← Simple Farmhouse Life
Simple Farmhouse Life
271. What the new year holds for us, when a mom should start a business, what to do with all the Christmas gifts, and more Q&A!
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- [00:00]
Lisa
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Unknown Co-host
When I had a four year old and a two year old and a baby, I definitely was just learning and practicing those homemaking skills that was such a valuable foundation that really served me well in the future seasons of life. Learning how to cook from scratch Once you build that muscle, it's not hard to hook from scratch anymore. It's not something that requires a ton of time and effort and planning. It just is very seamless. Once I was able to build that muscle, I felt confident and like I was able to take on more without my homework life suffering. My name is Lisa, mother of eight and creator of the blog and YouTube channel Farmhouse on Boom. On this podcast I like to talk.
- [02:03]
Lisa
About simplifying your life so you can.
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Unknown Co-host
Live out your priorities. I help you learn how to cook from scratch and decorate on a budget through this podcast and my courses Simple Sourdough and the Simple Sewing series. I also help people reach their goals from home through my business courses, Create your blog Dream and YouTube Success Academy. I will leave links to these resources in the show Notes and Description box below. Now let's get into the show Foreign welcome back to the Simple Farmhouse Life Podcast. Happy New Year. It's hard to believe that it's another new year. Today I'm going to recap 2024, maybe talk about some of our goals for 2025 and then answer some of your listener questions. But there will be some wonderful interviews for all of 2025 and for those of you who send suggestions over, I really appreciate that. I am always looking for new guests to have on. Of course, some of my favorite guests, I like to have them on again and again and so we reach out to a lot of them. So we're currently booking for 2025. So 2024. What a big year that was for us. In April we bought our farm. So as many of you know who follow along with this podcast, we purchased a little homestead on seven acres with an old house, beautiful old silo and barn and cottage six years ago now. This month we moved in and we for the last couple of years kind of thought that we would like to get more acreage and expand things. We had a lot of reasons for wanting to do that. We had a few reasons with the place that we were living that we thought it might not work best long term. So anyways, we finally found someplace in April and purchased our farm property, started working on the design, the layout, and here it is January and we still haven't broken ground. So the way that all worked, if you didn't watch my we are moving video, where I went more in depth on all of this is we sold our home that actually did already close. It sold faster than we kind of thought. We were thinking we would move out, stage it. But then the house that we bought to move into, we did some things so we didn't get moved into it right away. And then our house sold pretty darn fast. So a lot of you asked like why do that? There was a ton of reasons, but one of them of course is financial. So we bought a little house in town that can become a rental later and we sold our homestead property. Which means, you know, it was about a third of the price, this place versus that. So it will help with building since we're going to be breaking ground very soon. So we were hoping to be breaking ground in November. That's been the plan all year long. But for various Reasons and circumstances as things happen like this. It got pushed off to December and then we had a majorly wet December. We're experiencing extremely cold January, like most of the country. And so we still haven't broken ground. And I'm just going to try to be very, very patient because I know once we get started, it's probably going to go very fast. And I have spent all of 2024 mostly really dreaming up the design, the layout of the property. There's still some question marks that we aren't totally sure. And one of the questions I got asked, at least several was if I'll be sharing this whole process with you along the way, if I'll be sharing the plans, the design, absolutely, I'll be sharing all of that. It's just right now, there's not a ton to share. It is just stakes in the ground on the property with where the house is going. That is currently where we are. And we have gone out there so many times. We brought people out there to put a second set of eyes, like my family and his family and just people to stand in the spot where the house is and kind of look, you know, this way and make sure that we have the house oriented how we want it. There are so many decisions when you go to build a house. Like, we came up with the whole design and, you know, we knew on our property where we wanted the house. But then when it comes to they actually have the equipment out there to dig. You're like, okay, this better be right, because this is where our house is going to face and sit and should it be, you know, due south or should we cock it a bit to the east? Like those are all the things we've been thinking about so very much underway mentally. But actually the dirt, nothing at this point except for some stakes in the ground. So that'll all be starting very soon. And I can't wait to get out there. We've been living in town, which has been fun. It's been interesting and different. The kids, like, we get to walk places. There's plenty of places that we can actually walk to, which is a fun little. You know, it'll be a year, probably start to finish. Most likely that we're living here because we moved here in November. I really hope that we're in our house by next November, but it'll be ish, give or take, probably more give a year living in town, which will just be something that we'll look back on and say, remember when we were able to walk to the post office and all these things. So that's been a fun adventure. 