320. Why Family Dinner Still Matters (and How to Make It Work in Busy Seasons) | Sarah of Well Folk Revival

when we're cooking, you know, it's like, okay, one more thing to gather everyone around the table. And at the end of the day, we're tired, right? And we're just like, you know, our children are going in opposite directions or husband's working late. Do we really want to fight that fight? And sometimes we just give up, right? And we're like, yeah, okay, you can eat here, you can be home late. But I think it's a it's a fight worth fighting for. It's a battle worth fighting is to gather people around the table, gather your people around the table. My name is Lisa, mother of nine 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. 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 will leave links to these resources in the show notes in description box below. Now let's get into the show. Welcome back to the simple farmhouse life podcast, Miriam, you could be quiet during the podcast. Today we're going to be chatting with Sarah from well full revival. Sarah Stutzman is a certified holistic health coach, modern home setter and educator together with her husband Brooke, she runs well full revival on their three acre Pennsylvania farm where they raised children grow food care for animals and teach ancestral wellness practices with a lifelong passion for nutrition, natural health and teaching Sarah Blitzer expertise to guide women in transforming their health breaking unhealth the habits and living intentionally, whether through health coaching, folk school classes or simply sharing meals around their farm table Sarah inspires others to embrace wholesome living and the healing power of food, family and community. Let's jump into the interview Sarah, so glad to have you on the show. We're going to talk about connecting around the table as a family as things have in the last, you know, a couple decades, I feel like families have become more disconnected, malnourished, nutrition and relationships. There's over commitment. There's a lot going on there. So let's start with introductions. Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do. Thank you so much Lisa for having me. This is amazing. You were in Pennsylvania, not too long ago, maybe a couple years ago at wellness collective. So I got to see you on stage and listen to you speak. So thank you for having me. So my name is Sarah Stetsman. I am first a wife and a mother to three teenage twin daughters. And we have homesteaded pretty much most of our marriage raising children. And then we've taken that into our community and just gathered people around the table. We have something called folk school where I'm teaching women how to make sourdough, make broth, like all those traditional homestead skills. And just seeing a need for it. And at the same time, homeschooling my children and teaching them all the things like my daughter was just making marshmallows. She's like, how many minutes do I have until you have to go on this call mom? Because it's loud. But yeah, yeah. Yes, yes. So similar, similar lifestyle to what we're doing over here, you're over in Pennsylvania, which is a beautiful area. Like you said, I've been there a couple times and it's lovely. So let's talk a little bit about the family dinner time dinner table and what has happened to that over the years. When do you feel like the family dinner time started falling apart? Yeah, so I've been really researching this, thinking about this. And it really was in like the, I would say, six, 50, 60s, it started more with that, that feminist movement of working outside the home. And it drew, and it drew women out of the home, right? And then you have the convenience come in and take the place. And so and it was just this, this evolving thing that happened, right? And families became more busier. And I think parents want to give their children, I know for, I don't know about, I don't know about you, I don't know about any of your listeners, but I'm thinking back to like my parents and their parents and like we always want to do better and give more to our children, right? And and so that just is like this, doing more, being more places, which then takes us out of the home. And so I know growing up like my dad worked all these different shifts and my mom then started working part time. And even though through that, dinner time was always key, it was always focus. And like we always gathered around the table, we set the table, we had dinner together for the most part. When we got older, it got a little bit more difficult because we were in, you know, sports and stuff. But I think that slow fade really started taking hold. And I would say 70s, 80s, 90s. And it's just becoming more of that trend. Yeah, I think so. What do you think the biggest issue is for families when it comes like, what's the biggest obstacle when it comes to sitting down or on the table? I could think of a couple things activities. When you have something going on every single evening, there's really no way you can get gather on the table. I think some people feel like they have to learn a whole bunch of new skills in order to know, you know, what to make? What do you feel like the biggest obstacle? Yeah, I definitely think it's the activities as well, you know, with with multiple family members, all the schedules. And as as women, and when we're cooking, you know, it's like, okay, one more thing to gather everyone around the table. And at the end of the day, we're tired, right? And we're just like, if you know, our children are going in opposite directions or husband's working late, do we really want to fight that fight? And sometimes we just give up, right? And we're like, yeah, okay, you can eat here, you can be home late. But I think it's a it's a fight worth fighting for. It's a battle worth fighting is to gather people around the table gather your people around the table, at least one night a week, right? And I think it comes down to and I don't want to be harsh thing this either because I'm just, you know, I'm in this transformational journey of motherhood where every level is like just more learning, right? Like I have a teenager now that's driving. So it's, you know, her schedule. So as the children get older, it's, I think it's even harder to gather them around the table when they're older and they're doing their own thing, right? Would you agree? Uh-huh. Yeah. So, but that's where we come in and we're the parents, we have to set those boundaries and we have to stick to it. And it's like I said, at the end of the day, it's just, we just want to just give in, right? But we have to fight for that and set those boundaries. I think I was a mom of young children and I was in a viable study and I think it was Lisa Turekirst's best yes. Have you