Big Family Food and Fun: May 27-June 3, 2023

Here’s a look at the food and fun at our house during the last few days!

We’ve been working this week to finalize getting our house on the market, so the busy level has gone from insane to whatever is BEYOND INSANE. There’s been very little time to cook or to even think about food. Thanks to so many coming over to help us in so many ways, we’ve survived and been so very well loved and cared for.

Food we have to work with right now

I took a look at both of our big freezers to see what all we had to work with to make meals before we move. Both freezers are still very full, which is great because I can avoid going to the store between now and the end of the month. (Our closing date on “the Castle” is in just a few weeks!) My goal is to only buy fresh produce and dairy until after we settle into our new place. Meanwhile, we have a lot of meat and frozen veggies to work with. This freezer is full of hamburger meat, green beans, peas, corn, cheese, flour, pork butt, hashbrowns, pizza crust, tortillas, french fries, and a couple of ready-made casseroles.

This looks like a lot of food (because it is!). But making three meals a day for 10 people will clear this out pretty quickly! This freezer features a lot of chicken, hotdogs, frozen pizza, a turkey, and some pasta.

And now for the meals we ate!

Big Family Food and Fun

Our breakfast one morning consisted of the last of the Bran Muffins I had baked last week. I cut them in half, buttered them, and warmed them in our air fryer. The kids LOVE them this way. We drank some of our fun Azure Standard kefir with the muffins. Fun treat!

Trying to pack while feeding 10 people (plus a baby) is a bit of a challenge. :) It would help if I could ever finish what I start. This is what the kitchen looked like at lunchtime after I’d started packing a few cabinets after breakfast. I got derailed by the kids’ needs and never came back to it. Then we were hungry and I tried making quesadillas in this mess. Oy.

Keith decided to use safety scissors to cut up a box while I made lunch.

For our smoothies that evening with dinner, I used some of the Azure Standard Kefir instead of using yogurt like I usually do. I used an entire 5-ounce container of fresh spinach in these and I just love that the kids get so many greens into their bellies this way!

I made a pot of Cheeseburger Macaroni, steamed green beans, and sliced oranges for a quick dinner one night.

The kids ate outside again, which is so great but so distracting. Josie isn’t pictured here because she took a few bites and then ran off to ride her little scooter. :)

I grilled burgers one night and we ate them with chips and guac.

Anna woke up from a nap one afternoon and enjoyed a cheese stick while she was still just half awake, precious little sweetheart. :)

One morning, Malachi and I took the kids on a LONG walk so that Matt could do work on our house without kids underfoot. When we got home, I made some fast scrambled egg sandwiches and got out peach cups for lunch.

For dinner that night, I put some beef smoked sausage on our grill. While they cooked, I made baked beans, green beans, corn, and fresh strawberries. I pulled some Banana Muffins from the freezer to round out the meal.

Appetites have been pretty big around here because we are all working/playing outside for hours and hours every day! Keith and Josie “helped” Matt clean up the garden one afternoon. :)

The kids took advantage of Matt watering our lawn. I’m not sure how many times that day we had to put dry clothes on toddlers who kept wandering into the sprinkler.

I captured this rare moment when ALL seven littles were in one spot as we wrapped up our day and joined together in our living room for our nightly “Singing and Prayer Time.” Notice Brayden and Josie pretending to talk to each other on the phone from across the room. :)

I love it when the girls sit down to enjoy a book together. SO CUTE!

I had pizza crusts in the freezer so I quickly added sauce, cheese, and meat (some leftover grilled burgers chopped up!) to bake for dinner one night. I grabbed spinach from the fridge as a side dish and that was that.

Brayden and Kiya sat on the porch to eat their pizza. They’d gone to the pool that day so they were extra hungry!

The others ate their pizza at our picnic tables. Pizza sauce mess x4!

Our friend Tasha (you know her because she’s an awesome writer!) came and worked on our walls one day while her husband helped Matt with our porch and other jobs. We are so thankful for friends who are servant-hearted!

Meanwhile, Asa and Eva were also visiting and spent several hours helping us with the house and with childcare.

While everyone was either working on our house or chasing our kids for us, I put together these amazing Bacon and Potato Foil Packs for the grill. (I actually used leftover taco meat instead of bacon and highly recommend it!) I served them with canned peaches and boo, no veggies because goodness I am not keeping up very well right now! :)

I threw together a quick meal of spaghetti with green beans one night. I’ve found that using elbow noodles instead of regular spaghetti noodles makes it much easier for our toddlers to eat this meal!

At the end of the week, we had a photographer coming to take pictures of our house for the realtor’s site since we were soon to get it on the market. Matt and I were exhausted from all the work it had taken to get the house to this point, so I declared it to be a poptart morning. I’d gotten these with Azure Standard credit and saved them for a time like this. It was perfect – the kids were so excited!

That day for lunch, our dear friend Phyllis brought us lunch (because I asked her to, because I was worn out, and because she’s awesome). She brought two of her delicious hashbrown casseroles, veggies, and muffins. It was an incredible blessing to enjoy her food, and even more, her company. She spent some time after lunch reading with Brayden and Kiya, which is just what they needed. Everyone needs a Phyllis in their life. :)

I caught three of the littles (even Acacia!) trying to do Elias’ workout with him one afternoon. :)

We took the kids on an outing to the opening night of our Farmer’s Market and took advantage of their free-will donation hotdog meal deal. Magically, the kids lined up along the wall to eat their dinner and they actually stayed there for at least five solid minutes. :)

Amidst all we had going on with getting our house ready to go on the market, on Friday we also had a huge crew of roofers come to replace our roof after last summer’s hail storm. So there were nails and shingles and people EVERYWHERE outside of our house that day. We decided to take the kids to the library for Story Hour for the morning so they could play without getting hurt in our yard. At lunchtime, we ran home and I went inside to fill a bag with food for us to eat at a park that has a brand-new splash park!

Our lunch that day was turkey lunch meat, cheese sticks, pistachios, peanuts, applesauce, raisins, chips, and juice. By the time we got home, the roofing crew was finished, loaded up, and gone. Phew!

That night, a sweet friend, Jaimie, brought us a most amazing meal of chicken-bacon-tomato-ranch salad fixings with this homemade ranch dressing (that ironically, I haven’t made in forever because of our crazy life!). Plus she supplied us with grapes, applesauce, and made us two super tasty loaves of sourdough bread and chocolate peanut butter bars. We felt so loved and spoiled!

Here’s Matt’s creation – isn’t his bowl pretty!

Keith ate his food before I could feature it, as did Brayden.

But of course, they all got seconds and if I remember correctly, Brayden got fifths. :) :) :)

Kiya is as beautiful as her salad.

The next morning, I scrambled eggs to go with our leftover sourdough bread/toast.

Our daughter-in-law, Kelsey, was able to spend the day with us Saturday so she and I took the kids on a walk to a playground so Matt could work on painting our house. I packed lunch again to buy us time at the park, plus because eating lunch on our outings is just a lot of fun! We ate cheese and crackers, blueberries, applesauce, grapes, and pistachios, and I surprised the kids with cookies. :)

Malachi has in Ecuador on a mission trip all week. WE MISS HIM!! We’re looking forward to having him home next week to learn all about God’s work there.

What a week!! We are so thankful for all the people who have come to our rescue this week with meals and help with home repairs, cleaning, yard work, and child care. It takes a village, and we have an amazing one!