2024 was also the year that I launched my Sourdough book. That has been great. A lot of people really have enjoyed the book. A lot of people got the book for Christmas. Our oldest daughter turned 16 in 2024, which is crazy. We're entering into all of that stuff. She drives all the time. So it's very different season of life having kids from 16 down to a baby who is one. So that's been something that, you know, you don't really even anticipate what that's all going to be like. But it's fun, it's full and there's a lot of noise and chaos and crazy, but also there's always something going on. So at time of recording, it's New Year's Eve and we don't have any big plans tonight, but we're making a real fancy dinner. My daughter planned a menu and we're making cheesecake and steak and shrimp. And it'll be a fun little party with just our own family. Because of how many kids we have and the age ranges, my daughter also made a monthly video for each month. This year we put it unlisted on a different YouTube channel. And we're going to watch through our entire year tonight. So that'll be a fun little tradition that we're starting. I think that pretty much sums up 2024. Obviously, it was a crazy year. Bought property, designed a whole house that isn't up yet, but we designed it. I'm sure we'll be doing a lot of designing in 2025, probably way more. Sold a house, wrote a book. And then as far as the business, the business grew a ton, but I didn't really. Well, I did launch a few new products, I guess. I launched a sewing course, I believe the sourdough course I launched the end of last year. So not a whole lot of new stuff, but just kind of steady plotting on the blog, the YouTube channel. Two videos a week on YouTube, like always, one podcast episode. And then I have a team that helps me now with the blog. So we've been putting out recipes every single week. And then one of the main tasks we've been doing with the blog in 2024 and 2025 is updating all old post. So we've been updating photography and any steps that needed clarification, things that we've been getting frequently asked questions on. So though there have been some new recipes throughout this year on the blog. Lots of great recipes, most of the work has been in updating. So not a lot of things that you see, but things that really move the needle for the business as far as traffic and revenue goes. Now, for 20, 25 goals, I didn't set any big goals and I really honestly don't plan to. I mean, of course, building the house, that's the number one goal. So for the business, it's going to be to mostly just maintain that steady schedule of one YouTube video a week, one podcast episode a week, and then continuing to update blog posts and bring in some new recipes as well. Yeah, I feel like I said two earlier and it's been years since I've done two YouTube videos a week, so. Sorry, one. And then of course, spending any extra time that we have on getting this house right and sharing the design. So a lot of YouTube and probably the podcast will focus on taking you along on that process because that is going to be where our brains are this whole next year. Likely the team has really grown the farmhouse on Boone team. And so though it looks like there's maybe it doesn't look like because a lot of things are just very much behind the scenes, but it might look like there's, you know, I'm doing so much. A lot of that is my team helping me as far as my presence on Instagram and the work that goes into this podcast and the blog and the YouTube channel. Even though I know if you're not really in this business, it might not look like as much as it actually is. There is so much behind the scenes work and I'm so grateful that I have such a great team because I cannot spend that much time per week on this with all that we currently have going on, obviously, especially as we build this new house, that's going to be a whole new place to put my brain. But it'll be probably just one year of my life and then that'll be it. And so I think we're gonna try to go all in on focusing on that. And I can't wait to share more of the design. It just feels a bit premature right now because we haven't even started. Even though I thought we'd be like two months in by now, that just simply hasn't been the case. But probably get used to it because I have heard from pretty much everyone who has built that the delays and just to be patient basically is what I've heard. So we're going to do that. And thankfully, the house that we are living in is beautiful, it's comfortable, it has great Outside space. So the kids still have plenty of space to play outside. And we aren't going to do a ton of renovating. People have asked me, okay, how are you going to sell a house, build a house, and renovate a house? We aren't planning to renovate the house. So we did fix up the flooring, but a lot of that took place before we got here. There was a few things that we did after we were here, like the bathroom tile and the kitchen flooring. But other than that, I'm gonna, like, put up curtains and do a few, like, cute things here and there. But I don't plan to put a lot of my focus into this house at all, though it's beautiful and it deserves it. It is just not where the focus needs to be. So once we actually do break ground and get going on the new house, that's where my brain will be. But I have had fun just moving into this home and sprucing up a few little things. It already was just the most beautiful home. And if I could pick it up and move it to the property, I would. And people have said, but you can. It is just not a practical idea. It would damage the home. I've talked to people who have done it, so it wouldn't be as structurally sound. And where it stands, it's just beautiful the way it. It sits on the lot and with the other buildings. So it just wouldn't be a practical idea to just take this house or any old house, maybe some old house if it was sitting somewhere, you know, where it wasn't already so integrated with its surroundings. Same thing with the house that we sold. It was worth way more on the land it was on. It would have been very financially irresponsible to move it. So we won't be doing that. But I will say it's beautiful. It suits my style just perfectly. I love the details in this home. And we're. We're very comfortable here, so it won't be too terrible to wait on the build.
