Heavenly Homemakers

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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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Big Family Food and Fun: October 1-7, 2023

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Ready for Big Family Food and Fun: October 1-7, 2023?!

Elias had hosted a “Release Party” the night before so we woke up Sunday morning to young adults asleep all over our house, haha. We had prepared some extra rooms and beds, knowing that several would stay over, but it was fun to wake up and see friends scattered in the living room too. Some stayed and joined us for lunch after church too!

Big Family Food and Fun: October 1-7, 2023

I had boiled two pounds of macaroni noodles and stirred in an entire container of white queso from Sam’s. Plus I stirred in chopped up ham. That warmed in the crock pot all morning during church. We ate it with peas and grapes plus Mudballs and Peanut Butter Cookies.

Here’s a few of “the crew” hanging out in the kitchen to eat.

That evening our family got to enjoy a Harvest Party at our church parking lot with many from our church family. There was chili dogs, smores, and face painting!

Matt and Malachi took each other on in ping pong. I never heard who won. :)

Justus was honored to be one who enjoyed “pie in the face” and Brayden got in line multiple times to attempt to throw a shaving cream pie in his face.

Keith too!

Kiya and Acacia played a huge Jenga game with our friend Caitlyn.

And most of our “older littles” tried archery that was set up from Heart Shot Ministry. It was an incredible night!

Monday morning I pulled prepared Pumpkin Donuts from the freezer that we’d made a few weeks before. I air fried them which made it SO EASY. They didn’t turn out pretty but everyone ate them like cookies and it made for an easy breakfast.

We walked Brayden and Kiya to school then Keith and I got ready to head to the Food Distribution site to help set up. He packed himself a snack to eat on the way: a Pumpkin Donut and a bag of granola bites. :)

He takes his work so seriously when helping there. We love this service opportunity!

The kids had captured a caterpillar a few weeks ago and it turned into a cocoon in the jar. We were so excited! Matt noticed Monday morning that it had turned into a butterfly so that evening we all gathered around to admire then release it.

Keith was devastated that we were letting our butterfly go free. He had wanted to keep it forever. Oy.

I had some leftover roast from last week so I cooked rice, shredded the leftover roast, and put together burritos for dinner. Meanwhile, our neighbor had given us three buckets full of apples from his mom’s tree. I finally got around to making a huge pot of applesauce like this.

It made two huge bowls full of applesauce for us to enjoy throughout the week.

Tuesday morning BabyBoy#11 and I left the house at 6:15 to get checked into the hospital for an MRI. We are thankful to finally be referred for this so that maybe we can get some ideas about what his needs are so that we can get ahead of them and get him the resources he needs moving forward.

He was a trooper as we got him prepped – but HUNGRY and mad about it because we couldn’t feed him his regular morning bottle since he would be receiving anesthesia.

All in all, it went very well and we were home much earlier than we thought we would be.

I picked up Brayden and Kiya after school and we went directly to the Food Distribution to hand out food. We were blessed to come home with extra items – lots of breads and bagels again but also some greens, asparagus, peppers, potatoes, and yogurt.

Malachi had baked Chicken Tenders and made Caesar salad for everyone so when we got home, we dug in. Apparently Matt had had to “cut Keith off” on the salad because he loves it so much and kept asking for more and more. :) (Thankfully, I had brought home a bonus package of Caesar salad from the Food Distribution so we opened it up and added it to the bowl!)

Wednesday morning I made a big pot of Warm Vanilla Soother to celebrate Fall weather (and because Food Distribution begged us to take soon-to-expire milk home, ha). We are whole milk people, and this was 1% milk, but it still worked because I added extra eggs and some heavy whipping cream. We enjoyed it with toasted, buttered bagels.

Speaking of having lots of 1% milk on hand that needed to be used up: That afternoon I used several cups of milk to make Pudding Parfaits for dessert after dinner. I had a couple of sweet helpers who had woken up too early from their naps.

