The Beginning of Frog's Lilypad

My friend Karen has challenged all her readers to write about how our blog names came about, along with when we started blogging. So here's how Frog's Lilypad was named...

To start this, I have to explain about the name Frog.  My husband had an uncle who gave family members a nickname. The last time we saw him before he passed away, he gave Jamie his nickname. While my husband and his uncle were talking, his uncle said I must really have to hop around to keep up with them both. So, I was given the nickname Frog.  I'm honored to have this nickname, from what I understand I am the only in-law to be dubbed with a special name.

While we lived in western Montana, I googled a particular singing group and a link to a blog came up. When I clicked on it, I was first introduced to a sweet friend. After reading pages from her blog and some of her friends' blogs, and searching other blogs, I began to toy with the idea of starting a blog. When my husband came home from work one evening, I explained to him what a blog was and some of the things that I had been reading. Of course, he was not too interested at that time.

After a couple of weeks of reading, I decided I could start a blog. I mean, how hard could it be? Well, the hardest thing for me to do was come up with a name for my blog. After kicking around names for several hours, I decided to wait until my husband was back home. That evening, I told him that I wanted to start a blog and could not decide on a name. I wanted something catchy, not something dull; something that was me. After a few minutes, my husband came up with Frog's Lilypad.

In January 2008, Frog's Lilypad started. Over the years, there have been changes in appearance and locations. I really liked being over on Wordpress, but I did not like the random advertisements they posted. Sadly, some of those ads did not pertain to anything I wrote about, so I came back to Blogger. Blogger really is more user-friendly! It's kind of funny that a challenge like this, made me realize I've been blogging for almost 5 years.

So now you know how Frog's Lilypad got its name. If you didn't click on Karen's name above, you should click HERE and see some of the wonderful primitives she makes.

Fourteen Years

In the fall of 1997 I met my Prince Charming. Little did I know when I agreed to play softball with some friends through church, I would one day be marrying a team mate. A wonderful, trusting personality won me over; I think the long eyelashes played a big part in it. ;)

Knowing God was in complete control of whom I was supposed to marry is an amazing thing to think about. To know God had the perfect gift for me; a gift He created just for me when I married my husband. ~ A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

Being married for fourteen years is not as common today as it used to be and I'm thankful our marriage is firmly planted in the Lord. I am thankful for a husband who will lead our family in the ways of the Lord.

Contentment Revisted

If you've been a long time reader or one who does a little digging around here, then you know a little about our family's ministry and all the ups and downs that we have faced. There is a HUGE chunk that I left out to keep people from thinking I was bitter (which I was and still have to deal with). I also felt the Lord would bless our family more if I never spoke a name of a person(s). I honestly believe the Lord has blessed us because of this and that he is going to continue to bless our family.

I wrote BE CONTENT in  2009 after a whirlwind trip to Montana to bring our family possessions home. Almost three years later, I still feel a little twinge of hurt when I think about some of the items that we left behind. Those items were earthly possessions that we either bought or were given to us by loved ones. At one time,these were items that we loved and thought we could never live without. Funny, three years later  90% of those items we can't recall and we've lived without them.

In these three years, the Lord has provided new items to take the place of the old ones. I have also kept myself from longing for certain items by not flipping through magazines, watching home shows, and being careful at searching the internet where I will see things and begin to want.

Since 2009, we have changed how we live and collect items. If we bring something in that is similar to items that we already own, one is sent out. My husband and son are not really collectors of anything, so when I say "I" or "we", truly, it's all me. For example, I collect old milk bottles and I have limited my collection to 6 and no more. For clothes, I have a large bag hanging in my sewing room where I place clothing items that no longer fit or have not been worn in the past year. We also add to the clothes bag when new clothing comes into the house. I can't help but remember the conversation made by Missy to Marty in the movie Love Comes Softly, about being able to wear only one dress at a time. I am not that drastic in our clothing, but who really needs 5 black skirts or 25 pairs of shoes? (I have never owned 25 pairs of shoes at one time, let along 25 pairs of black shoes.) :)

I am not a minimalist, I do like to see "pretties" sitting around and being shared with others. I believe the Lord wants us to have nice things, and he wants us to be good stewards with the items and space that we have.  I don't believe he wants us to fill our closets full of clothing we don't wear, nor have boxes full of UKIs  (unknown items) filling our attics, basements,closets and garages. I honestly don't think he would want us spending good money on storing all the junk we've collected just to keep from having to ditch it.

