Category: Product Reviews

My Melaleuca Experience — The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog5 Comments

I never realized that this post would get as much attention as it does but that tells me that other people may be having the same issues or wondering about the same things I wondered about before giving them a try. I hope that this post helps to answer some of the questions that you may have.

Maybe you remember me talking about a mysterious online shopping club that I joined last month. I didn’t/couldn’t reveal the name due to their marketing rules. However, I’ve since said ‘Goodbye to this company. Actually, as I’m writing this I am in the process of trying to say Goodbye but it’s not an easy thing to do.

I wanted to share my experience, the good, the bad, and the ugly with others.

About the company

A little about the company and its products. They offer what they claim are all-natural, made-in-the-USA products. These range from cleaning products, vitamins, weight loss products, beauty items, essential oils, and bath & body. The company has a preferred member option which was what I had enrolled as.

I believe they claim to have been around since 1985. They also claim to be ‘The Largest Online Wellness Shopping Club in North America’. They currently offer over 400 products with a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee.

The company seems to have a lot of good values and beliefs which I share so I was very excited to be joining them.

The Good

I did purchase the ‘customer’s favorite value plan’. The kit included a variety of cleaners, snack foods, and some vitamins.

Another thing the company offers is Loyalty Shopping Dollars. You can earn these in a variety of ways including watching videos in the Learn to Earn program. In a short period, I watched some videos and accumulated $40-50 Loyalty Dollars.

Shopping discounts are listed as 30 – 50% for preferred members and the 100% Customer Satisfaction Guarantee seems pretty nice too.

They claim to be ‘The Perfect Part-Time Work-From-Home Business’ which was very appealing to me.

The Bad

We did enjoy most of the products we received but none of them were super outstanding. Hence, the reason I’ve not really been posting too much about them. If you know me at all you know that I am all too eager to share about things that we really like – I mean, that’s the whole purpose of our blog here!

The 100% Customer Satisfaction Guarantee is also a little misleading as they say they will credit the customer account for the purchase amount. This does not mean they will credit it back to your bank account.

The Loyalty Shopping Dollars were easy enough to make with the Learn to Earn videos however when I went to spend them I realized that these are only applied after your monthly point minimum had been reached.

Monthly point minimum you ask? Well, you must purchase at least 35 points worth of products. Please note that $35 does not equal 35 points. For some people, this may not be a big deal but for a busy, frugal, money-saving, on-a-budget Momma like me, it is a big deal.

I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about how they promote but they do have scripts to follow. You can’t mention their name on social media and you have guidelines for mentioning their products too. So how are you supposed to promote the company, get referrals, and make money when you have so many restrictions on advertising?

That’s a question I asked numerous call center reps but was told I’d have to contact someone else or a different department. Now I will say that their reps are extremely friendly and courteous they are just very vague when answering questions. Everyone answers the same questions the same way… hmmm…

They suggest using Facebook as I’ll describe below and also getting your friends and family to sign up. If you don’t get people to sign up under you then you don’t make money. Well, you can earn Loyalty Shopping Dollars but that’s not ‘the put it in your pocket and go out to eat kinda money’ that I was looking for.

I’ve been in sales before and I know you have scripts to use but this made no sense to me. Again, I’m not into bashing the company just trying to say that their tactics didn’t sit well with me.

How did I get started with them in the first place you might wonder? I was contacted by a member who was in a Facebook group that I was in. She began by gaining trust and talking about her grandkids. After a few conversations, she introduced her online discount shopping club. A while later I decided to check it out as she had such high reviews.

Once I attended the online conference call/webinar I decided to give it a try. Maybe my timing was bad as it was a stressful period right then with William having his wisdom teeth and all.

I did do a couple of posts mentioning the new discount online shopping club but I couldn’t tell anyone about the special $1.00 membership deal unless you had messaged me for more information. 

Anyway… fast forward to the delivery of the products. They arrived and sat on the table for several days before I finally decided to open them. Honestly, I was tempted to just send the package back but I was sure it would probably cost a small fortune. (Good thing I didn’t as I would’ve only received a certificate of credit and not a refund.) I decided to give them a try when we went on vacation. I threw the snack bars in with our kitchen supplies. They were OK but not anything I’d want to reorder.

When I went to place another order to try some different items I learned that I couldn’t use my Loyalty Shopping Dollars until my minimum point requirement had been met. I wasn’t happy and after debating about what to purchase before they decided to send me the default order I decided to just cancel my membership.

I did really like the smell of the laundry detergent but I mean I can’t keep buying $50 of laundry detergent every month. They have rules against reselling products as well.

After searching the site a bit I found the button to cancel. Well, that leads to another link which led to a form to complete, sign, and return. Whew! This is a lot harder to get out of than it was to get into.

