Big Family Food and Fun: October 26-November 1, 2025

Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: October 26-November 1, 2025 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, October 25

Matt had rented a lift and had a few days left with it before needing to turn it back in. So he worked on Saturday afternoon while Auggie napped. As he came back down and was ready to move it (our neighbor has been using it also) – all of the kids ran out to take a ride!

I made a simple – but favorite – meal of Orange Chicken for dinner that night. All the kids will eat this chicken, some with the sauce and some without. So it’s a nice night off from food struggles. We go through two Sam’s-sized boxes of this convenience food, which costs a total of around $26. What a cheap way to enjoy “eating out” without eating out!

Big Family Food and Fun: October 26-November 1, 2025

Auggie has been our “up bright and early” kiddo lately – though it’s not exactly bright out when he gets up. He started on our plate of Breakfast Cookie Bars while I got plates and food ready for Sunday Lunch.

Matt is part of our Teaching Team at Heartlands, and it was his turn to speak at church that morning. How he pulled off working on the lift for a week and a half plus putting together a sermon was quite miraculous and going into this week, we were both pretty worn out. Sunday Lunch, though, revives us. Spending time in community like this is such a gift.

I had declared a Pie Theme for our lunch that day. Our friend Cindy brought Shepherd’s Pie, and I made Chicken Pot Pie and two Quiche.

Our friend, Ingrid, made a really good Cheese Pie, and I made a No Bake Cheesecake and an Easiest Chocolate Fudge Pie. Pie Parties: Highly recommend.

Auggie loves to escape outside (an autistic trait called “eloping”) and our friend Pasha was incredibly sweet to volunteer to go outside with him and keep him safe. Auggie loved the one-on-one attention and I think Pasha loved his time with Auggie too.

Meanwhile, Pasha’s dad, Steve, was in the living room teaching Brayden and Keith to play Chess. How cool is that?!

Matt and I were blessed to spend time with our Community Group later that afternoon while the kids watched a movie with Elias and Malorie. I made three Frozen Pizzas for dinner in an effort to feed some very excited kiddos before we put on costumes and headed out for the night.

Brayden had a Heartlands Youth Ministry party that night, so he’d dressed up and headed out to enjoy Big Kid time. We managed to get the other six kids decked out in this year’s Star Wars themed costumes.

Kiya pulled off Rey amazingly well and she was so proud (as she should be!). Keith was Mandalorian, Anna: Darth Vader; Acacia: Princess Leia; Josie was Chewy and Auggie was our little Baby Yoda. The cuteness was ridiculous.

We loaded up and headed to Boo at the Zoo, which was a free and ENORMOUS event. It was well organized though, and all we had to do was wrangle kids and follow the clearly marked off path. We were very proud of how well the kids handled this (and yes there were meltdowns later, but that happens with or without outings like this).

Monday morning, Auggie started ABA therapy again with a new technician. It took a little while for him to warm up, but his therapist was here too and helped get him acclimated. I sort of hovered on the outskirts to be available if needed, but gave them space to settle Auggie in.

Also that morning, our friend Emma came for a few hours. She was one of our dear babysitters in York, and now she’s married and lives close to Lincoln! So we’ve hired her to come spend time with the girls on Monday mornings so that Matt and I have some time to catch our breath. This is such a gift!

We had a fridge full of leftovers so for dinner that night, I pulled them out along with fresh spinach, and that was our meal!

On Tuesday morning, I discovered Keith in the living room working on a big Word Search. He’s recently discovered these and is so proud when he finds a word in the puzzle!

Little Sweetheart was on her way over and our afternoon was full. So I made a crock pot full of The Easiest Chili for our dinner that night.

It was raining, so we all played in the house all morning until preschool and naptime.

Matt went to pick the kids up that afternoon and snapped this sweet picture. Keith has a special buddy who was picked up by his grandma that day. Grandma and Buddy were holding hands, then Keith joined the train.

I took Brayden and Kiya to serve at our weekly Food Distribution after school.

Matt had fed most of the kids Chili and fruit by the time we got home. Josie realized that it was her day to be Mom’s Special Helper so she eagerly loaded a few dishes into the dishwasher for me. (There are seven days in a week and we have seven little kids. Therefore, each of the kids has a “day” that belongs to them. They get to help me in the kitchen or with other chores, which somehow has turned into a privilege even though it’s work. They love the special time with us, and the fact that if it’s their special day, that means they get extra privileges, like getting to lick the spatula.)

On Wednesday, the kids discovered what Amazon had delivered the night before. A few weeks ago, our ABA therapist had suggested to us that Sensory Socks might be helpful as a calm-down tool for our kids. I forgot about them until Kelsey texted a picture of them this week and made the same suggestion. So I ordered three – one in each size – to give them a try.

