Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters – Chocolate or Vanilla

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I have discovered a new idea and I’ve decided to call these: Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters.

I didn’t actually invent this recipe. I happened upon it whilst scrolling Facebook and an ad popped up for Weight Watchers recipes. I don’t care about counting WW points, but I do like the idea of adding pumpkin to goodies. Any opportunity to add nourishment to food – I’m all in.

I was also very attracted to the idea of a two-ingredient recipe. It’s just a cake mix and a can of pumpkin. Easy and includes a vegetable? Yes please.

Now, I didn’t used to buy cake mixes. Those most certainly include ingredients that aren’t great. But alas, here I am, ignoring the ingredient list and paying $0.98 for a box of convenience. Then I add a huge wad of spinach to the cake, declaring that I am somehow still winning the war on food. Can we also  occasionally add an entire can of pumpkin to such a mix? Yes, we can. So now we can cringe as we buy cake mix, then smile as we add spinach or pumpkin.

And if I’m lucky, I might also have time to take a shower. Seriously, I have so many reasons to buy cake mix now. Here are my youngest 5 reasons. Plus Malachi, who is quite low maintenance but does also like to eat.

Why did I decide to name them Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters? Two reasons:

  1. Buying a cake mix is sort of cheating, making us sort of cheaters, but again, we like to shower sometimes and this is how we are surviving right now.
  2. These treats are some kind of cross between a cupcake and a muffin. They are too sugary to really be a muffin but too pumpkin-y to really be a cupcake. I couldn’t land on what to call them. A muffcake? Perhaps. But then Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters came to mind and I decided I liked it.

Is it possible I spend too much time reading nursery rhymes? Nah.

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters – Chocolate or VanillaYum

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters - Chocolate or Vanilla
 
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Author:
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 1 cake mix, chocolate or vanilla
  • 15-ounce can pumpkin
  • ½ cup water
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon if you'd like!
Instructions
  1. Mix ingredients together until smooth.
  2. Scoop into 12 paper-lined muffin tins (you'll fill them a little bit more full than a typical cupcake or muffin).
  3. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

You can add chocolate chips, but I skip that because I don’t want to add extra sugar. Also have you seen what happens when toddlers eat melted chocolate chips? Oy, so messy.

And there you have it, friends. Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eaters are fun and easy to make. The pumpkin makes these moist and pumpkin is a superfood. Ha. I declare these to be a win.

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Big Family Food and Fun: November 19-25, 2023

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Here’s our Food and Fun: November 19-25 post!

Here’s what we ate and what we did all week!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 19-25, 2023

Saturday night I started a pork roast in the crock pot to cook overnight to eat after church the next day. Here’s my pork roast recipe. Here’s the overnight cooking method.

To go with our roast, I made a big pan of Party Potatoes. I had intended to make Honey’d Carrots, but left the carrots steaming too long and burned them, ugh. So we steamed some peas instead.

For dinner that night I pulled out some leftover taco meat we had in the fridge and stirred it into a triple batch of Creamy Mac and Cheese. We ate it with baby carrots, easy peasy.

It’s been in my head for weeks to work with the kids to put together Fall Treat Bags for our neighbors. Sickness and the craziness of life has derailed us. But we’re finally finishing our project and packaging up goodies! We had stickers from Delight Design to put on our brownie and muffin bags – so cute!

We had set up our tree with lights the night before and on Sunday night, the kids added ornaments.

Monday morning after Brayden and Kiya got to school, we put BabyBoy#11 down for a nap, left the three little girls with Daddy, and Keith and I headed to the Food Distribution site to help set up for the Tuesday giveaway. Our goal is to help our kids learn to serve and help others. The one-on-one time with Keith is so good too. Here he is, admiring the table of snacks we set up.

For dinner that night we made Tuna Melts with Tomato Soup and fresh pineapple.

I had made a bowl of Easy Pumpkin Whip that I intended to serve for dessert. But I saw several almost-empty containers of ice cream in the freezer that I wanted to get rid of and forgot all about the Easy Pumpkin Whip. Goof. So we had the Whip for breakfast on Tuesday instead. It’s only lightly sweetened, has protein and pumpkin in it – so it made for a good breakfast!

Our friend Paula had dropped off this loaf of Pumpkin Bread and we enjoyed it that morning too! So good!

I had sausage patties and a lot of English muffins, so I scrambled some eggs and put together 14 Breakfast Sandwiches to have on hand.

Three of the kids put on swimming suits that morning, haha. Josie stayed in her jammies. Meh, it was Thanksgiving week and I was extra busy. Regular clothing was optional. The three little girls had a get-together in our playroom saying over and over, “So nice to see you!” “So nice to see you!” in their preschool and toddler language. It was so sweet.

I had two appointments that morning and the second one was right by Sam’s. So I took advantage of being kid-free and ran in to get as many groceries as I could. I got a couple of special items for Thanksgiving – Martinelli’s and fancy whipped cream. Otherwise I got the regular needed items – milk, produce, peanut butter, sliced cheese, grass fed hamburger meat, and our favorite beef smoked sausage.

After school, Brayden, Kiya, and I went to hand out food at the Food Distribution site. When we got home, Matt had started warming up the casserole I’d put together from Sunday’s leftovers plus leftover peas.

Wednesday, Matt and Elias headed to York to work on our properties. Kelsey had the day off so she came over to help with kids and Thanksgiving prep! We had a huge day in the kitchen, getting a lot done for the holiday and then some.

I had picked up this 10-pound box of bacon at Sam’s the day before. It was highly discounted and ended up being just $3.40/pound so I was pretty excited! We baked several cookie sheets worth of it that morning, eating it for breakfast and then putting the rest in the fridge for easy-t0-warm-up breakfasts or sandwiches during the next few days.

Kelsey took the three littlest girls into the living room to color while Kiya, Keith and I worked on Pumpkin Pies.

