Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Big Family Food and Fun: August 6-12, 2023

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It was our last week before school starts and we made the most of it!

It all began last Sunday

Getting everyone off to church (or anywhere) is quite a production. But the there’s this sweetness as we were brushing hair and putting on dresses…

We are so blessed to begin each week by hosting whoever God brings to our home for Sunday lunch. Now that we are more settled after our move, we are able to prepare a big meal and fill the house. There were 26 of us this particular Sunday. Our kitchen was full, our dining room spilled over into our living room, and I felt so cared for by God that He would give us this gift.

Big Family Food and Fun

I had made brunch foods for this Sunday Lunch: This Egg Casserole (multiplied to include 36 eggs and 3-pounds of sausage), Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins, Raspberry Oatmeal Bars (made with blueberry jelly instead because that’s what I had in the fridge), strawberries, grapes, and raw veggies.

Remember how I said that I’ve decided to save money by skipping the butter in my Stick of Butter Rice?? (<— it tastes the same with or without it, so…) Well, look how much butter it takes to make this small pan of Raspberry Oatmeal Bars. Hahaha, I will never skimp on the butter in this one, and it’s WORTH IT. These are incredible. Because of the butter. :)

So many dear friends joined us for our Sunday meal, and our friend Cindy brought her delicious Mac and Cheese and Cowboy Caviar (similar to this recipe) with chips to share with everyone.

 

 

We rested in the afternoon after our guests left, and for dinner that evening I made this Creamy Mac and Cheese. Then I warmed up leftover taco meat and opened a can of tuna. What??? Ah, but I had a method to my madness. Whoever wanted to add tuna to their mac and cheese turned their meal into Tuna Casserole. But whoever added taco meat to their mac and cheese turned their meal into Cheeseburger Mac. We ate this with buttered peas and watermelon.

That night the weather was beautiful so we headed out for a walk. We heard live music nearby so we decided to follow our ears to see where they took us!

How fun! There was a church nearby who was hosting a free event for the community. There was live music, a lady making balloon creations for the kids, and Kona Ice. We enjoyed the music and had fun with our balloon creations.

Monday morning I had to take two of our girls to an appointment so I threw bananas, yogurt tubes, and leftover bars onto the table for breakfast.

Late morning Elias made three frozen Costco pizzas and we loaded all the kids into the van to eat at the zoo. (Matt had gone to York for the day.)

We enjoyed our pizza along with peach cups and juice, then we let the kids play in a big play area next to the spider monkeys before heading home for naps.

That night we joined two of our neighbor families for a super fun meal of hotdogs and smores.

Ah, and water balloons!!

We are so very thankful that God provided us with such a wonderful neighborhood full of wonderful people to do life with. We all need this.

In York on Monday, Matt got 10 dozen eggs from our neighbors. It feels good to be stocked up again!

Tuesday morning I mixed up a double recipe of Bran Muffins. Plus I made a double batch of Applesauce Bread and “baked” them in my crock pots. It sort of worked. The outside became a bit overdone while we waited for the middle to finish baking. Then it fell apart as I was taking it out of the crocks. But it still tasted good!

I packed crumbly pieces into a container to take to the zoo for another picnic.

Malachi hadn’t been to the zoo with us yet since so much of the summer he had been away for work and camps. So we were all excited to show him all we’d discovered all summer. We decided that our extra zoo fun for today would be to feed the giraffes.

On our way to have lunch with the flamingos (we love flamingos, plus there’s a perfect picnic table right by them!), we stopped to show Malachi the penguins.

It was well past lunchtime by then and Acacia decided she couldn’t wait. Before I realized it, she had pulled out the Apple Bread – and spilled all of it onto the cement. Then of course all the little girls rushed over to eat off the ground. Yuck. I hated to waste it but we scooped it up into the trash and decided to make our way to the table to actually feed everyone finally.

Lunch that day was crackers with cheese, turkey, and ham plus applesauce or peach cups, dried blueberries, and juice. But no apple bread, ha.

For dinner that night, a new friend joined us and we ate Costco’s tortelloni with sauce and steamed broccoli.

Wednesday morning we ate more of the Bran Muffins, which I cut in half, buttered, and warmed in the air fryer. They are so good this way!

For lunch I made Hashbrown and Egg Nests with ham included. These went over very well!! I made extras on purpose so we could warm them up for quick breakfasts next week before school.

Matt was in York again that day, so Malachi went with me to the mall so the kids could run off some energy in the play area there before naptime.

Justus and Kelsey joined us for dinner that night. I smoked two pork loin, warmed up leftover green beans and broccoli, stir fried some squash and zucchini, and made several boxes of mac and cheese.

I had also baked a cake that afternoon – and of course I had snuck in a bunch of spinach. This was a fun treat for dessert!

Our dear friend Phyllis came to visit us Thursday morning. We showed her around the Castle, took her on a walk to show her the Sunken Gardens, then came home and made grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.

The way she pours love into our kid is priceless.

By the way, being able to make make grilled cheese or pancakes on this amazing griddle built into our stove is sooooo nice! Also, I used Havarti cheese slices from Costco. WOW. That cheese is a game changer for sandwiches.

Meanwhile, would you believe? Our friend Barbara had read in an email I sent out earlier in the week about our Great Apple Bread Spill at the zoo. She secretly made us a large loaf to replace what we lost and her hubby dropped it off that morning while we were gone. What precious friends. I told our kids: remember this, guys. We can offer special gifts of love to others too. :) :) :)

After we got the kids down for naps and rest time, I ran out the door to get groceries and a few last minute needed school clothes items. I got a lot of produce at Costco (plus jeans for the kids that I found marked down!).

Then I went to Aldi to get yogurt, milk, buns, and rolls.

When I got home, we worked together to unload groceries (which sounds much sweeter than it actually was – after I’ve been gone the kids usually go a little crazy when I get back, oy). Matt had baked frozen pizzas and I made smoothies to go with it so we could have a quick dinner (which sounds much sweeter than it was because the little girls spilled their smoothies and turned dinner into a huge mess, oy).

We cleaned up and rushed out the door for a Walk to School Night so the kids could meet their teachers and see their classrooms. It had been an extra crazy hour of putting away groceries and feeding everyone (and cleaning up smoothie spills) so we were VERY happy that right before we left, Kelsey texted to see if we wanted her help getting to the school that night. YES PLEASE.

Getting ready for company

Friday morning we enjoyed Barbara’s Apple Bread before getting our house ready for our first overnight guests at the Castle!

The family we were getting ready to host is a family of 8, so all of our meals were about to become extra large! I got out this huge bag of chicken thighs and dumped marinade right into the bag so I could smoke it that night for our dinner.

I also baked a double batch of Chocolate Chip Muffins for Saturday’s breakfast.

And made a huge pan of brownies. :)

When the kids started to get squirrely, we packed a picnic, put on their swimsuits, and headed to the splash park.

I had air fried a big box of Taquitos (from Sam’s) for our picnic that day. It worked great! We ate them with clementines, yogurt, and cookies.

During naptime, our friends arrived!!!!! This family is incredibly dear to us. Since the girls were napping, we wasted no time getting out cards to play our mutually favorite game of Nertz. I was ridiculously rusty as I haven’t played in years. So I got a terrible score but it sure was fun!

We smoked the marinated chicken at dinnertime, cut up watermelon and brownies…

….made steamed green beans, buttered corn, and oh yeah. I had washed and thrown a bunch of potatoes into a crock pot before leaving for the Splash Park so that they could bake and be ready for dinner.

Our table was full and it was perfect.

After dinner, we took our friends on a walk to the Sunken Gardens so they could enjoy the beauty with us.

We are a large parade when just our family goes, but adding the Brocks must have been quite a show as we walked from our house to the garden. There were 19 of us out with our strollers, wagon, and kids/adults on foot. :)

We had popsicles when we got back because we had earned them. :) Then we got all the kids showered and to bed, quite the ordeal!!

When I woke up the next morning I was planning in my head how I would take advantage of the extra hands available to give my kitchen floor a much-needed sweep and mop. But look what I woke up to!!!! A beautifully clean kitchen with scrubbed floors. SO SWEET. Thank you, Brocks!!

