Heavenly Homemakers

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

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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

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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

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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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How God is Providing Help Right Now

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I wanted to share a beautiful update as to how God is providing help right now.

In case you weren’t aware, we all need help from time to time. Saying yes to help is a beautiful thing. Our family happens to be in a season in which we need a significant amount of help in many forms.

Our help and needs continue to shift

During the past five years, we’ve added children and/or cared for children then helped them make adjustments back to live with their biological family. Mostly though, we’ve added children. Seven small, traumatized, extra needy, precious ones.

Meanwhile, during these past five years we’ve also had four kids in college, high school, and/or middle school – all of whom were very involved in extracurriculars like athletics, music, and drama. They’ve had their own needs because growing into an adult, navigating relationships, and figuring out career paths? Well we all know how hard (and good) that can be. We’ve also had two weddings, and OH YEAH, we moved to Lincoln this summer.

Ugh, moving.

The needs in our home have been different during these years, depending on how many babies there were, what sport season it was, what court case was unfolding, and how Matt and I have been able to meet the many needs as they come up.

Ultimately, we can’t meet them all. We serve a God who meets our needs in full. We trust this. And part of how he does this is by sending help.

I will never stop preaching this:

Say.Yes.To.Help.

Saying yes to help from others is saying yes to God. It is so cool to experience His work through others!!

We have had help:

  • Texturing and painting our house as we got ready to move
  • Cleaning. Worth noting: Ten ladies showed up to our York house after we moved out so they could deep clean all of the precious fingerprints and mud smears and 21 years worth of full, busy life there. I still can’t talk about that gift without crying.
  • Washing our dishes
  • Doing our laundry
  • Making us snacks
  • Chasing kids with us at soccer games
  • Buying diapers
  • Rocking babies so I could shower
  • Babysitting so both Matt and I could go to our older boys’ events at the same time
  • Cooking meals
  • Picking up items at the store
  • Babysitting while I went to court for our kids’ cases
  • Slipping us cash for “whatever the kids need”
  • The list is so long it would become an entire blog post all by itself…

These have been from an ARMY of people. Not just a couple of friends. Dozens of people. So many people I would lose track of the number if I tried to count them all.

And not one of these is “small” to me. Everything people have done means an incredible deal to us, even when they think “oh yeah, no big deal.” Yes, big deal. All of it.

So now we’re in Lincoln

We’ve been here for four months now. Different place, different people, different needs. Same kids. Same trauma. Same needy-ness.

More bathrooms.

Ten of them to be exact.

Praise God for this! And, thank God for my friends who come and clean several of them for us once each week.

Our older four kids have graduated now.

Matt and I have come up for air after our huge move. While we’ve had lots of help from our older kids and some church friends since moving here, we realized a few weeks ago that we needed to ask for more consistent help. Help with what exactly??

It’s hard to describe the needs of our kids – especially because they are all very sweet and those outside our home mostly experience all the sweetness (x7). Matt and I get to enjoy their sweetness too, for sure. But mostly, we find that we are training, and un-training, and retraining, and shucks, throw potty training in there too.

These kids have all the normal needs of a normal kid. And then they have trauma that they are dealing with in various forms. Their behaviors can appear subtle or non-existent to outsiders. But here are some examples of what Matt and I deal with all day long:

  • One of our kids went from absolutely fine at bedtime last week to suddenly standing on her bed RAGING because her sister picked up a piece of paper from the floor that was apparently very important (though not important enough to have been put in a safe place prior to getting into bed). Once she got angry and ramped up, it became very difficult to help her regulate her emotions so that we could reason with her.
  • One of our kids constantly needs reassurance that he is loved and safe. He looks over his shoulder constantly for the next emergency, and since there usually isn’t one, he creates one. Often he will bring us a “situation” and we will 100% take care of with a calm and peaceful solution. But he can’t let it go, so he goes to the next adult and then the next to continue to reinforce the drama he is seeking. This goes on all day long.
  • One of our kids is in fight or flight a good amount of the time, so a toy that drops to the floor or a sister that walks by and looks like she might possibly touch the toy he’s using sends him into a complete melt-down that takes a very long time to settle.
  • One of our kids demands so much attention that she will scream and tantrum, no matter the attention, consequences, or ignoring she receives, because her need for control is so great.

This work is WORTH all the energy and time we put into it. But this is why we say yes to help and have learned to reach out for help. We are stretched pretty thin. Any and all help is wildly appreciated.

How God is Providing Help Right Now

1. School Lunches

Recently someone offered: “Would it be helpful if we make lunches for your kids to take to school?”

