Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Easy Cheeseburger Casserole

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I’ve shared a version of this Easy Cheeseburger Casserole here. But this is an even easier variety I’ve started to make, and I encourage you to give this a try!

This casserole is as easy as browning meat, then stirring in the other ingredients. Make it the night before, then bake it at dinnertime when you need it.

Two of my boys helped me make this recently, and took such pride in everyone loving their creation!

A little tip: Instead of topping my casseroles with cheese, I have learned to stir the shredded cheese right into the casserole with all the other ingredients. This makes the entire casserole cheesy, plus it prevents the cheese from sticking to the foil.

Easy Cheeseburger CasseroleYum

Easy Cheeseburger Casserole
 
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Serves: 8-10 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 pounds ground beef
  • 6 cups frozen shredded hashbrown potatoes
  • 2 cups ketchup
  • 2 Tablespoons mustard
  • 2 cups French fried onions
  • 2 cups shredded cheese (I use Colby jack)
  • Sea salt to taste
Instructions
  1. Brown hamburger meat until no longer pink.
  2. Stir cooked meat and remaining ingredients together in a large casserole dish.
  3. Cover dish with foil.
  4. Bake in a 350 degree oven for one hour.

Another tip: I like to set out some Bacon Bits for people to stir in if they want to. Then it becomes Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole – even better!!

Tip number three: Aldi carries a variety of Organic French Fried Onions that are inexpensive and super tasty!

Do I double this recipe and make a giant sized Cheeseburger Casserole for our family? Of course I do. The leftovers (if there are any) are great!

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Big Family Food and Fun: January 4-10, 2026

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: January 4-10, 2026 post!

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

Saturday, January 3

For dinner on Saturday evening, I’d made a huge pot of Beef Stew with some stew meat I’d picked up marked down at Sam’s that week. The kids didn’t eat it very well, but we grown ups enjoyed it. :)

The evening was uneventful, filled with bath time and the normal mayhem. I did manage to finally cut and individually wrap the Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies that I’d baked the day before. Having these ready to pack in school lunches was my main goal for them.

Big Family Food and Fun: January 4-10, 2026

On Sunday morning after worship, Josie and Auggie helped Matt fill a tote of pantry items to bring home and fill our Little Free Pantry.

Our lunch gathering after church was a huge delight, as usual. Our friend Steve walked in a case of Root Beer to share – and it didn’t take much arm twisting at the mention of Root Beer Floats for him to run right out to the store to pick up ice cream so that we could add Floats to our dessert bar. He was back with “the goods” right as we were getting ready to serve lunch: Ham and Cheese Sliders, Tomato Soup, Fruit, and Potatoes.

I’d put together six foil 12-packs of Sliders to warm in the oven – so 72 Sliders altogether. At the end of our meal? Exactly one slider remained. I guess this meal was a hit!

There were 25 of us gathered that day, with so much joy in our conversation and fellowship.

Matt and I sent the kids downstairs to watch a movie with Elias, Malorie, and Malachi during the afternoon while we enjoyed time with three other couples during our Community Group. For dinner that night, I put a box of Taquitos into the oven, warmed up White Queso, and served up Grapes. Easy and fun!

In an effort to get ahead for our launch into a new school semester after a long break, I made a big batch of Breakfast Burritos.

On Monday morning, Emma came to help with the non-school kids, Auggie had ABA therapy, and guess what I got to do? I ducked out for the entire day for some time of Recovery. First stop: a massage. I’ve been holding onto this certificate from my sweet daughters since August.

My friend Terra is amazing if you happen to be in Lincoln and want a healing massage. I was so relaxed after this that I wasn’t sure it was safe for me to drive, ha. But, drive I did – all the way to Panera where I sipped (well, a ton of water at first to get the most out of my massage and then…) coffee. I had my laptop and spent two blissful hours writing.

I ended my time away from home with a run into Costco to get a couple of things. This is what “a couple of things” looks like for our household…

Back at home, Matt and I took Auggie in the stroller for a walk to pick up the school kids. Mayhem and meltdowns began immediately, then ABA therapy, then dinner. I’d thrown BBQ Sauce on Chicken in the crock pot early that morning, then I made Green Beans and Buttered Rolls to go with it.

As the kids were finishing their meal, I decided to make Cheesecake Parfait to go with the Strawberries I’d picked up at Costco. We went through one two-pound round of strawberries very quickly and I got my blender back out and made another batch of parfait. Four pounds of strawberries later, I’d say this was a huge hit with everyone that night!

On Tuesday morning, Little Sweetheart came over to spend the day. We did some hair styling then played in the container of hair ties – which are very, very fun to throw all over the place.

That afternoon, I took Brayden, Kiya, and Keith to serve at our weekly Food Distribution. They all did well this week, and it was great to see over 100 people go through the food line.

Back at home, Matt finished the dinner I’d started: Leftover BBQ Chicken turned into Meat and Cheese Melts with leftover Veggies.

On Wednesday morning, I baked a batch of Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins.

Arrow came and spent the morning, making a batch of his own muffins in our play kitchen.

Somewhere in there, Josie helped me make Party Potatoes to slow cook for our dinner that night.

It was gorgeous outside, so I grilled Steak and Pork Ribs out on our smoker. IN JANUARY. What a treat!

Before bed that night, Brayden and Auggie helped me put together a large Cheeseburger Casserole for our Thursday night dinner.

On Thursday morning, after we got the kids off to school and settled Auggie in with his ABA therapy, I made a new extra large batch of Granola Bars to have on hand.

All throughout the morning, I baked many pans of Bacon. I had plans to use it with our casserole that night for dinner, for a breakfast-for-dinner on Friday, and just to have bacon on hand for anyone who wanted bacon during the next few days. The grown-ups in our house like it when I have cooked bacon on hand. I also save the bacon grease to use when I make Green Beans.

On my last round of bacon, I put two pans of Spinach Cupcakes into the oven to bake for a snack that night. I felt very relieved after all of this time in the kitchen because now I had a lot of good food items made ahead for upcoming needs!

When Malachi got home from work, Auggie helped him warm up and make a cup of coffee. There’s no way Malachi could have done this without the help of his three-year-old brother.

We enjoyed our Cheeseburger Casserole that night with Bacon for those who wanted to add it, Buttered Corn, and Spinach Cupcakes.

Keith took a break from his ABA therapy that night to make rice with Elias. I love how our younger kids love to be a part of life with their older brothers. And I love how the older kids include their younger siblings in their tasks.

On Friday morning, Daddy took Acacia to Speech Therapy. But first, this Helper of the Day helped me make Banana Bread with all of the bananas I’d been holding onto in the freezer.

We quickly ate our way through one loaf of Banana Bread, but I froze the other two loaves for later.

Dinner that night was a HUGE hit with everyone. I made a mountain of French Toast, 20+ Sausage Patties, and warmed up a large amount of Bacon from what I’d baked the day before. We got out Applesauce and Blueberries and feasted on dinner for breakfast. Everyone ate so well that we ran out of food before all of the adults got home from work to eat. Wow.

