Big Family Food and Fun: November 26-December 2, 2023

December 3, 2023 by Laura 3 Comments

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: November 26-December 2, 2023 post…

Here’s what we ate and what we did this week!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 26-December 2, 2023

Sunday morning we woke up to snow!! The kids were so excited and it was so pretty. They started making plans for sledding and a snowman – even though there was only about an inch of snow on the ground. ;)

I made a big pot of oatmeal to warm us up on a cold morning.

Before we left for church, I used leftovers from Thursday’s Nacho Buffet to make Taco Soup for us to eat for lunch when we got home.

I had made a lot of bacon from the sale I’d taken advantage of last week so I used some to make Turkey Bacon Cheese Subs for dinner. I cut and fried leftover baked potatoes plus warmed up leftover steamed broccoli.

We ate an early dinner that night because everyone started getting hungry early. Therefore, I knew we’d need a snack before bed. Anna and Acacia helped me make Flourless Chocolate Banana Muffins and we set them aside for later.

We’ve found that our evenings can be LONG since it gets dark so early and it’s too cold to go outside to play. If we don’t have a plan and keep our evenings structured, everything can quickly turn to chaos. So we try to plan activities for our evenings to help the kids stay calm (<— this is a loose term, ha).

I had made a run to Hobby Lobby on Saturday and had taken advantage of their 1/2 off Christmas crafts sale. For such a low amount of money, I think we have enough evening projects to last us from now until Christmas!

This particular night, we used a chain kit I had picked up to make a Christmas Countdown Prayer Chain. The littlest five kids mostly just crawled around and tried to destroy the chain, oy. But Brayden and Kiya were engaged in helping. We thought of 30 people or people groups (aunts, uncles, cousins, our church, etc) to pray for and wrote them on our chain pieces. Each day from now until Christmas, we’ll take off the end of the chain and pray for whoever we wrote down.

This was SUCH a good activity for our kids, though it did trigger some sadness, hurt, and tears as we wrote down some of their biological family’s names. We prayed differently that night at bedtime – for continued healing for the ones they miss and for the ones that caused hurt. These precious children are so dear.

We moved on to our muffins before heading up to get ready for bed. As it turns out, we needed to finish all of our clementines too. :)

Monday the kids had a final day off from school before going back after Thanksgiving break. Eva came over to help with the littles and I took Brayden, Kiya, and Keith to our weekly Food Distribution set up to help get ready for the Tuesday giveaway.

Brayden spent most of his time helping Kathleen, the leader of this distribution site, set up a snack table.

Kiya and I used sharpies to mark out the bar codes on products. I took this TERRIBLE picture as I was trying to not waste time with my phone out and as a result, moved my hand while snapping it. I’m posting it here anyway, you know, to prove that Kiya was there too, haha.

When Kiya and I finished marking all the chip bags, Keith helped drive the boxes into the store room.

After naptime that day, the little girls and I made a big batch of Cream Cheese Cut Out Cookies. I put them into the freezer for later in the Christmas season for us to decorate and share with people.

For dinner we had Beef Roast that I’d slow cooked all day with carrots. I made cornbread (from a mix, thank you Costco).

Before bedtime that evening, we all gathered in the dining room to enjoy the first prayer link in our Christmas countdown prayer chain that we’d made the night before. We prayed together for aunts, uncles, and cousins then sang some songs before heading up to bed.

I love that I was able to capture this sweet moment with Anna, Josie, Elias, and Malachi. :)

Tuesday morning the kids headed back to school after a six-day Thanksgiving break. I made Bacon Cheesy Eggs with applesauce for breakfast.

We felt like we could all use an outing, so after we dropped Brayden and Kiya off at school the rest of us went to Aldi for groceries. Right away, I loaded up on salad kits and other produce.

Matt kept his cart on the move so that BabyBoy#11 wouldn’t fuss. We got stocked back up on our Aldi favorites before heading out to run other errands that morning.

That afternoon Brayden, Kiya, and I handed out food and helped clean up at our Food Distribution site. There was quite a bit leftover so we were blessed to bring home some food for our household too. Here’s a fuzzy picture of the kids heading to the van after their great volunteer work.

Back at home, we enjoyed dinner that had been cooking in the crock pots. Smoked Sausages and Party Potatoes with a salad.

We also got out the containers of raspberries we’d picked up at Aldi that morning. They looked like this in exactly four minutes:

Wednesday morning we used fresh greens to make these smoothies to go with our breakfast.

Late morning, all the littles “helped” me make pizza for lunch. BabyBoy#11 entertained himself on the floor crawling around and playing with toys. I choose to ignore how many times the kids licked sauce off their fingers. All the germs baked off in the oven, right? Sure. They did.

Here are the first two pans of pizza. Another pan was still baking, giving us LOTS of pizza to enjoy.

Which is why for dinner that night we ate more pizza. :) Matt and Elias had been gone all day so I was a bit worn out and didn’t feel like making anything else. Brayden learned how to put together salad kits to go with our (cold) pizza, and that was dinner!

We sat at our living room table later that evening and made paper ornaments with stickers. The kids had so much fun with this craft!

The next day I was blessed to take a day off!! Matt, Elias, and Malachi watched the kids all day so that I could have a much-needed day to myself. I Christmas shopped most of the day, which I loved. My final stop was Costco, and Matt and I had decided that their pizza would be our dinner. Did we just have pizza three-meals in a row? Yes. Did all the kids get fed? Yes. This is a win.

Eva had taken new photos for our family on Thanksgiving and I had picked up the prints that day while I was out. So we gathered around on the floor by our “picture wall” so the kids would watch me update their pictures. I couldn’t believe how long they sat still watching me!

Part of the fun was seeing all of the older photos in each frame. (Every year I just add the new photo to the front of the pile. So each time we open up the frame, we can look at all the photos inside to see how much each kid has changed through the years.)

Tada! The updated wall!

Friday morning I made Breakfast Sandwiches.