I completed, signed, and returned the form and explained my reasons for canceling. I thought that was it but I was wrong. There were a few more aggravations along the way but I just kept telling them No, and sending emails to customer service. A lot of hassle to end my membership.

I’ve had several memberships with companies and never dealt with the likes of this before. Normally I hit the ‘cancel’ button, ‘Are you sure?’ button, or maybe ‘select a reason for canceling’, and then I get a confirmation email along with an invitation to rejoin at a later date.

Sigh…

The Ugly

Well, fortunately, I don’t have anything ugly to say about the company. I may update this at a later date depending on how this membership cancellation goes.

I just checked, two days later, and they have canceled my preferred member benefits and I finally received a confirmation email.

Conclusion

So all in all if you are looking for more natural products to use in your home this may be for you, that is if you can find a representative to help you join the club. Just research the facts and review the requirements before signing up!

If you are looking for a one-stop online shop then this is probably not the club for you and I would just pass it by. We now just buy our essential oils from Simply Earth** and make our own cleaners and such with EOs, vinegar, baking soda, and water. You can Google Search for recipes to find ones you like or check out our posts for some of the ideas that we use.

**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!

One Person’s Boredom Is Another’s Security

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

This sentence in the book I just finished reading so describes my life sometimes. I’ve written about our routines and schedules again and again. Some people think that our life must be pretty boring if we are doing the same things again and again. Sometimes it does seem a little boring but I try my best to keep things interesting.

I stick with what we do because it is what works best for our family. We have three children, two who are special needs, who were adopted. They need the structure and stability of the routines we have in place to help them feel secure. So this sentence makes perfect sense to me.

As a result of these three being adopted I missed out on a lot of their younger years. Those fun years when you see their personalities being to develop and when you start to develop a sense of who they are. During these years you can learn a lot by watching them and they interact with others. I have felt at a disadvantage because I didn’t have that.

However recently I’ve been reading a few different books to help me help them to succeed. In the beginning of the book she mentions that we should all try to spend at least 15 minutes a day with each child. This is a great idea and I am working on trying to do this but it can be a difficult thing with as many children as I have.

When you are alone with your child she suggests letting them play and interact with you in whatever way that they choose. You can watch, give positive comments, and make mental notes. We can learn a lot about each child just by this simple task. This can be quite exhausting but the rewards will be immense!

This book aims to:

  • help parents identify areas of frustration. These may be due to the differences between the parent’s and child’s different learning styles.
  • help parents find positive ways to build on the natural strengths of each child.
  • help parents to teach their children to work well with others.

She suggests that we all focus on:

  • OBSERVING the patterns of behavior.
  • LISTEN to the way each person communicates.
  • EXPERIMENT with different ways to find what works and what doesn’t.
  • FOCUS on natural strengths instead of weakness for a strong foundation.
  • LEARN more about learning styles.

She also notes that it usually takes 3-5 years of studying and learning, observing, and using learning styles information before it will become second nature. Whew! That seems like forever right now but I’m gonna keep trying.

Gregorian Model of Learning Styles

This book has a variety of information related to learning styles, including the Gregorian Model of Learning Styles. I’ll admit that this seemed a little overwhelming and confusing at first but after taking a couple of the quizzes I was able to narrow down our learning styles.

My learning style is the ‘Dominant Concrete Sequential‘ while my ‘difficult child‘ is a ‘Dominant Concrete Random’.

I am semi organized most of the time and like to manage my time resourcefully. I have a method of completing tasks and like for others to use this method because I know it works. I am also very detail oriented most of the time.

After comparing the information I have a better understanding of who she is and why she acts the way she does. She is strong willed to the point of being defiant, she will refuse to cooperate which may be a result of her feeling like she doesn’t have a choice, and she likes to take risks. All of these have been problem areas but now I have a plan to help her turn these problems into ways that can help her to succeed.

So some of our issues may just be a miscommunication because we are speaking ‘different languages’. According to the author the most difficult child is the one who doesn’t think like we do!

Using the information

Now that I know what styles we are I can use this information to help in so many ways. This will help to determine how each child concentrates, studies, and learns. This can help to improve areas like Homework.

One of the suggestions that the author gives is making a deal with your child. You can give them two weeks to study at home any time, any place, and with any thing they say they need to help them get the tasks completed. All of these things should be allowed within reason of course.

After the two weeks are up the child must show an improvement in their grades or they will need to study by your rules.

Remembering information

This part of the book is very similar to the last book I read by this author. Each person remembers information in a different way. I’ll give a brief explanation below:

  • AUDITORY: learning by listening, remembering by forming sounds of words
  • VISUAL: learning by seeing and watching; using strong visual association
  • KINESTHETIC: learning by becoming physically involved and actually doing something with what’s being learned

Then we also have to consider in the GLOBAL and ANALYTIC styles as well. These affect how we understand and organize information. These also affect how we pay attention, follow directions, and manage our time.

