311. Create a Home That Works for You, Not Against You | Simplifying Motherhood with Sarah Therése

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CUI more than three million families have chosen K-12. Find a K-12 powered school near you today. Enrollment portals are now open. Go to k-12.com slash farmhouse to learn more. That's the letter K, the number 12.com slash farmhouse. K-12.com slash farmhouse. So in the same way that I like having maps open when I go driving so I don't get lost, in the same way I like having minimalism and a knowledge of my home so I can work through my home well and with ease. It's so normal, we don't think about it. We're not sure where is the thing in our home and do we actually use this and clutter does take up so much mental and emotional space. The cool thing about minimalism is that it pulls back my time with my items so I can put more time towards my children. My name is Lisa, mother of nine 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 and the Simple Sewing Series. I also help people reach their goals from home through my business courses, Create Your Blog Dream and YouTube Success Academy. I will leave links to these resources in the show notes in description box below. Now let's get into the show. Welcome back to the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. Today we are having on Sarah Therese Back by Popular Demand. So many repeat guests this year just because there have been guests that you all say we heard from them in the past. We want to hear from them again and today specifically with Sarah Therese, we're going to talk about maintaining your home. So whether that comes to keeping it more minimal, keeping your routines simplified and avoiding overwhelm in your home and caring for it. And I think Sarah Therese, mother of five, all young kids, a young mother has a lot of great perspective to share. So let's dive into the interview. Sarah, I'm so excited to have you back on. I had lots of people request you as a guest and I know currently you're taking a little YouTube break from what I understand. So maybe a little sneak peek of Sarah, even though maybe by the time this comes out, I think what were you taking like a month long break? Yeah, you know what? I was going by feel. I wanted to see. All right, I'm going to start with maybe three weeks, four weeks and I'll see kind of how things go. So I'm so far really enjoying it. So I'm like, oh, maybe I'll stay off for a little bit longer. Yeah. But it's been beautiful. You know, it's we're going to talk about minimalism. So for those of you who are like, I thought you're going to talk about minimalism, we are because I think it's so important for our homes. This is something I talk about a ton and it's funny because my home still looks like looks like it has a lot of stuff in it because it's not a huge house and there's 10 people in it. But there are still plenty of items because we have 10 people in a little less than 2000 square foot house. But just the amount of things that I used to hold on to that I don't need more and the amount that simplified things. But yeah, I was one to first checking on how your YouTube break is going and how just as fellow YouTubers, how you decide that I think my fear is not that anything would happen with the channel because I found that really consistent, not necessarily how often but just that you put out good videos, I think works really great. However, I'm always afraid of my own personal momentum. Do you find it hard when you take a break to then get back in the swing of like producing a video every week? Yeah, you know, maybe a little bit, but I do. I love finding refreshment and I love being able to pull myself back from something and view it differently. So when I am consistently going with YouTube and Instagram and social media and whatnot, I can feel like I'm just kind of going in a circle in a cycle, which is great. And I like it. And I like having a bit of a schedule and I plan a lot. So it's actually a really nice wave to ride. But sometimes I'm just riding it over and over and my mind is just dead. And I feel like I need a bit of refreshment. So pulling back feels very foreign, firstly for work and then also just for myself. I'm someone that's like, let's just go, go, go, let's get it done. And I like being busy and I like being productive. But it's usually, it's usually the people in my life, it's usually my husband that's like, you got to pull back a little bit. Like I can just see you're just going through this cycle. And you're almost doing it numb because it's just you're so used to it and you go, go, go. So pulling back can actually be hard for me. And it's something that I know people in my life have to tell me, Sarah, I know you and I love you and you need to pull back. So anytime I take a break, it's never off my own accord. It's usually people say, you got to do this, which is great. Like I love my village. I've already had like anybody say anything like that to me. So yeah, I guess I've never, I've been on YouTube for eight years and I've never once taken a break. And I think that's, it's never, once I've gotten into the momentum of it and the just, there's kind of like a daily rhythm that has to happen so that every week a video comes out. It's not hard to fit in, but I do know what you're talking about. There's seasons of feeling inspired and feeling really excited about the videos. And then there's seasons where it's just like, I'll put something out because that's what, you know, this is what I'm doing. Yes, I have to just, I have to dig down deep and just like what is left. And I feel like that's maybe where I was. I was just like, what is left? Like what do I do? And just the busyness of my own personal life. It was just getting really intense. So it's like, okay, priorities. Like I'm huge priority person. If I can look at my month, I can pick out my priorities for that month. And I looked into kind of July, August, and I was looking at priorities and work actually wasn't one of them. YouTube actually wasn't one of them. There are so many other things that were just like dominating my mind and things that I had to do. A lot of the behind the scenes stuff that I was like, oh, like actually YouTube isn't my priority right now. Where usually it is. And usually I can kind of fit my life into my YouTube because I share my life. I'm not going kind of outside of my life to make content. My life is my content. Yeah, very similar to you, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, which is lovely. And I love it. But there was just, I was just looking forward. I was like, oh, I don't see work as a priority, which was great. And I was like, oh, man, I'm so thankful for that. But at the same time, it takes a while for you to remove a sticker off a board, right? So I feel like I've just been kind of peeling and then some of it gets left over and you have a residue and I'm like, oh, it is hard for me to pull back from it. But once I'm in it, and it usually takes a couple of weeks for me to turn off that work, switch in my brain. Once I'm off of all of that, and I'm just in a sort of sabbatical. Oh, man, I love it. And it's great. But I am itching to come back already. Yeah, yeah. I know there's some people that do like January, because you have those few weeks after Christmas, where you're trying to get everything sorted out in your home. And it looks like, you know, if you're a viewer who hasn't done a YouTube channel, you're, it's almost like, I think sometimes by the comments I get people imagine there's like a cameraman following you. And like, there's not any effort on your part of setting it up and editing. And it's significantly