← Simple Farmhouse Life
Simple Farmhouse Life
304. Toy Clutter, Baby Sleep, and Teen Drivers: Life in a Fast-Moving Season + More Q&A
00:58:11
A candid look at motherhood right now—managing clutter, navigating sleep, and watching our family dynamics shift
Loading summary
Transcript32 lines
- [00:00]
Lisa
As a parent, you want to empower your child to succeed now and in the future.
- [00:05]
Luke
I know a lot of listeners are.
- [00:07]
Lisa
Brand new to homeschooling and seek additional support. K12 can help your child reach their full potential and give you the support you need to get them there. K12 powered schools are accredited, tuition free online public schools for students in kindergarten through 12th grade designed with an engaging curriculum that supports individual learning styles. With K12, learning is personalized and provides the flexibility your family needs. When school can be anywhere there's Internet access, they can learn at their own pace in their own Place and K12 powered schools have state certified teachers specially trained in teaching online. They utilize hands on innovative technology to make learning interactive. K12 powered schools even offer social opportunities, extracurricular activities and in person events. K12 has more than 25 years experience helping students gain the skills they need to thrive in the future. Join the more than 3 million families who've chosen K12 and empower your students to reach their full potential. Now go to k12.comfarmhousetoday to find a tuition free K12 12 powered school near you and enroll. Now that's the letter k the number12.com.
- [01:09]
Luke
Farmhouse unfortunately for our consumer culture, a lot of things just aren't made to last these days. But I guess fortunately that means that nothing's around all that long. I don't stop people from getting the kids toys. I'm not saying okay, we do it this way so nobody bring these kind of things into our home. We just assess as children inevitably get tired of the toys that they have. Though we I don't keep a ton of things. We get toys for Christmas, birthdays. It's really fun. I don't just take them away, I just let them play with it for however long that plays out.
- [01:45]
Lisa
My name is Lisa, mother of eight and creator of the blog and YouTube channel Farmhouse on Boone. On this podcast I like to talk about simplifying your life so you can live out your priorities.
- [01:55]
Luke
I help you learn how to cook.
- [01:56]
Lisa
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 course YouTube Success Academy. I will leave links to these resources in the show notes in description box below. Now let's get into the show.
- [02:16]
Luke
Welcome back to the Simple Farmhouse Life Podcast. Today I am going to be doing another solo episode where I just am inspired by you all and what you put into the Google sheet that we put out there to talk about. So I get questions from sourdough to life update stuff like house building and pregnancy to parenthood stuff. And I do my best to share with you from the experience that I currently have. So take that for what you will and let's dive into some of these questions. Okay, the first one is about co sleeping. So it's been a little bit since I've co slept because I moved Victor out of our room somewhere or not out of our room, but out of our bed somewhere around age one and he just turned two. So I've had a year completely off of co sleeping. But very soon here I will be having another baby that will be in our bed for probably a year. If she's anything like our last eight children, which she will be, I'm sure of that. As far as sleep goes, I've never had one that wanted to be put down. Now I do know some people say that they have a baby that likes to be put down, that sleeps better when they're down. I have just yet to have one of those. So if that is the case, then maybe I won't be co sleeping as much. It all just depends. I am not one that thinks like co sleeping is the only way. I just learned pretty quickly after having my first daughter that if I wanted any sleep at all, I was going to have to bring the baby into bed with me. And so by the time I had my second that's we just totally embraced it. So by the time I had my second, I pretty much totally embraced the co sleeping thing. I did bring the pack and play or the bassinet that we had up from the basement. It ended up just getting used as storage for like diapers and baby things. And then by the time I had the third baby, we didn't even bring a pack and play or a bassinet or any kind of baby, you know, apparatus to our room at all for the rest of the children. So I don't have a bed for the new baby coming. I won't put any kind of bed or bassinet here in our room just because I know the drill and I know what she's going to need from me, which is to be co sleeping. Now this changes based on their age. So when they're first born I really like to put my babies just chest to chest. So I will lay them on my chest on their belly and usually it's a lot of skin to skin the first couple days and that is my favorite way to sleep with a baby. Now once they get a little bit older. Sometimes when they're that close, they want to nurse the entire night. And so we'll start to move to one arm and the other arm. I do focus on keeping everything safe. So one thing that I do is I don't put the baby in between us. And when they get a little bit older and I need to switch sides more often because your arm gets tired if they're laying on your arm, I will put them between the two of us, Luke and I. But I usually will put something in between the baby and Luke so the baby would be on my arm. And then I have some heavy like coffee table design books that I keep on my nightstand and I put those in between us. And for whatever reason that makes me feel a lot better. I have done that for many babies. And let me just caveat this by saying do your own research. Read up on safe sleeping practices. That could very well not be recommended. But that is what I've done. Whenever I did need to put them on one side, like where one side didn't work. I think with the first several kids I only ever had them on one side. But they're is a comfort level where sometimes it's like I just really need to be on my other side. But then putting that barrier between the two of us helps. Now I think they make some kind of things that you can put babies in that provide that barrier. We also did get a king size bed recently. So this is going to be the first time that there's a lot of space between us, which I think is going to help a ton. But like I said, my favorite way, my most comfortable way, especially after pregnancy, where you're really not allowed to sleep on your back. Kind of tired of sleeping on your side. I love laying on my back and having the baby on my chest. Now I've gotten a lot more comfortable in the last many, many years, many, many babies with having blankets in bed. I don't pull them up over top the baby, but I will put them, you know, up a certain distance and then put the baby in something warm like a onesie with a sleeper and maybe a sleep sack, that's what they call those. But for me myself, we still have blankets in the bed. We just only pull them up so far. And I also, because we have a down comforter, I only pull that up so far because it's obviously very heavy. And then usually I'll bring in bed with me some kind of blanket that's lightweight, but it's a lot larger than a swaddle. I forgot about that. This is something that I get out every time I have a baby because it quickly I realized that I need it. But it's thicker than a sheet but not near as thick as a comforter or a down comforter. And it's large. Think like a throw blanket from Target. I usually keep one of those close by so that I can use that to cover us up as well like on more of the top half. But there are books and articles you can read on safe co sleeping practices that will give more up to date in depth information. But that is what we do in business.