Every school day. For the long run. This was/is their offer. I had to think about it for a minute (why, I don’t know). And then we said yes. The past two Sundays they’ve dropped of 10 sack lunches for the upcoming week. The kids LOVE it. I love it. And guess what? Paula and Randy, our dear lunch makers, love it. God is so good.

2. Childcare

We had lots of help with this in York, but so far in Lincoln, we hadn’t figured out what to do for regular help with the kids here. We know that we can be better parents if we occasionally have a break from so much hard-core parenting. So we prayed and God provided not one, but two sweet people to watch Acacia and Josie three afternoons each week for us.

Ms. Kathi keeps the girls for two hours twice a week.

And Josalyn watches them for two hours once each week.

Praise the Lord. The girls love these special afternoons and Matt and I enjoy the break so that we can work while BabyBoy#11 naps.

3. Whatever we need on Mondays

Our daughter-in-law Eva just blocked out one morning per week to come spend time doing “whatever we need.” This is huge because she knows the kids (her siblings, ha) so well and they know her. Plus she knows where everything is in our kitchen and sees what needs to be done and just gets it done. I love this.

4. Extra hands on Tuesdays

Justus and Kelsey come over on Tuesday evenings so that Justus can give Brayden a piano lesson. That one-on-one time Justus gives Brayden is huge for his confidence. Meanwhile, Kelsey uses that time to pour into the kids and I often use that time to load a dishwasher. :)

6. Brotherly Help

Elias is currently living at our Castle with us, and Malachi is in an apartment across town. These guys help in huge ways we asked. When Matt goes to York to work on our houses, often Malachi stays back to be my sidekick all day long while Elias goes with Matt to work. When I take Brayden and Kiya to serve at the weekly Food Distribution, Elias helps Matt with the rest of the kids at home.

And one of my favorite brotherly helps: Bro Time. 

We recognized Brayden’s need for some very specific one-on-on attention and devoted time, so we’ve hired Elias to spend two hours, twice each week with him. We call it Bro Time, with Elias taking Brayden on outings with the intention of really pouring love into him and helping him to learn more about being a healthy grown-up kid. They run errands for me if needed, they go to a coffee shop and play card games, they go take long walks around parks, they play frisbee golf, they do whatever Elias can find that will offer Brayden a good experience. About once each month, they buy groceries and cook a meal together for our family. Bro Time is good in every way.

7. Help with our houses in York

We still have properties in York that are being worked on so that we can sell them. Matt tries to go once each week, but it’s hard for him to get everything done that he needs to. We prayed for God to provide people who needed extra income to help with painting and odd jobs, and he has provided some young men willing to help out. I am so thankful for this!

8. Miscellaneous

I hesitate to share any of this because I don’t want to leave anything out. There are so many things people have done and continue to do to help. We say yes to all of it. All of our housemates pitch in and help with whatever need is right in front of them. People have given us loads of clothes for our kids (see Keith’s picture above in which he was so excited about his hand-me-downs box that he put on everything all at the same time).

Our neighbor brought us a meal when I was sick recently. Those neighbors also invite our kids into their house and give them extra attention and love.

Everything matters. Everything helps. Often people don’t realize that they’re helping – especially when they are engaging our kids in encouraging conversation – because they don’t know how much our kids need that encouragement. People are just being their normal, awesome selves, and it means the world to us.

Thank you for letting me share ways God is at work for us. When I look for it, I continue to see more ways He is providing. It’s amazing and we marvel while we give thanks for his goodness in all these ways.

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: October 22-28, 2023

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It’s Big Family Food and Fun: October 22-28!

Big Family Food and Fun: October 22-28, 2023

Last week’s illness turned into pneumonia for me (a constant struggle since I was exposed to black mold in my dorm back in college). So I stayed home from church Sunday morning, knowing that Matt would have plenty of help with the littles there.

A few weeks prior, I had put a large Pork and Hashbrown Casserole into the freezer so we pulled that out to bake all morning for lunch. Here’s a poor photo of the casserole ready to pull from the oven plus sides we grabbed from the fridge: leftover peas, that crazy bowl of leftover pineapple that we can’t seem to finish, a package of sweet peppers, and a loaf of bread to slice, butter, and toast.

Before heading back to bed that morning, I made Apple Dip that our family loves to enjoy for dessert.

Asa and Eva joined us for lunch and it appears that Asa and Keith had some sort of dual when they arrived. Or is that Keith? We can’t tell.

