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Big Family Food and Fun: June1-7, 2025

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: June1-7, 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, May 31

We spent the entire afternoon playing in a blow-up pool someone had given us.

We were happily surprised by how long this kept the kids entertained. Late in the afternoon, some of the kids were excited to help me shuck corn for dinner.

As the corn cooked, I cut up a watermelon for hungry kids who’d been playing in water for hours. I had accidentally bought a seeded watermelon, and we were concerned that the kids might not like this. So we decided to make a big deal of teaching the kids how to spit watermelon seeds! This worked, plus they were starving, plus the watermelon was a very good one. Therefore, we ate almost an entire watermelon in thirty minutes. :)

Upon finished their watermelon “snack,” they were still hungry. So I started fixing plates of leftover Steak, Corn on the Cob, Green Beans, plus a tiny bit of leftover Mac and Cheese. We had to finish the day off with Peanut Butter Honey Sandwiches because I couldn’t get on top of hunger that day. The hot topic right now between all of my mom-friends with little kids: “How are we going to keep these kids fed this summer??” Yup.

Big Family Food and Fun: June1-7, 2025

I had realized Saturday afternoon that I didn’t have any Breakfast Cookie Bars in the freezer, so I quickly made a double batch. I cut and froze half for next Sunday, then left the rest in the pan for this Sunday morning.

We had a big, wonderful crowd join us at our house for lunch after church that day. Five extra families, 40 people all together, and a house full of conversation and fun. Girls did nails and played with dolls. Look at Little Sweetheart down there playing like a big girl!!! :) :) :)

Kids ran in and out playing in our yard, parents visited – this is all a dream for me, seeing so many gathered in our home.

I had baked two huge Lasagnas (this recipe x6). Everyone who came brought salads, bread, fruit, or desserts.

Here’s the dessert section of our kitchen that day. I pulled Monster Cookies from our freezer. Friends brought delicious Lemon Bread (with glaze!) and a Texas Sheet Cake. I enjoyed a small piece of each, the cake and the bread, with my coffee that afternoon and they were perfect. :)

Asa and Eva weren’t feeling well so they couldn’t join us that day. So I packaged up some Lasagna and sides/desserts to send over to them (Justus and Kelsey live very close to them and were able to drop it off). That left two servings of Lasagna in the second pan after we’d all had our fill. Then, when members of our Community Group showed up at 2:00, they finished it off. BLISS. I love it when food disappears and is enjoyed by so many!

We ate leftovers that night, then took the kids on a walk to Sunken Gardens, which is about six blocks from our house.

While we were there, I happened to look up and see that there was a young man proposing to his girl. :) It was so sweet and I felt like an intruder to watch their special moment. But then, at the risk of being a creeper,  I decided to sneak some pictures of the proposal for them, in case they would enjoy that. Later, I made my way back to them to congratulate them and tell them that I had taken pictures of their special moment. They were THRILLED!! I took a few more “couple shots” for them as if I was a special engagement photographer, ha, and sent them all to the young man’s phone. It was a cool part of our evening. :)

I’ll respect their privacy and not show you their photos, but instead, I’ll show you more of our kids!

Monday morning, we had French Toast and Bacon for breakfast.

Josie helped me make Tuna Salad and Chicken Salad to put into the fridge and pull out for dinner later.

Auggie had ABA therapy that morning while we kept all the others busy playing. We had a simple lunch of Chicken Nuggets, Pickles, and Clementines.

We “farmed the kids out” that afternoon with loved ones so that Matt and I could have some breathing room (our plan for Monday and Friday afternoons this summer).

Then for dinner we pulled out the Tuna Salad and Chicken Salad we’d made earlier. Plus I made a blender full of Smoothie for the kids.

We’d learned of a fun Art on the Bus event just a few blocks away, so after dinner we all headed over, meeting our neighbor John on the way for a fun convo about his flowers.

Alas, the Art on the Bus event had been postponed, but it was still a nice walk that evening. Back at home, the kids ate lots of Bananas and Clementines while they played and before we headed into get ready for bed.

Tuesday morning, Auggie had Speech Therapy. This kid has been working so hard and has made such good progress that we turned in his AAC device that day! When we ordered it just a few months ago, he was hardly talking and we didn’t know if he had the capacity to communicate. Then – the kid exploded with words, praise God!

His therapist anticipates that he’ll continue to meet goals and be able to take a break from Speech Therapy soon(ish).