- [08:17]
Lisa
I'm always trying to make sure I get the best product for the best deal. So I'm slightly ashamed to admit I haven't even looked at my life insurance policy for a good decade.
- [08:27]
Luke
I don't even know if what I'm.
- [08:28]
Lisa
Paying is competitive and if I have enough coverage given the current cost of living. That's why I'm calling Select Quote to find a better policy to protect the legacy I've worked so hard for. For over 40 years, select quote has been one of the most trusted brokers in insurance, helping More than 2 million Americans secure over $700 billion in coverage. Their mission is simple to find you the right insurance policy for your unique needs. Unlike other one size fits all life insurance companies, Select Quotes licensed agents work for you in as little as 15 minutes. They'll compare policies from top rated carriers to find you the best fit for your health and your budget. Get the right life insurance for you for less and Save more than 50%@SelectQuote.com FarmHouse Save more than 50% on term life insurance@SelectQuote.com FarmHouseToday to get started, that's SelectQuote.com FarmHouse have you ever fallen in love with a couch, lamp or rug online? And then you see the price tag and you know for sure it won't.
- [09:27]
Luke
Be coming into your home.
- [09:28]
Lisa
I'm going to let you in on a secret called dupe.com it's ridiculously easy to use.
- [09:32]
Luke
All you have to DO is type.
- [09:34]
Lisa
Dupe.Com forward/before any product URL and instantly shows you similar and more affordable alternatives. These aren't sketchy knockoffs either. Here's the thing. Most people don't realize that most furniture sold online is mass produced in the exact same factories. Those factories then sell to brands under different names who then list them for different prices. Dupe.com automatically lists these less expensive alternatives for you, so you're not overpaying just for a brand name. Dupe is one of the most viral shopping hacks on TikTok. Millions of people have already used Dupe to save money and it's 100% free to use like that $5,000 cloud sofa. You don't think you can justify the beautiful mid century dresser you've had bookmarked forever. Dupe will a similar item, sometimes even the same item for 60, 70, even 80% off. Dupe.com is really easy to use. Just type-upe.com/forWARD/before any product URL in your browser and boom. It instantly finds you less expensive alternatives. They even have an app and a browser extension you can download. No account required, no signup required. It's completely free to use. Stop wasting money on brand names and start saving with dupe.com today.
- [10:48]
Luke
Hi Lisa, I'm wondering if you could share any changes you've noticed since switching to freshly milled wheat in your baking. Has your family experienced any positive and noticeable health changes, big or small? So I have always used fresh milled wheat in baking. I do feel like I'm using it a bit more right now, but it was never completely absent and even now I'm still using some all purpose as well. So all that to say I haven't really noticed any differences, but we also don't have currently and obviously this could change. We don't currently have any health issues, so we don't have anybody with any sensitivities or any long term issues that we're trying to fix. So there's and maybe this is just me not being overly analytical of everything, but we haven't had anything that I would look to and say, oh, we had this problem before and now it's fixed. I just know that using freshly milled flour is more nutritious, so I'm confident that it's helping to set them up for health and all of that. But we haven't had anything that we, you know, we were struggling with this and now we don't have that struggle anymore. So I can't say I've noticed anything specifically. Hi Lisa, I know as a family you guys don't do many toys for your children and I think there's so much wisdom in that. My question for you is when friends or family members want to get your children gifts and ask for ideas, what kind of ideas do you give them? So I just give them the things that my kids enjoy. So things like RC cars. You know, I have six sons, 12 and under, so there's RC is just an obsession for everybody. But unfortunately for Our consumer culture, a lot of things just aren't made to last these days. But I guess, fortunately, that means that nothing's around all that long. Either the kids lose the remote or the back to the remote. That happens all the time with RC stuff where the batteries pop out all the time, or they'll start to play. They'll play that for a really long time, and then they'll want to take it apart and you'll lose a wheel. And so I don't stop people from getting the kids toys. I'm not, you know, saying, okay, we do it this way, so nobody bring these kind of things into our home. We just assess as children inevitably get very tired of the toys that they have. Like. And I will say that there are some kids who this doesn't happen with. My sister's kids are a lot different from mine, just in personality and the way that they treat their possessions. They actually treasure them more. And I think that there's a difference in personalities on how people deal with items. And I can tell you that my kids just lose interest fairly quickly on things. They get really excited. They'll wait for their birthdays or wait for Christmas to get this certain thing, or save up money to get this certain thing, and then they'll play with it for a while. And then within not that long of a span, they are no longer reaching for that toy all that much. And so when that happens, that's usually when I'll just kind of observe that nobody cares about this thing anymore. It would not be missed. And that's when I would either donate it if all the pieces are there if it's not broken, or would throw it away if it's broken. So though we don't keep a ton of things, I am definitely okay with them getting something, enjoying the amount of time that they can enjoy with that. Like, if they get a puzzle, putting the puzzle together two or three times, and then by about the fourth or fifth time, they're just not interested in putting that puzzle together anymore. That's a good time to then declutter it. So we get toys for Christmas, we get toys for the birthdays. It's really fun. I don't just take them away and just go to the thrift store right away. I obviously, I just let them play with it for however long that plays out. And for my younger kids, it's really not that long. Now, once they get a little bit older and they're are more able to care for their possessions, they might have more interest in caring for their Possessions, I find that they want to keep them longer, but then at that point, I'm no longer in control of that. So, like my teenagers, I don't care what they purchase. I don't care what they keep in their room. I'm not going through their stuff and trying to figure out, you know, what do you need, what do you not need? They take care of that themselves. When they feel overwhelmed with keeping their room clean. I see a trash bag by the front door, but it's not prompted by me. And I'm not stopping