Mid-morning we took the littlest five to play at one of our libraries. Wow, was it a disaster that morning. We had a lot of rough behaviors while we were there, plus poopy diapers and kids who needed to poop and bleh. Some outings are great, and some are not. This one was not. As always, Matt and I are discussing what might have gone wrong and what we could do differently next time. But some of their behaviors are triggered by who-knows-what and happen who-knows-when. Ugh, God help us. (He is. He always does.)

Naptime was extra good and needed that day. I spent some time baking (which was therapeutic for me!) so that we could have easy snacks on hand. I made a double batch of Lemon Muffins, which only turned out so-so.

Then another batch of Flourless Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins, which have become a favorite!

And then some Crustless Cheesecakes which I personally really like to eat on the run.

We had a super early dinner because we had tickets to go see our Zoo Lights (a wonderful and sweet gift from a dear friend). That morning I had “dumped sauce on chicken” for an easy meal. I rewarmed Tuesday’s potatoes, made a salad, warmed up corn, and made a bowl of Pineapple Fluff. We were nice and full, then got bundled up to walk around the zoo to see the awesome lights.

Here we are at the entrance, putting on our 3-D glasses which made all the lights look like candy canes.

We headed to the train right away so we could hopefully avoid long lines.

After the train ride, we walked through the zoo and had an amazing experience enjoying all the lights. At 7:30, BabyBoy#11 declared that we were FINISHED, poor guy. It was time to get ready for bed anyway, so we headed back to the van to go home and get to bed.

Saturday morning I made French Toast like this, Warm Vanilla Soother, and several pans full of bacon.

Kelsey texted later that morning to share that she’d made my Applesauce Muffins and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. So fun!

We had read that Home Depot was offering a free workshop for kids to come and build Gingerbread Houses so we decided to give it a try.

Apparently every single family in Lincoln had decided to try it too. This was only half of the crowd we discovered there! So we took our kits “to-go” knowing with all seven littles, we’d never be able to build and paint our kits there.

Back at home, Matt took the kids to the basement to build their houses.

Brayden was very determined to build his without help and he did a great job!

They were very proud of their finished products. :)

I made a big pot of hotdogs for lunch with sliced pears and a plate of veggies.

That afternoon I made one huge Lasagna plus three regular sized Lasagnas (because if you’re going to make one you might as well make four).

We cleaned out the fridge’s leftovers for dinner that night, got baths, and enjoyed a little bit of Husker volleyball before heading to bed. And that was our week!

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Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters – Chocolate or Vanilla

November 28, 2023 by Laura 2 Comments

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I have discovered a new idea and I’ve decided to call these: Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters.

I didn’t actually invent this recipe. I happened upon it whilst scrolling Facebook and an ad popped up for Weight Watchers recipes. I don’t care about counting WW points, but I do like the idea of adding pumpkin to goodies. Any opportunity to add nourishment to food – I’m all in.

I was also very attracted to the idea of a two-ingredient recipe. It’s just a cake mix and a can of pumpkin. Easy and includes a vegetable? Yes please.

Now, I didn’t used to buy cake mixes. Those most certainly include ingredients that aren’t great. But alas, here I am, ignoring the ingredient list and paying $0.98 for a box of convenience. Then I add a huge wad of spinach to the cake, declaring that I am somehow still winning the war on food. Can we also occasionally add an entire can of pumpkin to such a mix? Yes, we can. So now we can cringe as we buy cake mix, then smile as we add spinach or pumpkin.

And if I’m lucky, I might also have time to take a shower. Seriously, I have so many reasons to buy cake mix now. Here are my youngest 5 reasons. Plus Malachi, who is quite low maintenance but does also like to eat.

Why did I decide to name them Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters? Two reasons:

Buying a cake mix is sort of cheating, making us sort of cheaters, but again, we like to shower sometimes and this is how we are surviving right now.
These treats are some kind of cross between a cupcake and a muffin. They are too sugary to really be a muffin but too pumpkin-y to really be a cupcake. I couldn’t land on what to call them. A muffcake? Perhaps. But then Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters came to mind and I decided I liked it.

Is it possible I spend too much time reading nursery rhymes? Nah.

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters – Chocolate or VanillaYum

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters - Chocolate or Vanilla

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Author: Laura

Serves: 12

Ingredients

1 cake mix, chocolate or vanilla
15-ounce can pumpkin
½ cup water
½ teaspoon cinnamon if you'd like!

Instructions

Mix ingredients together until smooth.
Scoop into 12 paper-lined muffin tins (you'll fill them a little bit more full than a typical cupcake or muffin).
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

You can add chocolate chips, but I skip that because I don’t want to add extra sugar. Also have you seen what happens when toddlers eat melted chocolate chips? Oy, so messy.

And there you have it, friends. Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters are fun and easy to make. The pumpkin makes these moist and pumpkin is a superfood. Ha. I declare these to be a win.

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Big Family Food and Fun: November 19-25, 2023

November 26, 2023 by Laura 1 Comment

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Here’s our Food and Fun: November 19-25 post!

Here’s what we ate and what we did all week!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 19-25, 2023

Saturday night I started a pork roast in the crock pot to cook overnight to eat after church the next day. Here’s my pork roast recipe. Here’s the overnight cooking method.

To go with our roast, I made a big pan of Party Potatoes. I had intended to make Honey’d Carrots, but left the carrots steaming too long and burned them, ugh. So we steamed some peas instead.

For dinner that night I pulled out some leftover taco meat we had in the fridge and stirred it into a triple batch of Creamy Mac and Cheese. We ate it with baby carrots, easy peasy.

It’s been in my head for weeks to work with the kids to put together Fall Treat Bags for our neighbors. Sickness and the craziness of life has derailed us. But we’re finally finishing our project and packaging up goodies! We had stickers from Delight Design to put on our brownie and muffin bags – so cute!

We had set up our tree with lights the night before and on Sunday night, the kids added ornaments.