ever read that book? The best yes. I don't think so. Okay. And well, she was saying in there like Monday nights are a non-negotiable. Everyone's home on a Monday. And if you want to invite your friends around the table, you can do that, but you're not leaving. Like, you are all around the table. I was like, ah, as a mom of young, young ones, I was like, okay, it didn't hit me then like it does now, right? Right. Yeah. Because how old's your oldest? She, so this month, she turned 17. Okay. So yeah, I'm with you on that like driving in plans and just it's a whole different thing. Like, you know, when your kids are little, it's like you have this very controlled thing. Like you have your, your car seats, you have your bed times, you have your high chairs, it's all like everything about your life is like you can design it, right? And then once you go through and everybody tells you when you have little kids, like, this is actually the part that's like kind of not, not easy, because there's other demanding parts about it. But there's not a lot of like moving, spinning parts, like there are when the family gets a little bit older. And so I think setting that discipline at a younger age is something that when they're older, they come to maybe expect it. And I think it's probably even more important when they're older. Yeah, totally agree. Yes, very much though, I always say it's like hurting cats when they're all going all over the place. I'm like, Oh, just want to get them around the table. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's, I mean, I don't even have, we don't have outside the house jobs yet, or, you know, nobody's dated or anything yet. So I'm sure it's only going to become more and more of a thing where they'll scatter even further, because that's part of life. And that's all a very good thing. But it's still important. But it's going to, I've learned that life looks different. So like right now, there'll be certain things that my two oldest daughters will do on a given night. But if that's the case, then the other six or seven kids now, and my husband and I will still sit down like we still have a dinner time every night and just, you know, sometimes not everybody's there. And I think that's normal and expected. But it's, it's good to know for where the older kids, the younger kids, that there's that place where they can come pretty much every single night, you know, less there's an activity. Yes, yes, it's that grounding place, right? Because you can have some parents say, well, you know, we, we have dinner on the field, right? We, we, we're on the field together, or we're driving together eating. But there's just something different about having that common ground around the table in your home that is a given every single night. Mm hmm. Yeah. Now you talk a lot about nutrition as well and prepping dinners. And I'm sure you have a nice arsenal of easy to prep, quick to prep type of dinners. Let's talk a little bit about that. Like if you had 20 minutes, what are some of your go-to's? Yeah. So I think when it comes to food prepping, this is something that I didn't do when the girls were little. I did always meal plan because I was a teacher for nine years. And then I resigned when our second child was born. And even when I was teaching, I had to meal plan and have something in my head knowing that, okay, this is what's for dinner tonight. And it was usually easy, quick meals or things that I could prep ahead. And so even when they're, even as they're older now, 20 minutes, I have like white chicken chili, um, like some kind of pot roast, whether it's the Italian pot roast with a can of like Italian peppers. Um, so it's some kind of meat, whole food, carb and a veg. And I think we get this confused that it has to be some elaborate meal. And so when we're meal prepping on a Monday, Monday is meal prep Monday. And it's not glamorous. It's not something I really love doing, but I love having that the power, the, um, the confidence knowing that, okay, Tuesday nights dinners done Wednesday nights dinners done, it might not be all finished, right? I just have to put it together, right? The onions are chopped, the carrots are chopped, everything just comes together. So it's not necessarily a meal per se that I have that I have like recipes for, but it's, what can I do to put dinner together for 20, in 20 minutes on those busy nights? And that's, I'm sure you do the same, right? It's just cooking the meat, having those staple ingredients ready to go because we aren't, we aren't a family that eats out a lot, you know, everything's home cooked. Yeah. And that requires time. It requires time at certain times throughout the week, but not always a lot of active time. Like I always tell people, even sourdough is actually very little hands on time. Because there's been some geop, like jokes and memes that go around the internet people are like, well, I used to do this, but now I have sourdough. And I know I probably like it hits too close to home from you, but I'm like, you guys are doing it wrong. Like if you think like life stops because you're doing sourdough, you don't know how to do sourdough, because it's actually very little hands on time. It doesn't require a lot of thought. Doesn't require a lot of ingredients. Like we're talking a starter, flour, water, salt, like it's the most easy to bring together thing. And so like the way that happens in my home is we always have bread dough going. So that there's always something to pull from. There's always some kind of dough pretty much are like bread laying around. And so I think people to think that just because something is a long process that it takes a lot of time, like you said, a slow cooker, that's a lot of time, but like the amount that your hands were involved in that very, very little as long as like I always tell people, my kitchen is just always going like there's always something simmering, thawing, bread rising, like we just keep stuff going, but like that doesn't mean that I'm in there all the time hands on at all times. It's just I'll mix up a dough. That's, you know, three minutes, I'll stretch and fold it throughout the day. That's just like a few minutes throughout the day. But then that means that tomorrow there's bread. So I think we get in these rhythms, these flows. What does that look like for you and your kitchen? Yeah, I would say pretty much the same, you know, and yeah, always broth, some kind of broth simmering. Even on our non prep days, you know, there's someone in the kitchen, like I said, my daughter was making marshmallows, she's making an apple pie. And as the children get older and you're, you involve them, it's like, wow, you're, you've just multiplied yourself by however many children can help if they want to do it, if they love doing