them from what they want. If they want to get these certain new hair clips or, you know, clothing, there's just so many things that they enjoy having. It's not an issue for me because it's no longer something that I have to manage. When I say we don't do a ton of toys, I'm talking about all the kids that, yes, they can help, but it's a lot of work to keep everybody on task, to clean everything up all the time. Those are the kids that also don't really play with the same toys very long term. So I'm very involved in managing that. And I can tell when it's becoming overwhelming for them to take care of their spaces. So their rooms, their toy spaces, when that happens. And it's a bunch of things that they're no longer interested in. They got all the joy of playing with the item, and it wore off. This is a principle I learned from Marie Kondo so many years ago. And I know that people talk about how Marie Kondo has since changed her tune on a lot of things because she had children. And I think mothers could always read those books and just interpret it for themselves, understanding that it wouldn't be the same for a mother with several children and Marie Kondo, but she still had a lot of great principles. And one of those principles is that an item can fulfill its purpose more quickly than I think we think. We think if somebody gets a toy for Christmas and they open that toy, they loved it, then you're required to keep it for years and years because you have it. But I see the joy they get when they open the gift. I see the joy that the gift giver has when they see them open the gift. I see the joy they play with it for however long they play with it. And then when nobody cares about it anymore, which happens kind of quick, if you actually observe the kids and what they're playing with and what they've just tossed aside, then I'm. I'm good with that. And so that's kind of how we handle it. But I'm definitely not going to tell, you know, grandparents or anything. Just don't get our kids anything. We're not going to do that. I know. I think that there's, that's all a fun part of, of Christmas and birthdays and children and grandparents, and we're good with managing that as it comes. I always get lots of questions about varicose veins because I've mentioned before that I have very, very bad varicose veins and people ask me what supplements, what regimens, and honestly, I don't have anything. Great. Oh, man. Art by Midwife actually, now that I'm thinking about it, last time I saw her did recommend something to put on it and I kind of forgot order it. But I think the reason why it's not super motivating for me at this point is because they no longer hurt. This happened the last, I'd say three babies. They look really bad, but they no longer hurt, which is interesting. It probably just means like something blew out and it's just like all hope is lost and it's probably a bad sign. But they, they don't bother me. So it doesn't mean that my pregnancy is really uncomfortable. It just means that during pregnancy my leg looks very bad. So it's something that doesn't feel very pressing for me. But I know that there's lots of great circulation things. I think people put vitamin E on them. I have had success by taking magnesium. So I still take magnesium all through my pregnancy and that seems to help. I think maybe sometime around the time they stopped hurting was when I started taking magnesium. So that might have something, something to do it as well. But I don't put anything on them topically. I do sit down more and rest more during the end of pregnancy because of the circulation issues. I find that my feet will hurt very bad if I'm on them too much. So even though normally I'm not a person that feels like I need to have tons of rest time during pregnancy, I sit down a lot. Like anytime that I can sit down, I do sit down. And that seems to really help for me to not feel like my whole body aches at the end of the day, which I do think is from circulation. And I've had that the last several pregnancies where I can feel in my body if I didn't sit down all day. It's quite apparent. And sometimes I can't even tell that I was doing that much. But I'm like I must have been on my feet a lot today because I need to sit down and I've really, I feel like I've really prioritized that. So that's probably one of my top tips is just as soon as you can get sit down for the day and put your feet up if, if possible, if you can fit all of your chores into a certain number of hours so that even, you know, if you have kids all around you, you can just sit down. We also, Luke packs a chair everywhere we go. Like a little. Just, you know what people would like a fold up chair that you'd bring to a soccer game. There's always one of those in our trunk. Not, not normally, but at the end of pregnancy there's always a chair in the trunk and usually he'll get it out. And like the other day we were at his parents and we were fishing by the lake and he comes down with my little chair because I just, I need to. When I'm just sitting there or when I'm just watching the kids or something like that, I just try to sit down a little bit more often. Okay, this is one I haven't talked about in a while, but not much has changed in a while. Tell us about your car. How many car seats are you rolling with right now? So right now we actually. And this will change in just like whatever. I don't know when this is coming out, but this will change in just a couple weeks when we have our next baby. So right now we have one upright car seat, one infant car seat, which Victor will move to a backwards upright. I almost always do that when the next baby comes, the baby gets the infant seat and then the two year old goes in a rear facing upright and then our 3 year old is in a, an upright and then we have a booster and then we have all the other kids that just sit in seat belts. Now one new development that we have had since I last shared about this on the podcast is our oldest is driving now. So she has her driver's license. And such a weird thing because I remember when I was 16 and how old I felt and I pretty much just once you get your license, you know, like it's this hard decision of trying to figure out what all you allow them to do or where all you allow them to go. And I know I had a ton of freedom by the time I was 16. And I think there's a lot of value and benefit in that. And she's also a really safe driver. She's had her driver's permit for a year and a half. So she drove with me for a year and a half pretty much everywhere. Cause we don't live close to anywhere. So she's driven long stretches of time, night driving, highway driving. And so it's really just a matter of. I'd rather you not, because I worry. And I'd rather you just be here like it's always been. And so that's a fun part of motherhood is just figuring out when they're 16 and they're responsible and they are good drivers and they have a certain plan at this certain place. And it's like, I guess you gotta drive there now. Like, I don't. There's no reason why I should bring you there. And I know you want to drive there, but it's just such a weird thing when your whole life