Pollywog's Place Blog

A New Year of Old Traditions

Published on January 18, 2026January 16, 2026 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

We have been on a mission to bring our family closer together. This is something we have prayed long and hard about, and GOD is working!

We love a lot of old traditions and customs, along with some of the new ones. We try to have at least one or two ‘family get-togethers’ here at our home. The biggest is probably our annual Polar Express party around Christmas time… this has been happening for a while now, and everyone looks forward to it. Why stop at that? We were trying to have a special Sabbath meal each week, and also trying to plan a monthly family dinner with Papa and Nanny, but those got sidelined a bit.

Why? Well, our priorities shifted, and other things seemed more important. We have to make room and time for the people and things we truly love, so I am on a mission to bring back our family dinners. They may not be quite as fancy as they once were, because I’m still exhausted from all the challenges we had last year, but they will be fun.

Continue reading →

Special Holiday Meals: National Peanut/Peanut Butter Day

Published on January 17, 2026January 16, 2026 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

Did you know that January 24th is National Peanut Butter Dayand then September 18th is National Peanut Day? Well, here are some recipes so you aren’t caught by surprise:

Our Favorite Peanut Butter Recipes:

Breakfast:

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

PB & Jelly Swirl Muffins

Cakes & Icings:

Peanut Butter Icing – pair with chocolate cake for a super yummy treat!

Peanut Butter & Jelly

Peanut Butter & Banana w/honey

PB Toast

Let us know your favorite Peanut Butter Recipe in the comments!

God Bless!

Growing Children of GOD: Intergrating FAITH Into Our Homeschool

Published on January 15, 2026January 1, 2026 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog2 Comments

In a previous post, I mentioned that I am trying to integrate more FAITH into our homeschool. I touched on a few things that I am focusing on for the month of January, but here is the full outline of what I am planning for 2026 and future years.

I am trying to ‘stack’ them with the monthly themes I have come up with for our family. I know that once we develop the habits of incorporating these ideas, then they will become like second nature.

Financial Literacy (January)

We work on our family budgets and get our Bills organized in January so it just makes sense to use this as a teaching moment for the kids.

Some ways we are doing this are:

Biblical Stewardship:
- teaching financial principles through a biblical lens
- emphasis on the fact that EVERYTHING we have belongs to GOD
- learning to FAITHfully manage our resources
Budgeting & Generosity
- researching what the Bible says about charity, giving to the poor, and tithing
- creating budgets that allow us to give to others in need
Bible verses related to contentment, greed, money, and giving
- Discussing needs vs. wants
- ex: Luke 12:15, Proverbs 21:20, Psalm 24:1, Hebrews 13:5, etc.

Continue reading →

Special Holiday Meals: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Menu

Published on January 13, 2026October 5, 2025 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

This one may be a little controversial, but I promise that I mean no disrespect in any way, shape, or form. I have found several articles that say it should be appropriate to eat ‘Soul Food’ on MLK, Jr. Day, and others that say Fried Chicken was his favorite food… whatever the case may be, I don’t think that he would want us to argue about something like food when there are so many other important issues we could be fighting for!

We should definitely use this day to talk about history and the things that he stood for because our history is so IMPORTANT!