more work to film yourself doing something than it is just to do it to the point where when I'm just, you know, caring for my home, I'm like, this was hard before, I guess. But it's, you know, it's, it's almost easy compared to also then, you know, trying to position the camera. And then another question I get nonstop from people is when you're filming things and there aren't children in the shot, they think they're not there. And so sometimes I pull the camera back about just all the way across the room and I'm like, they were here the whole time. And I had it silenced, which is interesting, because it's it really is like, what we're doing, what we're making for lunch, what we are having. But yeah, it's, it's more work than not filming it. You will not always see it, right? You won't always see the child that's sitting on my foot and you won't always see, yeah, the kid in the background that I'm trying to help with phonics and you won't see me even having a child on the front of me. I remember so much of the time when I had little, little guys and I would always just wear them, right? Like similar to you. And you, but from the back, you couldn't really see that my hair was down. I was wearing an apron and you couldn't see that I was actually functioning and going throughout my entire day. Holding a child. Holding a child and doing, making bread and homeschooling. But it's also tricky because I think a lot of my content is like, I'm featuring myself making home and being a mama and doing all that stuff. But at the same time, I want to make sure that whatever I feature isn't focused on my kids, you know, like I write, you know, watch my videos and go, I like watching Sarah's videos because I like watching Sarah and not because I guess see her kids and kid updates or whatever. My kids are involved. So they're there, but they're not the forefront. So so much of the time. Yeah. It's like, you won't see where my children are and how present they are until you pull the camera back and you're like, Oh, there's all the, there's all the kids and whatever, which is beautiful. I love having the kids around. But I never really want to feel like they're the forefront of my content. I like being able to show myself as a mom first, because of all these kids, right? Yeah. And it's more sustainable because kids grow, you know, I have, I know, I have teenagers, I have drivers like, well, a driver. So cool. Oh, see, that's my dream. I can't wait for the, I have babies. I'm like, yeah, my babies are cool, but I have babies because I can't wait for them to be teenagers. Like, yeah, it's the, it's fun. That's the exciting thing for me. Yep. I mean, for you, like, you know, it'll be here before you know it, like they always tell you it goes fast. Well, it does. Okay. So one way, and you share about this a ton on your channel that you've been able to stay on top of five young children cooking from scratch, home schooling, which when you don't have five kids yet, sounds like how could you ever, but it is something you gradually move up to and you implement systems and you minimize your home. You have really embraced minimalism. And what, what was the catalyst for that? And has it always been like that? Or is it something that you've leaned into in the last several years as it's become more difficult to maintain seven people's items? Yeah, right. Well, you know, it all started accidentally. So when me and my husband got married, we bought a teeny tiny mobile. It was a mobile home on an island. Like it was, it was sketchy and small. And I loved it. I was like, this is what I want. I don't want to live in something brand new. Like I really want to just have something old and I can make it my own. So we lived in this mobile and it was like 700 square feet. It was a one bedroom and we, we bought it and lived in it. And we were like, yeah, we could maybe have one kid here, you know, like you just look forward, maybe we could have one kid. Once we have one kid, we have to move out. Well, we had our first kid in just over a year. And I was like, okay, this is, this is working well. I remember feeling really overwhelmed with all the baby items that you get and you're, okay, you look at registries, right? And you go, oh, yeah, of course, I need a bottle warmer. Of course, I need so many carriers and I need this kind of crib and this kind of bass net. I need all this stuff. And then, and then I had my second, my son and I was like, okay, yeah, like I can feel it's getting stuffy and being surrounded by baby things. And I remember just passing baby things on once you have your second, you realize, oh, I really didn't use this for my first or it didn't benefit me. I'm going to let this go. So my baby stuff was getting smaller. And then I had my third, I actually gave birth in the mobile in the bathtub. And I was like, okay, we're in a one bedroom mobile with three kids. Yes, three little kids. And somehow we're still doing it. And I realized around the time I had my third that things were becoming more, we were bringing more things and we were needing a bigger table. We were needing a bigger, even just room for all these kids. We had teeny tiny kids and they were in the only room in the house. Me and my husband, our fridge was in the kitchen. It was actually so in the kitchen that if I sat on the edge of my bed, I could touch the fridge like we were doing. It could be convenient. Yeah, it was so convenient, right? Very like studio apartment, but it was so, so we were really kind of jigsawing us into this home. But doing all this made me realize we don't have a lot of stuff. Like things would come in, I'd assess it and go, this is going to benefit us or this is and this isn't I have to let it go. But once you get five people in 700 square foot, one bedroom home, you can't just live willy nilly and stocking up. You really have to think through everything that you have and realize like, okay, does this benefit me? Does this not benefit me? And I realized just by having that experience, we're in that mobile four and a half, five years, just going through that experience made me realize having less stuff makes the mothering doable. Like I never felt held back or overwhelmed in my mothering because of my items. I could keep a clean home. I could get my laundry done. I knew where all the baby clothes were and everything was organized. I felt like I could actually thrive in this small space because I just didn't have a lot of stuff. Like it was really, really wonderful. So then when we moved from that small mobile to here, which this home is 1800 square feet, three bedrooms, I was like, what the heck? And we dispersed our items through the home and we didn't have a lot. And I was like, I like this though. Like we realized the necessities from the mobile took it here and realized we still didn't have that desire to fill up the space. It's the idea of I want my space to work for me and not against me. So at all, like that whole minimalism mindset really started with kind of being forced into it in the mobile. Right. Yeah. Really loving it and cherishing it, bringing it here and wanting to continue in that because I just saw how many ways it benefited me and served me. Was there a time when you were tempted to fill up the 1800 square foot home or you saw right away, this is why this is easier? Sometimes it takes the other way for you to realize, oh, that's why that was easier. I definitely have had my ups and downs. And I think especially working with social media and content, you always have that, let's send you this, we'd love to fill this up for you. We'd love to do this for you. And you can get into that mindset of, yeah, if I had that, it'd