I set out a breakfast buffet of sausage, bacon, muffins, bread, fruit, Cream Cheese Fruit Dip, and yogurt. It was simple and good.

After breakfast, we packed a sub sandwich lunch and headed out to the zoo for a few hours.

Here are 17 of us (Kelsey joined us too but was the one taking the picture). :)

We found our favorite picnic tables by the flamingos to enjoy our sandwiches, chips, fruit, juice, and brownies. We were our own zoo at the zoo, but it was so great to be together.

We made it home by 1:45 and got the four littlest down for naps. The rest of us cleaned up and got ready to go to a wedding – and from that point on, I got no pictures. Boo. The wedding was for our long-time friend Jacob and his bride Sarah, and it was beautiful.

TODAY is mine and Matt’s 29th anniversary. :) I love going to weddings as a reminder of where we came from, so the timing is perfect. Here’s to a brand new week and a Christ-focused new year of our marriage!

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I Won’t Always Have Toothpaste on My Pants

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Why do I have toothpaste on my pants? Why wouldn’t I?

We are currently caring for seven kids ages nine and under. Often, we have an eighth kiddo along for the ride. He and our 4-year-old, Keith, are like twins as they are only 6 weeks apart in age. Once a few weeks ago, the two of them were actually sitting still together and I took a picture to prove that it can actually happen.

Their stillness only lasted a few seconds, then they were off and running again. Meanwhile:

I could share picture after picture of our little ones, but in summary:

  • There are a lot of kids
  • The kids are always busy
  • Someone is almost always screaming
  • Our house is always a mess

And that’s why we aren’t surprised that I got toothpaste on my pants.

It happened on a day that we’d been having issues with the four-year-old “twins” getting out the toothpaste and squirting it everywhere – the bottom of the sink, their bedroom floor, I suppose we could say – anywhere except for a toothbrush.

No matter what we did to discipline them, they would go back to the toothpaste. Throw that into the mix along with our 7 and 9-year-olds acting out because of trauma, our 3-year-old’s super frequent emotional melt-downs, our then 1-year-old always wanting to be held, and our 5-month old acting like a normal 5-month-old in which he enjoyed regular feedings, bouncing, snuggles, and diaper changes. Did I mention the poop that got all over the outside of the toilet because someone didn’t make it in time?

And that’s why we aren’t surprised that I got toothpaste on my pants.

I should actually be glad it was toothpaste and not poop.

After we got four out of eight kids down for afternoon naps that day, I plopped down to sit by Matt for a second and proclaimed, “At least we know that I won’t always have toothpaste on my pants. They’ll grow through this someday…”

But then I sighed and followed up my first thoughts with these, “Of course, then they’ll all be dealing with much bigger issues in their pre-teen and teen years. Then we’ll be wishing that we were only dealing with toothpaste.”

Mom sheds a big fat tear.

Here are Laura’s takeaways from the toothpaste situation:

1. The kids really will not all be babies forever.

We will get through these days. Today they are 9, 7, 4, 4, 3, 2, 2, and 6-months. There are so many babies all at once that I’ve stopped wondering why I can’t speak a sentence correctly. Most of the time it feels like we live in a circus and a zoo all wrapped up in one. And we are coated in toothpaste and poop. But in just a few years, these babes will all wipe their own bottoms, dress themselves, buckle themselves, and load the dishwasher, praise Jesus hallelujah amen.

2. These kids will all be teenagers at the same time.

Today’s hard will get easier, but then it will get harder again in a different way. I choke on my air when I think about what it might be like. But then I have to remember to do this…

3. Do not look past today.

Each day has enough trouble of its own. Every season in life has incredible joys and extreme challenges. We can appreciate them simultaneously, and we can learn more every day about how to trust the God who is walking ahead of us and carrying us through.

How do we do this?

There is no other way but to stand firm in God’s power and truth. I don’t mean that in a trite “it’s what all the good Christians are doing” sort of way. I’m talking about not letting the enemy keep us in a fetal position and instead STANDING UP in His power and strength. We put on His armor, and we STAND.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Ephesians 6:10-18

How do I care for all these littles and walk through big, hard things with my bigs too? How do I feed them three meals a day in the meantime? And how in the world am I going to get this house packed by the time we close on our house?

I am tempted to lay down in defeat, but the Holy Spirit nudges me to do what I know to do: STAND UP.

In Him, we are strong, solid, and victorious. We stand firm in this Truth. Be encouraged by this short video —>

 

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Big Family Food and Fun: July 16-22, 2023

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Ready for our Big Family Food and Fun post for this week?

Big Family Food and Fun July 16-22, 2023

Our week began with a big birthday meal for Eva on Sunday. She requested Lasagna and no one complained. :)

Her parents and a dear friend joined us (it’s so fun to do life with them in Lincoln too!).

That evening we got to join many of the youth and families from church at a swimming pool for a big event. Before heading out we ate a quick meal of chicken nuggets, fries, strawberries, and carrots.

Keeping everyone alive at the pool is a full time effort, so I got no pictures of our fun. :) Everyone was starving when we got home so we devoured two frozen pizzas before bed. (I had baked them before we left and I was so glad I did!)

The kids had been requesting “Eggs in a Nest” for breakfast so that’s what we enjoyed on Monday morning.

I FINALLY made Matt’s Father’s Day Cobbler. The question remains: did I make it a month late – or 11 months early? I feel like I’m ahead for Father’s Day 2024. Heh?

While the little girls were eating breakfast that morning I blended up this smoothie for Matt and me. When the blender was running, the girls all started laughing hysterically for some reason, which was incredibly fun and made up for at least three tantrums each.

At lunchtime, we loaded up and took advantage of our zoo membership. It was this day that I discovered this “salad in a bag for a picnic” trick. With our salad, we ate applesauce, avocado cups, cheese, sliced meat, crackers, and juice boxes.

That night we warmed up leftover Lasagna and corn and cooked fresh green beans friends from church had given us. NOTHING beats fresh green beans!

Tuesday morning Matt and Elias headed to York to work on our house there. I sent them with Sausage and Egg Breakfast Sandwiches and bottles of juice.

The rest of us ate eggs (we went through 15 that morning), sausage patties, plus an entire container of yogurt.

I browned 5-pounds of hamburger meat that morning so I could make Burritos. But I scooped out about a pound of cooked meat and mixed it with corn, beans, and white queso from the fridge. It heated in our small crock pot for a couple hours while Kelsey and I took the kids to the library for a fun “Magic” Show.

The magic show was super fun! It was rainy that morning so this was a perfect outing for us that day.

That afternoon I got hungry for these Peanut Butter Flourless Brownies. These can be great or these can be dry. The key is to pull them out of the oven before they seem to be done. I actually only baked these for 10-minutes and it worked great!

Keith agreed by eating three of these and licking his plate!

I made these Frozen Yogurt Cups, except that I used this Smoothie recipe so that I could “hide” spinach in there. The color turned out….special.

And then, since the four littlest were still sleeping, I used the rest of the hamburger meat I’d cooked earlier in the day plus a pan of this Stick of Butter Rice I’d made to make a huge batch of Burritos for the freezer. We’ll enjoy these on busy days, or I’ll pass them on to others who need them. (Fun Fact: I’ve stopped putting butter in my Stick of Butter Rice as a way to save money. The recipe minus the butter is still delicious and well, butter can be up to almost $1/stick now so….)

I had thawed 4 packages of our favorite tortillas from Azure Standard. So we ended up with 32 Burritos!

Matt and Elias were still in York working on our house so Justus came over after work to help me feed the kids dinner. I browned up some sliced ham, Justus made mac and cheese, then we gave the kids the frozen smoothie cups and flourless brownies. They thought we were sooooo silly for giving them “desserts” with their dinner. Little do they know that they got lots of nourishment in these treats!

We ate outside (of course), and boy did those smoothie cups melt everywhere. They are pretty messy. Tasty, but messy. I won’t make them like this very often. :)

After dinner, Justus played Walnut Baseball in the yard with the kids. It was the best! What is Walnut Baseball, you ask? It’s where you pick up all the walnuts off the ground that fell off of the walnut tree, and you use them as baseballs.

Bases loaded. The three-year-old up to bat. It was intense. 