Monday morning after Brayden and Kiya got to school, we put BabyBoy#11 down for a nap, left the three little girls with Daddy, and Keith and I headed to the Food Distribution site to help set up for the Tuesday giveaway. Our goal is to help our kids learn to serve and help others. The one-on-one time with Keith is so good too. Here he is, admiring the table of snacks we set up.

For dinner that night we made Tuna Melts with Tomato Soup and fresh pineapple.

I had made a bowl of Easy Pumpkin Whip that I intended to serve for dessert. But I saw several almost-empty containers of ice cream in the freezer that I wanted to get rid of and forgot all about the Easy Pumpkin Whip. Goof. So we had the Whip for breakfast on Tuesday instead. It’s only lightly sweetened, has protein and pumpkin in it – so it made for a good breakfast!

Our friend Paula had dropped off this loaf of Pumpkin Bread and we enjoyed it that morning too! So good!

I had sausage patties and a lot of English muffins, so I scrambled some eggs and put together 14 Breakfast Sandwiches to have on hand.

Three of the kids put on swimming suits that morning, haha. Josie stayed in her jammies. Meh, it was Thanksgiving week and I was extra busy. Regular clothing was optional. The three little girls had a get-together in our playroom saying over and over, “So nice to see you!” “So nice to see you!” in their preschool and toddler language. It was so sweet.

I had two appointments that morning and the second one was right by Sam’s. So I took advantage of being kid-free and ran in to get as many groceries as I could. I got a couple of special items for Thanksgiving – Martinelli’s and fancy whipped cream. Otherwise I got the regular needed items – milk, produce, peanut butter, sliced cheese, grass fed hamburger meat, and our favorite beef smoked sausage.

After school, Brayden, Kiya, and I went to hand out food at the Food Distribution site. When we got home, Matt had started warming up the casserole I’d put together from Sunday’s leftovers plus leftover peas.

Wednesday, Matt and Elias headed to York to work on our properties. Kelsey had the day off so she came over to help with kids and Thanksgiving prep! We had a huge day in the kitchen, getting a lot done for the holiday and then some.

I had picked up this 10-pound box of bacon at Sam’s the day before. It was highly discounted and ended up being just $3.40/pound so I was pretty excited! We baked several cookie sheets worth of it that morning, eating it for breakfast and then putting the rest in the fridge for easy-t0-warm-up breakfasts or sandwiches during the next few days.

Kelsey took the three littlest girls into the living room to color while Kiya, Keith and I worked on Pumpkin Pies.

Kiya did most of the “work” of adding ingredients to the blender and Keith helped push buttons on the blender. ;)

Our pies turned out great! Here’s our easy, real food Pumpkin Pie recipe.

Next, Kelsey got the kids involved in potato scrubbing and carrot peeling/cutting.

So far, we hadn’t let these two use knives, but Kelsey talked them through it and they did great!

Meanwhile, we browned 6-pounds of hamburger meat to use that night and through the weekend.

I used half of the cooked meat to make Sloppy Joes for dinner. We ate them with grapes and salad.

Thursday morning Justus showed up at 5:20 to get the turkey on the smoker. I had coffee and God time, then got mashed potatoes in the crock pot.

Mid-morning I made these rolls – first time I’d made rolls in a long time! Kelsey snagged this photo. :)

We’d FINALLY finished our “take fall treats to neighbors” project and were determined to deliver before our Thanksgiving meal. Our bags were filled with frosted brownies, muffins, and oatmeal cookies.

Matt loaded up all the bags plus six kids and walked around the neighborhood handing them out and wishing people a Happy Thanksgiving!

Meanwhile, guests started to show up and we finished the meal prep. Justus’ turkey turned out amazing!

Here are all of my Thanksgiving meal recipes.

Here’s this year’s crew! It included all of our family plus one of our housemates (who is now part of our family). Plus a dear friend from York and two YU soccer guys we’ve come to know.

After the feast, the guys played a game in the living room and we gals rested for a while on the couches.

I packaged up a plate of food for a friend who wasn’t able to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal that day, then we started getting kids ready for Eva to take our family photos.

UGH. It was then that Anna came down from her “nap” with styrofoam stuffing all over her. Which meant that something had busted open and the filling was also all over her bedroom. Praise God for sweet daughters-in-law who cleaned it all up for their tired mother-in-law.

Eva is a rock star who took individual photos of all of us, plus one big family photo. (I’ll share them with you when we get them!) We came home and put together a Nacho Bar for dinner.

Then, we turned on a Christmas show for the kids to watch while we adults played Stuff Happens before bedtime. THAT was my favorite part of the day!

Friday I got zero pictures, hahaha. I was so tired that day I wasn’t on my top game. We picked up our Bonus Boy for the weekend (age 4, former foster son and half sibling to some of our kids), ate leftovers, we made mac and cheese, I took a nap. That’s about all I remember. :)

Saturday we loaded up all 8 kids and took them to the Children’s Museum for the morning. It was a great and needed outing!

We ended our time at the museum with the kids all “working” at Runza. It was one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen them do as a group. They had on hats and aprons, flipped burgers, took orders, filled drinks, made fries – goodness it was sweet.

Elias had started lunch for us so that we could eat right away when we got home – Cheese and Spinach Quesadillas with Tomato Soup and apples.

For dinner that night, I baked whatever chicken tenders and patties I found in the freezer. Plus I put waffle fries in our air fryer, steamed broccoli, and opened up cans of fruit. It was a fun, easy meal and a great way to end our week!

And now – Christmas time!!!!! Here’s to a great new week!

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Taco Soup for a Crowd

November 21, 2023 by Laura 2 Comments

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Here’s Taco Soup for a Crowd – an easy way to feed a lot of people!

What actually is a “Crowd?”

First question: What is considered to be a “crowd” anyway? I’m not sure how to define this.

We currently have 16 people living at our house and we often have guests. So pretty much every meal at our house “feeds a crowd” I suppose. :)

For the purpose of this post, we’ll understand the word “crowd” to be: If you’re feeding a lot of people (any number will do) and want to make it easy, here’s what to make.