I smoked chicken for dinner that night, steamed broccoli, and used the pizza crust we’d been given at Food Distribution to make Garlic Cheese Bread Sticks.

A few of the chicken pieces were pretty thick, and I got a little bit nervous that they weren’t cooked as thoroughly as they should be. So I cut ALL the chicken into bites and put it in a pan with barbecue sauce to cook a little bit more just to be safe.

The Pudding Parfaits were a huge hit!

I had meetings again all morning on Thursday (October is a doozy with its appointments and IEPs. Our calendar is always crazy, but this month seems extra crazy.) So Matt and the older boys took care of food – I believe they pulled leftovers from the fridge.

That afternoon I made a double recipe of these Pumpkin Bars so we could have a quick breakfast food the next morning. (They tasted awesome with my coffee the next morning!)

Dinner that night was a simple Taco Bar. I realized as I was pulling out toppings that I had no greens or tomatoes. So I sliced cucumbers as a veggie side dish. And we had leftover Applesauce that I’d made earlier in the week.

I asked Kiya to pause so I could take a picture of my beautiful girl with her beautiful plate. :)

After dinner we decided to walk to Sunken Gardens. The weather was supposed to turn much colder and I wanted to see the flowers one last time before they froze. I was so thankful that Elias and Malachi joined us too. This photo, featuring 10 of my sweethearts, makes me so happy…

Friday morning was a bit nuts as we were trying to get Brayden out the door an hour early for his school Ukulele class, Matt and Elias out the door to work in York for the day, and some of our housemates out the door for a conference. I was so glad I’d made these Pumpkin Bars the day before so that everyone could grab and go as needed. Ignore the ugly photo. These tasted good so don’t let the picture tell you differently. ;)

Malachi hung out with the other kids and me all day. I had a teacher meeting that morning, the immediately after that we loaded the kids to go to Aldi.

Wait. The plan was to immediately load the kids and head to Aldi. But three kids needed to potty first. Then BabyBoy#11 pooped up the back of his brand new shirt.

So three pees and a poop later, we finally got everyone loaded and headed to the store.

Malachi helped me manage two carts and five kids by handing out veggie straws and feeding the baby his bottle. I threw food into carts as fast as I could so we could make it home in time for Keith and Anna’s preschool bus. And because we didn’t want to be in the store very long with five babies. :)

We got greens, salad kits, pears, cheese, fritos, ham, pasta, granola, cider, and some baby food. (BabyBoy#11 is still not too big on purees or anything solid, but the squeeze type fruit/veggie combos at Aldi work better than other foods so far.) Malachi spotted a Caramel Mocha Iced Coffee so we grabbed that too. :)

The real reason we went to Aldi: Mama was hungry for Spicy Ham and Potato Soup and we didn’t have any pepper jack cheese! It was on the menu for that night so while I could have subbed a different kind of cheese, I knew a trip to Aldi would be helpful anyway.

After we got Keith and Anna off to school, Acacia “helped” me make two crock pots full of soup for dinner. I was so glad I made such a large amount. This soup really hit the spot!

Malachi was craving my Hot Cocoa. It was chilly outside, it was Friday night, and I STILL had milk left from the Food Distribution. :) So it was a perfect time to make a pot of cocoa. The milk was 1% (not our preference) so I added heavy whipping cream to try and make up for the lack of fat in the milk. :)

I left for an Adoptive Moms Support Group so Matt reported back later that everyone under the age of 4 spilled their little cup of Hot Cocoa. Oops. That couldn’t have been fun to deal with. :/

As I was walking out the door, I spotted this scene. This was just before the hot chocolate started to spill left and right. Aren’t they sweet?

Saturday morning Matt and I took the kids to a Sensory Story time at a library. This is such a good offering for our family because several of our kids have sensory needs.