Wednesday morning for breakfast Anna helped me make a triple batch of Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Treats. We ate them with bananas. (These bars firm up after they sit a while. But if you serve it right after making them, you have to serve it in bowls with spoons.)

Matt and I loaded up the kids after breakfast to go to Library Story Hour. Today was Butterfly Day, featuring the Hungry Caterpillar book. So sweet and fun!

Apparently it was National Hotdog Day. So obviously, lunch had to be hotdogs. Pineapple Fluff Salad sounded good so we ate that as a side dish along with a jar of pickles.

I am astounded by how quickly we accumulate recycling items. Matt emptied this container into our recycle dumpster two days ago but here it was overflowing again. (We eat a lot I guess.)

The Lincoln Zoo stays open until 8pm on Wednesdays so we decided to have dinner there that night. I made a big container of Tuna Salad, which we ate with crackers. We also enjoyed Havarti cheese with crackers, mandarin orange cups, and juice pouches.

And check it out! Since we’d enjoyed Butterfly Day at the library that morning, we made a point to enjoy the Butterfly Garden at the zoo after we ate our dinner.

 

Thursday we needed milk and a few other items so we decided that our morning outing would be a family trip to Aldi. Oy. I braced myself for the craziness of it, and grabbed not one but two quarters for carts. :)

Acacia and Josie held hands on the way there. I LOVE IT when they are sweet together like this.

Matt had the cart full of babes and I had one for food.

We spent $135 on chicken thighs, ground sausage, milk, yogurt, cream cheese, strawberries, blueberries, watermelon, salad kits, juice, and buns. I was so glad I checked for sales on meat because their boneless skinless chicken thighs were just $1.99/pound. Amazing and well below my price point! I bought five packages.

By the time we checked out, loaded up, and made it home it was far past lunchtime. Thankfully I had blended up this Bean and Cheese Salsa Dip before we left so we got it out of the fridge and ate it with tortilla chips before naptime.

That evening was incredibly special as dear friends from York came to visit. We made this grilled chicken with baked potatoes in the crock pot, watermelon, green beans, and these gluten free, dairy free Banana Muffins. <— I hadn’t made those muffins in a very long time but wanted to accommodate our friends’ food sensitivity needs. I thought they were only sort-of good, ha. I’m not sure what our guests thought. But our six littles ate them like they were magic muffins. We started the night with 24 muffins and ended the night with only 2. So yay for that!

After eating, all the kids discovered that they could fit inside our dining room cabinets. :) We took a walk together to the Sunken Gardens, then came home and enjoyed popsicles. The night was perfect. Their visit and hugs were just what we all needed.

Friday morning Matt and Elias went to York to work all day so Eva came over to help me. I had a meeting with a case worker, so Eva entertained the girls by making a Sister Sandwich in our playroom.

A friend and her baby joined us all for lunch so I opened up some salad kits from Aldi and cut up last night’s leftover grilled chicken to toss in.

Dinner that night was a bit crazy because Matt and Elias hadn’t made it home yet and I was on my own with all seven kids. I was quickly scrambling eggs and frying last night’s leftover baked potatoes when someone who shall remain nameless got mad and threw a pound of strawberries on the floor. She very unhappily picked them back up.

We survived the evening and were very happy to see Daddy and Elias get home soon after we ate.

 

Saturday after a quick breakfast of yogurt, berries, and Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Treats Matt and I decided to check out Pioneers Park Nature Center with the kids. I made Ham and Spinach wraps to take with us.

And I packed sliced cheese, mandarin oranges, tomatoes, raisins, pistachios, and juice. Plus a Spindrift for Mom. ;) Meanwhile, I was thawing a ten pound chunk of meat to use later in the day.

Pioneers Park was soooooo much fun. We saw bison, walked some trails, explored the Herb Garden, and experienced hands-on learning inside the Chet Ager Building. I had read that the park had a place for kids to dig, so Keith took his excavator and carried it around the entire time, hahaha.

We found a shady spot to eat our lunch.

Then the kids used the buckets, cups, and the beloved excavator to dig in the sand. (I’m not sure that this is the digging area the park website was talking about, but it worked!)

Everyone was dirty, sweaty, and tired on our drive home. But here these two are again, holding hands and singing as we traveled.

Remember the 10-pound hunk of meat I was thawing? I turned a bunch of it into Burgers for dinner, then browned the rest of it to have on hand for meals like this. Our across-the-street neighbor, John, was outside gardening so I hollered over to see if he’d like a hamburger and he came and joined us. It was awesome!

It’s going to be extra hot in the upcoming days so we picked up two little pools for the kids to splash around in. They enjoyed these after eating their burgers.

They got in and out so many times that the water turned disgusting and made bath time a bigger ordeal than it already usually is. OY. Worth the effort? 100%. :)

P.S. July’s grocery spending total so far is $1069 with one week left to go. Can I say within our budget this month? We’ll find out. :)

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Big Family Food and Fun: July 2-8, 2023

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We are slowly but surely getting settled in at our Castle. We are amazed at and grateful for the care people are showing us here!

Our moving truck got unloaded last Friday, leaving every room of our house looking something like this:

Picture toddlers climbing over that and rearranging boxes as I try to sort and organize. That’s been interesting – but as I share our Food and Fun photos of this week, take note at all God is providing for us so that we can survive these crazy days!

Food and Fun – July 2-8

My friend Cindy, whom I’ve known for a few years but rarely get to spend time with, came by on Saturday with two of her girls. They brought us this huge box of cherries!!!! She and her girls helped me unpack and clean and play with kids for several hours. How lovely that we will all live in the same town and are able to do life together now. :)

Sunday morning I cooked two pounds of meat from my freezer so we could have a quick meal of tacos when we got home from church. This felt so normal!! Which felt so good in the middle of everything that is not normal right now.

Someone at church gave us these beauties from their garden as we were leaving. What a gift!

Sam’s is a mile from church, so Matt gave all the kids a snack while Elias and I ran into the store to grab a few essentials for our 4th of July celebration plus fresh produce we needed. We grabbed hotdogs and buns, guacamole, queso, grapes, greens, apples, bananas, nectarines, sweet peppers, and strawberries. Oh, and Spindrift drinks were on sale – Elias’ and my fav sparkling water! ;) We got home and ate our tacos then got littles down for naps.

That evening I made a plate full of small turkey sandwiches and took them outside for a picnic with pickles, watermelon, and cheese.

I had a package of English muffins in the freezer, so I made scrambled egg sandwiches for breakfast the next day. I was itching to make something (my kitchen is amazing, who cares if it wasn’t fully unpacked yet?!). So I blended up our favorite Cheesecake Parfait recipe to enjoy with our strawberries.

Mid-morning was already very hot so we enjoyed popsicles to help us cool off.

Lunchtime got super exciting because we got word that our custom-built dining room table was on its way!! I had thawed chicken legs to smoke for our meal because Asa and Eva were planning to join us for the day. Plus I’d sliced up all the squash we’d been given to stir fry and enjoy with our chicken.

Our table was built by Sola Woodshed Designs, friends of ours whom I’d messaged several weeks ago to see if they’d want to tackle my huge table project. :) They did a marvelous job and joined us for lunch too. Check out this beauty of a table!! Even better is the people all around the table…

I asked for a 12-feet long farmhouse table, not fancy, just big. :) I requested long benches for seeing instead of chairs so we could fit more people around our table. It’s perfect! We went with four 6-feet benches instead of two 12-feet long benches. It’s amazing.

After such a full morning and a big lunch, we made frozen pizza for dinner.

That evening, more neighbors stopped by to welcome us to the neighborhood and they came with four pounds of strawberries for us. Perfect!

Tuesday’s breakfast was peanut butter honey toast with bananas and yogurt.

Our fridge looked so delicious, full of cherries, nectarines, and strawberries!

Tuesday afternoon, friends stopped by for a visit and they brought several boxes of food – a gift from the Helping Hands ministry at church. This was all so perfect so that we had easy foods to throw out as snacks and side dishes.

Our 4th of July celebration day was as busy as the other days have been with more unpacking and sorting. But that night we put hotdogs on our smoker and had a feast with Asa and Eva joining us. (Justus and Kelsey have been in Montana visiting her family.)