Sound like a plan?! :)

Taco Soup for a CrowdYum

This soup is very easy to put together and can be made with either cooked chicken or hamburger meat. When making this for a large crowd, I like to make one crock pot with chicken and one crock pot with hamburger. This helps stretch the meal plus gives everyone the option of choosing their favorite meat.

If you have hamburger meat and chicken cooked ahead of time, then truly all you have to do is put it into crock pots, then dump in a few ingredients and that’s it!

Taco Soup for a Crowd

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Author: Laura

Serves: 15 servings

Ingredients

2 pounds cooked ground beef or shredded chicken
32-ounces salsa (any variety)
3 cups frozen corn
2 15-ounce cans black beans
32-ounces (1 quart) chicken or beef broth
Shredded cheese, sour cream, and fritos for toppings

Instructions

Put all ingredients (except for toppings) into a crock pot.
If you're making this soup for more than 15 people, consider making two separate recipes in two different crock pots.
Cook on Low for 6-8 hours or on Hi for 4 hours.
Serve with cheese, sour cream, and Fritos

You will love how easy this Taco Soup is – and it is a crowd pleaser for sure!

Fun Side Dishes to Serve with Taco Soup

Fresh fruit like Clementines or Grapes
Apple Slices with Cream Cheese Apple Dip
Sliced Cucumbers and Carrot Sticks with Italian Veggie Dip
Pineapple Fluff
Strawberry Fluff

NOTE: This Taco Soup can be made in a large pot on the stove instead of in crock pots if you wish. Simply heat until bubbly and serve!

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Kids Cook Build-a-Book – Get your Kids’ Kit!!!

November 20, 2023 by Laura 2 Comments

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We’ve put this Kids Cook Build-a-Book Kit together just in time for Christmas!

I’m pretty excited about this project – probably because it’s something I would have loved receiving as a Christmas gift when I was a young girl. :)

This year, we decided to discontinue our Junior Chef Club and instead offer you something similar that is new and improved!

Kids Cook Build-a-Book Kit

This fabulous kit will provide you with:

104 printable pages filled with 52 ALL BRAND NEW Super Fun Recipes and 52 Serving and Sharing Ideas that are perfect for kids
6 printable Build-a-Book cover page options
5 printable Build-a-Book divider pages
Simple Shopping List of suggested add-ons that you can pick up at the dollar store to inexpensively complete your awesome Kids Cook Gift Kit!

When you purchase our kit:

You can print off all the pages you think your kids and your family will enjoy in their Kids Cook Build-a-Book.
Next, you can pick up the Simple Shopping List items (like a binder, measuring spoons and cups, a mixing bowl and spoon, etc).
Then, you can package it all up for them to open at Christmas. What a FUN gift that will offer greatness for weeks and months and even for years to come!

Click the arrows below to look through this flipbook to see a tiny sample of what your Kids Cook Build-a-Book can look like:

In total, your kids’ books can include up to 108 pages full of recipes and fun!

Get your kit here:

Home / Shop

Kids Cook Build-a-Book Kit

$20.00$10.00

Manufacturer: Heavenly Homemakers

Description

Your kids are going to love our Kids Cook Build-a-Book Kit!! Grab this to supply them with all they need to build a super fun cookbook!

We provide you with:

104 printable pages filled with 52 Super Fun Recipes and 52 Serving and Sharing Ideas that are perfect for kids
6 printable Build-a-Book cover page options
5 printable Build-a-Book divider pages
Simple Shopping List of suggested add-ons that you can pick up at the dollar store to inexpensively complete your awesome Kids Cook Gift Kit!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 12-18, 2023

November 19, 2023 by Laura 4 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Here’s our Food and Fun: November 12-18 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 12-18, 2023

After four weeks of sickness, this week got off to a much better start!

There was a “Friendsgiving” Potluck for our kids ministry after church. We took Pizza Chicken Bake, Cream Cheese Corn, and a Chocolate Fudge Pie. I was too busy getting food ready to remember to take pictures except for this. Impressive, huh?

This was such a sweet and fun event for families!

After the kids ate, there were several tables/stations set up with crafts and activities for them to do. Our kids LOVED this!

We came home for naps and playtime, then got ready for our big birthday dinner. Almost a week late, we were finally able to get all of our older kids over to celebrate Matt’s 50th birthday!! We feasted on some of his favorite foods: Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Peas, Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies, and Homemade Ice Cream.

My second batch of Homemade Ice Cream didn’t work, so we had to get out store bought ice cream to make up for it. :) This Vanilla batch was pretty tasty though!

Because of all the sickness at our house, we hadn’t been together for over a month. :( I can’t tell you how beautiful it was to have everyone here!

One of Matt’s favorite things to do is play games. But, playing games with this many littles is almost impossible. We plan to try and hire sitters and have a big game day eventually. But for this night, Kelsey had the idea to turn on a show for the kids so that at least all of the adults could play a short game of some sort.

I’m so glad she thought of that! 50-minutes of game time is better than nothing. And how about that – 50 minutes of gaming for a Happy 50th Birthday?! :)

As a very boring but practical side note, I wanted to mention the amazingness of this chicken. I get these drumsticks at Costco (or sometimes Sam’s) for $0.99/pound. This entire package of meat cost only $8.42.

It included around 30 drumsticks and fed 10 adults and 8 kids – with leftovers. This is such an economical way to feed a lot of people!

Monday morning I scrambled 16 eggs with cheese to go with muffins and bagels for breakfast.

Eva came over for the morning to help with kids, praise God. So Keith and I headed to help sort and set up food at the weekly Food Distribution where we volunteer. He was having a rough behavior morning so it wasn’t great. But he did look cute in his ninja jacket and bike helmet (you can never be too safe).

Dinner that night was Lasagna Casserole with green beans and oranges.

Our dear friend Charlene was visiting that evening and I captured this sweet moment when several of the kids were hovered around her to look at pictures.

Tuesday was Keith’s birthday!! He requested birthday pancakes for breakfast. I attempted to make him a special #5 pancake, which worked sort of fine when I first created it.