you've packed up all these little kids, you can count heads, make sure everyone's with you. And then now when something comes up, like tomorrow night they have a birthday party. There's no reason why I should pack up all the kids and bring them, the teenagers, to the birthday party. And I won't. I'll let them go, but it's just easier because it's just something you don't have to worry about. So I don't. We don't always have all the children, which will be nine, here in a couple weeks with us. It's. It's rare that we're all going in the same direction. Which is also a really weird thing that you just don't see coming when you have a lot of little kids. Because just think, four years ago I had. What did I have? Well, I was about to have our seventh baby. No. Yeah, I was about to have our seventh baby. So we essentially had seven kids 12 and under, which means that everywhere we went, we packed up our seven kids, we went all in the same direction. Nobody stayed home alone, Nobody had different plans. Nobody was going to their job or to their friend's house. All normal parts of life. But it's just so weird how fast that changes because just in four years time, that is just no longer the case. And it seems so far off that, you know, and I've. I've seen these moms on either social media or YouTube or in real life who are mourning this season of their oldest children leaving and they're no longer there for dinner. You were used to making dinner for seven kids, eight kids, nine kids. And now sometimes you. They're all home for dinner, but a lot of times they're Not. And so that was a tangent, but it's, it's just a really weird, slow, but also kind of sudden thing that you realize, okay, like this is all going to change so rapidly because four years from now we will have three kids over 16 and six years from now we will have four kids over 16. And the oldest ones could be gone and married and grandkids and that's such a short amount of time. I mean, think about it. 20, 20 was five years ago that, that felt like yesterday. And in five more years, just life's going to be so different. So all that to say we still drive our Nissan NV3500. It's a 12 seater van. Technically we only have one seat left. But like I said, we don't always all go to the same place. It's actually quite rare that we go to the same place. We have a day tomorrow where we're going to take six of our sons out on an adventure. Our girls have other plans and so it's quite common for us to not fill the van up. But then it's also, it's also fairly regular that we do all go somewhere because we're still in that in between space as well. But plenty of times we'll take out the back two seats of that van and make it a 10 seater because then we can slide in the stroller and actually have a lot of storage. But when those extra two seats are in, there's almost no storage. So most of the time those two seats are sitting on the porch. Soon here. If we want all 11 of us to go somewhere together, we'll have to keep those seats in. And, and that happens at least once or twice a week where we're all going somewhere together. So the seats are always going in and out. But that's our current setup. Because we have such a large van, it's not a struggle to fit the car seats in. We also have several kids who aren't in a car seat. And then sometimes we'll even drive. We have two smaller vehicles and we'll drive those. Like today we went out to the farm to bring some doors out there and check on the build progress like we do every day. And we needed to bring a bunch of doors in Luke's truck. So then I'll drive half the kids in what we call our oldest daughter's car, but it's not really her car. And then he'll drive half the kids in his truck and we'll meet up. So you just never know with us. But only three Technically in car seats, if you count the baby. Hi Lisa. We are new to Missouri and our new home has so many brown recluse spiders. We've caught about 75 on sticky traps. We've never dealt with them before. Is this something normal to this area? Any tips on getting rid of them and what to have on hand to treat potential bites? So I am not your expert because I don't know what part of Missouri you're in, but I have never encountered a brown recluse spider. I am aware that they could be here. And so when say like a child's sleeper is laying on the floor in a closet or something and you, it's clean but you, you know you're going to put it on the child that night. I will definitely check all the little footsy spots because since they're reclusive sometimes if something is in like a spot like that, it is something that I think of. Like it's in the back of a closet or under a bed or somewhere behind a curtain or a dresser. It crosses my mind. I've heard of people getting bit by brown recluse spiders and it does scare me with a young baby because they have a very small little leg and then that bite spreads very quickly. So I think of it. But it's not something that I've actually encountered and it's not something that I really worry about. I just do have a little caution when putting like boots that have been in a storage area that could possibly have been open or sleepers. I'll, you know, if I don't put my foot, my hand down in the footy, I'll like crush the little footy to make sure there's no spider in there. But so far so good. I think I remember seeing a brown recluse, or at least what I thought was a brown recluse in the Boone street house many, many years ago. It wasn't like an invasive problem. I just think I ended up seeing one once and that's probably why I have this in my head that they could be around and, and we think of it too. Luke thinks of it as well, but I don't think it's a huge thing. It's not something I hear about from other moms. Like we're not always just talking about brown recluse spiders. We are always talking about ticks and looking for ticks. Like, like when you live in Missouri and you spend time outside, it's a nightly thing through all the non frozen months to check your kids for ticks. Literally every Single night. So that's something I think about all the time. But brown recluse spider is just kind of like more of a passing thought. So you might want to look into. I don't know, I feel like I would do some kind of like serious remediation of sorts. I don't know if I had. If I caught 75, that's crazy. I'm wondering if this home was abandoned for a while or something. I imagine that once you start living there and making lots of noise and this is not an expert opinion, this is just something I'm making up. But I thought that they are very reclusive and don't like a lot of people. I'm just, again, I'm making this up, but I'm wondering if maybe the house was abandoned and now that you're living there, if that won't be an issue after you've caught some and they. They've sort of like fled. Maybe that's not true. I'm sure as usual, a lot of times when I have something like this I don't know about, people will leave comments down in the comment section if you're watching this over on YouTube. So if that is the case, I mean, I'm sure it'll be the case. If you have experience, go ahead and leave a comment and you can go check down