Kiya did most of the “work” of adding ingredients to the blender and Keith helped push buttons on the blender. ;)

Our pies turned out great! Here’s our easy, real food Pumpkin Pie recipe.

Next, Kelsey got the kids involved in potato scrubbing and carrot peeling/cutting.

So far, we hadn’t let these two use knives, but Kelsey talked them through it and they did great!

Meanwhile, we browned 6-pounds of hamburger meat to use that night and through the weekend.

I used half of the cooked meat to make Sloppy Joes for dinner. We ate them with grapes and salad.

Thursday morning Justus showed up at 5:20 to get the turkey on the smoker. I had coffee and God time, then got mashed potatoes in the crock pot.

Mid-morning I made these rolls – first time I’d made rolls in a long time! Kelsey snagged this photo. :)

We’d FINALLY finished our “take fall treats to neighbors” project and were determined to deliver before our Thanksgiving meal. Our bags were filled with frosted brownies, muffins, and oatmeal cookies.

Matt loaded up all the bags plus six kids and walked around the neighborhood handing them out and wishing people a Happy Thanksgiving!

Meanwhile, guests started to show up and we finished the meal prep. Justus’ turkey turned out amazing!

Here are all of my Thanksgiving meal recipes.

Here’s this year’s crew! It included all of our family plus one of our housemates (who is now part of our family). Plus a dear friend from York and two YU soccer guys we’ve come to know.

After the feast, the guys played a game in the living room and we gals rested for a while on the couches.

I packaged up a plate of food for a friend who wasn’t able to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal that day, then we started getting kids ready for Eva to take our family photos.

UGH. It was then that Anna came down from her “nap” with styrofoam stuffing all over her. Which meant that something had busted open and the filling was also all over her bedroom. Praise God for sweet daughters-in-law who cleaned it all up for their tired mother-in-law.

Eva is a rock star who took individual photos of all of us, plus one big family photo. (I’ll share them with you when we get them!) We came home and put together a Nacho Bar for dinner.

Then, we turned on a Christmas show for the kids to watch while we adults played Stuff Happens before bedtime. THAT was my favorite part of the day!

Friday I got zero pictures, hahaha. I was so tired that day I wasn’t on my top game. We picked up our Bonus Boy for the weekend (age 4, former foster son and half sibling to some of our kids), ate leftovers, we made mac and cheese, I took a nap. That’s about all I remember. :)

Saturday we loaded up all 8 kids and took them to the Children’s Museum for the morning. It was a great and needed outing!

We ended our time at the museum with the kids all “working” at Runza. It was one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen them do as a group. They had on hats and aprons, flipped burgers, took orders, filled drinks, made fries – goodness it was sweet.

Elias had started lunch for us so that we could eat right away when we got home – Cheese and Spinach Quesadillas with Tomato Soup and apples.

For dinner that night, I baked whatever chicken tenders and patties I found in the freezer. Plus I put waffle fries in our air fryer, steamed broccoli, and opened up cans of fruit. It was a fun, easy meal and a great way to end our week!

And now – Christmas time!!!!! Here’s to a great new week!

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Taco Soup for a Crowd

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Here’s Taco Soup for a Crowd – an easy way to feed a lot of people!

What actually is a “Crowd?”

First question: What is considered to be a “crowd” anyway? I’m not sure how to define this.

We currently have 16 people living at our house and we often have guests. So pretty much every meal at our house “feeds a crowd” I suppose. :)

For the purpose of this post, we’ll understand the word “crowd” to be: If you’re feeding a lot of people (any number will do) and want to make it easy, here’s what to make.

Sound like a plan?! :)

Taco Soup for a CrowdYum

This soup is very easy to put together and can be made with either cooked chicken or hamburger meat. When making this for a large crowd, I like to make one crock pot with chicken and one crock pot with hamburger. This helps stretch the meal plus gives everyone the option of choosing their favorite meat.

If you have hamburger meat and chicken cooked ahead of time, then truly all you have to do is put it into crock pots, then dump in a few ingredients and that’s it!


Taco Soup for a Crowd
 
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Author:
Serves: 15 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 pounds cooked ground beef or shredded chicken
  • 32-ounces salsa (any variety)
  • 3 cups frozen corn
  • 2 15-ounce cans black beans
  • 32-ounces (1 quart) chicken or beef broth
  • Shredded cheese, sour cream, and fritos for toppings
Instructions
  1. Put all ingredients (except for toppings) into a crock pot.
  2. If you're making this soup for more than 15 people, consider making two separate recipes in two different crock pots.
  3. Cook on Low for 6-8 hours or on Hi for 4 hours.
  4. Serve with cheese, sour cream, and Fritos

 

You will love how easy this Taco Soup is – and it is a crowd pleaser for sure!

Fun Side Dishes to Serve with Taco Soup

NOTE: This Taco Soup can be made in a large pot on the stove instead of in crock pots if you wish. Simply heat until bubbly and serve!

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Kids Cook Build-a-Book – Get your Kids’ Kit!!!

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We’ve put this Kids Cook Build-a-Book Kit together just in time for Christmas!

I’m pretty excited about this project – probably because it’s something I would have loved receiving as a Christmas gift when I was a young girl. :)

This year, we decided to discontinue our Junior Chef Club and instead offer you something similar that is new and improved!

Kids Cook Build-a-Book Kit

This fabulous kit will provide you with:

  • 104 printable pages filled with 52 ALL BRAND NEW Super Fun Recipes and 52 Serving and Sharing Ideas that are perfect for kids
  • 6 printable Build-a-Book cover page options
  • 5 printable Build-a-Book divider pages
  • Simple Shopping List of suggested add-ons that you can pick up at the dollar store to inexpensively complete your awesome Kids Cook Gift Kit!

