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Simple Farmhouse Life
307. Honest Motherhood Q&A: Baby #9, Behind the YouTube Curtain, Sourdough in Busy Seasons & More
01:04:05
From newborn hopes to YouTube workflow, sourdough routines, and big family rhythms
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I'm laid back about so many things, and I've witnessed this with so many mothers as they move through motherhood, as their children get older, as they have more perspective, there are certain things they just don't worry about anymore. It's a lot easier to have littler children with that perspective. Different people have different opinions on which transition is easiest. There's a lot of people that'll say, oh no. Going from zero to one was no problem for me. That was not my perspective. But that could just came from me being very naive about how much work children took. That was a hard shift for me. But then one to two I was like, got this. Okay. 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 about simplifying your life so you can 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 in 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. Foreign welcome back to the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. Today I am doing one last solo episode before the baby is born. I was just looking at my schedule and seeing when this will come out and I believe the baby will have been born at this point, or at least right around this time. I am currently 39 weeks pregnant with our ninth baby and I have this belief that I know when my children will come. Not on the exact day, but because my experiences have been very consistent. So I haven't had too many that were major outliers. I feel like I know within like a four or five day range when the baby will come. Now at any time this could completely go, you know, out the window and I could have somebody throw me for a loop because that happens with people. There are people who have all their babies at a certain week and then all of a sudden there's one that's an outlier. So I understand that. But I can already say that we're not having a super early baby no matter what because I'm already 39 weeks. So if this little one were to even come in the next week, still, I wouldn't consider her to be too far as an outlier because usually my babies come within two days plus or minus the due date, and there's times when that hasn't been the case. But one of my children I Was induced with. For supposed or not supposed. What am I suspected? That's what I'm trying to say. Slash, supposed. Because now, after having a whole lot more perspective, I don't really think I had any problems. But because they thought she had iugr, I was induced early. So I can't count her into the data set because I didn't go into labor naturally. Now, the other children, I went into labor naturally, except for two of them. I have a theory about red raspberry leaf tea and starting it very early in your pregnancy and drinking it by the gallon that babies actually come a bit later. And I. My sister has a bunch of children, same exact experience. So I have the belief that they come a little bit later. If you drink red raspberry leaf tea from the very beginning, I'm not talking about the second trimester because people will say, oh, I started at 20 weeks. My baby came right. No, you have to start in the first trimester. There's actually been studies done on it, and I did that with those two children. So I did have two that came a little bit later, but all the rest came around two days, plus or minus the due date. Now, how pinpointed down do you have the due date really just depends on how close of attention you were paying at that time. And so, you know, I just. I have the bias that the baby comes around 40 weeks. And so I do believe that by the time this comes out, the baby will have been born. And there's a chance that I have shared a birth story over on the YouTube channel. I am really praying for and hoping for a daytime labor. My last two were daytime labors. The one before that was an overnight labor. And I find that they're so much easier mentally, which, to me, labor is all mental, because if I can avoid fear, I can really relax my body. The pain difference in the labor is significant, even from contraction to contraction. If I have one where I'm fully relaxed and then the very next one I have any kind of panicky moment, the pain level of that contraction is just off the charts different. And I have a really hard time. When it's the middle of the night, the house is quiet. I'm supposed to be sleeping, having. Wrapping my brain around, being okay with all of that which happened with my sixth child. It was overnight, much more difficult labor because I was in my head, I was alone. I could have woken Luke up, but I didn't because I knew that the next day he'd be carrying for all of the children while I was Recovering with a newborn, so I didn't really find any sense in doing that. But I had labor all night long and then I didn't have the baby until about 9:30am So I found that to be a lot more difficult. The last two babies make that wait. Yeah, okay. The last two babies, yes. Most of my labor was during the day. The last baby fully during the day started around like 8 in the morning. Had the baby around 2 in the afternoon. If I could repeat that labor, I would maybe pay a significant amount of money if that was possible. I don't know. Glad it's not an option because I might get tempted to really drain the bank account on that one. But instead I will just be praying that that is what happens. And if it doesn't, I know I'll get through it either way. However, man, if you could somehow control having, and I don't mean inducing, but just your body going into labor and having a daytime labor, it is just so much better, in my opinion. I will say that my sister always, always has overnight labors. And she says what she does is she just turns on the lights and pretends that it's day. So she goes in her kitchen, maybe makes some food. You gotta keep yourself busy and pretend like it's just a normal day you're living. It's a lot harder when all of your kids are asleep and your husband's asleep. However, I do feel like that could be something I would probably try instead of laying there and thinking about it, maybe going about how I would be going about my day if it were day. I think the, the fact that it's going to be dark out, that would be harder. So really, really hoping for a daytime labor that would be amazing. But we cannot control these things. In fact, it's more likely with all the hor hormones that kick labor into gear that you would go into labor overnight. But I've actually had several daytime labors. I was thinking through it and of the ones that I went into labor completely on my own, I had four of the