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’.
We are getting closer and closer to the upcoming holiday season and maybe you need some ideas for new recipes or some recipes for dishes like you remember from your childhood… well, look no further. We have a ton of different recipes on our blog and below you will find a few links to those recipes as well as links to previous holiday menus. There is no need to get fancy… just focus on the things you have been blessed with and express your thankfulness and gratitude for the family and friends you invite into your home!
I’ve written a couple of posts about getting ready for the holidays and I’ve mentioned that I would be gathering ideas for activities for the kiddos. The following list is some of the activities that we already had on hand… hopefully, they will still be available for you to download if you wish. If they aren’t available a quick Google search will quickly deliver a list of fun activities.
I have already pulled out the Fall-Themed activity box for the youngest… it is just a plastic shoebox filled with fake leaves, bugs, nuts, and pinecones. She loves to dump them out and look for the bugs.
Last week I posted about some of the things we are doing to help prepare our homes for the holidays and hopefully prevent a little of the CHAOS. We will continue to review those things and work on a few more things this week.
As we do our weekly ‘Home Blessings’ we will continue to look for things that don’t belong and get them put away where they belong or get rid of things we don’t really need.
We will sit down and discuss where and when we will be having dinners and get-togethers as well as menu ideas so we can begin preparing those grocery lists! We like to have a special breakfast for St. Nicholas day and something special for Christmas morning plus we have some favorite desserts and cookies that we make around the holidays so we need to make sure that we add all of those things to our list. We may even try out a few new recipes beforehand to make sure that we like them.
If we plan to do any Black Friday shopping we will start making plans of where to go and with whom but this isn’t something I usually participate in. I may try to do a little ‘Cyber Monday’ shopping but who knows?
I’ll try to make a few freezer meals so that we have them for busy days during the holiday season as well as make a list of desserts, like pumpkin rolls, and things that can be made ahead of time and put in the freezer… these may also make great gifts!
I also need to check over our calendars as we have a lot of birthdays and special occasions that we don’t want to forget in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.
I will review and mail order items that we want to purchase and try to get them crossed off the list so that they will have plenty of time to get here before the holiday rush arrives. It’s not fun when your ‘perfect’ gift idea doesn’t arrive because it was back ordered or delayed for some unforeseen reason. By ordering early you will have time to prepare if the unforeseen happens.
I will review the menu lists in my Holiday Planner so I can find a few things to add to my weekly grocery list as well as checking to make sure that we have plenty of the everyday essentials like toilet paper and paper towels because we don’t want to run out of those things when we have guests.
We will decide what other gift ideas (and budget amounts) we may have in mind or if we would rather do a gift exchange for other family members… money is tight this year so we will be looking at some creative ideas that we can use to make sure everyone gets a little something.We may try to have a potluck on Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner to help with the cost of thingsor we may have a cookie exchange along with the Polar Express to help provide a few extra snacks for the kiddos.
Life is crazy enough without adding holiday stress to it. The simpler we can keep things, the better in most cases and we are always trying to find creative solutions to things we need to get done. By spending just a few minutes a day working on these tasks it helps to get us prepared without causing a lot of unnecessary stress.
We have been incorporating more of a Charlotte Mason-style approach to our homeschool this year. One of the things that we have added is poetry and I just wanted to share the book that we’ve been using as it has been really great for us!
Is it ever too early to think about Christmas? Probably not, especially when you consider all of the extra things that happen during that busy season. We just got everything decorated for Fall… I think this might be the first year we have really decorated this house as I kept waiting until we had everything ‘just right’ but who knows when that will be, so we might as well try to make things a little nicer today.
Pollywog's Place Blog 