Eva’s parents had heard I was sick and they texted to see how they could help. I requested 10 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so that I could put together easy lunches for the school kids this week. (It’s crazy how even the simplest tasks feel hard when you’re sick.) Not only did they make and bring ten sandwiches, but they made ten entire bagged lunches! We started our week with a sack full of sacks – filled with sandwiches, chips, applesauce, and treats! We felt so blessed to be cared for this way. :)

Dinner that evening was Tortelloni and spinach. I forgot to take a picture, so here’s one from this post last September. (Awww, it’s our York kitchen…)

After dinner and toys were cleaned up for the evening, we got out a new craft kit for the kids to enjoy. This might have been a favorite for me because they are completely un-messy!! And they are great for kids with extra sensory needs. These babes stayed calm for ten entire minutes doing this. That may not sound impressive, but in our world, ten calm minutes is amazing.

Monday I was still not feeling well and asked some friends to come over for the evening to help with the kids. Malachi cut smoked sausage and put it into the crock pot for dinner.

Elias boiled 2-pounds of noodles and we put a container of White Queso from Sam’s into it. (Try this – its so good!) We made Caesar salad to round out the meal. Since our friends were coming over for the evening and I wanted to be sure our meal stretched far enough, I also got out a few cans of mandarin oranges. And then I went to bed and slept the entire evening while we had extra help. :)

Tuesday I felt a tiny bit better. We needed something quick to eat so I made Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Bars. Look at those sweet little Josie hands reaching up for a bar…

That afternoon, Elias seasoned two chickens and worked with Matt to get them onto the smoker for dinner. At meal time, I steamed green beans and made Mashed Potatoes like this. Such a comfort-food meal!

Justus and Kelsey had come over and after dinner we all “helped” Kelsey wrap up some boxes to turn into Giant Legos for a Trunk or Treat project this weekend. My energy was still so low that I wasn’t much help with crowd control. :/

Wednesday morning I had a special ed teacher coming over to spend time with BabyBoy#11. I needed a little something to eat before this meeting so I (too) quickly put this Smoothie into the blender – overfilling it in my haste. The lid came off and I ended up exploding it all over the kitchen and all over myself.

One of our housemates witnessed the entire thing and came to my rescue. “You go change and have your meeting. I’ll take care of this.” And she did. Sniff. We are well cared for.

For dinner that evening I got out the tidbit of leftover roast and potatoes we had from last week plus some of this week’s leftover chicken. I put the meat on hoagies with spinach and melted Havarti cheese on top. So good!

I fried the small amount of potatoes and got out leftover green beans. We all just got a tiny serving of sides, but we all got full. :)

Brayden had a special field trip on Thursday morning and the request was that all the kids try to put themselves fully into 1897 mode, from clothing to food. He wore his button-up shirt, jeans, and boots and here was his lunch that day:

A biscuit with butter, beef jerky, and an apple wrapped up in a cloth. He took a tin can for his water and was so excited that he could hardly sleep the night before. :)

Thursday evening we had plans to go to “Boo at the Zoo” which is a very big deal here in Lincoln. So that we could have an early dinner and get out the door easily (hahaha) I made a bowl of Chicken Salad with some of the leftover smoked chicken from earlier this week. We ate it on rolls with veggies and canned fruit and it tasted SO GOOD.

Here we have “New to the Neighborhood Community Helpers:” a gardener, a teacher, a construction worker, a babysitter, a policewoman, a fire chief, and a garbage man.

Friday turned COLD. The night before, Malachi brought up our totes of coats, gloves, and hats and Matt sorted them into piles. Keith tried on EVERYTHING when he got up on Friday morning. :)

Anna got in on the fun too, but somehow her “bundling up” included huge purple pants and a princess dress from our dress-up clothes trunk, plus crocks that are several sizes too big. At least she found a hat, though. :)

The best discovery from our sorting of warm items was the Blues Clues slippers from 2001(ish). Asa was the first to wear those, then each boy after that, and somehow we still have them for Keith to wear. (And all of the little sisters. Taking turns is a whole big thing around here.)

I had an IEP meeting at school for one of our kids that morning then three therapist sessions throughout the day (one of them for me, praise God).

Because the day was packed, I simply threw a huge pack of hotdogs into a pot to have warm at dinnertime so the kids could eat before moving on to our evening events.

The fullness of this day ended with Trunk or Treat with our church family in the evening. Thankfully, Justus and Kelsey fully took over the plans we had to be a part of it. We sent a very bundled up Brayden, Kiya, and Keith with Elias so that they could enjoy the event. But Matt and I kept the littlest four at home to stay warm.

Saturday we took the day off, as much as one can take the day off with so many kids. Nobody got dressed that day; we just chilled in jammies or whatever we had all slept in the night before. We did some cleaning, we watched some soccer, we didn’t go anywhere. It was great and needed.

