Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Big Family Food and Fun: November 17-23, 2024

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: November 17-23, 2024 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 17-23, 2024

On Saturday, November 16, Elias and Malorie took Keith on an outing to celebrate his birthday last week. This is something they’ve started doing for each birthday kid, and it’s so special for them. Here’s Keith at Scheels with a big bear!

Saturday evening, we enjoyed Cheeseburger Soup (this recipe with hamburger instead of ham) and quesadillas.

Malachi happened to be at our house at dinner time, so he got to experience our Sabbath kick-off meal with candles and special prayer time.

We’d made Breakfast Cookie Bars the day before so that all we had to do on Sunday morning was open the package and eat.

Is there anything better than baby-bed-head and footie pajamas?

We had a special Kids Ministry event after church that Sunday. Families brought lunch and we set it out potluck style to eat together.

Then we did THAT WHICH IS CRAZY, but also wonderful: We all went to Walmart together on a Sunday afternoon. Kids and families worked as teams to purchase items from lists that were provided for us. Our goal was to fill several Little Free Pantries around Lincoln.

It was a hectic but absolutely beautiful process to see so many Heartlands kids and families working together to fill carts. Our friends, Matt, Terra, and Mandy all helped our kids and Matt and I were SO GRATEFUL for this. Phew, it takes a village, and ours is so wonderful.

Self-check out went smoothly with our friend Matt…

Then we met up with other families who had finished their lists. Everyone left from Walmart to fill their assigned pantries.

Matt and Terra helped us load our van, but we planned to fill our pantry later in the week because we had to get back home for our Community Group.

Dinner that night was three frozen pizzas (there were only 10 of us eating that night) and a bunch of apples sliced up.

We enjoyed a turkey craft around the living room table that evening.

At bedtime, Josie pretended to play the guitar as she sang her own version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. So precious.

Monday morning for breakfast, we ate the last of the Breakfast Cookie Bars with a dozen scrambled eggs and a container of applesauce. I spent the morning getting some much needed cleaning done on our second floor. When it was time to watch for the preschool school bus, we had to stay on the front porch because it was pouring down rain.

Auggie and I hung back while Daddy umbrella’d everyone to the bus. You might notice one little girl in a blue jacket who refused to look at the camera (above) and refused to walk under the umbrella (below). No worries, Matt and I are also stubborn and willing to work hard to win the hearts of these children for Jesus.

The rain continued all day and evening. We had Sausage and Cheese Quiche for dinner with Steamed Brocccoli and Clementines. Then we worked hard to keep everyone entertained on a rainy night.

Tuesday morning, I baked four pans of bacon for sandwiches and to have on hand to rewarm easily.

Later that morning, I put together 12 sub sandwiches (similar to this) to toast for our dinner that night.

Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and I went to serve at our weekly Food Distribution site that afternoon after school.

We came home to Toasted Subs and Tomato Soup.

Wednesday morning it was cold enough that we had to finally dig out all of our heavy winter coats. After we got the elementary kids to school, we bundled up the youngest four and headed to the Children’s Museum.

Dinner that night was a fun treat that we’d brought home from Tuesday’s Food Distribution: restaurant chicken patties that had been donated. We air fried them and put them in buns for sandwiches. I warmed up leftover noodles and steamed green beans to go with our meal.

I got out a puzzle to see who might be interested, and these three cooperated and had a blast putting it together THREE TIMES. It’s a puzzle miracle.

Meanwhile, Acacia put together these while Auggie kept taking out the pieces she put in. :)

Thursday morning, we enjoyed a loaf of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread that I had in the freezer and thawed the night before. I scrambled 12 eggs to go with it.

We loaded up the four youngest that morning and went to Walmart and Costco. We got restocked on fresh fruits and veggies plus several other Costco essentials.

We were blessed that afternoon with an Arrow visit…

…and one from Little Sweetheart too! Lolli and Pop are so thankful to live close to grandbabies. :)

When the kids got home from school, we got out a container of strawberries that we’d picked up at Costco for them to snack on. Two pounds of strawberries later…

…we loaded up all eight kid and headed a few blocks away to the Little Free Pantry we had planned to fill up. The groceries our group had purchased together on Sunday were still in the back of our van and we finally had a chance to fill the pantry.

As we were filling it, a gentleman came to shop. Perfect timing!! We enjoyed meeting him and vising, then handed him a bag to fill up as we were leaving. If you have any Little Free Pantries in your area, I encourage you to fill them with your family if you are able. It’s a need in our neck of the woods, and it is so great to teach our kids this way of loving our neighbors.

When we got home, we warmed up leftover Hotdogs and ate them with Raspberries and Baked Beans.

Everyone was getting a little too rowdy after dinner, so we gathered them around the living room table for a craft.

Elias and Malorie made something else for their dinner later that evening and Josie wanted to help. This was only made possible with an apron.

After the kids and I went to bed that night, Matt put a Pork Butt into a crock pot to slow cook all night so we could have it ready for our Sunday Lunch. Friday morning, we shredded it and let it cool before refrigerating it.

We had picked up 8-pounds of ground beef at Costco the day before, so I browned it while the kids ate breakfast.

I also made a big pan of Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Bars. These are so fast and easy to make!

Matt took the four elementary kids to school while I stayed back with the youngest four. Auggie had an in-home appointment with an Early Development Special Ed Teacher to help him as we try to get him caught up on speech and social/emotional skills.

Both grandbabies got dropped off that morning and Malorie helped us out as we enjoyed them.

Later that afternoon, I turned some of the cooked beef into a huge pan of Creamy Layered Enchiladas to put into the freezer for a future Sunday Lunch.

I’d picked up a London Broil marked down at the store the day before and cooked it for dinner that night. It turned out tasty! I made six boxes of mac and cheese, which the kids ate with frozen peas. Plus we finished off another two pounds of strawberries.

The kids had been looking forward to our plans to put up the Christmas tree that evening! They all “worked together” to help while Matt and I tried to maintain order.

Brayden and Kiya have helped assemble the tree for the past few years so they did a really good job directing the others in what to do. We didn’t get the project finished that night, but we got the hardest parts finished.

Saturday morning, we finished decorating the tree.

It’s always a relief to have that job done – and now we can just enjoy the beauty. And hopefully we can keep Auggie from taking it all apart. :)

The rest of the day, we cleaned, ate leftovers, and prepared for Sabbath rest. And that was our week!

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Big Family Food and Fun: November 10-16, 2024

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: November 10-16, 2024 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 10-16, 2024

Saturday evening, November 9, we enjoyed a wonderful meal prepared FOR our family as a thank you gift. Friends dropped off Chili, Veggie Tray, Fresh Fruit, and Cinnamon Rolls. It was all wonderful!

On Sunday morning before church, we enjoyed Breakfast Cookies that I’d baked into bars.

After church, all of our kids came for lunch plus several friends, making 26 of us altogether. Justus was feeding Little Sweetheart some puree, but of course, he couldn’t have done it without Anna and Josie helping him.

We had a wonderful lunch buffet of White Chicken Chili, Veggies, Fruit, and Toasted Meat and Cheese Subs.

My Lolli hands were full feeding Arrow, so Kelsey grabbed a few shots of our gathering.

Then Eva snagged this one of Kelsey!

Sunday Lunches are such a gift!

That evening, we had a simple meal of Mac and Cheese with Frozen Peas stirred in, plus Berries.

Monday was a pretty chill day so I didn’t get many photos. We enjoyed Eggs and Oatmeal for breakfast, Leftovers for lunch, then Grilled Cheese, Tomato Soup, and Grapes for dinner.

Matt turned on our fire pit a few minutes before bedtime, so we all huddled around it before heading in for the night. All of the pictures I took turned out terrible, and if you can imagine, this was turned out the best of them all. Oy.

Tuesday morning, I buttered and warmed up Bran Muffins that had been tucked away in the freezer. We ate them with fruit and yogurt, finishing off the entire bag of muffins.

Little Sweetheart came over for the morning. She is rolling and scooting, and she made her way off the rug, scooting backwards on our wooden floor. She was very proud.

That afternoon, I took Brayden, Kiya, and Keith to hand out food at our weekly Food Distribution. The kids get to choose two items from the tables since they are “Junior Volunteers.” Keith chose a bottle of milk, and promptly drank the entire thing (while sitting on top of a cooler full of chicken). :)

Matt warmed up leftover Chicken and Noodles for dinner. We finished it, then pulled out more leftovers to fill us all. It feels good to clean out the fridge!

Kelsey texted this photo to me that evening. They had made Crunchy Ranch Chicken with whole boneless chicken thighs to eat as sandwiches at their house that night. Brilliant!

As we were starting to head the kids upstairs for bed that night, Elias was working on his school lunch prep for the week. Keith realized that the letter sound skills he’s been learning actually work in other contexts beyond school worksheets. He was SO PROUD to try and read the food packages on the countertop. It was so sweet.

Wednesday morning, after we got the others off to school, Matt and I took the youngest four kids to the Children’s Museum to play.

It was a lovely morning as they played so nicely and had a great time exploring and learning.

That afternoon, Acacia’s new specs arrived! Eva was here and captured this shot of me putting them on her for the first time.

Just when we thought this little girl couldn’t get any cuter…

Pop and Auggie were entertaining Arrow, but as you can see, he only has eyes for his pretty Mommy.