To end this post, I want to express I am still CONTENT.

A New Do

When I set out to grow out my hair I did not have any reason except to save money on hair cuts. This all started in 2005 when I became a full time stay at home mom. I thought that it would be easy to be at home while I became the cousin of the Old English Sheep Dog. Yeah, they're cute right? Well, I wasn't! My hair was having to grow from a "cut around the ear" type of hair do and all I can say is TORTURE!

As my hair continued to grow, I kept snipping here and there to help with the process. Once my hair sat on my shoulders, I decided that it was time for a perm. What a mistake!

To shorten that little story up ~ I'll never put another perm in my hair. After spending several months of straightening my hair and one really bad day in June of 2007, I went to see if I could get some help with my hair. Sadly, the day I went the lady that did my perm and snip was not there.

So, I trusted some half wit that took everything I said seriously. There was no trying to talk me out of cutting my hair. When the scissors took the second snip ~I cried! There was no going back. All the work that I put into my hair was dead, done, gone,  kaput, ruined, wasted.When I got into the car to leave, I said never again! I was a little surprised at how I was so attached to my hair.

From that day on, I worked hard to grow my hair out. I will say, that I had some moments, but my hairdresser was so supportive and helpful that she highlighted my hair with red and burgundy. Yeah, I know what you are thinking. Once the initial jaw dropping color faded, I loved it. My husband loved it and even my son. He's the one I have to worry about. My husband could care less since it's my hair. My son, he's not too keen on new things.

When we lived in western Montana, I saw a commercial for Pantene Beautiful Lengths and thought, if my hair ever gets long enough, I'll donated it. That was in the fall of 2007. Since then, I've worked hard letting my hair grow out.

During the growing out process, I've had layers put in and several inches cut off at different times, to keep my sanity. For the past 6 months, I trimmed the ends to keep them from drying out and becoming split. I've spent every waking moment with my hair up in a clip. I've slept in a single braid until I could not take the lumpiness. Then I went to the two braided pig tails to ease with sleeping with all this hair.  Now mind you, it's not just that my hair is long,  it is super thick!

About a month ago, I had my husband measure my hair and I had 8 inches from right above my shoulders. I was a little excited and little upset since it wasn't longer. I knew that I was going to have to wait until October to have the full 8 inches, with enough hair to keep it from being too short when it was cut.

On Saturday, I went in and had my hair measured at Great Clips. I normally don't go to these places, since most of the people working there are right out of school or they can't get in a better place.  I will say, that I did go to one for several years, because of a lady that could actually cut hair. Since she moved and opened her own salon, I couldn't find anyone that was good.

Any way, the lady that measured my hair told me that I could cut 10 inches and still have enough hair to be at the shoulders. I told her that I only wanted 8 inches cut and she replied that the hair cut will be for free if I cut the 10 inches.  Who can resist FREE?  I told her to go ahead. As she began snipping my hair, my stomach was up in my throat. I kept saying, this is going to a good cause. This is going to some precious person who is dealing with hair loss from cancer. It'll grow back out.

Here's the new look. You'll have to over look the sleeveless top. I  came home and changed into my yard working clothes.  I'm so excited! I laid the pony tail out for the hair to dry and I'll be sending it off this week.

If you have ever thought about donating your hair, do it. Research who you are giving your hair to. Pantene donates the wigs to the American Cancer Society who in turns gives the wigs to ladies who are dealing with hair loss from chemotherapy. The best thing about this is, it's FREE for the recipient.

There are some organizations that do charge on the slide for a wig, and they sale unneeded hair to offset the cost. That's fine. Both of these are reasons why I chose to donate to the PBL.

A Thought

I would like to make a plea to all of you who are addicted to DIY/HGTV ~ Painting beautiful old hardwood floors a Pickling Green with a design in the paint is not a good idea.


 In fact, it is just down right AWFUL! And if you are thinking about buying a house to rent for some added income and you don't have the money to bring that cute little 1930's bungalow into the modern age ~ You can't afford to be a landlord! Just a little thought to think about ~I don't believe there are many sane people who want there families living in a house that still contains the original asbestos filled ceiling tiles and lead based paint, at least I don't. So when you don't receive a call back from a prospective renter ~ Don't get mad at the couple. Get mad at yourself for making a rash decision when you should have pondered a little longer the whole idea along with the money woes that go along with owning an income property.

