Tag: God

One Season at a Time: Making a New Normal in Our Home

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Why would we welcome things into our homes for one day that we wouldn’t want influencing our lives throughout the rest of the year?

If something would trouble us in February or June, what changes when October arrives?

That question is part of why our family is choosing not to celebrate Halloween. But the more I consider it, the more I realize this reaches beyond one holiday.

Sometimes it feels as though the world is taking over our thoughts, lives, and homes one season at a time. There is always something we’re encouraged to buy, display, watch, or participate in.

I’ve started asking myself: Are we prayerfully choosing the rhythm of our home, or simply following whatever comes next?

I Haven’t Always Felt This Strongly

These convictions have grown over time.

Things I once accepted without much thought have started to trouble me. Recently, I’ve felt more and more convicted, and changes are being made in our lives.

We’re reconsidering what we celebrate, what we watch, how we decorate, and what receives our attention.

We don’t have everything figured out. Changing familiar habits can be uncomfortable, especially when those habits hold childhood memories.

But I don’t want to ignore a growing conviction simply because continuing as we always have would be easier.

I’m sharing this as someone whose own heart and habits are changing.

Continue reading “One Season at a Time: Making a New Normal in Our Home” →

A Heart of Obedience: A 31-Day Family Devotional Journey

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Hey there, sweet friends!

If you are anything like me, you are constantly looking for ways to anchor your children’s hearts in truth amidst a world that feels pretty loud and distracting right now. With our days full of homeschooling, household chores, and the beautiful chaos of family life, finding meaningful, open conversations with our preteens and teens can sometimes feel like a challenge.

That is exactly why I am so thrilled to share our latest family project with you: The Heart of Obedience: A 31-Day Family Devotional Journey.

This isn’t just a list of rules or expectations. It is a gentle, 31-day journey designed to guide our older kids into understanding why God calls us to a life of submission and honor. Divided into five weekly themes, each day features a foundational King James Version verse, a thought-provoking discussion question specifically tailored for preteens and teens, a practical way to apply the lesson to daily life, and a short family prayer.

We’ve also included traditional hymn suggestions to weave music into your morning basket, alongside weekly hands-on object lessons (using simple things you already have in your kitchen or living room!) to make these big spiritual concepts visual and unforgettable.

Whether you gather around the living room couch or chat over breakfast, my prayer is that this study brings your family closer to God—and closer to each other.

Want to dive in with us? You can grab your copy of the study guide and print out the daily readings to add straight into your own homeschool binder. Let’s keep growing faith, family, and food together—one beautiful day at a time!

May GOD Bless You!

Continue reading “A Heart of Obedience: A 31-Day Family Devotional Journey” →

Podcast Episode 16: Successful days start with successful mornings

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Pip: Pollywog’s Place Blog is here to remind you that the secret to surviving a large, loud, chaotic household might just be waking up before it does.

Mara: Susie at Pollywog’s Place Blog makes the case for carving out quiet time before the day takes over — morning routines, sleep habits, and what it actually costs a mom to skip them. Let’s start with why mornings matter so much.

Successful days start with successful mornings

Pip: The central tension here is one a lot of parents will recognize — you want to start the day with intention, but the household has other plans. The question the post is really asking is: what does it take to protect even thirty minutes for yourself, and is it worth the effort to try?

Mara: The post is direct about what’s actually at stake. The framing is this: “This 30-45 minutes gives me a chance to refresh my patience and get my thoughts together before I am bombarded with so many questions that I can’t even think straight.”

Pip: So it’s not a luxury. It’s maintenance. The quiet time is what makes the rest of the day functional — for the kids, for the household, for everyone who needs something from Mom before breakfast.

Mara: And the post is honest about the obstacles. Getting up early only works if you get to bed at a decent time, which means negotiating with a toddler who’d rather sleep sideways across two adults. The domino goes all the way back to the night before.

Pip: There’s a whole infrastructure described here — setting up the coffee maker the night before, using the dim light over the kitchen sink instead of the overhead so the kids don’t register it as a green light to start the day. It’s a stealth operation.

Mara: The quiet time itself isn’t idle either. The post lists Bible study, menu planning, grocery lists, school plans, blogging, or reading — things that feel peaceful, as the post puts it, “when I can fully concentrate on them without worrying about why the baby is crying.”

Pip: The post also links back to an earlier piece on mornings from 2016, which means this is a habit that has been lost and rebuilt more than once. That’s actually the most useful detail — it normalizes the cycle of falling off and starting again.

Mara: And the post closes with something worth sitting with: the biggest reason to get up isn’t productivity, it’s showing up well for the family. A few minutes with God and a plan for the day, and the whole household runs a little better.

Pip: Quiet mornings, it turns out, are loud in their consequences.

Mara: The throughline here is really about margins — the small buffers that keep a busy household from running on empty.

Pip: Build the buffer the night before, protect it in the morning, and apparently the elephants can wait until after the coffee.

Successful Days Start with Successful Mornings

A Seven-Day Christian Sukkot Unit Study About the Seven Traditional Guests

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

I have put together a unit study for my kiddos for the week of Sukkot. We may not get to all of these, but we can definitely try and hopefully it will give us all a better understanding of the Bible and some of the lost traditions and feasts that we need to bring back. We need to keep in mind that these are appointed days of the LORD and not just Jewish holidays… as Christians it is important to remember these days and keep them in a way that honors GOD.

Keeping Christ at the Center

Our family does not observe Sukkot as a means of earning salvation or proving ourselves more righteous than other believers. We study it because the appointed times help us understand the biblical story more fully.

Sukkot reminds us that earthly homes and possessions are temporary. God sustained Israel in the wilderness, dwelt among His people in the tabernacle, and came to dwell among us in Jesus Christ.

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”
— John 1:14 KJV

The feast also directs our attention toward the day when temporary dwelling will give way to something permanent:

“Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them.”
— Revelation 21:3 KJV

That is the hope I want our children to carry away from this study. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David all played important parts in the biblical story, but none of them was the promised Savior.

Their stories help us see the faithfulness of God. Jesus is the fulfillment toward whom the story leads.

Continue reading “A Seven-Day Christian Sukkot Unit Study About the Seven Traditional Guests” →

The Book of Jonah: A Yom Kippur Study Guide

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When & Why It Is Read

The entire Book of Jonah is read as the Haftarah portion during the Mincha (afternoon) service of Yom Kippur, right before the final Ne’ilah prayer. This precise timing catches worshippers at a peak moment of physical fatigue and spiritual vulnerability, creating a perfect backdrop for a narrative centered entirely on raw human frailty and immediate divine response.

• The Message of Teshuvah (Repentance): The core lesson of the text is that true change is always accessible and completely shifts destiny. God completely forgives the people of Nineveh the moment they alter their actions, illustrating that sincere inner transformation triggers immediate divine mercy.

• Universal Divine Compassion: Jonah struggles heavily with the reality that God’s grace extends completely beyond Israel to include foreign adversaries, underscoring that all living things are under divine care.

• The Impossibility of Fleeing: Jonah’s failed escape attempt emphasizes that no one can hide from their personal divine purpose or ethical responsibilities.

Continue reading “The Book of Jonah: A Yom Kippur Study Guide” →