- [13:52]
Lisa
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Unknown Co-host
An hour, so that just tells you.
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Lisa
How much stuff has changed and I used it all to buy CDs back then. Wasn't really super interested in saving that.
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Unknown Co-host
Money for my future.
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Lisa
There's a place for budgeting for future goals and then also allowing yourself to spend some fun money. And we want our kids to be.
- [15:22]
Unknown Co-host
Knowledgeable about all of that.
- [15:24]
Lisa
Today's episode is sponsored by Acorns Early. Acorns early is the smart money app and debit card for kids that helps kids learn the value of money. Parents can use the Acorns early app to track their kids chores and pay allowance automatically, while kids can set savings goals, take interactive learning courses about all things money and spend what they've earned with their very own debit card. Ready to help your kids learn the value of money? Just head to acornserly.com farmhouse or download the Acorns early app to get started. Sign up now and your first month is on us. Terms and conditions apply. Monthly subscription fee starting from $5 per month unless canceled.
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Unknown Co-host
Okay, let's dive into some of the questions. What tips would you give to someone who is new to hosting? We have a very small house and most of our friends have lots of little children. It's funny because we are literally gonna, we are gonna invite some people over tonight and full transparency. We've been waiting on a table, a ten foot table that I ordered like from a builder on Etsy like ages ago and it was supposed to be here before Christmas and they did not deliver on that promise but they said it started so I don't want to like cancel my order and reorder anyway. So I am totally in my head about well we don't have any place to seat these so I want to, I want to in this answer be like, hey, it's going to be okay. They can sit on the floor. But then also, we're not really inviting anybody over tonight because our own family cannot sit around the table as it currently stands. So I'm going to give you, like, my advice. But then I'm also going to probably be like, slightly hypocritical because I don't think we're going to end up inviting anybody over tonight. Not that if they were to come, if we did invite like a couple of the families, we were thinking we could all stand around and that would be fine. And that's really what we should do. I think we all just kind of decided, like, it's really rainy and like, where are all the kids gonna go? Okay, we have a very small house. Most of our friends have lots of little children. The idea of hosting in small space space with lots of babies in a primarily white house, walls, furniture, et cetera, intimidates me. What are some simple steps I can take to feel more comfortable hosting? How do you make people feel welcome in your home? Okay, so I will say that we did host Christmas with my husband's side. And that wasn't a meal though. We just hosted like presents. And I had a few breakfast y things sitting out. I don't know if anybody even really ate them because I think they already had eaten breakfast. So we were able to just kind of go on the couches and all of that. And plus we're the ones with eight kids. And because of that, nothing is precious in our home. I mean, truly. I mean, I'd probably get upset if you, like, knocked over my camera or my computer, some of my officey things. So I put those things up high because they're crucial for my business. But I don't purchase things that are too expensive and can be messed up. So another example is I recently purchased a slip covered sectional and I would not get a couch that wasn't slip covered unless it was really dark because it will for sure get messed up on like day one. And I can even say things like in my head, okay, I'm going to only let kids, you know, they're going to take off their shoes when they come in. They're going, they can never, you know, if they have blueberries, like frozen blueberries, I'm going to wipe their hands before they leave the kitchen. It takes one day before, you know, somebody doesn't do that. They forget, they forget to take their shoes off and they went through mud. I even do it. The other day I was walking around, I'M like, what is this mud over the floor? It took me a while to realize it was my shoes. The new shoes I have. I have some Doc Martens that I got on Thredup. They have weird grooves in the bottom and they gather so much mud. See, I'm justifying, but it was me. And so we just simply have our house set up in