Category: Life

Recipe Ideas for the Holiday Season

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

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!

Our 2019 Thanksgiving Dinner Menu with recipe links!

Our Family Favorite Thanksgiving Desserts for 2018 (plus a peek at our Thanksgiving Menu)

Reblog: David Lebovitz’s Thanksgiving Recipe Roundup

Holiday Recipes from our blog

Cakes

Cookies

I hope these help you to have a wonderful holiday season!

Getting Ready for the Holidays Week 3

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog10 Comments

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.

 12 Weeks of Holiday Planning – Pollywog’s Place Blog

Our list is as follows:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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?
  4. 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!
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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 things or we may have a cookie exchange along with the Polar Express to help provide a few extra snacks for the kiddos.
  9. I will also look up some information about Thanksgiving traditions and history to add to our homeschool lessons as well as some fun Thanksgiving activities. You can check this post HERE for some ideas!

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.

Grace & Gratitude: Devotional & Activities

For more great ideas you can check out the FlyLady website HERE.

Getting Ready for the Holidays Week 3Download

Life Updates – October 2023

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog4 Comments

I think it’s been a little while since we’ve posted any life updates and quite a bit has happened over the past few months so I thought I’d give a quick summary of what we’ve been up to.

Continue reading “Life Updates – October 2023” →

Preparing for Daylight Savings Time

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

It is almost that time of year again and when you have so many kiddos with so many unique needs then this is something that can cause complete CHOAS in your household… along with weather changes, moon changes, and just about any kind of unexpected changes.

‘Losing’ that hour of sleep can wreak havoc on your body and upset your circadian rhythm which isn’t good. Here in our house, it’s really not good because we have kiddos who don’t understand the concept of time change and they just get unbearable to be around.

This year we’ve been trying a little experiment to hopefully prepare us for the upcoming time change and maybe keep things under control around here… fingers are crossed.

We’ve been setting our alarms 15 minutes earlier every Sunday night for the past 2 weeks and getting in bed a tad earlier at night… with the idea that when Daylight Savings Time actually rolls around they won’t have so much trouble with the adjustment… fingers and toes crossed now!

The kids have been a little grumpy the first couple of days of the week with the earlier wake times but it doesn’t last long. We usually head outside first thing in the morning to feed up and that seems to chase the grumpies away… yay! It has been shown that getting some daylight early in your day can help with your circadian rhythm and we already know that fresh air can work wonders.

On the night before the actual change, we always set the clocks ahead to prepare for the next day. Sometimes we do it directly after dinner so they go to bed a little early without realizing what going on… lol.

I will also try to have a ‘light’ school schedule for that first week after the time change so kids can get outside to work those grumpies out or take some naps if they need to. We already have some good routines in place so hopefully, they will help to keep us going on the right track without too many interruptions in the next few weeks.

What are your favorite tips for preparing for Daylight Savings Time?

You can read more about how Daylight Savings Time affects your body and ways to adjust HERE and HERE.

Hubby Approved Surprise Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog15 Comments

I’ve made this recipe several times now, the first time being at Sweet Shyanne’s 2nd birthday party, and people have not stopped talking about them!

Mr. Awesome has jumped on the keto/THM bandwagon and has been asking for these again and again… the kids beg for them as well so I guess I just need to start making a double batch of them. The first time I saw these cupcakes mentioned was in the Trim Healthy Table cookbook and I thought some silly thoughts about the ‘surprise’ ingredient but I’m so glad I decided to give them a try and I think you will be too!

Continue reading “Hubby Approved Surprise Salted Caramel Cupcakes” →