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Big Family Food and Fun: November 9-15, 2025

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: November 9-15, 2025 post!

We enjoy a Sabbath rest from Saturday evening through Sunday evening – so I turn off my computer on Saturday afternoons and miss posting some of these pictures. I’ll catch up on our last Saturday activities before launching into our new week!

Saturday, November 8

Early Saturday morning, I made a huge pan and a regular-sized pan full of Chicken Enchiladas for our upcoming Sunday Lunch.

Then I made a batch of Vanilla Ice Cream for Matt’s birthday lunch that day. His birthday had taken place a few days before, but we’d made plans to celebrate on Saturday.

We took a bunch of antsy kids to Library Storytime that morning. Getting them there and getting them home is a big effort, but worth it because they really need all the outings like this that we can provide for them.

Back at home, I finished putting together a big lunch: Oven Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes in the Crock Pot, Gravy, and Buttered Peas.

We feasted, then had Berry Cobbler and Ice Cream.

After lunch, we cleared away the plates and played a game of Settlers of Catan. Playing games is the best way to celebrate Matt’s birthday!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 9-15, 2025

Anna and Josie were the first to help themselves to Breakfast Cookie Bars on Sunday morning. Our kids (and me, for that matter) still haven’t adjusted to Daylight Savings Time so our mornings are starting ridiculously early.

After a wonderful time of worship that morning, our church family helped us load up a tote full of non-perishable food to add to our Little Free Pantry so that we could offer support to our neighbors.

Several families joined us for lunch after church and it was wonderful to visit and get to know what was going on in each other’s lives.

I caught Auggie in the playroom with his little Church Twin. These two boys are similar in age and if you see one at just a glance, you can’t tell which is which. It’s pretty sweet. :)

We enjoyed Chicken Enchiladas, Guacamole, Beans, Stick of Butter Rice, Chips and Salsa, and Chocolate Chip Cookies baked into Bars for lunch.

There were 26 of us gathered that day. We never feel like we get to talk to all of our guests as much as we’d like. But it’s still great to connect, and even better to see all of our guests visiting with each other. This time is so rich.

That afternoon, instead of hosting Community Group, Matt and I left the kids behind with Elias and Malachi (Malorie was visiting her family in Texas) while we took a small pan of Chicken Enchiladas over to our friends’ house where our Group was meeting instead. We are sad that these friends are moving to another state in a couple of months. This day, we spent time together packing boxes, moving refrigerators, and loading items to donate. The time together was bittersweet as we think about doing life together differently in the near future.

Back at home I threw together a quick dinner of Chicken Nuggets, leftover Mac and Cheese, and Salad. The kids were pretty wild and loud that night after being cooped up in the house to avoid being outside in the cold. Matt tried to run them around up and down our stairs with a game of ball tag, which they loved. Then he attempted a board game, which was absolutely nuts. Meanwhile, I was trying to manage kids jumping and yelling on the sidelines. God bless us everyone.

Monday morning, we had to change our schedule a little bit. Matt and I had the opportunity to record some podcasts at Back to the Bible where Asa works (and where Eva’s mom, Paula works too!). We settled the three youngest at home with Emma (who comes on Monday mornings), then we dropped the other kids off at school on our way.

I don’t have any pictures from our morning, but it was wonderful to spend time with the Back to the Bible crew! When we got home, the kids were outside with Emma playing in the leaves. Auggie had decked himself out in his coat and Brayden’s huge boots. He was very proud!

For dinner that night, I thawed and heated a pot of Taco Soup. It was great to simply pull it from the freezer without any effort!

That evening was especially rough. One of our kids had a meltdown that basically lasted from the time we picked kids up from school until it was time to go to bed. The others took turns melting down, so there was screaming and yelling in our house all evening long. Through it, on my way to the couch with a sad/mad kiddo to try and sit and help them calm their body down, I captured this scene, which only looks like we all sit and color and play magnatiles calmly in the evenings, ha.

