Susie is a slightly crazy, homeschooling, gardening, square dancing Momma with a houseful of babies (10 to be exact), and a whole lot of Jesus. She gave birth to seven of those babies (and she has the stretch marks and scars to prove it) and then God chose her to be Momma to three more who she refers to as her 'Unexpected Blessings'. Having a large family means she has heard just about all of the large family jokes... you know like 'You know how that happens, right', or 'Don't you have a TV?'. Many people believe that she must be related to Mother Teresa but she insists she isn't anywhere close to a Saint although she does appreciate as many prayers as she can get sent her way. Even though four of her babies have flown the coop, her life stays really busy. Most days start out early with a cup of her favorite Dandy Morning Coffee and a quick Trim Healthy Mama breakfast before the kids get up and the crazy starts. She looks at every day as an adventure where the unexpected keeps her on her toes. In the rare moment that she finds a little quiet time, you can usually find her snuggled up with a good book, browsing a thrift store, sewing a new outfit, piddling in the greenhouse or garden, or getting a little 'Pin Happy' with To-Do projects on Pinterest. She is extremely passionate about her family, cooking, being a keeper of the home, gardening, and square dancing. She is also on a mission to help others to make healthier changes in their lives, one family at a time. She strives to live by the Proverbs 31 model but she also acknowledges that she is not perfect and is just a sinner saved by grace. Pollywog’s Place Blog began as a way to share her family's journey with family and friends as they've gone through so many life changes. After getting so many questions about parenting, homeschooling, gardening, and recipe requests she realized that she could really use her blog as a way to help others out there who may be struggling with their roles as a mother, especially the single mothers who may feel like they are all alone on their journey. This blog has become a journal of sorts and a way for her to help inspire and provide encouragement to others. She enjoys looking back over old posts to see how far they have come and to motivate her when times seem tough. On Pollywog’s Place Blog, she talks about their life's journey through the adoption process, how their faith in God got them through some difficult and challenging times, as well as the many ups and downs they have faced with a large family and special needs (ADHD, ODD, and Down's Syndrome to name a few). Susie also shares the products that they use in their home as well as tips and tricks that she uses to keep her family running as smoothly and efficiently as possible with some gardening and video tours sprinkled in. Do you ever feel like your juggling so many things that you can't think straight? She has often felt the same way but has come up with some simple routines and schedules that help everyone to stay on track and I think they just might help you too! Under the 'Keeper of the Home' tab, you can find various tips, tricks, and hints to get your house up and running on autopilot. That's not been such an easy task for them since they downsized to a 600 ft square cabin but somehow they make it work and she loves sharing some of the helpful tips and tricks that they've learned along the way. One question they get a lot is about how they feed this army. It's not always an easy task and trying to eat healthily can get quite expensive so she is always looking for ways to save money and stick to their grocery budget. Under the 'Mama’s Recipe Box' section they have a ton of their favorite recipes like Daddy Can't Wait Casserole, Hoe Cakes (one of the most viewed posts on the blog), freezer cooking, and meal plans along with their family's 'Trim Healthy Mama' plan ideas and successes. If you haven't heard of the 'Trim Healthy Mama' plan you should definitely check it out today! Sometimes eating healthy does mean she spends a little extra on groceries so she finds other areas to cut expenses. One way they have found is with their cleaning supplies and health products. She has always been concerned about the chemicals (Did you know that the average household contains about 62 toxic chemicals?) and toxins that are in many household cleaners so she tries to use more natural and cost effective ways to clean. Susie has been homeschooling for several years now and although she does not consider herself to be an expert but she has found a variety of products and services that have helped to make their homeschooling journey a unique experience. You can find links to these products under the 'Homeschool' tab. Susie and her kids have had a ton of fun reading through the Little House on the Prairie series and she has posted some of the unit studies that they have put together for the different books. The family has been trying to incorporate some of the old fashioned morals and values into their everyday lives. As if juggling kids, home, and a home business weren't enough, the family also enjoys square dancing twice a week or more. Mr. Awesome and his dad happen to be the only father/son caller duo in Florida and are pretty well known in these parts. She also manages a couple of other facebook and blog pages for a couple of the local square dance clubs. The 'Kirby's Korner' tab is where they post links to their square dancing activities which is one of the things they do as a family. Susie loves to dress up in her fancy dance outfits and thinks the fluffier the petticoat the better. She also loves to take selfies of her various square dance outfits and share them with others. Did I mention that she met Mr. Awesome through square dancing? You'll have to poke around the blog to see if you can find that story somewhere. If you just want to find a list of the affiliate/referral programs that the family works with you can click on the 'Affiliate Links' tab. These links help to support their blog, their family, and their homeschooling mission at no extra cost to you. If you like to chuckle about the crazy things kids do or the crazy things they do on a daily basis then you really should follow their blog. They also have accounts on Facebook (@kirbyskabinblog and @susieschemfreezone) as well as on Instagram (@kirbyzkorner and @susieschemfreezone). They have been posting to YouTube as well so be sure to check that out. In July of 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Susie and Shane welcomed their youngest daughter, Shyanne, into the family. Shyanne has a dual diagnosis of Down Syndrome and Dandy-Walker Malformation w/hydrocephalus. She has gained many followers and supporters from around the world who have joined together to be prayer warriors for this special little girl. You can read more about her under ‘Sweet Shyanne’.