Keith was starving at 4:30, so he helped me make the Caesar Salad for dinner. Then I had to hold him back from eating the entire bowl.

I had made Baked Potatoes in the Crock Pot for dinner. We had a variety of add-ons and toppings including two kinds of chicken, two kinds of cheese, and broccoli.

Anna had come home from school not feeling well, and slept on the couch for three hours. Then she got up and made it as far as the floor before falling back to sleep, the poor thing. Not long after that, I started to feel chilled and found that I had a fever also. Boo. We all headed to bed.

Thursday morning Anna and I woke up fever free, but tired. It was Keith’s birthday, so I pushed through the morning, then rested all afternoon. We had Scrambled Cheesy Eggs, Applesauce, and Donut Holes for his birthday breakfast.

He had requested a cake in the shape of a K for his birthday. It turned out great (if I do say so myself). ;)

That morning, I also made a batch of Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies. I hadn’t made them for several months, and they sounded good. They turned out great because I got them out of the oven before they appeared to be done. That is the trick to making these turn out moist and good!

Most of the family was able to come over for Keith’s birthday dinner that night. He and Asa shared their secret bro hand shake when Asa, Eva, and Arrow arrived.

The birthday boy or girl always gets to pick the menu for the day. Keith requested, “Noodles and Beef Sticks.” Hehehe. Why not? I asked him if it was alright that I make additional food to go with his noodles and beef sticks, and he was ok with that. :)

We had Noodles, Beef Sticks, Buttered Rolls, Steamed Carrots, Smoked Sausage, and Watermelon.

After dinner, we gathered in the living room for Keith to open his gifts: Shirts, Soccer Ball, and a Remote Control Car.

Then we headed back to the dining room for cake time!

Phew, birthdays are a loud (emotional) circus around here. But Keith loved it all and drove his remote control car until it died and needed to be recharged.

Friday morning, I loved seeing Auggie join Acacia in their play kitchen.

After school that day, Keith went directly for his remote control car. He played with it until both batteries had to be recharged. Then he turned to his new soccer ball and played with that for the rest of the evening.

Josie was having a pretty emotional day. She finally discovered some oranges sitting on our counter and asked me to cut one for her. I was happy to. Three oranges later, she was satisfied. Remind me to always keep oranges on hand for cranky kids.

For dinner that night, I air fried two boxes worth of Orange Chicken. (Our favorite is from Sam’s, so I should add it to this list.) I made a pan of Stick of Butter Rice to go with the chicken, plus we ate spinach and finished Thursday night’s watermelon. Total cost for both boxes of chicken was $25.96 – more expensive than a typical meal at our house. But this is how we “eat out” or “order take out” at our house. Not too bad a price for feeding 11 people that night.

Saturday morning, I spent time getting ready for our Sabbath rest time. I made a double batch of Breakfast Cookies as those are great to eat on Sunday mornings. We planned to eat at the church building after worship as there was a special Kids Ministry event that day. So I gathered everything we needed for that.

Acacia helped me with the Breakfast Cookies. Oh, and those glasses she got this week? As expected, keeping them on her sweet little face is not easy. Any time you see a photo with her specs on, rejoice with us that they are where they are supposed to be.

Anna and Josie didn’t want to feel left out, so they got to add the chocolate chips to our cookies.

I decided that I was crazy enough that morning (actually, I was in a funk and needed more baking therapy), so we made Pumpkin Spice Roll Out Cookies.

Kiya had gotten some cake and cookie mixes for her birthday and she’s been itching to make another one. So after I cleaned up our Pumpkin Spice Roll Out Cookies, I let her make Sugar Cookies for our Sunday lunch.

Our Pumpkin Spice Roll Out Cookies turned out cute, and the mess got cleaned up easily enough.

I managed to pull out the Breakfast Cookies, which I turned into bars, in time to keep them gooey instead of dry.

After they cooled, I cut them and transferred them to two plates: one for the freezer and another for Sunday morning.

Our housemate, Kermit, needed to take soup for a teacher/staff meal on Monday. So he did a Hy-Vee pick up for me to get our WIC items and the remaining ingredients we needed for soup.

Then we worked together to put together soup. Everyone loves this Cheeseburger Soup. But I will say that I’ve been cheating and simply adding hamburger meat (instead of ham) to this recipe and calling it Cheeseburger Soup. It’s easier and I like the rotel kick. We made enough for that night’s dinner plus plenty for Kermit to take to work on Monday.

For lunch that day, we used some Goodcents Free Kid Meal vouchers we’d been given at Boo at the Zoo. It was a super fun treat to enjoy little subs, cookies, and lemonade for lunch! (For the record, Matt and were reminded again about why we don’t eat out with this crew. It’s not just about the cost – though it was free this time. The pickiness, and the MESSSSSSSSS. Shredded lettuce shouldn’t have landed all the places where it did. And how many ways can a kid get lemonade drips on every floor of the house – when food and drink are not allowed outside the dining room or kitchen? So many ways.)

Truly though, we were thankful for the special treat!

We spent the rest of the day cleaning, giving baths, and prepping for Sunday. Then we ate soup for dinner and kicked off our Sabbath rest time together.

And that was our week!

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

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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!

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Big Family Food and Fun: October 27-November 2, 2024

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: October 27-November 2, 2024 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: October 27-November 2, 2024

We’ve been practicing taking a Sabbath rest from Saturday evening until Sunday evening. Read more about that here. Because of this, I’ve found that I am not able to completely finish sharing about our Saturday because I turn off my computer and focus fully on family time and down time Saturday evening. So here’s a quick recap of last Saturday evening…

We had an early dinner then got all eight kids dressed up like Little House on the Prairie characters. We’ve been reading the books and watching the show, so they were so excited about this!

Kiya is kind of hidden in the above photo, so I took one of her individually so that you can see how much she looks like Laura Ingalls! :)

We had tickets to go to our local Boo at the Zoo that evening. It was a very well-organized and huge event! The kids loved it!

We walked through the zoo, trick-or-treating at various booths. Then we headed home for bed.

On Sunday morning, the kids were excited to wake up to donuts that Elias and Malorie had picked up for them.

As we got ready for church, Malorie taught Josie how to have a thumb war. :) :) :) I found it to be hilarious.

We’d made all of our Sunday Lunch food in the days leading up to Sunday so that we could Sabbath, so we simply warmed everything in crock pots and it worked great! We had made Smoked Chicken and Cream Cheese Corn, Friends who joined us for the meal brought Baked Beans, Mashed Potatoes, Veggies, and Salad. For dessert we sat and drank coffee with Peanut Butter Brownies. Everyone raved over these.

Truly, it was a delightful Sabbath feast. There were 23 of us gathered that day.

The kids watched a movie with Elias and Malorie that afternoon while Matt and I enjoyed Community Group time (where we continued to dig in together to learn more about what it to Sabbath). For dinner, I warmed up leftover Pizza from last week and made a Caesar salad.

On Monday morning, I made a quick quadruple batch of Homemade Chewy Granola Bars. The kids ate over half of them that morning with sliced pears.

After we dropped the four elementary kids off at school, the other four played and played outside until we had no choice but to go inside and get dressed in clean clothes for school.

We still had 15-minutes before the bus came so Acacia helped me crack open 20 eggs for Breakfast Sandwiches.

I finished putting together the sandwiches later that afternoon. I am amazed at how many of these Breakfast Sandwiches we go through at our house. They are so nice to have on hand.

Also worth sharing: A few days before this, our neighbor had brought over two big packages of buns that were leftover from an event at his workplace. People often think of us when there is extra food after an event that they don’t know what to do with. They know leftovers won’t go to waste here! We always say yes because I can always figure out a way to use whatever is given.

All that to say, I saw buns and my first thought was, “Ah, Breakfast Sandwiches.” And there you have it.

Dinner that night was a most amazing Beef Roast that I’d started about 5:30 that morning. I’d gotten the roast as a meat markdown last week, spending a little more per pound than I prefer to spend because I’ve been so hungry for beef roast. This did not disappoint. I’d put a bunch of carrots in with it, and their flavor was also incredible. I buttered and toasted rolls to go with our meal – very simple and very good.

Tuesday morning, Justus dropped off Little Sweetheart as he headed off to a meeting. She is always very entertained by all the action around here. As you can see below, she was having a lively conversation with two little mermaids.

After school that day, I took Brayden, Kiya, and Keith to the Food Distribution site where we serve on Tuesdays. Kiya handed out chicken to people as they came through the line and Keith got to help me hand out treats, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and glow sticks. Brayden worked in the kitchen to scrub out coolers as they emptied out at all of the stations throughout the room.

Back at home, Matt and Elias finished making dinner. I had cut up Sunday’s leftover Smoked Chicken to warm up and we had it with a pound of Noodles, two heads of Broccoli, and a jar of White Sauce (most of the kids like their noodles with only butter and salt. :)

Wednesday morning, I made several pans of Bacon for us to eat at breakfast time and to have on hand for other meals as needed. I scrambled 15 eggs for us to eat also.

I’d gotten an early start that morning so I also baked a batch of Cupcakes with Spinach for school lunches.

It was sprinkling that morning but Auggie didn’t understand why we couldn’t go outside and play. I finally took him out since it wasn’t too bad yet, which helped his scream-y disposition that morning. Here he is, on his little bike, looking up at the sky when the thunder rolled in. After that we headed back inside, ha.