below. I'm sure somebody will have definitely some wisdom to share in regards to Brom recluse spiders. Okay, how do you handle haircuts for so many kids? Did you learn to cut their hair yourself? If so, how did you learn? So we've gone back and forth on this for many years. You know, we have six boys, so only two of them require. Well, this all just depends on how picky you are about their haircut. Because for many years with our boys we just bought the clippers, you know, at Walmart and used the guard on three or four and just did buzz cut on top and maybe ever so slightly do the bottom a little bit shorter, maybe like a 2. And then they have the little ear guard thing that goes around the ear to make that tapered. Not super particular about it, but it does clean them up and make them look nice. So that is something that you can do if you have boys. That's pretty simple. Just get some clippers, put the guards on. We've done that for my husband as well. Lately we've been making appointments at a local place back to back to back and just taking them all over there and getting a haircut that is scissor Cut so it looks a little nicer, but it's. It's not something that I'm super particular about. So, like, right now I feel like a lot of my kids are getting quite overgrown. I don't think we have an appointment on the books, so there might just be an afternoon where we get the clippers back out. So we kind of go back and forth, but for many years we only use the clippers. And then my girls, they've gotten really into hair routines and taking care of their hair. This is their hobby. They make homemade gels out of flaxseeds and they put rosemary in their hair and eggs and all kinds of weird stuff. So they have gotten into what is called micro trims. And this is how you keep your hair really healthy is by trimming small amounts very often. And they've been doing that themselves. So I think for now they're just cutting their own hair. I'm actually going to have one of my daughters who's quite particular and careful do a micro trim on me because we used to go to a salon pretty regularly, but we haven't in, I'd say a good year. Well, we've actually, we have gotten one haircut from someone, but we haven't gone to like our regular appointments in so long. And so really I don't have any layers or anything like that, so I just need it to be trimmed for split ends. And I really think now, after all the research they've done, that my daughters could do that because they do it on themselves as well. So there's plenty of tutorials on YouTube on how to cut your own hair. A lot of people cut their own hair. Boys, I feel, are especially easy. If you're doing girls, it might take a little bit more effort, especially if they're older girls and they care a lot more. If you just have a four year old girl and you just need to cut straight across, I feel like I could handle that. And I actually did do that when my girls were little. So it's kind of just all over the place. But if you have a lot of sons, their hair grows really quick. Investing in some clippers is going to really save you a ton of money and time. Not a question, just an observation. Our neighbors invited us to swim in their pool and she had an outdoor drinking fountain and a urinal inside her basement bathroom. She has many grandsons. As a mom of seven, five boys, I thought, what a brilliant idea with all your boys and nephews just throwing a fun, certainly not crucial, possible addition to your house. Build. Since we live in the country, we will not need the urinal part. Like, that's, you know, that's just not something that we're gonna need because, you know, it's. So this is gonna be a whole new thing having a little girl. Because for so long I've had boys and in the country and not having to worry about being far from a bathroom. As a pregnant woman, going to a build site without a bathroom regularly has been quite challenging because, you know, like, I drink a smoothie on the way and then there's issues. So we will be having a bathroom soon. I just need one thing to get all the way completed so we at least just have a bathroom. But I like the idea too of the drinking fountain because kids are always, always needing water. When we go to our farm, it's always, you know, pack all the water bottles. There's no water there yet. We do have the well dug, but the, the electricity, which is actually getting all trenched in today, isn't to the well pump yet, so there's no water. And yeah, those kind of things just make life with little kids. Access to water and access to bathrooms is the problem. When you're out and about with kids, that's the. The problem. Like if you're taking the kids to the zoo, bathrooms and water are the constant problem. Thankfully, due to living in the country, we don't worry too much about boys and bathrooms, but still water, you know, problem. However, hopefully we'll have all these hydrants done soon and the access will be great. If you cannot tell I'm so out of breath from sitting like this and being so super pregnant right now. So these solo episodes where it's just me talking getting a little bit more challenging. Haley said would love to have a sister episode on building process. That would be really fun. I don't know if I can get my sister on to talk about that or not because she. I don't think she loves it as much as I. Well, we say love. I don't think she's loves or hates it as much as I do. She's just not as emotionally invested in it as I am, which is really fabulous for her because she'll end up with a great house and she's not going to put a whole lot of stress on any of it. But with me and with my personality, this is just like something I'm so excited to put every little detail into. Not saying she doesn't care about some of the details because she's texting me all the time and Asking me all the time, hey, what do you think about this door? What do you think about this color? What do you think about this oven? But then she approaches that next step very differently for me because I'll say, ah, I don't like that. Go for maybe you should try this. And then she'll literally just buy it. Whereas for me I'll take that opinion and then I'll think about that and think about that and think about that for days and days and hours and hours and probably come to an entirely different conclusion than what someone gave me as their suggestion. And whereas she's just like great decision made, sounds good. And I find that to be quite a very productive, decisive way to be. It is just not my personality. So we couldn't be approaching the builds and any more differently. She shared on her channel, if you aren't following, her channel is called Our Oily House. Their build plans as well. And she wants a similar feel but she's not doing like the new old house thing and, and doing like all of these like little details that are quite hard to actually accomplish in reality because there's a reason why certain things are standard and done today. They're just standard, a lot easier to accomplish. And so her house will be beautiful and lovely and if you are curious what their plans are and what, you know, what their house is going to