I snapped this photo of our oldest with our youngest. THIS is why we moved to Lincoln.

While were were outside celebrating, our friend Rebecca stopped by with food that her mom, Barbara, had made for us. They have been so intentional about helping us settle in, and it is remarkable. They had taken the turkey we had in our freezer so they could roast it for us. AMAZING and so very helpful. The delicious cooked bird was delivered along with a big bag of banana pancakes, prepared salad, a bag of kid-sized apples, baby carrots with homemade ranch dip, and a bag of ready-to-eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. This was so thoughtful and has been so helpful!

Our girls dug right into the pancakes the next morning!

Matt and I decided that the kids needed an outing so we packed everyone into strollers and headed out to explore our new surroundings. We made our way to our closest library to check it out!

Everyone had good naps (or rest times) that afternoon, then we warmed up the turkey Barbara had made us along with green beans, strawberries and cream, and salad.

The next morning, Matt and Brayden headed to York to do some work on our house there. I packed them a feast to get them through their day.

While they were gone, Eva and I took the other six on a long walk to play at a park. We enjoyed capri suns with raisins and veggie straws mid-morning.

I’d warmed up leftover 4th of July hotdogs before we left and they were still hot at lunchtime. We ate them before heading home!

That night I made Turkey Cheese Melts with more of Barbara’s turkey. We ate them with fries and watermelon.

Friday morning we took the kids to visit another library all morning. We came home and made pancakes and eggs.

A dear friend sent us a gift of flamingo paper goods and a Dominos gift card from Arkansas, so we enjoyed a fun pizza meal that night!

Saturday morning, Anna and I made Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins before everyone else slept. It was my first time baking anything and it was so nice!

We went to “Discovery Days” that morning on the UNL campus where the kids enjoyed fun science activities at each booth. We took a snacky lunch to enjoy late morning before coming home in time for naps.

While the kids were napping and resting, I went to the grocery store for the first time since moving. Our three littlest girls plus Baby Boy#11 are all on WIC, so I focused on getting all of those qualifying items.

While I was there, I took advantage of a buy-one-get-one-free pork loin sale. Plus I picked up a few other things we needed. Out of pocket I paid $78.

 

Before leaving for the store, I had put this Taco Pasta in the crock pot for dinner. Justus and Kelsey were on their way home from Montana so I told them to stop by for dinner if they wanted. Then I texted Asa to come (Eva was out of town). Asa invited our friends Seth and Corrie. Malachi’s friend Max came over. Elias’ friend Emma came to see the house and accepted our invite to stay and eat.

There ended up being 18 of us, all at the last minute. I LOVE THIS. The Taco Pasta turned out great, and we pulled out lots of sides to round out the meal: watermelon, black beans, corn, cherries, veggie tray, chips and guac, brownies, and rice krispie treat. Our table was full and it was fantastic.

Stay tuned for lots of pictures of what the past week and a half have looked like for us as we settle in!

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Big Family Food and Fun: June 18-24, 2023

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We’re down to just a few days before we pack up and move. Our meals are a bit hodge-podge these days as we use up the food we have on hand.

Here’s what we have left in our freezers. WAIT. Freezer. Singular. We gave one of our uprights to our neighbors. We’re only taking this one with us and here’s what’s in it.

Compare that to last week!!

I took what was left in our other freezer so I could defrost it before we gave it away. Goodbye ol’ freezer. You’ve been good to us.

Grocery Spending

My spending total as of June 24 is only $240. Most of that has been fruit and vegetable purchases, plus a few odds and ends to complete some meals that I’m putting together with the food we have on hand. I love the savings we enjoy when we’re eating from our pantry and freezers!! But I also know that July is probably going to make up for it because once we settle in, I’ll need to stock up on everything again!

Bonus: Look what we got at no cost:

We donate a lot of household items to an organization in York called Blue Valley so I follow their Facebook page. One day last week I saw that they had strawberries, blueberries, oranges, yogurt, and cabbage given to them – and it was all free to our community for the taking. Keith and I ran over there while the four littlest kids napped and we were shocked at the flats of fruit! “As long as you can use them, take an entire flat,” they said. Oh, we’ll use them!! What a gift. (York area friends, follow Blue Valley Community Action on FB. You never know what you might learn about.) :)

The kids have LOVED having a free-for-all with all of the berries!

Here’s part of our Walmart pick up order on Friday. Gotta have greens for these smoothies. :)

Here’s what we ate last week:

And now on to looking at the meals we ate throughout the week.

It all started with Father’s Day. The Saturday before as we were preparing, I was reading this recipe out loud so we could make pie for Daddy. Hearing, “we need 4 Tablespoons of butter,” Anna ran to the kitchen. She came back yelling, “Tablespoons! Tablespoons! Tablespoons!” She was alllll ready to make pie!

We decided to make two pies. First, this Easy Chocolate Fudge Pie – with a big scoop of peanut butter added.

Licking the spatula is the best reason to be involved in helping to make the pies.

Then, we made this Peanut Butter Cheesecake Pie – without the chocolate chips. Yes, Matt loves peanut butter. Both pies turned out so good!

Saturday night, Elias cut up two pounds of chicken so I could make Bacon Chicken Pasta for Father’s Day lunch right after church. I have GOT to make this more often. Every single person ate it and asked for more. It’s so very good!

Justus and Kelsey were able to come that afternoon to help out. AND they brought everything to make a Father’s Day dinner!

I took advantage of the help by spending an hour scrubbing a bathroom. Meanwhile, Kelsey got Kiya and Brayden in the kitchen working on dinner prep. They loved this!

Anna had coffee with Justus. (Not really.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All afternoon I marveled at all of this. THIS IS WHY GOD IS MOVING US TO LINCOLN. Well, one of the big reasons. We’ll get to do life together with our Bigs. We need this.

Matt and I are stretched pretty thin. Any time our older kids pour into our younger kids, everyone wins. Brayden and Kiya needed to work in the kitchen with Justus and Kelsey – this fills them up! Anna needed Justus and Kelsey snuggles. Asa called Matt for Father’s Day and some of the littles ran to the phone to talk to him too. Eva snuggles and reads books to littles constantly when she’s here. I could go on and on. Here’s a shot I couldn’t pass up of everyone getting ready to watch a soccer game after dinner, Elias so naturally holding BabyBoy#11, and the littlest girls climbing up to join.

Meanwhile, Malachi went from going to Ecuador to spending a week at Soul Quest to heading to church camp to spend a week counseling. We’re thankful he’s out there serving, and we miss him. Good thing he’ll be back in time to help us move. ;)

So dinner. Justus smoked meat all Sunday afternoon: chicken thighs and barbecue ribs. Kelsey and the kids made mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts. It was all SO GOOD.

And Kelsey took pictures, because she knows that her mother-in-law is a food blogger who posts everything her family eats. Way to go, Kelsey!

On Monday, we ate up most of our weekend leftover smoked meat. What a treat! I made mac and cheese and peas as a side with lunch, plus let the kids choose canned peaches or canned pineapple.

For dinner we warmed up leftover mashed potatoes and I made corn and these smoothies to go with our meat.

Friends came to hang out late Tuesday morning plus I had case worker visits that day too. So mid-morning while the baby was napping, I browned some hamburger and put together pizzas to bake during my meetings. While I was at it, I made a tiny crustless pizza for my friend. (Tasha. It was Tasha. Remember Tasha? Tasha can’t have gluten. So I made her a crustless pizza.)

We ate our pizza with carrots and watermelon. Then Anna drank the watermelon juice from the bowl. Please enjoy this photo of Anna, along with my left foot and two buckets full of dirty rags.

That evening, I made Salmon Patties and served them with peas, leftover mac and cheese, and canned fruit.

Wednesday morning I blended ingredients together to make Bean and Cheese Salsa Dip. We ate it with chips and the kids’ choice of pears, peaches, or pineapple. (I had to get out cheese for our bonus kid who was spending several days with us. He’s the picky one I referred to in this post, but check out #5 here to see what he does like and eat. I keep these on hand for him if I can!)

My friend, Jenny, went to Costco that day and offered to bring home a Rotisserie Chicken for us. Such a blessing!! We pulled it off the bone that night and filled plates for the kids, serving it with melon from the fridge.