Tuesday morning, Josie helped me make Pumpkin Muffins.

As we learn more every day about Autism Spectrum Disorder, we find that it’s impossible to get ahead of what our kids might “fixate” on. They see something or hear about something and suddenly it becomes the only thing they can think about. For Keith, this is often as small as an Amazon box or a long stick – and it is the most special item in the world – the only thing that matters. Or it is that he must have a dirt bike and a field to ride it in, and I need to buy this for him immediately. (<–try reasoning this out of an ASD kiddo. yikes.)

Well, on Tuesday morning, Keith’s obsession was getting dressed up to be the most handsome boy at school. This one we could accommodate and had no arguments with. (Also worth noting, at bedtime that same night, Keith laid in my room with me and sang a worship song for ten entire minutes that he was making up as he went. His song was all about praise to God and how Jesus has all the power and makes the darkness go away and is with us all the time and everywhere no matter what. It was the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard as it shows us that while Keith has a lot of struggles, the Truth of Jesus is getting into his heart. Oh how I needed to hear that song from his precious heart.)

After we got the kids to school that day, Justus dropped off Little Sweetheart to spend the day with us. Our day was pretty chill and we got a lot of little things done at home. Mostly, we played outside in the sunshine because we want to take advantage of every moment that we can before the severe cold sets in.

I took Brayden and Kiya to hand out food and clean with me at our weekly Food Distribution while Matt held down the fort with the other kids at home. As we expected, many more people came through the food line that day than we have had in the past. Thankfully, we had lots and lots of food that had been donated that we could hand out to people. As clients were making their way through to each food table, someone came in with jugs and jugs of milk for us to hand out – wow! So almost everyone who came through got a gallon of milk as a bonus. This was great to see!

When we got home, ABA therapy was well underway with Anna and a new technician that will be working with her for the short term while we wait for a permanent one. The needs of this, along with all the other needs of the kids, distracted me from taking a picture of our dinner that night. We had Crunchy Ranch Chicken Strips, Salad, leftover Veggies from the fridge, and Pumpkin Muffins.

On Wednesday morning, while the kids were eating breakfast, I packaged up some hamburger patties and buns to put into our Little Free Pantry fridge. I’d picked up a pack of 12 hamburger patties on sale, so I repackaged them to provide three families with four burgers. This project has been so much fun!

Arrow came to hang out with us that morning. He and Josie were playing during snack time and I love this action shot!

We are in the process of getting Josie set up with ABA Therapy now that we have her ASD diagnosis. So this morning, we had a Telehealth call to work toward putting together her program. The clinician was very sweet to include Acacia in the fun interactions as they were running some tests to assess Josie’s cognitive ability.

That afternoon, I filled a cart at Aldi with items for our Little Free Pantry fridge and also for our own family’s needs.

That afternoon, we had quite a challenge getting Anna home from school. She struggles so much getting to and from school, but does just fine during school. The sidewalks had cleared and we still couldn’t motivate Anna to get on her bike to ride home (her legs didn’t work, she “couldn’t remember” how to pedal, she wanted to hold the snacks that Keith had…).

Ms. Rachel is one of the preschool teachers so she knows Anna from last year. She has been wonderful to step in and help several times when we’ve struggled to leave school. Here’s a shot I took of the two of them as Ms. Rachel worked to pull Anna out of the meltdown that was on its way to turning to shutdown. I sent this photo to Matt to let him know we were still at school and it would be a while before we made it back. God bless Ms. Rachel (oh, and Ms. Alex who joined us also and teamed up to finally get us on our way). Phew.

It was a hectic evening as Anna struggled her way through ABA therapy that night also. Dinner was really good though! I’d smoked Pork Chops that afternoon, then Stir Fried some Veggies (asparagus, zucchini, and carrots), and made Stuffing (from a box, ha). This all tasted delicious!