It’s crazy sock day!!! I don’t have on my crazy socks but I am rocking my #downsyndromeawareness shirt! Most of the kiddos have on some crazy socks to show their support for their extra special siblings and the other extra special people who were gifted with an extra chromosome.
I’ll admit that when we first got the news it was unexpected and I was upset, terrified, and a bit nervous but we had previously been told that what they expected she had would be incompatible with life.
I had this salad many years ago at a special dinner I attended and I have LOVED it ever since. Some of my family doesn’t really care for some of the ingredients but that doesn’t stop me as I could eat as much as I make by myself and not feel bad at all.
This is so good and it’s the perfect side for a Grilled Steak with Gorgonzola pasta on Valentine’s Day or a special meal! It would probably be amazing if you topped it with some grilled chicken as well!
Our new Spring meal plan has quiche in the breakfast rotation. This is a wonderful dish that could be eaten at any time of day or for any occasion… maybe even an Easter or Mother’s Day brunch?
Mr. Awesome’s Mom, Granny, makes an amazing quiche and she wrote the recipe down for me but I was a little confused about the directions so I improvised and it turned out pretty good… he says it is very close to Granny’s. The original recipe calls for Bisquick which I don’t keep in my pantry but I do have plenty of sourdough so I used that instead and just adjusted ingredients until it ‘felt right’.
This has quickly become a favorite in our home! I believe her recipe says to sprinkle a little cheese in the bottom of the casserole before pouring everything in but we haven’t tried that. This is also great as leftovers and you may find that you need to make two of them to keep everyone happy! We do leave the mushrooms whole so that the pickier kids can pick them out pretty easily but you could chop them up. You can also add any other veggie or meat that you like.
I don’t know if I’ve ever shared this before but this seems to be something that a lot of people are just now figuring out. We’ve been using this system for a while now… even before I started blogging!A lot of these pictures are from a previous house that we lived in but they show the way we started out with our color code adventure and some of the organization that we had. This post was actually started almost 2 years ago… I’ve been trying to go through some of the posts that have been overlooked and forgotten about.
When you have a pile of kids like we do then things can get really crazy, really fast. That’s what happened to me when we added 3 kids to my 4 all at one time… complete CHAOS. Thankfully, I had the older kiddos pretty set with their routines and they were such a GREAT HELP with the younger ones but then when we added 2 more kids to the pile it got CRAZY again but thanks to this little ‘HACK’ it didn’t stay crazy for too long.
What did we change?
We assigned a ‘color’ to each child and then I tried to color coordinate most of their items with this chosen color. To start with I gave each kiddo a cup in their color. They kept these cups at the kitchen sink for water and such and they used that one cup all day. I already had these cups** so that was the colors we originally picked from. When the cups were washed they were put back in the little bin so we no longer had a billion cups lying all over the house.
We can see the signs of Spring all around us as the fruit trees and bushes are starting to bloom, the birds are nesting, and our animals are having little ones. We can also see the pollen everywhere but it reminds us that everything is starting fresh and new for the year and it is kind of exciting.
One of the things that the kids always look forward to are these Empty Tomb Rolls at Easter. Since I’ve been studying more about the Holy Days vs Holidays I’m not sure how our Easter will look as I am really leaning more into a Passover celebration. These will still be great to help teach the kids about the resurrection while spending some quality time with them.
Pollywog's Place Blog 