But not so fine when I tried to flip it, hahaha. #nailedit

We “puzzled” it together onto his plate and it worked just fine.

That afternoon Brayden, Kiya, and I went to the Food Distribution and handed out food to almost 100 people. It is such a joy to do this! We were blessed to come home with a few items also:

We arrived home just in time for Keith’s big birthday dinner. Keith requested pizza and since we had so much going on, Matt and I decided to have some ordered and delivered. It was fun, but we won’t do this again any time soon. (High cost compared to frozen or homemade, delivery fees, then a late delivery and sub-par pizza) But again, it was a fun thing to do for his birthday and he was very excited!

Kelsey captured several of these photos, including this one where three of our little ducks are in a row.

Then it was cake time! I made him a vanilla cake with vanilla pudding and whipped cream. So tasty!

Have I mentioned that birthdays at our house are LOUD? Here’s present time!

Wednesday friends from York came to visit!

We celebrated one of our small housemate’s birthday that evening. YES, it was birthday week! I made burgers on the smoker, baked beans, and fried zucchini and squash.

We sure ate a lot of cake this week!

After present time, the kids gathered around another of our housemates for a special story time.

Thursday was a full day and one of my favorites. A dear York friend was celebrating a birthday and her sister invited me to come surprise her at the dinner party she was arranging. Even though York is only one hour away from our new home in Lincoln, it’s hard for me to get away and I hadn’t been back one time since moving the end of June.

Matt came up with a plan to make it possible for me to join our friends here, and I can’t put into words how wonderful it was to sit around this table with this precious group of ladies:

I love living in Lincoln – but out how I miss our community in York. I praise God for the chance to be with them on Thursday!

Matt and Elias headed to York to work on our properties Friday morning. Malachi helped me out with the littles all morning. We didn’t go on an outing so our morning was pretty chill. While the kids played, I finished bottling the big batch of vanilla I’d been brewing for several months.

Since I knew dinner time would be a bit tricky with Matt and Elias out for the day, I decided to make frozen pizza for dinner. I’ve been determined to have our kids finish making some Fall treats and crafts to take to our new neighbors before Thanksgiving. So I decided to attempt turning our night into a Fall Pizza Party so that we could make it happen.

We baked 8 frozen pizzas altogether, which fed 7 adults and 8 kids (with some slices leftover). Then the “party” started. For the record – one of the real reasons I planned a “party” was so that we wouldn’t have two hours of chaos after dinner before bedtime. Free play time doesn’t work very well for this crew, so I tried to structure the evening so that our kids would know the plan and so that there would be at least some form of order.

One of our housemates had brought back some ears of blue corn from her farm this week, so she did a wonderful job showing our kids that this is where blue corn chips come from. (Then they got to enjoy a blue chip as a treat!)

The evening craft was simple (and NOT MESSY HALELLUJAH). The kids decorated lunch sacks with stickers so that we can hopefully fill them with treats and deliver them to neighbors.

I had picked up a super inexpensive and cute “Build a Turkey” game at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago, so we had we rolling dice to add turkey feathers to our birds. :)

We gathered on the couch to read some Mother Bruce books – which was sweet but a little bit nuts with so many little ones crawling everywhere. The party was fun though and THEN IT WAS BEDTIME and also Matt was home by then, hallelujah again. :)

Keith found that I’d put these jammies into his container so he put them on. These aren’t just any jammies. My mom (who died of ALS 19 years ago) had given these to Asa (who is now 26) when he was a five year old like Keith is now. So Asa wore them when he was 5, then Justus, Elias, and Malachi. They were special, so I saved them, not knowing there would be more brothers down the road. Brayden wore them. And now Keith. The elastic is completely shot, but are we going to save them for BabyBoy#11? Oh yes we are.

Saturday morning I made a few quick-to-grab foods to hopefully make Thanksgiving week a bit easier – Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Bars and Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins. Of course we’ve already eaten a good part of these. But there are still some left that might help us get through holiday prep?? :)

I made a triple batch of Snickerdoodle Bites to hand the kids as needed. These should last at least through Tuesday.

Our church youth group had plans to hand out Thanksgiving meal kits to families in our neighborhood Sunday evening and we had signed up to provide a kit. So we took all the kids to the store to complete our list of food items. I divided the list into three – one each for Brayden, Kiya, and Keith. We helped them find their food items and tried to help them understand what a blessing this would be for a family to have a wonderful meal on Thanksgiving with all they were picking out.

Keith took his job of picking sweet potatoes very seriously.

Once we got home, we put together our big sack of food to take to church the next day.

The rest of the day was very full of outdoor work for Matt and housework for me. So I was incredibly thankful that last week when Kelsey was here making freezer meals, she had left one for us. I baked it ad dinner time and we ate the entire thing!

Then the crazy fun began. I had told the kids that we could set up our Christmas tree that night if they were willing to work hard and cooperate. They were very willing. :) :) :)

We didn’t decorate it – only set up the tree and put on the lights. THAT was plenty for one night with this many littles. The ornaments will go on Sunday evening.

What a full, wonderful week!

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I just wanted a parenting formula… :(

November 13, 2023 by Laura Leave a Comment

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Isn’t that what we all want? A parenting formula?

I just wanted a parenting formula…

As in: I want to have all of my little ducks in a row so Please tell me exactly what to do so that I can raise good kids. Give me an “If I do THIS, then the end result will be THAT.” This is what I want. Specifics. Complete guidance. Exact instructions that will give me the direct results I’m looking for, which is, of course: Perfectly Wonderful Children.

Many years ago when I was a young mom with my very first two-year-old, I realized that there was no such formula. I WAS SO MAD ABOUT THIS. You’re telling me that there’s no one-size-fits-all plan for raising good kids? No exact way to go about this parenting gig that will guarantee that my kids will obey, be kind, share, and ultimately grow up to become incredible and most importantly – godly people??

As the years went on and one son turned into four – all with very different dispositions, personalities, and needs – I realized that not only is there no formula for doing this all correctly, there’s not even one right way to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Wow.