such a way that you really can't mess it up. Like, I can wash the slip covers if needed, but I don't often do that. As far as, like, rugs, we have all, like patterned rugs throughout our house. And something else is, even when your stuff is white, like the walls and the furniture, I have totally done that too. It is always amazing to me how destroyed your house can be because I. I've hosted like, big things. Like I had when we lived at our last house. We'd have all of our friends over on Fridays, and I didn't pay attention to kids shoes or snacks. I mean, there was just like snacks and kids and mud everywhere. But no matter how destroyed the house is, it really is amazing how quickly you can bring it back together. You can tidy everything up, do a quick vacuum sweep, wipe stuff down. I'm always amazed at how terrible it seems that it is and then how little focused time, especially if you can get the kids involved in helping you, it actually takes to bring it all back. So with your fears of the white and, you know, getting it all dirty and messy, I would try to at least lay that aside because I have found that it's not near as hard to clean it all up as you think it's going to be. And we, now that we live in town, we have kids here all the time. Like extra kids here all the time, which was an interesting dynamic that I, you know, that's never. We never lived somewhere like that. So it's fun. And there's people in and out. And our house because we have eight kids and, you know, I can't be all places at once. And yes, you can give kids rules, but you know, you know how kids are. It's not like you're gonna. That's always going to happen perfectly. It's just a house that we've learned to not be too precious about things and to just clean it a lot too. Like, we're just constantly sweeping and wiping. And it's not. It's never that part that intimidates me about having people over. Currently, it's inviting people over for a huge dinner and having nowhere for them to sit. So in our New house. We designed it so that we have the kitchen which has an island. There's a dining room that can have a ten foot table. And then there's also an like addition, an addition that's sort of a sunroom off of that. And this is all, you know, supposed to look like a historic house. But the way we have it set up, there's a sunroom addition that can also have I think an 8 to 10 foot table. So we are very mindful about having that space. But of course up till now we've never lived somewhere that we've designed from scratch. And so things just have to almost be really kept casual. Like if we were to host tonight, which the way this house is set up without that table, you really would all be standing. But you know, in some ways that would be better than not doing something with friends. We usually, what we've done in the years past is we host when it's just a little bit nicer outside and we have tables out there and people can, you know, kids can play outside and we can stand around maybe a fire or a table out there if it's not rainy. That's something that you can really do year round. That's what we do at my parents, we go to my parents every single Sunday. I have three sisters, they're all married, they all have kids. So there's tons of people. Yes, mom has a big table, but does she have enough for us all? I think 27 of us, something like that to sit down? No, but my dad, we went there yesterday, he had a fire going. He had gotten that going in the morning outside, like in a fire pit. And they have picnic tables and they're just outside people. So even when it's winter, we're always just outside when we're there no matter what. So they host. And a lot of times that just means that people are on picnic tables sitting around the fire. So that's something you could consider too, is just, you know, I don't know what your outside space is like because now, currently, right now in town, it's not as good as it was at our last house. It'll be a lot better at our next house. So there are certain people in your circle who would probably be, you know, have better space to host, but that doesn't mean that you can't. And my big encouragement again is just that a lot of this stuff is easier to clean up than you think it's going to be. Highly. So regarding excess toys that were just gifted for Christmas, I know you Talk a lot about not feeling guilt for getting rid of things that you don't want in your home. However, with the items being new, I worry about the gift or coming over and asking what happened to the gifts they purchased. What would you say if grandma comes over and ask where insert toy is after she just gifted it to the kids? I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but also, we have asked for the grandparents to not give the