eight during the day. So I have a fairly good shot. I'm not an only overnight type of person. And then with the one I was induced, I'm counting her and the ones that I was in labor overnight, but that doesn't really count because they started served Adil at 9pm so of course then I went into labor all night and had her around five in the morning. Okay, so with that being said, I'm gonna answer a few more questions and this will be the last solo episode before. I'm probably sitting here holding a newborn and nursing her, and I say her, because we did find out that this is a girl. Still have this. Fear, not fear, because I'd be okay with the boy. It's just interesting thinking something the whole pregnancy and then thinking, what if that wasn't true? And this whole time it's actually a boy. I only ever had one ultrasound. I didn't do the blood test to find out gender or anything. So I kind of had this one little indication that this is a girl. I'm. I'm sure it was perfectly fine. That's how people normally find out. So I'm sure it's good. But there have been times where I've wondered, what if it's a boy? Okay, this is a. I guess an interesting one because Christmas is still three months away. But what does Christmas morning look like for such a large family? What are your favorite Christmas traditions? So I do stockings, and the kids, of course, love that, fill stockings with things that they love. We have these stockings that they don't really hold a whole lot. The interior space of the stocking just isn't that large. So usually I will set them all out on the table and really starting to look funny because we actually have matching stockings. My mom started buying these personalized stockings when my oldest, the first grandchild, was born. And now it's kind of like, do you want me to keep buying these? I'm like, well, I have them now, so kind of need to. So anyways, I have these eight matching stockings, and I lay them out on the table, and it looks so funny to see this table full of stockings and sort of overflowing beyond them. So the kids wake up, and they. They always wake up early because they're always super excited about it. And they get into their stockings. There's usually some kind of item, like a toy, and then there's things to eat, like chocolate or special drinks, and it's always really exciting and I guess kind of chaotic, too. I am not a huge Christmas person. And I feel like such a Grinch or a Scrooge saying that. And I want to be. I want to be a big Christmas person. I have a sister who is just jolly, jolly Christmas person. And I. I mostly have pretty much always just felt a little bit overwhelmed by Christmas, to be perfectly honest with you. I. Every year, when it's not Christmas time, I'm always thinking about how I want this year to feel like that magical Christmas where we're baking cookies and we go to all the Christmas things, and you have these warm, fuzzy feelings about it. However, I never truly feel that way. I think I feel that way in retrospect. Like, when I look back at pictures, I maybe feel that way. But mostly I feel like there's a lot of things that we need to do to make it a special Christmas. I fall into that, and it mostly just feels like extra stuff. And also, I. This is just. I'm being so negative right now, but this is just the truth. I don't love the months of December, and even, I guess November is still kind of fun. But I don't like that it gets dark early. I'm really a baby about cold, and so I'm really just trying to be okay with all of that. I do like that there are activities and things to look forward to, but sometimes it feels overwhelming. Christmas does for me. So with all that being said, we don't have a ton of traditions. We do have the same way that we do Christmas morning. We end up going usually over to my husband's parents and then to his grandparents. We don't do anything with my side of the family on Christmas because we usually celebrate that a few days before we have it to where everybody has plans on Christmas. So then my family, because everybody's married, so then my family does it on a different day. So that way it's not too many things in one, which is really nice. So that way it's not like you're having to rush from one thing to the next. It was that way for several years of our marriage because we both still had all of our grandparents. And so there was a lot of different things to go to now that all of my sisters are married and we all have two separate families to go to. My family does Christmas Eve Eve, which I'd say that's probably my favorite Christmas celebration because the last, before we moved here, we always hosted it. And I really hope that when we move to our farm that we will be hosting it again, because I just. I love hosting. I love preparing and cooking and having people over. That's something I actually really love any time of the year. So that was always my favorite celebration, was hosting Christmas Eve Eve at our last farmhouse. But we won't be doing that this year. We did host Christmas morning last year instead of going to my husband's parents, they came to us. So that was really fun. I do like. I do like to host, so I probably should just have more Christmas parties and embrace all this. Okay. Is there, slash, was there a specific number of kids you Thought was the easiest. A lot of people say two is easier than one because the children have a playmate. This is something that I get this question so often. I recently had someone ask me, is eight kids easier than one? Or something like that. Like, is eight kids easier than one'? And I was talking with one of my sisters about this, and I was like, I. I find that to be kind of a funny question. Because, of course, eight kids is not easier than one. However, I think because of a lot of things that you become more confident in, a lot of things that you aren't questioning yourself about, a lot of perspective on seeing older children and how this eventually works out mentally, which, you know, what else is there besides mentally? In a lot of ways, it is. But then the amount of work, of course, there is significantly more work when it comes to managing the. The items and the meals. I mean, you know, every. Every meal a mother of five makes is, you know, she's making a meal for seven people. Every mother. Every meal a mother of 11 makes, she is making a full meal for 13 people. So, of course, technically, no, it is in no way easier. However, you definitely get used to a flow and a rhythm of, like, this is what I do. I make large amounts of food. This is not a surprising thing. It's not something that I feel like, oh, my goodness, I have to make all this food. It's just. It's just what you do. You get used to it. And so I think in that way, and I think maybe that's the. That's probably what a person means when they