While raising our older boys, we learned so much about what works, what doesn’t, and how mostly our job is to rely on God to be at work through us. We failed, we won, we fought, we prayed, we cried, we praised, and we delighted. They aren’t perfect. But these four astound us by who they’ve become in spite of our shortcomings and woeful lack of having a “perfect parenting formula.”

Twenty-Six Years and Eleven Kids Later

Well, then. Here we are. The oldest four are raised and we’ve moved on to raising “round two.” We’ve started all over again and this time, we recognize our need to utilize all the help and resources we can.

It’s both easier (because we’ve learned a lot through the years) and harder (because this set of kids all have extra needs) this time. There are some things we want to do differently and better because of what we learned during our first go ’round. We pray we can take what we learned from “Round One” and all that we’re learning in “Round Two” and show these kids all the love and care that God can show through our humbled efforts.

Mostly we still know that the only way to raise kids well is by letting God be fully at work through us. That’s it. That’s the formula. Take a knee. Take two knees. Lie completely prostrate in humility. Stand firm in the power and strength of Jesus. Do both at the same time.

Learn and grow

Matt and I are reading books and seeking resources to help us – because we so much appreciate learning from what others have experienced and studied. I was invited to be a part of this Confident Mom Bundle, and I want to share that with you now. While there is no Perfect Parenting Formula – there are resources available to help us as we seek to learn and grow and do better.

Focus on your kids

If you are in the season of life in which you are raising children – let all of your energy go into this. Yes, take care of yourself and first and foremost nurture your relationship with God and your spouse. Of course. But what I mean is – during these parenting years, let go of everything that can be let go of and put your time and energy into letting God help you fully love your family during these years of growing them up into adulthood.

You will not regret this.

So go all in. Seek God’s parenting wisdom. Take advantage of every resource you get your hands on. Love, love, love your kids.

Stop doing what doesn’t work

To parent well, I’ve found that I’ve needed to pare down and cut out anything that is no longer working well for a well-balanced life. I don’t make complicated meals. I don’t have many outside commitments. I don’t even fold my laundry. I let my energy go where it has to go – to my kids’ needs.

Parenting can be a joy!

While it’s such hard work to care for, train, discipline, clean up after, and meet all the needs of our kids, the joy they bring is beyond amazing.

May God bless us all as we confidently trust His work through us and His provision for our children.

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Big Family Food and Fun: November 5-11, 2023

November 12, 2023 by Laura 2 Comments

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: November 5-11 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 5-11, 2023

Food and…fun? Not all of it has been fun this week.

Some people get an extra hour of sleep on the night we turn back the clocks. At our house, we got an extra hour to endure a very long morning caring for sick babies. Oy.

For the past three weeks, our family has been passing around viruses and bugs. The latest involved low fevers. The one before that involved puke. We have canceled all plans and have not let our older kids come over to the Castle for fear that they might catch all of our ailments. So Matt and I are a little on the tired side.

We stayed home from church on Sunday, and eventually, Keith had dressed himself in a football helmet, snow boots (three sizes too big), and pajama pants.

Sunday morning I put The Easiest Spicy Ham and Potato Soup into a crock pot for us to enjoy at lunchtime.

We watched church service online, then the healthy kids went outside to play since the weather was so nice. They were playing “school” and I heard them talk about setting up a school cafeteria. So when it was time to eat, I carried their lunch out to be served in their “cafeteria.” :)

Here’s poor Sissy, one of the three littles feeling so crummy all day.

Keith was well, and he had fun making a three story house out of boxes!

For dinner that night, I made a big batch of Breakfast Sandwiches. They were a huge hit and all of them got eaten, along with strawberries and clementines.

Monday morning I made a big pot of oatmeal. I put a chunk of frozen banana into the littlest girls’ bowls of oatmeal so that it would cool off faster.

I surprised Matt with a Peach Cobbler for his birthday. (Not really a surprise since this is what I make for him for every birthday and Father’s Day, ha.)

We had planned on all of our bigger kids coming to join us for a birthday dinner for Matt, but with so much sickness traveling through our house, we postponed our gathering. :( I went ahead and made one of Matt’s favorites that night for those of us who were already at the Castle: Sausage Stromboli! I hadn’t made this for years and it was SO GOOD.

That afternoon the kids helped me make one of Matt’s favorite desserts: Banana Pudding. :)

Instead of 50 candles, I just put 1 candle in the pudding. Birthday celebrations at our house are LOUD, exciting, and pretty tasty. :)

That night was a rough one with a teething BabyBoy#11. We’re finding it a bit tough to catch a break and get enough rest, but we’ll get there!!

Tuesday morning the toddlers were feeling better so we loaded up the five littlest to go to Walmart after we got Brayden and Kiya to school. The outing helped the morning go better! Someone had given us 10 Free Junior Frosty coupons to use at Wendy’s so while we were out, we grabbed all 10 to surprise the kids with after tonight’s dinner.

Brayden, Kiya, and I helped give out food at our local Tuesday Food Distribution that afternoon after school. We were blessed to bring home some food and flowers for our family to enjoy!

Being at the Food Distribution means we get home just in time to eat dinner, so I had smoked Brats and Hotdogs before leaving that afternoon. They were warm in the crock pot when we got home, and we had them along with baked beans, oranges, and carrots.

When we bought this home, we “inherited” a lot of items since it was formerly a Bed and Breakfast. Many of the items we didn’t need and donated. But we love that some of the things left behind include outdoor lights, heaters, and a lovely fire pit! We gathered around the fire pit that night and told stories – so fun (and a little crazy while trying to keep littles from touching the fire).

Justus and Kelsey were over and she captured the above photo before going in to get the fun free Frostys Matt and I had picked up earlier in the day. They made everyone extra shivery, but it sure was a special evening!

Wednesday morning I made these Flourless Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins with cheesy scrambled eggs.

We’d been given a lot of tomatoes at the Food Distribution the day before, so we made BLTs for lunch.