When you purchase our kit:

  • You can print off all the pages you think your kids and your family will enjoy in their Kids Cook Build-a-Book.
  • Next, you can pick up the Simple Shopping List items (like a binder, measuring spoons and cups, a mixing bowl and spoon, etc).
  • Then, you can package it all up for them to open at Christmas. What a FUN gift that will offer greatness for weeks and months and even for years to come!

Click the arrows below to look through this flipbook to see a tiny sample of what your Kids Cook Build-a-Book can look like:

In total, your kids’ books can include up to 108 pages full of recipes and fun!

Get your kit here:

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Kids Cook Build-a-Book Kit

$20.00$10.00
Kids Cook Build-a-Book Kit
Kids Cook Build-a-Book Kit

Home / Shop

Kids Cook Build-a-Book Kit

$20.00$10.00
Model Number: kids-cook-build-a-book-kit
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10.000
Manufacturer: Heavenly Homemakers
  • Description

Your kids are going to love our Kids Cook Build-a-Book Kit!! Grab this to supply them with all they need to build a super fun cookbook!

We provide you with:

  • 104 printable pages filled with 52 Super Fun Recipes and 52 Serving and Sharing Ideas that are perfect for kids
  • 6 printable Build-a-Book cover page options
  • 5 printable Build-a-Book divider pages
  • Simple Shopping List of suggested add-ons that you can pick up at the dollar store to inexpensively complete your awesome Kids Cook Gift Kit!
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 12-18, 2023

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Here’s our Food and Fun: November 12-18 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 12-18, 2023

After four weeks of sickness, this week got off to a much better start!

There was a “Friendsgiving” Potluck for our kids ministry after church. We took Pizza Chicken Bake, Cream Cheese Corn, and a Chocolate Fudge Pie. I was too busy getting food ready to remember to take pictures except for this. Impressive, huh?

This was such a sweet and fun event for families!

After the kids ate, there were several tables/stations set up with crafts and activities for them to do. Our kids LOVED this!

We came home for naps and playtime, then got ready for our big birthday dinner. Almost a week late, we were finally able to get all of our older kids over to celebrate Matt’s 50th birthday!! We feasted on some of his favorite foods: Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Peas, Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies, and Homemade Ice Cream.

My second batch of Homemade Ice Cream didn’t work, so we had to get out store bought ice cream to make up for it. :) This Vanilla batch was pretty tasty though!

Because of all the sickness at our house, we hadn’t been together for over a month. :( I can’t tell you how beautiful it was to have everyone here!

One of Matt’s favorite things to do is play games. But, playing games with this many littles is almost impossible. We plan to try and hire sitters and have a big game day eventually. But for this night, Kelsey had the idea to turn on a show for the kids so that at least all of the adults could play a short game of some sort.

I’m so glad she thought of that! 50-minutes of game time is better than nothing. And how about that – 50 minutes of gaming for a Happy 50th Birthday?! :)

As a very boring but practical side note, I wanted to mention the amazingness of this chicken. I get these drumsticks at Costco (or sometimes Sam’s) for $0.99/pound. This entire package of meat cost only $8.42.

It included around 30 drumsticks and fed 10 adults and 8 kids – with leftovers. This is such an economical way to feed a lot of people!

Monday morning I scrambled 16 eggs with cheese to go with muffins and bagels for breakfast.

Eva came over for the morning to help with kids, praise God. So Keith and I headed to help sort and set up food at the weekly Food Distribution where we volunteer. He was having a rough behavior morning so it wasn’t great. But he did look cute in his ninja jacket and bike helmet (you can never be too safe).

Dinner that night was Lasagna Casserole with green beans and oranges.

Our dear friend Charlene was visiting that evening and I captured this sweet moment when several of the kids were hovered around her to look at pictures.

Tuesday was Keith’s birthday!! He requested birthday pancakes for breakfast. I attempted to make him a special #5 pancake, which worked sort of fine when I first created it.

But not so fine when I tried to flip it, hahaha. #nailedit

We “puzzled” it together onto his plate and it worked just fine.

That afternoon Brayden, Kiya, and I went to the Food Distribution and handed out food to almost 100 people. It is such a joy to do this! We were blessed to come home with a few items also:

We arrived home just in time for Keith’s big birthday dinner. Keith requested pizza and since we had so much going on, Matt and I decided to have some ordered and delivered. It was fun, but we won’t do this again any time soon. (High cost compared to frozen or homemade, delivery fees, then a late delivery and sub-par pizza) But again, it was a fun thing to do for his birthday and he was very excited!

Kelsey captured several of these photos, including this one where three of our little ducks are in a row.

Then it was cake time! I made him a vanilla cake with vanilla pudding and whipped cream. So tasty!

Have I mentioned that birthdays at our house are LOUD? Here’s present time!

Wednesday friends from York came to visit!

We celebrated one of our small housemate’s birthday that evening. YES, it was birthday week! I made burgers on the smoker, baked beans, and fried zucchini and squash.

We sure ate a lot of cake this week!

After present time, the kids gathered around another of our housemates for a special story time.

Thursday was a full day and one of my favorites. A dear York friend was celebrating a birthday and her sister invited me to come surprise her at the dinner party she was arranging. Even though York is only one hour away from our new home in Lincoln, it’s hard for me to get away and I hadn’t been back one time since moving the end of June.

Matt came up with a plan to make it possible for me to join our friends here, and I can’t put into words how wonderful it was to sit around this table with this precious group of ladies:

I love living in Lincoln – but out how I miss our community in York. I praise God for the chance to be with them on Thursday!

Matt and Elias headed to York to work on our properties Friday morning. Malachi helped me out with the littles all morning. We didn’t go on an outing so our morning was pretty chill. While the kids played, I finished bottling the big batch of vanilla I’d been brewing for several months.

Since I knew dinner time would be a bit tricky with Matt and Elias out for the day, I decided to make frozen pizza for dinner. I’ve been determined to have our kids finish making some Fall treats and crafts to take to our new neighbors before Thanksgiving. So I decided to attempt turning our night into a Fall Pizza Party so that we could make it happen.