ask that question. Because of course, it's not. It's not easier to care for more children. And so in the same way, when saying people say two is easier than one, I think for me, two was a lot easier than one. I mean, it wasn't, because it's actually easier because now you have two children to care for everywhere you go. You know, you need to bring. If, if, if you have a baby, you need to bring diapers and extra clothing, and you need to think about possibly a stroller because you can't carry two at once, depending on how close in age they are. So, of course, two isn't easier. But I think for me, two definitely felt easier because I had so much more confidence. Like a light bulb went off after having my second, because I did things with my first just based on the books I read and the advice I took from other people. And I was worried about a lot of things. I remember worrying about everything. And then by the time I Had my second. There was so many things that I'm like, oh, that's no big deal. Like, this is fine. This is what, you know, I did for this. And then that worked to the point now where just a ton of little things that come up as a mom that would really have worried me with my first don't even register as a thing. Like when it, when it comes to so many things, like whether it's ear infections or how much sleep they get or what style of baby led weaning, those are just not things that when you have some perspective, you worry about anymore. And so you're going through just very confidently, like not letting these little things drag you down like you did when you had one. So in that sense, I mean, two, definitely. Like, my second child was so much easier than my first. And it's not because she was an easier baby. She still needed me to hold her all hours of the day just like every baby. She's still just all the baby things. All the baby things. She wasn't easier. In fact, when I really look back and think about it, my first was a much easier baby and child. Like, she didn't do a lot of things that toddlers do. She's the only one of all my toddlers I would say that about, she just was an easier child. But she was not easy for me because I went from having no kids, nothing to really think about or worry about when it comes to, you know, my day and my time and how I structured things to then having to worry about it. And then by the time my second came around, I was already used to that. And then I wasn't worried about the, like the baby things either because I already had a lot of confidence that, okay, if you, if you mess this part up when it comes to sleep training, let's say you can always fix it later. Like, you don't have to have, you know, this perfect schedule at this certain age. And if they eat this food at this time, it's really turns out fine. Like you. The more kids you have, the more perspective you get on that. I don't know if it's necessarily easier because they have a playmate. I think at some point that is something that is very, very helpful. But when they're first born, like when you have two children, let's say one is three and one is one, it's not like they're necessarily keeping each other entertained in a way that would be super helpful for you, definitely. Now there are aspects of having eight kids that make that easier because There are kids that are like, there's all different ages, they can play with each other. I can be in the kitchen doing something and tell my 7 year old, hey, go look at the 2 year old and make sure he's still doing what he was doing a few minutes ago while I finish up this certain thing. So that, that aspect of it definitely, like there's certain parts of it that are easier, but then mostly I think it's the perspective shift. Like it's, you're used to constant motion, you're used to, let's just face it, a certain level of chaos and no, just like there are so many times where if we're around other people that don't have children or a lot of children, they can get overwhelmed with just the activity of children that my husband and I might not even notice because we're just so used to that. And this isn't always necessarily that kids are even being like, even misbehaving. It's just, there's a lot of noise and a lot of, you know, if every person is in a different room, even just talking a little bit, it's a lot of noise, It's a lot of stuff. And so there are times when I will have two. Like the other day my husband took the oldest six on a canoe trip and so I was home with the youngest two. Because for us that is just so much easier to not take the toddler and the baby out on a canoe. It makes it better for everyone because when my husband has all the kids that can swim and you know, that can take themselves to the bathroom, it's just a much better experience. And then for me, having the younger kids at home, being able to put them down for their nap, being able to put them down for their bedtime, feed them their food at home, it just makes sense for us. I know some people will push through and do it for us. We just are like, this just seems best for everyone. But I'll be in those situations on occasion and it's just quiet and I have to make way less food for a toddler. Two toddlers, I can just fry them up a couple of eggs, maybe make a pancake, give them some leftovers. And so in that way I find that all to be, you know, it's a quiet day. It's a, it's a, it's a more relaxed day to, to have two little ones. However, because, however, that's only because of the current place that I am, you know, the current thing that I'm used to doing and so I've definitely found myself so much more laid back. I'm laid back about so many things. And I've witnessed this with so many mothers as they move through motherhood, as their children get older, as they have more perspective, there's certain things they just don't worry about anymore. And so that makes it to where it's a lot easier to have littler children with that perspective. So hopefully that sort of answers that question. I know that different people have different opinions on which transition is easiest, and I think it depends on a lot of factors because there's a lot of people that'll say, oh, no. Going from zero to one was no problem for me. It was one to two. That was hard. That was not my perspective. But that could just came from me being very naive about having kids in general. Don't really feel like I had a clue. And so I was very blindsided at how much work children took. I just had no idea. And so I was very like, that was a hard shift for me. But then one to two, I was like, got this. Okay, I got this. And then each transition after that, probably, you know, it takes a while to go to that next level. But none of those transitions feel as significant as the first one. And I think each one feels a little less hard than the one previous to it. And of course, this could depend on what season of life you're in. Like I'm saying this right now. And level nine could feel really difficult since we're in the middle of a house build. I'll let you know. But I have found that, yeah, adding on number three wasn't much different than number two. Four again, there wasn't ever one that I was like, oh, this is the one. This is the hard one. It definitely felt just very incremental. You kind of get to that next level, so to speak, each time. And yeah, that's. That's just my take on it. 