The 7 Intelligences

Have you heard of the seven intelligences? Maybe, maybe not but there is not any one test that can accurately measure any person’s IQ because of these variances in these areas.

They are as follows:

  1. LINGUISTIC: verbal abilities. ex: journalists and poets
  2. LOGICAL – MATHEMATICAL: abilities with numbers, patterns, and logical reasoning. ex: scientists and philosophers
  3. SPATIAL: the ability to think in vivid mental pictures. ex: architectures
  4. MUSICAL: the ability to express through natural rhythm and melody.
  5. BODILY KINESTHETIC: ability of bodily movement or physical activities. ex: surgeons and actors
  6. INTERPERSONAL: the gift of understanding, appreciating, and getting along well with others.
  7. INTRAPERSONAL: this is usually expressed in solitude and is the understanding of ourselves as individuals, who and what we are, and how we fit into the grand scheme of the universe.

By learning about these different styles and intelligences we can have a better understanding of ourselves and those around us. As parents we must become ‘mulit-lingual’ in the different styles in order to help our children succeed in life.

Make medication a last resort.

I am a firm believer in this statement as is the author of this book. Too many times children are labeled with learning disorders, I know there are children who have a valid need for medications just maybe not all of the ones who are prescribed medications on a daily basis, who just need a little bit of one on one time until they can figure out what works best for them. A traditional school setting may not be the best for them.

Read the book for yourself.

Anyway, if you want to read more about these ideas and learn about your learning style or your child’s learning style then you need to check out this book ‘The Way They Learn’  written by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias. Yes, that is an affiliate link which helps to support our blog. You may be able to find it at your local library like I did.

Here are a few more books written by the same author:

Happy Reading!

Elephant Fuzz, Building Bugs, Poodle Skirts and Moon Day; A Week In Review

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

We have had quite the week again. Fun and crazy as usual. Keep reading to find out about some of our many adventures here in the little house on the pond. We have included affiliate links to some of the products mentioned in this post. These help to support our blog.

Monday

Elephant fuzz here, elephant fuzz there, elephant fuzz everywhere… sounds a bit like a children’s book, doesn’t it? So what is elephant fuzz? I asked the same thing when I first saw this all over the house:

The kids were quick to reply that it was ‘elephant fuzz’…. ok, but where did it come from? Here is the answer:

It appears that this little pillow has a hole and is leaking elephant fuzz… lol… kids come up with the darnedest things don’t they? Well, I got the hole taken care of and hopefully that’ll be the end of the elephant fuzz.

Afterwards we made some Haystack Cookies or Noodle Cookies as Mr. Awesome calls them. The kids have been eating them up!

That afternoon Jacob put his Kids Cook Real Food skills to work while helping me make a salad to go with our Red & White Pasta.

Monday our regular club dance was ‘dark’ to support a reunion dance that was being held locally. Here is a short video from the event:

We had a good time and got to see old friends plus we made some new ones while we were there. Afterwards we ate at Texas Roadhouse and an exceptional server named Terrence.

Tuesday

I got a call from the Florida Gardiner Scholarship telling me about a glitch in the system which had caused some of my orders to be denied… this meant I had to go back into the system and resubmit the orders… oh what fun!

I also figured out that I can ‘Air Drop’ pictures from my phone to my tablet… this makes life so much easier!

The kids are loving their new routine chart:

I am working on ordering some different magnets because the stars don’t stick very well. I may also paint or paper the board. There will be a post about this sometime in the future.

We read a chapter from the Laura Ingalls Wilder biography before bed and had a short discussion about the things we learned from the chapter. The kids are super excited about the new school year.

They were also very happy that I had ordered more of their favorite toothpaste:

We all love the lemon flavor and I love the fact that it works so great! I always buy the triple pack and the first time I ordered I bought the multipack so we could try out all the flavors. The kids didn’t care for the peppermint or cinnamon as they thought they was too spicy. Some of us older folks liked the wintergreen flavor but lemon was the majority vote.

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I actually found a little time on Tuesday to paint my nails too! Mommas need a little bit of pampering from time to time. 😊

Wednesday

Wednesday morning we changed our breakfast routine a bit. Instead of Muffins the kids had a bowl of fresh fruit and a cup of yogurt.

I’m really loving this new fruit bowl I got earlier this month. It is so much bigger than the one we had, plus it’s not as fragile. The banana holder is a great feature as well. It keeps the kids from dragging out and bruising all of the bananas just to find the ‘perfect’ apple.

While cleaning the bathroom I got a call from Walgreens …. NOT… it was a telemarketer call disguised as a local business. I HATE these kind of calls. They wanted to help me with my interest rate on a card they knew nothing about.