We baked 8 frozen pizzas altogether, which fed 7 adults and 8 kids (with some slices leftover). Then the “party” started. For the record – one of the real reasons I planned a “party” was so that we wouldn’t have two hours of chaos after dinner before bedtime. Free play time doesn’t work very well for this crew, so I tried to structure the evening so that our kids would know the plan and so that there would be at least some form of order.

One of our housemates had brought back some ears of blue corn from her farm this week, so she did a wonderful job showing our kids that this is where blue corn chips come from. (Then they got to enjoy a blue chip as a treat!)

The evening craft was simple (and NOT MESSY HALELLUJAH). The kids decorated lunch sacks with stickers so that we can hopefully fill them with treats and deliver them to neighbors.

I had picked up a super inexpensive and cute “Build a Turkey” game at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago, so we had we rolling dice to add turkey feathers to our birds. :)

We gathered on the couch to read some Mother Bruce books – which was sweet but a little bit nuts with so many little ones crawling everywhere. The party was fun though and THEN IT WAS BEDTIME and also Matt was home by then, hallelujah again. :)

Keith found that I’d put these jammies into his container so he put them on. These aren’t just any jammies. My mom (who died of ALS 19 years ago) had given these to Asa (who is now 26) when he was a five year old like Keith is now. So Asa wore them when he was 5, then Justus, Elias, and Malachi. They were special, so I saved them, not knowing there would be more brothers down the road. Brayden wore them. And now Keith. The elastic is completely shot, but are we going to save them for BabyBoy#11? Oh yes we are.

Saturday morning I made a few quick-to-grab foods to hopefully make Thanksgiving week a bit easier – Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Bars and Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins. Of course we’ve already eaten a good part of these. But there are still some left that might help us get through holiday prep?? :)

I made a triple batch of Snickerdoodle Bites to hand the kids as needed. These should last at least through Tuesday.

Our church youth group had plans to hand out Thanksgiving meal kits to families in our neighborhood Sunday evening and we had signed up to provide a kit. So we took all the kids to the store to complete our list of food items. I divided the list into three – one each for Brayden, Kiya, and Keith. We helped them find their food items and tried to help them understand what a blessing this would be for a family to have a wonderful meal on Thanksgiving with all they were picking out.

Keith took his job of picking sweet potatoes very seriously.

Once we got home, we put together our big sack of food to take to church the next day.

The rest of the day was very full of outdoor work for Matt and housework for me. So I was incredibly thankful that last week when Kelsey was here making freezer meals, she had left one for us. I baked it ad dinner time and we ate the entire thing!

Then the crazy fun began. I had told the kids that we could set up our Christmas tree that night if they were willing to work hard and cooperate. They were very willing. :) :) :)

We didn’t decorate it – only set up the tree and put on the lights. THAT was plenty for one night with this many littles. The ornaments will go on Sunday evening.

What a full, wonderful week!

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I just wanted a parenting formula… :(

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Isn’t that what we all want? A parenting formula?

I just wanted a parenting formula…

As in: I want to have all of my little ducks in a row so Please tell me exactly what to do so that I can raise good kids. Give me an “If I do THIS, then the end result will be THAT.” This is what I want. Specifics. Complete guidance. Exact instructions that will give me the direct results I’m looking for, which is, of course: Perfectly Wonderful Children.

Many years ago when I was a young mom with my very first two-year-old, I realized that there was no such formula. I WAS SO MAD ABOUT THIS. You’re telling me that there’s no one-size-fits-all plan for raising good kids? No exact way to go about this parenting gig that will guarantee that my kids will obey, be kind, share, and ultimately grow up to become incredible and most importantly – godly people??

As the years went on and one son turned into four – all with very different dispositions, personalities, and needs – I realized that not only is there no formula for doing this all correctly, there’s not even one right way to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Wow.

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While raising our older boys, we learned so much about what works, what doesn’t, and how mostly our job is to rely on God to be at work through us. We failed, we won, we fought, we prayed, we cried, we praised, and we delighted. They aren’t perfect. But these four astound us by who they’ve become in spite of our shortcomings and woeful lack of having a “perfect parenting formula.”

Twenty-Six Years and Eleven Kids Later

Well, then. Here we are. The oldest four are raised and we’ve moved on to raising “round two.” We’ve started all over again and this time, we recognize our need to utilize all the help and resources we can.

It’s both easier (because we’ve learned a lot through the years) and harder (because this set of kids all have extra needs) this time. There are some things we want to do differently and better because of what we learned during our first go ’round. We pray we can take what we learned from “Round One” and all that we’re learning in “Round Two” and show these kids all the love and care that God can show through our humbled efforts.

Mostly we still know that the only way to raise kids well is by letting God be fully at work through us. That’s it. That’s the formula. Take a knee. Take two knees. Lie completely prostrate in humility. Stand firm in the power and strength of Jesus. Do both at the same time.

Learn and grow

Matt and I are reading books and seeking resources to help us – because we so much appreciate learning from what others have experienced and studied. I was invited to be a part of this Confident Mom Bundle, and I want to share that with you now. While there is no Perfect Parenting Formula – there are resources available to help us as we seek to learn and grow and do better.

Focus on your kids

If you are in the season of life in which you are raising children – let all of your energy go into this. Yes, take care of yourself and first and foremost nurture your relationship with God and your spouse. Of course. But what I mean is – during these parenting years, let go of everything that can be let go of and put your time and energy into letting God help you fully love your family during these years of growing them up into adulthood.

You will not regret this.

So go all in. Seek God’s parenting wisdom. Take advantage of every resource you get your hands on. Love, love, love your kids.

Stop doing what doesn’t work

To parent well, I’ve found that I’ve needed to pare down and cut out anything that is no longer working well for a well-balanced life. I don’t make complicated meals. I don’t have many outside commitments. I don’t even fold my laundry. I let my energy go where it has to go – to my kids’ needs.