On Saturday morning, we took the kids to our favorite Sensory-Friendly Library Storytime. There’d been a break from this during the holidays, so we were very excited to go back! The theme for the day was SNOW, so we got to enjoy snowflakes made of felt, books and songs about snow, and then…

…we got to have a snowball fight!

Ms. Diane is incredible at putting this weekly program together!

Matt helped me load up the kids in the library parking lot, then he left in a different vehicle to drive to Heartlands to support our friends during their mom’s funeral service. I was on my own at home with all seven kids for a couple of hours, which is rare! We planned that we would let them watch a movie to help me survive the time. It all went well, and everyone did ok overall!

Part way through the movie, our friend Paula showed up with a car full of groceries for us to put into our Little Free Pantry. Their church group has been awesome to take part in this ministry with us! We paused our movie so that all seven kids could help bring in food.

It overtook our pantry floor – a great problem to have! So many people will be blessed by this food!

I needed to turn off my computer at this point, so I’ll continue sharing about our Saturday next week!

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My 2026 Grocery Budget Musings, part 2

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Here’s my My 2026 Grocery Budget Musings, part 2. Thank you for putting up with me.

Did you read part 1? Bless your heart. While I wrote that, I was verbally processing – with my fingers – as I typed. Thank you for reading. And as it turns out, my processing continued into this post also. Wowza. Are you ready for more?

My 2026 Grocery Budget Musings, part 2

THE FIRST DRAFT

The summary of we discovered in Part 1 is that I struggle to spend what my brain tells me is “unnecessary money,” therefore, I had to talk myself into increasing our grocery budget for 2026.

Yep, I’m frugal. Matt is too. Yay. That has served us well and brought us to this point. So here’s what’s great about this…We can now be more generous with others and also:

We can be generous to ourselves.

What if I were to “give” myself some extra budget money so that I can breathe a little bit easier as I feed a large household every day? This truly will be a gift.

We can afford it because we are frugal in other areas. We only buy what’s needed. So with that…

What if I could realize that ordering pizza sometimes actually is a NEED?

That’s a hard one for me – because even on the hard days, I can figure out a way to feed us without spending more than necessary. But what about my energy? My time? The needs of our children that take so much of both? I’m going to move forward with a new mindset. Or at least I’m beginning that journey.

Why all this jabber? What’s your new grocery budget, Laura?

I landed on: $1,600/month.

For 14 people; 7 adults, 7 kids.

There you go. The past two years, I’ve budgeted $1,400 and have spent an average of $1,250/month.

Kudos to me, but also…so what?

I guess I’ve taken pride in being able to feed so many people with such a small amount of money. I really, really like saving money. But I also really, really need to alleviate some of the mental load I carry. So I almost decided not to have a grocery budget at all.

Depending on how this year goes, I might do just that – scrap the whole idea of keeping track and just BUY WHAT WE NEED WHEN WE NEED IT, THE END.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Take a breath, dear readers. Now you are about to read…

THE UPDATE

I wrote the above DRAFT on January 5 while I was able to have two solid, uninterrupted hours at Panera thinking, pondering, and writing.

I finished the final sentence, tucked away my computer, went to the potty – because…coffee – then planned to run next door to Costco before heading home to jump back into the evening grind with our family.

It was in the Panera bathroom stall (you did not need to know that part) that the words I’d just written spoke very clearly to me:

“…scrap the whole idea of keeping track and just BUY WHAT WE NEED WHEN WE NEED IT, THE END.”

Those words, and the very idea of doing exactly what I’d just written made me feel…

Beautiful Freedom

Imagine not thinking about money: spending, calculating, keeping track, posting about it – well. It suddenly sounded wonderful and I wondered why I’d needed to write almost two thousand words just to come up with it. (<– Because writing is therapeutic for me and God tells me things through my typing fingers, that’s why.)

With new resolve and a heart full of peace, I went next door to Costco. I threw everything I’d just thought about regarding grocery budget numbers out the window, and I simply put everything into our cart that would bless our family and allow me to take care of our large household of dear ones. And while I did, I didn’t overthink any of it. In fact, I felt great about it. I even grabbed a $100 pack of Valentino’s Pizza gift cards for $74.99 to keep on hand for a night I needed a break, and it felt very, very good.

Oh look at that. I got everything I would have normally bought anyway.

How much did I spend on these groceries? I don’t know. I don’t care. I threw away my receipt after leaving Costco because I had decided in the Panera bathroom to stop having a grocery budget.

Huh. How about that?

The day after

On January 6, the day after my writing, revelation, and non-overthinking shopping trip – this still felt great.

The reality is, I will likely still spend between $1,200-$1,600 on groceries for our household every month. I’m still frugal and I’m never going to stop looking for sales, meat markdowns, and great prices on groceries. To me, that’s just wise spending practices and I’ve learned how to be good at this.

But not keeping track of it all takes a little chunk of burden out of my head. Plus “giving myself permission” to order pizza or whatever else we might need on an extra hard day is a generous gift I can give to myself. What a weird form of self care. But I believe that’s what it is!

Ok, one tiny regret

Keeping track of every penny I spend on food, taking pictures of my shopping trips, calculating, documenting, and sharing it with you has been a blog feature here for quite some time. I think it’s been a good one, and if I have any “regret” it’s that for now, I’m leaving that behind.

But the need for a mental load shift for me is vital, and maybe, just maybe alleviating my monthly grocery spending feature will open up time for me to write about something else as God allows.

Also? While I don’t plan to keep specific track of everything I spend on food, I’ll probably throw all kinds of grocery store pictures into our weekly Food and Fun posts. And goodness if I find a great deal, how can I not share about that?!

Moving on…

Who we are feeding

In case you’re wondering where all the food goes, here’s what our home life looks like right now:

  • At the very least, I’m feeding nine people three meals a day plus snacks: Matt, myself, Brayden (12), Kiya (10), Keith (7), Anna (6), Acacia (5), Josie (4), and Auggie (3).
  • Five other adults live at our house: Elias, Malachi, plus three adults that rent rooms from us. All the adults are welcome to eat anything they would like that I buy and make, and most of them appreciate and take advantage of this. Food is included in their rent cost, as I found it easier to feed our wonderful housemates instead of expecting everyone to fend for themselves and try to cook in our kitchen in the midst of me trying to cook for our family. This has been a great arrangement! At the same time, all the adults are welcome to cook or eat out or do whatever they want to. They are adults, after all.
  • We host a houseful of guests (25-40 people) every Sunday Lunch and it is the biggest pleasure of my week to do this. We usually provide the main dish and some sides/desserts. Guests often bring sides/desserts. It’s the most wonderful thing to be a part of this!

Matt and I would love to host more guests in our home during the week, specifically for people in our neighborhood. As of right now though, we’ve not been able to add much more to our evenings because of all the ABA therapy happening in our home.

A huge thank you

Thank you, thank you, for supporting us and caring about our family. It was a blessing for me to write through all of my thoughts as I worked out a new budget – or non-budget – grocery plan for our family.

As time goes on, I’ll keep you posted about what it’s like to not focus on a grocery budget. I think I’m going to enjoy the mental freedom this brings as I do exactly what I’ve done for years but without the extra burden of keeping track of receipts!