I didn’t get a picture of lunch that day, but I asked the boys to make 5 boxes of mac and cheese. FIVE. BOXES. Which seems like plenty, doesn’t it? Excessive even? Sure, but we have housemates and they needed to eat too.

That pot of mac and cheese was devoured before Matt and I could have any or before our housemates came down to eat. Wow. I don’t even know how much to make in the future. Eight boxes?? Ten? Make two pounds of this instead? Yes probably.

That night I used some of the smoked chicken from earlier in the week to make Chicken Gravy to go over the leftover mashed potatoes. This tasted sooooo good on a cold, jammie day. The buttered peas really hit the spot that night with the kids too. Adding plenty of butter to steamed peas makes them taste like candy, apparently. ;)

And that was our week!

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The Castle Laundry Room

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I’ve had a lot of requests that I share about our Castle Laundry Room. Here it is!

Our laundry room is in the basement, and it is a huge, functional room!

But here’s a little reminder of what our laundry room looked like the first week we moved in. It was FULLLLLL of linens and towels – like enough to run not just a Bed and Breakfast (as this property had been used before we purchased it) but enough to run a hotel. We spent hours clearing it out so that we can use it for our family’s needs.

We carted out 18 big black yard waste bags full of bedding, and then I stopped counting. I think Goodwill probably didn’t know what hit them that week. ;)

—>Pssst! Here’s an explanation of why we are calling our house our Castle. God is good, and this shares some of His goodness in meeting our needs. <—

Once we got the room cleared out, we started to form a plan – one that I’d thought of before we moved in.

See, my dilemma was that I do laundry for our seven littles plus Matt and me. We are all on the second floor of our Castle, and laundry is in the basement. You can imagine that laundry for nine people is quite a bit of laundry! I didn’t love the idea of lugging it up and down stairs over and over and over. And most of our kids are too little at this point to lug it themselves.

I had already stopped folding the laundry

Remember this? A year or so ago, I gave up on folding the 7 littles’ laundry. Here are all my reasons and I hold to the fact that this makes everything SO much easier. Folded onesies for BabyBoy#11 are ridiculous, toddlers rummaging through drawers destroy folding anyway, and even our 8 and 9-year-olds can’t keep their clothes folded long enough to make it from folding spot to drawer.

Folding clothes became a pointless job, so I gave up and do this instead. Now that we had moved into our Castle, I took this idea to a new level.

No dressers. All clothes stay in the laundry room.

We have an entire wall of shelves in the laundry room that are now like this:

When I do a load of laundry, instead of lugging it upstairs to our second floor to put it all away, instead I toss each item of clothing into its correct bin, cube, or basket. Like this:

This is a game changer! I still don’t keep up with laundry, but I sure do keep up better than I would if I were lugging laundry up and down, folding it all, and putting it away in dressers.

What I do lug upstairs

Matt and I do have dressers, because we’re grown ups and can handle them. They are in our bedroom because we don’t want to go to the basement for our shirts. :) So after I’ve sorted the seven littles’ laundry out of each load, I take these upstairs:

  • Matt’s clothes
  • my clothes
  • kitchen towels
  • bath towels

Sometimes these sit in the basket for days. Sometimes I empty the basket and put everything away in twenty minutes. It all depends on what is a priority at the moment, and usually, the priority isn’t putting away laundry. :)

How does it work to have the littles’ clothes in the basement?

It’s working great! We weren’t sure – would we really want to go to the basement every time we needed something for one of them? Well, as it turns out, we’d either be going up (to the second floor) or down (to the basement) – so it’s the same amount of steps no matter what. And being able to stand at the dryer and toss clothes directly into their tub? Amazingly efficient! Overall, we save a lot of effort doing it this way.

And Brayden, Kiya, and Keith – who are old enough to dress themselves – can go to the basement, change out of their dirty clothes, put their dirties in the hampers, and put on their clean clothes all in one place. At the beginning of each day, I run to the basement and grab clothes for the littlest four and head upstairs to start the process of getting them dressed. Easy! (I mean, as easy as it is to dress four toddlers/baby.)

I suppose you might want to see the washers/dryers?

The white set we brought from our York house. The silver set we inherited with the Castle. They are NICE and they are big. As are my piles of laundry – one of which is featured here.

We don’t actually have the white set completely usable yet, so at this point, we’ve all been using the big silver set. Somehow, this is working out fine – even with 16 people’s laundry being done here! Having the second set available will be nice eventually. But there are so many other priorities right now (like feeding the children and keeping them out of the street).

So there you have it! The Castle Laundry Room!

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Big Family Food and Fun: October 15-21, 2023

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It’s Big Family Food and Fun: October 15-21!