After politely asking a strongly accented Chris Sawyers to remove me from the list I had to threaten to report them to the authorities for FRAUD. He asked me to hold online while he removed me from the list. I did hold, with the phone muted and the receiver set on the shelf, and an hour later I was still on hold… haha Mr. Sawyers from card services you’ve won a mention on my blog. Congrats!

After our morning chores were finished we played one of the new games that we’ve gotten:

Bugs Building is similar to the once popular Jenga game. They had a lot of fun playing the game but then we had some major midweek meltdowns!

Luckily I still had a hidden stash of FREE chocolates…

Thursday

Hmmm… Thursday was a kinda gloomy day, very rainy and windy too. We didn’t get our laundry done because of the weather but it got finished up on Friday. We were also without power for a little while that morning.

The kids made the best of no electricity and played some board games. I think they thought they were getting out of chores but everyone had to help finish up the chores when the power came back on. Then it was time for some lunch which was Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.

After I got the kids down for quiet time I got this text message from Mr. Awesome:

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Oh boy do I love these kind of messages. I dug my outfit out of the closet and got to work on making some dinner. I had planned to make Spaghetti but opted for Sloppy Joes when I realized I didn’t have any noodles.

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Unfortunately I didn’t get any pics of the Pink Cadillac Dance or our super cute outfits because my phone was acting up again.

Friday

Friday was Moon Day and we celebrated with some Moon Pies for an afternoon snack. That morning we finished up the laundry for the week and caught up on few things that needed done around the house.

After paying a couple of bills I went ahead and renewed our ABC Mouse that the kids have been begging for. They wasted no time getting on their and taking care of their virtual pets. Joey also made sure to update his avatar:

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Those glasses look almost like his and they are just too cute!

That afternoon I went to make some our favorite Cream Cheese Chicken with Rice and Green Beans only to realize I didn’t have any cream of chicken soup… I don’t know what happened when I went grocery shopping last week but I guess I didn’t do a good job. I did finish dinner and it was really good with the substitutions I made so I’ll try to get that updated recipe posted soon.

That evening we went to the square dance. Again I didn’t get any pics because my phone died but I did get that video finished. I’ll have it at the end of the post.

Saturday

I had planned to get the porch cleaned up a bit but the constant thunderstorms kept us inside. The morning was spent tidying up around the house and then we went out to eat at Golden Corral. It wasn’t the best experience and we probably won’t visit that location again but the kids enjoyed it.

After eating we headed to the movies to watch the new Ant Man movie. It was pretty good and everyone had a great time. All in all it was a good week and we are really looking forward to a great time in the upcoming week.

This week I plan to get some of the lessons entered into the Homeschool Manager app and also set a date for us to start school. I will also be working on a couple of more promo videos for square dancing as many clubs will be starting classes in September.

As far as cleaning the FlyLady missions will be in the Master Bedroom this week. I just need to do a tidying up in there so I’m not really sure how much I will get done in there. I would really like to get the porch cleaned off and have some usable space out there but the weather hasn’t been cooperating.

What are your goals for the upcoming week?

Below are some other things that we’ve done this past week and that video we put out for square dancing.

Other books we’ve read this week were:

Be A Good Dragon is a cute book about a dragon with a cold.

Yum! A Preston Pig Story is a variation of the ‘Three Little Pigs’ that kids enjoyed.

We got lots of goodies in the mail this week:

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I was really excited to get these books and hopefully the kids will get to use them some this weekend.

This week I also posted these posts here (which may have affiliate links to some of the products above):

We are looking forward to a new week with lots of new surprises. So far we have these activities planned.

Upcoming Events/Holidays:

Here is that video I promised:

A Look Back On The Past Week And A Peek Ahead To This Week

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

I honestly don’t even know what all we did last week. It seemed to have went by in such a blur. I do know that I had put out a few different posts and here are the links in case you missed them:

I hate how I sit down to write a quick little post and my internet acts up and makes it take foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…………………

But anyways let’s get back to what all we did last week…

We did get more packages from UPS and Fed Ex… the drivers pretty much know me by name and recognize me when I am out and about now… I guess that’s a good thing? Continue reading “A Look Back On The Past Week And A Peek Ahead To This Week” →

A Completely Honest Review Of Our First Hello Fresh Box!

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

We were so very excited to try out Hello Fresh. If you haven’t heard of them they offer a subscription plan where you choose your plan and your meals. They will deliver the meals, fresh from the farm to your home, and they provide a tracking service so you will know when to expect the package. You even have the option to skip a week or two, if needed.

You will need the basic kitchen utensils plus a few things like, butter, olive oil, salt and pepper, and sugar. Other than those ingredients they pretty much provide everything right in the cute little bags they deliver.

The first meal I made was the Lobster Ravioli with Chorizo in a Sherry Cream Sauce with Honey-Roasted Carrots, which was a Premium meal. Seems so fancy, doesn’t it? Continue reading “A Completely Honest Review Of Our First Hello Fresh Box!” →