How do you work out the grocery budget needs for your family?

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My 2026 Grocery Budget Musings, part 1

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Whelp. Here we go. I’m making some changes to our my 2026 grocery budget. Brace yourself for some major rambling in this post!

My Grocery Budget

First, why do I say “my” grocery budget instead of “our” grocery budget? Because Matt is awesome. I am the grocery shopper and cook at our house. While I do talk over this budget line item with Matt as we work on finances together, he’s happy to let me do whatever I need to do to feed our household. When I told him, “I think I need to increase our grocery budget this year,” he simply said, “ok, sounds good” – because he trusts me to do what is best for our needs in this area.

Second, let me say: I’m so thankful that we can do this. Not everyone has wiggle room to make budget changes. I don’t take this for granted. We have learned to live a pretty frugal lifestyle, and this has led to financial breathing space for us at this point in our lives. We are very grateful that God has led us to a place that we can focus on our kids’ needs instead of worrying every day about how we are going to put food on the table.

But speaking of being frugal…

Saving money and spending as little as possible is such a big part of who Matt and I are that I’ve done some unnecessary wrestling in my own head as I’ve considered a 2026 grocery budget increase. It’s pretty silly, actually.

As a tiny aside, I’ve always declared myself to be frugal – but still FUN. As in, we don’t go out for ice cream very often, but I most certainly do make ice cream at home or buy a quart of it at the store for a fraction of the price. We scope out all the fun, free activities and events around Lincoln, and we take our kids on tons of super cool outings. We pack picnics, draw snowman faces on our drink cups, make cool crafts, and cut our tortillas into snowflakes.

But goodness, I struggle to spend “unnecessary” money. Like, last month when we took the kids to Freddy’s because we had a bunch of free kid meal coupons, I was happy to pay for our adult kids to eat but told Matt, “I’ll just wait and eat at home.” Good grief, Mom. Just order yourself a cheeseburger already. (We only spent a bit over $30 for 12 of us to eat out. Why was that so hard for me?)

Anyway, I guess I’m frugal to a bit of a fault. Or there’s this: I can be generous to others, but not always to myself. So. I’ve been thinking about that, trying to release any weird fears to Jesus, and here’s where I’ve landed. Ok, fine. Here’s where I’m trying to land:

I can splurge sometimes.

There, I said it.

As I launch into my Year of Recovery, I’ve decided that a very simple way to offer myself some breathing space is to order pizza sometimes. Or buy a few more ready-made foods that can feed our busy household quickly and easily. To do this so that I don’t have to overthink any of it, I need to increase our food budget.

Why is that hard for me? I certainly do other hard things all day long. So how about I choose to spend a little extra money sometimes to make the hard days easier?

Hmm, what a concept.

What about nutrition?

Sob…yeah. Ain’t that the question.

Have I really gone from a grain grinding, yogurt making, organic gardening, free range chicken mama to…someone who buys and feeds her kids cereal and chips?

Funny you should ask.

I actually wish that was all that I had to think about – nourishment in our food choices. But in fact, what I have to wrestle with now beyond just allowing myself to spend extra money on “food I could make myself for much cheaper and way healthier” is much bigger. MUCH, MUCH BIGGER. As in – I have several kids that actually will not eat many certain foods. Parenting these kids with the idea of “they’ll eat it when they get hungry enough” is not a thing for our special needs kids. They will not, in fact, eat it when they get hungry enough. They will, instead, starve. :(

This is a hard and challenging reality for us. Our tiniest girl eats so little and fights us so hard about food that we are almost to a point of “let her eat whatever she will eat so she doesn’t lose any more weight.” It’s scary, but that baby needs calories.

So, I wish my biggest food preoccupation was about organic food, whole grains, and vegetables. But now I’m quite literally trying to keep my kids alive.

A little side note of praise

Autism and trauma has created some shocking food needs for our kids, and here’s what I’m realizing:

God has equipped me for this. I’m such a foodie!!! I only thought that my love of food provided me with the opportunity to teach people how to eat nourishing, delicious meals and snacks in a simple way. Instead, I get to be a learner. And as it turns out, my love for food and my giftedness in being able to feed a multitude is serving me very well right now.

If I hated grocery shopping and cooking, this hard job would be so much harder. So, here we are, and this is what we do now. God keeps growing me, and food gets to be my wheelhouse in a brand new way.

So, we give the girl her Pirate’s Booty.

(She calls it privates booty, which is both hilarious and embarrassing.)

Sometimes all she’ll eat is a Slim Jim, a bag of Pirate’s Booty, and an Applesauce. But at least she ate. And yay for applesauce.

Goodness, I’m going all over the place in this post. I guess I’m writing my way through my thought process as I considered our Grocery Budget Increase.

Stay tuned for the conclusion to this rambling, the actual number I’m landing on, what I’m planning to buy with my “extra” budget money.

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Make-Ahead Breakfast Burritos

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Here’s how to put together Make-Ahead Breakfast Burritos!

I used to make Breakfast Burritos like this – with Homemade Tortillas and Homemade Turkey Sausage. Wow. I was ambitious and I was able to use my time differently then.

Now, with a houseful of kids with special needs, food prep looks a lot different. Here’s the fastest way I’ve found to put together a large amount of Breakfast Burritos, and I highly recommend doing this! These go together fast, can be frozen if needed, and reheat easily in an air fryer or oven.

Here’s how I put together Make-Ahead Breakfast Burritos

Make-Ahead Breakfast Burritos
 
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Author:
Serves: 12-24 burritos
Ingredients
  • 1-pound ground sausage
  • 12-18 eggs
  • 2 cups shredded cheese
  • Sea salt and/or to taste
  • 24 small tortillas or 12 large
Instructions
  1. In a large skillet, brown sausage until no longer pink.
  2. Crack eggs directly into the skillet with cooked meat.
  3. Season as desired.
  4. Scramble eggs with the meat until fully cooked.
  5. Stir in shredded cheese until melted.
  6. Spoon mixture into tortillas and roll into burritos.
  7. Eat right away or refrigerate/freeze in freezer bags to warm up another time.

 

Breakfast Burrito Variations Yum

  • I make our Breakfast Burritos as simple as can be with eggs, sausage, and cheese. This is because we have a wide variety of specific food preferences at our house. Having just basic ingredients in our burritos allows each person to eat it as-is, add in extras, or dip their burrito in salsa or another dip if they want.
  • Any meat will work in these burritos. Sub sausage for bacon or ham for a great variation.
  • Use your favorite shredded cheese in these. Our favorite is Colby Jack – but cheddar, pepper jack, or even mozzarella would be good.
  • Use any size tortilla! I use small tortillas because we have small kids. The adults in our home easily eat three or four of these. Use larger tortillas for bigger appetites.
  • Some great add-ins for these burritos would be: tomatoes, onions, peppers, avocado, black beans, or salsa.

 

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Big Family Food and Fun: December 28-January 3, 2026

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: December 28-January 3, 2026 post!