This was my very favorite part of the morning. Josie, our very timid two-year-old, started to finally become comfortable in this setting. Ms. Diane, the storytime leader, is fantastic and so good at making this a safe place for the kids. So there was our Josie girl, acting all grown up and excited, participating in the game with all the big kids. :)

When we got home, Eva joined us to help with the kids. Because of this, I was finally able to get to the basement to sort through all of our clothes for fall and winter. Phew, this was a huge task, and one I kept having a hard time getting around to! I’m so thankful that Eva made it happen. (Also, I finally found my jeans. We moved here in June and I had yet to find my jeans. I have never been so happy to see a pile of jeans.)

I pulled out all of the wonderful hand-me-downs people had given us. And I pulled out all of the clothes I’d picked up on clearance. As I sorted, our laundry room looked like this.

And the hallway outside the laundry room looked like this.

However long and a pile of mom’s jeans later, I got clothes organized into bins and up on the shelves.

Plus I had gathered quite a few clothes that we could donate. I can’t tell you how relieved I am that this job is finished!!

Meanwhile, Malachi made mac and cheese and Elias made a salad for lunch. Then while Eva and Matt put everyone down for naps and rest time, Brayden and I headed out for one-on-one time. We went for hair cuts then to Marshall’s to find clothes for him. (As I sorted clothes, I had found that we had almost nothing that fit him. Plus I needed a few things for the three little girls, plus socks, undies…). This time with Brayden was VERY needed and good.

When we got home, I quickly threw together a hot dog picnic and we loaded everyone up to go to a Hoot and Howl prairie event nearby.

While I handed out food and everyone ate, we got to see super cool owls and hear about what they eat and what they like. It was so neat!

Then we walked around to various booths and areas where there were so many great learning opportunities.

Overall the evening was fun but CRAZY. Wrangling eight kids nine and under (our extra 4-year-old was with us) was not easy with several of the littles running ahead of us – or in different directions. Then we had some behavior struggles as we settled everyone into the van to go home for bed.

These things ARE worth doing, but it is not easy to pull it off. We are thankful for God’s strength and for the sweet times we enjoy with these kids.

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A Day in Our Lives at the Coppinger Castle

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Curious about a day in our lives at the Coppinger Castle? I’ll give you a peek!

Every day can look a little bit different, of course. But here’s what a typical day looks like for us, based on what happened this Wednesday:

A Day in Our Lives at the Coppinger Castle

5:25am I (Laura) rolled out of bed and headed downstairs to enjoy as much quiet time as I could get.

5:35 I made my way to the kitchen to drink water and make myself a cup of coffee. I always find something tasty (like a muffin) to eat with my coffee. Then I sit with my coffee in the living room and spend time talking to God as I wake up. I open my Bible and read wherever God leads me to read that day and journal with Him about what He’s teaching/telling me. Today I read in Deuteronomy and was reminded: Don’t let anything else become a god in my life. Be fully devoted to HIM, and He will bless my obedient heart.

6:20 Keith woke up extra early today and found me in the dark living room. I put my Bible and journal away for some snuggles. BabyBoy#11 woke up too and enjoyed a diaper change and ate some of his bottle. (He has some eating issues so he only eats a little bit of his bottle at a time, all day long). :) I settled him onto the floor to play with Keith.

6:35 I opened my computer to check email and upload/edit some photos for our next weekly Food and Fun post. I try to keep up with this each day so that I can have it ready to post on Sunday afternoons.

6:45 Keith was hungry so we headed into the kitchen to start getting breakfast ready. I poured three sippy cups full of milk for the three littlest girls. (Their milk is like my coffee: gotta have it first thing.)

I started making breakfast to keep kids from becoming hangry as they woke up. This particular day we had Warm Vanilla Soother and Bagels.

I used a dozen eggs to make it extra rich and full of protein.

While I was cooking the soother, I heated Tomato Soup to pack in the kids’ lunchboxes.

And I started a fresh pot of coffee.