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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 farmhouse go to shopify.com farmhouse shopify.com farmhouse here's a whole list of questions this person says. I'm new to your podcast. Please forgive me if you've addressed these. Okay, so do you handle teething? See, there's another thing that like, and maybe I'm in the minority here. So if you're a mom of many and you're like, well, that's not. That's not me, then I forgive me for speaking for. For everyone. But there. I don't do anything for teething. I just like teething isn't a thing that I even. And maybe this is just my children don't take it badly. But it's never been something that's been super hard. They're. If they're fussier, I might not really realize it's because of teething. So that probably means they want me to hold them more. They demand a little bit more attention. And in which case that's something that, you know, you'll probably. I'm probably nursing them or I'm probably holding them more, but I'm not always necessarily noticing if it's with teeth because a lot of times you don't really realize it's teeth until the tooth has popped through. But that's not something that I'm like, I don't have a certain protocol. Like I always put this on when they're teething. It's not something I do a whole lot for. Do you puree or let baby lead? So I pureed with my first and then never again. So I just give the baby whatever they can eat off our plates. If it's nothing and they're not even one yet, I'm probably just nursing them more. There's usually something that they will enjoy. So I think there's like apparently. And see, I'm way out of the loop on this, which is funny because I am still very much a mom in the thick of it. I have a right now at this exact moment, a three year old, a two year old. And I'm gonna have a newborn any second now. So I'm very much in the thick of it. But I'm also, I can learn new things. You can give me advice. I can take advice. Okay. But there are certain things that I'm like, that's just not something to worry about. And I apparently, according to my youngest sister who is in the new mom world because her oldest is two and she's pregnant with her second baby, led weaning is a huge topic right now. And apparently you can do it very, very wrong. And if you mess this up, your children will be picky for life. I want to let you know that it's really fine. Your kids will. There are some kids who will be pickier than others probably their whole life. Like I know some adults who are still picky, who were raised by the same parents whose, whose siblings aren't picky. And you know, picky just means that they don't always choose the most adventurous food, but they still eat and get their nutrition. Then there are some people who are always adventurous with food. All of my children outgrow any kind of pickiness by about, I would say seven or eight, they'll eat anything. With the younger kids, I let them kind of pick and choose from whatever meal, but I won't make anything special or separate. I definitely put all the onions, the garlic, the vegetables, I'll serve it all. I let the younger kids be a little bit pickier. By the time they're a certain age, I pretty much just tell them, okay, this is what we're having. But by a certain age they actually enjoy and like the food. And it's not like a you have to eat this thing. It's. They literally want more of the different, more adventurous things. Everybody has their different little preferences, but for the most part, I don't have any child under or over age 7 that is picky. And I didn't do any type of special baby led weaning thing. I just let them eat what could work. So say you're having, trying to think of a meal today we had potato soup, a loaded potato soup. So I'd probably give the baby some of the shredded cheese and some soft potatoes. If we're having something like roast, the baby can't eat that. There's really no way I can break that down in a way that they could eat that. So say the side dish is mashed potatoes, or maybe I'll grab out an avocado or something. But most likely what I'll do is just probably nurse the baby more. If they're a little older, of course older than one and they need food, then I would make them maybe something else. But that's just how I've always handled it. And it works out really well. It really simplifies everything. Okay, which foods did you first introduce again? I probably took that more seriously many, many years ago. But for the last several children, just whatever we're eating now, we are a from scratch family. I make food from scratch, quality ingredients, all that good stuff. Stuff. And so there's always usually something good. But I don't I don't necessarily prioritize. Oh, I, I give them this certain food. I'm going to specifically feed the baby. They will just get what we're eating. Do any of your kids have allergies? No, thankfully we deal with no allergies. That would definitely make things a lot more complicated. Do you take Tylenol during pregnancy? I never have. I don't. I actually have not taken Tylenol at all. Except for a few babies back. I thought I would try to see if it would help with the afterbirth cramps. It didn't. You need an epidural for those not Tylenol. So no, I don't take Tylenol at all. We actually, I don't think anybody in my family has taken Tylenol except for my daughter when she had her wisdom teeth pulled. Other than that, it's just not something we ever have. What sunblock do you use on babies? So usually just a hat and a long sleeve shirt if we're going to be out a long time and there's no shade. Something zinc oxide based. Did any of your kids develop bald spots as babies? Every single one of them. Every single one of them. If babies have hair, they will get that bald spot on the back and yes, it will grow back in. Will you encourage college? Oh, that is such a loaded question. But short answer is no, I will not. I won't discourage it necessarily if they have a certain very specific career that they want to go into. But I do not think everybody needs to go for sure. Have you ever had a miscarriage? I have had one miscarriage. Do you take birth control? I bet you can tell I don't. How many children do you want? We've never put a number on it. I did way back