Big Family Food and Fun: September 14-20, 2025

Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: September 14-20, 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, September 13

Keith had a soccer game Saturday afternoon, and when we got home, the kids piled into the living room and tackled Malachi. Can you hear this picture?

Kelsey sent me this photo of the Raspberry Oatmeal Bars she’d baked that day with some leftover fruit from her freezer. I haven’t made these bars in a while but they are going on my list!

Saturday’s dinner was a “clean out the fridge” night. I warmed up the last of our Cheeseburger Casserole. Then I cut up the few leftover Baked Potatoes we had and stirred in Taco Meat. I love this combo! I had exactly three tortillas, so I made a quesadilla and a half to cut into small triangles for the kids. We had a little bit of leftover fruit – and this was dinner.

Our meal was a tiny bit calmer than it is sometimes, and I was able to capture this short moment when everyone was seated and eating all at the same time.

Big Family Food and Fun: September 14-20, 2025

Sunday morning, we ate a plate full of Breakfast Cookie Bars. Some of us have this with milk. The rest of us have these with coffee. :)

Thirty-six people gathered in our home for lunch after church that day. Babies, friends, teens, young adults, new friends, old friends – these days are my favorite.

I had made two huge Lasagnas and a friend made Chicken Alfredo. Other friends brought Sides, Desserts and a Salad. Someone even brought Homemade Applesauce.

I set out the container of Chocolate Chip Cookies that I’d made the day before, and our friend Christina had made Lemon Loaf and Brownies. I think we went through three pots of coffee with our desserts.

I’m not sure if you can see the leftovers in this picture that I took while Arrow was crawling around and some of us were hanging out in the kitchen. We went through almost two entire large pans of Lasagna, and what was left happily went into containers for young adult lunches for this week.

Matt and I enjoyed Community Group time that afternoon while the kids watched a movie with Elias and Malorie. Then Josie and Auggie helped me make Pizza for dinner.

Monday morning, after we got kids off to school, Auggie started his ABA therapy session and I made a batch of Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins. These are all the kids’ favorite, and they go over the best when I make mini-sized muffins.

Fresh out of the oven, these three had a Muffin Picnic during one of Auggie’s work breaks.

That afternoon, just before time to pick up kids from school, Matt and Malachi worked on some car issues. Auggie was happy to help, and I had to tear him away from this fun to put him in a stroller to walk with me to school to pick up kids.

When we got home, Auggie went right back to helping Malachi, and Keith joined in. They were working on a different car by then – airing up tires to get it ready to head to the shop the next day. Keith had been on a field trip that day and had the privilege of wearing a hat to school. This hat had been Malachi’s “back in the day” so it was extra sweet to see Keith wearing it.

Our night was filled with ABA therapy, homework, and general hubbub. Acacia and Josie helped me make Salad to go with dinner.

Dinner was simple that night – Smoked Sausage, Noodles, Alfredo Sauce, and Salad. A lot of our kids really like noodles with butter, salt, and parmesan. I’ve given up on making this make sense because it fills their bellies and avoids food fights. Most of them ate their noodles with salad and some ate the meat.

On Tuesday morning, our dearest Emma came for a few hours. She is a friend from York and was one of our kids’ babysitters when we lived there. We’ve all missed each other! She arrived just in time to walk to school with us for drop-off.

We played outside quite a bit that morning, and Emma read lots of books to the girls. :)

Little Sweetheart was hanging with us all morning also. I caught her here waving and saying “bye! bye!” with her sweet little voice that she’s learning to use.

Mid-morning, we put chicken into a crock pot with bbq sauce to slow cook for dinner. I also made a crock pot full of Party Potatoes. Just before time to pick up kids from school, I prepped Green Beans for Matt to steam at dinnertime.

Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and I spent two hours that afternoon/evening at our weekly Food Distribution. Back at home, Matt had finished up dinner and we dug in as soon as we got home.

I was barely holding it together all evening because some of the kids’ behaviors were rough while we had been out. One of the hardest parts of life right now is figuring out how to parent children whose brains work so differently than a neurotypical brain. Autistic meltdowns are extreme and there’s not much that can be done to calm a child once they are shutting down.

Anyway, somehow we got through the night with dinner, homework, and ABA therapies.

 

Wednesday morning, we were blessed to have Arrow with us. He joined us for school drop-off and Uncle Keith was excited to push him to the first grade line.

I had discovered this Shake a Leg! book that morning and what I thought was a treasure upon discovery turned out to be even more precious. You see, this is a book we’ve had since Asa was Arrow’s age. How we still have it and it is in one piece, I have no idea. :)  But how wonderful! I decided I had to read it to Arrow…

And THEN, when I opened it to read, I discovered that this book had been a gift to Asa on his first birthday. And who gave him this gift? KELSEY’S family. Before Kelsey was born.

I’ve probably mentioned here that Matt and I go way back with Kelsey’s parents as we went to college together and became friends. We had our first babies together in the same town before they moved 12 hours away to settle in Montana where Kelsey grew up. Now here we are with our kids, Justus and Kelsey, all grown up, meeting at college, and getting married. This sweet little book has a rich history and is a great treasure.

And here I thought I was “only” going to read Arrow a book that I’d read years ago to his daddy…

In much less sweet or fun news, went grocery shopping at Costco that afternoon. :)

The evening was full of Zoom telehealth therapies, ABA therapy, and general chaos. Acacia helped me make a salad to go with dinner that afternoon.

I had brought home a $4.98 Rotisserie Chicken from Costco and put it on “warm” in the crock pot for dinner. Rotisserie chickens are a beautiful thing. We ate ours with Salad, Rolls, Raspberries, Pickles, and a little bit of leftover Pineapple Fluff.

Thursday morning, I baked multiple pans of Bacon and a double batch of Breakfast Cookie Bars. The bacon was for Sunday’s lunch and the cookies bars were for the next two Sunday’s breakfasts.

Little Sweetheart hung out with us all day. She and Auggie took a stroller ride with me while Acacia and Josie took care of their babies outside.

That afternoon, I put together a huge Egg and Hashbrown Casserole for Sunday’s lunch.

Justus hung out for a while, which was a great bonus to our day!

For dinner that night, I made Creamy Bacon Spaghetti with Peas and Grapes. There were no leftovers after this meal. :)

During ABA therapy time, I was able to make a big batch of Mudballs for our weekend snacking needs. I also made a double batch of Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies to wrap up for packing lunches.

Friday morning, Acacia and I spent two hours at her Speech and Physical Therapy appointments.

While she worked hard, I had the chance to text and get caught up with a few loved ones.

I had baked a double batch of Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies, and that afternoon, I wrapped them for easy grab-and-go lunchbox options for our household.

It was French Fry Friday, so we had Nuggets and Fries for dinner. This was a lovely, easy Mom’s Night Off From Cooking.

We haven’t seen our Bonus Buddy since July, but guess who came to visit us this weekend? It was raining when he arrived, but that didn’t stop everyone from going out and getting wet as we overwhelmed him with our Welcome Committee!

Saturday morning, we ate Cereal then headed to our favorite Sensory-Friendly Story Time at the library. Kelsey and Little Sweetheart met us there, which made it extra special. Then some darling college girls came over for the afternoon and evening. We had a dinner of Smoked Chicken and I made an Overnight Pumpkin Spice French Toast Casserole to bake for Sunday lunch.

In short, we had so much fun I didn’t have time to finish this post, ha! So I’ll catch up next week on all of our Saturday shenanigans. :)