It started pouring late that morning, just at the time Justus and Kelsey dropped off Little Sweetheart. The girls were fascinated and tried very hard to accidentally get wet even though they had been told to stay back out of the rain.

Eva dropped Arrow off for the afternoon, and we were pleased that the babies worked out their naptimes so that they didn’t both need the crib at the same time. When it was time to pick up kids from school – all the babies were awake, including Auggie. So while Matt went to pick up kids (in the rain), Malorie and I took care of Auggie, Little Sweetheart, and Arrow. This is Auggie leaning in to give Little Sweetheart a kiss.

This was mine and Arrow’s view from across the room as I had just finished giving Arrow a bottle. Malorie took Sweetheart out of her chair and Auggie decided to examine it. Better he clobber her chair than her, though, right?

Friends came and picked up Little Sweetheart to help out until Justus and Kelsey got back from a meeting. Eva arrived to get Arrow, then stayed to help through dinnertime. I had put Baked Potatoes in the Crock Pot that morning and Costco Meatballs into another crock pot with barbecue sauce. So dinner prep was easy that night as all I needed to do was steam some Peas and peel about 100 clementines. (The kids ate them faster than I could peel them – a good problem to have!)

Dinner is always lively and honestly, often a challenge as we try to train this many high-need kids to sit and eat. Notice the bottom right corner of this photo in which Keith would rather play with a stick (which isn’t allowed in the house, much less the dining table) than eat. Either way, having an extra adult around our table helped, and dinner that night was less dramatic than most. :)

It was still rainy that evening, so we gathered kids around the living room table for a fall craft after dinner.

I love that all of the kids enjoy doing these (cheap peel-and-stick craft kits from Hobby Lobby for the win!).

Then we told the kids that if they cooperated and got teeth brushed for bed, we could watch an episode of Little House on the Prairie before bed. They are LOVING any opportunity to watch this classic, so as much as eight kids could cooperate and get teeth brushed, they did. ;)

Thursday morning, I let the kids pick between Breakfast Sandwiches or Cereal since not all the kids like the same thing (shocker). I also got out a tub of yogurt that we finished off. Meanwhile, I had a lovely glass of this smoothie.

Mornings have been rough for our kindergarteners because it’s more fun to play than to get dressed. So on Wednesday I created a Morning Routine chart for them. We gave it a try on Thursday morning and Keith was VERY EXCITED. As much as he struggles with behaviors, he also really wants to “shine his light for Jesus.” Here he is, happily coloring in his “shining lights” after he completed the first two tasks. Who cares that his shirt is wrongs-side-out? He put it on. Check!

After we got the kids off to school, I started a huge pot of Chicken Broth.

Here’s the end result later after I blended in the carrots and onions and stirred them back into the broth. So good!

My dear friend Charlene came for the afternoon and we talked a mile a minute to get caught up. Little Sweetheart came too, and she enjoyed the girl talk.

For dinner that night, I pulled out all the odds and ends in the fridge. This practice is so helpful in preventing food waste! Everyone ate whatever leftovers sounded good, then we got all eight kids dressed (in layers) in their Little House on the Prairie clothes for trick-or-treating around our neighborhood.

If you’re familiar with the Little House on the Prairie show, when I say that Acacia running through our yard reminds me of Baby Carrie running through the prairie with her sisters – well. So sweet.

Our neighbors are wonderful, and the kids had so much fun. Matt and I appreciated getting to know some of our neighbors better that evening. And best yet, Malachi came over and walked around with us. Meanwhile, Elias and Malorie and one of our housemates stayed back home to greet Trick-or-Treaters who came to our house.

Friday morning, we made Oatmeal for breakfast before sending kids off to school. Matt and I then took the four youngest kids to Aldi and Costco.

At Aldi, we left the kids in the van with Matt while I ran in and got everything we needed as fast as I could. In my haste, I forgot to take a picture of my cart. Here are two of my three bags when we got home. :/

I picked up eight pounds of hamburger meat at Costco. So as I was putting all the groceries away, I started to brown it to get ahead.

We had plans to host a Pie Party for our neighborhood on Saturday, so I made two Easiest Chocolate Fudge Pies.

That afternoon, I also made 2 huge Lasagnas – one to bake on Sunday morning for our Sunday Lunch, and another for our freezer to enjoy with family over Thanksgiving weekend.

Dinner that night was our traditional French Fry Friday (aka Mom’s night off-ish) with Chicken Sandwiches, Fries, Pickles, Grapes, and Raspberries.

Saturday morning, I made a quick batch of Pumpkin Cheesecake Whip for breakfast.

I also made a double batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread, which made three big loaves. I froze one and saved two for our Sunday morning breakfast.

That afternoon, we hosted a big neighborhood Pie Party. This was our third get-together with people in our neighborhood. It was FANTASTIC. We had made simple invitations letting people know to bring a pie to share (or just show up) and to come enjoy time together.

People and pies started to arrive and they just kept coming.

There was a huge variety of pie that everyone freely sampled. Plus we had coffee, tea, or apple cider.

We got to know some neighbors that we’d never visited with before, kids ran in and out playing, people connected with each other – it was so, so, wonderful!

I realized afterward that I didn’t capture everyone in the photos. We later counted that 29 people came that afternoon, making 42 of us altogether. God is good.

As the afternoon wound down, I discovered three of our girls in our living room with our neighbor, Sarah, whom they adore. What a gift to have these community gatherings to make connections.

We started our Sabbath family time later that evening, which I’ll share more about next week!

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Big Family Grocery Spending for October, 2024

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Here’s our Big Family Grocery Spending for October, 2024 post!

Here’s how we spent our grocery budget for our large household during the month of October. We fed 14 people three meals each day, plus a lot of wonderful guests…

Big Family Grocery Spending for October, 2024

1. Sam’s

On October 3, we had a huge grocery stock-up trip at Sam’s. We got potatoes, grapes, strawberries, nectarines, spinach, tomato soup, hamburger meat, chicken thighs, meat sticks, snacks, peanut butter, honey, milk, cream, eggs, shredded cheese, pistachios, olive oil, coconut oil, brown sugar, condiments, chicken broth, yogurt and applesauce pouches, tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, maple syrup, coffee, bacon, white queso, and avocado cups.

Total for groceries at Sam’s: $582.44

2. Hy-Vee Pick-Up

That same day, I had put a pick-up order in at Hy-Vee for some of our WIC items for our girls for the month. Malorie picked it up for me, which was a huge help.

Total out of pocket at Hy-Vee: $0

3. Aldi

On October 10, Malorie and I took the four littlest to Aldi. I mostly needed milk and salsa, but since it’s tough to get to the store and we were already there, I stocked up on many of our favorite Aldi items: Milk, Yogurt, Granola, Fruit/Veggie Pouches, a case of Salsa, Sausage, Grass Fed Beef (on sale!), Coffee Creamer, Organic Pears, Bananas, Blackberries, Sliced Ham, Frozen Fries, Canned Fruit in 100% juice, and Clementines.

Total for groceries at Aldi: $207.71

4. Costco

On October 16, Auggie and I went to Costco to stock up on fresh fruit and veggies plus other Costco favorites/needs. We got 6 pounds of strawberries, 2 containers of raspberries, bananas, spring mix, spinach, grapes, 6 pounds of apples, a large bag of oranges, applesauce cups, mandarin orange cups, peach cups, frozen fruit for smoothies, cocoa powder, chicken nuggets, fries, applesauce pouches, yogurt pouches, heavy whipping cream, half and half, sliced cheese, cream cheese, frozen meatballs, avocado cups, canned pumpkin, frozen pizza, turkey lunch meat, and butter.

Total for groceries at Costco: $360.31

5. Walmart

I needed Walmart that day too but didn’t have time, so I put in a pick-up order for Matt to grab while he was out that afternoon. My order that day was mostly non-grocery, but we also got milk, pickle relish, wheat germ, cheese, carrots, and Caesar salad. I forgot to take a picture. :/

Total for food at Walmart: $29.68

6. Amazon

We have a standing order of subscribe and save items from Amazon, which is mostly applesauce and yogurt pouches. I also get these pizza crusts for cheap, x2. Again, no picture. :)

Total for food from Amazon: $51.97

7. Wal-Mart

On October 24, Auggie and I went to Wal-mart to finish picking up our WIC items for the month. I also got 8 pie crusts, coffee creamer, fritos, a 4-pound chunk of Colby jack cheese, and a jar of jelly.

I always check for meat markdowns at Walmart because that’s one way I save a lot on meat for our family. This day I got a roast for $4.92 per pound, which is a higher than my preferred price point for meat, but still a really good price for beef. I also got four big packages of boneless chicken thighs marked down to just $2.02 or $1.98/pound. AMAZING!

I checked out and loaded the van, then Auggie and I went in for round two – a cart full of fruits and veggies. WIC covered most of the produce cost that day. I got frozen fruit for smoothies, frozen peas, green beans, and corn, frozen fajita veggies, fresh baby carrots, regular carrots, Caesar salad, broccoli, cilantro, potatoes, spring mix, spinach, mandarins, pears, grapes, mushrooms, blueberries, and bananas.