Brayden goes to Youth Group Bible Study on Wednesday evenings and it was his turn to take snacks this week. He helped me come up with his “menu” and he was very excited. He took chips and salsa, grapes, and Rice Krispie treats.

Kiya’s birthday was back in October and one of her gifts was to have a one-on-one outing with me to go pick out a new volleyball for our family to enjoy. Four weeks later, we FINALLY made this outing happen! It was a sweet time and after much deliberation, she chose this one.

Thursday morning, I made a loaf of French Toast for breakfast.

We checked our Little Free Pantry fridge after breakfast and it was completely empty – praise God! That means more people came and took what they needed after we went to bed. So the kids helped me restock it.

Before we left for school, I took this picture to show you, then we added in a few more items after we got back from school drop off. We try to keep a variety of items in the fridge to offer people choices, but not many more than one or two of each particular thing: milk, apples, yogurt, cheese, 6-pack of eggs, carrots, and a few meat options.

Little Sweetheart spent the day with us again and we took full advantage of sunshine and crunchy leaves to play in.

Auggie felt it necessary to rake the cement. And because one can never be too safe, he wore a baseball helmet to complete his task.

After school, Keith put on his full firefighter gear because that morning a firetruck had responded to a call across our street. Thus, he was now in firefighter mode.

And just who do you suppose drove by our house again that afternoon? More firefighters. They saw Keith in our yard, all decked out in his gear ready to fight fires. So they stopped so that they could take a picture. These men are heroes.

I’d made a very simple meal of Sloppy Joes with Chips and Grapes for dinner. My goal was to be able to spend time with the kids outside before it got dark since the temperatures were so warm.

We played volleyball until it got too dark to see the ball.

I’d browned ten pounds of hamburger meat that afternoon. Some of it got turned into our dinner. The rest of it got turned into a huge pot of Chili that I planned to serve on Sunday for lunch. Kiya was my Helper of the Day so she worked with me on this project.

On Friday morning, Matt took Josie and Auggie with him to take the elementary kids to school so that I could leave early with Acacia. Before her therapy appointments, we went to Wal-Mart to get more items for our Little Free Pantry. She was very insistent on helping me scan the groceries as we checked out.

For the next two hours, Acacia worked hard at Speech and Physical Therapies.

Back at home, we found Auggie hard at work with his Early Development Network special ed teacher. He was working his way through a sensory tunnel and Josie was helping.

That afternoon, I got ready for Keith’s 7th birthday dinner. He wanted a Dirt Bike cake so I rigged up a bike with a ramp. He loved it!

His dinner menu request was: Noodles. That’s it. He just wanted noodles. While that was fine for him (and for five of our other kids), I knew the rest of us would want something with our noodles. So I made both red and white sauces, warmed some bacon to go with white sauce, and steamed some broccoli.

We played a little bit of volleyball before dinner so that we could enjoy time outside before dark.

Then we all gathered around the table for the big birthday feast. Keith enjoyed two plates full of noodles with butter and salt. I was also able to get him to eat some birthday broccoli!

We never have to give big, expensive gifts to make the kids happy. Keith received a fun ball toss toy that I’d picked up on clearance for $4 a few months ago, plus a set of elbow, knee, and wrist protection gear to wear on all his bike/skateboard/skate adventures.

Saturday was full, so I’ll have to catch you up on this next week. We:

  • Made a double batch of Breakfast Cookie Bars for upcoming Sunday breakfasts
  • Made a double batch of Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies for snacks and lunchboxes
  • Went to Library Storytime
  • Ate leftovers for lunch
  • Tucked Auggie in for a nap and left him home with adult kids while we took the others to Heartlands church for a Build a Blessing event
  • Got home and made a bunch of Quiche for dinner to enjoy with my cousins who were passing through town

And that was our week!

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Big Family Food and Fun: November 2-8, 2025

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: November 2-8, 2025 post!

