Big Family Food and Fun: August 24-30, 2025

Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: August 24-30, 2025 post!

We enjoy a Sabbath rest from Saturday evening through Sunday evening – so I turn off my computer on Saturday afternoons and miss posting some of these pictures. I’ll catch up on our last Saturday activities before launching into our new week!

Saturday, August 23

Saturday evening, Malachi treated our entire household to pizza! He’d been in a pickle lately with his vehicle, so this was a thank you to several of us who had helped him out with rides. This was a great Sabbath meal for me as I didn’t have to lift a finger!

After dinner, Malachi mowed the back yard and the kids pretended that he was chasing them with the mower. This was a wonderful seven minutes of entertainment for them. ;)

The kids were extra squirrely that night. Did they not get the message that it was Sabbath and we were supposed to be RESTING?? We managed to get shoes on them all and get them them all to the potty, then we took a walk to Sunken Gardens.

They were squirrely there too, but finally, looking at the fish settled them a bit and the rest of the evening was not so hectic. We got them home in time for bath time and bed.

Big Family Food and Fun: August 24-30, 2025

Sunday morning, we enjoyed half a pan of Breakfast Cookie Bars. I’d baked these on Friday evening and frozen the other half for next week.

When we got home from church that day, our kitchen was already full of friends who were finishing up lunch prep. This scene made me so happy! I love that people feel comfortable to just walk on into our house and kitchen and find what they need – cutting boards, knives, serving spoons, etc.

I had cooked 10-pounds of Bacon for BLTs, and this spread was incredible! (We had eaten two pounds worth of bacon last week, saving 8 pounds for this meal.) We had turkey and cheese for people to add to their sandwiches, plus lots of condiment and pickle options. Christina made potatoes, Cindy brought veggie trays, Christy brought chips, Megan brought pickles, and Terra brought fresh tomatoes – which was the entire reason I’d planned BLTs. These are a must during fresh tomato season!!

Kelsey cooked down frozen strawberries with some sugar to complete our very wonderful dessert of Angel Food Cake with Strawberries and Whipped Cream. So delicious!

There were 35 of us gathered that day.

Worth noting: We started out with about 8-pounds of bacon and there were only six slices left at the end of our meal. Indeed, this meal was a hit.

Our community group usually meets on Sunday afternoons. But we’d heard of a need that a family had, so our guys spent the afternoon working on this project to help care for that family. Meanwhile, we gals stayed back at our house together.

The project ended up taking significantly longer than anticipated. Our friend Robin was gracious to stay through the evening with me to help wrangle kids since Matt wasn’t back yet. I had turned last week’s Spaghetti leftovers into a Spaghetti Bake with Green Beans for dinner and Robin helped me get kids fed.

Arrow wasn’t feeling well so Asa and Eva had stayed home that day. They made Stir and Pour Pizza Crust Pizza for their dinner that night and sent me this sweet photo of Arrow feeling better enough to enjoy his meal. :)

Monday morning was rough. We managed to get all the kids to school on time, but not without a fight to the finish line. We have to make a lot of accommodations to keep our kids’ nervous systems from completely shutting down. This particular morning, that looked like leaving bikes at home and putting both Keith and Anna in the double stroller, then muscling our way to school. (It was a great workout, so yay for good exercise.) Once they were in the school door, they did fine, thankfully. My walk home alone was a mental recovery walk, then I got myself hydrated because mornings like this do break a sweat.

Phew.

Auggie had ABA therapy all morning, so we played catch-up on laundry and dishes while the girls played or “helped” us. During one of Auggie’s breaks, he tried to give his sisters a ride in the wagon. Oof, that wagon was hard to move.

Brayden gets home before the other kids, so he started homework with Matt. Malachi was awesome to walk with Auggie and me to get the elementary kids home from school. Without bikes, I knew I’d need some back up.

This plan worked perfectly as Kiya rode her bike home ahead of us, and Keith and Anna were thrilled with the fact that their big brother had come to walk them home. Keith always finds sticks to carry any time we go on a walk. Anna one-upped him today by finding a big log. Keith was impressed.

For dinner that night, I made Spicy Mac and Cheese with Corn and Peaches. We also ate our way through a container of Golden Kiwi.

Last week, I had made a big batch of Chewy Granola Bars and they were hit with the kids plus many adults in our house. So I made another big batch of them on Monday evening to have for the week along with the Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies I’d prepped for a grab-and-go option. I forgot to take a picture on Monday night, and by Tuesday morning, I discovered that the grown-ups had started to enjoy them while I was sleeping. I love this!

Little Sweetheart came to spend the day with us on Tuesday. The kids took turns pushing her in the swing.