be great. It would serve me like this. So I've definitely fallen into that. And then there's decluttering and there's the ability to actually see where you went wrong, pick it up and give it to someone else who would actually benefit from it, then for it to just be in your home. But the way that I found what I was getting a lot of joy, but not feeling like I was filling up my space was just using color in the home. If I was able to paint a wall half green, that felt like it filled up my home without me actually having to tend to it, you know what I mean? Yeah. Even across the space here, I have, it's like a pink floral kind of mural over here. And it's wonderful because I look at it and it fills the home, it kind of drives that coziness, personality, I guess, because I think everyone is like, oh, minimalism, I hate minimalism, white walls, gray floors, so gross, right? But actually you can create a cozy home, even just using empty wall space, you put it up on your wall. And it's just there, it's there for looking at. You don't have to take any extra time once you've painted a wall or put up wallpaper. It fills it up and it looks cozy because in my heart and soul, I love maximalist stuff. I love stuff, being places, I like things taking my attention. I think it's really wonderful, but I hate the idea of spending time on those things, right? So it's easier for me to create something and put it on the wall and leave it there and it's just there and I don't have to tend to it versus introducing more furniture, more toys, more home decor that you do look at, but you still have to tend to, maybe dust and rearrange depending on the season, whatever. Yeah, I talk about that how I actually don't like a minimalist aesthetic. I like a lot of decor. I like paintings on the wall. I like color in baskets and a lot visually, but then I don't want the things that we all can get into, that we need to manage on a daily basis as a family. I want less of those items. So I think it's okay and it'll serve you to still, if you don't like the minimalist aesthetic, which I don't, you can still keep the crucial items minimal. So we're talking laundry, toys, dishes, maybe in the kitchen. What are some things that you feel like, yeah, made the biggest impact for you when you minimized it? Yeah, you know what, wardrobe, because the thing is, it's the first thing I decide in the morning is what am I going to wear? That's the first thing. And I mean, there's skin care and whatever, but for me, I realize when I minimized my wardrobe, my mornings were simplified. Getting dressed in the morning for me is one of the hardest things I can do in my days. Just I don't know what this emotional roller coaster is of me getting clothes on, but it's hard. I could live in my bathrobe all day and just have so much joy. But when I minimize my wardrobe, and I have my key pieces that I like to wear, and I know that fit me, and I know that make me feel good, if I have those there and ready, I'm good, I can, I could pick a pair of jeans and a top, that's it or a dress, and that's it. I'm not shuffling through things, and I'm also not dealing with a crowded closet that's become a storage place for this and that. And I don't know where this top came from, and does this even fit me? And I bought this, but I never wear it because yadda yadda, right? So having a more minimal wardrobe makes my mornings easier. And then it also makes me intentional when I go out shopping. How often am I going to wear this? Does this fit me? Well, what is this made of? I'm going absolutely crazy going to the store and everything is made of polyester. I'm like, what in the world? Give me my cottons and my linens and my proper fabrics, right? So I'm more intentional now when I go shopping. And I don't shop for fun. I shop with great intention. And that all started from just me minimizing my wardrobe. And you go through stages, right? You go through the stage of like, oh, I'm pregnant, or you go through the stage of I'm here in my cycle. And these clothes don't fit me. And these ones do. So it's tricky to work around that. But now on this side of my life where I'm not pregnant and my body is kind of figuring itself out in a lot of ways, I have nailed down a staple wardrobe that works for me all seasons, all aspects of my life. And it is the ultimate ease in my morning. Yeah. Yeah. And making sure each thing that's in your closet is going to serve you and work. So being honest, how often have I worn this? Do I, will I wear it in the future? Because sometimes I think that's something we do too. We think, oh, I'll wear this next year. I'm going to wear it season right now, even though this, I'll have had the baby by the time this comes out, but I'm currently 39 weeks pregnant. So nothing fits me. And I'm like, just wear whatever, whatever fits. I always get to that point at the end of pregnancy where I'm like, I'm not getting anything new. We're just going to make this work. I'll wear the same outfit every single day. But yeah, having to adjust for those kinds of seasons is something that it means I'm revisiting my closet a bit more often than you probably are. Like you're probably kind of building this collection that's going to work for many years, which is, I look forward to that. It's such a dream. Yeah. Now what about your kids' clothing? How do you handle that? Do you do the twice a year clean out and restock type of thing where you revisit everything? That's kind of what I do. Do you have like an item amount, like how many you keep? How do you minimize or how do you do your kids' wardrobes? Yeah, I couldn't imagine what you go through. I have five kids and I'm like, oh man, these clothes, like it does. It just piles up. But what's really cool is that when you have a variety of kids, you naturally get a clothing library. So all my kids for storage have five bins and each bin is their grow-in bin. These are clothes in their bins that will fit them in the next one to two to three years. So whenever I feel like my kid is low on something, needs something, there's been another child that has lived before them that has a lot of clothes for them. And then for my older kids, I just try to be aware of what's at the thrift. I get a lot of hand-me-downs from people and bigger clothes that will fit them later on go into their grow-in bin. So I have a library and that's for their winter clothes as well, summer and their shoes. We have a shoe library, which kids love taking out the shoe library. We usually reassess just like you twice a year. It's depending on the season. Sometimes the heat comes sooner and sometimes the cold comes later. So we kind of just assess where we at. And as for their everyday clothing, it varies. I notice sometimes I'm switching out dressers. I notice sometimes I'm just putting everything, all their stuff into one big bin and they can shuffle through. They know it's in there. It's not organized, but especially for my little, little, little guys, my two-year-old and my four-year-old, if I tell them, I need you to find whatever your day clothes, top and bottoms. It's not that they're working through drawers and they're too big for them, but it's a low bin that they can shuffle through. Kids love hide and seek, right? So you tell them, find that striped shirt, those pair of jeans, they're going to shuffle, shuffle. It's not beautiful. It's not aesthetic, but it works really, really well for my little guys. I love just a one bin system. For my older guys, I have small drawers. We love the don't go beyond the bin brawl. And we do that for our drawers, too. So it's the idea of if this is the size drawer you have been given for your shirts, we don't have to go beyond