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

Saturday, December 27

Saturday afternoon, Asa, Eva, and Arrow came over to hang out. Eva brought her camera and was amazing to spend time taking an photo of each of the younger kids so that we can update our picture wall. It was almost comical how complicated it was to get Josie to stand still and look at the camera. Her autistic traits showed up during this shoot, for sure. She was very sweet about it though, and Eva was very patient. :)

I made a simple dinner of Mac and Cheese and Peas that night. We warmed up leftover Taco Meat to stir into the Mac and Cheese for those who wanted some.

We were out of muffins, so I solved that near tragedy by baking a batch of Flourless Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins. After Asa’s family headed home and we’d given the kids baths, we loaded up in our jammies to drive around and look at more Christmas lights.

Big Family Food and Fun: December 28-January 3, 2026

Sunday morning, we ate through half of a large pan of Breakfast Cookie Bars.

It started to blizzard as church was letting out. Whoa. Several friends were still able to make their way to our house for lunch, and we were so grateful for all who gathered.

I made a full crock pot of White Chicken Chili. Friends brought bread and fruit. Then for dessert, we ate through some Christmas treats others had gifted us. It was a simple and delicious feast.

Even with the blizzard, 24 of us were able to gather and enjoy time together that day.

We introduced our friends to our “new” Air Hockey Table. This is one of the reasons we bought this table – to enjoy it with friends who came over.

The kids broke out their new puzzles and worked together on those.

Here’s what the crock pot looked like at the end of our time together. Empty food containers make me happy. They tell me that everyone was well fed and that our fellowship was sweet.

Matt and I enjoyed Community Group time that afternoon. Then the girls helped me bake some cookies from mixes they received for Christmas.

For dinner, I baked some Mini Pizzas that I’d picked up on sale at Costco.

Then we loaded up most of the kids and headed out to look at more Christmas lights. Kiya stayed home with Malachi because she was sick. And another kid had had a major fighting meltdown and lost the privilege of going out with us. :( Malachi was so good to help us with the follow-through on this. All kids were calm by the time we made it home.

On Monday morning, Auggie had ABA therapy and everyone else played.

It was Brayden’s and Auggie’s birthday that day! Keith was my special helper of the day, so he helped me make an Ice Cream Cake.

After lunch, we took down our Christmas tree to pack it away until next year.

That afternoon, I made a big batch of Granola Bars. It’s pretty important that I keep something like this on hand for Keith because when he needs to eat, HE NEEDS TO EAT.

Elias and Malorie and Justus’ family were all out of state visiting family, but Asa’s crew and Malachi were able to join us in celebrating birthdays that night.

Brayden wanted Orange Chicken for birthday dinner and he even requested Stir Fried Veggies to go with it! I made a pan of Stick of Butter Rice to stretch the meal.

This is the first year Auggie has understood what a birthday is, and it was very sweet to enjoy this with him. Here’s his face when Malachi asked him to “smile with your teeth!”

I’d put twelve candles on the cake – then lit three of them for Auggie. After we sang to him and he blew out his candles, I lit all twelve and we sang for Brayden!

Present time was fun – and did I mention that ABA therapy was going on for two of the kids (including our 3-year old birthday boy) throughout this whole night? The therapists were sweet to work their programming around our birthday fun.

Brayden was excited to receive a digital clock that has weather and temperature features! One of his special interests is ALL THINGS WEATHER. So he was very excited about his gift!

On Tuesday, we took the kids to the mall to get some energy out in the play area there.

We had a pile of free Subway kids’ meal coupons that expired at the end of December, so we enjoyed the treat of eating in the mall food court!

That afternoon, I took Brayden and Keith to serve at our weekly Food Distribution. There was a ton of food to give away that day, and a lot of people came through the line to be blessed by this! Brayden’s job is to clean all the coolers as they get emptied out. Every single cooler got used so his work load was bigger. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of him doing this job. But I sure was proud of his hard work that day. Keith mostly helped me hand out chicken at my table.

I’d made a large Tator Tot Casserole and a pot of Green Beans before leaving that afternoon, and Matt got everyone fed before we got home.

On Wednesday, we loaded up mid-morning to go to a gym nearby to watch Asa and some of his buddies play basketball. We weren’t sure how this would turn out because we didn’t know how much space around the gym there would be. Well. We were in for a great surprise!

First though, look at these sweet sisters admiring their biggest brother playing ball!

What we learned about this Rec Center: IT IS FREE TO THE PUBLIC. We had no idea! The gal at the desk told us that we could come within certain hours of the day to use the gym, the game room, and their collection of games and balls. Wow. This is a gold mine for us – and it’s only a mile from our house! We assumed it was like the YMCA in which people have to pay monthly fees for a membership. Nope. Free to the public. Well, we will see you again very soon Rec Center!

We ate leftovers for lunch at home, then I baked two Pumpkin Pies for a special New Year’s Day breakfast.

We still had plenty of leftovers, so we warmed up more at dinner time as kids got hungry. I had brought home several packages of Hawaiian Rolls on Tuesday’s Food Distribution because one of our local stores had donated several cases. This was a fun score, and I spent some time Wednesday afternoon putting together six foil wrapped Ham and Cheese Slider Sandwiches for the freezer with plans to warm them for our upcoming Sunday Lunch.

I’d been sorting through some of our older puzzles in an effort to get re-organized for the new year. I discovered a set of three wooden puzzles all a mess. So we had Puzzle Challenge at the table to sort the pieces and put the puzzles together. Even Auggie had fun with this!

On Thursday morning, we ate Pumpkin Pie for breakfast, then made a batch of Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters to take for a snack on an outing.

We loaded up the kids and went to Scheels, hoping to entertain them with the aquarium and play area. Unfortunately, they started scattering after two seconds of looking at fish. So we had to move on right away.

We headed to the second floor and found some cool new features (or maybe they aren’t new but we just haven’t been there for a while to discover them?!). We hit some golf balls in the putting area.

Then we took a boat ride in a pond. Ha. I wish. I actually had no idea that taking a picture there would give us that background. We were just sitting for a minute. :)

After that, we fought over who would bowl first paid two dollars and let our kids take turns bowling. What a great, cheap activity!

Then six of us went on the Ferris Wheel while Daddy hung out with the remaining crying kids. Ultimately, this was a great but hard outing as we tried to have fun with kids who often sabotage the fun we try to have. Crazy though – I think they will have good memories from this, and we only had to spend a whopping $8.00.

For dinner that night, I made two Quiche with Caesar Salad and Tator Tots.

After dinner, the kids and I did some baking. First we made some Crustless Cheesecake to have on hand for a high protein snack option.

Then we made a double recipe of Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies, also for a high protein snack option, and also for school lunches next week.

On Friday morning, I cut and individually wrapped the Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies and put them into the fridge. I made a batch of Tapioca Pudding because Brayden has been requesting it! Keith really wanted to do the stirring. So I put him in a safe spot and that kid stuck with the whisk for twenty entire minutes – amazing!

Acacia had Physical Therapy and Speech Therapy that morning. Matt held down the fort at home with Auggie and his ABA Therapy and the other five kids hanging out.

We had Spaghetti with leftover veggies for lunch, then Meatloaf, Peas, Strawberries, and Buttered Croissants for dinner. The night was filled with more ABA Therapy for Keith and Anna – then bedtime!