Throughout the morning, they were picking up walnuts that had dropped from a tree in our backyard and filling containers with them. Then they handed them out for everyone to “eat,” then gathered them back up again. This might seem like a small thing to celebrate – but our kids don’t play make-believe very well. So when they do something like this, it feels extra sweet!

That afternoon, I made a huge batch of Peanut Butter Honey Puffs for snacks. I also smoked a big package of Pork Chops and got a batch of Slow Cooker Party Potatoes cooking for dinner.

After school, Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and I went to our weekly Food Distribution to hand out food to the community. Here they all are in the kitchen pretending to be hard at work. Mama had to make some adjustments to their job assignments after this picture. ;)

We got home in time for ABA therapy, plus dinner of Smoked Pork Chops, Slow Cooker Party Potatoes, and Peas.

Arrow came on Wednesday to spend the morning with us! He played and crawled all over the house.

We took a walk outside, and he and Josie played a silly game in the stroller. :)

At preschool bus time, Josie and Auggie posed by the tree so Daddy could take a picture. Cheeeeeese!

I spent the afternoon at Aldi getting ready for Acacia’s birthday/Sunday lunch.

Check these out! Since it’s the end of the season, I found these 100% juice pops marked down to just $0.21/box!! I got twelve boxes, still leaving a lot behind for others to score some too. The total was $2.52 for all of these…

When the kids all got home from school, the girls came back together to marvel again over the fact that they had dressed matchy-matchy that morning. This was such a sweet moment because they were so proud that they had done this.

Anna helped me make a salad for dinner. We got out all the leftovers from the fridge to warm up – parents helping kids and grown-ups fending for themselves. This was so nice because we cleared out a lot of fridge space and ate up a lot of good leftovers! (And it gave me the night off from cooking, woot!)

I made a batch of Peach Ice Cream that night. Acacia wanted Brownies and Ice Cream for her birthday so my plan was to make several batches of ice cream throughout the week to prep for Sunday!

Thursday morning was therapy-free! So we took the kids to a little park that we’d never tried out before.

Little Sweetheart came for the day, my friend Charlene came for the afternoon, and before I knew it the school day was over and it was time for pick-up!

Kiya helped me make dinner. We made extra food because we’d made plans to take a meal to friends who had a lot of health issues hit their family this week. I had Pulled Pork in the freezer that I had thawed, so Kiya warmed that up with barbecue sauce while I fried Zucchini and made Instant Pot Mac and Cheese.

I warmed some Sliced Ham for our family plus Kiya made a Salad.

Brayden, Kiya, and Matt ate their dinner quickly then loaded up to deliver the meal to our friends. We sent a hot meal for them to eat right away: Pulled Pork with Buns, Instant Pot Mac and Cheese, Grapes, Cantaloupe, and Salad. Plus I sent a frozen Lasagna Casserole and some frozen Burritos for them to eat through the weekend as needed.

Brayden and Kiya were excited to help with this delivery! And the others were sad that we didn’t let them go. Some of us needed to stay back for ABA therapy. Plus we didn’t want the little girls to fall asleep in the van during the ride and ruin bedtime. That’s a big deal, am I right?

The rest of the night was filled with therapy, kitchen cleaning, and play time. As we went upstairs to get ready for bed, I caught these two reading and snuggling with our newest friend. This bear had been passed on to us by some family friends and it’s proven so far to be very comforting to our kids. :)

Friday morning, our friend Kay came from York and spent the morning with us. She went with me to take Acacia, Josie, and Auggie to the park. The weather was perfect and the kids were calm – which meant that they played and Kay and I could actually visit. AMAZING!

Josie declared Ms. Kay to be her special person that morning. It was so sweet!

After school that day, our Heartlands Youth Worker dropped a slushy off to Brayden. Blue Razz was a great way to end the week!

Acacia got a birthday hat from her teacher since her birthday was to be over the weekend. She wore it proudly all evening.

I smoked Burgers for dinner with Fries, Clementines, Sweet Peppers, and Fresh Tomatoes.

Saturday morning, I baked a huge pan of Brownies for Acacia’s birthday lunch the next day.

Justus and Kelsey picked up Brayden and Kiya to go to Worship Rehearsal at church. Matt and I took the other five kids to a park for the morning.

Back at home, Elias had put Fish Sticks into the oven for us to eat for lunch. I cut carrots into “coins” to make them taste better, ha. Plus I warmed up the few leftover fries that we had from the night before. The kids had eaten apples, bananas, and buttered bagels on the way to and from the park. So they weren’t super hungry, plus only one other adult was eating lunch with us – making this amount of lunch was enough.