The Nickel Jar, Germantown, TN (2026)

The Nickel Jar is where I share moments, lessons, & life – the beautiful, messy, & everything in between. I’m Susan, and I am the voice behind The Nickel Jar. Why?! I guess my parents thought it would be cute… or confusing?! (And since I know you’re dying to know — in birth order → Stevan, Sandra, Scott, Susan, Stuart.) These days, I’m a wife and mom, a special needs advocate, and an expert juggler of all the things — from managing Big Brother’s competitive travel soccer team while also managing a team of 10 international employees (Shanghai → Boulder!) for one of the largest med tech companies in the world… to all the life stuff in between! Yes, it’s as exhausting as it sounds, but I wouldn’t trade it. When I’m not working or carpooling stinky teenage soccer boys around the Mid-South, you’ll find me with my nose in a book (or a book in my ears — yes, audio books count as reading, and I will die on that hill!), journaling during the brrrr! months, and gardening in the spring and summer. However, being born and raised in the South and on SEC football (RTR, y’all!), soaking in the crisp beauty and smells of fall during football season is my absolute favorite. I’ll gladly take in any stray dog I find, but I will not — under any circumstances — provide the same act of kindness for a cat. I said what I said. I have no chill – I move fast, I eat fast, I talk fast. I’m loud — full stop. That trait is born out of necessity when you’re the 4th of 5 kids (prove me wrong). I’ve never been accused of not being heard. I love words and grammar and will forever champion the use of the Oxford comma, and cringe a little inside every time I hear someone say “irregardless.” And much to my mother’s chagrin, I have a mouth that could make a trucker blush. They are called sentence enhancers in our house and the only rule is, as long as they are used responsibly, i.e., they aren’t being slung at someone, do as you will. This blog is my coin jar — a place to share the nickels of wisdom, frustration, joy, and humor I’ve picked up while raising two wildly different boys: Aiden, my self-starting, high-achieving, soccer-loving firstborn, and Eli, my joyful warrior navigating autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and more acronyms than anyone should ever have to manage. Stick around for a bit and take a peek inside our messy, loud, busy, and often hilarious life. My hope is that you’ll find pieces of your own

09/13/2026

I grew up in the ’90s, when ADHD medication basically meant Ritalin and everybody had an opinion about “those kids.”

So when my own five-year-old was diagnosed with ADHD?

Absolutely not. Full stop. We will be exploring literally every other option, thankyouverymuch.

Fast-forward eight years and I am now writing a blog post about why my autistic/ADHD kid takes a blood-pressure medication for his brain.

😂 Parenting is humbling like that.

This one is about 80' babies turned 90's Ritalin kids, one very determined mother, a pediatrician who used my own logic against me, guanfacine, nervous systems, sleep, and the fear I carried for years that medication might somehow dim Eli’s light.

Spoiler: I had it backward.

The medication wasn’t there to make him quieter for us.

It was helping make things quieter for him.

If you’ve ever had strong opinions about medicating kids—or wrestled with the decision yourself—I hope you’ll read this one.

I grew up in the ’90s, when ADHD medication basically meant Ritalin and everybody had an opinion about “those kids.” So when my own five-year-old was diagnosed with ADHD? Absolutely not. Full stop.…

09/02/2026

Everybody’s talking all this stuff about Rhyan… why don’t they just let her live? 😂

It’s her prerogative to change her mind — even if that means we end up with two birthday banners.

Happy Sweet 16, Rhyan! 💕🎉

08/26/2026

Parenting is wild!

You spend years saying, “You need to learn to do this yourself.”

Then they do...
..and suddenly you’re like, “Wow. Doing things without me? 🤨 So this is how you repay me?” 😂

New on the Nickel Jar - How Come Nobdy Told Me This Stuff?!? Linked below.

08/20/2026

Sometimes the hardest part of looking back is realizing people were responding to the version of you they could actually see.

I knew what I was holding back. They didn’t.

I knew the context behind my silence, my distance, and the moments when something finally became too much. Other people may have only seen the silence, the distance, or the reaction.

Hindsight is about sitting with that uncomfortable truth — and understanding how keeping so much close to the vest may have shaped other people’s experience of me too.

Not every relationship can be repaired. Not every conversation ends in understanding. But I can own my part, listen to how my choices affected others, and do better with what I know now.

🫙 New on The Nickel Jar. Linked below

I’ve told stories about how I edited parts of my life, compartmentalized others, masked pieces, and made myself smaller in order to keep things manageable — for me and for others.We’re not gonna re…

08/17/2026

'Ripple Effect' was about what changed.

The friendships. The family relationships. The marriage.

The quiet grief that comes with realizing some things will never look the way you once imagined they would.

But there was one line from that post I couldn’t stop thinking about:

"I got very good at editing our life down into something easier for other people to hold."

The more I sat with it, the more I realized I hadn’t just edited our life.

I had edited myself.

'Taking Up Space' is the follow-up—to what happens when you stop making yourself smaller just to keep everyone else comfortable.

New on The Nickel Jar. 🫙

Linked in below.

https://wp.me/pgQlTF-Dk

04/22/2026

For the first time ever, a little boy showed up at our front door uninvited, rang the doorbell, and asked for ELI to come out and play basketball with him.

I don’t know that I can fully explain how that hit me in every feel the way it did.

But I snapped a picture of them playing basketball in the driveway…
and just stood there in it - watching from behind the curtain in the upstairs window.

Because what looks like an ordinary moment to most people…
can feel like everything to a little boy who’s waited 13 years for it.

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Germantown, TN
38139

Website

http://thenickeljar.com/

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