On Saturday, we loaded up and headed to the Children’s Museum. We spent over two hours there with friends, and we enjoyed several of the new exhibits!

That afternoon, we did some baking and cleaning to get ready for Sunday. Then we transitioned into our time of Sabbath rest. And that was our week!

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Word of the Year 2026

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Word of the year 2026? Here we go.

I don’t always jump on this bandwagon, as is evidenced by the fact that I don’t think I’ve ever shared a Word of the Year here. God and I do tend to focus on themes though, and I can see that as I look back on the past decade as He’s grown my understanding of His power, grown our family, and grown my need for Him.

As 2025 wrapped up, I was made very much aware of a focal point for the past 12 months we just walked through. It was a full year in ways I didn’t expect, but a year that provided us with so much of what we’d been begging God to provide.

Answers

I declared Answers to be my word of 2025, and yeah, I landed there in the twelfth month of the 2025 because I’m not normal. But we all already knew this.

As I reflected on all the answers God has provided for us during a somewhat grueling 2025, I simultaneously recognized what would be a needed theme for 2026. It’s not a pretty word or one that makes sense for most. But it’s what I need, and I trust God will provide it.

Word of the Year 2026

God made it very clear at the start of 2025 that I would not be able to do all of the advocating, appointment making, and assessment taking without setting aside pretty much everything else, including down time. Finding doctors, setting up and executing appointments, filling out questionnaires, assessments, and paperwork, starting new therapies, working with the schools to settle in our kids and revamp IEPs and 504 Plans, welcoming ABA therapists into our home – it has taken an extreme level of energy and such a large chunk of time every day that it has been all consuming.

The reality is that the advocating will never end. The appointments won’t stop. Therapy is really just beginning. Our kids’ needs are huge. So I’m not deceiving myself into thinking, “Oh yay, 2025 is over and 2026 will be so much easier.” HAHAHA. That’s not true for any one of us. At our house, the work load we face daily is incredibly intense.

But within all of this, what does need to happen for my heart, my body, my mind, and my spirit is a time of recovery.

The work it took to get our kids to this point has been more than a full time job. I am very tired. Tired in a way that is hard to explain and is not sustainable.

I’m not worried, nor should you be. I’m ok because God is faithful. He led us to this specific Kingdom work and He hasn’t abandoned us. Quite the opposite – He is so beautifully in this.

But my goal for the upcoming months is to continue to do all that I need to do for my family while also finding more ways to rest, breathe, sit, sleep, relax, and be at peace. So my Word of the Year 2026 is:

Recover

Is this even possible?

Yes, with God, it is. Of course it is. Here’s what He’s already doing for us…

  • We’re establishing Mondays as a recovery day of sorts when our friend Emma comes over for several hours to help with the kids who aren’t in school yet.
  • We’ve already set aside appointment-free and work-free Friday afternoons so that Matt and I can spend time in the quiet together before the kids come home from school.
  • Our Sundays are the most beautiful and life-giving days of each week when we worship with our family, host a lunch in our home with dear friends, and sit with our community group to sharpen and grow each other. It’s hard to explain how this is truly recovery time for us when it is so people-filled and while we are hosting a large lunch gathering in our home. It’s just that Matt and I spend so much time caring for high need children that spending our time with loving adults who pour into us and our family in our home is richer and more fulfilling that just about any other thing I can think of.

  • Time with our grandbabies has been extra precious because we get to love on them and enjoy them in ways that bring us so much joy! Yes, our home is filled with children – but grandbabies are different. It’s hard to explain. But loving on them is such a gift, and it softens my heart and mind in ways that gives me energy and strength.

More Ways to Recover

I’ve been praying about what changes we can make so that we can spend some time in recovery. God is very good at providing in ways I can’t figure out on my own. So this time next year, it will be delightful to share with you so much of what He did for us that we didn’t think of ourselves!

Meanwhile, some things I’m brainstorming about:

  • Afternoon naps. I need them sometimes. But if I take a nap, that means something else has to be let go. So that might mean…
  • More frozen pizza. Or rotisserie chickens. Or whatever else takes some of the kitchen work load off.
  • Supplements. I’m experimenting with something that seems to be helping me sleep better at night. Plus, I’m taking some great vitamins to help me stay as healthy as possible overall.
  • Help. We are looking at more of our daily work needs and home repair needs that we can hire out or offload so that we can spend our energy differently to meet our kids’ needs and our own needs.
  • Appointments. As in – there are several appointments that I need that I’ve been putting off simply because I haven’t been able to make one.more.phone.call. I’m going to prioritize these now, starting with scheduling a massage with gift certificates I’ve been holding onto for a few months! Can I get an amen?
  • Dates. We are figuring out more ways we can get away for alone time together, just Matt and me, so that we can have respite.
  • Laughter. We’ve been talking with our adult kids and their significant others about somehow getting together every few months to play games without littles around. We’ll have to move a few mountains to make this happen, but laughing with our older kids is extremely life-giving for all of us. So move over mountains. I need laughing therapy.
  • Writing. Oh how I miss writing. When Emma comes on Mondays, we are trying to block out some of those hours for me to spend time writing. It’s so therapeutic for me!

Whatever God provides for recovery, I look forward to experiencing His goodness and faithfulness for us. I’ll keep you posted throughout the years as specific recovery needs are met.

Meanwhile, Arrow’s amazing cheeks provide joy in a way that resets me every time. And Little Sweetheart gives actual kisses to Lolli now. So, yeah, I’m recovering very well already.

Do you have a word for 2026? What has God been doing to show His goodness in your life?

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Big Family Grocery Spending for December, 2025

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Here’s our Big Family Grocery Spending for December, 2025 post!

Curious how much we spent during the month of December and what groceries we bought? Here’s the breakdown…

Big Family Grocery Spending for December, 2025

1. This and That

Our month started off with some sickness and a dead refrigerator. :( So between Matt grabbing milk as needed and our friend Christina picking up a few things for us at Aldi when I didn’t feel well enough to get out, we got our month started with the bare minimum.

Total from random grocery grabs: $43.24

2. Aldi

On December 8, I finally felt well enough to go out and do some shopping. I opted to go to Aldi and got milk, cheese slices, sausage links, sausage patties, bananas, apples, blueberries, oranges, grapes, salad kits, cream, half and half, eggnog, eggs ($1.24/dozen!!!!), chicken broth, rotel, pasta sauce, fruit/veggie pouches, fried onions, barbecue sauce, frosting, crackers, and chips.

Total at Aldi: $202.35

3. Wal-Mart

Matt ran into Wal-Mart on December 10th and was on board with checking for meat markdowns while he was there. Look what he scored! Plus, we needed sour cream and spring mix so he grabbed those too.

Total at Wal-Mart: $45.00

4. Wal-Mart

On December 15, I ran into Wal-Mart while I was out to see if I could score any meat mark-downs. I was blessed to get several packages of ground beef plus a small package of steak!

Total at Wal-Mart: $57.42

5. Costco

That day, I filled two carts at Costco. First, I got all of the non-perishables we needed. Then I went back in and got all of our fresh, refrigerated, and frozen food.