This week started off with a…bang? Opposite of bang? I’m not sure. I had had a huge day on Saturday, speaking at and enjoying a wonderful Ladies’ Conference in Council Bluffs, Iowa. I’d also come down with a cold so by Sunday I had no voice and very little energy.

Thankfully, the Friday before I’d already put together a huge Lasagna for our Sunday lunch. I slid it into the oven Sunday before we left for church and made steamed green beans and buttered corn. (Extra Buttered Corn, actually because when we got home from church and Kelsey was helping fix kids’ plates I said, “Oh! I don’t think I put butter in the corn yet!” So she added some but I didn’t pay attention to that and so then I went and added some too. Ooops. I mean, can you have too much butter in your corn? You know how I feel about this.)

I thought you’d be super impressed with the dessert platter I worked so hard on for our Sunday lunch this day. Since I didn’t feel well, I pulled out all the stops and arranged a platter of packaged treats we’d been given on various Food Distribution days. See how fancy?

That evening, our neighbor John stopped by with produce from his brother’s garden plus more apples from his family’s trees. Amazing!

We got out leftover Chicken Enchiladas from last week and warmed them up for dinner. Cleaning out the fridge feels good!

The kids were still on Fall Break Monday and Tuesday. Matt took Brayden, Kiya, and Keith to the Food Distribution site on Monday morning to help set up for Tuesday (when people come to pick up food). Mid-morning, I made a double batch of Pineapple Fluff to go with our lunch.

Oh, and do you see that huge can of pineapple? I had picked that up at Sam’s a few weeks ago because it was such a great price. But goodness, even for our family, that’s a lot of pineapple! I added a lot to the Fluff, and had a big bowlful leftover. We’ll see how long it takes us to get through it! (UPDATE: It’s almost gone.)

Our neighbor had given us tomatoes from his brother’s garden, so we HAD NO CHOICE but to make BLTs for lunch. With Pineapple Fluff. :)

Brayden and Keith had an appointment that afternoon, so while they were gone with Matt, Kiya and I teamed up to make a huge batch of Applesauce with apples that our neighbor had brought us. We sure are being well cared for!!

Kiya washed the apples and I cut them into our huge stock pot.

This batch made two gallons of applesauce. Between this and the pineapple, we’re set for a few…days?? :)

That night for dinner we had Sloppy Joes, green beans, and warm applesauce.

We had a birthday girl on Tuesday! One of our housemates set this outside her door to surprise her when she woke up. So sweet!

Our kids get to choose all the meals on their birthdays. Kiya’s birthday breakfast choice was Pumpkin Donut Holes she’d been given when helping at last week’s Food Distribution. I made Scrambled Cheesy Eggs to go with them, plus got out applesauce.

I had to take BabyBoy#11 to an OT appointment so Matt held down the fort while we were gone. Then we loaded everyone up to go see Justus and Kelsey’s new house!!!! They closed on it last week and we were so excited to go see it! (Though they used to live only three blocks from us. How dare they move twelve minutes away??) :)

Kelsey had muffins waiting for the kids. Does she know them or what? We properly initiated their new kitchen with billions of muffin crumbs.

Then she pulled out a puzzle and magnatiles. Kelsey’s mom was visiting to help with the move. When she’s visiting, I always wish she and Kelsey’s dad lived closer to us!!


The kids requested that I take their pictures just outside Justus and Kelsey’s house before we left. :)

We headed home to make Kiya’s birthday lunch. She requested chicken nuggets and fries. But I only had a few nuggets in my bag so I pulled out several large chicken tenders to help make enough food for everyone.

After lunch, Kiya enjoyed a pedicure with one of our housemates and her daughter. Here they are, letting their toes dry while watching a show and drinking sparkling water. :)

Later that afternoon, Malachi, Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and I headed to the Food Distribution site to hand out food. I love this SO MUCH. Seeing people come through the lines to get food they need for their families. Seeing how my children are learning to help and serve. Visiting with the other volunteers and making some conversation with the food recipients. It’s all so good.

Malachi was Keith’s side kick that day and their job was to wash out coolers as they were emptied of their food.

We got home tired and hungry – and ready to celebrate Kiya’s birthday in full force! I had grilled 20 burgers before leaving that afternoon and put them into a crock pot to stay warm. Asa, Eva, and Kelsey arrived just as we made it home so we dug right in!

The birthday girl requested Pudding Parfaits instead of cake – though she was given a cake at Food Distribution that we served to those who wanted some.

An #8 candle fits perfectly into a pudding cup. :)

After dinner, we headed into the living room for present time.

