Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: February 15-21, 2026 post!
Last week, I ended up getting sick before I could finish our weekly post. And I couldn’t get out of bed again until Monday morning. Matt was amazing to take on so much without me.
Saturday, February 14
Before I started to feel sick, I made a double batch of Butterscotch Bars for Justus’ birthday lunch the following day.
Matt stayed home with kiddos who had been sick while I took Keith, Acacia, and Josie to the library. Kelsey and Hopelyn met us there. I was absolutely fine until it was time to load up to head home. Then suddenly I felt achy and sooooo tired. It was to be expected. I’d been coughed on by lots of sick kids all week. I took my temp when I got home (102) and went to bed.
Big Family Food and Fun: February 15-21, 2026
Sunday, Matt and our adult kids got the seven young ones off to church. I watched online and felt very thankful to have that option. I attempted to get out of bed on Monday but only made it until around 7:00am when I had to go back and lay down. Thankfully, Emma came that morning to help Matt survive. The weather was beautiful so the kids (who were all home from school) played outside a good part of the day.
Matt warmed up leftovers for lunch and we took advantage of Valentino’s gift cards I’d picked up discounted at Costco a few weeks ago to order pizza for dinner.
On Tuesday, I attempted again to get up – and this time I made it! The kids were home again that day, and somehow this guy showed up in our entryway.
And then this princess appeared in the living room.
Praise God that the weather was amazing all during these days of sickness and breaks from school. The kids were outside again most of Tuesday, and we had an adventure with a run away dog. We called the number on his collar and a few minutes later, we had a chance to meet one of our neighbors that we hadn’t met yet! The kids were all so excited about solving this “crisis.”
We continued to finish off some leftovers at lunch time. Josie enjoyed the last of Malachi’s Cream Cheese Salsa Dip. I sent him this picture to give him a taste of home. He was in California spending the week visiting Matt’s side of the family. What a gift that he got to do this!
That afternoon, we put Auggie (and Mommy) down for a nap while Matt bravely took all six of the other kids to a park to play. Matt reported that a ton of kids were out that day. So many of us took advantage of this lovely weather and the days off of school to play!
For dinner, I’d grabbed a bunch of Chicken Legs from the freezer to thaw and then did my infamous “dump sauce on chicken” trick. For being that ridiculously easy, this meal sure is delicious. Or maybe I just finally had an appetite again? According to all the kids who had been running and playing in the fresh air and sunshine for days, their appetites were extra large too. We ate a lot of chicken legs, oranges, and broccoli that night.
Those who ate well (six out of seven kids) were rewarded with Homemade Chocolate Milk! We had some milk that had reached its expiration date, so I didn’t have a choice. I had to make Chocolate Milk so we could quickly finish it off.
Meanwhile, we had about 8 bananas sitting on the counter that had turned black while I’d been sick in bed. So I turned them into three loaves of Banana Bread that evening. It was a perfect bedtime snack (and breakfast the next morning).
The weather was gorgeous on Wednesday so we played outside as much as we could. Arrow was hanging out with us that morning!
I had baked a pan of Stick of Butter Rice that morning, then turned it into Tator Tot Casserole for dinner that night.
On Thursday morning, I made a pan of Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Bars for breakfast.
Throughout the morning, I baked several pans of bacon so I could finish off the box to clear out space in our fridge. The kids munched on bacon for their morning snack, and I got ahead for upcoming bacon-based meals.
Hopelyn hung out with us Thursday.
When the grandbabies are here, there is no shortage of caretakers. I’m often having to tell our little girls, “Give them some space!”
Dinner that night was a FEAST. I’d taken all the meat off the bones of our leftover BBQ Chicken Legs from Tuesday night. There was Bacon. There was White Queso. We had BBQ Chicken Bacon Ranch Nachos for dinner and it was delicious. All of us were home that night because snow had hit and was coming in fast, so we were hunkering down for the night.
Anna’s ABA behavior tech has been teaching her to play Chess – can you believe it? She is somehow loving this and figuring it out! As a result, she set up this game all by herself, and then started attempting to teach me how to play. It was very sweet.
Friday was a Snow Day! This called for a breakfast of Chocolate Chip Pancakes and Sausage.
We barely made it through breakfast before very eager children dug out all the boots and snowsuits and headed outside. As expected, this was a cold experience and didn’t last as long as they had originally intended.
Brayden had requested Warm Vanilla Soother, which really hit the spot along with the sausage links that hadn’t been finished up during breakfast.
Even Keith’s sloth got to enjoy this special snack.
We pulled out a craft project that afternoon. Those little beads are more complicated than one would hope.
However, Anna locked in and did not stop until her snowman was completed. This was a very big deal!
After that, Acacia and Kiya helped me put together a big Egg Hashbrown Casserole for Sunday’s Lunch.
For dinner that night, we had Sausage Gravy, Mashed Potatoes in the Crock Pot, and Peas.
On Saturday morning, I baked a double batch of Breakfast Cookie Bars and a pan of Nutella Oat Bars.
We made plans to have Justus’ birthday lunch redo since I’d been sick and unable to host Sunday lunch earlier this week. Elias and Malorie had frozen this Italian Cream Cheese Chicken sauce that I’d prepped ahead, so we thawed half of it for Saturday’s lunch.
This is as far as I got on this post before all the kids came over for birthday lunch. I’ll share more about our time together in next week’s post!