when we first got married. Kind of like, you know, extrapolate it out and think, oh, we might have like 10 children. I'm turning 40 this year, so, you know, this is our ninth. I won't probably have many more at all. So, you know, it's just so funny being on the other end of that. Like when I was 22, I had just gotten married. I was like, man, people say if you nurse that you don't get pregnant right away. Now of course, that's very different for everybody. I fully understand. Some people get pregnant right away while nursing. I am, I don't like. My kids get. I get the whole two year spacing based on nursing. And so I was like, oh, that would be interesting. You know, if it was about every other year. It's just funny being 39 now and just, just like that. I've been married almost 18 years and have nine. Almost, well, at this point, probably nine children. So quite interesting. And then she says, are you living the life you dream about? I absolutely am now. Does that mean every single day I am blissfully aware of that? No, just like, like probably everyone. I struggle to always see how blessed I am and just you're living through your day to day stuff. You have your just your regular emotions, your ups and downs of, of how you know how you feel about things. I don't think there's any circumstances in life that would protect you from that. It's, it's mindset stuff. So like there's, there are people who aren't, they didn't get everything they dreamed about and who are still able to have so much joy and perspective on that. And I, I can't say like, even though, like when I really look at it, I'm like, oh my goodness, yes. Like I am. I have all the things I, I wanted as far as family goes and everything. But do I always exactly see that? No. No, I do not. So. Okay. Hi Lisa. You mention always having some type of bread fermenting on the counter for all your sourdough bread recipes. Hamburger buns, bagels, bread, dinner rolls. Do you often do the stretch and fold method for the dough versus kneading any of them? Curious of the stretch and fold method can be used for any of those as I find it so much easier than kneading by hand. Also, what's your go to everyday bread recipe for your family? We've been doing your new freshly milled flour sourdough bread recipe and enjoy it. So I stretch and fold everything now. I made this change probably around a year ago when we moved into this house, mostly because my mixer wasn't super accessible and I had to get it from one part of the kitchen and bring it to another part of the kitchen just to plug it in and use it. And I find now that it's actually so much easier and less overwhelming because it's just one bowl, no tools. It has to need a really long time if you kind of force it. So when you put stuff in there, put all your dough ingredients and if you're trying to really quickly knead it, not letting it have that period of time where the liquid sits with the flour, you're forcing the gluten, at least in my experience, to develop that elasticity. It will work. It'll take long time like you might have to on A really wet dough like brioche. I used to let my mixer go for 30 minutes to really develop, and it did. It developed. Now when I make brioche, I mix all the ingredients up in a bowl with my hands, walk away for about maybe even an hour so that it can really soak it all up. The gluten starts naturally developing just from that interaction. I don't know what the science is there. I've just observed it. The first stretch and fold's a bit shaggy. By about two or three, it's smooth and elastic. You can go on to do 4, 5, and 6 or not. And that works for any dough. It is like. It's been a game changer for me personally. And it's funny because all my blog posts still have the instructions where you put it in the mixer and you turn that mixer on with the dough hook and then you let it knead for a good long while or hand knead. And it took me a while to realize that because you're doing sourdough starter and it's a slow rise, unlike yeast, where it would already be through its first rise by the time you got to the stretch and folds. It affords you the opportunity to do stretch and folds. And for me personally, that is just so much easier now that I've been using so much more freshly milled flour. And after learning the trick to weigh the wheat berries. So I put my bowl on the scale, pour the wheat berries in until it's the amount that I want, put it through the mill, straight into the bowl, and then add the rest of the ingredients right there to the bowl. It just is so streamlined to not use another tool, to not get another tool involved. Because if you're doing freshly milled flour, you know, you're using one bowl to mill your grains into another, the mixer bowl to mix your ingredients into. I'm just doing it all in one, doing a quick little mix up with my hands, walking away for a while, and then throughout the day, just going over there and doing a stretch and fold. You know, a stretch and fold takes what, five to 10 seconds? It doesn't take any time at all. You just need to sort of be around your kitchen to develop that gluten. So that could be a reason why you might choose to force it done with the. The mixer and the dough hook. Because you're going to be out of your kitchen the rest of the day. You want to get it all mixed up. For me, usually when I'm making bread, I'm just around and it's no big deal. I will say if you want to do something really hands off. And you say you want to mix it up, but then you don't want to be in your kitchen at all the rest of the day. Like say it's 6pm and tomorrow morning at 10am you are leaving with a field trip group to go somewhere for the day and you want homemade bread, but it's 6pm and you knead it by 10am in that situation, I'll do bagels every time because I can mix up the dough with my hands. It's a little dry. Bagel dough is very dry. And I find that if you do a quick initial mix, walk away for an hour and then come back and mix it up the rest of the way, it'll mix up a lot easier. Let that rise overnight. In the morning at like 7am, shape them, put them on top of your oven, turn the oven on because you're preheating for the bagels. Get your boiling water, like your pot ready, then get all the kids ready, do whatever you have to do for the morning. Maybe make them breakfast by about an hour or so. When sitting on top of that hot oven, they'll have risen poofy enough to put into your boiling water. And then you can bake them, say get them in if you're needing to leave at 10 o', clock, get them in the oven by 9:30 and tell your kids, when these bagels come out, we're leaving. So what you do is, I've just done this so many times. Bagels is what I do every time in this exact situation. So when the bagels go in the oven, it's basically get the water bottles, get the shoes on