Kiya got several hair accessories, a cup holder for her bike, and a new Bible from Matt and me. She can read now, so we felt she was ready for her first “real” Bible. :)

Wednesday the kids headed back to school after being home for five days on Fall Break. I packed Brayden and Kiya cottage cheese with fruit and a muffin for lunch.

Matt and Elias went to York to work on our houses, so Malachi hung with the kids and me all day. We loaded the five littlest and headed to Walmart. As hard as outings are with this many, they are better than no outings. Staying at home alllllllll day makes everyone a bit grumpy. So to Walmart we went!

During lunchtime, I put The Simplest White Chicken Chili in the crock pot. (This was the final meal from the smoked chicken I’d made.) We ate it with Fritos plus pineapple or Pineapple Fluff.

Thursday morning we woke up to delicious biscuits that one of our housemates had baked the night before to share with everyone. That was an amazing treat (and unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures before they were all gone!).

I packed a quick lunch of yogurt, pistachios, and Peanut Butter Bars for the kids for lunch.

I spent some time putting Roast, Carrots, and Potatoes into our huge roaster so that it could slow cook all day for dinner. All day it smelled so good – but the best part was knowing that the work of prepping dinner was completely done!

Three of our kids had speech therapy that morning so we enjoyed our Bridgette time.

The roast with potatoes and carrots was delicious that night!

I used some of the applesauce I’d made earlier in the week to make four loaves of Apple Bread.

Friday was a pretty chill day and we ended the night with Costco pizza and salad!

After it got dark and we brought the kids inside, we gathered around the table to decorate baby pumpkins. Only a little bit of (washable) marker got on the table. ;)

Saturday, Asa and Eva took Brayden, Kiya, and Keith to a birthday party for our friend Jace! Matt and I kept the littler ones home because of sickness.

That evening we pulled the rest of Thursday’s roast meal from the fridge to warm up. It tasted even better than the first night!

And that was our week!

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6 Meals I Made with Two Whole Chickens

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I made six family-friendly meals with two whole chickens. THIS is such a money-saving method of cooking!

Full Disclosure: The two chickens I used were extra large. But so is the size of our family – extra large. There are 11 of our family at home right now (four adults and seven kids). Plus we currently have five housemates (three adults and two kids). We feed a lot of people each day (11-20 per meal). If you know me very well, you know that I love this. Feeding people is one of my favorite things to do.

Finding ways to stretch the food and creatively use what we have is also a lot of fun for me. :) Here’s how I made two whole chickens stretch into some wonderful meals for all of us.

6 Meals I Made with Two Whole Chickens

First, I thawed, then seasoned and smoked the chickens all afternoon.

Both chickens easily fit in our smoker, so I made good use of the space and the pellets to smoke both chickens at once.

We enjoyed chicken straight off of the smoker that night. SO GOOD. We ate it with these sides:

Matt is our designated chicken de-boner. He turns on an audio book, listens, and works to get all the meat off the bones for me. It’s one of my least favorite jobs but he does it happily.

We ended up with two 9×13 inch dishes full of meat after we ate all we wanted the first night!

Time for Broth

We put the bones into a pot of water to turn into broth the next day. I added several pounds of carrots and onions to make it extra nourishing. After several hours, I strained it and blended the veggies to pour back in.

The next day, I used some of the chicken to make a bunch of Chicken Cheese Melts on croissants. Half of them were just chicken and Colby jack cheese – for the kids. The other half was chicken with pepper jack cheese and ranch – for the adults who wanted a little spice. These sandwiches were perfect with Tomato Soup! And we got out canned fruit to help spread out the meal (because I was out of fresh fruit).

Note: I cut the twelve sandwiches in half for kids who needed smaller portions. This was the only way to make this meal stretch far enough for all of us.

The day after that, I used more of the chicken to make a large pan plus a small dish of Creamy Chicken Enchiladas.

The weather turned cold, so the next day we were very excited to use the broth I’d made a few days earlier and more of the chicken to make Chicken and Noodles. Wow, did that hit the spot!


Two days later, we pulled out the leftover Creamy Chicken Enchiladas to warm up for dinner.

Finally, we used the last of the chicken to make The Simplest White Chicken Chili in the crock pot.

So let’s review.

Two large chickens made these meals:

  1. Smoked chicken with sides (16 people)
  2. Chicken Cheese Melts on Croissants (13 people)
  3. Creamy Chicken Enchiladas (11 people)
  4. Chicken and Noodles (16 people)
  5. Creamy Chicken Enchilada leftovers (10 people)
  6. The Simplest White Chicken Chili (14 people)

Using whole chickens like this can really help stretch a food budget! And when you stretch the meal even further, pulling out easy side dishes like this, you can feed a lot of people these great meals! <— this is my favorite way to make a meal fill many people at once – add plenty of fruit and veggie side dishes to make the meal go as far as needed!

