Tag: blessed

Preventing The Back To HomeSchool Meal Planning Madness

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

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Hmmm… have you thought about what you’ll be feeding those hungry learners? If your kids were in public school you may not have had to think much about it before. If you plan to homeschool then you will be feeding them at least three meals a day and maybe a few snacks in between.

This can turn into a chaotic juggling act if you aren’t prepared. How do we prevent meal time chaos in our home? By meal planning. I even plan out snacks sometimes so I don’t forget to include them on my grocery list. Check out this link for some Healthy Snacks to Go.

10 snacks your kids can make star (1)

It might seem like a lot of trouble but when you find a system that works for then it is so easy. It will actually save you time and money in the long run. This is also a helpful thing even if you don’t homeschool.

Check out this post for some quick and easy breakfast ideas to help you beat that morning chaos and fill those tummies with a nutritious breakfast to start their day off right. Here is another link for even more ideas: The Healthy Breakfast Book. Continue reading “Preventing The Back To HomeSchool Meal Planning Madness” →

One Year Anniversary

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog5 Comments

Time has flown by so fast. It’s hard to believe that it’s been a whole year since I started this blog!

I just want to thank each and every one of my family, friends, and followers. Without your support I probably would have just given up on this. I hope that each of you may find a little bit of useful information or inspiration from my posts.

I hope to be a bit more dedicated as time goes on. Thank you all for sharing in our wonderful adventure that we call life!

Getting Back to Routines

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

I think it was last Tuesday when I wrote my last blog post, Getting Back to My Morning Routine, where did time go? It seems the older I get the faster it slips away.

Anyway we are still working on getting back to routines here. I do believe the laundry has been caught up, for now that is. Routines are coming more natural now as we continue to settle in. I am gradually adding a few more things to our routine schedule and trying not to get too overwhelmed. If it isn’t working then we make changes.

For instance last week the porch was really bothering me …. it still does for that matter. I had added it to my ‘Hot Spot’ list along with the table, the command center, and a few other areas that seem to be clutter collectors. The hardest part of living in a small home for me has to be the speed at which clutter overtakes things. This means I probably need to get rid of more stuff and teach everyone to put away the stuff when they finish using it.

Getting back to the porch, one area of the porch was sectioned off and tarped to use as a makeshift storage area for things that just wouldn’t fit in the house. Well, the intentions were to to close in the porch and turn it into a utility/storage room. Hurricane Irma hit before we could really get any progress made on that and caused us to delay those plans. Unfortunately, some of the stuff got wet and therefore needs to be gotten rid of. I have realized that some of the other stuff is really just stuff and not that important to me and I am trying to get rid of it.

Sighhh…. if only I had one day to dedicate to it I could probably do away with most of it and find homes for the rest of it. Then there would be space to actually make it an utility room or do something else there. For now I am going to keep my goal of 10 items/day and do what I can because every little bit is progress towards my goal.

That was a rather ambitious goal and I think I have managed to put three boxes of stuff in my truck to take to Goodwill. I also found some of my exercise equipment and made a temporary home inside for it… haven’t actually used it but I’m working on getting that back in my routine.

Another area on that Hot Spot list are the bookshelves. I am a firm believer that you can never have too many books, unless you live in a tiny space that just can’t handle it. Books are really hard for me to get rid of and I really am trying. My goal for these areas are one shelf a day. I also realized that some of the kiddie books are on a shelf that is not easily accessible to them and some of my more important books are a little too easily accessible for them… lol. I will be swapping some of that stuff around as well.

As far as our normal routines we are doing pretty well.

Today I caught up on my ‘weekly routines‘ (they may have changed a bit since that post) like scrubbing my kitchen sink (watch for that post coming soon) and cleaning out the fridge (post coming) and microwave. The FLyLady zone this week is in the bathroom so I have been doing a little extra work there and will probably put out some posts soon.

We’ve also worked on our ‘daily routines’ like laundry and such. I have chicken in the crockpot for Crockpot Italian Chicken and the kids are down for ‘quiet time’. I figured out how to upload pics from iphone to my laptop and now I am working on getting caught up on a couple of blog posts.