7:00 I finished making breakfast and got the kids’ started on eating (all 7 littles were all up now). Usually, while the kids eat, I clean out dishwashers, load dishwashers, plan tonight’s dinner, and finish packing the kids’ lunches for school. Somewhere in there, I ran to the basement to start a load of laundry.

ALL MORNING LONG at least two of our kids have usually been tantruming off and on. We’ve tried everything to get ahead of these fits, but they struggle to regulate their emotions and mornings can be the hardest. 

8:00 From now until 8:40 we are finishing breakfast, brushing teeth, dressing toddlers, finding shoes, settling more tantrums, and trying to get 7 kids out the door so that we can walk Brayden and Kiya to school. Our walk involves two double strollers for our four littlest, plus Keith on his bike. Brayden and Kiya power walk with Matt and me because the truth is, 9:00 is a wonderful late start time but it’s still hard to get all of us out the door every morning. So we are almost always running “just on time – if we hurry.”

8:55 We send them off to their classrooms with a hug and a daily message, “Let God’s light shine through you! Love you!” then Matt and I walk the littlest five home.

9:15 Usually we play outside for a while when we get home, feed everyone a little bit more, give BabyBoy#11 more of his bottle, and Matt finds time to finally eat.

This is often when I make our smoothies because I ate at 5:30 and I’m ready for “second breakfast” now.

Somewhere in there, I wash up some of the bigger pots, pans, and bowls.

10:00 We either have meetings at this time or take the kids on an outing if we don’t have anything scheduled. Meetings happen eight to twelve weekday mornings every month depending on the needs (IEPs, IFSPs, Case Worker visits, Foster Care Specialist visits, Early Development Team visits, and Speech Pathologist visits). This particular morning, I had an IEP meeting for Acacia.

11:30 While I finished my meeting (this one was at our house), Matt gave Keith and Anna something to eat and made sure they have their shoes on and backpacks ready. Their preschool bus comes at 12:00.

12:05 We are left at home with just three kids!! It’s soooo quiet now, haha! But for real. After we get Keith and Anna off to school it is typically much calmer. We play, eat lunch (usually leftovers), and try to sit and read with Acacia, Josie, and BabyBoy#11.

1:15 NAPTIME!!! We work hard to synch up BabyBoy#11’s nap with his sisters’ so that they will all sleep at the same time. Matt catches up on business paperwork, bill paying, or does work that the Castle needs. I get out my laptop and work on posts like these! ;)

2:30 Josie woke up already – BOOOO. This cuts my worktime short but more importantly, she hasn’t slept long enough and is therefore grumpy. I snuggle her a while to see if she’ll rest some more. Nope.

2:40 I head to the kitchen with Josie to get ahead on dinner. She watches with great interest. ;)

2:45 Acacia heard Josie crying so she woke up too. She joined us in the kitchen. I had an abundance of milk – given to us the day before when we were volunteering at the Food Distribution – so I decided to surprise everyone with Pudding Parfaits after dinner so that I could use up some milk.

These little stinkers sure are cute.

3:00 I turned on the smoker to cook the chicken I’d marinated earlier that day. I needed to make dinner early because I had to leave at 3:45 for Parent Teacher Conferences and wouldn’t get back until almost time to eat.

The food we receive at the Food Distribution is typically close to its “sell-by” date so I usually plan our meals based on what we brought home the day before so that it won’t go bad. Thus the Pudding Parfaits I described above. We’d also received some pizza crusts so I spread on olive oil, sprinkled on garlic powder, then topped with mozzarella cheese to make Cheesy Breadsticks to go with our dinner that night. I slid them into the oven to bake right before meal time.

3:30 Matt left to pick up the kids from school and since the two girls were up, he took them with him in a stroller so I could finish kitchen work and head out to conferences.

3:45 Malachi and Elias listened for BabyBoy#11 (who was still napping) and I headed out for Brayden and Kiya’s parent teacher conferences.