I got granola bars, z-bars, tortilla chips, frozen green beans, shredded cheese, broccoli, frozen pizzas, half and half, heavy whipping cream, taquitos, spring mix, grapes, butter, milk, sausage patties, white queso, guacamole, fresh spinach, blueberries, sliced havarti cheese, chicken nuggets, frozen french fries, cherries, kiwi, bananas, eggs, and frozen fruit. I also picked up $10o worth of Valentino’s gift cards for just $74.99 to use for Malachi’s birthday dinner. Oh! And a Rotisserie chicken for that night’s dinner.

Total at Costco: 520.77

6. Azure Standard

I ordered my favorite flour and tortillas from Azure Standard this month. Thanks to you all, I had some referral credit to spend so I didn’t have to use any of our grocery budget for this purchase!

Total from Azure Standard: $0

7. Sam’s

On December 22, I went to Sam’s and Wal-Mart. At Sam’s, I got oranges, apples, bananas, strawberries, Caesar salad kits, pears, orange chicken, z bars, mayonnaise, sliced cheese, breakfast sandwiches (Brayden’s birthday request), rotel, tomato soup, coconut oil, chili powder, brown sugar, mac and cheese, and chicken nuggets.

Total at Sam’s: $221.76

8. Wal-Mart

At Wal-Mart, I got a few of our WIC items to finish out our benefits for the month. I also got beef little smokies for Christmas time, tator tots, milk, pasta, and eggs. I found some chicken pot pies marked down, so I bought those to put into our Little Free Pantry.

Total out of pocket: $60.37

9. Wal-Mart

Twice at the end of the month, I ran into two different Wal-Marts to try and score the $5 hams I’ve found the past two years after Christmas. This was not to be – sob. ;) But I found other meat markdowns and got a few other items I needed both times I went in.

Total for two different trips to Wal-Mart: $78.07

Total for groceries December, 2025: $1,228.98

Our WIC benefits provide our littles with around $120 worth of groceries each month. You can read here to learn our 2025 Grocery Budget plus look over ways I’m able to keep our budget at this level.

Running Totals for 2025

January spending: $679
February spending: $1,459
March spending: $1,346
April spending: $1,364
May spending: $1374
June spending: $1,127
July spending: $633
August spending: $1,501
September spending: $1,603
October spending: $1,347
November spending: $1,425
December spending: $1,229

Total spending for 2025: $15,087

Average per month for 2025: $1,257

Grocery budget for 2025: $1,400

Somehow, I came in under budget overall for 2025. I’ve been doing some reflecting on our budget for 2026 – and as soon as I’m able, I’ll share a post sharing where Matt and I have landed for the new year!

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2026 Word of the Year: RUNNERS-UP

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A lot of words came to mind as I considered a focus for the new year. In fact, there are many 2026 Word of the Year: RUNNERS-UP. Read if you dare.

A few days ago, I shared that I finally have a 2025 Word of the Year. Woot! It only came 11 months and two weeks late. But it was the exact word we needed.

Indeed, 2025 has been filled with referrals, appointments, phone calls, assessments, getting diagnoses, starting therapies, and blessedly, finding answers to the intense needs in our home.

2025 word of the year? Answers. Praise God!

And guess what?! I already know my word for 2026! But I can’t share it yet. Instead, I must provide you with all the other words that came to mind as we live in a home filled with special needs, screaming, trauma, autism, and therapy. Are you ready?!? You aren’t ready.

2026 Word of the Year: RUNNERS-UP

12. Poopy Butt

Our younger set of kids are 12, 10, 7, 5, 5, 4, and 3. There are seven of them and five are on the autism spectrum. Many also have ADHD and/or are developmentally delayed, and so on and so forth.

But across the board, they can all say Poopy Butt and they are very gifted at saying it at the wrong time. They think they are either very funny and very rebellious, OR they like to become very self-righteous if they are not the one saying it but someone else is. “Mommmm! She said Poopy Butt!” Yeah, I heard.

I considered that Poopy Butt should be my word of the year because I hear it a lot and in truth, I deal with a lot of poopy butts. But then I considered that perhaps 2026 could actually be the year that everyone is…

11. Potty Trained

Is it possible? Might we have our final babe potty trained during 2026? He’s three now, after all. But he has special needs, so we won’t rush him.

Oh well though. If we don’t have a kid in diapers, I may not know what to do and I might still buy diapers in bulk out of habit. At one point we had five kids in diapers full time. So come at me with anything – you can’t scare me.

We are now down to only two kiddos sleeping in diapers and our youngest wearing them full time. What is this life of ease we now live??

As of right now, Auggie is only a little bit interested using the potty, so Potty Trained shouldn’t be my word of the year – just in case. The babe is less interested in the potty and a little more interested in saying “Poopy Butt.” Oh hey, but remember when we thought he might be non-verbal? So how thankful are we that he can form those beautiful words? So thankful. Actually though.

10. Food Smash

We crush more crackers and smear more noodles onto the table and floor than I wish to acknowledge. Many of our kids have food-related trauma and in addition, did you know that autism and trauma often create food aversions for kids? Multiply that times seven and you can’t imagine how difficult meal time is at our house.

Also, did you know that even if you put ranch dip on the plate the exact way that a traumatized autistic child asks you to do it, YOU WILL STILL DO IT WRONG? You will.

And when you do it wrong, a likely response a kid in our home has is to flip the plate onto the counter or the floor and smash it. Yes, we’ve parented this: attempted to discipline it, tried to prevent it, worked to retrain it, and have provided a million accommodations and options (do you want the pink plate or the green one? do you want to add the ranch or do you want me to? do you want the ranch on the chicken or beside the chicken?). Nothing works because autistic brains know exactly what they want but can’t always express it. So food flies, kids flop, and I don’t want to talk about it any more.

9. Accommodations

Speaking of providing options like pink and blue plates, this seems like a good time to talk about all the accommodations we’re learning to make for our kids. And about how we tell our kids to go put on their shoes and they actually cannot do it. Even though they can. They really can’t. (<–what?!)

We thought we were parenting wrong and that our kids were lazy, self-absorbed, needy people. As it turns out, they are autistic, delayed, and/or traumatized – so giving them a simple “demand” can make their nervous system go into fight-flight mode. So, for the love of sanity, we can’t simply tell our kids to go get their shoes. This creates meltdowns, and if you dare tell me that I’m spoiling them by bringing them their shoes and helping them get dressed, don’t. I’ve already scolded myself for what feels like bad parenting, but it isn’t. It’s providing accommodations. These kids’ nervous systems need to be cared for, and “demands” make their bodies feel actual pain. Crazy but true.

I hate it for them, and truthfully, I hate it for me. I want to be able to say, “Everyone go to the bathroom, get your shoes on, then go buckle into the van!” But I can’t. It doesn’t work. This is why I’m often crying by the time we finally get them all loaded into the van and we actually all make it to school or church. Just the act of getting out the door is ridiculous. Which leads me to another runner-up…

8. Dopamine

Goodness. One of the only thing that motivates many of our kids is “something exciting!” “something new!” “a treat!” This gives them a dopamine hit and they cooperate for a moment. It’s a weird new reality for us and I’d never heard of it. I just knew that transitions were awful and the only thing that got us from Point A to Point B was some sort of motivation. It felt ridiculous to accommodate this until I learned that this was normal for kids like mine.