I must say I am proud of the kids and myself for being able to stay on routine as well as we did and for adjusting as well as they have. We have had our days, like yesterday, when I wonder if this move was really for the best. The kids were super cranky with a cold and I cried for awhile as I had to throw away some food because a freezer had gotten unplugged.

In my heart I know this was a good decision and that life will get easier as we go. It is so easy to doubt ourselves and lose faith when things get rough. I have to remember that God has a plan and that sometimes His plan includes runny noses, grouchy kids, and spoiled food.

Our little house may be old and dusty. There are cobwebs in the corners and plenty of things that need done. Our house is full of love though and we are working one day at a time to make it our home. I am hoping that by sharing our progress it will help to motivate others who may not be happy with where they are and help them to find contentment wherever they are.

We don’t need a new house or shiny new appliances. We may want them but that is something totally different than needing them. I am thankful for what the Lord has blessed us with and hope to help others feel that way too.

Note: If you read last week’s post you will see that I chose to wear purple last week as you can see in the picture… lol… today the kids think I should wear pink.

 

 

May 28, 2017

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

I pray you are all having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. This past month has been extremely busy around here with this past week being the busiest of all. It has been a blast though and many memories have been made.

Our homeschool will be wrapping up this coming week with a special surprise outing planned as a treat. We are all looking forward to just having a little fun and maybe getting to relax a bit.

My youngest child just turned 4 this month! I can hardly believe how fast time has flown and how much has changed since the day we brought him home. My kids amaze me everyday and I am so blessed to be able to stay at home and watch them as they learn and grow.

My oldest son came to visit this past week! Yay! We had not seen him in almost 4 years because of his employment. He also brought along his beautiful wife, my first daughter in law, who I had not met before. We had such a great time. It was hard to say goodbye but I know that they will be back soon. All we can do is trust that God will watch over them and keep them safe along life’s journey.

Amongst all of the visiting, homeschooling, and other normal routines of the house I also had my square dancing. Ahhh… if anyone had told me a few months ago how involved I would become in square dancing I wouldn’t have believed them. I probably would’ve laughed a little but it is amazing how things can sometimes just fall into place.

Our club in Starke, the Silver Fox Squares, has been very busy and we dance every Friday night. We have also had some special dances, visitations, and other activities that we attended throughout the month including a Luau and a banner raid. I have earned two new dangles this month. As the publicity chairman for the club I am constantly busy with updating the sites, planning new events, and looking for new ideas.

In addition to the Friday nights, we also have dances and classes on Tuesday nights in Fort White. We have been trying to recruit new dancers and had a covered dish dinner on the first night of class. So far we have a couple of couples who have come to join us and we are looking forward to seeing some new faces this coming week.

And then we have the Clay Allemanders in Middleburg on Mondays. Our caller and co-caller from the Silver Fox Squares are the callers there as well. This club has also been extremely busy with the transition to the new callers and the fact that we moved to a new dance location this month.

I am also the caller’s assistant to one of the callers so I have been busy with a few other details as well. We went to visit the Grand Squares, in Gainesville, earlier in the month and I got to meet a lot of new people. He was also able to reconnect with some people he had not seen in awhile. Square dancing has definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone, in a good way, and allowed me to expand my horizons and meet a lot of new people.

My youngest son, and my oldest son and his wife, attended the dance this past Tuesday. It was a lot of fun to have some of my children there. My little one didn’t make it through the night before he curled up and fell asleep. My oldest however did seem to enjoy himself and caught on quite quickly. I hope to be able to expose my children to it a little bit at a time and eventually get them involved more with square dancing.

I have been trying to squeeze in some blogging between all of the different activities that are going on. I have so many drafts started that it would make you go cross eyed if you could see them. The topics are quite varied as well because I get so many ideas and just try to write them down as I think of them. I hope you all have enjoyed the ones I have managed to publish and I pray that you do find something that helps you or inspires you in some way.

