Big Family Food and Fun: January 18-24, 2026

Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: January 18-24, 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 17

On Saturday afternoon, my Helper of the Day, Anna, helped me put together an Egg Casserole for our dinner that night.

We left a napping Auggie at home with Elias and Malorie, then we took our kids to the library for an afternoon Puppet Show. First, we found some animals in the “vet clinic” that the library had set up. :)

The Puppet Show was way cooler than we realized it would be, with a presenter from What If Puppets out of Kansas City. The kids laughed and laughed and we were so glad we’d gone to be a part of this.

The rest of the night was very stressful with some extreme behaviors. We baked our Egg Casserole and made Pancakes, gave baths and watched part of The Sound of Music with the kids. Brayden is learning Do Ray Me in choir so we wanted to show him that song’s origins! I went to bed very discouraged that night because as hard as we try to show these kids how loved they are, the push back is extreme. God is faithful. We hold on to this Truth.

Big Family Food and Fun: January 18-24, 2026

We ate a plate of Breakfast Cookies on Sunday morning, and the fighting with the kids continued. At church that morning, it felt so good to be loved by God and surrounded by his people. We could not do this without the love, support, and prayers from so many.

We loved, loved, loved our afternoon. It was Elias’ birthday, plus our friend Christina had a birthday the day before. So lunch was a big time of celebration!

Elias had requested Shrimp Tacos, so we had a big Taco Bar with Shrimp, Salsa Chicken, and Seasoned Beef.

I made a big pan of Brownies and some Hot Fudge for Brownie Fudge Sundaes per Elias’ request. Friends brought Cake and Tiramisu – what a feast!

There were people scattered all throughout our main floor eating, visiting, and sharing life.

There were 41 of us gathered that day. Matt and I went from so very discouraged to incredibly encouraged by our time with these dear people.

As the crowd cleared, we sent our kids downstairs to watch a movie while Matt and I enjoyed our Community Group. I baked Frozen Pizza for dinner and went to bed tired but refreshed from all God is doing in and for us.

Monday was a very full day with all the kids home from school, appointments, and company. Emma came over as normal, which was very helpful so I could run to Aldi and Walmart for grocery shopping.

I got home from shopping in time to make a quick lunch of Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Raspberries. Then I took two kids to meet with a new therapist based on yet some new diagnoses that we’ve received. (I’ll share about the new needs we’ve discovered another time after we process this and work out more of the details.)

This appointment time might have been the most encouraging moment that has happened since the day we started taking in foster kids. We have had to go through everything else in order to lead up to this – no doubt. God’s timing is perfect, and meeting this team of professionals any time before Monday might not have served the purpose we needed before now. But now – the timing is right and we all felt God so perfectly in this.

Also? This Christian therapist and this special clinic is five minutes from our house. We’ve looked high and low and far and wide for some specific therapy help. This clinic is five minutes from us? Five.

I was sobbing as I told Matt more about it when I got home. What a good and faithful God we serve. It is worth noting that when I had a few minutes alone with the therapist – who is Spirit filled and listening to His direction – I was able to tell her more candidly what all we go through at our house due to the trauma our kids have endured. She immediately set me up with a regular appointment schedule with her because she recognized right away that no one can do what we are doing without professional support from someone who understands what it’s like to live with and care for so many traumatized kids.

Well anyway. What an afternoon.

We arrived home to find that Keith and Acacia were getting married. Already emotional, I fully delighted in this sweet scene.

That evening, we invited friends to come have dinner with us. We’d been missing them and wanted to connect, and thankfully we were all able to make this happen. We had a simple meal of Ham and Potato Soup with rolls, then spent time together catching up on life.

Tuesday morning, Little Sweetheart joined us for the day. Here’s a scene I like to call Laundry with Lolli. The poor dear. What must she think about all of Lolli’s laundry piles that seem to always be there?

Brayden was the only kiddo able to go with me to our weekly Food Distribution that day. We were short on volunteers, so Brayden needed to fill in at a different spot. He rocked it!

