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

November 20, 2023 by Laura 2 Comments

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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:

Home / Shop

Kids Cook Build-a-Book Kit

$20.00$10.00

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

November 19, 2023 by Laura 4 Comments

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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… :(

November 13, 2023 by Laura Leave a Comment

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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.

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

November 12, 2023 by Laura 2 Comments

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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

November 8, 2023 by Laura 5 Comments

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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

November 5, 2023 by Laura Leave a Comment

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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

November 1, 2023 by Laura 12 Comments

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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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Big Family Food and Fun: October 22-28, 2023

October 29, 2023 by Laura 7 Comments

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It’s Big Family Food and Fun: October 22-28!

Big Family Food and Fun: October 22-28, 2023

Last week’s illness turned into pneumonia for me (a constant struggle since I was exposed to black mold in my dorm back in college). So I stayed home from church Sunday morning, knowing that Matt would have plenty of help with the littles there.

A few weeks prior, I had put a large Pork and Hashbrown Casserole into the freezer so we pulled that out to bake all morning for lunch. Here’s a poor photo of the casserole ready to pull from the oven plus sides we grabbed from the fridge: leftover peas, that crazy bowl of leftover pineapple that we can’t seem to finish, a package of sweet peppers, and a loaf of bread to slice, butter, and toast.

Before heading back to bed that morning, I made Apple Dip that our family loves to enjoy for dessert.

Asa and Eva joined us for lunch and it appears that Asa and Keith had some sort of dual when they arrived. Or is that Keith? We can’t tell.

Eva’s parents had heard I was sick and they texted to see how they could help. I requested 10 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so that I could put together easy lunches for the school kids this week. (It’s crazy how even the simplest tasks feel hard when you’re sick.) Not only did they make and bring ten sandwiches, but they made ten entire bagged lunches! We started our week with a sack full of sacks – filled with sandwiches, chips, applesauce, and treats! We felt so blessed to be cared for this way. :)

Dinner that evening was Tortelloni and spinach. I forgot to take a picture, so here’s one from this post last September. (Awww, it’s our York kitchen…)

After dinner and toys were cleaned up for the evening, we got out a new craft kit for the kids to enjoy. This might have been a favorite for me because they are completely un-messy!! And they are great for kids with extra sensory needs. These babes stayed calm for ten entire minutes doing this. That may not sound impressive, but in our world, ten calm minutes is amazing.

Monday I was still not feeling well and asked some friends to come over for the evening to help with the kids. Malachi cut smoked sausage and put it into the crock pot for dinner.

Elias boiled 2-pounds of noodles and we put a container of White Queso from Sam’s into it. (Try this – its so good!) We made Caesar salad to round out the meal. Since our friends were coming over for the evening and I wanted to be sure our meal stretched far enough, I also got out a few cans of mandarin oranges. And then I went to bed and slept the entire evening while we had extra help. :)

Tuesday I felt a tiny bit better. We needed something quick to eat so I made Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Bars. Look at those sweet little Josie hands reaching up for a bar…

That afternoon, Elias seasoned two chickens and worked with Matt to get them onto the smoker for dinner. At meal time, I steamed green beans and made Mashed Potatoes like this. Such a comfort-food meal!

Justus and Kelsey had come over and after dinner we all “helped” Kelsey wrap up some boxes to turn into Giant Legos for a Trunk or Treat project this weekend. My energy was still so low that I wasn’t much help with crowd control. :/

Wednesday morning I had a special ed teacher coming over to spend time with BabyBoy#11. I needed a little something to eat before this meeting so I (too) quickly put this Smoothie into the blender – overfilling it in my haste. The lid came off and I ended up exploding it all over the kitchen and all over myself.

One of our housemates witnessed the entire thing and came to my rescue. “You go change and have your meeting. I’ll take care of this.” And she did. Sniff. We are well cared for.

For dinner that evening I got out the tidbit of leftover roast and potatoes we had from last week plus some of this week’s leftover chicken. I put the meat on hoagies with spinach and melted Havarti cheese on top. So good!

