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Homemade Sourdough English Muffins

Published on January 24, 2023January 14, 2023 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog4 Comments

We’ve been experimenting with sourdough recipes for a while now and this one has been a favorite of ours. It’s super easy to make but does have a bit of time required for rising so we usually start these the evening before we need them.

You can mix them by hand, use a stand mixer with a dough hook, or even mix them up in your breadmaker… we’ve tried them each way and they all turn out great. I like to put the dough in the oven for its long rise… be sure to leave the light on for it to keep it comfy!

These work great for breakfast sandwiches, mini pizzas, or with a bit of butter and jelly… yum!

This recipe may look a little tricky but once you made it a time a two you could probably do it in your sleep! If you don’t have a sourdough starter you can find tons of easy recipes online to start your own or you can buy some starter like we did HERE.** (Yes, that’s an affiliate link but it won’t cost you a penny more to use it.)

Homemade Sourdough English Muffins

Ingredients:

1/2 c. active sourdough starter
1 T. sugar or honey (we prefer to use local honey but that’s not really necessary)
1 c. milk (I haven’t tried using milk kefir but it would probably work as well)
1 t. salt
3 c. all-purpose flour (may need a little more or less depending on the climate)
a bit of cornmeal of flour for dusting

Directions:

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Progress towards goals, sweet treats, and a date night

Published on January 22, 2023September 15, 2025 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

This past weekend one of my sisters gave me a special treat… she offered to babysit so we could have a date night! This was unexpected but very much appreciated. Not only did she come down to babysit but she also sent me to get a manicure… something I haven’t done in quite a while.

I tried to resist but I was glad that she insisted because I really did need that little bit of quiet time without anyone else. It allowed me to clear my head a bit and make some plans for the next couple of weeks. I made a few goals to work on and tried to form a plan of action to achieve these goals while I was out and about by myself… I probably should’ve written some of this down but I didn’t.

If the weather hadn’t been so chilly I might have stayed gone for a bit longer but I was freezing by the time I finished at the salon and ran a few errands so I headed back home… little ma’am was happy to have me back and she covered me with kisses when I returned.

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31 Ways To Go Plastic Free

Published on January 13, 2023September 15, 2025 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

I read about this Plastic-Free Challenge earlier this week but haven’t had a chance to post about it until now… If you’ve been following the blog you’ll know that I’ve mentioned that we’ve been extraordinarily busy this past couple of months and hopefully we’ll be able to share what we’ve been up to sometime later this month… it’s really exciting!

Back to the post though… part of my New Year’s goal was to start using less plastic and disposable items in our house. I know we probably won’t be a zero waste household anytime soon but I know that we ~~can~~ have really cut back on single-use plastic items in our home.

Just the other day I realized that our plastic storage containers have been disappearing. Where have they gone? Well, that’s a question that may never be answered but I do know that I really need to replace them. I’ve been looking at a few Plastic-Free options on Amazon and Walmart but haven’t decided what to get yet but I will need to find something soon.

I know that some things will not be replaced soon like our favorite lunch boxes but I have found some replacements for some time in the future. I have also been looking for non-plastic/non-glass replacements to the kids’ water bottles that they use at home. We do try our best to use reusable shopping bags when we go for groceries.

Here are a few ideas of things we’ve replaced recently:

Disposable drinkware for:
- Mason Jars – I love my Pioneer Woman Drinking Jar
- Yeti tumblers or similar metal tumblers
- Glass water bottles from Berkey (We’ve been using our new Berkey for our drinking water so no more buying plastic bottles of water.)
- Reusable Straws:
  - Metal straws for the adults
  - Colorful Silicon Straws for the kids because they don’t like the metal ones
Plastic bags for:
- Reusable grocery bags – I really want to try out these Trolley Bags and Bag Podz
- Reusable produce bags
- Reusable storage baggies
Disposable diapers (when my kids were smaller):
- Cloth diapers – They have so many pretty styles now!
- Cloth Wash Rags instead of baby wipes
Other Household:
- Reuse plastic bottles by using cleaning solution concentrates
- Glass bottles and containers for sprays and soaps
- Reusable K-Cups
- Metal or Glass storage containers (Mason Jars of various sizes can store a wide range of things!)
- Metal or Glass Bowls
- Bamboo plates/utensils instead of disposable plastic items
- Cleaning cloths/rags instead of paper towels and napkins which come wrapped in plastic.

I know that there are some items that might hard to replace but there are new solutions coming out every day. Making these changes one at a time will make a difference and you may find that it saves you money as well!

Join the Plastic Free Challenge Today!

So many places around us are putting bans on plastics as well so this is something that everyone really needs to adjust to. It’s crazy to see the numbers on the plastic pollution crisis and our family wants to do our part to help out with this. With the Plastic Free Challenge, you can choose where you will be going plastic free, what you choose to refuse, and how long you choose to go plastic free.

This week I got an email from Life Without Plastic about their Plastic-Free Tooth Tabs which can replace those plastic toothpaste tubes and are packaged in a paper box. They also talked about their new Plastic-Free Lunch Boxes which were funded on Kickstarter. They also have a wide variety of Plastic-Free Containers for packing those delicious lunches in.

Take the Plastic Free July Challenge with www.goingzerowaste.com

Here are a few more interesting articles I’ve found about this topic:

It’s not too late to join the Plastic Free Challenge Today!

**This post does contain affiliate links to products and/or services that we use. 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.

–Thank you!

Easy Peasy Sourdough Pancakes and Waffles

Published on January 10, 2023August 12, 2023 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog3 Comments

We have a breakfast schedule set up to help keep things running smoothly here which means that every Thursday we have Pancakes and then on some weekends we have Waffles. I also love our sourdough and kefir so we adjusted our original pancake recipe to incorporate these. This recipe is so easy that my girls make it by themselves.

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Getting organized a little at a time … January 7, 2023

Published on January 7, 2023 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog2 Comments

Whew! It’s been a busy first week of the year but our house is finally ‘undecorated’ all except for the inflatables which are hanging over the back porch railings as they need to dry out.

Yesterday we had our first dance of the New Year at a new location. I tried not to do too much work as I didn’t want to be completely exhausted before the dance… I tried but with my arm, in the condition it is in right now, it doesn’t take much to wear me out at all. I went to one of our sheds to dig out a couple of outfits and then had to go back to find my dance shoes. While we were out in the shed I remembered that someone had mentioned they needed some little boy clothes so I found a tote of clothes our kiddos have outgrown and brought that to the house with us.