When we arrived back at home, we discovered that Anna, Josie, and Auggie had found a picnic table cloth and were making a fun plastic feast on the living room floor. Watching them play make-believe is a very big deal because that doesn’t come naturally to any of them. This was so sweet!! (…for five minutes, until they all started to scatter and throw all the plastic food, which is more like how they usually play, oy.)

The evening was so full that I almost forgot to take a picture of our dinner until we were putting it away. I’d used Sunday’s lunch leftovers to put together Chicken Burritos. These are simple and almost everyone in our household will eat these without argument.

Wednesday was a big day!

Arrow came to join us to play in the morning and we did a lot of baking. Auggie helped me make Spinach Cupcakes.

At the same time, we baked a bunch of mini Bran Muffins for snacks.

Last, we made Flourless Chocolate Banana Muffins.

Late morning, my dad and his wife, Tacy, arrived. We were pretty tickled to see that as we were warming up lunch, Dad and Tacy tried out our new air hockey table, hehe.

And then the BEST part of the day! We headed to the courthouse for the final adoption of Little Sweetheart!!!!

Justus and Kelsey have asked that I continue to put hearts over her sweet face for now. But I am so happy to introduce our precious and prayed for granddaughter: Hopelyn Coppinger!

Perhaps this is a good time to share additional grandbaby news? Arrow is excited to share that he’s going to have a baby sister this summer!! Lolli and Pop have hearts full of gratitude and joy!

We met up at the Castle for coffee and treats as we left the courthouse after Hopelyn’s adoption.

There was so much joy in this celebration!

We gathered around our living room to pray for Hopelyn and her parents.

The fellowship was sweet as we wrapped up our time together and moved into our evening.

We started our regular ABA therapy for the kids. At dinner time, we had a simple meals of Chili with Ham and Cheese Sliders.

Dad and Tacy left to head back to Kansas as we were getting kids off to school on Thursday morning. We got Auggie settled in with his ABA therapist and the little girls with Daddy, then I was able to sneak off and have a morning outing with Kelsey and her mom and sister from Montana. What a treat!

I had meatballs frozen and tucked away, so I thawed those for our dinner that night. We ate Sweet Sauce Meatballs, Tator Tots, and Green Beans. Then Matt and I left the kids behind with Elias, Malorie, and Malachi and we went to Panera to sit together and visit for a couple of hours.

When we got home, Malorie had the little girls in jammies and with teeth brushed. It was so nice to only have to tuck them in instead of doing the challenging night time routine. God bless our big kids!

Anna was very excited about how she had fixed her own hair and begged me to take her picture. (Note the wallpaper that has been ripped off the wall behind her. We had to give up on preventing this. Did you know that tearing paper helps calm kids who have autism and/or trauma? In this case, she’s been tearing the paper off the wall, slowly but surely. Meh, it’s just a wall and can be fixed later.)

Acacia needed her picture taken too…

The kids were all very excited because school was canceled on Friday due to extremely cold temps. Auggie and Anna helped me put together a big pot of Taco Soup for Sunday’s lunch.

We also made two huge Lasagnas for a party that night. I forgot to take a picture of the lasagnas until they were tucked away in our fridge. So here’s a non-exciting photo of how I was able to rearrange everything and stuff the lasagnas inside.

We were hoping to get a family photo during our party that evening, and the girls asked if I could curl their hair. I’ve never done all four girls’ hair like this before, but we had a little extra time since they were home from school. So we got it done. Wow, they are beautiful little girls!

Our friends, the Brocks, came from out of town to join us at the party that night. We spent a couple of hours playing games together!

Party time! Justus and Kelsey had organized a wonderful adoption celebration for Hopelyn!

We added my Lasagnas to the buffet, and Kelsey and her family had put together a most beautiful table of pastas, veggies, and fruit. Friends brought cookies and we all feasted together.

Phew, what a great week! Saturday was full in other ways, but I wasn’t able to get on my computer to share about it. So we’ll save that for next week!