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Big Family Food and Fun: October 8-14, 2023

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This was a particularly big week as I was preparing for an event on Saturday. Here’s our big family food and fun post: Oct 8-14!

Big Family Food and Fun: October 8-14, 2023

Sunday morning I made two varieties of Taco Soup in our crock pots: This One (beef) and This One (chicken). To go with the soup I set out grapes, pears, and oranges plus Apple Muffins and Banana Bread.

We topped our soup with Fritos, cheese, and sour cream.

I STILL had some milk to use up before it went bad so I made another round of Pudding Parfaits for dessert.

That evening we planned to eat leftovers to help clean out the fridge before we loaded up to go watch Asa and Justus play soccer. As I was pulling out leftover hotdogs and tortillas, I decided to turn them into Lazy Dogs. I haven’t made these in years!! I opened up the griddle on my stove and cranked out 16 of them. They were a huge hit!

Just in case we would need them at the game, I threw some snacks into a bag: pistachios, peanuts, dried blueberries, and Banana Bread.

The evening at the soccer field was amazing – barely cool and all 15 of us out there together to cheer on the bros!

Here’s part of the beautiful cheering section!

After the game, we let the kids all run around a few more minutes. They played their own game of soccer while the sun set.

Monday morning I remembered that the kids’ school was offering a Teacher Appreciation meal after school so I quickly checked the sign up list to see if there was anything left that was still needed. I snagged a dessert slot and made a batch of Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies to drop off when we took the kids to school.

Matt and Elias headed to York that morning to work on our houses, so Malachi helped me get the kids to school. Then we loaded the remaining five to go pants shopping for Malachi. Why are we crazy like this?? Well, because they need outings and Malachi needed pants. So five kids four and under at Marshall’s? Sure, why not?

Malachi tried on some options I held BabyBoy#11, the girls ate a snack, and Keith begged me to buy shoes he didn’t need. What is it with that kid desperately wanting shoes that he definitely doesn’t need??

We got home and sent Keith (with his boring, perfectly fine shoes) and Anna off on their bus for preschool. Josie looked so pretty in her new fall outfit I snagged a photo. See?? I told you I’d dress my kids awesome again in the fall. Remember this??

I captured this sweetness before naptime that day. These two share a room but we have to put them in separate rooms for naps so that they actually sleep. Here they are giving night-night kisses between giggles.

We had been given some corn so I asked our kids to help get it shucked for dinner. We had some neighborhood help with the task!

I had put two chickens on the smoker to cook all afternoon. But I accidentally let the smoker run out of pellets around 4:00. So the process took longer as I waited for the smoker to heat back up and finish cooking the chicken. Therefore, around 5:45 when we could not wait any longer to feed the kids, we all had plates of corn on the cob, green beans, and Caesar salad.

Finally, later we had Smoked Chicken for dessert. :) For the record, it was worth the wait. Smoked chicken is soooo good!

Tuesday morning I mixed up a double recipe of Poptarts. I’ve been wanting to make these for such a long time. It made a HUGE mess, thanks in part to all my helpers. I will probably not make them again for a while. But wow were they good!

Ugly, but good. :)

After we got Brayden and Kiya off to school, we packaged up some of the fresh Poptarts and made three cups of hot apple cider. Then we loaded the five littlest and headed to church where we knew they were having a staff meeting that morning. (Justus is one of the three on staff, so we knew their meeting schedule.) We delivered the treats and prayed over the staff, then headed out so they could have their meeting without kids running around. :)

We had about 45 minutes before we needed to head home to meet the preschool bus, so we found a park for the kids to play. It was such a beautiful fall day!

That afternoon, Brayden, Kiya, and I went to our weekly Food Distribution site to help hand out food. We were amazed at the amount of people who came through the line that day. Our goal is to show love and kindness to each person. (As a bonus, we love how this is helping our kids grow and learn to serve.)

We arrived home at dinnertime, and one of our housemates had made a huge pile of waffles for dinner! They were so delicious!

Wednesday morning I woke up with a migraine, ugh. So that day is a bit of a blur, even while we still went about our regular routine taking care of the kids. I took BabyBoy#11 in for his 9-month check up while Matt and Elias took the other four littles to a park. Otherwise, we hung around the house and enjoyed the nice weather.

That night I used some of the chicken from the smoked chickens we’d made on Monday and put together Creamy Chicken Enchiladas. We ate them with Caesar salad, fresh pineapple, and grapes.

Thursday morning, I made a big pot of Oatmeal for everyone.