look like, you can go find that over on. At our Oily House. We are currently at about the exact same place they started well after us because their house took a little bit to sell. But they seem to be catching right up. And I think, I think partially it's because she is so much more decisive and her husband's very decisive. They have, you know, a job to do, a job to check off and they're not going to like, I would personally wait if something's on back order for 10 weeks to have the thing that I would, would want. Whereas they're just going to make the everything move forward. So as far as when we are all going to get in our houses, we are both very optimistically thinking around Christmas but then the real person here of, of what I'm actually thinking is probably around February. Maybe they'll get in before us. I don't know. We'll see. But I think we'll, I think we're at about the same place. We both right now currently have our houses fully framed and are waiting on windows and I think our windows are scheduled to come around the exact same time, which is so funny. And it's funny too because we've had so many comments about, you know, the Internet can be a negative place, but how do you and your sister always do the exact same thing? Always copy each other? We spend so much time together and there's so much more conversations behind what you see on the Internet that all you really end up seeing is that we're both building houses, but not really knowing how much we compare notes and talk behind the scenes. And so I think it's just a really funny thing to have more than one family member on the Internet and not really sharing every little detail of behind the scenes and the conversations behind the scenes. And then it just looking like just one day we both decided to. Well, what's funny is since we started building first, everybody thinks that she copied us, which is funny because she actually bought their farm before we bought our farm. And at people also who aren't quite observant feel like we're building the exact same house. Our houses are so different. If you're just looking at whether or not they are two story and have a chimney and a porch, then possibly they could look very similar. But they're actually quite, quite different. And we didn't use the same plans. We didn't have the same floor plan at all. They wanted more of an open concept home. The way our properties lay are completely different. And so we both want kind of a similar feel, similar style, but we're approaching that in different ways. So. Hey, there was your podcast about our builds. We could see if I could get Laura to come on and talk about the details, but she's not as much of a detail person when it comes to all of that. And I think both of us just ultimately want to be on our farms so badly and hopefully by next year, this time, not hope, I mean, should certainly both be in that place. What are your plans for animals on the new farm? Oh, that's a fun question. I cannot wait to have animals again. So we currently just have chickens in our backyard here and our cats and our dog. So we'll have have all of those, plus many, many more chickens. I like chickens running everywhere. I want roosters, which at our last house we weren't allowed to have roosters. So to hear a rooster crow has something, has been something I've just wanted forever. And I've never lived in a place, at least in my adult life, where I could do that. And I am so darn excited, oddly, to hear a rooster crow at all hours of the day. I cannot wait. I want cattle. We want a dairy cow. We Want beef. We want. I don't even know where this will all go. I know once the. My mind is off of the build and we're just living there and we're putting in infrastructure like fencing and watering and pastures which we have to work on all of those things, my mind will wander and we'll think of all of it. I would really love for the kids to have horses. We have a pony right now. He's at our. My sister's house. But I'd like for the older kids to have horses take down to the creek to explore the woods and make trails. Horses are one of those things where a lot of homesteaders don't have them because a lot of homesteaders just do strictly what is practical. But I just see the value in the, the charm and the, the magic of having animals like that. I grew up with horses and I rode them all the time. We explored our property on horses and I just, I just picture that a childhood of, of taking the horse into the barn, saddling it up and then going for a ride down to the creek. I wish that we could have always had this, but of course, you know, we couldn't. And so at least I'm hoping the younger boys will grow up with, with being able to have a horse or two. I'm not sure what all. What I'll end up doing, but eventually, and this is all so many years down the road because right now I just can't even imagine our house having windows, much less fencing and pasture and all the animals. So this is all very long term dreams. So I don't know how quick and eve it will happen, but I want all the things. I want sheep, I want pigs, I want all of it. So just check with me in a couple years and we'll see. The most immediate plans are for a dairy cow. I think by springtime we will likely have a dairy cow. That could be extremely optimistic. Our pasture will not be ready. Luke's been working on the pasture lately, but it'll take a few years for it to even get established to that point. So if we do have a dairy cow by spring, she will be relying mostly on hay. But that. Okay, we do have a hay loft we're putting in our barn and we'll have the barn. So we'll have at least a dairy cow most quickly, as well as chickens and, you know, hens and a rooster. And then we'll go from there as we build out this property that we plan to stay in for the foreseeable future. All very fun. To think about. And I don't always let my mind wander there because it's so many steps away. So we'll just cross that bridge when we get there. But knowing myself, I will think of all of it at some point. I also want the kids to be very involved. So I have a few sons that I think would be great tending to animals as part of just their job and their everyday life. And quite a bit more than just feeding chickens and feeding. Feeding a dog. I want them to have more of a hand in actual farming. And so that'll be part of the vision as well. I've had lots of people ask me this, do you intend to sell the house plans when it's all said and done? So that is not my intention and I've actually never looked into how that would even work. I think technically architects actually own that. I don't think that the homeowner owns the plans that they had drafted. And so if that was something that I ever wanted to pursue, which at this time is not something I want to pursue, but I have been getting so many questions about it. I'm sure as I share the home more and more, I will. I would have to look into collaborating on that because I don't think technically from a legal standpoint, a homeowner owns the plans that they had drafted for their home. So that would be a question to consider. But there has been a lot of people asking that.