kids so many gifts. They still do, regardless of our wishes. So I really don't tell anybody not to get my kids gifts. I will say, though, over the years, a lot of the people that do get gifts for our kids focus on, like, group gifts because there's so many of them, which I'm thankful for because I don't want people spending like a million dollars getting gifts for our eight children. And they'll end up with not near as many things. Now, of course, we do have a few extra toys in our house right now, but it's gotten so much better over the years. It's. It's really, truly did not feel overwhelming this year. There were a few things that already completely broke because my kids were wild with it. And so those are already gone. And, you know, nobody would get mad because they already broke. So I would just say, if you do have someone in your life that's actually going to ask. I do not have anybody in my life that's actually going to do something confrontational like that. So if you did, what I would probably do is take a lot of those toys, put them in a tote, and put them somewhere out of the way. Maybe a different closet, or if you have a basement or a garage, and then sort of rotate them so they're not always in circulation. You're not always cleaning up the same things over and over again. And then if grandma comes over, you can, you know, be like, here it is. I rotate them. That way the kids never get sick of them. And they really love your toys because, you know, ultimately this is something that is fun for them. It's their way to show love by giving your kids a gift. And so I wouldn't necessarily ask for them to not gift them certain things, but I would just have a way to manage it. And then once my, you know, once a little time has passed, right now it is fresh. It is just after Christmas, and so it's very fresh. You're feeling bad because of it being so fresh, but six months from now, they're the person that got it for them probably isn't going to remember. Your kids probably aren't going to remember. So that's my thing, is when my kids seem very over the toy and nobody's playing with it. And all it is is it's going in the toy box and then it's out of the toy box and it's never getting played with. And you can tell when that happens. It's just like getting thrown around but never played with. That's when, you know, I put it in the Goodwill bin or whatever and you could even do a Time will tell bin like dawn from Minimal mom talks about. That's where you put it in a bin like that and then give it a few months, see if they notice. And if they don't, then nobody's worried about it. All it was was causing extra stress for you. Nobody was actually being entertained by that toy anymore. So there's really nothing you can do about people in your life giving your kids things. But over a little bit of time, you can, I think, get that toy out of rotation. If nobody's caring about it or if it breaks or if it's missing a piece, that'd be an easy way to explain it. Okay, this is on a totally different note. What courses have you taken to build your skills for your business? I'm curious about any photography, videography, or possibly even writing courses. So oddly, because I am one that sells courses, I do have two business courses, Create your blog, dream to teach bloggers, and I have YouTube Success Academy for people who want to start a YouTube channel. Oddly, I actually never took any courses. It's just something that I learned over time. However, I think that I could have spent less time learning things if I would have been more open to courses in the beginning. But by the time that I maybe would have done a lot of that, I already had learned the skills that I needed. And once you have a little a few skills to get by, you will just naturally improve them by repetition. So that's why right now we're redoing a lot of the photography on the blog. Because yes, I had a DSLR and I knew how to shoot it in manual, but I didn't know how to frame the shot just right. And over time I've learned that and so we're doing some updates. So that's been my style. But there are great courses out there for all of the things that you mentioned, and some people learn better that way. I do feel like I'm more of a. Like I learn by trying things. So when somebody asks me really detailed questions about sourdough. Like, well, what if I have this kind of flower and I add this kind of thing? What would happen? I'm like, see, that's not something I would ask. I would just do it and then kind of mentally, you know, record those as as I go. But that's just my personality. So for certain types of people, those courses are going to be really helpful for you, but for me, it's just not how I process information. So I actually did not take any.
