Big Family Food and Fun: November 3-9, 2024

Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: November 3-9, 2024 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 3-9, 2024

Saturday evening, November 2, we kicked of our weekly practice of Sabbath. For our Sabbath dinner Saturday evening, we made a very simple (but special to us) meal of Costco Pizzas and Caesar Salad with Sparkling Water.

We brought out our special “Sabbath Candles” which we hope gives our kids the idea that this time of the week is set apart and special. We celebrate God’s goodness together, sharing around the table ways God worked in our lives during the past week. After dinner, we let the kids hold a candle while we took a short walk outside together. They loved that!

Sunday morning’s breakfast was Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread that I’d baked the day before. We also had bowls full of applesauce with our bread.

Our Sunday Lunch has turned into a Sabbath Feast as several families have decided to make this time a part of their Sabbath celebration also. And of course, we always grab as many others from church as we can to join us for lunch.

30 of us gathered that day and it was glorious. God’s power was evident around our tables.

Malachi and some of his buddies sat at the living room to eat because our dining room was full.

We enjoyed pie for dessert (leftover from Saturday’s big pie party) – but I forgot to get a picture of that part of our kitchen. Then we enjoyed time with friends all afternoon.

For dinner that evening, I made a simple meal of Mac and Cheese (six boxes) with Frozen Peas sprinkled in plus Clementines.

Brayden and Kiya made their school lunches for Monday as I washed dishes on Sunday evening. Brayden decided that he wanted Chicken Salad. I was so proud of him for making it entirely on his own without any reminders or instruction about how to do it.

Alas, it was dark outside so we couldn’t go play like we were used to doing after dinner. So I gathered the kids at the living room table for craft time. I am always surprised at how much even our 5-year-old boys enjoy this.

We finished one and moved on to another. Getting used to the time change was tough, but we made it until bedtime at 8:00!

Monday morning, I scrambled 12 eggs for our breakfast. We ate them with Toasted Bagels and Sliced Pears. Meanwhile, I put a pan of Stick of Butter Rice into the oven to use in our dinner that night.

Mid-morning, Anna and Acacia hung out in the kitchen with me while we made Snickerdoodle Bitesx3. Having these on hand to fill bellies is very helpful.

That afternoon, I took a much needed nap. Changing our clocks over the weekend (which is never easy with the kids), which was followed by a few rough nights being up with kids, had provided me with several nights/mornings in a row without enough sleep. I was so thankful that the afternoon allowed me to rest. I felt much better after the down time.

For dinner that night, I used the Stick of Butter Rice I’d made that morning to create Taco Rice Skillet. I warmed corn in a pan separately to accommodate those who don’t like corn. We topped our Taco Rice with cheese and sour cream (and corn), plus ate a side of Spinach. I got out some canned fruit to stretch the meal, but we ended up not needing those.

It was raining and dark, so I told the kids we’d play a game while a special dessert was baking in the oven. Our blue rug turned into a stage as we used the Picture Charades Game to let everyone take turns acting out a person, animal, or thing to see if they could make everyone guess what they were. This time together was both fun and cRaZy. Meanwhile…

…the timer went off and we enjoyed this treat. I’d picked up Annie’s cinnamon rolls for my nephew’s birthday last week, and we had some leftover. The kids loved this!

Tuesday, the kids school was closed so that they could use some of the facilities associated with the schools for the election. It was wet and rainy all day, so going outside wasn’t possible. Yowza.

I made Pancakes and Sausage for breakfast, something I don’t usually take time to make on school days. The kids gobbled this up! Auggie enjoyed some of my smoothie that morning, and I loved getting all that nourishment into him.

Kiya set up a school in our dining room and was teacher to whatever kids’ attention she could keep.

Brayden set up his school in our pantry, using our cases of water as desks. :)

Keith and Bonus Buddy worked for a while at our living room table, mostly cutting paper and making a mess. I don’t care about messes as long as the kids are being sweet.

That part of the morning went smoothly, and I was grateful. Then I looked at the clock and saw that it was only 9:30. Oy. It was going to be a LONG DAY.

I made a fruit plate for the kids to snack on at 10:30.

The bigger littles and I have been reading Little House in the Big Woods, and just finished the chapter about harvesting maple syrup from the trees. So Matt found a YouTube video that showed the process of extracting maple syrup so the kids could see how it worked. They are now determined to get syrup out of our trees. Hmmmm….

Anna needed a project, so she helped me make Chocolate Chip Cookies.

It’s been a few months over a year since we moved into this house, and I still can’t figure out how to make cookies in this oven. I continue to make adjustments, but they turn out weird every time. I’M NOT GIVING UP. Though I usually just save time anyway and turn them into Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. Anyway, our cookies were thin and ugly, but no worries, we ate them anyway.