Yes, my husband and I have recently experienced what you've read. We love older homes ~ they have so much character!  We were shocked right out of our heads when we stepped into this amazing 1930's bungalow and saw what the owner considered updated. The "what we imagined as beautiful" fireplace had been paneled over and a huge ugly 1960's gas heater sat in front of it. The original tangerine orange counter tops were still intact in the kitchen with an extremely loved stove from the 60's. A couple of flip sides to this nightmare ~ the 2 huge, I mean HUGE screened porches on the front and back of the house and then there was the wonderful garden spot.  Oh well, we'll keep looking.


Monkey and I have been studying the life of Paul in our Bible lessons. This morning something stood out to me. This something I've read and heard many times before, but for some reason I saw it in a whole different light. ~ When Paul and Silas were in Phillipi  preaching, they were taken up to the magistrates who had them stripped and beaten. They were then put in shackles and imprisoned. Not one time does the Bible say, that these two men had a pity party. They could have sat at in the jail and cried and carried on wondering how they were going to get out ~ if ever. Instead they were rejoicing and singing praises at one of the darkest moments in their lives.  Paul and Silas saw the good in a bad situation and they turned it into something that was later on able to be used by God. It makes me wonder if I could be so strong.  I would like to say that I could, but then I'd be lying.  We've all had some dark moments in our lives. How did we react? It is definitely something to think about.

An Update

Hello, my friends! I am so glad to be back at blogging. I really enjoyed my break. It's amazing what a few days weeks can do for you. I've been busy spring cleaning, knitting, sewing and enjoying my time with my family.When  I began my break, I was about frazzled! There was so much going on and I really needed to slow down.



I would like to thank those of you for leaving your comments regarding praying for me and a situation. It's a glorious thing to know that you can go to a listening Father with a problem and know that He is going to take care of it. After a few days of getting over the initial shock of the fiery darts of accusations, my Lord became a shield so I would not have to feel the affects.

The day I began my break, I deleted my Facebook account. I can not tell you enough, how much better I feel since I've done that. I am ashamed to admit how many wasted hours I spent each day playing a game and trying to keep up with people that do even know me any more. I do miss hearing from my friends that are on the mission field but many of them have websites with updates, so I'll not really be missing much except for little things that happen during the day.  I'm also getting the sleep that I missed by allowing myself to stay up way too late at night, while Facebooking. Will I go back to Facebook? I don't know. I do have in the back of my mind, that I  probably will. But if I do, many friends will be deleted, so I'm not being swept up into their worlds. I have my own to deal with.

Up until last week, I've been knitting away on the blocks for my husband's afghan. If I don't get behind on daily cleaning, I can finish a block in two sittings. (about 4 hours total) I was hoping to have most of the blocks finished my the end of the month, but since I spent last week working on other projects, I'm hoping I can began the piecing together process by the middle of April.

Many of you know, that our family was in Montana to plant churches. The Lord allowed us to have to return home through a situation. Since we've been home, we moved our church membership and applied with a Mission Board.  Since somewhere around last June, we have really been praying about our ministry and what the Lord wants for our lives. In October, we had a missions conference along with a board meeting. At that time, we felt that the Lord maybe wanting us to resign and  move us in a different direction. After attending the meeting, we were alittle unsure so we decided to wait until after Christmas and fulfill our commitments to several churches and see how the Lord worked. Christmas came and went, still there was no peace. We pushed through January thinking, okay, at the end of the month... Well, January and February came and went and we still had no peace. Finally, the Lord allowed peace to come over the situation last Tuesday.  We resigned from the mission board and now we are waiting to see what the Lord has for our lives. I honestly, believe that since my husband has stayed so faithful throughout the situation (more than I can say for myself), the Lord has a rare gem for him.

I've also been working on gathering a list of our curriculum for next year. Talking about curriculum... What do/did you use for Language Arts for your children?  I'm trying to move away from Abeka. I'm looking for something that has more writing instead of "the parts of speech". Most of our curriculum is going to stay the same this year ~ Math, History, Science, Bible, Spelling/Vocabulary. I'm looking at  foreign language program. I'm thinking Spanish, since our area has several large Spanish speaking communities. But Monkey is talking about German! We will see...