Total out of pocket at Wal-mart: $113.63

Total grocery spending for October: $1,345

— > Without WIC, our total this month would have been closer to $1,545. <—–

Running totals for 2024:

January: $1,178
February: $849
March: $1,356
April: $1148
May: 1091
June: $1,121
July: $1,190
August: $1,611
September: $1,218
October: $1,345

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Big Family Food and Fun: October 20-26, 2024

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: October 20-26, 2024 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: October 20-26, 2024

Last weekend, Matt was in California to be with his family for a memorial service for a dear loved one. So I got a bit behind in sharing photos of our week. I’ll play catch up now. ;)

Saturday, the 19th, I baked four loaves of Banana Bread plus browned four pounds of ground beef so that I could make Taco Soup on Sunday.

Our church Kids’ Ministry was hosting a Fall Fun Color Run that Saturday morning. Elias and Malorie helped me get the eight kids there and Kelsey met us there to help also. It was so much fun to run the trail and have lots of colored powder tossed onto us as we ran!

Everyone loved the end result…

…except for this little one. Acacia was indignant about the entire thing. She kept whimpering and saying, “Messy! Mama, messy!!” So sorry, Buddy.

I guess I should have prepared her more for the fact that we were going to this event to get messy on purpose. ;)

With Matt out of town, we’d arranged for our adult kids to take shifts coming to help me get through the weekend with our little kids. Asa, Eva, Arrow, Kelsey, and Little Sweetheart were with me all Saturday afternoon and into the evening. Elias and Malorie were in and out also. I loved walking into our living room to this scene with our daughters-in-law and grandbabies. What a precious moment, even if Arrow wasn’t appreciating it as much as I was.

I somehow managed to trim Auggie’s hair that afternoon and here’s the photo I sent to Matt:

Matt and I have started to be intentional about setting aside Saturday evening through Sunday evening as Sabbath. (Read more about this here.) I attempted to pull off a special Sabbath Supper without Daddy here. We are learning that Sabbath isn’t all about rest, but also about taking a step back from day to day tasks and delighting in all that we do.

The kids and I gathered around the table that evening enjoying Pizza, Salad, and Sparkling Water (<—a very special treat for them). I asked the kids to share any special memory they could think of, and it was fun to hear what they came up with. I shared with them the special memories I had about the days when I first met each of them.

Eva sent me this sweet photo of Uncle Auggie hanging with Arrow while I was upstairs getting the other seven put to bed that night.

Sunday morning, we ate Breakfast Cookies turned into bars that I’d baked and frozen the week before.

Our Sunday lunch was a huge roaster full of Taco Soup with Fritos, Cheese, and Sour Cream.

We made Quesadillas and enjoyed Brownies that Kiya had made all by herself (on Saturday). :) Friends who joined us for our meal brought Fruit Salad, Chips and Salsa, and Apple Crisp.

When our table is full, my heart is full. Twenty-three of us gathered for our meal that day, and it was truly a DELIGHT.

Matt got home in the middle of the night that night, praise God. It was so good to have him back home! Monday morning, I scrambled 15 eggs and we finished off a loaf of Banana Bread. I made Smoothie for Matt and me.

I was planning to grill Brats for dinner that night, but just about the time I would have turned on our smoker, it started to rain. We were so thankful because we needed rain! I quickly made a Plan B for dinner and decided to make the brats on Tuesday instead. :)

I had some Ham in the fridge so I cut it up and made six boxes of Mac and Cheese with Buttered Peas and Sliced Oranges.

Anna and I made Peanut Butter Honey Puffs that evening for snacks.

 

Then while Keith and Bonus Buddy were hanging with Elias and Malorie and Auggie was with Matt, these five went to the table with me for a rainy-night craft.

Tuesday morning, the kids ate either Breakfast Sandwiches or Oatmeal. Meanwhile, I baked several pans of Bacon to put into the fridge to have on hand for breakfasts and sandwiches. This big box of bacon is a Sam’s favorite!

The kids’ group hug as Keith headed into school that morning was extra precious.

We played outside a good part of the morning after getting the four elementary kids to school. The kids shared snacks while they played.

Later when we came inside, I loved seeing Anna spend time building an animal train and playing calmly. Until just a few months ago, this little one didn’t know how to just play. She fought, ripped books, dumped out and scattered toys – but never actually played with toys. It’s beautiful to see her building, making believe, being creative, and sometimes actually sitting peacefully. God is healer. (<— I’m writing this because with all the continued work we do with all of our kids, it’s so good to take note of all that God HAS DONE already in them.)

We usually wait until about 11:00am to get the preschool girls dressed and ready for school. Otherwise, by the time the bus comes at noon, they are already dirty and their hair needs to be redone. Here’s Acacia, rocking a cute outfit plus a fresh hairdo by Malorie. Note that these camo pants were Keith’s last year. As I was sorting through fall/winter clothes, I realized that the girls might be able to pull off these hand-me-down pants. Oh my goodness, I can’t stop loving how CUTE these are on her.

They all looked especially adorable that day, and we had an extra minute as we were waiting for the bus so…

Little Sweetheart had been with us all morning and into the afternoon. While Auggie napped, she and I had some playtime on the floor. She’d been on a blanket across the room, but little roly-poly here made her way to the other side of the rug.

Sometime in there, I smoked 24 Brats for our dinner that night and put them into a crock pot to stay warm since I’d be gone with the kids for our weekly Food Distribution where we serve. As you can see, I sort of burned 24 brats. Yikes. I’d forgotten that they were out there. Meh, we ate them anyway. I also made a small crock pot of Baked Beans.

I picked up Brayden, Kiya, and Keith from school and we headed straight to the Food Distribution site so that we could hand out food to the community. Over 100 people came through the line! Matt, Elias, and Malorie had fed the other kids by the time we got home.

Here’s a photo I snagged of Kiya and Keith putting away a wagon as we were cleaning up after handing out food.

Wednesday morning, some of our kids had Yogurt with Granola and some had Breakfast Sandwiches. I tell you what, keeping those sandwiches on hand has been so convenient a huge help!

Here’s a great peek into what school mornings look like. Kids in and out working on breakfast, a dishwasher open and being loaded while the kids eat, and Keith there behind the kitchen faucet working on some sort of project that was much more important than eating breakfast or getting dressed.

That day, some dear friends from York came and ate lunch with us. I added more beef, corn, and beans to Sunday’s leftover Taco Soup to help it stretch through our lunch. Our friends brought fruit and cookies to complete the meal. I was bummed later to realize that I didn’t get any pictures of us together. We were too busy catching up on life. :)

That afternoon, I made a batch of Mini Crustless Cheesecakes for snacks. I also put together 15 Chicken Bacon Ranch Sandwiches to have on hand for adults to take for lunches or for us to eat at home as needed.

For dinner that night, we ate a pot of Cheeseburger Soup with sliced Oranges.

Thursday morning, Anna was up early and helped me make a batch of Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters for breakfast.

I scrambled 15 eggs to go with our Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters plus got out canned Mandarin Oranges that I’d gotten from Azure Standard. Somewhere in there, I also made another round of this smoothie for Matt and me to drink during the next couple of days. Kiya asked if she could take the picture of our breakfast, and here it is!

Mid-morning, I took Auggie to Walmart to get the rest of our WIC items for the month plus a few other things we needed.

I always check for meat markdowns at Walmart and am almost never disappointed. Today I scored big on boneless chicken thighs for $2.04 or $1.98/pound! I also got a beef roast marked down. It wasn’t as cheap per pound but it’s hard to find a good price for roast now, so I still took advantage.

One problem with leaving Matt at home with the girls, and me only taking Auggie to the store is that one cart is usually not enough. But then again, having three more kids in a second cart with Matt wouldn’t be much help anyway. SO. I checked out and put the first purchase into our van, then Auggie and I went in for round two: produce.

Was Auggie excited to go back in and shop more? NO HE WAS NOT. I ended up holding him and dragging the cart and then doing self checkout one-handed. Yikes. But, we got what we needed, and then he fell asleep on the way home.

While putting all the groceries away at home, I decided to dump sauce on all the chicken I’d bought that day. That will make a perfect Sunday Lunch this weekend.

For dinner, I put together Potato and Bacon Foil Packs for the Grill then I left to have four parent-teacher conferences at the elementary school. When I got home, I made these spinach-filled Smoothies to go with our dinner.

These Potato Bacon Packs are so good. We fill our plate then top it with cheese and sour cream.

Friday morning the kids had cereal. But I also had a gallon of milk that needed to be finished off, so I made a big pot of Warm Vanilla Soother to serve. I used a sharpie to make the cups fun, which the kids loved. :)

Mid-morning, Anna helped me make a quadruple batch of Low Sugar Peanut Butter Brownies. This girl loves to help me bake. :)

Once those were in the oven, I went outside to turn on our smoker and found these two sweethearts playing in leaves.

Matt and I worked together to smoke all the chicken I’d marinated the day before. We planned to rewarm this on Sunday morning for our big Sunday Lunch gathering.

Malachi stopped by for a while that morning. Justus had dropped off Little Sweetheart and I was holding her. Auggie wasn’t happy to share me at that moment. Thank goodness for Malachi offering his big brother snuggles.

Here’s the end result of the Low Sugar Peanut Butter Brownies I started that morning. Super good!

We made Homemade Pizza for dinner that night with Caesar Salad.

At the store the day before, I had picked up a bag of frozen peppers and onions. It was a little bit weird to put them on a pizza, but it was also EASY because I didn’t have to do any veggie chopping. I had some left, along with some leftover sliced mushrooms, so I sautéed those for an additional side dish.