For dinner that night, I used croissants we’d gotten at that week’s Food Distribution along with chicken from Monday’s smoked chicken to make Chicken Cheese Melts. Some had Colby jack and some were Pepper jack with ranch. They were delicious with tomato soup and canned fruit (because I had no fresh fruit in the house!)

Matt made popcorn later that evening for a snack and we played a couple of board games before bed. (This sounds so precious, but in actuality it was loud and crazy. This is how they learn though…)

Friday morning the kids were off school for a Fall Break so we took them all to Hobby Lobby so we could pick up some crafts. “Don’t touch anything” was our favorite phrase of the morning. :)

We made Peanut Butter Honey Sandwiches and Smoothies for lunch.

And for dinner, we enjoyed our first pot of Chicken and Noodles of the season!! I had made broth earlier in the week from the bones of the chickens we’d smoked. This soup tasted SO GOOD on a chilly evening! (The kids can’t figure out why we aren’t letting them eat outside like we used to do all the time, boo.)

I had mentioned here that one of our third story housemates is a mama with her two young children. Now that we’re not able to play outside constantly like we did all summer, we are trying to get creative as we keep all 9 of the kids occupied in the evenings. Last night, we played games and had popcorn. Tonight, we set up a craft. Keith helped me get it ready.

The kids made masks from kits, which, as you can see, turned our house into an actual zoo. ;)

Saturday morning Eva, Kelsey, and Kelsey’s mom Nicole picked me up and we drove to Council Bluffs, Iowa for a Ladies Conference where I had been asked to speak. Matt, Elias, and Asa held down the fort at home.

God worked, as He always does, and the day was a great worship-filled day. My favorite part was seeing dozens of friends that I don’t see very often and miss so much. That was such a gift!

I had caught a cold from the kids so by the end of the day after so much talking, I had no voice. :)

We pulled these Burritos from the freezer for dinner before bathtime and bedtime.

And that was our week!

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Lunches I Packed October 2-6, 2023

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Here are the school lunches I packed Oct 2-6.

Lunches I Packed October 2-6, 2023

As I was trying to figure out what to pack the kids to eat on Monday, I realized I didn’t have anything easy on hand that was high in protein for their lunches. So I got the idea to make this Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream, which I sent with a container of animal crackers for dipping. This “main dish” idea was a bit odd, and it did have a little bit of sugar in it. But it also had protein, and it made the kids so excited! So, I’m glad I did it!

Monday: Peanut Butter Cup Whipped Cream, Animal Crackers, Carrots with Dip, Peach Cup

Tuesday’s lunch was also weird because I had to leave by 6:15 that morning to take BabyBoy#11 to the hospital for an MRI. So I packed Brayden and Kiya’s lunches on Monday night to make it easier for Matt and the boys. BUT, Monday night I was also getting everything else ready to take to the hospital and to situate everything so that I could be gone all morning (or longer). So I quickly grabbed a few items and threw them into lunchboxes.

Was it enough? Barely. But they don’t have much time to eat at school (or my theory is that they do have enough time but they aren’t as focused as they need to be during lunchtime so they don’t always use their time well and get all their food eaten quickly!). ;)

Tuesday: Whole Milk Yogurt, Granola Bites, Packaged Muffin, Applesauce

Wednesday I had a little bit more time to focus on food. So I warmed a can of tomato soup and packed it into the kids’ thermoses along with a straw so they could guzzle it down without making a mess. I used some of the Croissants we’d brought home from Tuesday’s Food Distribution and made them Cheese Sandwiches to enjoy with their soup. They LOVED this lunch!

Wednesday: Tomato Soup, Cheese Sandwich on a Croissant, Fruit Cup

Thursday’s lunch was easy! (Note: If the kids would have eaten lunch at home, Brayden would have downed four pieces of pizza and Kiya, two. Again, eating at school makes them rush a bit more.)

Thursday: Pizza, Applesauce, Cucumbers for Brayden and Carrots with Peanut Butter for Kiya

Friday. Ugh. Well, this is the day I usually pack a Fun Friday lunch which includes a sandwich of their choice, chips of their choice, and a treat of their choice. But we had some behavior struggles that morning and some privileges were lost.

I hurried to snap this picture before sending Brayden off to Ukulele class (which starts an hour before school) so Kiya’s lunch wasn’t complete yet. They both got a sandwich and applesauce. I threw in cucumbers for Brayden and later added an oatmeal crumb bar for Kiya.

Friday: Turkey and Cheese Sandwich for Brayden/ PBJ for Kiya, their favorite Banana Applesauce, cucumbers for Brayden and Oatmeal Crumb Bar for Kiya

Now that it’s getting chilly outside, I’m going to try and get more creative with hot food in thermoses!

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