Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: February 22-28, 2026 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!
February 21
Brayden was blessed to join some of our Heartlands youth on Saturday morning, along with several other youth groups from Lincoln for a Day of Love. They worked as groups all over the city to serve and care for people. He LOVED this day.
Meanwhile, back at home, our older kids all joined together at our house (minus Malachi who was flying home from California that day). This was our rescheduled day to celebrate Justus’ birthday since we’d had to cancel last Sunday due to sickness at our house.
We rewarmed the Italian Cream Cheese Chicken I’d made and frozen plus boiled two pounds of noodles. We had sides of greens, blueberries, and of course, muffins since the grandbabies were there. Dessert was Butterscotch Bars, which is always Justus’ birthday choice. No one argues with this.
After lunch, the babies napped and the kids watched a movie while the grown-ups played Cards Christians Like then The Game of Things. I LOVE times like these when we can enjoy our adult kids.
Big Family Food and Fun: February 22-28, 2026
Sunday morning, we ate a plate full of Breakfast Cookie Bars.
Brayden was on worship team with Justus that morning. I love this!
A lovely crowd gathered for lunch at our house after worship. Look at Acacia and Josie sitting together and taking it all in…
I captured this sweet moment of our friend Mark sitting on the floor getting to know Auggie.
We had a Brunch themed Lunch that day with Egg Casseroles, French Toast Casserole, Coffee Cake, Nutella Oat Bars, Fruit, and Potato Soup. Oh look! Malachi is back from California and Arrow found him!
There were 26 of us gathered that day.
For dinner that night, we ate more of our lunch casseroles as we reset the kitchen and started prepping for a new school week.
On Monday morning, Emma came over to hang with the girls. I snuck out for the day and started my grocery shopping at Aldi. I was able to get some great meat markdowns! Pork chops and chicken leg quarters at half off! I also got ground beef, french fries, coffee creamer, sugar, crackers, pasta sauce, yogurt, sausage, mandarins, salad kits, sweet peppers, lasagna noodles, fruit/veggie pouches, and dried strawberries, plus some pancake mix to put into our Little Free Pantry.
Next stop was Wal-Mart, where I found more meat mark downs – chicken breast and hamburger meat. I grabbed oatmeal and eggs, then decided to check the clearance aisle. I got some gloves, and my big score? Valentine cards for the kids next year. They were 90% off, so all the boxes were just $0.35.
I might have gotten a lifetime supply. But actually though, this may only last us a couple of years because it’s shocking how many of these we go through as we prep for Valentine parties!
I spent the next two and a half hours sitting and writing at Panera – my favorite down time! Then I went next door and filled a cart at Costco: milk, spinach, raspberries, blueberries, bananas, potatoes, butter, z-bars, cream, half and half, granola, ranch, barbecue sauce, avocado mash, kombucha, white queso, chicken stock, and chips. I picked up two cases of canned chicken soup that were on clearance so we can put them out in our Little Free Pantry.
Keith was my helper of the day, so he put together two bags of Caesar salad for our dinner.
I had picked up a Rotisserie Chicken at Costco, which we had for dinner that night with Keith’s Salad and two containers of Raspberries.
I made a batch of Spinach Cupcakes to help fill bellies that night and to get some extra greens into the kids.
On Tuesday morning, these girlies sat down with Wikki Sticks. I thought it was very sweet – and then they told me that they were making “rainbow poop.” Well, as long as they’re being creative…
Hopelyn came over that day. She picked up one of Keith’s rockets and turned it into a microphone, complete with dance moves.
I had picked up pork chops on sale the day before. So I experimented to make Smothered Pork Chops in the crock pot. WOW. I will definitely be writing this recipe for all of us here because it was a winner!
That afternoon, Auggie had an appointment at Children’s with his neurologist. Or should I say: his former neurologist. He has made such amazing progress that he graduated and will now only have to go in “as needed.” It’s been amazing the positive changes in him in a year’s time!