- [28:29]
Lisa
We all get some big ideas when it comes to New Year's, the things that we couldn't get accomplished all last year. Well, this year it's going to be everyone wants to go to the gym more, but actually dragging yourself out of bed in the pitch block every morning is a whole other story. But what if you could make your resolutions automatic? Well, they can't help you get to the gym, but Acorns makes it easy to start saving and investing automatically. I apply the same thing in my kitchen. I make sure I have all of the supplies and the setup that I need so that I can throw together a meal really easily so that it can become automatic. Anytime you can take the thought out of a new habit, you can actually accomplish it. Today's episode is sponsored by Acorns. Acorns makes it easy to start automatically saving and investing so your money has a chance to grow for you, your kids and your retirement. You don't need to be an expert. Acorns will recommend a diversified portfolio that fits you and your money goals. You don't need to be rich. Acorns lets you invest with the spare money you've got right now. You can start with $5 or even just your spare change. You don't need a ton of time. You can create your Acorns account and start investing in just five minutes. It's easy to just live the day to day and forget about your future. But you will be so happy that you took this small step today to make something that might be overwhelming easy and automatic. And that's why I believe Acorns is such an important step for your New Year's goals. Head to acorns.com farmhouse or download the Acorns app to start saving and investing for your future today. Paid non client endorsement compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns Tier 1 compensation provided investing involves risk. Acorns Advisors LLC and SEC registered investment advisor do important disclosures of Acorns can.
- [30:06]
Unknown Co-host
You explain or make a recipe of how you make your eggy oatmeal that you were Doing a lot in the spring. I've tried it a couple times and can't get right when to add the egg to not make it just like a scrambled egg and oatmeal. Thank you. Okay, so you have to temper those eggs. So for those of you who weren't following along back in the spring, you have no clue what we're talking about. I would make regular oatmeal, but then to use up some of the eggs because we had on our last property like 50 chickens. Now we currently only have a dozen. So I'm not drowning in eggs and it's winter, but in the spring, when you have 50 chickens, you are trying to figure out what to do with all the eggs. Plus, they're a really great protein source and, you know, a very cheap, healthy, great protein source. So I was putting them in oatmeal, but you absolutely cannot just stir the eggs right into the oatmeal. I've heard people say that's what I do. It works great. Not for me. When I try it like that, it just turns into scrambled eggs. So I make the oatmeal like you normally would. Maybe a little bit less liquid than you would normally add to the oats, so it's kind of a thicker oatmeal. And then in a separate bowl, I crack like a dozen eggs. And then I start pouring in the hot oatmeal while I whisk with the eggs and continue doing that until I have a lot of oatmeal into the eggs so that they're tempered so that they are coming to temperature slow and not scrambling. So that's the key. It's an extra step, it's an extra bowl. But if I did it the other way, my kids would absolutely not eat it. So I think that that's worth it. Hi, Lisa. Do you think as a stay at home mom, is it better to focus on saving money or making money? I'm a stay at home mom to two year old twins and we have a small homestead. For the past two years that I've been staying home, I've tried many different online businesses as well as survey and game apps that you can make a little money on. Every time I attempt to try to make money from home, I start to feel like I'm behind on housework, not paying enough attention to my children, neglecting the homestead and my hobbies that bring me joy. Is it a priority for me to raise and grow our own food and cook from scratch, but all of that gets put on the back burner. Should I give up trying to make money from home while my kids are young and focus on trying to save money instead? We are thankfully not struggling financially, but it'd be nice to have some extra money to save and spend, especially with the rising cost everything. Thank you for any advice you may have. So just to tell you like what I did, I can just base it off strictly what I did. I definitely focused on saving money at that stage of the game as opposed to making money now. When I had four kids and my oldest was however old she was, when I had my fourth six or seven, something like that, that's when I started dabbling in the whole blog thing. But I was not doing anything serious. I was doing a few things, like some Etsy things and I even tried starting a little blog. Anyways, I didn't do much with anything until that time. So When I had 2 year old, I never had 2 year old twins. But when I had a 4 year old and a 2 year old and a baby, I definitely was just learning and practicing those homemaking skills. And I feel like that was such a valuable foundation setting priority that really served me well in the future seasons of life. So that's when I was learning how to cook from scratch. Once you build that muscle, it's not hard to