Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: October 25-31, 2026 post!
Big Family Food and Fun: October 25-31, 2026
Sunday morning was a bit more chill because we weren’t planning on hosting lunch that day. We simply ate our Breakfast Cookie Bars and got ready for church. Could we find a matching right and a left shoe for everyone? Of course not. But did we make it to church on time? Ope, no, we didn’t. But we did make it! And that morning, God showed us some incredible work He is doing in a family new to our Heartlands community. They have a child suffering from incredible health issues, and they were able to show up that day. We saw His hand in EVERYTHING. It was so wonderful to experience!
After church, Matt and I had a lunch meeting and arrangements had been made for all the kids to be watched by several teens and adults. Elias was one of these adults, plus several others our kids love. So we felt great about getting their plates fixed (lunch was provided!) and heading into our meeting.
We made it home just in time to start Community Group. Then Brayden got ready and headed off to a Youth Group Halloween Party!
We spent the entire evening playing outside, eating leftovers, and doing various chores. I played volleyball with several of the kids. Then just before bedtime, Matt turned on the firepit for everyone to enjoy. We had to work pretty hard to keep hair, sticks, and fingers out of the fire! Best we could, we went around the circle, asking everyone to share something they were thankful for from the past week.
On Monday morning, Auggie got cold during our walk to school so he borrowed Mommy’s hoodie. :)
Emma came that morning. So Matt and I headed to Holmes Lake to walk and talk all morning.
Matt headed home to be with Brayden that afternoon while I headed to do a little bit of grocery shopping and to get some computer work done at Panera. At Aldi, I got apples, pears, zucchini, grapes, sweet peppers, fruit/veggie pouches, pumpkin, crackers, granola, and salsa. Then at Wal-mart, I found some meat markdowns and a few other random deals. It was fun to take my time looking for discounted items our family could use!
After school, Keith sat with me to get his homework done. He is taking a break from ABA therapy right now as we dig deeper and re-evaluate what he needs.
He was “helper of the day” so he helped make salad for dinner.
I had slow cooked Barbecue Chicken in the crock pot all day. We ate it with Grapes, Keith’s Salad, plus some Rice pouches I’d found at Aldi.
Auggie had picked these overalls to wear that day, and the cuteness was too much for all of us to handle. They are almost too little for him, so he suggested that Arrow could maybe have them next.
On Tuesday morning, I made a pan of Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Bars for a breakfast/snack option.
The morning was full of 9:00, 10:00, and 11:00 therapy appointments and ABA meetings. I finished just in time to see Auggie off on the bus. Hopelyn was over and loves to help watch for the bus.
We had more meetings and therapy that afternoon before picking kids up from school. I had ordered from Azure Standard this month and our friend, Terra, lovingly picked our food up for us since we were unable to be there. She dropped it off for us that afternoon (bless!), so now we are stocked up again on our favorite Azure Oats, White Wheat Flour, and Tortillas!
Right after school, Brayden, Kiya, Bonus Buddy, and Josie and I headed to Tuesday Food Distribution.
Brayden and Kiya take turns each week with cleaning the coolers or working at a give-away table. This week, Kiya got to give away fall and Halloween items instead of food.
Back at home, I had thawed and rewarmed Taco Soup for dinner plus pulled a package of Ham and Cheese Sliders from the freezer to stretch out our meal. I had also thawed a loaf of Banana Bread that was in the freezer. We warmed up each slice with butter in our air fryer and we ate the entire loaf!
Keith and Bonus Buddy were incredibly excited to go to a free Wrestling Clinic that evening. This is what they do in our living room much of the time. So it was perfect that they got to go learn some actual wrestling techniques and skills. :)
On Wednesday morning while the kids were eating breakfast, I put together 8-pounds of Meatballs. Some went into the freezer and some went into the fridge to bake later for dinner that night,
Keith had a doctor appointment that morning, so Matt stayed home with Auggie during his ABA therapy session while I picked up Keith from school. While we were in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, we enjoyed looking at lots of fun decorated pumpkins, voting for our favorite.
