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 trying our best to get back into some of our routines and traditions around here but it’s been tough going with one thing after another. I do plan to do a little something special for St. Nicholas Day and we hope to get our tree up then as well. I had thought about doing our Polar Express Party on St. Nicholas Day but it falls in the middle of the week so that wouldn’t work out well for anyone right now.
We won’t be doing anything really spectacular but I’m sure the kids will be excited anyway. I did manage to snag a couple of bags of chocolate coins a couple of weeks ago too so I’m hoping they won’t have melted by the time St. Nicholas Day gets here.
I just wanted to post this in case anyone else wanted to try to do something a little extra special… maybe you will have a chance to grab some things over the weekend to start a new family tradition. Maybe we can schedule a quick drive around town to look at Christmas lights or something as well.
We usually make Santa Pancakes and I think we did something a little different last year but I can’t remember what we did for sure as it was so crazy then.
Before you think that you couldn’t possibly pull anything like this off because something always goes wrong here’s another post about how our day really went on a previous St. Nicholas Day:
We have been using these books as part of our Art/Music studies. They make lessons so quick and easy and the kids love coloring the pictures while they listen to the various music selections.
We will often add an educational video from YouTube if they seem to be more interested in a particular composer/song.
The one thing that I haven’t found was tests to go along with the lessons which aren’t absolutely necessary but sometimes I like to have them just to see if they are really paying attention to what we are learning about or not.
Here are the ones I’ve completed:
COLOR THE CLASSICS – GODLY COMPOSERS (September – October – November)
Y’all I’ve been so busy and haven’t had time to post but I had to quickly let everyone know about this little gadget that has saved us so many headaches and has probably saved the life of our washing machine on more than one occasion!
As you know we’ve had one issue after another with this house and I mentioned before about our well issues. We get A LOT of sediment in the water lines… I mean beaucoup amounts!!!
We use our Berkey to filter our drinking water and that works wonderfully but some of the appliances, mostly the washer, can’t cope with all the sediment. Our washer would constantly give us the ‘LO FLO’ error message. I knew that meant that I needed to clean/replace the filter in the washer hose.
**This post does contain some affiliate and/or referral links to products and/or services that we use. If you happen to click through a link and make a purchase we may earn a teensy-weensy small commission (at NO EXTRA cost to you) if a purchase is made through these links. These links help to support our family, our blog, and our homeschooling mission. This means that we can keep bringing you great recipes, ideas, and tips for FREE! Click HERE for a full disclaimer. –Thank you!
Last year, when I wasn’t able to be here very much I couldn’t predict when this would happen. Thankfully I found this in-line filter system which has saved us so much time and hassle.
When the error message pops up I can instantly check the filter without needing to pull the heavy washer out from the wall and wriggle behind it which is very awkward and painful.
Yuck, can you see all that sediment? All I had to do was to cut off the water supply, unscrew the filter, rinse it out, and then put it back on. Once I turned the water back on then the washer was ready to go again. I’m so glad that this catches all of that before it makes it to the washer because changing the washer hose filters takes me a lot longer to do.
It’s hard to see but the water is nice and clear in this picture and hopefully I won’t have to do this again until next year. There was a little bit of sediment back in there as soon as I turned the water on again.
I seriously hate to think what all this is doing to our other appliances like the hot water heater. When it gets bad I end up replacing the tank kits in the toilets and everything as well so we keep a couple of those on hand… this is not normal but apparently there is nothing we can do unless we had a ton of money to drill a new well and hope it didn’t have the same issues.
We probably need to look into buying a larger filter for the whole house so we don’t have to keep replacing shower heads, toilet kits, and the such but I just haven’t had a chance to research them yet.
Just this week we’ve had issues with our AC which was installed new but apparently was never registered by the company and therefore the warranty was never put into effect so that means we will most likely be out of pocket for the repairs. We never received the paperwork for anything as we didn’t sign off on the house being completed because it really wasn’t ever completed properly but that’s a story that may never have a happy ending.
We are currently under a tropical storm watch as we have a crazy storm headed our way. Sending major prayers to all of those down south of us that are still dealing with the devastation that Ian left behind!
Anyway we hope you are all having a great week and staying safe!
Pollywog's Place Blog 