Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: August 23-29, 2026 post!
Big Family Food and Fun: August 23-29, 2026
On Sunday morning, I was grateful to have a plate of Breakfast Cookie Bars in the freezer to serve as we got ready for church.
Last week had been so very hard as we waded through the challenges of the death of one of our kids’ biological dad. By Sunday, I was feeling so stretched thin – but I was also able to experience how God continues to stretch out our support system needs too. HE IS SO GOOD. Our York family had been reaching out and praying. Our Lincoln family has been showing up and praying. Truly we are so cared for.
I didn’t have energy to put together our regular Sunday Lunch this week. But we also knew that fellowship with our church family in this way is so life giving that we didn’t want to skip it either. And, our kids LOVE Sunday Lunch. So we decided to reach out to as many as possible and to have a simple Potluck. We wanted to show our sad kiddo so much love and after such a hard week, and more importantly, we wanted to celebrate how good God is!
The people showed up. As did the crock pots and pizza and rotisserie chickens and boxes of donuts and fruit and salads. I mostly just stood in the kitchen and marveled at it all.
A beautiful crowd of 44 showed up to love our family that day. We felt so very grateful for this. There was so much food that it took up every countertop we had. Amazing!!
Ope. Justus has rolled his ankle the day before so he had to sit propped up with ice. This was not a great way to end what had already been a tough week. :(
Our house was so loud from fellowship that it showed us another beautiful form of worship.
Caleb and Klaire graciously enjoyed Keith’s blanket with him what with the temperatures outside cooling off to…not cool at all.
That afternoon after lunch, we sent our kids downstairs with Malachi, Elias, and Malorie while Matt and I enjoyed our Community Group. This time was also life giving as we all shared challenges and praises with each other.
That evening, we ate leftover Tator Tot Casserole for dinner and finished off our evening with Chocolate Spinach Muffins that our dear friend Ms. Kathi made for us.
On Monday, Acacia and Anna helped me scrub potatoes to cook all day for dinner.
Emma arrived after we got home from taking kids to school. She stayed home with Auggie all morning while Matt and I went to walk together at Holmes Lake. Oh this time is so needed and good.
Brayden got home at noon from school and ate lunch, helped Matt mow the lawn, and did homeschool work. I made phone calls all afternoon as we were trying to figure out some very important details about the needs of our Bonus Buddy.
For dinner that night, we ate our way through a crock pot full of Baked Potatoes topped with chicken, bacon, cheese, salsa, sour cream, and peas.
Three of our kids had ABA therapy that evening. I captured this sweet shot of one of our RBTs going above and beyond to include three kids in a train. Or was it an ambulance? A fire truck? I’m not sure.
On Tuesday, we had several therapy appointments throughout the day and more phone calls to navigate. Hopelyn came over and we played outside when we could!
Some friends from church had asked how they could help our family during this time as we spend much of our time with our grieving kiddo and our other kids’ needs. While it isn’t easy to provide complete meals for our family due to pickiness, ARFID, and other eating struggles – I was able to come up with a list of foods that would be helpful for people to provide. Two families texted on Tuesday letting us know that they had some items from our list to drop off. Oh, how helpful all of this is!!
Christina brought cooked hamburger meat, cooked noodles, protein balls, chicken nuggets, strawberries, juice, and Zbars. Later, Katie brought two more packages of cooked hamburger meat. Having these prepped foods were to help me put together meals super quickly as needed. Their care helped me feel so loved and cared for.
After Hopelyn woke up from her nap, she and Pop vacuumed our second floor.
Four kids got to go with me to Tuesday Food Distribution that afternoon. Brayden helped me at the food tables while these three washed coolers. I was so proud of how hard they all worked that day!
I hadn’t had time to make a “real dinner” that night because of all the appointments and phone calls. But I had Polish Sausage in the freezer and threw them into a crock pot in the early afternoon. I prepped Christina’s strawberries and that was our dinner that night amidst ABA therapy happening throughout our home.
On Wednesday, we had a rough start getting everyone out the door to school. Once we got there, Keith was able to calm himself enough to help Acacia get into her Kindergarten line. It was very sweet and gave me hope.
Back at home, it was an incredibly peaceful day. We only had Auggie home in the morning, and he and I worked together to clean the playroom and living room while Matt worked on a project in our boys’ room. Auggie got on the bus at noon, and Brayden arrived home from school a little while after that. He ate his lunch then our friend Paula picked him up for Art Lessons. He LOVED this! Matt continued his project and I cleaned upstairs all afternoon. It’s so hard to find time and energy to do anything but care for our children. So cleaning that day felt amazing!
When the kids got home from school, Keith mowed his section of the yard before he started ABA therapy.
Brayden helped Bonus Buddy with math homework.
Acacia helped me make salad for dinner.
Christina had brought cooked noodles and cooked hamburger meat on Tuesday, so putting this meal together was so easy and wonderful. I felt so thankful to be so cared for.
Our evening was rough, with a lot of very long meltdowns from several kids. Somewhere in there, I managed to make Life-Giving-Juice – because can we really just call this a smoothie?
I had spinach that needed to be used, so I took time to make a Spinach Cake. The kids were very excited to eat this as a bedtime snack.
Hopelyn and Arrow came over Thursday morning!
For homeschool that afternoon, Brayden went over to our friend Becky’s house. Together, they made Egg Casserole and Banana Muffins.
I dropped Arrow off at his house for his nap and grabbed up Phoebe for snuggle time. It was great to catch up with Eva and spend time at their house that afternoon!
For dinner that night, we enjoyed the feast Brayden had made with Ms. Becky!
Kelsey texted me this picture of the Flourless Chocolate Banana Muffins she’d made that afternoon. Those are a favorite, for sure!
On Friday, I had a meeting for Brayden at the middle school. Matt and I continued to do house projects off and on as we could that day. Matt took Brayden to an appointment that afternoon. I used a package of Katie’s cooked hamburger meat to make this awesome Real Food “Velveeta” and Rotel Dip. We ate it over tator tots with salad and fruit.
At bedtime that night, Josie needed to be re-directed so I gave her the job of setting out cereal for our Saturday breakfast. She took her job very seriously.
I captured this precious moment at bedtime with Bonus Buddy brushing Kiya’s hair as we were tucking in the younger kids. Amidst all the chaos, there are such sweet times too.
On Saturday morning, I made two rounds of Homemade Ice Cream for the next day’s Sunday Lunch.
The weather was lovely that morning so we played outside for a couple of hours while I smoked a bunch of Chicken Thighs for Sunday Lunch.
Keith and Bonus Buddy had a soccer game at noon. So I packed sandwiches, fruit, chips, and juice for us to eat for lunch while the boys played.
On our way home, Auggie wanted to hold Kiya’s hand. She was gracious to reach up and let him hold on until her arm fell asleep. :)
We had more Salt Dog Baseball game tickets to use that evening, so we had early baths and early dinner, then we headed to the game. I’ll share more about that next week!