and get in the van, because that takes about 30 minutes anyways. And then I grab the bagels out and leave. And yes, I take hot bagels. If I need to pack them in any way, I will wrap them in tea towels and then throw them in a bag. And then I'll have already packed the cooler with the meat and the cheese and all of that. And then the last thing I have to throw in are those bagels. Don't forget your bread knife. And then when you get to the place your bagels have cooled, you have your meat and your cheese and so you can slice them in half and make the sandwiches. So I have done this so many times and it's a really good way for, like, if you, if you think about something the night before that you want the next day, you might think what sourdough thing can you do? It's bagels. That's what I do in those situations. So as far as our everyday bread recipe, bagels is definitely one of them. I'm probably doing that half the time that we need sandwiches and then I would say my other, my second most common one I do is just the beginner. Sourdough loaf. Half whole grain, half all purpose. We love a crusty loaf. I know some people love the texture and the softness of sandwich. Our family does not. We definitely prefer a crusty loaf and therefore I find that a little all purpose really helps. Bagels. You can get away with a little bit more whole grain flour and them still taste really great and have that chewy interior kind of crusty exterior. If you do like 2/3 whole grain, 1/3 all purpose, it yields a really great result. Honestly, even 100 whole grain works out really well with bagels. I find for the crusty sourdough boule that I really like the half all purpose. You can do it with all whole grain. It's great, looks great. I just, I find it worth it for the taste to add a little bit of all purpose to make it delicious. So yeah, that is, that is how I'm currently doing sourdough. Running out of pantry staples at 7am mid morning chaos or lunch staples if you have to get the kids off to school or on the bus. That's why I use Thrive Market to get my groceries delivered. 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Select Quote has partners with policies designed for many pre existing health conditions so you get the protection you deserve, 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 Farmhouse today to get started that SelectQuote.com Farmhouse hi Lisa, I am a newer content creator and I'm always amazed at your workflow. I have seen so many content creators, especially mothers, burn out and give up after a certain amount of time. How do you keep from burning out Right now? It is overwhelming for me to even get one video out a week. Doing the scripting and keeping the house clean enough for filming as well as setting up and keeping my large family and homeschool taken care of is definitely stressful. At this point I would love to hear your tips and thoughts on the subject. So I will say, and, and one thing I have to, to point out is in the beginning, same, I had five children and everything was done a hundred percent. Myself, I wasn't hiring yet an editor. I did not have my husband home. I had five little children, homeschool, homemaking, all that kind of stuff. And I'm speaking from a perspective of that being very much in the past. I know at that time I had to do a lot of things late at night. We still did the afternoon nap time. Even though my older kids, kids were older than napping age, we still did that block of time. So we tried to get all the schoolwork done. At that time, obviously I had younger ages because if, if I had five, let's see, my oldest was probably eight. That sounds about right. So I, we could get school done in the morning, prioritize that. And then we could still, I could still get a block of time in the afternoon for filming. And then a lot of times I do editing at night. So that's a small season of life that you have to figure out how to not stay in forever because that's a lot of moving parts. So at some point I hired a video editor. Now we ended up taking that back in house and I edited my own videos for a really long time. Currently now my 16 year old helps with editing videos. So that's a job that I have her on, which makes it really nice because again with it being in house, it's so much easier because I'll add this one clip and be like, hey, add this clip in and she will clip everything together. And then all I need to do is sit down in a quiet time and talk for 30 minutes or whatever to voice those videos over. And that works really well for us. So in my current season, as many of you know, my husband's been home from his job for seven years now. So that's like a really long time. Like to the point where I almost like, I forget what that season looked like and I forget how it felt now. There's still there. I don't want to make it sound like, oh, it's so easy because my husband's home. Because we still have so much more that we need to do now. Like we have older kids that need more help with homeschooling, we have more children. But I have figured out ways to make the content creation easier. So when I first started, I did a lot of videos where it needed to be quiet for the videos. And I Needed to have my house clean, the light set up, kids out, and now I have more of a vlog style so I can film myself making lunch. And a lot of times my kids are right there. Like when I pull the camera way back in. My kitchen is currently really small. But there are occasions where I'll pull the camera back just because you can get a better perspective of what's actually going on in the kitchen. And there's kids on the floor playing blocks. There's kids at my feet, they're, you know, reaching up and grabbing some of the food. And then there's times too where kids are just like running all throughout the house. And so I silence the videos and then make it to where I can take those videos, silence them, add pretty music, and then sit at a quiet hour and talk through the videos once they've been clipped together by my daughter. So it might take shifting what types of videos you make so they fit better into your everyday and being set up for it. So we. I only use natural light now. I do not do any artificial light just because if I were to have to set all of that up, I could never just get the camera out and make lunch. You know, like today I filmed lunch and I, I have my tripod and my camera almost always sitting in the kitchen or, or just outside of the kitchen so that it's really easy to set it up. I mean, it's still. You still have to get the shot into perspective. Usually what I will do too is instead of like I used to these styles of videos, they're real pretty, where I like gather all the ingredients, but like to get the cabinet to the point where I can like get the ingredient out for one quick shot. But I'm not in a season