4:00 Matt arrived back home with his crew. Keith and Anna got dropped off by the school bus. Kiya had homework (which she can mostly work through on her own). The baby could wake up at any time. Everyone is hungry. Basically – this is just time to survive as we transition into the evening.

4:45 I made it back home from the kids’ school and finished up dinner.

5:15 Everyone was ready to eat. I fixed plates and took them outside since the weather was nice – and so that the mess would fall to the ground instead of onto our dining room floor.

Every night, we can count on there being lots of people around at dinnertime. But we never quite know how many people there will be to feed. Some of our housemates are almost always around to join us. Often, friends of Elias and Malachi are over. We make enough to feed plenty, loving it when it all gets eaten! If fewer are around to eat, then we benefit from having leftovers. Either way, it’s a win! (This particular night, two of our housemates were out and Elias and Malachi had gone to a concert. So there were “only” 12 at home for dinner that night.)

6:00 Everyone who ate a good dinner enjoyed a Pudding Parfait. We played outside the rest of the evening because it was a beautiful night. I stopped taking pictures at this point because keeping everyone alive and safe outside is a bit hectic.

7:10 We headed inside and started the process of getting the kids ready for bed. Of course, Brayden and Kiya do this lovely life hack because it’s the best “get ready for school” trick and I love it.

7:30 We try to gather everyone in the living room for our nightly Singing and Prayer time. But with this many littles, it doesn’t always work and the youngest four can be pretty squirrely. Eventually this will turn back into a precious time. Right now, it’s nuts – with singing and prayer on top.

We managed to make it happen tonight, and ended our time in the living room together by saying all of Psalm 23 together. Brayden, Kiya, and Keith all have it memorized now. Anna knows some of it and our guess is that Acacia and Josie know more than they let on – they just aren’t talking much yet.

—> Since I wasn’t able to get a current picture of our Singing and Prayer Time, here’s an older, precious photo taken at our York house one evening when several college students were hanging out and joined us. Oh look, it’s Baby Keith. And dating couple Justus and Kelsey. This picture brings me joy. <—

8:00 BEDTIME. Acacia wears a brace to bed because she was born with a club foot and needs a brace to help with her ongoing needs. Matt does some very simple ankle manipulation with her before putting on her brace while I brush some toddler teeth, answer my 400millionth question of the day, and as sweetly as I can, beg everyone to go right to sleep without getting up all night. :) Ha. But seriously.

8:30 BabyBoy#11 finishes as much milk as we can give him to help him sleep as long as possible through the night (he usually lasts until 3am, but the past couple of nights have been longer!). We settle him into bed. Matt and I finally have some quiet, uninterrupted conversation time before I PASS OUT.

And that’s a Day in our Lives at the Coppinger Castle. Maybe I’ll write another one of these posts a different day so that we can compare what might be the same or different from day to day!

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Lunches I Packed September 25-29, 2023

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Here are the school lunches I packed September 25-29…

This week was mostly hot weather so I packed cold lunches every day but Tuesday. I packed a hot lunch that day, only because I had leftover chili from our huge 65-person meal that Sunday. The kids love chili, so they were excited I had packed this!

Kiya has informed me that she is getting tired of pickles in her lunch. Fair enough. I shall now hold off on the pickles. :)

Lunches I Packed September 25-29, 2023

Monday: Cottage Cheese, Fruit Cups, Packaged Muffins, and Cucumbers (for Brayden)

Tuesday: Chili with fritos and shredded cheese, Pear Cups, and a Peanut Butter Bars.

Wednesday: Chicken Salad on Croissants, Carrots with Dip, and Applesauce Cups

Thursday: Cheese and Pepperoni with Crackers, Yogurt Cups (found these whole milk yogurt cups at Aldi!), Mixed Veggie Bag for Brayden and Pickles for Kiya (<— that afternoon she requested no more pickles for a while please :) :) :) )

Fun Friday: Sandwiches, Chips (Kiya actually chose pistachios for her “chips”), Applesauce, and a Treat of their choice

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Big Family Food and Fun: September 24-30, 2023

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Here’s our post sharing our Big Family Food and Fun: September 24-30…

Big Family Food and Fun: September 24-30, 2023

This week started out with the biggest, best bang! We had heard that our beloved York University Singers were going to be performing in a church just three blocks from our house. So we messaged the director and asked if we could please feed the crew at the Castle that evening after their performance. It was the first we’d hosted something so big here, and it was a dream!! But first, breakfast. And lunch.

