Big Family Food and Fun: October 5-11, 2025

Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: October 5-11, 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 4

Keith had his last soccer game of the season Saturday afternoon. Elias and Malorie hopped in with us to watch. It was warm and windy that day, and Keith scored several goals. Here’s the wind blowing Keith’s fan club back to the van after the game…

Matt and I had been holding on to some Freddy’s ice cream freebies that the kids had earned from their Summer Library Reading Challenge and we decided to use them to celebrate Keith’s final game. Having Elias and Malorie there to help was perfect, plus we went during a Husker Football game time, which meant that NO ONE was out and about. Half of Lincoln was at the game and the other half was home watching the game. This is the culture of Lincoln.

So we had Freddy’s to ourselves, which was perfect for our crew! We enjoyed our dessert before dinner. What a great way to launch into Sabbath!

Back at home, the kids colored on their pumpkins that they’d picked out that morning at the Pumpkin Patch.

While we were outside, our neighbor John dropped off three bags of apples from his family’s property plus this beautiful bouquet of flowers from his brother’s yard.

Bonus Buddy got dropped off to spend the night with us, which was special! We played volleyball in the back yard while we waited to get hungry again since we had ruined our dinner with ice cream. Look! Even Josie joined us. :) :) :)

Dinner was this very exciting crock pot of Frozen Meatballs that I’d slow cooked during the afternoon with BBQ sauce. Then it was bath and bedtime!

Big Family Food and Fun: October 5-11, 2025

Sunday morning, we dug into a plate of Breakfast Cookie Bars while we got ready for church.

Sometimes the “Church Cat” wants to fellowship after worship. The kids enjoyed some time petting him?her? as we headed to to van.

We had an amazing crowd of 47 people for lunch at our house that day! It was our friend Cindy’s birthday, so her husband had worked behind the scenes with us to invite people to make the day extra special.

We had Smoked Chicken, Smoked Pork Loin, four varieties of Potatoes that people brought, Rolls, Corn, and Baked Beans.

 

For dessert, we enjoyed Apple Berry Crisp, Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Brownies, and Frosted Pumpkin Bars.

It was the most wonderful feast with such an amazing group of people gathered.

People trickled away after lunch and some stayed to visit until after 4:00. It was truly an amazing afternoon.

I baked three frozen pizzas for dinner that night and was very ready for bed after we got the kids down.

Monday morning after we got all the bigger kids to school, the three littlest stayed home with Matt while I went to have a consultation with a Psychologist we’ve been working with to help Josie. After weeks of evaluations, assessments, and testing – Josie received her diagnosis: Autism Spectrum Disorder.

If you’re counting, that’s now five of our kids (so far) who have been diagnosed with ASD.

Are we surprised? No. Once Auggie got his diagnosis back in February and we started taking our other kids in one or two at a time for assessments, we started digging in to really learn what Autism Spectrum Disorder can look like and how to better parent kids whose brains are neurodivergent. The spectrum is very broad, and autism is genetic. All of our younger kids are related to one another. So many of their challenging needs, behaviors, and meltdowns can be explained by their ASD diagnoses, and the trauma they’ve experienced makes their needs even more complex. But…

GOD IS BIGGER an He is at work in us and through us. Having these answers and diagnoses helps provide our kids with much needed resources. We are very thankful.

After my meeting with the psychologist, I went straight to Costco. It only makes sense that I’d have a big, life changing appointment with a doctor, and then go immediately to the store to buy ketchup, right? Bah. Well, Costco was on my route home, we needed groceries, and Matt and I had plans to process the information together later in the afternoon after the girls were at preschool and Auggie was napping.

For dinner that night, I set out a Taco Bar with Seasoned Meat, White Queso, Shredded Cheese, Spinach, Tomatoes, Guacamole, Salsa, Rice, Black Beans, Corn, Chips, and Tortillas. We also had Raspberries that I’d picked up at Costco that day.

Tuesday morning, we baked a batch of Chocolate Muffins with Hidden Spinach. By the time I remembered to take a picture, little hands had already dug in…

I used some of the apples our neighbor gave us to make three loaves of Apple Bread. This made the house smell incredible!

Little Sweetheart came over to spend the day with us. Acacia found a box of cookies I’d gotten as a treat from Azure Standard and I said “yes” to them as a snack for the girls because they are pretty healthy. The kids were thrilled!

I took Brayden and Kiya to our weekly Food Distribution that afternoon, but I forgot to take any pictures. We got home and enjoyed a crock pot of Chili and one of Ham and Potato Soup.

We also had Grapes, Pickle, and Olives – plus we’d brought home Blackberries and Strawberries from Food Distribution that were leftover at the end and needed to be eaten asap.

Just before the kids’ bedtime, five from Malorie’s family arrived for the night! We’d been looking forward to this and had gotten rooms shuffled around and ready for all of them.

They had driven all day long and were weary travelers. The plan was for them to eat dinner and spend the night here, then Malorie would hop in with them the next morning as they all traveled on to celebrate Malorie’s brother’s graduation from Boot Camp. I barely know Malorie’s brother, but I’m ridiculously proud of him. I can’t imagine the pride all of his family feels.