Saturday, we finished putting together food to serve for our Sunday Lunch so that we could take a Sabbath Rest on Sunday. This has been so amazing, and now that we are starting to get into a rhythm, it’s very doable.

I made Cream Cheese Corn to go with our Smoked Chicken and got out rolls and desserts from the freezer. Friends were planning to join us and bring additional sides.

Saturday evening was a little bit different than our typical Sabbath kick-off because weeks earlier we’d reserved tickets for our local Boo at the Zoo event. We got our kids all dressed up in their costumes for the year and headed out for an evening of fun. Allow me to introduce our Little House on the Prairie clan:

I’ll share more about our evening next week!

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Big Family Food and Fun: October 13-19, 2024

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: October 13-19, 2024 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: October 13-19, 2024

Matt and I are prayerfully trying to take a Sabbath rest each week, starting Saturday evening and into most of the day on Sunday. Read more about this here.

As we learn about this ourselves, and try to teach our kids about taking time to refresh our souls, we planned a special evening Saturday to kick off our Sabbath. I ordered these rechargeable candles from Amazon to help communicate: This is a time set apart for something special. We had fruit cups and chicken strips on paper plates, and the kids all got to drink sparkling water with dinner.

Then we popped corn in our popcorn machine. We prayed, involving all the kids in sharing something they were thankful for that week.

Was this kick-off restful? Ultimately, Mom and Dad still have to work pretty hard to meet the needs of this many kids. But it’s a Sabbath mind-set we’re going for. So no, it wasn’t particularly restful. But it was joyful. So that’s a win.

To give me the day off from cooking on Sunday, I’d planned these Breakfast Cookie Bars that I’d made ahead and frozen for our morning meal.

Saturday morning, I’d made a huge Italian Pasta Bake with three different kinds of cheese and simply baked it Sunday morning on low while we were at church. I’d also made a bowl of Caramel Apple Dip for our dessert.

Along with some of our regular Sunday guests, the Nabb family joined us as they are also seeking to learn to Sabbath. They brought rolls, salad, and a Rotisserie chicken to add to our meal and together we enjoyed precious community. When our kitchen and dining room are full, this is my favorite. There were 25 of us gathered that day.

We transitioned back into “normal life” when late in the afternoon, we headed to Keith’s final soccer game of the season.

Auggie was wearing his new jeans and jacket, and I couldn’t stop loving how CUTE he is.

I had Burritos in the freezer so we warmed those up for dinner and got out cans of fruit as a simple side.

Most of us smothered our burritos with White Queso that I’d picked up at Sam’s. We also had fresh tomatoes our friends had given us, which made these burritos incredible.

Malorie and Elias experimented with making Fried Rice for part of their dinner and for Elias’ upcoming packed school lunches.

Monday morning, Acacia and Josie helped Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins.

This is the best kind of helping.

I scrambled 18 eggs to go with our muffins that morning.

Anna had a dentist appointment and Acacia went with us for moral support.

When we got home, we were blessed with a visit from our former housemate, Sarah. As you can see, the kids were VERY excited to see her.

We ate leftovers for lunch, then I put together a pot of Chicken Noodle Soup for us to eat for our dinner that night.

After Auggie’s nap, we loaded up eight bikes and eight kids and headed to our favorite Tierra Park to ride their trails. I knew we’d need a snack, so I packed the leftover Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins from breakfast plus clementines, pears, and applesauce.

As we were getting ready to leave, I realized how hungry I was. So I grabbed a to-go coffee cup and filled it with soup so that I could eat on the way.

Loading up that many kids and bikes is a huge effort, but it’s always worth it once we get there and the kids have so much fun playing and riding in the sunshine.

They ate all the snacks, then we gobbled down the entire pot of soup when we got home. They’d worked up an appetite!

Tuesday was the final day of our kids’ Fall Break from school. That morning, I started a big pot of Beef Broth to use in our soup for dinner that evening.

I also baked a Lemon Pound Cake just for fun since it was chilly outside and a good day for baking.

It wasn’t warm enough to play outside comfortably that morning, so I got out a fall craft for the kids to work on at the table.

When the broth had been simmering for several hours, I blended up the veggies to stir back in. This is such a great way to add veggies to our meals.

At lunchtime, I made several cans worth of Tomato Soup plus Chicken Salad Melts.

Little Sweetheart had been with us all morning and Acacia had fun playing with her after I finished changing her diaper.

I started a crock pot full of Spicy Ham and Potato Soup in the early afternoon, then took Brayden, Kiya, and Keith to our weekly Food Distribution.

This Spicy Ham and Potato Soup is my very favorite and with the rich broth I’d made earlier in the day, it was extra good.

Wednesday morning, the kids ate Oatmeal and I baked a double batch of Breakfast Cookies turned into bars to put into the freezer for upcoming needs.

We had intentions of taking all four of our littlest to Costco that morning, but by the time we had everyone ready, there was no way we’d make it there and back in time for the preschool bus. So I grabbed Auggie and headed there while Matt stayed back to get the girls off to school.

Auggie and I had some lovely one-on-one time as we stocked up on fruit, veggies, and many Costco needs/favorites.

Arrow came to hang out for the afternoon, so he bundled up with Auggie and me to go pick up kids from school.

Eva arrived as we were getting home and stayed and helped with kids. Then Asa and Eva joined us for dinner! We’d been given a Rack of Ribs at Food Distribution (a rare and wonderful bonus item they were handing out that day and had plenty of) so I smoked it for dinner. I also Baked Potatoes – in the oven like normal people do, ha! I’ve done it in the crock pot for so long, that I almost forgot that baked potatoes can be baked in an actual oven. We also had Baked Beans, Peas, Grapes, and Raspberries.

Kiya’s birthday was Thursday! She requested Pancakes for breakfast. Happy 9th Kiya!

Anna and Josie set up a Costco box from my grocery run the day before to use as a table for their applesauce that morning.

Mid-morning I quickly put together 12 Breakfast Sandwiches to have on hand through the upcoming days.

I’ve been working on and off for the past several days to get all of our kids’ summer clothes switched out to fall/winter clothes. This is a HUGE job, and thanks to Malorie’s help with the kids, I got our final bin sorted Thursday morning.

Auggie had an appointment with his eating specialist that day. After so many months of frustration and hard work, it was so great to walk in and report how well he is doing with eating and chewing. We praise God for this!

Several of the family were coming over for Kiya’s birthday dinner that night, so that afternoon I worked on her cake request. She asked for a cake in the shape of a Z for her name (her full name is Zakiya). I had baked a sheet cake that morning and attempted to cut it into a Z…not to shabby!

The final result was cute and I was excited to show her when she got home from school that day.

We had her birthday requested meal for dinner that night: Chicken Nuggets, Fries, Pickles – and I threw in Strawberries and Grapes for good measure. The older kids trickled in all evening for the celebration so I just kept putting in more rounds of chicken and fries. If you’re curious, we fed 18 people (10 adults and 8 kids)  and went through 5 pounds of chicken, 4 pounds of fries, and 3 pounds of strawberries that night.

Zakiya was very excited about her cake!

After dinner and cake (<— that was a two hour ordeal, ha), we gathered in the living room (<—also very eventful) for present time.

As we transitioned to bedtime, Josie was excited that the color of her jammies matched Malachi’s hoodie, but she would not be still for a picture. She kept giggling and squirming out of his arms, then asking to see the picture. These are a no-go, girl.

Matt left early Friday morning to head to the airport to be with his family in California for a funeral. We had a detailed schedule for all of our older kids/wives/girlfriend to come help throughout the weekend so that I would survive. Malorie was my all-day-Friday help and truly, she made the day go so smoothly.

We were pleased to make it all the way to 11:00 am without any screaming meltdowns. Score.

At that point, we headed outside to play. The girls had found and grabbed Auggie’s unused baby food puree to snack on. Sure, why not?

I loved that I was able to capture this while the kids were playing on the slide.

We ate Meatballs, Buttered Noodles, Salad, and Fruit for dinner that night.

Malachi came over to help with kids and we took a walk to Sunken Gardens. Kelsey and Little Sweetheart came later that evening and everyone worked together to get all eight little kids to bed (a process that took about an hour and a half).

Kelsey swept and mopped our kitchen and did dishes while Malachi held Little Sweetheart. Elias helped manage the 5-year-old boys as they had a hard time settling. Auggie wasn’t ready for bed yet so he enjoyed time in the kitchen learning how to be an awesome grown-up. I felt incredibly grateful for and supported by all of our precious adult kids.

Saturday morning, Elias and Malorie helped me get the kids to Heartlands for a Color Run with their friends from church. Kelsey met us there to help too. I packed a bunch of Peanut Butter Honey Sandwiches with Cheese Sticks and Apples for them to eat on the way home.

Kelsey, Asa, Eva, and Arrow came for the afternoon and evening to help out. Elias and Malorie helped a good part of the time too. Our adult children amaze me and I am so grateful for them.

As of Saturday morning, I decided to focus on surviving and didn’t upload pictures or write any more about our week. :) I’ll share photos next week of our weekend fun!

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Big Family Food and Fun: October 6-12, 2024

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: October 6-12, 2024 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: October 6-12, 2024

I mentioned in last week’s post that Matt and I were experimenting with how to have a day of rest once each week. You can read more about our intention here. We began our Sabbath on Saturday afternoon/evening at our friends’ house, spending time in community.