I fried the small amount of potatoes and got out leftover green beans. We all just got a tiny serving of sides, but we all got full. :)

Brayden had a special field trip on Thursday morning and the request was that all the kids try to put themselves fully into 1897 mode, from clothing to food. He wore his button-up shirt, jeans, and boots and here was his lunch that day:

A biscuit with butter, beef jerky, and an apple wrapped up in a cloth. He took a tin can for his water and was so excited that he could hardly sleep the night before. :)

Thursday evening we had plans to go to “Boo at the Zoo” which is a very big deal here in Lincoln. So that we could have an early dinner and get out the door easily (hahaha) I made a bowl of Chicken Salad with some of the leftover smoked chicken from earlier this week. We ate it on rolls with veggies and canned fruit and it tasted SO GOOD.

Here we have “New to the Neighborhood Community Helpers:” a gardener, a teacher, a construction worker, a babysitter, a policewoman, a fire chief, and a garbage man.

Friday turned COLD. The night before, Malachi brought up our totes of coats, gloves, and hats and Matt sorted them into piles. Keith tried on EVERYTHING when he got up on Friday morning. :)

Anna got in on the fun too, but somehow her “bundling up” included huge purple pants and a princess dress from our dress-up clothes trunk, plus crocks that are several sizes too big. At least she found a hat, though. :)

The best discovery from our sorting of warm items was the Blues Clues slippers from 2001(ish). Asa was the first to wear those, then each boy after that, and somehow we still have them for Keith to wear. (And all of the little sisters. Taking turns is a whole big thing around here.)

I had an IEP meeting at school for one of our kids that morning then three therapist sessions throughout the day (one of them for me, praise God).

Because the day was packed, I simply threw a huge pack of hotdogs into a pot to have warm at dinnertime so the kids could eat before moving on to our evening events.

The fullness of this day ended with Trunk or Treat with our church family in the evening. Thankfully, Justus and Kelsey fully took over the plans we had to be a part of it. We sent a very bundled up Brayden, Kiya, and Keith with Elias so that they could enjoy the event. But Matt and I kept the littlest four at home to stay warm.

Saturday we took the day off, as much as one can take the day off with so many kids. Nobody got dressed that day; we just chilled in jammies or whatever we had all slept in the night before. We did some cleaning, we watched some soccer, we didn’t go anywhere. It was great and needed.

I didn’t get a picture of lunch that day, but I asked the boys to make 5 boxes of mac and cheese. FIVE. BOXES. Which seems like plenty, doesn’t it? Excessive even? Sure, but we have housemates and they needed to eat too.

That pot of mac and cheese was devoured before Matt and I could have any or before our housemates came down to eat. Wow. I don’t even know how much to make in the future. Eight boxes?? Ten? Make two pounds of this instead? Yes probably.

That night I used some of the smoked chicken from earlier in the week to make Chicken Gravy to go over the leftover mashed potatoes. This tasted sooooo good on a cold, jammie day. The buttered peas really hit the spot that night with the kids too. Adding plenty of butter to steamed peas makes them taste like candy, apparently. ;)

And that was our week!

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The Castle Laundry Room

October 24, 2023 by Laura 2 Comments

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I’ve had a lot of requests that I share about our Castle Laundry Room. Here it is!

Our laundry room is in the basement, and it is a huge, functional room!

But here’s a little reminder of what our laundry room looked like the first week we moved in. It was FULLLLLL of linens and towels – like enough to run not just a Bed and Breakfast (as this property had been used before we purchased it) but enough to run a hotel. We spent hours clearing it out so that we can use it for our family’s needs.

We carted out 18 big black yard waste bags full of bedding, and then I stopped counting. I think Goodwill probably didn’t know what hit them that week. ;)

—>Pssst! Here’s an explanation of why we are calling our house our Castle. God is good, and this shares some of His goodness in meeting our needs. <—

Once we got the room cleared out, we started to form a plan – one that I’d thought of before we moved in.

See, my dilemma was that I do laundry for our seven littles plus Matt and me. We are all on the second floor of our Castle, and laundry is in the basement. You can imagine that laundry for nine people is quite a bit of laundry! I didn’t love the idea of lugging it up and down stairs over and over and over. And most of our kids are too little at this point to lug it themselves.

I had already stopped folding the laundry

Remember this? A year or so ago, I gave up on folding the 7 littles’ laundry. Here are all my reasons and I hold to the fact that this makes everything SO much easier. Folded onesies for BabyBoy#11 are ridiculous, toddlers rummaging through drawers destroy folding anyway, and even our 8 and 9-year-olds can’t keep their clothes folded long enough to make it from folding spot to drawer.

Folding clothes became a pointless job, so I gave up and do this instead. Now that we had moved into our Castle, I took this idea to a new level.