right now where that feels super doable. So what I'll do is before I even get the tripod out, before I get my camera out, I'll get all of the ingredients, set them on the counter, and you know, it can be all kinds of chaos in my house during all of that. Get it all ready, and then I'll set my camera up and I will silence the clip and I'll just have me making it so it will take me moving the camera maybe this way to see me putting something on the stove or putting it this way to show me chopping a vegetable. But I'll. I'll just get it to where it's really ready. And then if the house can be loud and that fits in really nicely. So it might just be. It could be the type of content that you're making that maybe requires a cleaner house. Like, I also over the years have gotten pretty good about showing things in a more real way. Like you're going to see that my kitchen is not perfectly clean. You're going to see a fly strip hanging by the back door. Because I keep the door open. I like it that way. I like the breeze, but we get flies and so it's just, it's there and that's fine. I do try to keep my house pretty decluttered so that it's ready ish to make a video, but it's absolutely not perfect. And I have figured out a way to fit a workflow in that one I'm used to. I have been making at least one video a week for eight years. And at this point I know like the little things I need to do each day to make that video happen. And it is consistent effort because I can't just do that all in one day. It's kind of like a little bit each day. And I know how to plan to make that happen. And a lot of times that is what it comes down to is kind of planning the week. So like on a Monday I have all of the groceries I need for the video. I know what types of shots I need to collect throughout the week so that by the end of the week I have shot the video. I'm also working more ahead than I have in the past. So what I'll do is instead of. There was several years where I would try to not try. I did, I did make the get all the clips on Monday and Tuesday and then my daughter would clip those together Wednesday and Thursday. And then Thursday afternoon I would voice over the video and submit it to whatever sponsor I have so they can approve it or give me any edits to post for the following Friday, giving them a whole week to approve or give me any edits for the video. But now what I do instead is I got myself a whole week ahead of that whole thing. And so I have a whole week Monday through about Thursday, because usually Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I never get any clips. I need to get the clips that I need, but I have four full days to do that. So that might mean that I am filming a certain breakfast on a Monday and on Tuesday I'm filming a certain flower arrangement or whatever and knowing before the week starts that I need these number of clips and then at the beginning of the week piecing them in throughout the day like Monday, make cookies with blah blah, blah ingredients. That's not A super hard thing to do on that Monday. Like, at some point throughout that day, I need to set up my camera and make those cookies, if I've planned properly. And I have four full days to collect all those shots. And then the following week, my daughter can clip them together and I can voice it over. And being a full week ahead makes it to where there's never any big day where I have to get all this footage. Now, if I do get behind, what I will do is I will, instead of casually filming throughout the week, which I much prefer to do, I will shoot more of like a day in the life. And that's a way to knock it all out in one day. But then we'll take a lot of days to edit it and to come up with the idea of what I'm going to talk about. Now, another thing that becomes easier the longer that you've done this is talking without having to script everything out. And once you get to that point, it's a lot easier because I'm not spending a few hours sitting down and writing out the script. I am just sitting down with my clips and talking kind of what comes to mind. I always have a note in my phone for each video, and so I'm. I'm thinking about that video a few weeks before. It's just kind of in my brain before even doing the voiceover. And so I will jot down anything that comes to mind. So I have a few points that I want to talk on. But now I've gotten so used to talking to a camera because I podcast and I do a YouTube video that I can kind of extrapolate on that idea fairly easily. And it makes. Makes it to where it's not a super hard thing to do. Now, there are times, and I was telling my sister this the other day, I was like, I just could not get any words out. And it took me the entire one entire afternoon nap block just to do one voiceover. And that is very frustrating. Like, if it always took that long, I don't know what I would do. Usually, though, I can just. Just start talking and stuff comes out that goes with the point that I'm trying to make. So all that to say, planning, so making sure, you know, ahead of, like, ahead of the week you want to film the video, which is in no way the same week that that video posts, getting ahead, planning, collecting shots slowly, and then also having an idea kind of floating around your brain that you can come up with a few key points that you can then extrapolate on. Which will come with time is how I handle that. And so I think the longer you do something and the longer you're in the flow of creating videos like this, the easier it gets. I was talking on which you'll see this interview in a few weeks. I was talking to Sarah Therese and we, I got ahead on my guest, my guest recordings because while I'm recovering with the baby and trying to figure out once again how to like nurse and, and do podcasts, I'm not going to be doing any guest interviews. So anyways, I was talking to Sarah Therese, which you'll see that interview in a few weeks about. She does these regular YouTube breaks, which I think is great. I think that's, that's a good idea. For me personally, I'm always worried about getting out of that momentum because I, I'm in a place where it doesn't feel hard to get a video out and I wonder if I get out of that momentum, if it would then be hard again to figure out how to fit that flow into my life. So I think, I think there's something to that as well. It's something that's very much in motion. I'm used to doing it. I did probably two or three years ago go down to one video a week and that felt so much more doable. Doing two videos a week felt like a treadmill. One video a week, collecting the clips throughout the week, kind of piecing them together. Having an idea felt or feels very much like it fits into my life. I don't need, you know, tons of extra time to accomplish that. And let's face it, you know, it becomes easier