Keith was incredibly brave as he needed to have a blood draw done as we dig deeper into some of his needs. (Everything later came back clear, which is good news.)
After school that day, Anna helped me bake Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins.
I had brought home two big bunches of overripe bananas from Food Distribution the day before, so after Anna helped me with her muffins, Brayden helped me make a huge batch of Banana Bread and Muffins.
Meanwhile, dinner was in the oven also. We ate our Meatballs with Mashed Potatoes, Salad, Muffins, and Sliced Oranges.
Our Banana Bread and Muffins finished baking while we ate and cooled off in time to be packaged up before bed time.
Hopelyn and Arrow came over on Thursday! Hopelyn spent time in our Reading Room, looking at many of the books on our shelves.
Arrow chose to play in our very messy Play Room. While he played, I got some toys picked up and organized the room a bit better. This cleaning effort might last for only a day or two, but we can enjoy it while it lasts.
This had been another week full of appointments and meetings, and that afternoon, that is how my time was spent again. So dinner that night was a simple meal of Spaghetti (or just noodles for half of our crew) with Green Beans and Buttered Corn.
Friday morning was a rough one as we tried to get everyone out the door. And then, just like that, everyone snapped into sweetness mode, grabbed a hand, and headed out for our walk to school. Nothing much makes sense, but it’s always good to have moments like this to give us hope. (Bonus Buddy had already gone on a little bit ahead of us on his bike.)
Auggie didn’t have ABA that morning, so he and I got a lot of baking done. He helped me make Breakfast Cookie Bars for the next two Sunday mornings.
Then he helped me with a business project. Ah, which reminds me of what I haven’t mentioned here yet. Malorie and I have started a Coppinger Kitchen and Crafts business here in Lincoln – and we’re going to see where it goes! If you’re in the Lincoln area, check it out and give us a Follow. So far, we are having a lot of fun making plans for how to grow and serve families here.
I had bought a huge container of M&Ms to use for some seasonal Monster Cookies for the business. Auggie was awesome at using a spoon to help me separate colors. He stuck with this project for about 20-minutes and did such a good job.
Brayden helped me finish the job later. He is super interested in helping with our business – which is great because a big part of the idea that Malorie and I had when we started was that this could potentially be something all of our kids could be a part of as they grow. We hope to provide some income opportunities for them, especially for those for whom a regular job might be too challenging. We’ll see what God does!
We finished our baking: Monster Cookies plus our Breakfast Cookie Bars.
After school, a little Penguin did her homework while sitting on the kitchen counter.
We played outside because it was a beautiful day!
Dinner was suuuuuper fancy: a package of Hotdogs cooked on the stove. Thank you for admiring my great skills.
We ended our evening with a walk to Sunken Gardens. This was perfect because the weather was so lovely and the garden was pretty sparce. So we were able to run and get energy out without reservation – then we headed home to bed.
We were excited that the fish were still in the ponds!
And we enjoyed visiting with a very friendly doggie and his owner.
When we got back that night, I finished shredding the chicken in a huge pot of White Chicken Chili that I’d started cooking earlier that day. I planned to serve it for Sunday’s lunch.
On Saturday morning, I took the four youngest kids to the library for Story Time. Matt kept the older four at home and guess what he had them do? Sweep and mop! That was pretty nice to come home to!
I baked several pans of bacon to get ahead for meals.
For lunch, I got “fancy” and made a bunch of Jack-o-dillas. The kids were impressed. :)
We spent the afternoon getting ready for a fun evening! Sonic was offering corn dogs for $0.50 each and we took full advantage of this for our dinner. We bought 30 of them, ate them with fruit, and that helped me a ton as I got 8 kids ready in costumes. Phew, even with simple costumes, this is a huge job.
Here’s our adorable crew, ready to head out for a fun night!
Our friend, Ed, took a picture of all of us on his porch. Brayden was back home handing out candy to trick-or-treaters at our house.
We came home and enjoyed two pieces of candy each. Then the kids had an absolute blast handing out almost all the rest of our candy to trick-or-treaters who came to our house. I loved watching them give all their candy away without thinking twice. It was just too much fun to have so many kids stop by!
What a week!
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