Kids – Page 8 – Pollywog's Place Blog

Starting Our Sabbath

Published on February 16, 2024October 7, 2025 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog3 Comments

So I’ve been talking about the Biblical Feasts and the Sabbath but have I actually been trying to put these things into action?

Yes, we have. We don’t have a perfect routine yet but we are trying to make an intentional effort to include the Sabbath into our weeks as well as making plans to include the Biblical Feasts into our yearly plans… even though we aren’t quite sure how that will look yet.

As far as the Sabbath goes, we have been doing it on Sundays. I know there is a lot of debate about Saturday or Sunday but for now, Sunday is what works for us. I also know that the Sabbath should begin at sundown the day before but we didn’t do that either although I may try to start that.

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Shared Bedroom Makeovers… Two become three

Published on January 25, 2024February 22, 2024 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog9 Comments

As many of you already know, we bought this house and it has already been well-loved. It was definitely in need of some TLC… a bit more than we had realized at the time but we’ve been making improvements as time and budget have allowed.

We had a lot of hopes and dreams for this house when we first moved in but there were so many issues that happened and had to be dealt with that we just had to focus on those. Plus the pandemic had just started, we were dealing with an unexpected high-risk pregnancy and then a stressful premature birth with a NICU stay and other complications, and then when we thought things were getting better we were sidelined by an unexpected leukemia diagnosis.

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Quick and Easy Life Skills Summer Camp (At Home)

Published on June 11, 2023August 12, 2023 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

This time of year gets crazy around here, and sometimes I feel like I can’t sign up for one. more. thing! I did however just sign up for these workshops. I can fit them into our school schedule, as we are schooling year-round, to help keep things fun and interesting.

I’m all about the quick and easy. I also think that it might come in handy to have the kids be a little more independent around the house as I am scheduled to be out of commission for a bit toward the end of summer… more on that later.

That’s why I’m loving these 3 video workshops from #LifeSkillsNow summer camp.

They’re available right NOW!
I don’t have to wait for anything on my calendar
They’re super short, about 10 minutes each
I don’t have to go anywhere!
Kids ages 5-18 are ALL covered! (When is the last time you saw something online that was a good fit for teens??)

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Bella’s Ultimate Tuna Salad

Published on April 17, 2023December 12, 2023 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog5 Comments

The girls have been practicing their Home EC skills and we are their Guinea pigs… thankfully most of their experiments turn out well and are pretty tasty.

This is a tuna salad recipe that they had in their lesson but we changed it up a bit to fit our tastes. Ms. Bella took the lead on getting this prepared by checking before school to make sure we had boiled eggs and she set the cream cheese out to soften.

Ms. Caitlyn served up some celery and carrot sticks with homemade ranch dip and some pickles. Some of the kiddos ate it with crackers and others made sandwiches.

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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!

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–Thank you!