Big Family Food and Fun: October 19-25, 2025

Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: October 19-25, 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, October 18

This particular Saturday evening was incredibly restful and refreshing for me. Matt had gone to York to celebrate a special event at York University. Our friends, the Cases, had helped us out by taking six of our kids to their house for a few hours. So that left just Auggie and me to hang out together.

He and I took a long, peaceful walk around our neighborhood.

We did some cleaning, and since it was just the two of us, the house actually stayed clean for longer than five minutes. Most of the adults in our household were gone for the evening also, so I didn’t need to cook dinner. It was a lovely night off.

When the kids got back home, Elias and Malorie helped me with baths, showers, and bedtime. Matt had a wonderful time catching up with many friends and I’m so glad he got to go have that time in York!

Big Family Food and Fun: October 19-25, 2025

Sunday morning, I set out our pan of Breakfast Cookie Bars and everyone dug in.

After church that day, Keith and Acacia helped our friend Matt load a tote full of pantry items into our van. Our goal this week was to walk to our church’s Little Free Pantry to fill it up for our neighbors.

There were 31 people gathered at our house for lunch that day. Keith’s favorite friend Sam was able to join us, which made the day so much sweeter. Sam is so good to pour love into Keith.

We had a wonderful buffet of Taco Soup, Potato Soup, Mexi Dip and Chips, Ham and Cheese Melts, and Fruit. Plus friends brought Pumpkin Cookies and Berry Cobbler for dessert.

After lunch, Matt got back up on the lift he’d rented to try and knock out more work on our roof. I’d arranged with friends to help me with the kids, and we loaded up to head back to church for a fun Pumpkin Palooza kids’ event.

Once there, everyone got a sack with a checklist of tasks, and we all got busy!

The kids got to paint pumpkins, make a sensory bag, create a pumpkin launcher, make a craft, and of course, make a s’more.

I feel so blessed by people so willing to help us with our kids’ needs. Auggie is slow to warm up to people, but Kaitlyn is gifted and won him over throughout the afternoon. This, along with other friends helping with other kids, freed me to actually enjoy time sitting and coloring with Anna as she worked on her craft.

Everyone worked as a team to clean up after the party. As you can see, there’s no way Ms. Mandy could have put this stack of chairs away without our three little girls helping her.

Back at home, Matt was still working on the lift, so throwing a box of frozen Taquitos into the oven was about all I could manage for our dinner. No matter. Everyone was fed and then slept well that night.

On Monday morning, Acacia and Josie had dentist appointments. They were excited going in, but then  quickly became nervous during their turns in the big chair. The dental hygienist was extremely patient with both of them and while the appointments took longer than we all originally thought they would take, we got them accomplished. NOTE: During times like this, I am so grateful for the answers and diagnoses we’ve received for our kids this year. This helps me know better how to talk to and care for our kids. It also helps me explain their special needs to professionals so that our kids have a better chance at remaining calm.

Matt worked on the lift all day. I had a meeting with our kids’ BCBA – the gal who puts Keith, Anna, and Auggie’s ABA therapy programs together for their behavior technicians to work on each day. The kids are making progress (well, not Anna – she’s between technicians right now and we are praying a new one comes aboard soon!). We talked through upcoming plans and goals as we keep moving forward.

When the kids got home from school, everyone was excited to watch Daddy move the lift to a new location.

I had bananas that needed to be turned into something, but alas, I was down to only 3 eggs in our entire house. I had thought for sure I had another box of 5-dozen in our basement fridge. Oops. Nope. But not to worry…I made a double batch of Angela’s Egg-Free Banana Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies. This was a perfect solution and my kids were very excited!

Meanwhile, Elias picked up some eggs for me on his way home after his workout that evening. Phew. That’ll get us through until I can get to the store.

For dinner that night, I had put 17 potatoes into our crock pot to bake all day. Just before picking kids up from school, I browned meat and seasoned it. We had Taco Potatoes, fixed to each person’s liking, plus I made a bowl of Caesar Salad.

During ABA therapy that evening, I worked on sorting clothes down in our laundry room. I pulled out summer shorts and shirts and switched them out with fall pants and sweatshirts. I didn’t finish the job, because this is a BIG JOB. But I made progress, and at least felt like our kids would have a few outfits to wear this week with the weather becoming cooler.

The best find in our totes: footie pajamas for Acacia. She has never been able to wear anything like this because of her need to sleep in a brace every night for five years. We had to get her jammies that didn’t have feet in them – otherwise they wouldn’t fit right. Her putting on footie pajamas wasn’t that big of a deal to her that night. But Matt and I sure felt pleased. :)

On Tuesday morning, Eva and Arrow came over to help me while Matt got back on the lift to work. He cut down some limbs, and Auggie felt that it was his job to drag them over to our growing stick pile.