For lunch on Thursday, I made our meal based on food in the pantry. This “spaghetti” tasted great!

We’ve mostly eaten leftovers from then on, except for Saturday night when some wonderful friends came over. We needed to do some work up high on our house, so they hooked up their lift to their tractor and brought it over so they could help Matt accomplish the task. Phew!

The kids had a blast sitting on and climbing on the tractor while their daddies worked.

The rest of us packed and cleaned, then we got out everything we needed for a hot dog roast at our fire pit.

It just so happened to be this sweetheart’s birthday. One might say that we were so busy getting our house ready to sell that we almost forgot to celebrate. OR, one might claim that we went all out for Josie by renting a tractor for kids to play on during her birthday party!! Let’s go with the latter.

We put candles in her rice krispie treat, gathered around to try to keep the wind from blowing out the candles (to no avail), and sang to our birthday girl.

We thank God for the opportunity to have this impromptu party while our friends were there serving us.

And now, we pack the final boxes and load the truck. Stay tuned for next week’s adventures!

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Big Family Food and Fun: June 11-17, 2023

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Only 1.5 weeks until our big move. Here’s a look at what we ate this week as we clean out freezers and pantries and try to survive!

Food We’re Working With

I’ve put in a couple of Walmart pickup orders for fruits and veggies (we are going through fruit like crazy!). Otherwise, we are working our way through our freezers and pantry in an effort to use up food before we move. You can compare these pictures to last week’s shelves to see how we’re doing. This shelf doesn’t look like it’s emptying out much, but we used quite a bit from our stores this week.

You can tell a big difference in our freezers compared to last week!

I don’t have time to bake that turkey, so he’s likely going to make the move to Lincoln with us. ;)

And now on to the meals we ate last week!

Our Big Family Food and Fun

I had a Breakfast Casserole in the freezer, which was GREAT to have on Sunday for lunch. I slid it into the oven frozen, turned on the oven to 225, and let it bake while we were at church. It was done the minute we walked in the door and we ate it with fruit. SO EASY. I highly recommend putting some of these in your freezer!

Kelsey (Justus’ wife) had come to help us over the weekend and brought frozen Sloppy Joe meat with her. I warmed it for our Sunday evening meal and served it with green beans and watermelon. What would I do without my wonderful daughters-in-law? :)

Monday I had to take BabyBoy#11 in for a medical procedure, so I appreciated having lots of ready-made foods to pull out and serve for breakfast. I set out last week’s Mudballs and Pumpkin Muffins then warmed up leftover Breakfast Casserole to go with those. (Our air fryer warms food up so nicely!) Everyone ate well as Baby and I headed out.

Our fella was a trooper through his morning. I was glad he fell asleep on our way home to take a well-deserved nap! :)

Knowing I’d be gone all morning, I had mixed up Chicken Salad and put it in the fridge before I left. We made quick sandwiches when I got home and ate them with carrots, tomatoes, and watermelon.

For the record, chicken salad sandwiches taste better when cut into triangles. :) Also, this little girl LOVES peanut butter on her carrots. If you struggle to get your kids to eat carrots with other dips, try peanut butter. It works for Kiya!

After lunch, we played outside before naptime. Anna chose her own outfit today: shorts and a swim cover-up. Oh, and moccasins. :)

All three little girls crawled into the wagon, so I took them for a short ride. Then it was naptime – one of my favorite parts of the day after a long morning!

For dinner that night I baked a Meatloaf that I’d made a few weeks ago and frozen. Brayden and Kiya scrubbed potatoes so I could make these amazing Mashed Potatoes, plus I stir-fried some veggies and warmed up leftover corn and beans. Justus and Kelsey came from Lincoln for a church event so they joined us for dinner.

For breakfast on Tuesday I made scrambled egg sandwiches and served them with canned peaches.

I cooked three pounds of hamburger one night, seasoned it like this, then we put together tostadas with some shells someone had given us. I made this Cream Cheese Salsa Dip as a topping option.

This week at the YU campus is a camp called Soul Quest. Malachi is there as a camper for his final year with this amazing group of friends. (Malachi is second from the right.)

On the Wednesday of Soul Quest, they send out their hundreds of campers and staff out into our community for service projects. OUR FAMILY was blessed to receive one of these groups this year! They sent 26 high schoolers and adults over and we handed them all paint brushes!

It was a great, but full, morning. Thankfully, earlier I’d put lunch in the crock pot so it was ready to serve our family as soon as the crew left. This casserole doesn’t look pretty, but it truly was tasty! What do I call it? I have no idea. “Clean out the Fridge Casserole?” Yes, that’s it. I used last night’s taco meat stirred into frozen hashbrowns with the leftover Cream Cheese Salsa Dip, shredded cheese, sour cream, and salt. I cooked it on low all morning and it was delicious with steamed green beans on the side.

I left that afternoon to work for several hours while sitters came to stay with our kids (and Matt kept painting the house). Elias picked up pizza on his way home, using the gift cash we decided to enjoy for our Wednesday pizza night until after we’ve settled into our new home.

We sent the kids outside to eat their pizza because the sitters also did some cleaning while they were here. We always hope to keep the floor clean for at least five minutes after our sitters have worked so hard. :)

I went all out the next morning by getting out cereal and oatmeal packets for breakfast. ;)

In an effort to clean out our freezers, I pulled out this super discounted pork roasts I’d gotten marked down for $1.49/pound.

I put them in my large electric roaster, seasoned them, and poured barbecue sauce over the top. Then I slow cooked them all day to shred and freeze in meal-sized portions.

All day these pork roasts smelled AMAZING!! That evening, I shredded all the meat and scooped up some for us to eat for dinner before bagging up the rest for the fridge and freezer. This made five meal-sized portions for us.

I had two pounds of strawberries so I sliced them and made this Cheesecake Parfait to eat with them.

For lunch on Thursday I made grilled cheese and tomato soup – a funny meal on a 90 degree day but a great way to use up soup from the pantry!

Elias was home on his lunch break from work so he grabbed some grilled cheese to take back to work with him, plus chips and guac.

Friday we had a family of eight coming to help us get our house ready to sell. So in preparation, I had thawed two of these big packages of chicken legs. (Remember how I got these for around $0.75/pound?!?!) What a great way to feed 17 people!

I dumped on some sauce and put these in the fridge to marinate all day while we worked.

Meanwhile, Eva (Asa’s wife) came to help us all morning and early afternoon. We took all the littles to the library for the morning so Matt could paint. For lunch we invited our friend Tori to join us and headed to the backyard. We had a lot of sticks we wanted to burn up in our firepit so we thawed the hotdogs we had left in our freezer for the kids to enjoy. We grown-ups enjoyed the pork roast I had cooked the day before.

Our other friends arrived after lunch and they were a powerhouse, working so hard on our house with us all afternoon. I got the chicken on the smoker and we pulled out some easy side dishes. It tasted so good after working in the heat all day!

We were marveling at our two tribes of kids filling up the kitchen and spilling into the living room. :) We are so thankful for our precious friendship with this family.

Matt and I are feeling pretty worn out (but also very grateful). But this might explain why I said “yes” the next morning when Keith and Anna requested butter for breakfast. Nothing else. Just butter. Here’s a slice of butter, and here’s another slice of butter…

So this is where I’m at right now. Thank goodness I do have plenty of butter in our freezer! :) :) :) I did manage to pull off some Father’s Day treats today, which I’ll share about next week. Hope your week is off to a great start!

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Big Family Food and Fun: May 27-June 3, 2023

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Here’s a look at the food and fun at our house during the last few days!

We’ve been working this week to finalize getting our house on the market, so the busy level has gone from insane to whatever is BEYOND INSANE. There’s been very little time to cook or to even think about food. Thanks to so many coming over to help us in so many ways, we’ve survived and been so very well loved and cared for.

Food we have to work with right now

I took a look at both of our big freezers to see what all we had to work with to make meals before we move. Both freezers are still very full, which is great because I can avoid going to the store between now and the end of the month. (Our closing date on “the Castle” is in just a few weeks!) My goal is to only buy fresh produce and dairy until after we settle into our new place. Meanwhile, we have a lot of meat and frozen veggies to work with. This freezer is full of hamburger meat, green beans, peas, corn, cheese, flour, pork butt, hashbrowns, pizza crust, tortillas, french fries, and a couple of ready-made casseroles.