One of our housemates had visited family over the weekend and brought back many dozen farm fresh eggs! So we had Easy Breakfast Casserole for dinner. I taught Brayden how to steam broccoli to go with our meal.

We had a feast of Easy Breakfast Casserole, broccoli, oranges, and muffins. We also warmed up a piece of buttered garlic bread that the kids had chosen at the Food Distribution the day before. (Junior Volunteers like Brayden and Kiya get to choose two items off the tables as a thank you for their help. They usually choose something sweet, but lately Brayden has been choosing things like mashed potatoes and garlic bread, ha.)

Thursday Elias and Malachi picked up our Azure Standard order for me. We got frozen corn, green beans, and hashbrowns (30 pounds!), plus yogurt, tortillas, and palm shortening.

For dinner that night I made Quick Crock Pot Spicy Pasta Dinner with green beans and corn.

Friday morning we dropped the kids off at school then headed to Walmart with the five littlest. We had plenty of time before getting Keith and Anna off to preschool, so we decided to try taking everyone to Great Clips to get Keith’s hair cut. Were we crazy? Sure. But you gotta do what you gotta do.

The three little girls actually sat very well in the waiting area sharing the grapes we had just picked up at Walmart.

The gal was super fast and Keith is as handsome as ever.

Ope. Still eating grapes. :) :) :)

For an extra special treat, we headed to Freddy’s and picked up kids’ meals with free coupons we had been given at a trick-or-treating event a couple of weeks ago. We ate at home though, because restaurants with this many littles is a no-go. :)

For “French Fry Friday” I made ham/cheese and turkey/cheese melts on buns with tator tots and sweet potato fries, plus black berries and grapes. There was spinach hiding in the sandwiches under the cheese, shhhh.

That afternoon I made made a double batch of these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, subbing the chocolate for butterscotch chips. These are a favorite of our older boys and we were finally making plans to get together for Matt’s 50th birthday celebration on Sunday!

Saturday morning I had more bananas turning black so I made yet another batch of Flourless Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins. They had gone over so well earlier in the week, I knew they’d be a hit again (I was right)! We finished off the Egg Casserole leftovers and had yogurt too.

Our Saturday outing was to grab jackets and head to the zoo to take advantage of our membership and the indoor play area with the spider monkeys. On our way in, we had the rare treat of seeing the Red Panda playing outside!

I packed juice and peanut butter pretzels for a snack break.

For lunch back at home I made quesadillas and warmed up the last of Sunday’s The Easiest Spicy Ham and Potato Soup.

Kelsey had some freezer cooking plans and came to the Castle to execute them. Spending the afternoon in our kitchen with her was SUCH a treat!!!! Especially since we have had so much sickness and have avoided having anyone over. We’ve missed our bigs!!

She and Justus joined us for a simple dinner, which was leftover chili and sandwiches.

And that was our week!

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One Saturday at the Coppinger Castle

November 8, 2023 by Laura 5 Comments

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Here’s a peek at one Saturday at the Coppinger Castle!

Over the weekend, I decided to snap pictures throughout the day to share what a typical Saturday looks like at our house. Ready to join the fun?

One Saturday at the Coppinger Castle

5:00 I fed BabyBoy#11, then put him back to bed and headed downstairs for some God Time.

6:20 Keith, Acacia, and Josie woke up and found me, wide awake ready to start their day! Since it was a Saturday, I turned on a show for them (something we don’t do on weekdays). Here’s a very blurry photo of Blippi. :)

7:00 We turned off the show and headed to the kitchen. I had made Applesauce Bread that week, so we sliced some for breakfast. We had leftover baked potatoes so I cut and fried them in butter with salt. So good!

7:30 I had started a load of laundry earlier, so Keith and I headed downstairs to put it into the dryer.

8:00 Matt and I decided to take the kids to our favorite library for a Sensory Story Hour – an awesome story time that caters to kids with extra sensory needs. This is so perfect for so many of our littles! We spent an hour getting everyone dressed and ready to load up. I made four juice cups for Keith, Anna, Acacia, and Josie to enjoy on the way home (they usually have juice around 10:30 every day).

9:17 We arrived at the library just a few minutes after the program was to start. Not too bad, with this many littles!

9:20 We found our special chairs and some weighted puppies, and got started with Story Hour.

9:20-10:00 The kids loved every minute of this special Story Time. Ms. Diane does a wonderful job. Today’s theme was Penguins. :) Even BabyBoy#11 focused in today. And look who’s learning how to clap!!

10:00-11:00 After the official Story Time was over, we headed into the main library area where there are educational toys to enjoy.

We spent some time in a little reading nook enjoying a few books.

11:00 Everyone started to scatter and get restless, so Matt and I decided that it was time to load up to go home. It was still a little bit too chilly to play outside, so at home I got out a craft kit that we’d picked up at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago. Everyone colored Scarecrows and we put them together with brads.

11:30 More laundry, but this time with Anna’s help!

12:00ish We warmed up leftovers for lunch. There were leftover Instant Pot Mac and Cheese and Lazy Dogs. Plus carrots, cucumbers, and fruit.

12:30 I caught Brayden having a sweet moment with BabyBoy#11!

1:00 NAPTIME!!! After full mornings like this, we do appreciate it when 1:00 rolls around. :)

The four littlest napped while Brayden, Kiya, and Keith had an hour rest time and then went to play outside.

2:45 Josie and Acacia woke up.

3:30 Brayden came inside distraught because of a nasty conversation with a sibling so I suggested that he take a break, wash his hands, and help me make pizza for dinner. The idea completely turned around his disposition for the positive and he happily made a mess – I mean happily made pizza with me. :)

Meanwhile, Josie had started to feel crummy. :(

4:00 Once we got the pizzas ready, I put them into the oven but didn’t turn on the oven yet. We played outside to take advantage of the warm weather. By then, Josie had a fever so she just hung out with us on a bench outside.

4:40 I ran inside to turn the oven on so our pizzas could bake.