There were enough older kids and adults there that helped with our littles that Matt and I did, from time to time, get to just sit and enjoy some downtime.

Keith latched on to Sam that evening, and Sam was so sweet to pour into him.

My goal on Saturday morning had been to make all of our Sunday breakfast and lunch food so that all I had to do on Sunday was set it out or warm it up. This worked perfectly and I hope to do it this way every week!

We ate Breakfast Cookies turned into bars for breakfast. Lunch was Smoked Chicken, Party Potatoes, Cream Cheese Corn, Green Beans, Rolls, and  Pumpkin Bars.

We had a small crowd join us that day, but we enjoyed visiting with Asa and Eva about Sabbath and some of their ideas for practicing rest also. There’s still plenty of “work” to do while caring for eight small children all day long, but I tried to keep a mindset of rest throughout the day. After lunch, while we visited, I was able to sit and thoroughly enjoy a cup of coffee with a Pumpkin Bar.

At about 2:45, we needed to make a transition to get all the kids in the van to head to Keith’s soccer game. THIS was not a restful thing, mostly because kids did not want to cooperate to go potty, get shoes, etc. Oy. But we made it to the game (late), and truly, did we expect the entire day to be restful with this many little ones? No, we did not. ;)

From the game, we headed to the Heartlands church parking lot for a wonderful Harvest Festival. There was a meal, face painting, pumpkin painting station, smores, and archery with Heart Shot Ministry.

Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and Bonus Buddy all lined up for archery and it was great. But when Tiny-but-Mighty Acacia got in line like a big kid? Well now. She was one determined kitty cat.

She listened very closely to the instructor and actually hit a few marks on the target. It was the cutest thing we all saw all night.

Keith’s new bestie, Sam, and Sam’s dad, Jason, had worked on this football helmet when we’d been at their house Saturday night to turn it into a Husker hat. Keith slept with it in his bed, got mad when I wouldn’t let him wear it to church, put it on before and after his soccer game, and of course, wore it to the Harvest Festival. Hotdogs taste better and pumpkins paint up nicer when you’re wearing a helmet.

Auggie was fascinated with the music coming from the giant black box in the parking lot. He hosted a small dance party with some of his sisters and our friend Christina.

All of our kids were very proud of their face paint. Washing it off before bed that night was a little bit less sad because we got pictures. :)

All in all, our Sunday was wonderful and full of good friends. So was our Sabbath restful??

Well, part of it. But there’s nothing that takes away the work of caring for eight high need littles, no matter how much we did ahead of time. I didn’t sleep great Sunday night (Auggie still doesn’t sleep through the night consistently, though at least he’s the only one who got up that particular night). So Monday, after attempting to Sabbath on Sunday, I woke up very tired.

Therefore, I decided to also rest on Monday as much as I could while kids were in school. The four at home in the morning played pretty quietly in the playroom (and then fought for an hour before their bus came with hair, clothes, and shoes, oy). But look at the sweetness of their play before the fighting:

I took a nap when Auggie went down for a nap and felt refreshed when I got up. Dinner that night was super simple: Mac and Cheese (with Bacon Bits stirred in for the grown-ups), Green Beans, and Grapes.

Tuesday morning I scrambled a dozen Cheesy Eggs to eat with Mudballs or Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Bars an Applesauce. About every other day, I make a batch of this Smoothie for Matt and me to drink as needed throughout our days.

We are working very hard to completely wean Auggie off his Pediasure supplement drinks as he finally learns to eat regular meals and snacks. Eating is still an extra effort for him, but he’s making incredible progress. Here he is, mid-morning on Wednesday, eating an avocado cup.

Little Sweetheart came for the day. She and Auggie are fascinated with each other, but Auggie doesn’t always understand that she is tiny and we have to be careful not to clobber her.

After school, I took Brayden, Kiya, and Keith to hand out food and clean at our weekly Food Distribution.

I was glad we didn’t come home to any broken windows this week. ;) Before leaving that afternoon, I’d put Sunday’s leftover Party Potatoes into a crock pot with some chopped up ham and prepped Broccoli to be steamed for dinner.

Wednesday morning, I got out Breakfast Sandwiches that I’d made last week for us to warm up and eat with a side of yogurt. Anna practiced her cutting skills at the counter while kids trickled into the kitchen for breakfast.

I’m always a bit frazzled by the time we manage to get eight kids out the door and walk to school to drop off four of them. Have you ever told a kindergarten boy to “hurry up” or “go as fast as you can!”??? These words are pointless. But. All frustration melts away when Acacia insists on hugging her brothers goodbye when they head to their line to go inside. This particular day, they enjoyed a group hug.

Back at home, we enjoyed the risk of giving the three little girls a container of markers with paper. Oy. It all went well until it didn’t, and then I steered them toward a different project. :)

Arrow came to hang out that afternoon. He and Uncle Auggie took a walk with Lolli to pick up Keith and Bonus Buddy after school. Brayden and Kiya got to stay after school that day for a Craft Club.

The kindergarten classes had enjoyed a field trip to a pumpkin patch that day. They were excited about the pumpkins they chose and got right to work decorating them when we got home. If I felt uneasy earlier that morning with three little girls and a container of markers, ask me how I felt about two kindergarten boys with a container of sharpies?? Auggie and I watched them closely, and we got the sharpies put away before the three little girls got off their preschool bus. Phew.

It was a warm day, it’s been very dry, and our little car needed to be washed. So Matt pulled it onto our grass to spray it off before heading to school to pick up Brayden and Kiya. The kids were fascinated by this as Daddy had never driven the car onto the grass before. :)

Dinner that night was super simple and a big hit. I smoked 24 Brats (that I’d picked up marked down to just $1.84/pound at Walmart!). We rewarmed leftover Mac and Cheese, got out Potato Salad and Pickles, and I cut up a bunch of Apples that the boys had brought home from the pumpkin patch. The apples were almost gone by the time dinner started because everyone ate them as I cut them. :)

Thursday morning, the weather was beautiful once again so we spent time outside after getting the four elementary kids off to school. Auggie decided he was big enough to pull his sisters in the wagon. He wasn’t wrong, as he was able to move them at least a solid inch before giving up.

Matt had a lot on his plate as he was helping with a funeral on Friday and preaching on Sunday. So Malorie and I took the four littlest to Hobby Lobby and Aldi so that Matt could have a quiet house to work in. It was a win-win because we got stocked up on groceries that we needed, plus brought home fun fall-themed craft supplies for our upcoming Fall Break.

Here’s what $207 worth of groceries looked like at Aldi that day. This included 12-pounds of grass fed ground beef, two big packages of sausage, a small ham, fresh fruit, a case of organic salsa, four gallons of milk, two tubs of organic yogurt, a huge pile of organic fruit/veggie pouches for Auggie, two packages of granola, eight cans of fruit in 100% juice, and several other items. We’re thankful to be able to stretch our grocery budget this way!

We got home and unloaded just in time to send the girls to school on the bus. As we were unloading the van, I discovered these additional passengers who were safely buckled in with us on our outing.

After girls were sent off to preschool, Auggie was down for a nap, and the groceries were put away – I got out some leftover Homemade Ice Cream and blended it with cold coffee to make this gem for myself.

Justus dropped off Little Sweetheart for the afternoon and she hung out with me in the kitchen while I made a few surprises for our kids’ weekend. Friday through Tuesday was to be their Fall Break and while we didn’t have anything big planned, I did want to make it special.

We had a zoo trip planned for Friday morning, so I made some special Fall Food for a picnic.

I cut two loaves of bread with a pumpkin cookie cutter to make sandwiches. Will I ever do this again? No I probably will not, haha. (Unless I forget by this time next year how much extra work it takes to make sandwiches cute.) I saved all the scraps in hopes to make either Bread Pudding or Pumpkin Spice French Toast Casserole.

My favorite fall picnic project was this: cutting little cheese leaves and acorns with small cookie cutters. THIS was worth the effort. :)

I got all the fun-fall-food hidden away before picking up kids from school. When we got home, a few neighborhood kids joined us and one of them opened up his violin to show us his skills. This, of course, meant that Brayden needed to go get out his trumpet because – well – do I even need to explain this? The concert was loud and special. :/

Meanwhile, Keith ran to his backpack to get out the certificate he’d been given that day. He was SO PROUD of this, as he should be. He’s been in speech therapy since he was 1.5 years old. If you would have told me then that he’d graduate by age 5.5, I would not have believed it. He’s worked so hard and come so far. He put this graduation certificate on the pantry fridge and asked for a picture. You bet, buddy.

All of my fall picnic shenanigans and the after school orchestra/band had set me back on dinner prep. But somehow, we were able to get 20 burgers on the grill and some bacon in the oven to make Bacon Cheeseburgers for dinner. We made two packages of fries in the air fryer, sliced up apples, washed blackberries, and got out pickles and potato salad. It was a feast!

Friday morning, we kicked off the kids’ Fall Break with attempted pumpkin-shaped Pancakes. As it turns out, putting a stem on a circle to make it look like a pumpkin isn’t as easy as it sounds. ;)

Matt headed to Heartlands for the funeral, so Elias and Malorie helped me with kids. We’ve been reading Little House in the Big Woods (slowly but surely), so I found Little House on the Prairie on YouTube for the kids to watch and experience. They were fascinated and had so many questions. Our plan is for all eight kids to dress like characters from this book/time period for Halloween. So we all took note of the hats, dresses, and bonnets. :)

The zoo was to open at 10, so our plan was to wrap up our morning at home and pack up to get to the zoo for an outing. When we got there at 10:04, we discovered that every person in the state of Nebraska had the same idea for their day.