We ate leftovers for lunch (before we ate cookies), had therapy appointments in the afternoon, watched too many shows on TV, and then finally were able to go outside and play because the sun came out. Somewhere in there, Matt and I took turns running out to go vote.

I took Brayden and Kiya to our weekly Food Distribution to hand out food to clients who came through the line.

Brayden kept up with cleaning coolers as they got emptied out.

That morning, I had made a crock pot full of Cheeseburger Soup. We ate the entire pot on Tuesday night, along with two pounds of strawberries.

Wednesday was Matt’s birthday! We ate Egg Casserole for breakfast with Blueberry Toast and Cantaloupe. I had the Egg Casserole in the freezer, already baked and cut. So we just put pieces of casserole into our Air Fryer to warm up, along with more pieces of bread to toast as needed until we finished both the casserole and most of the loaf of bread.

I made a Berry Cobbler for Matt’s birthday dessert later that night.

I also made a quick batch of Vanilla Ice Cream to go with the Cobbler.

Before the girls left for school, they each had an Avocado Cup with Tortilla Chips.

Arrow came to hang out that afternoon!

When Eva came back later, she stayed to help with the late afternoon craziness and dinner prep time. Josie was honored with a turn holding Arrow.

Matt had requested Shrimp for his birthday dinner, something I almost never make. We found some at Costco, plus I warmed up some chicken for those who didn’t like shrimp. I made a huge pot of Easy Noodle Stir Fry to go with our meat, plus prepped some grapes to round out the meal.

Our family gathered around our kitchen is my very favorite.

With family gathered around the table being my close second favorite.

Then it was Berry Cobbler and Vanilla Ice Cream time – a great birthday celebration night!

Thursday morning, the kids ate Yogurt with Granola for breakfast before school.

Matt and I took the youngest four to grocery shop that morning. We went to Walmart and Sam’s. Why Sam’s? Well, we were out of BACON. Yikes.

Did I forget to take a picture at Sam’s? Yes, I did. Four kids in two carts is a thing, man. So we survived Sam’s, but I didn’t take a picture of our food until we were unloading and filling our kitchen with groceries.

Meanwhile, Anna spent some time on a new swing our neighbor, Coleman, and rigged up. Is this a sweet picture of fall or what?

Little Sweetheart came that afternoon, plus I had an Early Development Network meeting for Auggie. I’d put Salsa Chicken into the crock pot that morning for our dinner. Before leaving to pick up kids from school, I put a pan of Stick of Butter Rice into the oven. We enjoyed a Chicken Taco Buffet that evening along with fresh raspberries, grapes, or cantaloupe.

I like to stir together leftovers after a Taco/Burrito Buffet and turn it all into Burritos like this. Kiya and Anna wanted to help me, so they stirred as I dumped in bits of chicken, rice, guac, salsa, sour cream, and cheese.

Then I rolled the mixture into tortillas, giving us 17 Frozen Burritos for adults to take in their work lunches!

NOTE: This meal was incredibly inexpensive! I used just one large package of chicken thighs that I’d picked up after it was marked down to just $6.65. I did a little rough math and estimated that the entire Taco Bar cost around $22.00. This fed 14 of us (6 adults, 8 kids) plus made 17 frozen burritos for future meals.

How was it this cheap?

1. Marked down meat saves a great amount of money.
2. Rice stretches a meal.

If we’d just made meat and cheese burritos, we would have run out of meat long before the adults went through the line. But having rice and meat, with tortillas or hard shells means that the meat can go a long way.

Anyway, hooray for inexpensive meals that everyone loves! Now back to our regularly scheduled Food and Fun post…

Friday morning Little Sweetheart came over and helped me make Meat and Cheese Sandwiches for our upcoming Sunday lunch. We wrapped them up so that we could warm them up to serve them toasted with White Chicken Chili.

While finding clothes for the day, the girls discovered their robes and wore them all morning before the bus came.

For dinner that night, I made a big pot of Chicken Noodle Soup.

Saturday morning, Asa and Justus came over to help Matt and Elias with the kids. Malorie and I headed to Heartlands Church for a Ladies’ Brunch, and Eva, Kelsey, and their babies met us there. I was blessed to share with the ladies some of the ways God has taught me to find peace in Him. It was a wonderful morning of fellowship together. (Photo cred: my friend Heather —>)

Malorie and I arrived home to find that the guys had fed the kids salad and sandwiches and everyone was happy. We moved forward with our afternoon, preparing our home and hearts for another Sabbath day of rest, which I’ll share about next week!