On Tuesdays this summer, Matt and I have planned to go to the zoo after Speech. But this Tuesday, it was pouring down rain all day long. So we looked online for alternative ideas and found that a library close by was hosting a Music Exploration event. We loaded up our selves and our umbrellas and we headed over! We got to play so many cool instruments that morning, making it well worth going out in the rain! Plus the outing for the kids was very good since we’d been cooped up so much.

For lunch, I made a quick meal of this Nacho Plate recipe. The kids devoured it!

It was still raining, so we did some Summer School at Home during the afternoon followed by watching a animal learning show Matt had found on Disney+.

We read some more also – gotta log those reading minutes so we earn prizes at the library!

I took Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and Acacia to our weekly Food Distribution. Acacia felt so grown up getting to be a part of it this time!

I had discovered a Chicken and Rice Casserole in our freezer, so that baked at home on low while we were gone. Matt pulled it out at dinner time plus steamed Peas and Corn for our meal.

Wednesday was a big day at our house. We had company to get ready for, a big day on Sunday to prep for, and the biggest need: our Bonus Buddy was coming that evening to settle in with us for a few weeks.

One of my goals that day was to make food Bonus Buddy liked (he’s very picky, but then again, so are most of our other kids). I also really wanted to get ahead for Sunday Lunch because we were planning to host a bigger than usual crowd that day. So first thing, I marinated about 65 Chicken Thighs to smoke later in the day.

Acacia and Josie helped me make a batch of Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins, which we made into 48 Mini Muffins.

As you can see, these muffins were a hit right out of the oven.

Between cooking and baking, I spent a good part of the morning creating new spaces for Keith and Bonus Buddy in the boys’ room. These two are best friends, which is both super great and super challenging, especially at bedtime. So we have to be strategic with sleeping arrangements. Auggie was excited to discover Keith’s “new bed.”

We had ABA and some zoom therapy appointments that morning, then ate our lunch outside, finishing off the leftover Tuna Salad and Chicken Salad from Monday.

Matt had been working on some projects outside that included eye and ear protection. So afterward, the kids felt that they definitely also needed ear protection while they played in the yard. :) :) :)

Eva arrived with Arrow and the kids swarmed her because they were so excited!

After naptime, Auggie and Arrow shared a snack and lively conversation.

Throughout the afternoon, I smoked two rounds of chicken to have ready for Sunday. I also brewed several pots of coffee so that we could serve cold coffee to our guests.

Bonus Buddy really likes Mac and Cheese, so I made that for dinner to help positively settle him in. All of our kids like Mac and Cheese, actually, so that’s one meal I can make that all the kids will eat well. Most of the kids eat their mac and cheese with frozen peas stirred in, so that’s a bonus. I fried up some ham to give us protein also.

After dinner, we walked a few blocks from our house to enjoy our city’s Art Bus! (Monday’s event had been postponed to Wednesday.)

This is a free opportunity each week for people to come create art – all we have to do is show up. Today there were easels with canvases, paint and brushes, and aprons to protect clothing. The kids had so much fun with this!

Kelsey and Little Sweetheart had joined us at dinnertime and for our Art Bus experience. There was even pizza to enjoy painting!

On Thursday, we had a chill morning at home, getting a room ready for a house guest and prepping for a family meal that night. It was cool outside, therefore a good day for baking. So Auggie helped me make a batch of Chocolate Spinach Cupcakes. We do whatever we can do to get greens into these kids!!!

That night we had the amazing privilege of hosting a dear friend from our big boys’ growing up years. John grew up a few blocks away from our house in York and our home was his second home. He lives in Australia now, and he was in Lincoln for a wedding, staying with us during the days he was here. He arrived at our house that afternoon, and we invited all of our adult kids to have dinner with him and visit.

Elias and Malorie got back from their 2-weeks in Texas just about the time John arrived! Since our entire family was able to be together and because we’d missed celebrating Malorie’s birthday with her, we doubled this dinner as her birthday dinner.

She requested Cheesy Potatoes and any meat, because Cheesy Potatoes are her favorite. I made Burgers and Brats plus Caesar Salad.

Her birthday dessert request was Strawberries with Whipped Cream. I set out the Spinach Cupcakes Auggie had helped me make earlier to go with the berries and cream for those who wanted it.

The night was loud and lovely.

Ever tried putting a birthday candle into a dollop of whipped cream? It works!