I handed out apples as we stood in line waiting to get to the gate.

Once we made it in, the crowd dispersed and we were able to enjoy animals and play areas.

Everyone was very hungry by lunchtime, and as we sat to eat, I told the kids that all I’d brought for our Fall Break lunch was “pumpkins and leaves.” Most of the kids could tell I was being silly, but Bonus Buddy was NOT IMPRESSED with my announcement. He did not want to eat leaves. Once I pulled out the leaf-shaped-cheese, pumpkin-shaped sandwiches, and jack-o-lantern fruit cups, he realized that Mom was actually not crazy. All the kids enjoyed this surprise lunch very much!

We had some therapy appointments that afternoon, and I was pretty worn out by dinner time. That’s what Costco frozen pizza is for. :)

That evening, we loaded everyone up and took a walk to our church’s Free Little Pantry. As you can see, Keith had traded his Husker helmet that day for a Little House on the Prairie hat. He goes ALL IN with just about everything he does.

We filled the pantry with food for people to come take as needed. Then we headed home for bed time.

Saturday morning, I did some prep work to get ready to take a Sabbath rest starting that evening and through Sunday. I made a large pan of Italian Pasta Bake to put in the oven for Sunday lunch. Check out how I used the scraps of cheese leftover from using cookie cutters to make cheese shapes on Thursday!

We’d been given some fancy mozzarella so I used that too.

I made a batch of Caramel Apple Dip for our Sunday lunch dessert.

We gave the kids their baths, hosted our Small Group, and did some cleaning. And that was our week!

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Big Family Food and Fun: September 29 – October 5, 2024

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: September 29 – October 5, 2024 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: September 29 – October 5, 2024

Sunday at church we enjoyed Family Worship time. We were blessed to have many of the kids on stage singing (or picking their nose as the case may be with one of ours).

Matt preached that day, and he kept the kids up in front at first to include them at the beginning of his lesson.

Afterward, we gathered at our house for the simplest Sunday Lunch ever: Lasagna and Salad. That’s it. That’s all I made. But it’s all we needed. There were 23 of us that day.

My favorite part of the day was sitting down in the living room after lunch with a cup of coffee and watching all of our people mingling and enjoying time together.

I loved this precious scene in which Little Sweetheart was napping, giving Auntie K two empty arms to enjoy some Arrow snuggles.

We were all surprised to be visited by a penguin during our visit. Should we take her back to the zoo? It’s still a point of discussion.

Late afternoon we regrouped and loaded up to go to Keith’s soccer game. I packed pears, clementines, peanuts, and cheese sticks – plus a fruit/veggie pouch for Auggie.

It was a hot one that day so that fruit tasted extra good to those of us on the sidelines. Meanwhile, Keith played hard – even if his mom is unable to keep up with laundry and he had to wear two different colors of soccer socks.

Back at home, we cleaned out the fridge to eat leftovers for dinner. I had picked up 5-pounds of super cheap ground chicken last week marked down. So I spent some time making it all into Chicken Cheeseballs – one for Monday’s dinner and the other for the freezer.

Monday morning, I made a few cans worth of Tuna Salad for kids to take in their school lunches.

The rest of that day, I spent resting – as much as a person can rest while caring for small children. We’d been in go-go-go mode for weeks, and I was tired.

Typically, in the morning while we only have four kids at home, I get extra food made or I catch up on other family needs. Monday, I just sat with the kids and played with the kids. It was refreshing and needed.

For dinner that night, I baked a pan of the Chicken Cheeseballs I’d made the day before. A few weeks ago, I ordered a bag of Instant Mashed Potatoes from Azure Standard to have on hand for days I needed cooking breaks. They aren’t as tasty as “real mashed potatoes” but they are fast and easy and they made a great side dish for this night’s dinner. I steamed broccoli, and that was our dinner!

A friend had brought us a bunch of tomatoes from her garden and Anna enjoyed them very much that evening. :)

Keith sat with me in the kitchen while I washed some dishes so he could get his homework done. I’m not a fan of kindergarteners having homework, but I did enjoy the one-on-one time with him.

After resting on Monday, Tuesday I felt refreshed and ready to take on a few projects. Acacia helped me make Pumpkin Muffins.

Keith came in and wanted in on the action so he helped me make a huge batch of Mudballs.

While all this was in the works, I baked pan after pan of Bacon. It felt good to get ahead – even if it dirty up a lot of dishes! ;)

For breakfast that morning, I warmed up some leftover Egg and Hashbrown Casserole from last week.

Justus dropped off Little Sweetheart for the morning. Anna and Josie were happy to entertain her for a few minutes while I finished up a few kitchen clean-up chores.

Mid-morning, we were honored to enjoy time with Angela – someone who has been a Heavenly Homemakers reader for years and has prayed over our family during this time. She was visiting family nearby, so coming here worked out perfectly! Our girls LOVED coloring with her, being read to, and playing.

And I loved visiting and learning about her family too. It was a wonderful visit. :)

After school, Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and I went to hand out food at our weekly Food Distribution.

Afterward while we were cleaning up, Brayden was excited to take this picture of Kiya and Keith helping Mr. Jim scrub spots off the floor.

Back at home, we discovered that Elias was working to wrangle the kids while Matt dealt with this:

It was only a matter of time before a window got broken here, right? Ugh.

Elias had managed to get water boiling for dinner, and he and I worked together to finish putting together Tortelloni with Sauce, Salad, Berries, and Tomatoes.

The best part of the day: Malorie arrived after a long drive from Texas! She’s officially moving in and we are all so happy about this! Even Auggie moved in for a hug. :)

Wednesday morning, we enjoyed a special treat of Pumpkin O’s that Angela had brought us the day before (along with some other fun Trader Joe’s treats!). I also scrambled 15 eggs for us to eat that morning. As Angela predicted when she gave them to me, the O’s were gone very quickly. But not to worry, I’d poured myself the first bowl of the morning, so I got some too. :)

I put several pounds worth of Salsa Chicken into a crock pot to slow cook all day for our dinner that night.

It was a very cool morning so I was in the mood to bake! Having treats in the freezer is always a good thing, so I made a big pan of Brownies and a big pan of Butterscotch Bars to cut, plate, bag, and freeze for upcoming Sunday Lunches or other needs.

Mid-morning, our friends showed up to help clean some of our bathrooms. Josie hung with them the entire time, squirting and scrubbing. :)

We are usually blessed to bring home several bags of free bread and rolls from our Tuesday Food Distribution. I usually need to freeze it or use it right away as it is on its final days. I had 12 nice looking hoagie-type rolls so I used them to make Chicken Bacon Sandwiches for easy lunches for the grown-ups. I bagged them individually, then put them in the fridge.

How can we tell that Malorie is here? We just look at the girls’ hair. When I fix their hair, the styles consist of piggies and ponies. But Malorie always does something special and she makes it look effortless. :)

With hair done, fresh clothes and shoes on, we watched for the bus. Auggie has started to get mad that he doesn’t get to go to school with his sisters.

Eva dropped Arrow off for the afternoon while she went to do a photo shoot for some clients. We cracked up when she met me in the living room to say something like, “Arrow is sleeping so I put him in the pantry.” This sounds so wrong unless you know that our pantry is an entire room off the kitchen, giving him plenty of quiet and safety away from potential tiny aunts and uncles who might try to love on him just a little bit too much. :)

Here he is, happily playing in the pantry after he woke up. Yep, Lolli likes this room too, Arrow.

Speaking of tiny aunts… Aunt Acacia and Aunt Josie enjoyed playing with Arrow when they got home from school.

Auntie Anna was excited to help me feed Arrow his bottle.

For dinner that night, we shredded the Salsa Chicken I’d started cooking that morning and had a Chicken Taco Bar. I made a pan of Stick of Butter Rice to stretch our meal, plus warmed up or set out Black Beans, Corn, White Queso, Salsa, Tomatoes, Spinach, Shredded Cheese, Sour Cream, and choices of Tortillas, Chips, or Hard Shells.

Asa and Eva joined us for dinner and we all ate in shifts as we got kids’ plates/bowls fixed and as adults came and went depending on their schedules.

Thursday morning, the girls took turns helping crack eggs to make French Toast. I also baked two pans of eggs to put together Make-Ahead Breakfast Sandwiches.

The eggs were finished baking before we left for school, and I put the sandwiches together after we got the four elementary kids dropped off.

Then I bagged them individually to freeze or refrigerate so that adults could grab them on their way to work as needed.

We had ordered new bikes for our kindergarten boys (both of theirs are falling apart from such hard use, plus they were already hand-me-downs). So we went to pick them up mid-morning. Matt dropped Acacia, Josie, and me at Sam’s on the way so that I could stock up on needed items there. It ended up being a huge load of groceries that day!

After he picked up the bikes, Matt met me at Sam’s with Anna and Auggie and I put overflow items into their cart. I got 10-dozen eggs because they were only $10.98 for a 5-dozen box, which breaks down to just $2.20/dozen! That’s a great price right now!