Our guests had bowls of soup and we visited a while before getting everyone settled in for the night. Then they were off again bright and early the next day.

Keith helped me make another batch of muffins on Wednesday morning. This time it was Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins.

I’d put together an Egg Casserole with Hashbrowns the night before and baked it early that morning for our breakfast.

Malorie’s mom had picked up some great clothing for the kids at a thrift store in their area. The girls discovered the bucket of clothes on Wednesday morning and had a grand time trying on “new” outfits!

Mid-morning, I packaged up the Flourless Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins that I’d made earlier along with a container of fruit to send with Brayden that evening. He was in charge of taking snacks to his Youth Group event and these are his favorite muffins. (The next day, he informed me that I must make these for his group again because everyone loved them! For reference, I sent 48 muffins and only 7 came home. Success.)

Arrow came to hang out on Wednesday morning. He helped finish off the Chocolate Muffins with Hidden Spinach that I’d made the day before. This boys LOVES his muffins.

As the girls were getting ready for the school bus, they requested that I take their pictures.

Josie was playing some sort of hand instrument and dancing to her own beat. Beautiful music!

That afternoon, I had another big meeting at Brayden’s school to continue to help work out his education needs. It’s been an extremely tough transition for him going from elementary school to middle school. He has pushed through this challenge and has learned more about advocating for himself and we are very proud of him for his hard work. We’d been in touch with the school multiple times, and they did try to help. But at this meeting, I was insistent that we needed some big changes to address his big needs. Thankfully, all the powers that be listened to me and we spent an hour and a half creating a brand new plan and schedule for him that will hopefully be much less stressful and meet him where he is.

Phew. What a week. And it was only Wednesday.

For dinner that night I made a double batch of Real Food “Velveeta” and Rotel Dip. Some ate it with chips, some ate it with pasta to turn it into Spicy Mac and Cheese. And some of our kids simply had a plate full of noodles with butter and salt. Whatever fills their bellies, I’ve learned to be happy with.

Thursday morning, I baked a double recipe of Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies to package up for grab-and-go lunches.

Little Sweetheart hung out with us all day. She helped Acacia with her backpack as we waited for the bus.

Auggie has become very picky (food aversions are normal with ASD) and we’ve had a hard time getting him to eat many actual meal-type foods. I had warmed myself a bowl of Ham and Potato Soup to eat outside while we waited for the bus, and he thought it looked pretty good. I gave him bites and he kept coming back for more. Finally, Matt made him his own bowl and he sat on the steps gobbling it up. This was worth documenting!

That night, I made Pancakes, Sausage, Bacon, and Sliced Oranges for dinner. This meal was a big hit with the entire household!

I made time to play some volleyball with Kiya and Brayden that night while several of the other kids were having ABA therapy. Just before heading upstairs for the night, I wrapped up 18 Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies to put into our extra fridge.

When we put the kids to bed that night, we put on Acacia’s brace for the very last time. THIS IS SUCH A BIG DEAL!!

Here’s a picture of this tiny baby girl wearing her brace for the very first time five years ago (plus a precious bonus shot of Baby Keith feeding his sister). Acacia was born with a club foot and went through lots of casting, a small surgery, and six months of wearing her brace for 23-hours every day. At age six months, she moved to only wearing her brace at night for 12 hours, and she’s been wearing it every night since.

Thursday night was her final night to wear it and we celebrated!

Friday morning Acacia started her very full day of appointments with Speech Therapy and Physical Therapy.

At 2:45, Matt, Auggie, and I went to the school auditorium to see Kiya receive an award! I snuck out right after to pull Acacia out of school for an Orthopedic Specialist appointment.

This is the appointment where the doctor cleared her from using her braces ever again – woohoo!

I’d hardly been home all day, but dinner well under control! Malachi had had a video shoot the night before in Omaha and Raising Cane’s was a sponsor. After his work, they’d sent him home with all the leftovers, and it was a lot of chicken! This turned into a huge treat for all of us and a night off for Mom. Perfect!

Saturday morning, we went to Sensory Friendly Library Story Time. Kelsey and Little Sweetheart met us there.

When we were playing later, some of the kids had some emotional struggles so the very awesome Ms. Diane brought out the bubble machine. This calmed everyone – even the grown ups. I love this story time and Ms. Diane sooooo much!

From the library, we went to one of our favorite parks. Keith had been begging to try his new “bike tricks” at this skate park (one of his latest obsessions), and we wanted to check out the cool new feature that had just been built. Apparently, this is the world’s first Fitblock Outdoor Gym. It’s pretty cool!

We spent almost three hours at the park running, riding, and playing.

Lunch was simple: Ham Sandwiches, Cheese, Clementines, Pears, Almonds, and Granola Bars.

We spent the rest of the afternoon getting ready for Sunday, and we went to a Harvest Festival at church. I’ll share more about that next week!