Friday morning, some of our kids had a very emotional zoom meeting that we’d spent two weeks prepping for, crying about, praying through, and processing. Their therapist was awesome and came to our house to facilitate the call and support the kids through it. Many of our adult kids came to stay with the other littles so that Matt and I could be fully focused on the hard needs of the morning. The others were praying us through it. The two weeks leading up to this had been intensely difficult.

And we got through it. God is faithful.

Matt and I had decided to take a trip to the Zoo after the meeting so that we could move forward with something fun after we processed with the therapist. Kelsey, Little Sweetheart, and our friend John went to the zoo with us, making it extra fun.

The otter was super cool to watch that day.

The flamingos were acting in a way we’d never seen before. Fascinating!

And the peacock was amazing, though he refused to turn around to pose for a picture.

We had a good ol’ picnic lunch of sandwiches, chips, carrots, fruit cups, and cheese sticks.

Auggie decided that John was his newest great buddy. It was so sweet.

We farmed the kids out that afternoon to various places during Auggie’s nap: the boys with Elias and Malorie, Kiya and Anna with Kelsey, and Acacia and Josie to Ms. Kathi. Matt and I had time together to process the week and the kids’ needs as we keep trekking through.

We ate leftovers for dinner that night and I worked on packing up food for Saturday. We had big plans to go to Nebraska City to a Donut Festival!

I prepped a cooler full of Drinks plus Meat, Cheese, Crackers, Cucumbers, Apples, Clementines, Almonds, Trail Mix, Chips, Salsa, Avocado, Applesauce, Granola Bars, Veggie Straws, and Dried Apples to take with us.

Saturday I hoped to get home from the Donut Festival and share about all the fun, but nope. The kids had big needs and the afternoon/evening was spent going from one need to the next. So I’ll share our Donut Festival fun next week!

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Big Family Food and Fun: May 25-31, 2025

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: May 25-31, 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, May 24

That Saturday, we drove to York to enjoy the wedding of one of our sweetest friends. It was such a wonderful day seeing so many people we love and having the chance to visit and catch up!

I tried to capture a picture of all of the kids walking back to the van later that afternoon, but somehow I missed Josie? We are always counting heads to make sure we have all seven kids in tow. ;) No worries, she did make it back to Lincoln with us.

We played outside all evening after we got home, and simply warmed up leftovers to clean out the fridge at dinner time.

Big Family Food and Fun: May 25-31, 2025

We ate a plate of Breakfast Cookie Bars on Sunday morning while we got ready for church. And oh look, there’s my “salad in a glass” that I drank that morning.

After church that morning, Mandy, our children’s minister gathered lots of helpers to load food into the back of our van. We had big plans, as a church family, to host a Memorial Day cookout at Atlas House, which is a ministry located close to our house. Many, many people had signed up to provide the food and it had been collected in the church kitchen. Matt pulled our van up to the door and lots of eager kids helped load it in for us. Look at how Auggie even wanted to be a part of the group of helpers!

When we got back to our house, all of our Sunday Lunch crew helped unload the Atlas House meal groceries into our extra fridge so that we could hold onto it and take it to Atlas the next day. Teamwork is the best. :)

Meanwhile in the kitchen, other friends were pulling out and setting up our big BLT lunch buffet! I had baked lots and lots of Bacon in preparation for this, plus we got out turkey and cheese, condiments, and lots of varieties of bread (which were on a different counter and I didn’t capture in any pictures). Friends brought chips, pasta salads, and oranges, plus we had watermelon. It was such a tasty lunch! (The bacon was in the foil pan you see below – and I had two pans full.)

Friends brought all these desserts to share, plus Gelato!

There were 27 of us gathered that day – such precious fellowship.

I loved catching our friend Steve visiting with Malachi. :)

As our Sunday Lunch crew left, our Community Group friends arrived. Before heading in our living room for Bible study, we found ourselves standing around in the kitchen with cups of coffee and cookies/brownies. I couldn’t get a picture of everyone in one frame, but I loved this scene.

This Sunday felt extra special to me because we’d just been with our York church family the day before at the wedding, and now spent hours with our Lincoln church family. We are so richly blessed with precious community of believers.

After Community Group, all the girls wanted to paint their nails.

That evening, we got to Facetime with Elias and Malorie who were in Texas. I baked our traditional Sunday Night Frozen Pizza.