We can’t go anywhere without “transition snacks” to help us get where we need to be. Go-Go Squeeze is the best invention ever invented to help us meet this need. See also: Capri Sun 100% Juice, Z-Bars, and sometimes, a simple Bag of Apples handed out as everyone gets buckled up in the van (while screaming).

7. Hyper-Fixation

Our world is filled with kids who discover THE BEST ROCK or THE MOST AMAZING BOX and for a time, that is all we hear about, all we can focus on, and no one better touch it or else. Also: REALLY COOL BUGS, TRETUROUS WEATHER (otherwise known as it’s flurrying just a little bit), SUPER LONG STICKS, ELSA, YARN, and LOUD AIRPLANES.

When one of our kids starts to hyper fixate on something, there’s no breaking away. This is the thing, and there is no other thing. Until there is. Then we move on to that thing. Jesus, be near.

Keith’s current box collection

6. Elope

I didn’t know this was a thing. Did you? Some autistic kids do this thing where they are here one minute, and then very suddenly, they are actually not here. Are they still in the house? Did they duck out to the yard? Are they in the street? Yikes. It’s worse, of course, when we are at the park or at the zoo.

Several have done it, and now our youngest, Auggie has to be watched every minute. At one point his hyper-fixation was climbing out of windows – on the second floor.

Have I shared that my nervous system is also often not okay?

Anyway, do you see why it’s called eloping? It’s quietly sneaking away and not telling anyone where you are going. If one of our kids suddenly finds themselves married in Vegas, well, will we be shocked?

5. Dysregulated

Think of the worst meltdown or tantrum you’ve seen, then multiply it times a lot, and then watch it last for two hours. Our precious children can get upset very easily, and there’s no reasoning, no explaining, no ignoring, no discipline, and no cuddling that can pull them down off that ledge. It’s sad and hard, and very disheartening to not be able to help our kids find calm and a state of peace once they have become dysregulated.

As a result of having so much screaming in our house, all while trying to keep everyone fed and in clean socks, I have found that I am often also dysregulated. Or at the very least, I’m quite overstimulated. The noise, the action, the needs – well. It gives me lots of opportunity to show my kids examples of taking a step back and taking some deep breaths. Also: So.Much.Prayer.

4. Wait

My kids don’t know what this means. But I do try and say it anyway, because I have to. I’m always in the middle of trying to help one kid (probably with shoes) when another one has a very sudden and intense need (like “watch me draw this cat mom mom mom MOM MOMMMMMMMM”). Each of them is very self-focused, a symptom of autism and trauma, so they don’t see much of the world around them. I could be literally putting out a fire and a kid would be mad at me for not stopping to get her some tape so they could affix a balloon (with a rock in it) onto a box.

3. Bathroom Buddies

This. This. THIS. I can’t go to the bathroom by myself. I so badly want “In-the-Bathroom-Alone” to be my Word of the Year. Oh how I do. But alas, I can’t sneak off to the bathroom without one to four children following me there. Not only must they join me, but one will then insist on being the one to open the door, another will insist on being the one to turn on the light, and I can’t just move them forward into or scoot them backward out of the bathroom because…hyper fixation. Meanwhile, I JUST REALLY NEED TO PEE.

2. Perimenopause

Ok, hello. No way is this going to be my word of the year. But it is something I get to learn about and enjoy, heh. Who has a houseful of little kids and gets to experience all the crazy symptoms of perimenopause? THIS GIRL. Am I late to the game? Yes. I think this is the result of welcoming so many babies into our home during the past several years and my body getting tricked into thinking I was still in my 30s. Haha, jokes on me. What a funny joke.

Anyway, perimenopause is no joke. I NEED SLEEP, MAN. Not getting enough sleep mixed with all the other wacky symptoms of perimenopause – while trying to meet the needs of my household? Well. Ask Matt how that’s going. Also, pray for Matt. He now has a wife that hysterically laughs while simultaneously sobbing. What is this madness?

1. Muffins

Through it all, the one thing that keeps us all going is muffins. I mean coffee. Uh, Jesus. Obviously. But beyond that? Our world is fueled by muffins.

I bake them in major bulk so frequently that without a doubt, Muffins could most certainly qualify as my Word of the Year. If I don’t have muffins on hand, the world might end. And of course, if I put a child’s muffin on the wrong color plate at the wrong time and while standing in the wrong place at our kitchen counter, the world also might end. So yeah, muffins. They both prevent meltdowns and cause them. It’s cool.

What is my actual 2026 Word of the Year?

Oh, please stay tuned to find out.

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I Guess I Finally Know My Word for 2025

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Wait Laura. You know it’s almost 2026, right? You just got your word for 2025?

Better late than never, ok? This time last year when 2024 ended and 2025 began, I didn’t know which end was up. We launched into the new year and I started to read many Facebook posts on people’s words of focus. I was like, “oh yeah. that’s a thing. people choose a word for the year. i used to do that.”

And those five seconds of thought were all I gave to a word for 2025.

All I could think of, instead, was WHAT IN THE WORLD IS HAPPENING IN OUR HOME?? AND WHAT DO WE DO?

Life at our house

As most of you know, seven years ago, we entered the world of foster care and adoption. One kid led to another until within five years, we’d added seven precious children to our family. This is, without a doubt, the most beautiful, blessed decision we’ve ever made. It is also the most difficult and life-changing.

As it turns out, being obedient to Jesus’ instruction to “lay down your life, take up your cross, and follow me” can be extremely challenging and ridiculously uncomfortable. I thought the foster care process would be the hard part – because IT WAS. But after all of our wonderful adoption days were in the books and we hung up our foster care hats, we learned that now the healing journey could really begin.

Our seven bonus children all have several varieties of extra needs, brought to them in large part by extreme traumatic experiences and exposure to drugs and alcohol in the womb. As Matt and I have walked this path with our babies, we’ve studied and learned all that we can about trauma, brain injury caused by substances, and how best to care for our children.

What we’ve learned more than anything is that God is faithful. His mercies are new every morning and His goodness never fails. We are on our knees more than we are on our feet, but with that, we know that we can STAND with the One who holds us up through His power.

Questions: What in the world is this??

The older these kids get, the larger their needs have become. And here we thought having five kids in diapers at the same time would be the biggest challenge. Bah. I wish.

As the kids have moved past the diaper stage (only one in diapers full time now, woot!) we have been blindsided by the screaming and yelling, the hitting and throwing, the fighting and meltdowns we endure with our kids, every day, multiplied by seven. As the months turned into years and the kids settled into security and safety with us, the meltdowns became more and more prevalent. Nothing we did as parents was helping.

This felt so shocking – because we have been parents before. We are on round two in our parenting life. While our four adult sons aren’t perfect, they are all incredibly wonderful humans who are an absolute delight to be around. Raising them was hard too, and we felt inadequate with them often. But with trial and error we grew together. To apply all that we learned while raising our boys and to not have any of it work this time around?? Oh, the discouragement and feelings of defeat.