that drawer because I do a load of laundry every day, and you will always have something to wear. Like it's not like I do laundry once every two weeks. So I have to have two weeks of clothes. I just have the amount that you will need for however long. And because we're always doing laundry, you're getting a fresh restock basically every single day. So their drawers are small. They're not big. And as the kids grow, I know, okay, I'm going to have to get some bigger drawers. But as for now, we don't go beyond the drawer. So whatever clothing fits in there, that's what they pull from. And all their clothing is in a closet. It's organized. It's not beautiful. But it works well for them to feel independent and getting themselves dressed and putting their laundry away. Yeah, I keep the clothing so minimal that I'm starting to find that the twice a year restock is almost not enough because they wear the clothes out so much that like right now, we do usually May and October May is when we get out only summer. There's no need anymore where I live for any pants or long sleeve shirts. And then October is safely in the, we no longer need short sleeve shirts and shorts anymore. And by that time, like right now, everything is looking a little rough. Okay, maybe we could have used a few more items. It's been washed every day since it came into our home. Yeah, right. But that's amazing though. Like for me, that's using the clothes all the way. Like we're so obsessed in our culture that we wear things a few times and we pass it on because it's not good or it's not trendy or whatever. And I'm like, man, like let's destroy these clothes. And then you don't have to keep them. You don't have to have bins or anything. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's true, right? If you're just flying through clothes and your kids are getting full use of them. Yeah, I mean, there they go, into the trash or whatever. And then get something new or pass something down or whatever. That's a great way of doing it. Just destroy those clothes, then you don't have to store them. Yeah, that's what we do. And now my daughters, they love shopping and they love thrifting, like it's fun for them. And I was talking to my daughter today and I was like, hey, how would you like to handle the October switch out? Like, she thinks it sounds so fun to put together a capsule wardrobe for all of her brothers and like make it really cute and curated. And I'm like, since we now have a license, how about you go out and go to all the thrift shops and put this all together. And she's like, you buy me some you buy coffee that day and lunch and I'm in. All right. Wow. What a dream. Yeah, how cool is that? I know, we'll see how it goes because we haven't done this yet. This will be the first year. But I'm like, wait a minute. You love thrifting so much. How about you have a day out shopping with your sister? And yeah, so they think that sounds really fun. But before doing that, because we do this twice a year, usually I'll go in their drawers, pull everything out, because things make their way in that it's like, why is this even in here? Like this is not, you know, we do, we do a ton of thrifting, we'll grab things that and then things will get worn out. It's like a moving target. We took the kids on the river a few weeks ago. And my sister was like, looks like your kids need new swimsuits. I'm like, yeah, it's a moving target. Like, I feel like I'm always buying swimsuits. And then now they all have holes and they look like scrubby now again. That happens. It's not just keeping the clothes that fit them, it's keeping the clothes that also look nice, so that when they reach into their dresser and they pull out independently what they want to wear, they actually look good too. And that really simplifies your life as well. It's wonderful. If I can get my kids to be independent anywhere, it's going to be clothing and laundry. And my favorite thing is it's like when we realize there's that cold season and things flip and maybe there are things in our growing bin that are missing, we just have some missing spots we need to fill up, pants, whatever. I love being able to go into the thrift store and say it is your job to get yourself a pair of pants and you need a sweater as well. And you go find them and you try them on. And if you like them, we're getting them and help your younger siblings too. And this is their sizing and just like go and I love being able to be in the thrift store and look for stuff and hear my kids. It's teamwork, right? We got five is that I spy, look and find, we're finding what we need to find. And then we're bringing it home, we're washing it, it goes into our drawer and we're ready to wear it. And yeah, and even just simplifying the laundry and having it as a part of our daily routine, my kids are never, oh, it's laundry day. It's more like every day is laundry day. And because it's such a small amount of time, it's easy for them to tackle and put into their routine. I have never felt overwhelmed with laundry because of how we do one load a day, keep our laundry area extremely minimal. And then my kids from a young, young, age have always had a hand in it. So it's a family affair. It's fun. Yeah, I feel the same about laundry. And I do talk about this on my channel. And of course, you get some pushback, but I agree. I've never felt overwhelmed with laundry. I'm going to say it. I agree with you. And I know that that's a controversial statement. But I, It is. I haven't. Maybe there's been like, maybe I'm forgetting about one isolated incident like here or there where we got home from a trip and we had something like that. But just every day, no, laundry does not overwhelm me. And I have to think it's because of the way that we do it every day. We have a minimal wardrobe. It's literally washer, dryer into the bins. It's just not something that takes up. It's not something that I even have to hardly think about or consider. So yeah, good tips there. Okay, so you talked a little bit about your laundry routine and how you keep an ease there. What are some other favorite ways to create an ease? I'm thinking about things like baking and cooking. Because I had one question, our audience questions, that was, do you ever feel like housework cooking or baking gets in the way of time with the kids? Yeah, I get that a lot. I even get some pushback of like, because you work so much with your hands and you're making stuff and doing stuff, that means you're pulling back time away from your kids and that makes you, yeah, you're not good mom. It's bad. It's not intentional. It's so lovely. It was so lovely. So lovely. So anyway, there is a lot of ease that comes with minimalism. If I have less stuff, less stuff that I have to serve, I can serve better in other ways. So that's wonderful. And then I also think like, so when I go driving, I get lost a lot of the time and I have grown up here and I still get lost. But if I have a map open or in a familiar area, then I feel like I'm capable of getting where I need to go. And so much of the time in our own homes, we don't realize how lost we are. We don't realize the items that we have. We don't realize the clutter that is actually taking up space. I have a lady that I know and love and she said, there are certain cupboards in her home. She knows is full of stuff, but she can't open it because all of a sudden it's all this stuff that and she just feels lost, right? So in the same way that I like having maps open when I go driving, so I don't get lost. In the same way I like having minimalism and a knowledge of my home, so I can work through my home well and with ease because the worst feeling in the world