- [47:34]
Lisa
As summer winds down, I'm all about refreshing my wardrobe with staple pieces for the season ahead. Quince nails it with luxe essentials that feel effortless and look polished, perfect for layering and mixing. Their styles are so versatile, I find myself reaching for them again and again. Think chic cashmere and cotton sweaters starting at just $40. Washable silk tops and classic denim pants.
- [47:55]
Luke
Timeless styles you'll keep coming back to. The best part is everything with Quince.
- [47:59]
Lisa
Is half the cost of similar brands.
- [48:01]
Luke
By working directly with top artisans and.
- [48:03]
Lisa
Cutting out the middleman, Quince gives you.
- [48:04]
Luke
Luggage luxury without the markup.
- [48:06]
Lisa
And Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical and responsible manufacturing practices.
- [48:11]
Luke
And premium fabrics and finishes.
- [48:12]
Lisa
I've recently picked up several things from Quince. I have a linen dress that I've been wearing on repeat, especially now that I'm at the end of my pregnancy. It's comfortable and well made. I also picked up some gingham European linen Euro shams that look beautiful on our bed in the summer and will transition in nicely to fall. I also grabbed a few things for baby girl coming soon. A little cozy onesie and a sleeper. Super high quality and of course adorable. Elevate your fall wardrobe essentials with quints. Go to quince.comfarmhouse for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com farmhouse to get free shipping and 365 day return returns. Quince.com farmhouse that give marketing teams a competitive edge. In fact, it's proven based on a report from EY businesses on Shopify POS see real results like 22% better total cost of ownership and benefits equivalent to an 8.9% uplift in sales on average relative to the market set surveyed. Get all the big stuff for your small business right with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com.com farmhouse go to shopify.com farmhouse shopify.com farmhouse.
- [49:31]
Luke
Okay, I have tried three times to start sourdough. Each time it separates and there's liquid on top. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I read your directions. I keep reading it, but something that I'm not doing. I don't know if my jar is too big. I'm sorry for the long question. Okay, so that is not a problem. That's only because you could just use a little bit more flour. And so there's a little bit, I don't want to say too much water because it's really not a problem, but if it bothers you, you can use more flour. That doesn't mean that there's a problem there. So you don't need to throw away your sourdough starter because there's liquid on top. It just was a matter of how much water and flour you used. And so I think that by, by you saying you've tried to start it three times, I'm assuming that you've thrown it away in between time. And I hate to tell you, but you didn't need to do that. And I've had so many over the years on sourdough where someone will tell me that they've started a starter and then this happened so they had to get rid of it. And I think you all just throw away your starters too fast. It would eventually balance out. That is not actually a problem. So if you do encounter that again or if you're listening to this and you feel like you've had that problem, just know it's not actually a problem. And you can and you should just Just carry on. Hi, Lisa, do you have any tips and tricks on living without a dishwasher? I'm currently living in a situation where a dishwasher is not available. I'm definitely a dishwasher girl. So there's a bit of a challenge. This is a bit of a challenge for me. I do think it's funny how fast we get used to doing things in a certain way. For so many years, I never use a dishwasher. I didn't use one at Boone street. Maybe like a very short time. I didn't use one at our last house. So for what, 16, 17 years, I just didn't use a dishwasher. And anytime that I was in a situation where there was a dishwasher, say like an Airbnb, I felt like it didn't help at all because I just had my way of doing things and it felt so much faster. Now, currently there's a dishwasher in the home that we're in and I have gotten it as part of my routine to where I feel like if I didn't have a dishwasher now, I would think that it was really hard to not have a dishwasher because the way we have the whole process, after breakfast, just as you're eating breakfast, you put things in the dishwasher, we run it, we use those for lunch, we put them back in, we run it again, we use those dishes for dinner, we put them back in, we run it again. And that is just our current setup. So I really think when you are set up for either having a dishwasher so you don't have a good spot to dry dishes, a good spot to put dishes away, it can feel harder to hand wash. Whereas I think if you have a really good setup, then it can be almost easier. So like in our last house, the way the kitchen was situated, it felt like a fairly big job to put the dishes away from the dishwasher. In our current house, we have a really small kitchen and the dishwasher is here and the cabinets are all just one or two steps away from the dishwasher where all the dishes go. And so even emptying the dishwasher, if you put in certain things that you're not using at the next meal, like maybe it's not just plates and forks, but there's bowls or spatulas or different things that you used for one meal that you're not going to use for another. It's a like less than 3 minute job to empty the dishwasher. Whereas in our last house, we were really set up with the big dish strainer and the drain board, which we are here to. But putting all the dishes away was just something that we didn't do. And so they didn't. I didn't feel like they needed to be washed really thoroughly. It felt like we were just rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. And so it didn't. And so because of that, because of having minimal dishes, we needed to first of all wash them between every meal, which. Which means that we didn't leave dishes in the sink with stuff caked on them and then had this huge job at the end of the day. And we didn't necessarily have to put them all away because there were so few that they would