Oh hey. Remember these cuties?

Our prayer changed.

Over our heads in trauma and questions, of course we sought additional help. But for a very long time, we got nowhere. I was shocked at professionals who couldn’t offer us any hope or point us in the right direction. No one is at fault in this. I’ve learned that it takes asking a lot of wrong questions to the wrong people at first to find the right people with the right answers. The phone calls, the meetings, and the appointments – so many ended up in dead ends. I can’t tell you how many times I heard:

  • We don’t take kids that age
  • We aren’t taking new patients
  • We don’t take that insurance
  • Would you like to have your child placed on our year-long wait list?
  • It’s normal; all kids have meltdowns
  • He looks fine to me
  • She never acts that way with me
  • Have you tried a sticker chart?
  • Wow, are they always this sweet and well behaved?

No. No they are not.

Our deep dive taught us what “masking” is – that our kids are very good at putting on a false front as a form of self preservation – and then the minute they leave the school grounds, get back into our van, or find themselves in the safety of our home – they let down their guard, the masks come off, and the screaming starts.

The worst feeling through this has been that I’ve felt like a parenting failure. If our kids could behave at school and otherwise, but completely lose their minds at home, we must be doing something terribly wrong.

Friends assured us that we were good parents. They saw our hard work and affirmed it. Their encouragement held us up and helped us stay on our feet. But why was nothing working and what could we do to make a change in our parenting world for the good of these kids? And who could we turn to for help?

Prayer, prayer, prayer

Over and over we asked, God, give us answers. Tell us who to call. What doctor can help us? What are we dealing with and how do we parent this? Please, give us help. Point us in the right direction.

And the prayer on top of that prayer: God, we need help in our home. We need professionals who can come into our home and see our kids in their safe place to witness their trauma responses and help us with the healing that we need. Is that even a thing? Help in our home with our kids? Please, Lord.

The screech of our baby boy

Interestingly enough, a breakthrough for help for all of our kids finally burst open because of the special needs of our very youngest. He’d had extra struggles from the beginning of his life which had provided referrals to specialist after specialist, starting in his newborn days. He was very delayed developmentally, had whole body tremors that were frightening, couldn’t eat without throwing up, and wasn’t learning to talk. From GI Specialists to EEGs to MRIs to Feeding Therapy to Speech Therapy to Neurology – we became very comfortable with people from Children’s Hospital.

It was at one of Auggie’s follow-up neurology appointments that the Pediatric Neurologist heard his high pitched shriek. She stopped our conversation. “Wait. Does he do that often??”

YES. All.The.Time.

And that’s where our questions finally started to turn into answers.

Developmental Pediatrics to the rescue

Auggie’s neurologist quickly put in a referral for him to visit Developmental Pediatrics in Omaha. I didn’t fully understand why a baby screeching would send us there, but I did know that Auggie’s frequent outbursts were atypical and I trusted his neurologist. More than anything, we deeply appreciated that we would soon be meeting with a team of doctors who specialized in the development of children’s brains.

February, 2025. That’s when we got our first diagnosis. After a very intense assessment with the Developmental Pediatric Team, we heard the word “Autism” for the first time.

I mean, not for the first time. We’d heard of autism before, of course. But for our family – this was a first, and also a turning point. Learning that Auggie met criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder rocked us a bit as we weren’t expecting it –  but mostly it provided relief. Then as we learned more about autism, it all started to make sense for Auggie.

And also

During that appointment of Auggie’s – while we were working through his evaluation and assessments – all of our other kids’ behaviors and needs kept popping into my head. Every question that the doctor asked about Auggie’s special needs resonated with most of our other kids too. Because of this, at the end of his appointment, finally filled with hope, I tearfully asked the doctor, “How can I bring all of our other kids in to see you??”

We needed these assessments for all of them, and we’d finally found a place that heard us and welcomed our family. The doctor walked me through the paperwork and referral needs, and we started the journey of behavior evaluations for all seven of our kids.

Wow, 2025. You’ve been intense.

Millions of hours of questionnaires, phone calls, appointments, assessments, evaluations, meetings, and advocating later: we have answers. Throughout this year, we have taken all seven of our younger kids in for evaluations and diagnosis. Most to Children’s in Omaha. Some to Munroe Myer in Omaha. Some to a Psychologist in Lincoln. This process has been incredibly intense, multiplied by seven, and it has taken the entire year. But oh how thankful we are to have found the doctors we needed and to receive the diagnoses that help explain our kids’ needs.

Diagnoses

  • Five of our kids have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
  • Some have a PDA profile as a part of their ASD (This isn’t an actual diagnosis because it isn’t in the DSM-5, but it fits, so we are learning to parent accordingly)
  • Some have ADHD in addition to their ASD
  • Some have ODD, PTSD, and MDD (I’ll let you look those up if you’re not sure about them. Please pray for our children.)
  • Some have Alcohol Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder
  • Some have Global Developmental Delay (Intellectual Development Disorder)

In addition, we were able to take all seven kids in for Genetic Testing through Children’s Hospital. We will receive these results in the new year and we pray that the findings will help us meet the kids’ needs even more.

And as an added bonus, we were also able to take one of our daughters to an eye specialist which provided a non-serious but very helpful diagnosis as we watch for potential complications that could result in her need for eye surgery in the future.

I Finally Know My Word for 2025

Answers

Answers

Answers

God is faithful. He is good. He led us to the places and to the doctors we needed so that we could find the answers we’ve been longing for so that we can better help our kids.

Having so many specific diagnoses doesn’t take away our kids’ challenges. But it does help explain them.

The unfortunate combination of many of these diagnoses mixed with trauma and drug exposure creates a complex and humbling level of challenge to our situation. We’re learning that our kids’ brains are damaged in ways that can’t easily be explained.

This hurts and I hate it for them.

But oh how grateful I am to be their mom. Somehow, God chose me – chose us for this. I’m so very humbled and honored to be the one God asked to raise these dear ones.

Our calling is hard, but joining Jesus in His Kingdom work has grown us in ways we’ve needed. I don’t always love it. The hard parts of our days are excruciating. But I love God and I love my kids, so I’m all in. I love that Matt and I get to do this together. He’s the best teammate in this.

God’s double answer

Not only did God give us diagnoses, He provided in-home help that we didn’t know existed. We had prayed for it – but had no idea it would come in this form.

Because of the autism diagnoses we’ve received, four of our kids are now provided with in-home ABA therapy which gives them a one-on-one behavior technician to work with them to teach them coping skills, calming techniques, life skills – so much.

We now have multiple therapists in our home for up to 30-hours a week, sometimes three at a time. It is a circus. There are kids everywhere, therapist everywhere, meltdowns everywhere, adults in and out, and somewhere in there we also do homework, dishes, and laundry.

But would you look at that? God is giving us everything we needed and asked for. He will continue.

We have answers, more resources, more help, and we are becoming more and more educated about all of our kids’ diagnoses now that we know what the specific needs are in our home as we live in the trenches with so many amazing special needs children.

So stay tuned, if you dare. I actually already have a word for 2026 that I’d love to share. Though first, I plan to share my runners-up. :)

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