We enjoy a Sabbath rest from Saturday evening through Sunday evening – so I turn off my computer on Saturday afternoons and miss posting some of these pictures. I’ll catch up on our last Saturday activities before launching into our new week!

Saturday, November 2

Saturday evening was pretty chill for us. We’d told the kids that if they played outside all afternoon, we’d watch a movie at night after it got too dark and cold to play.

Anna and Acacia had discovered our “Sabbath Candles” – the ones we like to put on our table at dinnertime on Saturday evening. They pretended to make Birthday Cakes and were very giggly about it. :)

(P.S. Just in case you thought our Sabbath evening included playing with fire – These are not actual flames. These candles have little switches to turn on and off the lights and are rechargeable.)

I realized late that afternoon that I hadn’t made Breakfast Cookie Bars for Sunday, so I quickly threw a double batch together and into the oven to bake.

I’d slow cooked a crock pot full of Ham and Potato Soup, so that was our easy and delicious dinner before bath time.

After baths, we got the kids settled into the living room and I made popcorn.

Matt had discovered The Chosen Adventures and introduced it to the kids. Very cool!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 2-8, 2025

Sunday morning BRIGHT AND EARLY – because Daylight Savings Time means nothing to children – we enjoyed our Breakfast Cookie Bars. :)

Worship that morning was especially encouraging!! Then 23 of us gathered for lunch at our house.

I had made two huge pans of Lasagna plus Green Beans and Corn. Friends brought Salad, Fruit, and Croissants. We ate our way through this pan of Lasagna and got a healthy start on the second one once I pulled it out of the oven too.

Our friend Christy had brought Rice Krispie Treats and I made a Chocolate Spinach Cake topped with Peanut Butter Whipped Cream and chopped Reese’s.

This day was life-giving!

Matt and I enjoyed Community Group that afternoon, then I made a simple dinner of Mac and Cheese with Peas. We have some friends who are in the middle of a lot of stress, so after dinner, we loaded into the van and delivered a dish of leftover Lasagna and some Burritos from our freezer for them to warm up and eat as needed.

Monday morning, I made a blender full of this Smoothie for Matt and me while the kids ate Breakfast Sandwiches or Homemade Granola Bars.

Our friend Emma arrived at 8:00 to hang out with kids all morning. I can’t tell you what a gift this is for us!! Auggie’s ABA therapy began with his technician and therapist at 8:30. Then Matt got the elementary school kids to school by 8:55. Brayden had ridden his bike and gotten himself to school earlier.

Matt and I had planned for me to take the day off for some much needed alone time. So as soon as all the kids were settled, I headed out for the day. I went and got my hair trimmed (it had been months, yikes!), then shopped at Marshall’s for clothes for the kids. This is what the check-out pile looks like when you have this many kids and you get each of them a couple of needed items. :)

Aldi was super close-by, so I ran in and got a few non-perishables. I found shoes on clearance that will make fun Christmas gifts for the girls!

At 3:00, I pulled Kiya out of school early to head to a doctor appointment. We’ve been taking all of our younger kids in this year for assessments so that we can better meet their needs. So now it’s Kiya’s turn!

Since I’d been gone all day, I’d planned for Burritos and Fruit for dinner. This was easy and most of the kids eat this meal. Those who didn’t ate leftover Mac and Cheese.

On Tuesday morning, Little Sweetheart came over. She’d heard that Lolli could use some help with the laundry, so came ready to be of assistance.

She snacked on Banana Muffins with Acacia and Josie.

That afternoon, I took Brayden and Kiya to serve at our weekly Food Distribution. We weren’t able to stay the entire time and help clean up afterward like we usually do because I needed to run over to the kids’ school for Parent Teacher Conferences that evening.

I had made a crock pot full of Party Potatoes for dinner. Plus I’d pulled some leftover cooked Hamburgers and Brats from the freezer to rewarm. Throughout the evening, Matt fed the kids while I was at conferences and the adults helped themselves to the prepped dinner.

