When Katie Nagle (now Parulski) was a young adult, she thought a strong woman was one who would break the glass ceiling with their career. Then she had another thought; maybe being a mom was the sign of a strong woman. She had thoughts of “Little House on the Prairie” and raising children, living off the land, baking bread, canning vegetables, and teaching values.
This last vision has pretty much come to fruition for Katie. After graduating from Webster Schroeder High school, she enrolled at St. John Fisher College, intending to pursue a nursing career. It was during that time that she met Charlie Parulski through a mutual friend at a local popular hangout for students. They found they did not have a lot in common, but that seemed to work for them. They balanced each other and they liked each other. Finding a strong connection, they were married in 2001. Making their home - first in Webster area and then in Gananda, Charlie and Katie began their family.
The first to arrive was Aberyn “Abby” when Katie was just 19. With Charlie working out of town a lot and sometimes at two jobs, Katie felt the desire and calling to be a stay-at-home mom. It suited her, and delighted her. Aberyn was followed two years later by Gabriel, then Grace, Annamarie, Avelene, Garrett, Aryia, Grant, and Gaven.
Katie, the ultimate mom, who will soon be 42 years old (in December), will deliver their 10th child in August. The clan now includes five girls and four boys. It is family tradition never to spoil the surprise of the gender of the baby. So either they will have an even number on both sides or one of the genders will prevail.
How does one raise 10 children? Katie indicated that the first three children went smoothly and she adapted nicely to schedules - often using garage sales Goodwill and hand-me-downs to keep her budget low. And, of course, homemade breads and jams and sale/coupon shopping. Katie soon realized she was going to need a tighter schedule and more budget planning. Since that time each child has adopted their own a color code for identity on the essential white board charts. The color plan works very smoothly with many things - like knowing who has an appointment or sport or event. They can follow their own schedule and be responsible for looking ahead to find things they may need for the week; for instance, lunches, snacks, proper attire for school, concerts, chorus, sports.
If they have special food requests or notice that something in the cupboard is running short, they add the item to the shopping list. Shopping is always done together as a group - with a list. An entire cow is purchased every year and butcher-cut into half pound ground steaks meat for casseroles, and frozen turkeys are always on hand. “This way I have all the ground beef in one pound portions, stew beef packaged to batch size for soups, appropriate “grill meats” portioned and custom cut roasts. I have a large 10 quart crockpot so our cuts are much larger than the average family. The butcher always gets a kick out of how large I ask him to keep the roast cuts. I will stock up on frozen turkeys in November when they go on sale, and uncured hams at Easter time,” said Katie. There is always homemade bread in the house and canned jams and vegetables. The Parulskis have a large 4-door refrigerator/freezer in the house. Middle drawer has all of the yogurts, cheeses, sandwich meats and any other refrigerator lunch items that they might want to pack with them. There are 3 large freezer chests, a full upright freezer and a full upright refrigerator in the garage.
“I LOVE living in Wayne County near so many farms. We frequent U-pick fields and farm stands during the growing season. I also love the Rochester public market. It is a fraction of grocery store prices for produce and you can buy large quantities. We are also very blessed to have Ginegaw Park’s farmer market in Walworth).
They pick berries in season and freeze them for pies and smoothies. Homemade jelly is canned and frozen. The family usually aims for about 50 half pint jars each of strawberry, raspberry and black raspberry and grape jelly/jam. Homemade tomato sauce and chili are made from tomatoes - usually processing 1-2 bushels a week during that season. they freeze kale, zucchini, and beans (green and yellow) and make creamed corn. They might will grab 15 dozen a week during that season. We have “corn parties” out...
Continued on Page A-10
The post And Baby Makes 10 appeared first on The Times of Wayne County - Waynetimes.com.