to, to create content like this when it is your job. So this is now the job. And so, and it's been my job for a really long time and my blog as well. But it's not like there's other jobs that have to be done. My husband isn't going off to another job. Now of course with the house build, there's a lot of other work, but it's not like we're also trying to fit in a 40 hour work week on either of our parts. This is the like, what the job is and so that makes it a little bit easier as well. So hopefully that answers that question. I do occasionally find it fun to talk about the content creation side. It's an interesting thing because, you know, you just see a 20 minute peak into the week. When I share a YouTube video, when any content creator shares a YouTube video and people piece a lot of things together based on those 20 minutes based on a lot of things that weren't even said in the video. And so I think it's fun to, you know, lift up the curtain every once in a while and kind of share what that looks like behind the scenes. Okay, I will answer one more, and then I think I've talked for long enough and I'll save the rest of these questions for next time. I recently watched your home tour video. I'm inspired. So for those of you who don't know, I did a. A minimal home tour. I did one of those in my last house. I did one here in our temporary house, and I'll probably do it in our new farmhouse as well. Where do you keep baby items like baby silicone plates, bowls, bibs, toddler towers for kiddos to help in the kitchen? Baby bouncy seats or swings, teething toys, etc? Okay, so first of all, I don't have any of those things. We do have one mamaroo, because I have like one in every three kids of mine likes it, and then I have kids who hate it. So I passed it on to one of my sisters. Her son outgrew it, and so now it's back in my possession again. So I have that. I think it's sitting at our new house because I threw it down in the basement thinking, oh, I won't need this till we move. But now I'm probably gonna bring it back because by the time we get to the new house, she'll probably be past it anyways. I don't have silicone plates, bowls, bibs, toddler towers. I don't have bouncy seats, teething toys. I don't and never do have those things. I think one of my daughters once bought a plate for the toddler and we ended up never using it. I do stainless steel that all the kids use. The baby can also use that. Okay, sorry. Continue the question. I find since having a kid, all this stuff has taken over much space, despite me being what I deem minimal with baby items. Also, do your babies, slash toddlers, not get into things that are their level, like your glass jars, your teenager sewing stuff, drawers and cabinets, pulling everything out. So let's see here. I do think that I keep very little baby stuff just because there's not much I need specifically for the baby that other kids can't use as well. So like I said, having some unbreakable things like stainless steel. I use those for all the children. That way we can take it outside as well. That works great for the baby. I Don't really do bibs. We just, you know, I just end up washing clothes a lot, probably is what happens. But I don't have any bibs at all. Don't even own them. So as far as the toddlers getting into things that are their level, I wonder if that. Because I feel like I dealt with that so much more my first couple children. And I wonder if it's just. I don't think the last several have been less toddlerish. Like, they're. They're classic toddlers. But I wonder if they just get used to seeing things at their level to the point where they're not into everything. I don't know that for sure. Like, I can't test this theory. But it's funny, with children, you tend to kind of follow the oldest. Like, even though I have little kids, our house is probably set up more for the fact that we have older kids, if you will. And so, yeah, we don't take things out of their level. And it's not even something I've, like, consciously thought about. Like, we don't do this. It's just now that you're making me think, like, oh, yeah, with my first, I probably wouldn't have had sewing stuff and fabric down at their level or, you know, glass bowls. Like, I have my ceramic glass bowls at their level. It's never a problem, though. And I wonder if it's just because they're used to it being there. I'd be curious with other moms in the listener, like, other mom listeners who have wide age ranges, because we have about. About 17 years. My oldest will be 17 this fall. The baby's about to be born between our oldest and youngest. So when you have that age range, do you think the toddlers just kind of adapt to that? Like, there's. The house isn't baby proof, and they just don't do all those same things. I am curious because I honestly haven't really thought about that. But, yeah, we haven't. When my oldest was a baby, I would have really thought about that. Like, we wouldn't have had things at her level. And I would have probably thought, oh, if, you know, she'd get into this and she'd tear this out. And I haven't really experienced that in the last several years. So unless Victor's just less of a toddler, which he's. He's really not. Like, he's. He, you know, he sits in his highchair and he throws his food, and he does all the classic, like, toddler things. Like, he throws fits and he's two, you know. But yeah, it's not a problem for him getting into the things that are at his level. And so I don't know. I don't know the answer to that question, honestly. But you are correct in that we haven't worried about that with our younger kids just because we have, you know, like, you just can't. When you have a house full of so many people, you can't keep everything out of the toddler's reach. I actually, I just noticed I had that question twice in your house tour. I noticed you keep a lot of breakable items in your lower cabinets without any locks. How do you keep your toddlers from getting into things at some point? My 1 year old would shatter something for sure. Don't know. Honestly, I don't. Now that you're making me think I don't know. Yeah, you're correct. I do. I have tons of stuff down there like that and we don't have any locks. And I, I truly, I don't know the answer to that because I, we've done that for years. So it's not just Victor, it's. It's the toddlers before him too. Didn't get into it. So that's an interesting thing that I haven't really considered. So way in below. All right, well, thank you all so much for listening. I look forward to sharing a birth story. I look forward to being on the other side of all that and seeing how it all goes. So thank you so much for listening. 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 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 YouTube course all one word SA.