On Friday, March 11th, I got THIS in the mail and started it. I do the 1 mile walk in the early morning and late evening along with a 2 mile walk during the afternoon. I can really tell a difference.  I have more energy and my knees are not giving me any problems. Back in December I joined Spark People. I really don't know why I joined, other than I have a friend who mentioned it on Facebook.  After looking around at the website for a couple of months, I decided to use it. It's free and there are tons of useful tips and tools. Since the 11th, I've lost 5 pounds. I'm not giving either one these 2 things a plug, I'm just sharing somethings that I've been doing. HONESTLY, I think those 5 pounds lost, are do to all the water I've been drinking. I have not had any sweet tea or regular sodas since the 11th. I am drinking 8 ounces of Lipton Citrus Green Tea a day. I've had 2 diet Dr. Pepper since starting this.  I've been watching my calories each day. I've been trying to stay at 1,200 total.  And we all know that the only way to lose weight, is to burn more calories than you put in. I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, but those new fad diets don't work. AND I'M NOT DIETING!!!! I'm just improving my life but making some lifestyle changes.

I'll be closing now, I have some beautiful spring weather to enjoy!

The Horse and Cart

I mentioned in the last post about putting my cart before the horse.  I have had a long history of putting that poor horse behind the cart and leaving him to contend with the problems.



As a wife and mother, I still have the tendency to get ahead of myself. The only thing, it's not just me anymore that has to work through the problems that are created.

When I heard about a situation at a former place of employment, I thought that the Lord may want me to go back and work. Not for just for the school, but for our family. We were entering a short season of loss of income. Little did I know when I sent word that I would be interested in teaching again, that the Lord was already working on the income thing.

Over the spring months, I put the idea aside about teaching. I made a trip to the school to get a used Language book, so I could study up on the  section of writing a research paper. While I was there, I allowed myself to be put in a position that opened a door to putting the cart first.

After agreeing to pray and talk with my husband, I put the idea aside. For some reason, the Lord allowed me to go through June and most of July without hearing anything regarding teaching.

On the day of the Primary elections, my husband was asked if I was ready to come back to the classroom. **Keep in mind, that I had not heard anything** When my husband called me and told me about this, he told me that I really needed to keep praying and to call the administration. I did. I prayed for two hours before calling. All along, there was a smidgen of doubt.  I put it aside and just thought that it was my nerves.

The day that I signed my contract, the doubt was still there. I continued believing that it was just from not being in the work force for five years. Everyday that I went to the school to work, I still had that weird feeling in the bottom of my stomach.

The week of pre-planning, I knew that I was not suppose to be working outside of my home. Being taught that my word meant more than my weight in gold and giving my word that I would teach,  I felt that I had to start and finish the school year.

Some of the staff realized that there was "something" wrong and continued asking if I was alright.  Trying to deny the problem, the problem grew. After spending nights not sleeping and crying on the way to and from school, I knew what I had to do.

On the third day of school, I went in and talked my friend, the administrator. I explained the situation. I did not want to be the "one" who was not suppose to be there and cause the school to crumble from the inside.  * Christian schools face their share of problems everyday, fighting the darts of Satan.* We talked and both agreed that we would pray that the Lord would provide a teacher to take my place.

For the next thirty minutes, I prayed that the Lord would provide.  When I left the gym and the third grade class ( I helped with their PE), I went into the office, to help answer the phones. As soon as I walked in, I found out that the Lord provided a new teacher. ~HALLELUJAH!!!~

This week, I have been in the process, of helping the new teacher get accustomed to teaching middle school. (She was a former early elementary school teacher).  She has been my "shadow" and learning as we went along. The Lord has provided a wonderful teacher for the seventh and eighth grades.

Next week, will be her first week teaching and working on the daily routines. I'll be there helping her and the students get adjusted to the "newness."  My last day will be Wednesday, September 15th.

I've learned valuable lessons during this. I've learned to keep praying ~ what we think maybe the Lord's will, might not be.  I've learned that no matter what, I need to wait on the Lord~ He knows every situation, that we are going through and those that will be coming into our lives. I've learned that the Lord is the provider of all things and that I need to fully trust Him~He provides for the little birds, He will provide for me. I've learned, again, no matter what my family needs me at home, keeping my home and family in order.

Twelve Years Ago Today

I married my best friend. Who would have thought that a friendship would turn into a marriage. I didn't.   Maybe, I'll have the time to tell you more about how we found each other and about our wedding ~ one day.

We are spending today in Tennessee. We have a few exciting places that we want to visit.We both have our cameras, so hopefully we'll have lots of pictures.