is being lost, is not knowing where you are. And how often do we go throughout our home? And actually, it's so normal, we don't think about it, but we do feel lost because we're not sure where is the thing in our home? And do we actually use this and clutter does take up so much mental and emotional space? So minimalism serves me in a lot of ways is just being aware of my home. And when I am aware, I do feel ease. And then on top of that, I feel capable of working in my home very well and intentionally. And it does not pull back from my time with the kids. The cool thing about minimalism is that it pulls back my time with my items, so I can put more time towards my children. And then also the realization that my kids don't need me 24 seven. So true. When I had my first, when I had my first baby, I felt like I have to be with you all the time. You rely on me for everything. Of course, there is there's so much truth in that. But what's so cool about having kids and they're growing, they're growing together is that these older siblings are really spreading out their wings and the younger siblings do come under them in a lot of ways. And kids are, firstly, very centered around teamwork. My siblings and myself, I just remember we loved being together constantly and doing stuff together constantly. And I see that with my own kids and they take care of each other and they do things together constantly. But I also see a lot of independence where they want to do things by themselves, they want to be alone. And I do like it. And I do think it's healthy. And I don't think it's wrong that I have to pull myself back and take care of them in other ways because I don't bake bread from home because it serves me. Does it? Sure. But my primary goal in making bread from home is because it serves my family. I love bread and I could live off bread. But I don't do it for the sake of myself. And then same with all my other home stuff. If I was a single lady, I probably wouldn't care about minimalism. I would have a ridiculously big, yeah, I wouldn't have to, right? I'd have a ridiculously big wardrobe. I wouldn't live as intentionally as I'm living now. And the reason I live the way I do is because of my kids, is because of my family. So I know there's so many sides to everything, right? But the things that I do working with my hands and creating home and taking care of home, I do it for my kids. So in some ways I do, I do have to pull myself back to love on my kids. And they understand that. And then also at the same time, when I am creating and making, like what you said previously, my kids are at my feet. My kids are reading books behind me and I see kids running in the yard. Yeah, they're there. They're all around. They live together. Right. They're all around. It doesn't only count if you are sitting there one on one playing a game of whatever, a board game or reading them a book, which you have, you know, we have rhythms in our day where those types of things happen too. But by the question, you know, do you feel like housework gets in the way of time with your kids? I think this person is asking that because they do feel like that. And I think, you know, you cannot, you're, you cannot feel guilty for making your children food. Like that's just can't do that. That's if you're guilty for that, then I don't even know. Like how could you feel guilty for serving your family home cooked food? If, you know, if that's where we are, then, you know, I feel like that's ultimately doing exactly what you're supposed to do. Right. And I think the, I think the main issue is not that you're making food. I think the main issue is just check your heart. Like it's so much of the time if I'm feeling mom guilt and whatever, I need to check my heart and see like, why am I doing these things? And am I actually pulling away from my kids because I need space or because I have to get this stuff done. And it comes from, I think, a lot of confidence as a mama as well. And we can see that online. We see the moms that are constantly with their kids and doing things with their kids. And I think it's beautiful. But I mean, I think about even in the Bible, our Lord and savior needed to get away from people in order to find peace and calm. And that's not a bad thing either. But then at the same time, he said, let these children come to me. I love these children. So we see that even in scripture. But the best thing I've been able to do for my kids is in serving them in this way, making food at home from scratch, whatever, homeschooling, my relationship with them is so different than if I didn't do those things. I can see that on a very first person level. And then at the same time, if I'm making bread or dinner or busy or whatever, the ability to call out into the house, one name, two names, come here and be with me while I'm making food, or come here and read me that homeschool book, like gathering people, like, it's beautiful. A child hearing their mom call their name and say, I want you to come alongside me and do these stretch and folds while I stir up these onions or whatever on the stove. Just the welcomeness that comes from a mama in the kitchen. It's glorious. These are the tales we hear from our moms, right? Our moms say, I remember my grandma, she always smelled like milk and flour. Yeah, she gave me the dough. Like this is the stuff that we can press into our kids and our kids' hearts already. So I don't think it's bad for you to pull back from your kids in some ways to serve them and others. And then at the same time, I think if you have the ability to gather these kids around you, and I think it's good for them skill-wise, but at the same time, there are times I go, guys, I need a minute, I need a break, or I'll even tell a kid, I need you to go through the house, tell the other kids, mama just needs a break, or send someone to the piano, play me some hymns, I'm going to need some hymns right now. And we can work as a team and go, yes, okay, this house is taking a break, things are calming down, mom needs a minute. But then there's times I just, I can't help but call out and go, yeah, kids, come to me, like let's be together. There's a lot of mom guilt I've had to work with and work through with thinking, yeah, if I am home making, am I pulling back from my kids? And it all came down to just my heart, a bit of a mind shift, and then seeing how well my kids are doing from the stuff that I am putting into the everyday. Like to see that, that's the true reward. Like that is just, that's just butter for a mom, right? Like it's just so good. Yeah. One thing my little kids love to do is butter knives, cutting board, and then giving them something kind of soft to cut. They'll sit at the table while I'm working at the countertop, and they're really helping, right? So that's another thing you said, giving them dough, giving them a little bit to play with. That's something I rely on a lot. We have a table over in sort of the corner of our kitchen that's out of the way of where I'm cooking, and they love doing that. That's where they're sitting a lot of times. Like people don't see, like they're right over there with their little cutting boards and their butter knives and working on something hard. Totally. They just, kids just want to be involved. Like if they can be involved, get them involved. And I do, yeah, if I'm doing a salad, same thing. If I need cucumbers cut, my two year old is cutting up cucumbers. They're not pretty. They're not perfect. They're not pretty. And sometimes you're going to get a whole cucumber in there, right? Like in your salad. But the ability for a mama to go about her day and still reach out to her kids and include