’s cold and rainy so we agreed that we would wait for another day and then one of them suggested we should have a ‘kite day’ in March. So I will try to put that on the calendar for then.

The kids were cleaning up the playroom and I was fixing them some lunch when Joey asked me if his sister was still coming today. He says, ‘Remember Momma, she wants some mollies’. I hadn’t a clue what he was talking about until I glanced at the calendar, which I should’ve looked at this morning, and saw that I was supposed to make tamales!

This threw me into a bit of panic mode but everything was OK. (Yes, those are bananas in my mixer bowl. I have been buying more fruit and just use the bowl to store the extras when I am not using the mixer.)

So I scurried around a few minutes and got everything together and set to work putting together the tamales. The kids were down for naps so they didn’t get to help me this time around.

After putting together a big plate of tamales it was time to cook them.

While they were cooking I cleaned up a bit and snacked on some of the leftover chicken and salsa mixture.

Then I got to work on the Hot Fudge Sundae Cake for dessert. All the while Joey, who was supposed to be napping, kept coming up with ideas for his upcoming birthday. He wants an ‘Indominus Rex’ cake. Hmmmm…. not so sure that I can pull that off but we’ll see.

I finished up dinner around 5:00. We had yellow rice and black beans to complete the meal. Everything tasted so good!

It always amazes me how I can spend hours making a meal and then they can scarf it down in a matter of minutes!

We had a good visit with my oldest daughter. The kids watched ‘The Good Dinosaur’ and had lots of fun.

Then bedtime came around and Jacob was crying for his ‘friend’. His new friend is ‘Silly Raptor’. (I think this is an imaginary friend.) We finally got him settled in bed with the promise that we would try to find her in the morning.

I am headed to bed early tonight. Tomorrow is another day and another start but I know I’ll need as much energy as I can get.