Parenting can be a joy!

While it’s such hard work to care for, train, discipline, clean up after, and meet all the needs of our kids, the joy they bring is beyond amazing.

May God bless us all as we confidently trust His work through us and His provision for our children.

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 5-11, 2023

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: November 5-11 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 5-11, 2023

Food and…fun? Not all of it has been fun this week.

Some people get an extra hour of sleep on the night we turn back the clocks. At our house, we got an extra hour to endure a very long morning caring for sick babies. Oy.

For the past three weeks, our family has been passing around viruses and bugs. The latest involved low fevers. The one before that involved puke. We have canceled all plans and have not let our older kids come over to the Castle for fear that they might catch all of our ailments. So Matt and I are a little on the tired side.

We stayed home from church on Sunday, and eventually, Keith had dressed himself in a football helmet, snow boots (three sizes too big), and pajama pants.

Sunday morning I put The Easiest Spicy Ham and Potato Soup into a crock pot for us to enjoy at lunchtime.

We watched church service online, then the healthy kids went outside to play since the weather was so nice. They were playing “school” and I heard them talk about setting up a school cafeteria. So when it was time to eat, I carried their lunch out to be served in their “cafeteria.” :)

Here’s poor Sissy, one of the three littles feeling so crummy all day.

Keith was well, and he had fun making a three story house out of boxes!

For dinner that night, I made a big batch of Breakfast Sandwiches. They were a huge hit and all of them got eaten, along with strawberries and clementines.

Monday morning I made a big pot of oatmeal. I put a chunk of frozen banana into the littlest girls’ bowls of oatmeal so that it would cool off faster.

I surprised Matt with a Peach Cobbler for his birthday. (Not really a surprise since this is what I make for him for every birthday and Father’s Day, ha.)

We had planned on all of our bigger kids coming to join us for a birthday dinner for Matt, but with so much sickness traveling through our house, we postponed our gathering. :( I went ahead and made one of Matt’s favorites that night for those of us who were already at the Castle: Sausage Stromboli! I hadn’t made this for years and it was SO GOOD.

That afternoon the kids helped me make one of Matt’s favorite desserts: Banana Pudding. :)

Instead of 50 candles, I just put 1 candle in the pudding. Birthday celebrations at our house are LOUD, exciting, and pretty tasty. :)

That night was a rough one with a teething BabyBoy#11. We’re finding it a bit tough to catch a break and get enough rest, but we’ll get there!!

Tuesday morning the toddlers were feeling better so we loaded up the five littlest to go to Walmart after we got Brayden and Kiya to school. The outing helped the morning go better! Someone had given us 10 Free Junior Frosty coupons to use at Wendy’s so while we were out, we grabbed all 10 to surprise the kids with after tonight’s dinner.

Brayden, Kiya, and I helped give out food at our local Tuesday Food Distribution that afternoon after school. We were blessed to bring home some food and flowers for our family to enjoy!

Being at the Food Distribution means we get home just in time to eat dinner, so I had smoked Brats and Hotdogs before leaving that afternoon. They were warm in the crock pot when we got home, and we had them along with baked beans, oranges, and carrots.

When we bought this home, we “inherited” a lot of items since it was formerly a Bed and Breakfast. Many of the items we didn’t need and donated. But we love that some of the things left behind include outdoor lights, heaters, and a lovely fire pit! We gathered around the fire pit that night and told stories – so fun (and a little crazy while trying to keep littles from touching the fire).

Justus and Kelsey were over and she captured the above photo before going in to get the fun free Frostys Matt and I had picked up earlier in the day. They made everyone extra shivery, but it sure was a special evening!

Wednesday morning I made these Flourless Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins with cheesy scrambled eggs.

We’d been given a lot of tomatoes at the Food Distribution the day before, so we made BLTs for lunch.

One of our housemates had visited family over the weekend and brought back many dozen farm fresh eggs! So we had Easy Breakfast Casserole for dinner. I taught Brayden how to steam broccoli to go with our meal.

We had a feast of Easy Breakfast Casserole, broccoli, oranges, and muffins. We also warmed up a piece of buttered garlic bread that the kids had chosen at the Food Distribution the day before. (Junior Volunteers like Brayden and Kiya get to choose two items off the tables as a thank you for their help. They usually choose something sweet, but lately Brayden has been choosing things like mashed potatoes and garlic bread, ha.)

Thursday Elias and Malachi picked up our Azure Standard order for me. We got frozen corn, green beans, and hashbrowns (30 pounds!), plus yogurt, tortillas, and palm shortening.

For dinner that night I made Quick Crock Pot Spicy Pasta Dinner with green beans and corn.

Friday morning we dropped the kids off at school then headed to Walmart with the five littlest. We had plenty of time before getting Keith and Anna off to preschool, so we decided to try taking everyone to Great Clips to get Keith’s hair cut. Were we crazy? Sure. But you gotta do what you gotta do.

The three little girls actually sat very well in the waiting area sharing the grapes we had just picked up at Walmart.

The gal was super fast and Keith is as handsome as ever.

Ope. Still eating grapes. :) :) :)

For an extra special treat, we headed to Freddy’s and picked up kids’ meals with free coupons we had been given at a trick-or-treating event a couple of weeks ago. We ate at home though, because restaurants with this many littles is a no-go. :)

For “French Fry Friday” I made ham/cheese and turkey/cheese melts on buns with tator tots and sweet potato fries, plus black berries and grapes. There was spinach hiding in the sandwiches under the cheese, shhhh.

That afternoon I made made a double batch of these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, subbing the chocolate for butterscotch chips. These are a favorite of our older boys and we were finally making plans to get together for Matt’s 50th birthday celebration on Sunday!

Saturday morning I had more bananas turning black so I made yet another batch of Flourless Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins. They had gone over so well earlier in the week, I knew they’d be a hit again (I was right)! We finished off the Egg Casserole leftovers and had yogurt too.