them even in the small things, that's like, that's something that presses on your kids' hearts and stays there for a long time. These are life skills. That's what we're giving these kids. Yes. Okay. One of the questions that somebody from the audience had was how to be a minimalist while also making everything from scratch, especially in the kitchen with all the tools and appliances. You know, you know what is actually really wild is that, and it's, it's still a secret. So I won't spill too much, but me and my husband are in the process of building a home. But while we're in the process of building this home, we are leaving this one and we're staying in an in-between space that I haven't talked about too much. I didn't, I didn't realize you were doing that. That's what we're doing right now. Super fun. That is so cool. Okay. It's like, because I've been off YouTube, right? All this stuff has been happening while I've been off YouTube. I've been looking over into the next couple of months and I see my priorities and work wasn't one of them because this house building project became a big one. Oh, yes. And all the other stuff in between with moving and then homeschool starting and stuff. So our in-between that we'll be living at is very small. It's very small and it's on wheels. Okay. So I have been going through my kitchen the past couple of weeks and going like, what are the tools? What are the things that I can't live with? This was me a year ago. Yeah, right? Right? And you do. And you just suddenly, you see things, you put everything into a sieve or a funnel and just a few of the ultimate things you can't, you cannot live without comes out. So for me, that's my bread machine. My bread machine mixes, rises, ferments, does all my bread, whether it's a yeast or a sourdough or a discard. It also can bake my bread. So that's, that'll be something really wonderful. So my bread machine has those functions, which is great, but it can also make jam and yogurt and it makes it really well. So this is like a three in one, whatever item, wonderful. So my priority in my home is to make bread. I hate buying bread at the store. Haven't done it in years because it's so nasty. So that's a priority for me, making bread. So my bread machine love it. And then beyond that, I would probably say, like, I love homemade butter. We have a dairy farm close to our house and we get the sweetest, yummiest, freshest milk and cream. It's amazing. And I'll take that cream and I make butter and I can do it in my Vitamix. It's the easiest way. It's the quickest way. I can make regular butter. I can make a whip butter and then I get buttermilk from that. And then also I can make jams, sauces, purees, so many things in my Vitamix as well. And I was looking to the future and going and came my life on wheels. What are the items I have to take right away? Bread machine, Vitamix. These are the items I pull out every single day. These are the items that I cannot live without. If I had a KitchenAid stand mixer, it would probably replace my bread machine, but at the same time, it can't bake it. Right. Yeah. Whatever. You still have to do. Yeah. You would still have to, right? And you'd have to have bread pans as well. Exactly. So it's a little bit of an all in one. So what I realized is my main priorities in food can be properly addressed and made through just, I guess you would say larger ticket items because of Vitamix isn't cheap. A bread machine isn't cheap, but they've paid back for themselves the amount that I've used them. It's also giving me the ability to make things from scratch. And they're all I need. I'm not buying a ton of different stuff because you don't need it. If you have something that can blend and something that can mix, you're good. That's your bread, your butter, your sauces. That's everything. Right. So I think just too much of the time we're on social media and we're walking through stores and everything just speaks to us. I could make butter if I had this. I can make bread if I had this. I could do all this stuff. But what we need to just really put everything into a funnel and whatever comes out, that's what we can use and work with. So that's what came out of my funnel. I was like, there's my bread machine and there's my Vitamix and everything else can be done with a spoon and a whisk and a willing hand. So, but it can be tricky. A lot of people have told me I would love to make butter from home, but I don't have like a butter churner and all this stuff. You could do that in the Vitamix. There's no way there's no way. And yet blender, my friends, any blender. Yeah. And then so many of my friends are now making butter, not realizing that they could have done it this whole time, but they thought they needed something specific to that product. You just got to be creative and try things out. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And you don't also have to go all in on tools before you learn something. I think we tend to do that because it makes us feel like we've learned something if we buy all the things. Like we're professionals. Yes. Yes. Yes. Because there's so many things I still don't have. Like even as a sourdough baker, I don't have all the things that you need because you don't you truly clearly don't need them. So yeah. And even, even my KitchenAid mixer, I still have it and it's kind of sitting collecting dust over in the corner and that's because I might have a really large pantry at our new house. And so I'm like, well, you know, I'm not going to, it's not going to take up space that's needed for anything else. And I have times when we do use it. But I'm not even using that for sourdough anymore. I'm finding that it's easier for me to keep a little bit more minimal and not get that out and just do the stretch and folds rather than needing something really quickly. So you'll find over time what works for you and it might be different than what works for somebody else. Like you, you're in your rhythm with your bread machine and that is a rhythm that you have that makes your life easy and doable. It makes it possible for you to get fresh bread on the table. And so that is something that is very necessary for you. Whereas, you know, somebody else might say, oh, I personally do it this way. Great. You know, it's going to be really different for, for everyone. That's right. Everyone's going to put their stuff into their funnel and everyone's going to have something different come out. And that's just because, yeah, we all live in, in different places. We have different needs, different priorities. There's a lady at my church and she tried, she tried the KitchenAid stand mixer and bread machine, all that stuff. And she said, when it comes down to it, I just love the ability to do it with my hands. And if I have my hands in a bowl, that's it. That's all I need. She's a huge camper. So she, that's just something that it's way more doable in that way. So yeah, it's, we're all so different, but start somewhere, start somewhere and start simple. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that actually leads me to another question in a different category. And I think the internet has made it to where this is just crazy these days. How much we compare ourselves to other moms when personalities are so, so different. I think about this with people in my own personal circles. Some are just so much better than me at this certain thing. And you tend to want to make yourself all the things. So how do you be yourself as a mom and not compare yourself to moms who are different from you? Because that's a thing. It's such a thing. And that goes right back to like mom guilt, right? And that goes right back to like, this mom spent so much time with her kids one on one, and I don't, right? So it affects everything when you actually wake up in the morning and you have that and you say, oh man, me as a mom and all these other moms, that will affect your entire day. And I do think it does start in the heart. But I would be a different mom if I had different kids. I would be a different mom if I had a different husband. Well, that's all very, you know, you get close to people in real life and you know them, you know their husband, you know their kids. And you're like, this is so different. Like it's, it's funny when you compare notes with another mom and you're like, we can definitely help each other with this certain thing and this certain thing. But like, that would not work for my children. And I see how well that would work for yours because well, look at them. That's how they are. That's right. So different. And each of us moms have been created to be a cookie cutter based on our kids. I can't look at other moms and go, if only I was more like them, if only, if only, if only, and you do play that comparison game. I can't do that. Probably to your kids who are different. Yes, yeah. My kids, my kids have shaped me as a mom. So if I am this way, it's because of my kids. And it's because I love my kids. This mom is shaped this way because of her kids and how her kids has have just molded her to be like that. And you do, you go through the comparison game and you think if only I was, if only I could be, and I would push against that, but also at the same time, I've been able to look at ladies in my life and actually feel encouraged by the way they love on their kids and go, I'd like to be like that. And not in the sense of I don't feel good enough. But like, I look at my mom and I go, oh man, I'd love to be like that to my kids. Or I look at some of the ladies and I would have loved to be like that to my kids. Not in the sense of comparison, but seeing this is maybe something I lack. Right. I would like to be able to gift to my kids. Or this was something I wish I had as a child. I want to meet my kids there and be that for my kids. So there is a healthy amount of comparison, but it should encourage us not eat us. So it is tricky. I think it starts with the heart. I think it starts with also just a bit of a nap analyzing of our kids. And why am I this way? Oh, it's because my one child has struggled with fear and anxiety. So of course, I'm more of that concerned sensitive mom versus this other mom that's crazy and really wild. And she does things last minute and she's high energy where none of her kids have struggled with anxiety. And they've all been as of right now, they've been very independent and they haven't gone through those things. Right. So our kids shape us and mold us to be the mom that we need to be. And I have to remind myself of that. I have to go, okay, I am this way because my child has made me become like this so I can love them in this way. Because my high anxiety child would not do really well with a super active last minute. Let's do it. Let's do it kind of mom. She's a fun mom to be around. And I love her, but she could not mother my child in the same way that I can. So it is, it is very tricky. It can really, really eat us alive. And I think we just need to be so tender and gentle on ourselves as moms because we do we're so natural to see a problem and go, oh, it's my fault. I got to fix it. I got to do it. But I think in the way that we've been made as moms, I think we can look at ourselves as moms and go, that's why I'm like that because this is what my child is asking of me, right? This is how my child is. So it can be tricky. There is a good type of comparison. And then there's also a good way of just seeing, no, I'm like this, because of this child and this child or whatever. And I'm going to be joyful in it instead of feel almost belittled in it. Yeah, I don't think I've quite thought about it like that. Like I'm always seeing how different people's personalities are and then how that results in their children, which they're, it's both because it's genetic and because of the way they parent. But then thinking about that, you're actually a better mom for them because you're not necessarily doing things exactly like that other mom, like I agree with you. I learned things from other moms and I'm like, okay, that would probably be a good idea. Like I could definitely improve there. But then there's things that I'm like, yeah, that the reason that I am doing that is because of who you guys are. And if she did that her way, it wouldn't work. And if I did my way of parenting with her kids, that wouldn't work. And yeah, that's an interesting perspective that you grow into motherhood too, like the more years that you've done it. And you become who you are as a mom because of your kids personalities, because of who your husband is, because of just so many different things that we cannot even possibly like we can learn from each other, but we cannot constantly compare. Is there anything in your home or your life that you do get overwhelmed by? Like you and I were talking about how laundry is not really our issue. That's just that's not something that is, is something that feels like a tension point. Like I got that one. Like we got that. And then also baking, like I don't find sourdough overwhelming. I know people say it. I truly don't. I'm saying that in complete sincerity. I've never once felt overwhelmed by once a week or so feeding a starter. It just isn't. But what are some areas and I think you're the same because I know that once you, once you really learn how a rhythm flows with something like baking bread, it's not complicated. Is there anywhere that you do tend to get overwhelmed that you have to watch? Okay, if I let the too many of these things happen, then all of a sudden we're spiraling out of control. Nope. Never. Nope. Okay. Is that crazy? But like I, I start off my week with a very ready heart for what is to come. And, and it's not very often I've felt like as an area in my life is taking over or really, I'm really struggling with it or like, like within the home, right? I've looked at my home and it is in a lot of ways my job to create a somewhat paradise for my family to come into and go, just no place like home. And so if I see a problem in the home, I tackle it. I, and I have to, and I'm one of those people that like, I can't go to sleep until it's done. For me, the worst project I can personally do is painting because I hate that there's multiple steps to it. I just want to get done right away. You want to, yeah, I'm such a, yeah, such a go better. Yeah, just, I'm just going to go over it again, right? I'm going to sleep better. It's going to be great. But I am someone I assess a situation and I'm a huge problem solver. Some people have called me the commander, Sarah's the commander, because I see something and I just, I want to jump on it, fix it, and I know how to fix it. So I can't say there's areas in my life where I feel like that. And if I have had those areas, I'm quick to fix it or find a solution because I do think as a mom and as a wife, I'm really in charge of this home. I'm in charge of the vibes of this home and just the way the home feels. And a lot of moms don't think they have that. A lot of moms will actually feel like, oh, I don't feel like I have control over my home and things are just falling apart. And I just want to remind moms, actually, that is your job in so many ways. We mamas can actually take the home and make it what we want it to be. And I think that starts with us emotionally and in our hearts and that just that spread. So one of the reasons