That night was super special and enjoyable! Josie had asked if we could “do the fire pit” and Matt was happy to oblige. Every adult in the house happened to be available to join us around the fire. We laughed, shared about our day, and wow, it was such a good time. I praise God for this!

As we headed in for the night, the adults continued the fun in the kitchen as Matt and I got kids headed upstairs for bed. I love this.

Wednesday morning, Anna had a wonderful time setting up a magnatile train with lots of people. It was very sweet.

Then Arrow came over and played with Anna’s creation with Auggie after we got the other kids to school.

Arrow enjoyed Banana Muffins and fruit with Josie.

That afternoon, I overflowed a cart at Sam’s.

Brayden was my Helper of the Day, so he put together our salad for dinner.

I had put a Melt-in-Your-Mouth Beef Roast into a crock pot early that morning. It did not disappoint! It was soooo moist and delicious. We had it with Green Beans, Corn, Salad, and Buttered Rolls.

Kiya practiced her Viola in the kitchen while I did dishes.

Then she helped me put together some small containers of eggs. Why?? Well…

Our family has felt led to offer a Little Free Pantry in our neighborhood. I’ve shared that our church has a couple of Little Free Pantries in Lincoln that we work together to help fill up with non-perishable food when we can. (One of them is about 8 blocks from our house.) We see lots of people donating extra to Food Banks and Pantries right now, and we are so thankful for this as we hate the idea of anyone having to face food insecurity.

One of our bigger concerns has been the possible lack of perishable food items being available. And then we realized: We have outdoor electrical outlets right by our sidewalk – which is right where people walk after getting off the city bus as they head to their apartments close by. So we set up a table and Matt and Malachi carried out our dorm fridge. We put up signs, and the kids were so excited to help put food in the fridge and in a tote to offer to people who walk by and have a need.

We put in some half gallons of milk, cheese, butter, yogurt, turkey, sausage, carrots, fruit, cheese sticks, and eggs.

We put non-perishables in a tote.

It isn’t fancy, but our prayer is that it meets needs. Within just a few hours, several people had already stopped by and helped themselves. Malachi and I were able to visit with a lady as she put some items in a bag – which is the best part of all. We hope to have lots of conversations as we see what God does with this.

Back in the house, I’d baked Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins.

Plus I’d made a double recipe of Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies for school/work lunches.

Late morning, I put together 14 Breakfast Sandwiches for our freezer.

Acacia and Josie set up our basement stairs as a school bus and they put all their babies on the bus. They played this for an hour – amazing!

I took Kiya to another appointment that afternoon. I came home feeling so emotionally drained from this, even while I was thanking God that He has provided doctors to help us.

It was Matt’s birthday and we had plans to celebrate with our family on Saturday. But for tonight, I still wanted to treat him to a special dinner. So I had smoked two racks of ribs for several hours all day, then put them into our roaster to finish cooking while I was at the appointment with Kiya. When we got home, I made Instant Pot Mac and Cheese, Steamed Carrots, and leftover Green Beans.

The food we’d put into our Little Free Pantry Fridge and Tote was already running low, praise God! So Friday morning, before taking Acacia to her therapy appointments, she and I ran to Wal-Mart. A friend of mine had Venmo’d over some money and I used it to buy more food to restock our give-away items. I scored big on marked down meat to put into the little fridge for people to take. Plus I bought more cheese and several more jugs of milk.

I threw the food into coolers in our van, then Acacia worked hard at Speech and Physical Therapy.

Did you know crawling (and growling) like a bear can help work on leg strength and balance? These therapies are hard work for Acacia, and it’s pretty sweet to see how her therapists try to make it fun for her.

The past two days had been extra full as we’d focused on setting up, filling, and maintaining our Little Free Pantry. That afternoon, friends stopped by to check it out and add food to the tote. Another friend had added several pounds of meat to the fridge. Throughout the day, neighbors and passers-by stopped and took what they needed. The entire experience so far has been wonderful in every way.