This looks like a lot of food (because it is!). But making three meals a day for 10 people will clear this out pretty quickly! This freezer features a lot of chicken, hotdogs, frozen pizza, a turkey, and some pasta.

And now for the meals we ate!

Big Family Food and Fun

Our breakfast one morning consisted of the last of the Bran Muffins I had baked last week. I cut them in half, buttered them, and warmed them in our air fryer. The kids LOVE them this way. We drank some of our fun Azure Standard kefir with the muffins. Fun treat!

Trying to pack while feeding 10 people (plus a baby) is a bit of a challenge. :) It would help if I could ever finish what I start. This is what the kitchen looked like at lunchtime after I’d started packing a few cabinets after breakfast. I got derailed by the kids’ needs and never came back to it. Then we were hungry and I tried making quesadillas in this mess. Oy.

Keith decided to use safety scissors to cut up a box while I made lunch.

For our smoothies that evening with dinner, I used some of the Azure Standard Kefir instead of using yogurt like I usually do. I used an entire 5-ounce container of fresh spinach in these and I just love that the kids get so many greens into their bellies this way!

I made a pot of Cheeseburger Macaroni, steamed green beans, and sliced oranges for a quick dinner one night.

The kids ate outside again, which is so great but so distracting. Josie isn’t pictured here because she took a few bites and then ran off to ride her little scooter. :)

I grilled burgers one night and we ate them with chips and guac.

Anna woke up from a nap one afternoon and enjoyed a cheese stick while she was still just half awake, precious little sweetheart. :)

One morning, Malachi and I took the kids on a LONG walk so that Matt could do work on our house without kids underfoot. When we got home, I made some fast scrambled egg sandwiches and got out peach cups for lunch.

For dinner that night, I put some beef smoked sausage on our grill. While they cooked, I made baked beans, green beans, corn, and fresh strawberries. I pulled some Banana Muffins from the freezer to round out the meal.

Appetites have been pretty big around here because we are all working/playing outside for hours and hours every day! Keith and Josie “helped” Matt clean up the garden one afternoon. :)

The kids took advantage of Matt watering our lawn. I’m not sure how many times that day we had to put dry clothes on toddlers who kept wandering into the sprinkler.

I captured this rare moment when ALL seven littles were in one spot as we wrapped up our day and joined together in our living room for our nightly “Singing and Prayer Time.” Notice Brayden and Josie pretending to talk to each other on the phone from across the room. :)

I love it when the girls sit down to enjoy a book together. SO CUTE!

I had pizza crusts in the freezer so I quickly added sauce, cheese, and meat (some leftover grilled burgers chopped up!) to bake for dinner one night. I grabbed spinach from the fridge as a side dish and that was that.

Brayden and Kiya sat on the porch to eat their pizza. They’d gone to the pool that day so they were extra hungry!

The others ate their pizza at our picnic tables. Pizza sauce mess x4!

Our friend Tasha (you know her because she’s an awesome writer!) came and worked on our walls one day while her husband helped Matt with our porch and other jobs. We are so thankful for friends who are servant-hearted!

Meanwhile, Asa and Eva were also visiting and spent several hours helping us with the house and with childcare.

While everyone was either working on our house or chasing our kids for us, I put together these amazing Bacon and Potato Foil Packs for the grill. (I actually used leftover taco meat instead of bacon and highly recommend it!) I served them with canned peaches and boo, no veggies because goodness I am not keeping up very well right now! :)

I threw together a quick meal of spaghetti with green beans one night. I’ve found that using elbow noodles instead of regular spaghetti noodles makes it much easier for our toddlers to eat this meal!

At the end of the week, we had a photographer coming to take pictures of our house for the realtor’s site since we were soon to get it on the market. Matt and I were exhausted from all the work it had taken to get the house to this point, so I declared it to be a poptart morning. I’d gotten these with Azure Standard credit and saved them for a time like this. It was perfect – the kids were so excited!

That day for lunch, our dear friend Phyllis brought us lunch (because I asked her to, because I was worn out, and because she’s awesome). She brought two of her delicious hashbrown casseroles, veggies, and muffins. It was an incredible blessing to enjoy her food, and even more, her company. She spent some time after lunch reading with Brayden and Kiya, which is just what they needed. Everyone needs a Phyllis in their life. :)

I caught three of the littles (even Acacia!) trying to do Elias’ workout with him one afternoon. :)

We took the kids on an outing to the opening night of our Farmer’s Market and took advantage of their free-will donation hotdog meal deal. Magically, the kids lined up along the wall to eat their dinner and they actually stayed there for at least five solid minutes. :)

Amidst all we had going on with getting our house ready to go on the market, on Friday we also had a huge crew of roofers come to replace our roof after last summer’s hail storm. So there were nails and shingles and people EVERYWHERE outside of our house that day. We decided to take the kids to the library for Story Hour for the morning so they could play without getting hurt in our yard. At lunchtime, we ran home and I went inside to fill a bag with food for us to eat at a park that has a brand-new splash park!

Our lunch that day was turkey lunch meat, cheese sticks, pistachios, peanuts, applesauce, raisins, chips, and juice. By the time we got home, the roofing crew was finished, loaded up, and gone. Phew!

That night, a sweet friend, Jaimie, brought us a most amazing meal of chicken-bacon-tomato-ranch salad fixings with this homemade ranch dressing (that ironically, I haven’t made in forever because of our crazy life!). Plus she supplied us with grapes, applesauce, and made us two super tasty loaves of sourdough bread and chocolate peanut butter bars. We felt so loved and spoiled!

Here’s Matt’s creation – isn’t his bowl pretty!

Keith ate his food before I could feature it, as did Brayden.

But of course, they all got seconds and if I remember correctly, Brayden got fifths. :) :) :)

Kiya is as beautiful as her salad.

The next morning, I scrambled eggs to go with our leftover sourdough bread/toast.


Our daughter-in-law, Kelsey, was able to spend the day with us Saturday so she and I took the kids on a walk to a playground so Matt could work on painting our house. I packed lunch again to buy us time at the park, plus because eating lunch on our outings is just a lot of fun! We ate cheese and crackers, blueberries, applesauce, grapes, and pistachios, and I surprised the kids with cookies. :)

Malachi has in Ecuador on a mission trip all week. WE MISS HIM!! We’re looking forward to having him home next week to learn all about God’s work there.

What a week!! We are so thankful for all the people who have come to our rescue this week with meals and help with home repairs, cleaning, yard work, and child care. It takes a village, and we have an amazing one!

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Big Family Food and Fun: Meals and Photos from Last Week (May 17-27, 2023)

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Here’s a look at the meals we ate last week! Plus, now that our girls are adopted and I’m free to share, I decided to add a bunch of photos of our family so that you can get to know our kids better.

As the week began, we were on the heels of throwing a huge adoption party and an even huger graduation party. So the first few days of last week consisted of using party leftovers creatively and mom trying to recover. :) Plus, we started focusing even more on our big move, so meals needed to be more simple than ever.

Meals we ate

I used the leftover hotdogs from our adoption party to make a big pot of Beanie Weanies one evening. I served it with spinach (dipped in ranch), sliced oranges, and grapes.

The next night, I smoked the chicken I’d picked up at half price to use with the leftover gallon of “Cane’s Sauce” from Malachi’s grad party. (Do you have Raisin’ Cane’s where you live? It’s our big boys’ favorite restaurant!) See those frozen peas there? I throw those in our kids’ mac and cheese to cool down their mac and to sneak in more veggies. :)

One lunch as I was enjoying my “salad,” Acacia grabbed my glass to finish it off. Usually I make this one for the kids, but actually most of the littles will drink this grown-up version too.

Who doesn’t want to kiss that face?

Not to be outdone, Keith also had a special mustache that day, but his was from digging in the dirt. While still wearing his pajamas. ;)

One day for lunch, Matt warmed up leftover mac and cheese and chicken, and we put out a bowl of leftover watermelon. Acacia and Josie gobbled it up, but Keith and Anna were too busy to sit down. While we love eating our meals outside when the weather is nice, it is a bit distracting. ;)

After our huge weekend that included our big adoption day followed by Malachi’s graduation, my body decided it should get sick from all the over-exertion. Boo. We used a gift card to order pizza for dinner on a night I didn’t feel like moving.