As if that wasn’t enough food, I had put in a pick-up order from Hy-Vee for some of our girls’ WIC items. Malorie picked that up for me and helped me get it put away. We are well stocked up on groceries now. But how long will it last? That’s the part that always has me chuckle. After a shopping trip, I always think we’ll be good for a while – and of course, there’s always plenty to eat. But somehow I always need to go back to the store to shop again within a week. :)

We were blessed to have both Arrow and Little Sweetheart that afternoon – a gift I’m so thankful for. This is one of the main reasons we moved to Lincoln, and I’m so grateful we can have this time with our grandbabies! I’m not sure what they are chatting about here, but Arrow sure was amazed about what his cousin had to share…

Malorie being here now is such a huge blessing! She helped me with babies so that Matt could get some work done in our boys’ bedroom.

With both babies happy, I finished putting together Burritos for the freezer using Wednesday night’s leftovers. I was thankful for the opportunity to get so many extras made throughout this week:

Our friend, Phyllis, came to visit that afternoon which was perfect timing because she got to meet Little Sweetheart and Arrow, plus she got to see Kelsey and Eva when they came to pick up their babies. It was such a sweet time. And speaking of sweet, Phyllis spoiled us with her delicious cookies too.

We had a fridge full of tidbits of this and that, so we had leftovers for dinner that night. I’d also picked up the kids’ favorite grapes at Sam’s: Cotton Candy Grapes, so we enjoyed those with dinner.

Justus dropped off Little Sweetheart early Friday before he left for a conference. Acacia was excited to hold her but Little Sweetheart liked pulling Acacia’s piggy-tails too much. Ouchie. :)

Before leaving for school, Keith asked if we could make Strawberry Milkshakes to share that evening. It was a sweet request so I was glad that I had time to make a batch of Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream to use for his treats.

It was encouraging to see Auggie walking around with Josie’s banana because of all his eating issues up until now and the progress he’s making. Here he was, taking little bites of banana just like any ol’ toddler. Way to go, Auggie. (He threw it down after just two bites, but two bites is two bites so…)

That afternoon, Matt attempted to put the boys’ new bikes together. He had lots of help, as you can see, which made the process go twice as…slow. ;)

I made a simple dinner of Chicken Nuggets and Fish Sticks, Hashbrowns, Salad, and Grapes.

We used some of the Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream I’d made earlier in the day with frozen strawberries and milk to put together Keith’s requested Strawberry Milkshakes.

We were all very happy to enjoy this, and Keith wanted me to be sure and get a photo of his milkshake mustache.

Our Sabbath Experiment

Before I tell you about our Saturday morning, let me tell you about the church Community Group Matt and I have been a part of for the past several weeks. We’ve been working our way through Practicing the Way resources (highly recommended!), focusing on the practices of Jesus and learning more about how we can be more like Him in His practices.

One of the focuses has been about Sabbath – something Matt and I have tinkered with in the past but never figured out how to make a regular part of our lives. We’ve been challenged to be intentional about incorporating a Sabbath rest into our week, as a way to be a part of life-giving community and as a way to refresh our souls. With all these high need littles, WE NEED REST. But with all these high need littles, how in the world can we spend a day every week resting? That has been the question.

We’ve prayed and discussed this a lot, and we decided to give it a try this week. My goal Saturday morning was to make all food preparations for Sunday so that we can fully enjoy our family, our church/worship time, our Sunday lunch gathering, and the rest of our day.

We turned on a show for the kids to watch as they got up on Saturday, something we only do on weekend mornings. Then I spent the entire morning cooking and baking (without kids – which was refreshing and fun for me in and of itself!).

I baked a double batch of Breakfast Cookies into bars for Sunday’s breakfast.

When they cooled, I cut them into bars, setting aside half for Sunday and freezing the other half for another day.

I made a double batch of Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Bars for easy snacks.

I packaged up some of these for next week’s school lunches.

I mixed together a double batch of Party Potatoes to bake during church for our Sunday lunch.

While all this was going on, I’d put chicken legs and pork chops on the smoker that I’d marinated overnight. I planned to warm these on Sunday morning in a crock pot while we were at church.

I baked a double batch of Pumpkin Bars for our Sunday Lunch dessert. And I steamed Green Beans and made Cream Cheese Corn to warm up in small crock pots while we are at church.

It was super fun to do all of this. Meanwhile, the kids came in and ate bowls of cereal, bananas, or Mudballs for breakfast. Matt took a few at a time to have long, leisurely baths so that we didn’t have to tackle that chore Saturday night.

We went to our friends’ house that evening for a Husker game watch party/birthday party to kick off our Sabbath rest in community. Our goal is to not be legalistic, but to find refreshment for our souls and to figure out ways to be at rest even during this busy season.

I’ll let you know how our first trial run goes!

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Big Family Grocery Spending for September, 2024

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Here’s our Big Family Grocery Spending for September, 2024 post!

Here’s how we spent our grocery budget for our large household during the month of September. We feed 13 people three meals each day, plus we feed frequent guests…

Big Family Grocery Spending for September, 2024

1. Hy-Vee

Kelsey texted me while they were shopping at Hy-Vee over labor day weekend to let me know that Pork Butts and Watermelon were on sale. Did I want any? Sure!!

The roasts were just $2.49/pound and they are a great size for upcoming Sunday lunches. The watermelon was only $2.99 – a great deal.

Total at Hy-Vee: $38

2. Aldi

On September 6, we headed to Aldi to stock up on our favorites and sale items there. We got milk, whole milk yogurt, pears, grapes (on sale for $1.39/pound), strawberries (on sale for $1.89/pound), sausage, brown sugar, salsa, spaghetti sauce, frosting, cake mix, granola, fruit/veggie pouches for Auggie, cheese cubes, pear cups in 100% juice, instant oatmeal, chicken broth, tator tots, french fries, fresh peaches, hard salami, sausage patties, and pork loin.

It was quite a haul!

We had been blessed this summer to receive surprise EBT cards for our kids. Through their adoption subsidies, they will qualify for Medicaid until they become adults. (This is a huge blessing for them!) Because of this qualification, they qualify for free school lunches. And in Nebraska, apparently everyone who qualifies for free school lunches received a little EBT (Food Stamp) money this summer. This was such a nice surprise to receive in the mail and I used the benefits at Aldi that day.

Total cost: $164.08/ Total out of pocket: $0

3. Costco

After Aldi that day, we headed to Costco to get diapers, sale items, and staples we needed. We got shredded cheese, Go-gurt, pancake mix, fruit and veggie pouches for lunches, granola, granola bites, frozen green beans, crisp fried onions, sugar, eggs, tuna, barbecue sauce, ranch dressing, clementines, spinach, spring mix, frozen chicken strips, butter, broccoli, cauliflower, tortelloni, string cheese, almond butter, peanuts, heavy whipping cream, and bananas.

Total for food at Costco: $245.63

4. Wal-Mart

On September 13, I went to Wal-Mart to get some of our kids’ WIC items for the month. While I was there, I checked for meat markdowns but didn’t find any worth picking up. I did get some Caesar Salad Kits and a few other small items we needed.

Total out of pocket: $34.31

5. Sam’s

After I left Wal-Mart, I went next door to Sam’s to pick up the Bacon and Peanut Butter we can only get at this particular Sam’s. I got quite a few other necessities also including eggs, potatoes, pears, apples, grapes, cheese sticks, butter, yogurt, olive oil, ketchup, mac and cheese, and oatmeal.

Total for food at Sam’s: $328.32

6. Hy-Vee

Eva was sweet and picked up an order for me on September 18. I was able to get a lot of our girls’ WIC items in this order and just one other item that we paid for out of pocket.

Total out of pocket from Hy-Vee: $3.82

7. Costco

September 19, we loaded up the four youngest and went to Costco to prep for a weekend with company and to get lunchbox items for upcoming weeks.

We picked up Boneless Chicken Thighs, Chicken Drumsticks, Milk, Strawberries, Raspberries, Spring Mix, Grapes, Italian Dressing, Crackers, Sliced Havarti Cheese, Shredded Cheese, Coffee Creamer, Half and Half, Guacamole, Broccoli, Corn, Pork Loin (marked down $5/package!), Watermelon, Sweet Potato Chips, Mini Corn Dogs, Chicken Nuggets, Parmesan Cheese, Sliced Ham, Oatmeal Packets, and Frozen Pizza.

And diapers. Always diapers. :)

Total for groceries at Costco: $334.71

8. Amazon Subscribe and Save

I forgot again to take a picture when our Amazon order came in, but we got several boxes of applesauce and yogurt pouches plus some dehydrated apples we like to take for kids to snack on when we go to the store.

Total from Amazon: $48.61

9. Walmart

On September 27, I went to Walmart to get the last of our kids’ WIC items and scored big on meat mark-downs. I was amazed at all the meat I was able to pick up to restock our freezer for just $47!

Total out of pocket for groceries at Walmart: $47.28

10. Aldi

After I left Wal-mart that day, I went down the road to Aldi. I got fruit/veggie pouches for Auggie, milk, spaghetti sauce, fritos, asparagus, pears, potatoes, yogurt, granola, sausage, cake mix and frosting, and lasagna noodles.

Total for groceries at Aldi: $137.19

Total grocery spending for September: $1,218

— > Without WIC and the bonus EBT cards we received, our total this month would have been closer to $1,582. <—–

Running totals for 2024:

January: $1,178
February: $849
March: $1,356
April: $1148
May: 1091
June: $1,121
July: $1,190
August: $1,611
September: $1,218

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