No dressers. All clothes stay in the laundry room.

We have an entire wall of shelves in the laundry room that are now like this:

When I do a load of laundry, instead of lugging it upstairs to our second floor to put it all away, instead I toss each item of clothing into its correct bin, cube, or basket. Like this:

This is a game changer! I still don’t keep up with laundry, but I sure do keep up better than I would if I were lugging laundry up and down, folding it all, and putting it away in dressers.

What I do lug upstairs

Matt and I do have dressers, because we’re grown ups and can handle them. They are in our bedroom because we don’t want to go to the basement for our shirts. :) So after I’ve sorted the seven littles’ laundry out of each load, I take these upstairs:

Matt’s clothes
my clothes
kitchen towels
bath towels

Sometimes these sit in the basket for days. Sometimes I empty the basket and put everything away in twenty minutes. It all depends on what is a priority at the moment, and usually, the priority isn’t putting away laundry. :)

How does it work to have the littles’ clothes in the basement?

It’s working great! We weren’t sure – would we really want to go to the basement every time we needed something for one of them? Well, as it turns out, we’d either be going up (to the second floor) or down (to the basement) – so it’s the same amount of steps no matter what. And being able to stand at the dryer and toss clothes directly into their tub? Amazingly efficient! Overall, we save a lot of effort doing it this way.

And Brayden, Kiya, and Keith – who are old enough to dress themselves – can go to the basement, change out of their dirty clothes, put their dirties in the hampers, and put on their clean clothes all in one place. At the beginning of each day, I run to the basement and grab clothes for the littlest four and head upstairs to start the process of getting them dressed. Easy! (I mean, as easy as it is to dress four toddlers/baby.)

I suppose you might want to see the washers/dryers?

The white set we brought from our York house. The silver set we inherited with the Castle. They are NICE and they are big. As are my piles of laundry – one of which is featured here.

We don’t actually have the white set completely usable yet, so at this point, we’ve all been using the big silver set. Somehow, this is working out fine – even with 16 people’s laundry being done here! Having the second set available will be nice eventually. But there are so many other priorities right now (like feeding the children and keeping them out of the street).

So there you have it! The Castle Laundry Room!

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Big Family Food and Fun: October 15-21, 2023

October 22, 2023 by Laura 1 Comment

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It’s Big Family Food and Fun: October 15-21!

This week started off with a…bang? Opposite of bang? I’m not sure. I had had a huge day on Saturday, speaking at and enjoying a wonderful Ladies’ Conference in Council Bluffs, Iowa. I’d also come down with a cold so by Sunday I had no voice and very little energy.

Thankfully, the Friday before I’d already put together a huge Lasagna for our Sunday lunch. I slid it into the oven Sunday before we left for church and made steamed green beans and buttered corn. (Extra Buttered Corn, actually because when we got home from church and Kelsey was helping fix kids’ plates I said, “Oh! I don’t think I put butter in the corn yet!” So she added some but I didn’t pay attention to that and so then I went and added some too. Ooops. I mean, can you have too much butter in your corn? You know how I feel about this.)

I thought you’d be super impressed with the dessert platter I worked so hard on for our Sunday lunch this day. Since I didn’t feel well, I pulled out all the stops and arranged a platter of packaged treats we’d been given on various Food Distribution days. See how fancy?

That evening, our neighbor John stopped by with produce from his brother’s garden plus more apples from his family’s trees. Amazing!

We got out leftover Chicken Enchiladas from last week and warmed them up for dinner. Cleaning out the fridge feels good!

The kids were still on Fall Break Monday and Tuesday. Matt took Brayden, Kiya, and Keith to the Food Distribution site on Monday morning to help set up for Tuesday (when people come to pick up food). Mid-morning, I made a double batch of Pineapple Fluff to go with our lunch.

Oh, and do you see that huge can of pineapple? I had picked that up at Sam’s a few weeks ago because it was such a great price. But goodness, even for our family, that’s a lot of pineapple! I added a lot to the Fluff, and had a big bowlful leftover. We’ll see how long it takes us to get through it! (UPDATE: It’s almost gone.)

Our neighbor had given us tomatoes from his brother’s garden, so we HAD NO CHOICE but to make BLTs for lunch. With Pineapple Fluff. :)

Brayden and Keith had an appointment that afternoon, so while they were gone with Matt, Kiya and I teamed up to make a huge batch of Applesauce with apples that our neighbor had brought us. We sure are being well cared for!!