cook from scratch anymore. It's not something that requires a ton of time and effort and planning. It just is very seamless. Like I'm not worried about what I'm going to make for dinner tomorrow. I have no clue, but I know it'll work out. So I think it was because of those early years of getting into the routine of stocking my pantry well and learning how to garden and you know, knowing what to put in the freezer so that I had meat to to cook from and where to source that and where to get, you know, everything. It was all new, all tricky. And once I was able to build that muscle, I felt confident and like I was able to take on more without my home life suffering. And that's truly, truly what happened. I don't feel like maybe there was, there might have been a year or two, but honestly I don't remember of things being a little bit stretched thin with my time and attention. But mostly it felt like the natural time to do that because we had schedules in place so I had an afternoon nap that I could work with. We had a bedtime routine that you know, at like 7pm the kids were in bed when they were that little. And now of course that's not true at all. But at that time, we had these very set times. We had the schedules, I knew what I was doing. And so adding on a little bit of time each day for business pursuits didn't have that same effect. And so if currently it sounds like you're feeling like, you know, these days, there's the Internet, you can do, you could, anybody could do anything. You're able to start a business. An Instagram, a blog, a YouTube channel, a drop shipping company, a little retail. You know, you can sell on Etsy. You could make your own tallow balm and candles and sell those on your. You can just do anything. And so with that pressure, it's easy to feel like you need to or you should. Thankfully for me, we didn't have that opportunity back then. And so I didn't waste my time or a ton of time. I did a little bit of business dabbling, but I spent most of my time being a mom, figuring that all out. We would do fun little things like go to library story time and meet up with friends at the park. And those were just the best years. And I didn't have like all of the business stuff in all of that. And so I was very frugal. I figured out how to sew and make, you know, our home decently beautiful on a very tight budget and cook from scratch. And I'm glad that I did that. And so this for, for me, I would say just give it some time. The Internet will be around. There will be some opportunity in the future. And right now you are a brand new mom. I know you've been a mom for two years, but that's just, that's a brand new mom. And so I think. And a brand new home setter too. So there's just a lot of things that you're trying to learn and figure out. And I think that I would just keep focused on saving money, especially if you don't need it financially. There might come a time where you want that creative outlet where you feel like, okay, I mastered this, like, I got this at home and now I want a creative outlet and that might be the right time to do it. Okay, I have a very small kitchen with minimal storage. I'd like to start grinding my own wheat, but have no idea where I could possibly store the wheat berries. The storage issue is the only thing holding me back. In your new home with a smaller kitchen, where are you storing those bulk items? Any tip for bulk storage for homes with smaller kitchens? Less space. Okay, so first of all, you don't need a ton of Space to mill your own grains. All you need is a spot somewhere, even if it's just right smack dab in the middle of your kitchen for one five gallon bucket. So if you think, you know, I need a pantry with 12 five gallon buckets and there needs to be like 50 pound bags in there, you don't need that. You could buy 25 pound bags of hard white or hard red wheat berries from Azure Standard or Country Life Natural foods or breadbeckers. Get one food safe 5 gallon bucket and one gamma lid. Pour that bag into there and just set that thing right under your kitchen table. And that's literally all you need to store or to, to have to mill your own grains and to cook from scratch. So I'm going to take that away because I think that sometimes we like imagine something is way more than it really is. And this is one of those things that definitely isn't. When I first started milling grains, I did not buy rye, kamat spelt, you know, soft white. I didn't do all that. I did everything with the same grain, hard white. And if you're starting honestly, I think that's what you should do. Put a grain mill on your counter, have that one five gallon bucket and you're good to go. So how we do it in our current new house here or the, the middle house is we have no basement, but we do have a closet right in the entryway where I store all of our school stuff. And then the bottom shelf is tall enough, it's just perfectly tall enough that I can fit four 5 gallon buckets in there. Which is amazing because it's on the same level as my kitchen. It's just steps away. So it's so much easier than running down to a basement. And it's more than enough storage. So today I did mill some soft white wheat berries for. What were we making? We were making something. Oh my goodness, I can't even remember right now. Oh, homemade graham crackers. Because my daughter used that to make a graham cracker crust for cheesecake for tonight. And then I got the bucket out, made some hard