I had gotten a lot of hamburger meat on sale, so one morning after I started to feel better I cooked seven pounds in my Instant Pot.

For lunch that day, we used some of the cooked meat to build ourselves a Taco Salad.

I froze some of the cooked meat, but before I did that, I used some to put together a container of Sloppy Joe meat and another of an Unnamed Casserole. We’ll never have another cassserole like it ever again as I simply grabbed out some leftover this and that from the fridge to build a meal. ;)

We’ve been making these smoothies every few days, which is so perfect on these warm days!

Here’s Keith with our Bonus 4-year old (our former foster son who comes to visit often). They almost NEVER sit still, and in fact, when they are together, we have to watch them constantly. They are like twins who like to get into mischief. So when I spotted them sitting still, I took a picture to document the amazing moment. This has nothing to do with food and everything to do with what I do when I’m not making food. :)

We had more leftover smoked chicken and I cut it into tiny pieces for lunch one day. We had some whole wheat pita pockets so we filled them with chicken and dressings. I was completely out of greens and tomatoes so we didn’t have much else to work with. We ate our pitas with leftover potato salad and cut strawberries.

The first Monday morning of our summer break, I took the extra time to make scrambled cheese eggs, sausage, and fruit.

We are cleaning up all the limbs in our yard from the winter, so we had a fire pit hotdog night. The kids were so excited! (We didn’t make a dent in the stick pile, ha.)

All I made that night to go with the hotdogs was a plate of sliced oranges. We’re just hanging in there right now!

One morning I baked a double batch of Pumpkin Muffins and made a big pan of Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Bars. We had gone muffin-less and bar-less for about a week when I had been so busy getting ready for all of our parties, so getting these ready for easy snacks/breakfasts was a big relief! Too bad they’re gone already.

I used some of the cooked ground beef to make a big Tator Tot Casserole one evening. Our three little girls gobbled this up (right off of my plate of course, because food on Mom’s plate tastes better).

One morning Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and I drove to Lincoln to tour what will be their new school after we move. I decided to run to Aldi after our visit, and friends! Our new house is six minutes from Aldi. (And 13 minutes from Costco, in case you were wondering.) I’m so thankful for all of this and excited about how my grocery-shopping life is about to change and become easier!

I mainly went in to get a bunch of whole milk yogurt and fresh produce. I then picked up four boxes of tube yogurt to freeze for cold treats on hot days, some cheese, apple juice, and smoked sausage. It felt weird not to get a huge cart full! But I’m trying to only buy what we can eat before the end of June so that we don’t have to pack as much food when we move.

When we arrived back home it was lunchtime. So I washed berries and got out avocado cups for the kids to eat. Matt and I prefer these with tortilla chips, but the kids just eat them with a spoon!

For dinner that night, I had premade a Hamburger Hashbrown Casserole. We ate it with steamed broccoli and carrots and Bran Muffins.

We got a nice-sized Azure Standard order this month and Malachi went and picked it up. I love that some of the littles are getting big enough to help unload groceries! I’m realizing that I’ll have to check to see if there are Azure Standard deliveries in Lincoln. Any locals want to chime in on that for me? :)

The kids helped me unload boxes, discovering frozen green beans and peas, frozen bananas, frozen strawberries, a case of tortillas, a case of canned peaches, onion salt, seasoning salt, yogurt, several varieties of Kefir, and a big surprise: Poptarts. If they’re organic, they’re good for you, right?! ;) I had some Azure Standard credit from referrals so I took advantage of it to order some convenience food to help us during move time. OH! And I meant to order a case of canned pears but as it turns out, I only ordered one can. Hahaha, that’ll get us through half a lunch. :)

Food and Fun

That was the food. Now on to the fun!

Here’s Acacia feeding her baby.

Josie chose a butterfly dress one morning and she was so proud.

I came across this photo of Elias and Matt on Elias’ graduation day and LOVE their smiles!

Brayden was getting huge smiles from BabyBoy#11 one morning!

This merry-go-round at one of our local parks is perfect for us because it’s safe for the littles and they all fit on it together.

Keith got a new bike for Christmas and is finally able to enjoy it now that the weather is so nice!

I’m not sure how Matt pulled it off, but as I was still unloading Josie, he headed into church with all these ducks in a row…

Firechief Keith to the rescue!

Here’s Brayden and Kiya on their last day of school. See ya later, 3rd and 1st grade!

Anna and Acacia had the opportunity all school year to go to a pre-preschool hour once each week. The little bus picked them up and they LOVED it! Here they are waiting for the bus on one of their last days.

We were blessed to go to the wedding of some dear friends, and I snapped this of Malachi as he was their videographer.

During the reception, Josie wanted in on the action.

Brayden and Kiya danced their hearts out and were a bit mad at us when it was time to load up and leave. I asked if I could get a picture before heading out and after four tries, they finally smiled. :)

And that’s a wrap! I suppose I should take some pictures of the COMPLETE MESS that is our house right now as we sort and pack to move! Meh, it’s more fun to see our adorable kids. :)

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April 2023 Groceries and Meals We Ate (Big Family Food!)

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Whoa. Here are our April 2023 groceries and meals we ate!

Groceries we bought

My big shopping day this month included two trips to Sam’s (in one day, ha). First I went in once for non-perishables, left to do other shopping I needed to get done, then went back in for fresh produce, refrigerated, and frozen items before driving an hour home.

I was preparing for Easter that day, so along with the normal produce I always get, I also picked up fresh asparagus and garden green beans.

I was thrilled that day to find a great deal on chicken legs. Sam’s and Costco always have big packs of drumsticks for $0.98/pound, which is a fantastic price. But this particular day they had a $1.50 off deal – no limit – so I got five big packs of chicken legs for around $3.50 each. SUCH a great price for good quality meat!

I splurged on those coconut crisps – have you had them? We love them at our house! I also bought a lot of tortilla chips this month because we had graduation parties to celebrate. More on that below.

Here’s the back of my van after my big Sams’s day. All this cost $817. Actually, that was just for the food. We budget paper products and household supplies separately.

The whole family gets involved with bringing in the groceries from the van when I get home. It’s like Christmas, seeing what I got at the store that day!

Another day, I stopped at our local grocery store to get some fresh fruits and veggies. I always check their meat markdowns while I’m there, so I got a great deal on a pork roast and some smoked sausage.

Here’s our 1-yo helping me take groceries out of bags another day I went to get some WIC items.

Keith made a tower of canned goods and he was so proud of how it was taller than him. :)

The rest of the month we grabbed fruits and veggies as needed, plus a few additional items we needed for Elias’ and our daughter-in-law, Kelsey’s college grad party. I went slightly over our $1,200 budget for the month and felt great that I kept it so close since we are/were preparing to host extras!

Meals we Ate

We had a gorgeous April, so we ate a lot of our meals outside. (We like it when the kids drop their crumbs in the yard instead of in our kitchen, ha.) Malachi had his senior soccer season so we took a lot of meals to the field too.

Early in the month, I made a platter of chicken salad sandwiches and took them to the trampoline for the kids to eat. I threw out some bananas and that was dinner. :)


For that week’s soccer game, I made 16 hamburgers and packed them up for all of us to eat while we watched.

The next soccer game’s dinner featured peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with apple slices and grapes.

One weekend for lunch I made Salmon Burgers (recipe coming this month). We ate them with carrots, honeydew melon, and pear slices.

One morning I was able to get some baking done. First, I divided up my big bag of whole wheat pastry flour from Azure Standard, putting it into gallon-sized bags for the freezer.

Then I made this Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread/Muffin recipe x6 along with some scrambled eggs. I froze most of the bread/muffins to serve on other days as needed.

I had marinated some chicken breasts last month, so one night I smoked them and served them with green beans and fruit. (We were in a hurry to get Elias out the door that night so I brought the chicken in from the smoker early and finished cooking it in a skillet.)

Here are some of the kids eating Pumpkin Bread and peaches outside while they wait for the rest of dinner.