Kiya washed the apples and I cut them into our huge stock pot.

This batch made two gallons of applesauce. Between this and the pineapple, we’re set for a few…days?? :)

That night for dinner we had Sloppy Joes, green beans, and warm applesauce.

We had a birthday girl on Tuesday! One of our housemates set this outside her door to surprise her when she woke up. So sweet!

Our kids get to choose all the meals on their birthdays. Kiya’s birthday breakfast choice was Pumpkin Donut Holes she’d been given when helping at last week’s Food Distribution. I made Scrambled Cheesy Eggs to go with them, plus got out applesauce.

I had to take BabyBoy#11 to an OT appointment so Matt held down the fort while we were gone. Then we loaded everyone up to go see Justus and Kelsey’s new house!!!! They closed on it last week and we were so excited to go see it! (Though they used to live only three blocks from us. How dare they move twelve minutes away??) :)

Kelsey had muffins waiting for the kids. Does she know them or what? We properly initiated their new kitchen with billions of muffin crumbs.

Then she pulled out a puzzle and magnatiles. Kelsey’s mom was visiting to help with the move. When she’s visiting, I always wish she and Kelsey’s dad lived closer to us!!

The kids requested that I take their pictures just outside Justus and Kelsey’s house before we left. :)

We headed home to make Kiya’s birthday lunch. She requested chicken nuggets and fries. But I only had a few nuggets in my bag so I pulled out several large chicken tenders to help make enough food for everyone.

After lunch, Kiya enjoyed a pedicure with one of our housemates and her daughter. Here they are, letting their toes dry while watching a show and drinking sparkling water. :)

Later that afternoon, Malachi, Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and I headed to the Food Distribution site to hand out food. I love this SO MUCH. Seeing people come through the lines to get food they need for their families. Seeing how my children are learning to help and serve. Visiting with the other volunteers and making some conversation with the food recipients. It’s all so good.

Malachi was Keith’s side kick that day and their job was to wash out coolers as they were emptied of their food.

We got home tired and hungry – and ready to celebrate Kiya’s birthday in full force! I had grilled 20 burgers before leaving that afternoon and put them into a crock pot to stay warm. Asa, Eva, and Kelsey arrived just as we made it home so we dug right in!

The birthday girl requested Pudding Parfaits instead of cake – though she was given a cake at Food Distribution that we served to those who wanted some.

An #8 candle fits perfectly into a pudding cup. :)

After dinner, we headed into the living room for present time.

Kiya got several hair accessories, a cup holder for her bike, and a new Bible from Matt and me. She can read now, so we felt she was ready for her first “real” Bible. :)

Wednesday the kids headed back to school after being home for five days on Fall Break. I packed Brayden and Kiya cottage cheese with fruit and a muffin for lunch.

Matt and Elias went to York to work on our houses, so Malachi hung with the kids and me all day. We loaded the five littlest and headed to Walmart. As hard as outings are with this many, they are better than no outings. Staying at home alllllllll day makes everyone a bit grumpy. So to Walmart we went!

During lunchtime, I put The Simplest White Chicken Chili in the crock pot. (This was the final meal from the smoked chicken I’d made.) We ate it with Fritos plus pineapple or Pineapple Fluff.

Thursday morning we woke up to delicious biscuits that one of our housemates had baked the night before to share with everyone. That was an amazing treat (and unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures before they were all gone!).

I packed a quick lunch of yogurt, pistachios, and Peanut Butter Bars for the kids for lunch.

I spent some time putting Roast, Carrots, and Potatoes into our huge roaster so that it could slow cook all day for dinner. All day it smelled so good – but the best part was knowing that the work of prepping dinner was completely done!

Three of our kids had speech therapy that morning so we enjoyed our Bridgette time.

The roast with potatoes and carrots was delicious that night!

I used some of the applesauce I’d made earlier in the week to make four loaves of Apple Bread.

Friday was a pretty chill day and we ended the night with Costco pizza and salad!

After it got dark and we brought the kids inside, we gathered around the table to decorate baby pumpkins. Only a little bit of (washable) marker got on the table. ;)

Saturday, Asa and Eva took Brayden, Kiya, and Keith to a birthday party for our friend Jace! Matt and I kept the littler ones home because of sickness.

That evening we pulled the rest of Thursday’s roast meal from the fridge to warm up. It tasted even better than the first night!

And that was our week!

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