Auggie put on the Brayden-sized one and wasn’t sure how he felt about it. :)

As it turned out, ordering three Sensory Socks when you have seven neurodivergent kids wasn’t going to work for us. Instead of calming them, they fought over them while I was trying to get breakfast made and get everyone out the door for school. Hoo-rah. (Later we did have some calming success with them, and also later – I ordered more so that everyone could have one at the same time.)

Meanwhile, we needed go-to snacks. I had made a huge batch of Chewy Granola Bars last week and our household had plowed through them already. So Wednesday morning, I made another huge batch. These are one of the only things Keith has been choosing to eat lately.

I also made a double batch of Banana Muffins for snacks.

I was planning French Toast and Bacon for dinner, so I got all the Bacon baked that morning to make the evening easier.

Auggie had ABA therapy that morning. Acacia and Josie found a game to play.

Arrow came over because he’d heard that Lolli had made more muffins. :)

That afternoon, I ran to Wal-Mart for a few needed items. Notice that “a few needed items” still fills an entire cart. But also!? The price of eggs is exciting now as the chicken flu situation is on the mend and eggs are not as short in supply. In celebration, I bought ten dozen. :)

When Kiya got home from school, Malachi talked her into making him a sandwich for him. They had a silly time together in the kitchen and it was fun to watch. :)

Dinner that night was French Toast, Bacon, Sausage, and Applesauce.

On Thursday I didn’t take many pictures. I had a meeting for Auggie, Little Sweetheart came over to spend the day, and in general, we just kept plugging away to get work done and needs taken care of.

For dinner that night, I had slow cooked Salsa Chicken then made a pan of Stick of Butter Rice. Everyone built a Chicken Taco Bowl based on their preferences with all kinds of topping options.

The weather wasn’t too cold, so we made sure the kids played outside all evening. When it got dark, Matt decided to treat the kids to a few minutes around the fire pit. He fired it up and the kids had a grand time. No marshmallows, only silliness!

It’s hard to see this picture, but I hope you can hear this picture. The kids were giggling and singing Happy Birthday to no one, then blowing out the flame. :)

Friday morning, I stirred together all the Chicken Taco Bowl leftovers and turned them into Burritos for our freezer. I used our favorite Tortillas from Azure Standard. I buy them by the case and freeze them to pull out and use as needed. Eva has been making her own tortillas lately for their family and it reminds me of my tortilla-making days! Someday, I’ll hopefully make tortillas again! Until then, these.

I ended up with 16 Burritos.

And then Anna, who has a lot of food trauma plus Autism, which presents its own level of food issues, grabbed one of the burritos, unwrapped it, and ate the entire contents. Cold. For breakfast. What?? If I would have offered her this, it would have been a no-go, for sure. But there she was, gobbling this right up. Matt and I just smiled, shook our heads, and praised God that she was actually eating.

After we got the other kids off to school, these three kiddos helped me make Lasagna for Sunday Lunch.

Lasagna is a favorite for sure!

Acacia only had Speech Therapy that morning without her normal Physical Therapy that typically follows. She focused and did well, and it was nice to get home and have some time before the bus came.

Malachi texted from his office that afternoon to inform us that Sonic was offering $0.50 Corn Dogs that day. With a full evening ahead, we scrapped our original menu plan and asked him to please pick up 20 of those cheap corndogs on his way home. Hahaha, we never do this kind of thing, but I’m so glad we did. That deal was hard to beat and have you ever tried getting seven special needs kids into costumes and out the door? Corndogs for the win! (Matt air fried some French fries from our freezer to go with our dogs.)

Thanks for dinner, Malachi!

We managed to get everyone ready to go!

Our neighbor friend and his mom joined us for the evening. Brayden (I mean, Darth Vader) elected to skip trick or treating to stay on our porch and hand out candy. I feared that he would regret this and feel like he missed out. But we ended up having a million trick or treaters and he LOVED handing out candy to everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday morning was a rough one after being out and getting hyped up with trick or treating excitement. We managed to get everyone fed, dressed, and to the library for Story Time. Justus, Kelsey, and Little Sweetheart came too.

It was sweet to watch Justus play with his brothers afterward.

We spent some time inside the main library area after Story Time. Keith discovered a fun Word Search on the wall!

Back at home, Josie made a salad to go with lunch.

I put together a Spinach Cake and baked it for Sunday Lunch.

I filled a crock pot with Ham and Potato Soup to slow cook for our dinner.

Then we ate Chicken Nuggets and Salad for lunch.

The weather was chilly but sunny, so we bundled up the kids to play outside during Auggie’s naptime. Then we moved into our time of Sabbath and that was our week!