it. And sometimes even if they don't love doing it, like meal prep Monday isn't something like love doing, but we write down the tasks, like, okay, carrots need to be chopped, dip needs to be made, sweet potatoes need to be chopped. And they all just kind of take a task. And so it's all hands on deck in our, in our kitchen, but it's always, it's always on, you know, it's a working kitchen. Yeah. Yeah. Always something kind of going because then you have options to pull from. Like if I make some kind of versatile dough in my kitchen, you know, that can be used for pizza that can be made into rolls or bread, however you want to do it. But I always tell people that with the size of family, I have it and with how often that we're cooking at home, you really can't overdo it. So it's like just, just make, if you're in the kitchen, you're thinking, you know, I have a few minutes, what should I do? We'll mix up a little bit of starter, flour, water, salt, you know, get that kind of just going side to the side, pull something out of the freezer, get it thawing. If you got bones, throw them in a pot, get some water on it. And just, you know, keep that momentum sort of going just for the sake of options. And I'm personally not a huge planner. I think that there's, like, there's both ways to do it. I think for some people that is like the way for sure. But then also, you know, if you forget to plan and you don't have a real plan going, but there's always options, I think that it sort of works. Who can kind of bail you out if, if all else fails, right? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And sometimes I make a plan and then I don't follow it. And I'm like, yeah, the chicken's still in the freezer. I need something quick. Or like you said, I, I will cook a bunch of meat. And if I don't use it, I know I can freeze it and pull that chicken breast out and chop it up and make chicken salad or something later. So nothing really goes to race per se. But I always like to have an abundance of something to pull from. And I, and I like to start with raw ingredients, you know, because it raw ingredients are so versatile, especially when you're cooking with the same ingredients, you can make a lot of different things. And we like to cook a lot of this, the muller ingredients, or like seasonally too, and cooking seasonally with those ingredients. But yeah. And I think for people that work to like this can be a rhythm. This can be a dance that you do using a slow cooker. You can make broth, simmering, you know, you can simmer that all day. You can, and when I teach sourdough classes, I like to troubleshoot and work with the women that do work throughout the week. And they're like, OK, wait a minute. So if I feed it at, you know, my sourdough starter at six o'clock, can I make bread then or can I make dough when I get home from work? I'm like, yes, sourdough starter is so forgiving. We make this thing into this, we make it so complicated. Or I'm like, feed it at night and mix your dough in the morning. You don't always have to do those stretch and folds if you're not home. Like that is, yes, it's important. But your bread will still turn out, OK, if you're not doing those stretching folds every 30 minutes, right? Right. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I always talk about like the rules that we break, or that you can break with sourdough. And like you mentioned, feeding it, how many hours before I don't even worry about that. Like if my starter is in the fridge, I will pull it out, put it my bread, and it still rises. And I think that the more familiar you get with something like that, the more you realize, like, OK, there's, this is not, it's really not all that difficult to get a from scratch meal on the table. Think of things like soup, just some broth and a whole bunch of vegetables and meat. Maybe you have bread with it. Maybe you're, you'll cook up some barley or some rice. But that's a nourishing meal that, especially right now in the winter time, perfect time of year, you can pull from with leftovers. Anything you have, just add some salt, some spices. It's going to be delicious. Yeah. Yeah. So with that with seasonal things, what are you cooking right now? What are some things that you have going on this week? Yeah. So this week, so my daughter, my middle daughter, she just, she just harvested a her first buck for the season. So we are enjoying that this week. So that would be like the Italian pot roast chicken noodle soup for tonight. I love in the winter time. I love to have soup going. We always say it's better the second and third day when all the flavors blend. So we're having soup. Wednesdays are co-op day. And so for home school, and this year, my youngest daughter's taking a cooking class. And so Wednesdays are her day to have dinner on the table. And so because she makes it a co-op and then we have dinner. So I think I don't even know what they're making. Yeah. So that kind of gives us, it gives her autonomy in the kitchen. And then that sense of like, I did this, right? And then I'm making like salads at the end of the week with multiple ingredients like a cheeseburger salad. And then another one is just like a sweet potato bowl, which is like sweet potatoes from our garden and avocado. And I think we're going to do some venison in there. So again, just putting the ingredients together and not being too, like we have a plan, but it's not super rigid, right? Because sometimes by the end of the week, it falls apart. Or I'm like, okay, we have a lot of leftovers. Let's eat those before we make another meal. Right. Right. Yes. Okay. Well, let's talk a little bit about activities. You have older kids. Everybody has activities. How do you balance that or create space to pause and gather for a meal? Yeah. So I'm very fortunate that my children don't, they don't have an interest in sports. And we ask them all the time. Be sure you don't want to be a place soccer. You don't want to. You know, I asked them because I was, I was in sports, you know, but I wasn't homeschooled. I was in public school. So I was part of all the things. And I keep asking them, but they're like, no, so we try to, we actually try to push them into things like, okay, you can do that. Don't you guys want seasonal? Yeah. I'm like, okay, let's take some pottery lessons. Let's do some, you know, well, they're in 4, H. So that's like a once a month meeting. Actually, they're going to be doing multiple clubs now. So, um, 4, H meetings, but my oldest can drive. So she can now drive to her own meetings. And they're usually after dinner. So it doesn't affect dinner time. She also works. So she milks at a dairy farm and that doesn't interrupt dinner time either. So I don't really necessarily have a lot of schedules to juggle with them. Youth group