Little Sweetheart was with us all day, so she and Arrow had some good chats.

That afternoon, I took Brayden and Kiya to hand out food and clean up at our weekly Food Distribution. Well over 100 people went through the food line that day and were served.

Back at home, Matt was feeding everyone dinner. I had smoked 24 Brats during the afternoon before I left, and Matt warmed up leftover Baked Beans. We had a few chips and pickles too. :)

I put together an Overnight Pumpkin Spice French Toast Casserole to bake the next morning. It felt good to get this done before bedtime!

I baked it bright and early the next morning. Keith thought it smelled so good that he got way too close to the dish and made me scared that he’d burn his face. Oy.

We’d run out of Breakfast Sandwiches, so while the casserole was baking, I also baked 18 eggs. Then I put together 24 sandwiches.

We had an intense morning planned, so I’d canceled all of our typical Wednesday “regularly scheduled programming.” Then our plans were all suddenly canceled, completely freeing up the morning. Phew, ok then.

Matt and I regrouped and after we got the kids to school, we loaded up Acacia, Josie, and Auggie to get our weekly shopping knocked out. I ran into Wal-Mart to get a few items while Matt stayed in the van with the kids. Then, he dropped the girls and I at Sam’s while he and Auggie went into Menards.

I told the girls that if they were sweet shoppers, we’d have time to look at the sparkly Christmas trees when we were done.

They’d finished the snacks we’d brought, so they dug into a container of Raspberries as we were heading out. They shared with Auggie once we got back into the van – and by the time we got home, we’d finished the entire container.

I’d scored 11+ pounds of hamburger meat marked down at Wal-Mart. So I browned it all with plans to bag it up and freeze it for easy meals.

For dinner that night, I’d “dumped sauce on some chicken legs” and baked them for an hour. I made Three Cheese Spaghetti and Steamed Broccoli to go with it, and it was a delicious feast!

I had some spinach that was getting wilty in the fridge, so Anna and Josie helped me make Spinach Cupcakes.

We ate some of them that night before bed, then more for breakfast on Thursday. Meanwhile, I had four overripe bananas that needed to be used. So super early on Thursday morning, Auggie helped me turn them into 48 mini Flourless Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins.

Anna and Acacia stumbled in and wanted to help too.

Then we had both Spinach Cupcakes and Flourless Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins to pick from. At our house though, we can never have too many muffins.

Eva and Arrow came over for the morning again to help me while Matt got up on the lift to work. They were awesome to stop at Hy-Vee and pick up my WIC order on their way, which was super helpful! Arrow sat in the midst of Lolli’s messy pantry with all the WIC food plus some of Wednesday’s Sam’s groceries that hadn’t been put away yet.

Little Sweetheart was with us all day too, and mid-morning, it warmed up enough that we were all able to go outside to play.

Little Sweetheart wanted a ride in the stroller, and Big Girl Acacia got permission to push her slowly and carefully on the sidewalk.

That night, knowing that Matt would still be outside working when the kids got home from school during my dinner prep time – I slid Chicken Strips into the oven for ease. We turned them into Chicken Sandwiches with a variety of sauces and spreads and had them with Lettuce, Grapes, and Oranges.

On Friday morning, Acacia had Speech Therapy and Physical Therapy.

That night was chilly outside, which made Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Tomato Soup a perfect dinner.

Saturday morning, Keith was in dire need of high protein snacks. I’d made muffins this week, but I didn’t have any of our typical peanut butter snacks on hand to meet his “I need food and I need it now” times of they day. (This isn’t Keith’s fault – it’s the way his brain and body are wired. He struggles at meal time, can’t always wait to eat until meal time, and in general often needs a good snack to help him with transitions.)

So, I made a double batch of Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies and a huge batch of Chewy Granola Bars to have on hand. The adults in the house like all these too, so none of this will last long!

We loaded up all the kids at 8:50 that morning and headed to Sensory Friendly Storytime. After the program, Ms. Diane got out awesome sensory toys for everyone to enjoy.

We had some extra time, so we went into the main library area for about 45 minutes before heading home.

Back at home, we warmed up leftovers for lunch. I spent some time working on Sunday’s Lunch, which was to be a Pie Party! I had made a big Chicken Pot Pie Friday night to bake on Sunday. The girls helped me make Cheesecake, Quiche, and Easiest Chocolate Fudge Pie after their lunch on Saturday.

I then got caught up on dishes and finished this post! And that was our week!