fit on the drain board for the next meal. So all that to say, I would say tips for not having a dishwasher is to have fewer dishes in rotation because they feel like they need to be very, very clean, very, very dry if you're going to put them away. Whereas if you are just going to use them for breakfast, rinse and then use them for lunch, rinse and then use them for dinner, they're in such regular rotation that you're not worried that you're going to put this imperfectly cleaned dish away and you won't see it for a year, and who knows what will build up on it. You know what I mean? When you have less dishes, then you know that you're going to use them and wash them again. It's not like you're going to stack it up and not see it again for six months. So I would say that have less dishes, wash them immediately after a meal so that nothing has time to really sit there and cake on it and clog up your sink, and then make sure that you have ample drying space. So make sure that you have a good dish strainer, plenty of space on your countertop, or a drain board to drain all the dishes out. And then if you have older kids that you can enlist for help, I mean, honestly, kids 7 and up can help with dishes pretty well and actually be a genuine help, even if it's just drying. So if. If you do have to put some dishes away because there's too many, which happens even when you keep a small amount out, a certain number of them do have to get put away. Little kids are good at drying and putting them away and just staying on top of it. I really didn't find it difficult to not have a dishwasher at all, to the point where I felt like, why even Ever have a dishwasher. And then now it's so in my routine that I like having a dishwasher. But it's, it's just really funny because for so many years it wasn't a problem at all to not have a dishwasher. And I really think it was just the setup and how we approach dishes and we still approach them in the exact same way. It's just we put them in there now instead of in the dish strainer. I don't know. I'm not even 100% sure it saves that much time. They do come out cleaner and drier, but I'm not sure that we spend an active amount of less time working on dishes. So who, who knew I could talk this long about having or not having a dishwasher? But these are the things that homemakers tend to talk about. All right, well, thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. I'm looking here at my schedule, and after about 2 ish more episodes, this baby should be here. And so I hopefully everything will go great with that. And I'll be sharing with you some newborn things and how the birth went and have some real life updates by then. We've gotten a little ahead on the podcast so that I can have a maternity leave. So it probably will be a little bit before I'm sharing too much about the birth story here. You can head over to my YouTube channel, Farmhouse on Boone, my main YouTube channel. That is where I usually will share a birth story a little bit earlier. I'm struggling right now currently, because these last several weeks I've been working really hard to get ahead on my main YouTube channel because I post one video per week. And it just occurred to me today that I'm filming the video that will go live probably around the week I have the baby. And then I still have weeks until right now that I'm having the baby. And so then I'm going to, if I keep filming, be pregnant in the videos after having already shared the birth story, which I know I have done this on YouTube four times before now, and I did something, but I need to go back and look at my channel and see how I handled that. I, I feel like YouTube is more of a social platform these days than it was in those past years. And so I was sharing videos that were more evergreen, whereas it seems now that people are really, I don't know if it's just the evolution of the Internet and having access to people's lives, but more of these real time updates to the point where this is the first time I've thought, man, if I record videos where I'm pregnant in the video and try to post those after the birth story, people will find them to be outdated and irrelevant. So I'm gonna go look back at my channel and see how I handle that because I have plenty more weeks to get more ahead on videos. And now I'm like, wait, I can't record any more videos. Plus, another variable is being in the middle of a house build means that there's a lot of real time updates that happen all the time. And so getting too far ahead means that by the time I would share in real time again, everything will be different. The house will be so much more advanced. I'll have the baby. We're living in this very currently I'm living in this very fast changing season of having a baby and building a house that I'll be out of soon, but trying to figure out how to work ahead because I do take a good at least two weeks, other than maybe sitting here in my bed and holding the baby, talking about my birth story, completely off of all the things, not cooking, not doing a lot of active work. And so I'm I have a ton of energy right now. I have a ton of bandwidth to get done some extra stuff and trying to figure out what I'm gonna do about that. So it might just be that you see me pregnant in some videos after I've shared the birth story and that might just have to be how it is. So coming soon, we will figure all of that out. And thank you so much for following along here on the podcast and I will see you in my next episode.
- [59:59]
Lisa
Thanks as always for listening to the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast.
- [60:02]
Luke
My husband Luke and I and our eight kids work together side by side.
- [60:05]
Lisa
On our little homestead and use our.
- [60:07]
Luke
Blog, podcast and YouTube channel to reach other homes, homemakers, home cooks and home.
- [60:11]
Lisa
Setters with practical recipes and daily family life. For everyday sourdough recipes, make sure to.
- [60:16]
Luke
Check out our blog, farmassomboon.com and to dig deeper, we do also offer a course called Simple Sourdough over at Bitvit Ly Farmhouses. That's all one word, Bit Ly Farmhouses. If you're looking to learn how we earn an income online, check out my YouTube course at Bit Ly Farmhouse youtubecourse All one word.