white for some bread and rolls. So you know, though even those two alone would be plenty if you do have room for two five gallon buckets. But just an encouragement that you don't need a ton of storage. And I will say something. When we first moved into this house, the first like couple days or weeks that I cooked in this kitchen, I was just like floored by how easy and convenient everything was. Now I was saying that my daughter was like Don't. Don't speak badly of our last house. That's like. She's like. That's like speaking, you know, of the dead or something. Like, no, I'm not saying our last kitchen was bad. And there really wasn't any other way to design it except for in a big line because of the way that the windows were in the front. I mean, I thought about it a million ways. There was just no other way. We had the fridge, the sink, and the oven all on one long line, and then a big island, and then the pantry was on the other side of that island. So if you needed something from the pantry, you had to, you know, go out from where you were prepping, which was over by the stove, go around the island and over to where you were keeping the thing. And then if you wanted, you know, you're at the stove, you need something from the kitchen that was. Or from the fridge that was several steps away down on the other end of the island. And though, you know, a small kitchen is not what we want this day and age. And honestly, it's not even what I'm designing in our new house. I'm. I'm designing a big kitchen because I can, you know. But I will say it was the most convenient place I've ever cooked. I stand there at the stove and at the counter, and I reach over to the pantry and grab my thing. I reach behind me in the fridge, and I grab my milk. Those trash cans right here. I mean, it's all. And then the sink is right, right here. It's all in a little tiny circle. And now it's kind of worn off because I've cooked here so many times that I'm just like, yeah, this is just how kitchens are. But the first week or two that I was in there, I just could not believe how few steps I was taking. I was just like, here, here, here. It's just like, okay, I'm done. It's all right here. Even having the wheat berries on the same level, it just all felt very convenient. So I guess all that to say, sometimes you don't even realize how convenient little kitchens are until you're in a big kitchen and realizing, wow, this is actually really, really nice. Now I will say I have to keep the kids out of it. And I don't really love how this kitchen, it's kind of set apart from the rest of the house. I think because of the year this house was built. I know in Victorian times, their kitchens weren't like a place to entertain. They were very set apart from the rest of the house and just like a working kind of area. So I don't love that because the kids really like, unless it's a toddler who just is in there kind of at my feet, which happens a lot. The bigger kids I owe, except for the ones who maybe are cooking too, I'm like, get out of here. Because there's not really enough space for me to work around all of that. Like we could not all 10 be in the kitchen and it be convenient. That would be very not good. And so it's very convenient for cooking. But I definitely can't have the whole family gather around with me in there. So pros and cons. But I will say, wow, convenient. All right, well that is all I will answer for this episode. Again, if you have questions that you want to add to this list for now, I'm going to continue it into 2025. You all seem to have some great questions. If they get too repetitive and I feel like I'm just always talking about the same thing over and over, we can just go back to the fully every week doing an interview type of format. But for those of you who have questions, go to bit Ly capital S, capital F capital L questions. So everything in this is lowercase except for the sfl. It is case sensitive and you can put your questions, your guest suggestions I would say if I look through this list, there's at least a handful of you who want Ballerina Farm to come on. And I will tell you that I asked Ballerina Farm years and years ago, probably at least three years ago, before she was a huge deal and I couldn't get her on the show. So I think that there's probably zero chance I'm going to be able to get her on the show these days. So sorry about that. I did try. I tried a long time ago and other fabulous guest suggestions too. And we're we're reaching out to all the ones that we can. So go ahead and put your questions and guest suggestions there and I will see you in the next episode of the Simple Farmhouse Life Podcast. Thanks as always for listening to the Simple Farmhouse Life Podcast. My husband Luke and I and our eight kids work together side by side on our little homestead and use our blog, podcast and YouTube channel to reach other homemakers, home cooks and home setters with practical recipes and daily family life. For everyday sourdough recipes, make sure to check out our blog, farmassomboon.com and to dig deeper, we do also offer a course called Simple Sourdough over at Bit Ly Farmhouses. That's all one word. Bit Ly Farmhouses. If you're looking to learn how we earn an income on online, check out my free blog Success Masterclass at Bit Ly Farmhouse Blogging school and my YouTube course at bit ly farmhouseyoutubecourse. All one word. 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