Sunday morning’s breakfast was Baked Oatmeal that had been created the night before by one of our housemates.

While everyone was eating, I got a huge batch of White Chicken Chili started in our roaster so that it could slow cook all day and be ready to feed the big crew. I had already made two huge pots of regular Chili so they were ready to warm up at dinner time.

When we left church that morning, we stopped at Sam’s since it’s on the way home so that I could grab last minute food items needed for our huge meal.

For lunch that day, I had put Simple Ham and Hashbrown Casserole in the crock pot. We ate it with green beans before moving full force into dinner mode.

We got tables and chairs set up all over the house and outside. The crew arrived just after 6pm and started making their way through the food lines. Of course, I forgot all about taking pictures of the big buffet of food we’d set out because I was too busy giving hugs. Wow, I’d missed these “kids.”

We set up a Coffee Bar in the living room so Elias could make people Lattes or whatever they requested. :)

Here’s what the buffet looked like by the time I remembered to get a picture. :)

We served two huge pots of Chili, a roaster full of White Chicken Chili, grapes, strawberries, carrots, peppers, cucumbers, plus cinnamon rolls and corn bread (made by a dear friend here in Lincoln whose son is in the choir), plus a table full of desserts.

I had made Frosted Brownies, Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars, Peanut Butter Cookies, and these Cupcakes. One of our housemates had made two beautiful desserts very similar to this Death by Chocolate recipe. It was a huge hit!

Truly, Sunday evening was a dream for me. I loved hosting these young adults!

Monday morning I was…tired. :) For breakfast, I got out yogurt and the Peanut Butter Honey Granola I’d made last week.

I don’t remember what we did all day?? Dishes. Yes, I did wash a lot of big pots from the day before. :)

That night for we enjoyed the last of the whole chicken I’d smoked the week before with pasta and Alfredo sauce. Plus I steamed carrots and warmed up leftover broccoli. I made lots, but we ended up having a beautiful crowd of 18 people at our house that night so it still ended up being barely enough. :)

Therefore, Matt made several rounds of popcorn for a snack before we got the littles ready for bed. It was just what we needed to finish filling everyone’s bellies. :)

Look at the little sweetheart in her princess dress – filthy faced and tired after a long day of play. :)

Tuesday morning I whipped cream to go with strawberries.

Plus I made 12 Sausage-Egg-Cheese Breakfast Sandwiches.

We took our 5 littlest to one of our favorite parks to play for a while that morning. They enjoyed cheese and crackers plus fruit/veggie squeezies while we were there.

That afternoon, the kids got out of school early so Brayden, Kiya, and Keith all got to go to help serve at the Community Food Distribution. I asked Elias if he’d go along with me to help with Keith and he was happy to help. (His muscles got used quite a few times while we were there too!)

Keith and Elias got to hand out bags of snacks during distribution time. Brayden handed out dishwasher soap (which he thought was a little bit silly – but you never know what might get donated for volunteers to hand out). And Kiya and I handed out prepared sandwiches.

We were blessed to come home with two bags full of extra food donations – a wonderfully nice perk that we weren’t expecting when we started helping with this. We got mostly bread products that day, which helps stretch the grocery budget!

Before leaving home that afternoon, I had put Baked Potatoes into the Crock Pot to cook. One of our housemates was kind enough to set out all the toppings at dinnertime since I wouldn’t get home until 5:45ish. We filled our plates with potatoes, leftover chili, ham, cheese, sour cream, butter, and peas. Plus we finished off the Applesauce the kids and I had made last week.