As i write this and think about it I am completely amazed at the awesomeness of God! He has a plan for each of us and He knows what He is doing. He has been working in my life in so many ways and He has been preparing me for where I am now for quite some time. All I had to do was let go and trust Him to guide me to where I needed to be.

Well, my little one just climbed up on the stool beside me and is sneaking sips of my cold coffee. Another one has mentioned that he was ready for snack a minute ago so I will get off of here and set out some snacks for them to hopefully hold them over until lunch time. I pray you all have a blessed day and week to come!

Yellow Rocks (hugs) to all!

Links to club updates will be posted soon:

Silver Fox Squares: June 2017 Updates

Clay Allemanders: June 2017 Updates

Too Much Stuff

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

I hope you all enjoyed the holidays as much as we did here. We’ve already taken down our tree and put away all the decorations. A little bit of a cleaning bug hit me and I decided we needed to declutter our playroom a bit more than we had before Christmas.

My kids, as you can read in Remember The Reason For The Season and So Much More Than A Basketball, were doubly blessed with gifts this year. That doesn’t include the gifts they received from their older siblings and their father. So when they were instructed to ‘put away’ their toys it became apparent that we had not gotten rid of enough things before Christmas. The following are some picks of what we had going on:

The book cases were overflowing, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but we couldn’t fit any more books on the shelves. The toys piling up in front of the chalkboard were a problem though. As well as the other toys and baskets being piled on top of things and hidden inside of cabinets. Then there was there problem of not being able to find their new favorite toys because of all the clutter.

It was stressful for me just to walk in there, not too mention trying to clean around everything. It was such a chore to pick up this to vacuum, then pick up something else and hope you didn’t knock something else down. Trying to dust was almost impossible and there were so many little things getting vacuumed up I was afraid I was going to kill the vacuum.

I grabbed a couple of trash bags, a laundry basket, and a tote. Big sister and I started in one corner of the room and went around it in a full circle. Every area was taken apart, dumped out, and sorted through. If there was an item that didn’t belong in that area it was placed into the laundry basket so it could be put away properly.

Some of the items that were seasonal, like some sensory bins and activities for Fall, were placed into the tote. Broken toys were thrown away and toys that they had outgrown or no longer played with were put into another bag to donate.

When we finished we had several small bags of books to donate and two trash bags of toys to bless others with. There was a bag of broken toys and other items to be thrown away. Then the seasonal items were put away for later in the upcoming year. Some of the toys and books were passed along to their little cousin. The TV that had been in the cabinet was passed along to big brother and the cabinet now holds the laptops and chargers plus a couple of items for younger kids to play with when we have visitors.

Below are some pictures of the results:

The kids are much happier now that they have the toys organized. There are also some empty bins for new things that Momma may pull out of the closets later on. We were able to set up some individual areas for magnet/dry erase play, dinosaurs and legos, and an area for the kitchen and food play. They have their dinosaur skeleton on display and they can easily look at it. There is also a space where they can play with the Spielgaben set and/or the light panel that we have.

The bookshelves are so much better looking now and they actually have an area where they can sit and read. The storage table now holds their dress up and the new race car sets that they got for Christmas. The top of the table turns over and has a flat surface that they can set the race tracks up on so it works out great.

So far the only downside was that I moved the storage bench out and now I can’t reach the calendar to change out the month or days. Sigh, the constant struggles of being short. Luckily I have a kitchen stool that works just fine and I did get the calendar switched out.

My kids were happy to pass along some blessings to other kids that may not have gotten quite as much for Christmas. There were actually a couple of new toys that I passed along as well as I knew the kids would not play with them. This is something that we do every couple of months and sometimes they will actually bring me something that they no longer play with and ask me to pass it along to someone else.

I am slowly trying to pare down our belongings as the more stuff you have, the more clutter you have, and ultimately the more stress you have from keeping up with it and cleaning it. In the end it frees up some of my time also by not having to clean it, move it, or take care of it. Do you have something that you aren’t using? Why don’t you pass it along to someone who can use it. You’ll feel so much better.