And with that, because of spending extra time on the pantry, I decided to take the night off from making dinner. :) We took advantage of Casey’s reward points that I forgot I had and ordered three (almost free) pizzas.

After we ate, I made another big pan full of Chewy Granola Bars. Plus I made a Berry Cobbler for Matt’s family birthday lunch the following day.

I needed some potatoes scrubbed for Mashed Potatoes for the birthday lunch. Brayden got a good start, then Anna finished. She was so happy to be a helper that she “washed” a few dishes afterward too!

I took Saturday off so that we could enjoy family time. We went to the library in the morning, then at Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Cobbler, and Ice Cream with some of our family who could join us. Then we put babies down for naps, put a movie on for the kids, and the grown-ups played a game.

And that was our week!

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Big Family Food and Fun: October 12-18, 2025

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: October 12-18, 2025 post!

We enjoy a Sabbath rest from Saturday evening through Sunday evening – so I turn off my computer on Saturday afternoons and miss posting some of these pictures. I’ll catch up on our last Saturday activities before launching into our new week!

Saturday, October 11

Heartlands Church had its annual Harvest Festival on Saturday evening, so we went to join the fun! Some of our neighbors joined us there, making it extra meaningful.

When Asa, Eva, and Arrow arrived they stole the show for a moment because they were all in their flannels looking SO CUTE. Little Sweetheart made the moment even sweeter as she toddled over as fast as she could to greet Arrow.

A meal was served, there were firepits with s’more fixings, and Heart Shot Ministry was there. Our kids love the chance to do archery!

Asa talked me into giving it a try, and Eva grabbed a photo!

Our kids enjoyed getting their faces painted!

The night was special and sweet, for sure.

Big Family Food and Fun: October 12-18, 2025

On Sunday morning, we ate our traditional plate full of Breakfast Cookie Bars.

The girls got to be Super Kids during Kids Ministry time and our friend Klaire sent this sweet picture to me!

Last week had been so full of appointments and meetings that I hadn’t been able to prep for a big Sunday Lunch like normal. So what did we do? We fell back on the amazing Rotisserie Chickens from Sam’s as our main dish and asked everyone to bring sides! This is such a great way to host guests and enjoy a delicious meal with very little effort!

There were 22 of us gathered that day and we went through 2.5 Rotisserie Chickens along with Baked Beans, Corn, Green Beans, Grapes, Pears, Rolls, Caesar Salad, Chips, and Desserts.

The evening was pretty chill. We ate leftovers from the fridge and played in our yard until the sun went down.

On Monday morning, we had a day off school for Fall Break. I got out some leftover Pancakes from our fridge and let the kids cut them into pumpkins for breakfast.

We loaded everyone up to spend a beautiful day at the zoo. The weather was perfect – which means that the Red Panda came out to play.

I always say that the Red Pandas are my favorite (because they are soooo cute). But we all know that the Flamingos are my favorite favorite.

I’d cooked hotdogs and put them on buns before we left, then put them into a freezer bag and then into an insulated bag. Our hotdogs were warm and perfect at lunchtime! We had them with apples, almonds, chips, and applesauce.

We spend a long while in the Dino Dig before visiting the camels, birds, penguins, and sea otters. Then we made our way back to our van to get Auggie home for a nap.

Malachi met up with us at home after a video shoot, just in time to leave again for another job. This one was just a few blocks away at a nearby park with a UNL Volleyball player. Matt loaded up the kids to head to the park to watch Malachi work. (He often gets contracted to create ads with university athletes who are sponsored by specific companies. He’s met a lot of fun people doing this!)

We’d been able to watch part of last weekend’s volleyball game on TV, so Kiya and Keith were extra excited to see this athlete in person. Keri was sweet enough to take a picture with some of our kids! Then Matt got them out of the way so that Malachi and Keri could do what they actually came to do. :)

I’d used the rotisserie chicken bones from Sunday to make broth that morning. So that night for dinner, we enjoyed our very first Chicken Noodle Soup of the season.