is on a Sunday night. That does interfere with dinner, but it's one night a week, you know, it's, uh, and I'm like, you can go to youth group and that's your time. Um, so I don't necessarily have a lot of things that they're juggling. If I did, I think I would put a limit on that. I would draw the boundary line. And I have it. My oldest is wanting to go out more. She wants to go out with her friends and we do have to draw the boundary lines with that for certain nights of the week. Um, because you don't, I'm like, you don't have to go out every single night of the week. What's the point of going to Walmart? Like you don't have to go, you know, I don't, I don't know. We live in a small town, but we still have, you know, all the little, so that's the thing. I don't know with you guys, but like small town, I grew up in a small town and you just hung out with the most random places, right? Because there wasn't much to do. You just go hang out with your friends and like, you don't really need to go hang out at the Walmart or the sheets or, you know, what's the point of that? Because I knew the trouble that I got into. So it's just like raining them back in and, um, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That definitely becomes more challenging the older they get. That's for sure. But I think, you know, there's a lot of a pattern you can create when they're younger. Now, when your kids were younger, how did you create an environment that encouraged connection during meal time? Since, you know, younger kids, it can make the meal time a bit challenging. Yeah. I know. I was trying to think about this. Like how did we cultivate that? Because it feels like forever ago. But when you're in the thick of it, it just is like, when is this going to end? Or, you know, when does this get better? But for us, dinner time was always, we sat down together. And like you said, you can put them in a high chair and they stay, um, start them in their, their seat at the table. And so that was always a non-negotiable that we just sat together. Um, they were never allowed to get up and just be done with dinner. Like they had to sit with us. Um, and I never really gave them any other option to eat a different meal than we were having either. So if it's something they didn't like, um, then they, they didn't eat. And we called it growing up. We called it dinner snacks. Like my mom and dad would make us eat what they called dinner snacks. If you didn't eat dinner, then you eat, you know, at dinner time, you eat dinner later. If you're hungry, you don't get another snack, right? You got it? Yeah. Yeah. Dinner snack. Um, and so I think just cultivating that, asking questions, even when they're little, telling stories, my daughter and I were just saying this like stories. Gosh, we love stories. Like even as an adult. And so one thing that always captivated them around the table is if they did get onery or antsy, we would just start a story, whether it was a made up story, a lot of times it was a real story about ants. So and so or the funny thing that happened at the grocery store this day, it was just something to keep them their attention, right? You want to just like focus their attention. And then that also helps with just cultivating the dinner table too. Because what do we do at the dinner table? We tell stories, we laugh, we ask questions, we share parts of our life and the days, you know, and what we did during the day. And so we can cultivate that when they're little. And then it just is part of the rhythm and the routine of, you know, gathering at the table. And I always tell parents that if they can't, if dinner time is something that they can't do, then pick another meal. Maybe it's breakfast, maybe it's lunch. But where can you come together and connect? It doesn't have to be six o'clock dinner, right? Right? They got the box. Yeah. Yeah. Well, sometimes husbands have a work schedule where they work later, but maybe they go in a little bit later as well, you could shift the whole thing to breakfast. I know a family that did that for a season. And that worked out really well for them. And also I, I like to tell parents of young kids, don't get too stressed and worked up about this. Like if you're, if you have like a, a three year old, a one year old, and a newborn, and you're thinking, like I, you know, nobody talks and laughs at dinner like just way, it'll be okay. Like it's, it's really, it's really okay if it feels a little bit chaotic. Because I mean, to be perfectly honest, you know, I have a four year old, a two year old, and a newborn as well. And dinner time is not like peaceful where we're all just like laughing and telling stories like there's that, you know, obviously because we do have older kids. And so there's a lot of that, but there's also crying. There's also some fit throwing. And so it's all just if it doesn't look perfect, don't worry. It probably one doesn't need to look perfect for it to be valuable. And two, someday they'll all grow up and likely you'll have grandkids. And hopefully, it'll be chaotic then, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, dinner is not peaceful. It's not even with teenagers, I think there's just always some kind of, there's just gross language and always trying to stick their fingers in my candles. I'm like, your teenagers stop playing with mom's candle. Yeah, we have some of that too. Yeah, yeah, my kids, my kids like the wax as well. So yeah, it's, it's not, I think it's more about the priority in creating the space for it. And there will be dinners that are really peaceful and fun. And then there'll be dinners that won't be. And so don't hear us say that ours are always perfect and peaceful because they're not. But yeah, yeah, no. And we always, we have this book by, I don't know if you know, Dr. Ashley Turner. I know she was at the last hour on here as well. In fact, I was actually thinking about her when we were having this conversation. So I remember saying to her, like we had a conversation similar to this several years ago on this podcast. And I was like, well, what about if dinners like a little catch like, well, you probably need to do a little bit more. I don't know, like maybe some training or something along those lines. And I was like, yeah, I think we just have a lot of children. Maybe what it's. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I know, I don't think there is training involved, you know, to have them sit in their seat. Yeah, yeah, we're not like that. Like if that, but if there's, yeah, there's always going to be some maybe some meltdowns and stuff. But one of I, she doesn't live too far for me. She's pretty much maybe like 20 minutes from me. But she is. Yeah, I remember that now because she was there too with that. We were both there. And so yeah, the wellness collective. Yeah, but she came out with a book that my girls love. I have it here. It's, it's all well, like weathered and probably has food on it. But it's, it's called cultivating the restorative table. And it's just really simple questions. And so sometimes if I notice that, you know, conversation is stagnant, we'll pull this out. And I'll just everyone goes around and asks a question. And they really get into it. But like even with little ones, there's some questions in here that like, what made you sad today? You know, what made you happy today? Really simple that you can ask your children. And it, again, it's that table. It grounds us and it's that safe space because growing up, I know like things came up at the dinner table that may not normally have come up in conversation. If we weren't altogether in that safe space, you know, things that maybe needed to be addressed at school, things that happened on the school bus, that then my parents could address. Right. Funny things too. And that I think our children then know that this is a safe space we can, we can have conversation, we can get silly. But then we can also be serious too. Yeah. And it's one of the one time you can gather all of your people together by sharing a meal. And so I agree. And I need to pull that book back out because we have that book. And I kind of forgot about that book. But that's a really, that's a really great idea. And then I think that's what Ashley and I talked about that time, similar conversation, what you're having now. And she also has a cookbook that has some really beautiful recipes to consider as well. So another question that we got from the audience was what family traditions do you cherish most? So we're around Christmas time now. So whether around Christmas, vacation, everyday moments. So you have your dinner table. What are some other traditions that you cherish most? Yeah. So we're together all day, everyday pretty much. But I just But having girls, I know that they're older, just the simple things in the day, you know, with homeschooling, we have our morning meeting. I'm sure you probably do something similar. We're, and maybe not. This is something that I implemented this year because I noticed we were all scattered. The girls would just go and start their school and nothing was grounded. And so now we sit in the living room and everyone gets their fancy drinks, you know, some kind of tea or latte or something. And then we just come together and we have our morning meeting. This time of year, we're entering into the Christmas season. We're, we call it elving. We don't do Santa Claus or that. But for some reason, this phrase got coined years ago, where we would just make our homemade gifts. My husband, he goes, he goes hunting one weekend in November. And we just get all the stuff out the beeswax. We make soap, we make candles, the chapstick, all the things. And in every year, we're adding to it. So that's something that that's a tradition that we have. Oh, yeah, that's he considered not going away. This, you're like, wait, and we're like, no, no, no, no, no, that's a week. We watch all the hard cheesy hallmark movies and craft. So I think that's one of our highlights around Christmas time. Yeah, that sounds like a really fun, fun time. I also like your idea of the morning meeting. I think that that's a really great way to make sure everybody's on the same page, especially because you're homeschooling, homesteading, you know, you're home all the time. It is interesting how everybody can go in such different directions, even though you're under the same roof. And it's like, wait, we need to rain this and then figure out what we're direction. We're all heading today together. I could see how that'd be really important. Yeah, because I would get the question, what are we doing today? What are we doing today? What are we doing after school? Right. And so I would be telling them all these different things, but it's really helped just bring us back in. And even my 16 year old, she's like, do I have to be in this meeting? I know exactly what to do. And I'm like, yes, you need to be here. So I ground the two that need, you know, need my help. And I'm like, make sure you get this done. And then I'll pop in and help you here. But then I go over the tasks for today. You know, hey, you need it to be put away today. Firewood needs to be brought in. You know, the floors need to be swept. And so all those rhythms that happen in the home, everyone then just takes a task. And it gets done. And I think as a young mom, those tasks can feel overwhelming and daunting because we're doing it all, right? But as I've in this transformational motherhood journey, helping your children know that there are a place for things like, okay, this is where the Legos go, this is where the craft things go. I never really had a place designated for our items, right? And so now I do. And now we also have those rhythms that they follow. And it just makes the day go smoother. And it makes the end of the day smoother too when it comes to dinner time, where the house isn't trashed, right? And Daddy's coming home and let's get it all put back together in our hurry. So we have those little like five minute pickups throughout the day that just make the day run smoother. Yeah, definitely. So how are you as your homeschooling? What does your day look like as far as prepping meals? Like how do you fit that all in? Like what does your schedule? I know you said you do your Monday meal prep. So that probably helps a lot. So you're not throughout the rest of the week, like doing a lot of hands-on tasks. But what does it look like for you? Just like you like just in the cracks of time, you know, while yeah, someone's doing their multiplication practice, their independent work, I'm mixing that bread. Or yesterday. Yeah. So yesterday, I knew today was chicken noodle soup. And so after this podcast recording, I have all the carrots, the onions, everything prepped. I just have to put it together. So it's those 20 minutes of putting it together. And the girls are old enough now to help. So it doesn't, it doesn't feel like this daunting task of like, oh, I got to get home and put dinner together. Or like if I'm out for the day, where I started, I started working one day a week outside of the home as a health coach in a doctor's office. And they know the routine and dinners on the table. Then when I get home and my husband get home, gets home. So that's, I would go back to just like the meal prepping and the ingredient prepping, but it's just putting it together. And yeah, mixing up bread or cooking the noodles that are going to go in the soup. Right. Yes. Yeah. Same. Yeah. We have a table in our kitchen. Well, a lot of people have tables in their kitchens, but our