I love color in the home is because it is really uplifting. It's fun. It's exciting. The kids really like it. We also, we live in the West Coast or on the West Coast of Canada. We get a lot of dark weather and a lot of rain. And it can be just really gloomy. So if I can create a home that's colorful and bright and cozy and uplifting, I'm serving my kids even just emotionally and mentally. So if I see a problem in the home, I know my role and my job. I know what I'm capable of. I'm going to tackle it. So that's within the home. But I would say a couple of years ago, I felt really overwhelmed with work because I was editing all my own videos while there was other stuff happening and outside of work. And it was just, I was like, there's a lot of stuff going on and Kieran with his work, lots of stuff. And I just remember praying and being like, what am I to do? Like it's not like Lord, it's not very often I feel like this. Like it's not very often I feel so out of control like within my own home. And and then a lady messaged me and she said, you should not be editing your own YouTube videos. I'm going to do that for you. And this lady has given me back back days of my week all back to me. Amazing, right? So it also made me realize that when I really feel like as a mom, I'm struggling and things are going on, the ability to call out and ask for help and have other people help. That's not a bad thing. That's a that's not a sign of weakness. That's a sign of actually a heart that's like, I'm confident, I know what I need. I know who could help me. And then that's also that's just a snowball effect, right? If it helps me, it helps my kids, it helps my husband, it helps my home, it just keeps going and going. So much of the time if we feel overwhelmed by something in the house or whatever, and we have to reach out to someone, we go, Oh, no, I failed. And it's like, no, like you even read through like Proverbs 31. And the woman is actually, she's a delegator. She's not doing all this work. All the things right, she's delegating people, go do this for me. She is in a lot of ways, a commander, she sees a need. And and she reaches out and goes to people and say, help me, I have this need. So as moms, we can do that, we can go, this is a crazy week for me. And I haven't had any time to clean the house, whatever. I'm, I'm hiring a lady two hours, come, clean my house. That's not you losing, that's you winning. It can feel like such a such a failure move us moms just want to have our hands and everything. But I'm very confident, willing, heart is a lady that goes, I need help. I'm going to get help. And it is going to serve me. And it is going to serve my family. Therefore, it's not a waste of my time. It's good. Yeah, I think too, there's a perspective thing, because there could be two moms in the same situation that one feels very overwhelmed, like the house, say it's been an entire weekend, and you haven't been, because I'm in my home Monday through at least Thursday. Yes, I can stay on top of everything, because we're here. I'm, you know, I got something I already have dinner started. You know, it's afternoon, but I already started dinner this morning. I already did my little laundry routine for the day. I mean, I'll get another load going tonight and get it in the dryer than tomorrow. I'll sort it. But you know, we're on top of things, nothing feels super overwhelming, but then it can be a Monday. And we weren't in the house all weekend. And maybe we had just a lot of extra things, and there's water bottles everywhere, and the van's full of trash. And there have been times in years past where I would have had that same situation and felt very overwhelmed. And then there's times like now, which there's still times where I'm like, Oh, no, this is so bad. But then, but for the most part now, I'm able to be like, that's going to take me literally an hour to come like to bring back. This is not a big deal. Whereas before, I think I would have overrusted in my brain that like, Oh, my whole house is a disaster. There's water bottles everywhere and the van's full of trash and I didn't do the laundry yet. And so you can almost have the exact same scenario and how you respond to it, because there's going to be times when everything's not perfectly cleaned and you don't have dinner adult with and you didn't get groceries and just things all accumulate. But I have the perspective now of, yeah, but I can pull that all back together in less than half a day of like our family coming together and figuring it all out. And I think that perspective shift helps quite a bit. And cleaning takes more emotional and mental energy than physical energy. The first step in is to just, I could just do, I could do this. This, this bathroom will actually take me less than 10 minutes to clean it. Does it feel like it's going to take more? Yes. It feels like a big deal. It feels like a big deal. And that's our kids too. When we ask our kids to do something, they're sometimes they're going, Oh man, are you kidding? This is going to take you 30 seconds. They don't have that perspective yet. That's I know about kids. I'm like, Oh, you just blew that out of proportion. That's going to take you like five minutes, you know, but yeah, as somebody, you know, an adult who's done something hundreds of times, you're like, that's just not a big deal. Right? That's right. We've gone, we've gone through the motions. We've, we've pressed against our emotional and mental energy and just, no, I know, I know that I can pick this up in no time. Yeah. Yeah. So I think sometimes when we say, Oh, I'm not overwhelmed, it's not necessarily saying like, Oh, I always have everything just totally handled perfectly. It's that, well, yeah, but I also just realize that it's, it's going to be okay if I don't, you know, I'm, I'm, I've learned this by now. Right. Awesome. So many, I feel like we could talk forever about minimalism about decluttering and staying on top of things, but you do share on your YouTube channel very regularly, even if you're on a little bit of a break, but maybe by the time this comes out, you probably won't be because that's a month and a half from now. Tell the listeners where they can find you and where they can see more of a young mom. Cause I know you're quite a bit younger than me with five kids. So for a lot of people that's probably sounds like just insane, right? Like how do you do it all? Share where they can find you and follow along with all of that. I'm on YouTube. It's Sarah, Teresa Co. It's the same for Instagram. I share my life, motherhood recipes, uh, homemaking and, um, it's raw. It's real. And then I also have a website, Sarah, Teresa Co. Um, I was creating a lot of food on my YouTube and people were like, we are going to need these recipes because I was just kind of doing things off the top of my head. So I did create a recipe website that is Sarah, Teresa Co. That's kind of my home base for easy recipes, lots of sourdough. Nice. Nice. We'll leave links to that down in the show notes in the description box below. Again, thank you, Sarah, Teresa, so much for joining us. Yeah. Cheers. Thanks, Lisa. 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 homesteaders with practical recipes in daily family life. For everyday sourdough recipes, make sure to check out our blog, farmhousehomboon.com and to dig deeper. We do also offer a course called Simple Sourdough over at bit.bit.ly forward slash farmhouse sourdough course. That's all one word, bit.ly forward slash farmhouse sourdough course. If you're looking to learn how we earn an income online, check out my YouTube course at bit.ly forward slash farmhouse YouTube course, all one word.