Immediately after his appointment, I dropped him off and home and grabbed Brayden and Kiya to take them to our weekly Food Distribution. Back at home, Matt baked a pan of Stick of Butter Rice I’d prepped, steamed some veggies, and served the pork chops. This meal was a huge hit!
On Wednesday morning, I made a salad for Matt and me. Wow we get a lot of greens this way. I actually make this every other day, all year long. But this particular day, I remembered to take a picture to document it. How exciting.
I almost always come home with lots of breads and buns after Food Distribution on Tuesday. This was the case this week, so Josie helped me make three packages of Ham and Cheese Sliders for the freezer.
I also baked 24 eggs and put together 24 Breakfast Sandwiches to have on hand.
Arrow came to hang out that morning. Here he was showing me an owl that said, “hoot” and a bunny that went, “jump, jump, jump!”
That night for dinner, I made a huge Cheeseburger Casserole with sliced peppers and pickles.
Acacia and Josie were up sick all night long into Thursday morning. UGH. Matt took the first long shift with them, then I took over around 3:30 am so he could get some sleep. The laundry mountain was large the next morning as we tried to get their room back in order. They laid around all day as they recovered. Matt and I were in a bit of a haze.
But life must go on. Auggie had his first dentist appointment…
Matt and I tried to rest that afternoon. Then we proceeded with our regularly scheduled date night. I told all the adults in the house to fend for themselves for dinner. Then I set out piles of food options for the kids to eat while we were gone. Acacia and Josie hadn’t eaten much all day, so here were there choices:
Anna’s pile looked like this. It works very well for her therapist to get her to eat in the evenings if I present a pile of foods I know she likes that she can choose from. This gives her a sense of control, which makes her feel safe.
Keith, on the other hand, likes it when things are new and exciting. So I created a “surprise plate” for him to enjoy with his therapist while we were gone. He was especially excited later to tell me about how he got to cut his own apple with the slicer.
Matt and I started our date that night at Brayden’s middle school for Parent Teacher Conferences. Nothing is more romantic than that. :)
On Friday morning, I used a container of cottage cheese to make Easy Chocolate Protein Mousse for breakfast. This was a fun treat for the kids (and the parents)!
Josie got started with ABA therapy at 8:00 – something we’ve been working toward for a very long time. The morning started out hectic as we got some kids out the door for school and a new therapist oriented to our home. But all of the people we work with are easy-going and here to help. So it went as smoothly as possible as we all settled in.
The weather was absolutely beautiful all day long, so we moved therapy outside as the morning warmed up. Auggie enjoyed driving around the train that Anna had built the day before.
The girls were so sweet to want a picnic, which they created all by themselves. They spread a blanket and brought out apples and clementines. Auggie parked his train and joined them.
With our days being so full of appointments, therapies, meetings, and other needs – plus sickness thrown in for good measure – Matt and I can get pretty worn out. Today was a GREAT day to rest. The kids played calmly most of the morning, so I sat calmly in the sunshine watching them. It was so, so nice. I’d already planned to not cook dinner, which meant that I didn’t need to do any work in the kitchen that day, so I could fully take time off. Hallelujah, sunshine!
That evening, I made Chicken Nuggets and Fries, and the kids ate outside while they continued to play. It was a great day!
On Saturday, we got to do something extra special! I had discovered super cheap tickets to our final Women’s Husker Basketball home game. We decided that for such low ticket prices we could attempt to make a super fun memory for our kids. Malachi was the only adult in our crew that was available, and we were so glad he could join us!
We dug out all the red we owned as we headed out, and even found a good parking spot just a few blocks from the arena. Acacia and Josie love holding hands as they walk!
We took up an entire row at the game and the kids did INCREDIBLE! The novelty of this outing along with the fun entertainment during time-outs helped. :)
We knew it might be tough for Auggie to miss his regular afternoon nap. He solved that problem during the second half of the game.
We sent Malachi to the concession stand with our credit card to buy two big bags of popcorn to get everyone happily through the second half. It was a worthy investment.
We were so thankful that we could all enjoy this outing! On our walk back to the van, we enjoyed an old train.
Back at home, we did some cleaning and playing and had bath time. And that was our week!