Our Saturday outing was to grab jackets and head to the zoo to take advantage of our membership and the indoor play area with the spider monkeys. On our way in, we had the rare treat of seeing the Red Panda playing outside!

I packed juice and peanut butter pretzels for a snack break.

For lunch back at home I made quesadillas and warmed up the last of Sunday’s The Easiest Spicy Ham and Potato Soup.

Kelsey had some freezer cooking plans and came to the Castle to execute them. Spending the afternoon in our kitchen with her was SUCH a treat!!!! Especially since we have had so much sickness and have avoided having anyone over. We’ve missed our bigs!!

She and Justus joined us for a simple dinner, which was leftover chili and sandwiches.

And that was our week!

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One Saturday at the Coppinger Castle

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Here’s a peek at one Saturday at the Coppinger Castle!

Over the weekend, I decided to snap pictures throughout the day to share what a typical Saturday looks like at our house. Ready to join the fun?

One Saturday at the Coppinger Castle

5:00 I fed BabyBoy#11, then put him back to bed and headed downstairs for some God Time.

6:20 Keith, Acacia, and Josie woke up and found me, wide awake ready to start their day! Since it was a Saturday, I turned on a show for them (something we don’t do on weekdays). Here’s a very blurry photo of Blippi. :)

7:00 We turned off the show and headed to the kitchen. I had made Applesauce Bread that week, so we sliced some for breakfast. We had leftover baked potatoes so I cut and fried them in butter with salt. So good!

7:30 I had started a load of laundry earlier, so Keith and I headed downstairs to put it into the dryer.

8:00 Matt and I decided to take the kids to our favorite library for a Sensory Story Hour – an awesome story time that caters to kids with extra sensory needs. This is so perfect for so many of our littles! We spent an hour getting everyone dressed and ready to load up. I made four juice cups for Keith, Anna, Acacia, and Josie to enjoy on the way home (they usually have juice around 10:30 every day).

9:17 We arrived at the library just a few minutes after the program was to start. Not too bad, with this many littles!

9:20 We found our special chairs and some weighted puppies, and got started with Story Hour.

9:20-10:00 The kids loved every minute of this special Story Time. Ms. Diane does a wonderful job. Today’s theme was Penguins. :) Even BabyBoy#11 focused in today. And look who’s learning how to clap!!

10:00-11:00 After the official Story Time was over, we headed into the main library area where there are educational toys to enjoy.

We spent some time in a little reading nook enjoying a few books.

11:00 Everyone started to scatter and get restless, so Matt and I decided that it was time to load up to go home. It was still a little bit too chilly to play outside, so at home I got out a craft kit that we’d picked up at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago. Everyone colored Scarecrows and we put them together with brads.

11:30 More laundry, but this time with Anna’s help!

12:00ish We warmed up leftovers for lunch. There were leftover Instant Pot Mac and Cheese and Lazy Dogs. Plus carrots, cucumbers, and fruit.

12:30 I caught Brayden having a sweet moment with BabyBoy#11!

1:00 NAPTIME!!! After full mornings like this, we do appreciate it when 1:00 rolls around. :)

The four littlest napped while Brayden, Kiya, and Keith had an hour rest time and then went to play outside.

2:45 Josie and Acacia woke up.

3:30 Brayden came inside distraught because of a nasty conversation with a sibling so I suggested that he take a break, wash his hands, and help me make pizza for dinner. The idea completely turned around his disposition for the positive and he happily made a mess – I mean happily made pizza with me. :)

Meanwhile, Josie had started to feel crummy. :(

4:00 Once we got the pizzas ready, I put them into the oven but didn’t turn on the oven yet. We played outside to take advantage of the warm weather. By then, Josie had a fever so she just hung out with us on a bench outside.

4:40 I ran inside to turn the oven on so our pizzas could bake.

5:00 Elias came in and made salad to go with our dinner. We ate pizza, watermelon, and salad.

5:45 We played outside again, and I didn’t get any pictures. :) I did snap this one of all the clean dishes waiting to be put away. Slowly but surely we conquered the huge load.

6:20 We started the Saturday night bath process. This is a full-on two adult job. We usually start with the three little girls together in the tub. Then we switch them out for Keith and BabyBoy#11. While one parent is bathing, the other is diapering and jammy-ing the clean kids. Once the littlest five are finished, we help Brayden shower. Then Kiya. PHEW. Getting all seven bathed always feels like a huge accomplishment.

Here, Keith and BabyBoy#11 are in the boys’ room waiting for their turn in the tub.

7:20 Everyone is clean, jammied, and in the living room for Singing and Prayer time. While we’re singing, the girls take turns sitting on my lap so I can brush and braid their clean hair.

Poor Josie only wanted Daddy snuggles because of her fever.

7:50 We survived the day and some form of Singing and Prayer time with the crew. We finish our time in the living room by saying all of Psalm 23 together. Then we headed upstairs to brush teeth, put on Acacia’s leg brace, and tuck everyone in for bed. This is a loud, hectic process that often comes with some behavior struggles, along with the general craziness involved with herding cats tucking in multiple toddlers. Matt and I continually assess to try and figure out how we might make this time more peaceful, but I think if there was a way to do it, we would be doing it. For now, we continue to pray and ask for strength to model patience and calm responses through the bedtime storm.

8:15 BabyBoy#11 enjoys a little bit of 2-on-1 time with us while Matt and I decompress, talk about tomorrow’s needs, and give Baby his final swigs of milk before bed.

And that is a Saturday at the Coppinger Castle!

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Big Family Food and Fun: October 29-November 4, 2023

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It’s our Food and Fun: October 29-November 4 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: October 29-November 4, 2023

Sunday for lunch we had a pot of Chicken Taco Soup, using up the last of our smoked chicken from the week before. This soup is so easy to throw together when your meat is already cooked. Just dump everything in and go!