5:00 Elias came in and made salad to go with our dinner. We ate pizza, watermelon, and salad.

5:45 We played outside again, and I didn’t get any pictures. :) I did snap this one of all the clean dishes waiting to be put away. Slowly but surely we conquered the huge load.

6:20 We started the Saturday night bath process. This is a full-on two adult job. We usually start with the three little girls together in the tub. Then we switch them out for Keith and BabyBoy#11. While one parent is bathing, the other is diapering and jammy-ing the clean kids. Once the littlest five are finished, we help Brayden shower. Then Kiya. PHEW. Getting all seven bathed always feels like a huge accomplishment.

Here, Keith and BabyBoy#11 are in the boys’ room waiting for their turn in the tub.

7:20 Everyone is clean, jammied, and in the living room for Singing and Prayer time. While we’re singing, the girls take turns sitting on my lap so I can brush and braid their clean hair.

Poor Josie only wanted Daddy snuggles because of her fever.

7:50 We survived the day and some form of Singing and Prayer time with the crew. We finish our time in the living room by saying all of Psalm 23 together. Then we headed upstairs to brush teeth, put on Acacia’s leg brace, and tuck everyone in for bed. This is a loud, hectic process that often comes with some behavior struggles, along with the general craziness involved with ~~herding cats~~ tucking in multiple toddlers. Matt and I continually assess to try and figure out how we might make this time more peaceful, but I think if there was a way to do it, we would be doing it. For now, we continue to pray and ask for strength to model patience and calm responses through the bedtime storm.

8:15 BabyBoy#11 enjoys a little bit of 2-on-1 time with us while Matt and I decompress, talk about tomorrow’s needs, and give Baby his final swigs of milk before bed.

And that is a Saturday at the Coppinger Castle!

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Big Family Food and Fun: October 29-November 4, 2023

November 5, 2023 by Laura Leave a Comment

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It’s our Food and Fun: October 29-November 4 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: October 29-November 4, 2023

Sunday for lunch we had a pot of Chicken Taco Soup, using up the last of our smoked chicken from the week before. This soup is so easy to throw together when your meat is already cooked. Just dump everything in and go!

That evening, our friends Paula and Randy dropped off 10 lunches for Brayden and Kiya to take to school this week. (This is something new they started doing to help us and it is amazing!) They made five with turkey sandwiches and five with ham, and it looks like they had way too much fun labeling them. :) :) :)

Since I’d been sick, it had been quite a while since we’d gone to the store. We had no fresh produce, plus the kids needed an outing. So Matt, Malachi, and I took everyone to Wal-Mart Sunday evening so that we would have fruits and veggies to enjoy. Taking all seven kids to the store is always NUTS, but hey look at that. Now we have fruit.

Dinner that night was one of my favorite “cheater” meals. Orange Chicken from Sam’s with Caesar salad and rice.

Monday morning I got out Peanut Butter Snack Bars from the freezer for the kids to eat for breakfast. Everyone got to pick whatever fruit they wanted to go with it.

Our neighbor had heard that I’d been sick so she made us a pot of Chili for dinner Monday night. This was SO wonderful since my energy was still on the low side.

Tuesday morning I made some very ugly Pumpkin Muffins for breakfast. I think the melted coconut oil hardened back up and the cinnamon didn’t get stirred in well. BUT, they tasted good and got eaten so it was all ok.

I made these Smoothies to go with the muffins and put them into fun Halloween cups someone had given us.

That night I made a Taco Bar for dinner, seasoning the meat this way.

We had plenty of candy after enjoying two big events last week, so our kids had a lot of fun handing out candy to trick-or-treaters who came to our house that night. We had lots of kids stop by so it was great! Then Matt took our three oldest littles out to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. It was super cold that night so Malachi and I kept the littlest four at home.

Wednesday I made an Aldi run to get stocked back up on milk and yogurt. Here’s a list of groceries I regularly buy at Aldi. This particular day I got milk, whole milk yogurt, crackers, juice, baby food, fritos, fruit cups, granola, canned corn, canned soup, cream cheese, eggs, salad kits, grass-fed hamburger meat, and bananas. My total that day was: $239.

I got home just in time to make this 10-Minute Instant Pot Mac and Cheese for lunch. I made a double batch and it worked great!

We had leftover hotdogs in the fridge so for dinner that night I turned them into Lazy Dogs.

We ate them with kiwi, clementines, and cucumbers.

An unfortunate stomach bug had started traveling through our house – a terrible thing with 16 people living here! So for dinner on Thursday I kept our meal very mild – Baked Potatoes, steamed broccoli, and asparagus.

The weather had warmed up quite a bit, thankfully, so those who felt well enough played outside in the leaves after dinner. :)

Friday morning I used the rest of our homemade applesauce to make a huge batch of Applesauce Bread and Muffins.

After we got Brayden and Kiya to school, we got the other five ready and we loaded up for Costco. I dressed the girls in coordinating outfits – so cute!

Two carts and $410 worth of groceries later, we headed home to put it all away and to get Keith and Anna off to preschool.

I declared it to be French Fry Friday, so for dinner we ate Chicken Nuggets, Fries, Strawberries, and Raspberries.

Saturday morning we ate Applesauce Bread and fried potatoes that I made with Thursday’s leftover baked potatoes. I also took some time to make a triple batch of Snickerdoodle Bites to have on hand for snacks.

We went to our favorite Saturday morning Library Sensory-Friendly Storytime. Then after the regular program we stayed at the library to read books and play with their hands-on learning toys.

Late afternoon I could tell we needed to get ahead of some sibling struggles so I pulled Brayden in to help me made pizza for dinner. He was thrilled with this and at dinnertime, we gave him all the credit for “making dinner.” He was very proud. :)

We had picked up a watermelon at Costco the day before, hoping it would actually taste good in November. It wasn’t too bad! The weather was great so the kids had played outside a good part of the afternoon. Pizza, salad, and watermelon tasted pretty good to hungry kids (and their parents and big sibs).

And that was our week!

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