Brayden left to have a piano lesson with Justus. When he came home, I found him doing this:


I wish I could express how amazing it is that he is able to read this book to his siblings. Reading and learning are a struggle for him and he has come so far!!

One of the fun things we came home with from the Food Distribution was a bag of McDonald’s biscuits. So on Wednesday morning I made Sausage Gravy to go with the biscuits. Plus I cut the leftover baked potatoes and cooked them with eggs. It was all so delicious!

Wednesday night, I smoked Chicken Thighs and made Smoothies (so the kids would get spinach in them). I also buttered/toasted some rolls and got out potato salad we’d received at the Food Distribution.

One of our housemates had been gone all day but brought back a delicious Apple Crisp that her cousin had made. It was a perfect dessert that night.

Thursday Matt and Elias went to York to work on our houses. Malachi helped me take the five littlest to Walmart for a few final WIC produce items for the month. As we headed out, he struck up a conversation with the greeter. I thought it was sweet so I snuck a picture. :)

I had slow cooked a roast all day, and we ate it with leftover carrots and peas, plus buttered corn and grapes. Mmmmm, roast!

Friday morning I made a big batch of French toast and let the kids choose toppings: peanut butter, apple jelly, butter, and applesauce.

Our Bonus Boy (4-year-old former foster son who is a biological half brother to some of our kids) was visiting and has a very limited list of foods he’ll eat. I went through this list again to be sure I had food on hand for him. Then I made a huge batch of Mudballs because he loves them (and so do the other kids!).

I had found sausage on sale at Walmart the day before so I browned all 8-pounds that I bought. Then I bagged it up in meal-sized portions for the freezer.

For dinner, I grilled a bunch of Hamburgers and threw Sweet Potato Fries in the air fryer.

Saturday morning we packed a picnic lunch to take to the zoo: hoagie sandwiches, fruit, chips, fruit/veggie pouches, and treats that we’d received from the food distribution.

At the zoo, we watched the zoo keepers feed the penguins.

Then we had lunch with the flamingos. :)

Kiya, Acacia, and Josie had a little conversation with a peacock. :)

We were so exhausted when we got home at naptime. But unfortunately, the toddlers fought sleep. Ack.

Meanwhile, Matt and I had decided the evening before that we could use a bit of a break and had planned to order pizza for dinner that night. We’d never ordered from Costco before but knew that the price was good and that the pizza was tasty so we gave it a try!

10 out of 10, highly recommend. We had a Pizza Picnic at one of our favorite parks, and two of our housemates joined us. One of them even went to Costco and picked up the pizza for all of us so that we wouldn’t have to lug all of the kids there. Fantastic! We ate and the kids road their bikes and scooters until time to get home to bed.

Next, I wanted to show this this fun picture. Grapes? Yes. It’s a picture of grapes. Exciting, yes?

It’s just that Kiya was helping me gather items to take to the park to enjoy with our pizza and she helped get the grapes pulled off their vines and into the bag. Then she asked if she could be the one to take the picture. (I hadn’t planned to take a picture, but she sees me prepare food all the time and then snap a photo, so surely I was going to feature her grapes!?)

You bet I’m going to feature her grapes. I’m so thankful for any one-on-one time I can snag with any of our kids. And small as it sounds, my Kiya-Mom grape prep time was really sweet.

We came home from the park to a party that Elias was hosting. He and his friend Ross just launched their first song and there was a Launch Party happening at the Castle!

It’s Yeti on Ice – Double Jointed if you care to look it up on any music platforms you use (Spotify, Apple Music, etc).

He has a lot of great friends and it was so great to see so many of them milling about the house when we got home!!! Plus all of our older boys were here – a double bonus. :)

We got the kids to bed (somehow, because there was a party going on and no one wanted to get to bed!) and I headed there myself. What a great week!

Oh! Total grocery spending for September: $1220.

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