That evening, our friends Paula and Randy dropped off 10 lunches for Brayden and Kiya to take to school this week. (This is something new they started doing to help us and it is amazing!) They made five with turkey sandwiches and five with ham, and it looks like they had way too much fun labeling them. :) :) :)

Since I’d been sick, it had been quite a while since we’d gone to the store. We had no fresh produce, plus the kids needed an outing. So Matt, Malachi, and I took everyone to Wal-Mart Sunday evening so that we would have fruits and veggies to enjoy. Taking all seven kids to the store is always NUTS, but hey look at that. Now we have fruit.

Dinner that night was one of my favorite “cheater” meals. Orange Chicken from Sam’s with Caesar salad and rice.

Monday morning I got out Peanut Butter Snack Bars from the freezer for the kids to eat for breakfast. Everyone got to pick whatever fruit they wanted to go with it.

Our neighbor had heard that I’d been sick so she made us a pot of Chili for dinner Monday night. This was SO wonderful since my energy was still on the low side.

Tuesday morning I made some very ugly Pumpkin Muffins for breakfast. I think the melted coconut oil hardened back up and the cinnamon didn’t get stirred in well. BUT, they tasted good and got eaten so it was all ok.

I made these Smoothies to go with the muffins and put them into fun Halloween cups someone had given us.

That night I made a Taco Bar for dinner, seasoning the meat this way.

We had plenty of candy after enjoying two big events last week, so our kids had a lot of fun handing out candy to trick-or-treaters who came to our house that night. We had lots of kids stop by so it was great! Then Matt took our three oldest littles out to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. It was super cold that night so Malachi and I kept the littlest four at home.

Wednesday I made an Aldi run to get stocked back up on milk and yogurt. Here’s a list of groceries I regularly buy at Aldi. This particular day I got milk, whole milk yogurt, crackers, juice, baby food, fritos, fruit cups, granola, canned corn, canned soup, cream cheese, eggs, salad kits, grass-fed hamburger meat, and bananas. My total that day was: $239.

I got home just in time to make this 10-Minute Instant Pot Mac and Cheese for lunch. I made a double batch and it worked great!

We had leftover hotdogs in the fridge so for dinner that night I turned them into Lazy Dogs.

We ate them with kiwi, clementines, and cucumbers.

An unfortunate stomach bug had started traveling through our house – a terrible thing with 16 people living here! So for dinner on Thursday I kept our meal very mild – Baked Potatoes, steamed broccoli, and asparagus.

The weather had warmed up quite a bit, thankfully, so those who felt well enough played outside in the leaves after dinner. :)

Friday morning I used the rest of our homemade applesauce to make a huge batch of Applesauce Bread and Muffins.

After we got Brayden and Kiya to school, we got the other five ready and we loaded up for Costco. I dressed the girls in coordinating outfits – so cute!

Two carts and $410 worth of groceries later, we headed home to put it all away and to get Keith and Anna off to preschool.

I declared it to be French Fry Friday, so for dinner we ate Chicken Nuggets, Fries, Strawberries, and Raspberries.

Saturday morning we ate Applesauce Bread and fried potatoes that I made with Thursday’s leftover baked potatoes. I also took some time to make a triple batch of Snickerdoodle Bites to have on hand for snacks.

We went to our favorite Saturday morning Library Sensory-Friendly Storytime. Then after the regular program we stayed at the library to read books and play with their hands-on learning toys.

Late afternoon I could tell we needed to get ahead of some sibling struggles so I pulled Brayden in to help me made pizza for dinner. He was thrilled with this and at dinnertime, we gave him all the credit for “making dinner.” He was very proud. :)

We had picked up a watermelon at Costco the day before, hoping it would actually taste good in November. It wasn’t too bad! The weather was great so the kids had played outside a good part of the afternoon. Pizza, salad, and watermelon tasted pretty good to hungry kids (and their parents and big sibs).

And that was our week!

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How God is Providing Help Right Now

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I wanted to share a beautiful update as to how God is providing help right now.

In case you weren’t aware, we all need help from time to time. Saying yes to help is a beautiful thing. Our family happens to be in a season in which we need a significant amount of help in many forms.

Our help and needs continue to shift

During the past five years, we’ve added children and/or cared for children then helped them make adjustments back to live with their biological family. Mostly though, we’ve added children. Seven small, traumatized, extra needy, precious ones.

Meanwhile, during these past five years we’ve also had four kids in college, high school, and/or middle school – all of whom were very involved in extracurriculars like athletics, music, and drama. They’ve had their own needs because growing into an adult, navigating relationships, and figuring out career paths? Well we all know how hard (and good) that can be. We’ve also had two weddings, and OH YEAH, we moved to Lincoln this summer.

Ugh, moving.

The needs in our home have been different during these years, depending on how many babies there were, what sport season it was, what court case was unfolding, and how Matt and I have been able to meet the many needs as they come up.

Ultimately, we can’t meet them all. We serve a God who meets our needs in full. We trust this. And part of how he does this is by sending help.

I will never stop preaching this:

Say.Yes.To.Help.

Saying yes to help from others is saying yes to God. It is so cool to experience His work through others!!

We have had help:

  • Texturing and painting our house as we got ready to move
  • Cleaning. Worth noting: Ten ladies showed up to our York house after we moved out so they could deep clean all of the precious fingerprints and mud smears and 21 years worth of full, busy life there. I still can’t talk about that gift without crying.
  • Washing our dishes
  • Doing our laundry
  • Making us snacks
  • Chasing kids with us at soccer games
  • Buying diapers
  • Rocking babies so I could shower
  • Babysitting so both Matt and I could go to our older boys’ events at the same time
  • Cooking meals
  • Picking up items at the store
  • Babysitting while I went to court for our kids’ cases
  • Slipping us cash for “whatever the kids need”
  • The list is so long it would become an entire blog post all by itself…

These have been from an ARMY of people. Not just a couple of friends. Dozens of people. So many people I would lose track of the number if I tried to count them all.