house is very like the current house we're living in, very like close concept. And so the real eating table is very far from the kitchen. But there's a small table in the kitchen. And so there'll be usually somebody sitting there doing math or handwriting or something where I can look at them, go do my thing, look at them, you know, we'll have, it's very woven in with the other things. Yeah. I felt that I don't know how you feel because you have little ones, but like I just sometimes I do feel like it can be really choppy. That I was like, okay, I just want to be able to focus on food or focus on helping them with school. But I can't sit still and I can't sit idle. And so sitting there watching them do their multiplication or handwriting, I was like, okay, I know I can fit mixing up. Yeah. But then it's like, oh, I feel so choppy and not this like flow. But that's just how the day goes. That's, that's how it works. You know, yeah. Well, that's like the first thing you have to learn to get over when you have kids. Like I was telling one of my sisters that because she, she had already realized it too. But when she had her first baby, she was like, I just don't understand like, she used to be able to obviously like do something completely and then do something else. And like, see, that's just like the whole thing. Like you have to be okay with doing a little bit and then having to do something else, doing a little bit, doing something else like that. It still gets done. It's just a lot slower. You can't put, have like a deadline on it. Like don't think I'm going to do XYZ exactly this in this amount of time because if you do that, somebody's going to interrupt you and that's not going to work out. So you have to like figure out what little things you can do and you have to be okay with that. I think the longer your mom, the more like you've been a mom for 16 years. So you obviously, it's just like the way that it is. But usually when I hear that question, it comes from a young mom who's like, how do you get stuff done with kids? How are you, you know, you're, you're always getting distracted. You're always having to get interrupted. I'm like, well, then that is just part of it now. Like you have to be able to accept that they'll just be like very choppy little moments. But when that you add all those little choppy moments up, they end up with a fresh loaf of sourdough bread, right? Like it's, it still works. Yeah. I had to really lower my expectations because my life to do this would be like forever long. And we didn't start homeschooling until we were the COVID converts. But my children were out. Okay. Asking to come home. I mean, she did amazing at school. They all had friends, but they just wanted to be on the farm. They wanted to be home. I mean, why wouldn't you, right? Like and learn from home. So I had to, and I was a teacher. So I had to relearn everything. And so everything I was getting done in the day, whoa, came to a halt. And I had to really lower those expectations. And that's why we, I have lists upon like little just task lists. And I don't have a long list anymore. It's just this is exactly what needs to get done. It might be three things, but these are the three non-negotiables that need to get done today, right? And then I have one for the next day, right? So yeah, it is. Yeah. And I used to get caught up in the, as a young mom, too, I used to get caught up in a project. And I would just, I would be fixated on that project. And I would just go and go and go. And then I would forget, Oh gosh, I didn't get dinner done. And that's when all, you know, everything would break loose because nothing was made for dinner. It was five o'clock. And I was so fixated on a task because, you know, when your babies are little and they're sleeping from like, they're taking a really long nap, you know, and they're like, yes, I can keep going. I can keep going on this project. And then they sleep till like four, four, four 30. And you're like, Oh, man, I should have been making dinner instead of going on that sewing project or, you know, doing something I love doing. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. And, but it's learning to navigate that balance of the crafts we love to do. And then also making sure dinner is taking care of because when dinner is not taking care of and your children are hungry, it's, it's not fun. Well, if you know every day that your child sleeps from say like one to four, one thing that I tried it and I don't have any kids that sleep that long, but there has been times where you have like a two year old. There's always a certain age where they'll take a long nap and then times before that and after that are very choppy. But if you know that something you can expect, you can, and you have a project you want to get done, you can get dinner prepped in the morning. And I find myself most of the time when I'm prepping lunch, I will also be prepping dinner because you can throw one more thing in the oven or one more thing in the instant pot or the slow cooker or simmering it a little pot on the stove, get some bread or maybe some rolls going for dinner in the morning. So that way, if you do work till 4 4 30 on whatever you're doing, being able to just pop it in the oven or, you know, stir it or add some salt or something makes it that a very doable thing. Yeah. That's a great idea. Yeah. Well, I always feel so like there's such a dopamine hit when I have my lunch and my dinner ready. Like I'm always like, man, I am so on top of this. Like the whole rest of the day, I'm just like, I know what we're doing for dinner. And I don't usually wake up knowing that, but it doesn't take much for me to kind of like pull some things together to make that happen at like 10 a.m. And it makes me feel like I'm like really on top of things. That's amazing. You can be so creative in that moment. Like just like think about it. I my sister in law is like that. And then her meals always turn out incredible. Well, and my standards aren't that high. Like if it's just going to be like a cheeseburger soup or roast, I'm good with that. So maybe it's like also the standards or like it's not like a gourmet meal. We do, we have some like good meals to. But if I make like a nice tender meat that's been in the instant pot all day, but I also have some fresh bread to like toast and put some butter on, then, you know, that kind of pulls it all together. Yeah. Yeah. The basics, the basics. The basics. And I think, yeah, I think we do, I think we do overcome, like I said, we overcomplicate that. It is just the basics of me, a good meat, having like, you know, garlic and onions, like those really simple seasonings to make it taste good. Bread and a veg, right? Or like potatoes, you know, that's it. That's how you need. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think there's a lot of ways you can make a little bit of a variety there with like a different cut of meat or a different seasoning or maybe a different side. If it's summer, a salad or if it's winter, some carrots with balsamic and maple or something like that. But there's it's really not all that time consuming to cook from scratch. I think that's definitely a myth. It does take some prep work. Like don't have all your meat in the freezer come home and think that by between four and five, you're going to prep dinner. Although there are some things you can do even in that scenario, but you know, you'll you'll end up eating the same things over and over again. If that's the scenario. But I think yeah, to emphasize that it's not always a ton of hands on time to make a from scratch dinner. And I think that winter is the best time because to me, like soups and roasts, those things that really take very little hands on time are better in the in the winter. Oh, yeah, because in the summertime, I'm grilling more. And that requires a little bit more hands on time, right? Standing by the grill. Yeah. Marinating your meats. And so I find that I, you know, I'm sorry, there's like a flash. Yeah, yeah. In November, right? Yeah. But yeah, there's more hands on time in the summertime than in the winter time. Yeah, I think so too. One of our listener questions was how can we talked about this and it's probably a lot already. But specifically, how can we balance putting nourishing meals on the table while caring for little ones? We talked a little bit about homeschooling and kids activities. Let's touch a bit on when the children were a bit younger. Yeah. Yeah. I had a lot of the processed snacks and it just made it easier, right? And that's if you have to do that, you know, there's good, there's good snacks out there now, you know, if you're buying processed snacks or if you're, you know, you're shopping at the grocery store, there's better things. But if you don't have the time to put, you know, apple chips, you know, apples in the dehydrator or, you know, making granola and all all the things or making crackers, but I think putting nourishing meals on the table, it comes down to those basics, good quality meats, broth. And even I know it always graces everyone out, but organates like liver and like not eating the liver, but like putting like incorporating that into your ground meat. And then you're getting that nourishing, like you're getting a multivitamin pretty much when you're eating ground beef then. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I think we did touch on that, but I think yes, the snacks is something that I don't know. My children really struggled when we switched. I don't know. Do you guys, do you guys make a lot of your own snacks or do you? Is it like half and half? Like, yeah, we do. We don't always have snacks, but if we do, like, you said, there's almost always on my countertop glass jar with granola in it. So I do make a lot of granola. And I don't, I just make it so simple. I told my daughter, they're like, you need sweetener, you need a fat, toss in some cereal stuff, whatever you got oats, coconut nuts, put it on a sheet, and then just toast it. Like we're gonna, you never know what kind of granola you're getting at my house because it's never the same. But we always will have that. We do a lot of fruit so they can grab fruit, but peanut butter, we do a lot of peanut butter. But other than that, that's kind of our, there's snacks I like to make, but do I always have them? No. Those are the ones that we kind of always have. Yeah. Yeah. Same for us. I mean, yogurt. I used to make my own yogurt. I used to make it a lot, but I just noticed that they didn't eat it. They like, they prefer store bought yogurt. I'm like, okay, fine. We'll just get some plain yogurt at the store and, and at all the, we'll go to all the and get some plain yogurt. So yogurt, peanut butter, I will do pretzels, but the transition from box snacks to homemade snacks was quite a transition because here in Pennsylvania, we have like dense and dense stores. I don't know if you have those where you are. So you guys, they're probably like omniscient midnight stores, right? Like we can get those too. Yes. Like where are your stuffs? You can get like a box of like 50 cliff bars for like 75 cents. Something like that. You go to like the omniscient midnight stores. Right. Yes. And so it was like, oh man, I can't like how can I pass this up? And you know, any bunnies and all the organic and I do the air quotes were organic because now I'm like, oh gosh, that's just a label because my children will go crazy. They would eat an entire box of any bunnies and then we can keep those things. Like they're like a you buy them, you eat them and then that's it because it's like when they when kids know you have them, it's like way too exciting. Exactly. And so now it's just like special occasions or you know, every now and then our road trips are something. And so to transition them off of the snack food to whole foods. And really, I don't I don't want them to snack during between meal time just because of like dental health and like constantly having something on their teeth. So it's like really just putting nourishing meals on the table. And that's where they sit and they eat their food, right? They eat what's provided. But yes, we have the fruit, the cheese sticks, maybe some charcuterie meat, yogurt, hard boiled eggs. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and and we are talking about how we like to get them to eat what we're having. Like if we're having something that's not their favorite thing in the whole entire world, what I find is if they've snacked, then of course, they'll just not eat because it's enough to keep them going. And so we do try to avoid a lot of snacks simply because then if I make something that's like less than their favorite thing in the entire world, they just won't eat it. Like if they're not, we call it hunger sauce, like hunger sauce makes everything delicious. I never heard that. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. My husband wrote it in a book somewhere and it really stuck because it it's it's so true. Like if I'm really hungry, just an egg and a slice of sourdough toast is like the most delicious thing in the entire world. If I'm not hungry, it's just like whatever. It's fine. You know, so it works the same with with children. Yeah. And I noticed that like in the morning, I let them like I have breakfast options and we don't do cereal. That was another thing we transitioned off of because always try to do eggs, right? Eggs and sourdough toast in the morning and they get they get tired of it. So then they'll go for yogurt or sometimes they're there's they don't like any option and they don't eat breakfast. And that's what I noticed that they have meltdowns, like especially my youngest. I'll say to the other girls because I usually have things that I do in the morning where they're they're on their own for maybe like an hour for breakfast time. They eat their breakfast, they get ready, they do their morning chores and I do what I need to do. And I'm like did did some of the breakfast this morning? And they're like no and like she will like she will have meltdowns and I was like okay blood sugar, right? So making sure that yeah. Yeah, yeah. Because the meltdowns, the blood sugar, you know, drops, creates have it just wreaks havoc in our day for the whole day then, you know, to to center that and come back to feeling normal again. That takes time. Yes, absolutely. One of the questions I got, I think this is a good one possibly to end on especially this time of year with Christmas time. There's hosting to be done. What does your go to when you're hosting? The question was how can we host another family and still serve wholesome, simple, nourishing food? I think that's another one we kind of tend to overthink. I think we have to do something more special than we really need to do. I think people are looking for an excuse to gather. What are what do you do in those situations? Yeah, I think gosh growing up, I think magazines for me and like the Martha Stewart, the country living, the Joanna Gaines just jaded me for like thinking I have to host elaborate, you know, have have things set out, have a beautiful table setting. Now I love all those women like I and country living magazine love it. But like that's what I grew up on, right? Did you like, I don't know, we gathered around we always read magazines, you know, we didn't have yes, I still love magazines actually. I do, I do, I do and hard copies of something that I'm not so I'm not getting distracted. But I think we also now we do have the digital, you know, the phones and the Pinterest and Instagram. And you're seeing all these elaborate table settings and people hosting and it looks like fun, right? But I don't know about you, but when I get invited to someone invites me for dinner, I'm thinking awesome, I can't wait to see them, I can't wait to gather with them. And I can't wait to not have to cook dinner, right? Of course, we bring something, right? Because most people will want to bring something to dinner. But if we invite someone for dinner or host another family, it's the same thing that I would cook for dinner that week, right? It's I'm not doing anything special. It's just I make extra, right? Yeah. And I feel like we're always making extra of everything. So, you know, instead of doubling it, I'll triple it. Right. Yeah. And that's pretty much, I don't, I don't complicate it at all. And I don't think that do people really want us to complicate it. I don't know if if I was going to someone's house, invite it for dinner. I don't want them to go through all the work to make an elaborate meal for me. I'm just honored that they would invite me into their home and invite me to gather around their table. Yeah. Yes. Exactly. I think that's definitely true. I'm not picking you and someone else's cooking for me, right? It's it's all good. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Tell the listeners where they can follow along with you, what you offer, what you have coming up, maybe any types of classes or workshops. Yeah. All those kind of things. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you Lisa. Yeah. So I'm at WellfolkRevival.com on on my website. I'm on Instagram most of the time. So WellfolkRevival. And try to YouTube channel. You know, there's so many different avenues to go. But I think like I'm mostly on Instagram. Yeah. And I took a sabbatical this year from teaching folk school classes, which is which are my hands-on classes. And I'm starting back up in 2026 with some more sourdough classes. Oh, okay. Don't have any dates on the calendar yet. I'm just revising it because I want it to be something that's going to be not just a class that someone comes to. I wanted to be something that cultivates and that they can take back and cultivate around their table, right? And implement around their home, like in their kitchen. So more classes in 2026. Yeah. And with a rebranded revise of that, I do have an online membership right now. It's called the greenhouse groups. And that was something that was just started out of people that are in different states. So we're in Pennsylvania. And I get the tri tri state areas. So like New Jersey, Delaware, New York. I have people that will travel in for classes. But then you have people that are on in California. So they're like, can you just record your classes? And so I just what I did was recorded in my kitchen, how to make sourdough. And that's January, February is how to make bone broth. So it's one skill a month for an entire year. And so when we can go in there and learn those skills and they can pick whichever month they want to start with. And it's really just those homestead kitchen skills. And then right now I have a book. We put my daughters and I put all of our DIY stuff in one book called homemade. And it's all the DIY Christmas gifts. Oh, cool. I wouldn't even say Christmas gifts. Yeah. But just gifts that you can give as host as gifts. Birthday gifts, housewarming gifts. But obviously at Christmas time, it's a little bit more fun to make a lot of things out of that book. So we have that on our website as well. Awesome. Awesome. So many great things over at wellfulcrivival.com as well as at wellful revival on Instagram. And we will leave that link down in the show notes or the description box depending on where you're watching or listening to this. Again, thank you so much Sarah. It was really enjoyable talking to you. I think there's so much beauty to be had around the table. A great place of connection, nourishing food doesn't have to be too complicated. And I think that that was very encouraging. Yeah. Thank you Lisa. Thanks as always for listening to the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. My husband Luke and I and our kids work together side by side on our farm in Missouri and use our blog podcast and YouTube channel to reach other homemakers, home cooks and home stethers with practical recipes and daily family life. For everyday sourdough recipes, make sure to check out our blog farmasambune.com. And to dig deeper, we do also offer a course called SimpleSourdough over at bit.ly forward slash farmhouse sourdough course all one word. We also teach people how to ferment vegetables and mill their own grains through our courses, fresh firments and freshly milled grains. We will leave links for all of that down in the show notes below.