I packed 22 hotdogs to take for us to eat during Malachi’s soccer game one night. There were only three hotdogs left at the end of the evening. :)

The day before Easter I prepped as much food as possible. (We ended up having 27 people share our celebration that day!) I made coffee ice cubes so that guests could make a fancy Cold Coffee.

Our Easter meal included a sprial-cut baked ham, huge pan of party potatoes, roasted green beans, roasted asparagus, corn, rolls, fresh pineapple, grapes, and cheesecake.

During Easter break, we spent a day at the zoo. Asa’s wife Eva plus Justus and his wife Kelsey were able to join us and help with all the kids. We packed summer sausage, cheese, crackers, carrots, hummus, applesauce, and chips for lunch.

That evening, we all met at a park for dinner (Asa joined us after work!). Kelsey and I ran to Costco and grabbed a $4.98 rotisserie chicken, strawberries, grapes, blueberries, pretzel bites, and soft serve ice cream (because we adults needed a treat after all the fun at the zoo!).

Justus was awesome to pull all the meat off of our rotisserie chicken while we all helped ourselves. :)

A bit out of order, here’s what we ate for breakfast before leaving for the zoo that morning. I used the rest of our Easter ham from the day before to make an Egg Casserole.

One evening I smoked marinated chicken thighs and served them with roasted carrots/broccoli, cream cheese corn, grapes, and garlic bread.

I knocked out a bunch of breakfast/snack prep one morning, making a big pan of Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Bars, a double batch of Bran Muffins, and a double batch of Applesauce Bread/Muffins.

I baked a huge bag of dino nuggets from Sam’s one evening and served them with pears and carrots.

On an unusually hot day in April, I declared it to be too hot to cook. So I quickly blended up this 3-Ingredient Beans and Cheese Salsa Dip for dinner, which we ate with chips and carrots with ranch or peanut butter. (Our 7-yo girlie likes her carrots with peanut butter, and if it gets the veggies down, this is just fine with me!) Side note: Skippy makes a 3-ingredient peanut butter now that has ingredients I don’t feel bad about. Maybe one day I’ll go back to making our peanut butter again? Maybe.

I can’t remember what we were doing this particular day but it was a full one so I resorted to something easy from the freezer! We declared it to be an ORANGE meal with our favorite Orange Chicken from Sam’s, oranges, and carrots. :) (By the way, the CaraCara oranges are a favorite around here! Pink on the inside and extra delicious!)

I used up a bunch of blackening bananas to make two loaves of banana bread and two pans of muffins. We froze some and ate some with scrambled cheese eggs and fruit one Saturday.

Keith is here eating his first plate of food one night. This is usually how I feed my kids: I give them a plate with their fruit and veggie first, then I give them the main dish. Otherwise, they tend to fill up on the main dish and are suddenly “not hungry” for their veggies. Keith shocks us by eating his spinach without any dip. Way to go, Popeye!

This box of food is what I packed to take to Lincoln one day when we were going to spend the day with our married kids there. I packed frozen chicken burritos to warm up, carrots and hummus, chips and salsa, peach cups, and those awesome coconut crisps that Sam’s and Costco sometimes have!

For a lovely, warm, but windy, soccer game, I made 12 melted sub sandwiches. Some had turkey (from the big bird I baked last month) with ranch and cheese, and a few had just ham and cheese.

I cut the sandwiches all in half to make them easier to eat, and put them into ziplock bags to stay warm. I also packed veggie straws, oranges, and applesauce squeezies.

I decided to take a picture of my lovely swirling smoothie one day when I was making it for lunch. This includes a 1/2 pound of fresh greens, along with frozen fruit and milk. Matt and I drink this and it gives us each two servings.

We hit a new level of busy as the month ended and we were preparing for graduations and adoption day! So I started slacking a bit (feeling no guilt!) on meal plans and just throwing out whatever I could find to simply put food in our bellies. This meal was a simple pan of cheesy scrambled eggs (15 of them), spinach, blueberries, salsa for those who wanted it on their eggs, and a pan of Chocolate Oatmeal (because I had some in the pantry I wanted to use up).

I made a huge Lasagna for Malachi’s May graduation day and put it into the freezer one morning while the baby napped and the girls played.

Malachi had his very last home high school soccer game (sniff) and I made a big breakfast casserole to eat at the game. I’d never tried this before as a “to-go” meal but it worked great! I put it together that morning, baked it in the afternoon, cut it into squares and took the squares to hand out on the sidelines for the kids to eat. It worked GREAT!

Here’s our 2-year-old sitting in the wagon working on her second square of egg casserole. :)

Last but not least, here’s a picture of my vanilla beans. I got them out to start a huge batch of vanilla!

We hosted a graduation party for Elias and for Justus’ wife, Kelsey, on the 29th. I just don’t have those pictures ready to share yet. I’ll include those in next month’s meal post! May is going to be incredibly full with our girls’ adoption day and Malachi’s high school graduation. Ready, set, go!

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Why I Don’t Fold Laundry Anymore

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I don’t fold laundry anymore. Here’s what I do instead.

 

Why I don’t fold laundry anymore

I’m currently doing laundry for 9 people every day. (There are 11 of us at home right now, but Elias and Malachi do their own laundry.) Meanwhile, I’m caring for 7 small children all day, so merely getting the laundry washed and dried is a challenge to keep up with.

So why don’t I fold the laundry? Because I could spend a lot of time folding small articles of clothing for 7 small children and babies, and after all that work, the clothes would immediately become unfolded. So I gave up trying, I save time and effort, and we just throw kids’ clothes into drawers!

I realize this sounds stressful to many of you who love tidy drawers and neat spaces. I like things tidy and neat too, but I hate wasting time and energy. Anytime a lovely helper comes into our home and assists me with laundry, try as I might to keep the clothing nice that they folded and put away for me, their effort turns into a mess in the drawers as we have to rummage through them to get the pants that match the shirt.

Three of our little girls all wear the same size, which is super nice! So we have one dresser for them to share, and we put all their jammies in one drawer, all their shirts in the next, and all their pants in the bottom. We open the drawers, we grab what we need, and we go.

Worth noting: It is actually much easier to see all of the items of clothing in their drawers when they are NOT folded. It is very tricky to distinguish which shirt is which when it is a tiny size 2T.

Also worth noting: Kids’ clothes don’t wrinkle. At least my kids’ clothes. So no one is the wiser that the outfit my kids’ are wearing were just tossed into a drawer after they came out of the dryer. :)

How I Fold Towels

I don’t. :) :) :)

Instead, we’ve found it easier to assign one special towel to each person. They come out of the dryer and get hung on hooks on the back of the bathroom door for easy access when we’re getting seven kids in and out of the bath, oy. Now that’s a big job – bathing seven children. I am exhausted and fairly soaked by the time it’s over, hahaha.

(I do have a couple of shelves of folded towels in our bathrooms for guests. We have our pride. Sort of.)

What about the grown-up’s laundry?

Well, Matt folds and puts his own laundry away. I personally only fold my jeans so that they fit into my drawer. :) Life’s too short to fold underwear, I say. :) So I just toss them into a drawer. Same with my socks. I can easily find a matching pair when needed.

I hang up my tops – when I get around to it, oy. And that’s that.

Dishtowels?

Sometimes we fold them, sometimes we don’t. They fit better in the drawer when they are folded, but our littlest girls often rummage through that drawer and mess it all up anyway, soooooo….

We are actually getting our 4, 7, and 9-year-olds involved in folding and putting those away, so that’s nice!

Odds and Ends

We have baskets and cubes for our kids’ socks and undies. I’ve long given up on finding matching socks for our littlest kids to wear each day – clean socks are good enough in my book. And having them unfolded and unmatched in a basket makes them much easier to access!

So back to why I don’t fold laundry anymore:

I’ve found that many of these unfolded laundry tips work better for us right now!

  • Clean towels are hung on hooks right by the bathtub.
  • Socks and undies are easy to grab in baskets.
  • Unfolded little boy and girl shirts and pants are easier to find/match when they are gently tossed into a drawer.

I don’t ever plan to change this system, even when my hands are no longer so full of babies! Why? Because as each of our kids get older THEY CAN FOLD THEIR OWN LAUNDRY. Amen and amen. Hallelujah.

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