And not one of these is “small” to me. Everything people have done means an incredible deal to us, even when they think “oh yeah, no big deal.” Yes, big deal. All of it.

So now we’re in Lincoln

We’ve been here for four months now. Different place, different people, different needs. Same kids. Same trauma. Same needy-ness.

More bathrooms.

Ten of them to be exact.

Praise God for this! And, thank God for my friends who come and clean several of them for us once each week.

Our older four kids have graduated now.

Matt and I have come up for air after our huge move. While we’ve had lots of help from our older kids and some church friends since moving here, we realized a few weeks ago that we needed to ask for more consistent help. Help with what exactly??

It’s hard to describe the needs of our kids – especially because they are all very sweet and those outside our home mostly experience all the sweetness (x7). Matt and I get to enjoy their sweetness too, for sure. But mostly, we find that we are training, and un-training, and retraining, and shucks, throw potty training in there too.

These kids have all the normal needs of a normal kid. And then they have trauma that they are dealing with in various forms. Their behaviors can appear subtle or non-existent to outsiders. But here are some examples of what Matt and I deal with all day long:

  • One of our kids went from absolutely fine at bedtime last week to suddenly standing on her bed RAGING because her sister picked up a piece of paper from the floor that was apparently very important (though not important enough to have been put in a safe place prior to getting into bed). Once she got angry and ramped up, it became very difficult to help her regulate her emotions so that we could reason with her.
  • One of our kids constantly needs reassurance that he is loved and safe. He looks over his shoulder constantly for the next emergency, and since there usually isn’t one, he creates one. Often he will bring us a “situation” and we will 100% take care of with a calm and peaceful solution. But he can’t let it go, so he goes to the next adult and then the next to continue to reinforce the drama he is seeking. This goes on all day long.
  • One of our kids is in fight or flight a good amount of the time, so a toy that drops to the floor or a sister that walks by and looks like she might possibly touch the toy he’s using sends him into a complete melt-down that takes a very long time to settle.
  • One of our kids demands so much attention that she will scream and tantrum, no matter the attention, consequences, or ignoring she receives, because her need for control is so great.

This work is WORTH all the energy and time we put into it. But this is why we say yes to help and have learned to reach out for help. We are stretched pretty thin. Any and all help is wildly appreciated.

How God is Providing Help Right Now

1. School Lunches

Recently someone offered: “Would it be helpful if we make lunches for your kids to take to school?”

Every school day. For the long run. This was/is their offer. I had to think about it for a minute (why, I don’t know). And then we said yes. The past two Sundays they’ve dropped of 10 sack lunches for the upcoming week. The kids LOVE it. I love it. And guess what? Paula and Randy, our dear lunch makers, love it. God is so good.

2. Childcare

We had lots of help with this in York, but so far in Lincoln, we hadn’t figured out what to do for regular help with the kids here. We know that we can be better parents if we occasionally have a break from so much hard-core parenting. So we prayed and God provided not one, but two sweet people to watch Acacia and Josie three afternoons each week for us.

Ms. Kathi keeps the girls for two hours twice a week.

And Josalyn watches them for two hours once each week.

Praise the Lord. The girls love these special afternoons and Matt and I enjoy the break so that we can work while BabyBoy#11 naps.

3. Whatever we need on Mondays

Our daughter-in-law Eva just blocked out one morning per week to come spend time doing “whatever we need.” This is huge because she knows the kids (her siblings, ha) so well and they know her. Plus she knows where everything is in our kitchen and sees what needs to be done and just gets it done. I love this.

4. Extra hands on Tuesdays

Justus and Kelsey come over on Tuesday evenings so that Justus can give Brayden a piano lesson. That one-on-one time Justus gives Brayden is huge for his confidence. Meanwhile, Kelsey uses that time to pour into the kids and I often use that time to load a dishwasher. :)

6. Brotherly Help

Elias is currently living at our Castle with us, and Malachi is in an apartment across town. These guys help in huge ways we asked. When Matt goes to York to work on our houses, often Malachi stays back to be my sidekick all day long while Elias goes with Matt to work. When I take Brayden and Kiya to serve at the weekly Food Distribution, Elias helps Matt with the rest of the kids at home.

And one of my favorite brotherly helps: Bro Time. 

We recognized Brayden’s need for some very specific one-on-on attention and devoted time, so we’ve hired Elias to spend two hours, twice each week with him. We call it Bro Time, with Elias taking Brayden on outings with the intention of really pouring love into him and helping him to learn more about being a healthy grown-up kid. They run errands for me if needed, they go to a coffee shop and play card games, they go take long walks around parks, they play frisbee golf, they do whatever Elias can find that will offer Brayden a good experience. About once each month, they buy groceries and cook a meal together for our family. Bro Time is good in every way.

7. Help with our houses in York

We still have properties in York that are being worked on so that we can sell them. Matt tries to go once each week, but it’s hard for him to get everything done that he needs to. We prayed for God to provide people who needed extra income to help with painting and odd jobs, and he has provided some young men willing to help out. I am so thankful for this!

8. Miscellaneous

I hesitate to share any of this because I don’t want to leave anything out. There are so many things people have done and continue to do to help. We say yes to all of it. All of our housemates pitch in and help with whatever need is right in front of them. People have given us loads of clothes for our kids (see Keith’s picture above in which he was so excited about his hand-me-downs box that he put on everything all at the same time).

Our neighbor brought us a meal when I was sick recently. Those neighbors also invite our kids into their house and give them extra attention and love.

Everything matters. Everything helps. Often people don’t realize that they’re helping – especially when they are engaging our kids in encouraging conversation – because they don’t know how much our kids need that encouragement. People are just being their normal, awesome selves, and it means the world to us.

Thank you for letting me share ways God is at work for us. When I look for it, I continue to see more ways He is providing. It’s amazing and we marvel while we give thanks for his goodness in all these ways.

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