Tuesday, the kids had one last day of school off for Fall Break. I had reserved a slot for our family at the Bee Me Sensory Gym and we showed up right at opening time. This place is sooooo great!

I’m fascinated by all that this gym offers – for any kid – but very specifically for special needs kids. This isn’t just a play place but a facility that has been created to provide kid with sensory needs with both stimulation and calm.

 

We played until lunchtime, then took the kids across the street to Costco to treat them to a special lunch. Oy, feeding our kids this way takes a special level of patience. It isn’t their fault, there’s just a lot of them and they all have a hard time sitting still. We survived, bellies got filled, and I think they all thought this was a lot of fun. How many napkins did we go through? Too many napkins.

We were getting low on diapers at home, so after we cleaned up our very big lunch mess, we trekked everyone to the back of the store to pick up two boxes.

We then headed back across the street to the Sensory Gym to take advantage of our day pass. Was it Auggie’s naptime? It was. But did he push through for an extra fun hour? He did.

Back at home, Auggie slept while kids played outside. Then I took Brayden, Kiya, and Keith to serve at our weekly Food Distribution. Keith found a notebook and colored pencils lying around so he drew pictures while we waited for clients to come through the line.

I had thrown Meatballs into a crock pot with barbecue sauce before leaving. Matt warmed up Green Beans and baked a Potato Casserole that our friend Rebecca had made.

On Wednesday morning, I put together a few Breakfast Sandwiches to freeze and take to friends who just had a new baby.

Josie had an eye specialist appointment that morning. She was a trooper as we were there for quite a while – plus she had to have her eyes dilated.

At least she got some cool shades to take home with her! And she got a diagnosis – nothing serious – but something to watch as she gets older to evaluate for the need for surgery. We’ll go back every six months to monitor her vision and eye movement/tracking.

We got home in time for Acacia and Josie to get on the school bus. Then Auggie hopped in with me for a big grocery trip at Aldi.

Dinner that night was simple: Ham, Mac and Cheese, and Peas.

I had some bananas that either needed to go into the freezer or be turned into Banana Muffins. The muffin idea seemed to be the better one:

On Thursday morning, I baked several pans of bacon like this to prepare for a big Breakfast For Dinner that evening.

Matt rented a lift for a week so that he could do some work on our roof and gutters. This has been a major source of excitement for our kids. We sat in the stroller and watched the show for a while after we got home from dropping kids off at school.

My dad and his wife, Tacy, came for the day!! We invited all the kids over for dinner so that they could spend time with them and so that Papa and Grandma could see their great grandbabies.

We doubled this gathering to also be Kiya’s birthday dinner since we were all together anyway. She chose breakfast food, so we had a fantastic feast of Pancakes, Egg Casserole, Sausage, Bacon, and Fruit.

Friday morning, I took Acacia to Speech and Physical therapies.

It was Kiya’s 10th birthday and with the significance of her turning double digits, we had a small party for her. Three friends came over to watch a movie and I put together a Party Tray. They munched and watched – it was super simple. But the girls had a great time!

Kiya requested Oreo Brownies for her birthday dessert. Those were a hit too!

Saturday morning, I realized that I didn’t have any Breakfast Cookie Bars in the freezer for the next day. So I made a big pan full.

Kelsey texted that she was at a park with Little Sweetheart, and since Matt’s been trying to get as much work done on the lift as possible, I loaded up the kids by myself to meet her there. It was beautiful outside and we were able to stay and play for a little over two hours!

We came home and ate leftovers for lunch. Then our friends John and Christina came and picked up our kids (everyone except for Auggie, who was napping) to take them to their house for the afternoon. AMAZING.

I finished this post and then I did nothing while Auggie napped. This was such a needed time of rest and I thank God for it!

And that was our week!

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