Then just before bed, Daddy and Auggie decided to make Popcorn. :)

Monday morning, I made a big pan of Chewy Granola Bars for snacks.

We ate Yogurt with Granola or Breakfast Sandwiches. Kiya helped me make some Uncrustables for a to-go lunch. We were planning to leave mid-morning to head over to the Atlas House with all the food from church to get started on the lunch we were serving there.

I prepped the tomatoes, lettuce, and a veggie tray needed for the Atlas Lunch.

Somewhere in there, Brayden noticed that the kitchen ceiling was leaking. UGH.

Matt had to dig into the ceiling to find the root of it and solve the problem. We didn’t have time for this mess that morning, but is there ever really a good time??

Since Matt was a little extra busy tearing apart our kitchen ceiling, some friends came and helped us get all the cold food over to Atlas – plus Malachi drove our van over with the buns, chips, cookies, and condiments.

Meanwhile in the living room… Since we’d just been to a wedding over the weekend, it was fresh on the kids’ minds. They set up a wedding, and even had a sign-in table. :) :) :)

At 11:30, we all headed over to meet our church family at Atlas house. The lunch prep was well underway, thanks to so many dear ones who were working hard to serve. I don’t know how many people went through the food line, but there were a lot and it was awesome to see so many in the community receive a meal.

That afternoon back at home, the kids enjoyed time with friends who came over to play while Matt worked on the kitchen ceiling some more. He found the source of the leak so now he can work on the repair.

I had found some organic chicken marked down at Sam’s a few weeks prior and it had slow cooked all day in a crock pot. So for dinner that night, I boiled a pound of noodles to go with it, opened a jar of Alfredo sauce, and got out some greens. It was simple but tasty.

Tuesday morning, the kids finished off the pan of Granola Bars plus ate two pounds of strawberries.

I took Auggie to Speech Therapy.

Then for the rest of the day, Matt and I worked to keep kids entertained and busy. It was yet another rainy day (so thankful for the rain! but these kids have been cooped up too much!). I had a package of frozen pie crust in our freezer so we turned it into Poptarts for Wednesday’s breakfast.

Matt helped Keith rig up a zip line from our second floor down to our main floor and the kids spent quite a while sending an action figure down the line. :)

Our meals that day were fun and different. Malachi had gone to a friend’s graduation party over the weekend. After the party, the friend’s mom sent home leftover party food home with Malachi. It’s sweet how everyone thinks of us in this way, knowing that we have a lot of mouths to feed and food won’t go to waste at our house! So lunch on Tuesday was a big pan of Party Meatballs with sauce. I sliced up several pears to go with our meal.

We have joined our library’s Summer Reading Challenge and all the kids are anxious to log reading hours. So we piled on the couch after lunch to read Farmer Boy. Brayden and Keith were listening too, but Keith was also busy “cleaning” the living room with wet wipes. Ha, whatever keeps him busy. :)

An outing was needed, but Auggie was napping that afternoon. So Matt stayed home with Brayden, Kiya, and Keith doing “big kid things” while I took the three little girls to the Zoo to play in the indoor play area. This was much needed and very good!

That afternoon, I took Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and Anna to hand out food and clean up at our weekly Food Distribution. Here’s a shot of the room all set up with food to give away before clients started to come through the line. There are usually around 100 people that come through to get food.

Back at home, our dinner was more Party Food that Malachi had brought home: Chips and Dip with fruit.

Wednesday morning, I finally finished putting together Pocket Folders for all of the kids to use during our Summer School at Home. Keith and Anna were excited and insisted on starting in right away. I didn’t argue.

Acacia and Josie had an appointment that morning, and afterward, we ran to Aldi to pick up what we needed there.

Later in the day, I baked a pan of this rice then stirred it into the rest of the pan of Cheese Dip Malachi had brought home from the party he’d been to.

I turned the mixture into 28 Burritos for our freezer. I love having these on hand!

I made a pan of Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Bars for snacks and breakfast.

For dinner, we ate Sloppy Joes, Peas, and Grapes.

Just before we ate, friends texted to share that some of our mutual church friends were going to be playing/singing at a nearby park. Matt and I rearranged our evening so that we could go. Did it start raining just as we were heading out? Yes. But did we decide to go anyway? Also yes.

We all got wet – especially the kids. But it was such a fun night! The band invited everyone to join them under the pavilion to take part in make music together. They had a huge variety of shakers, bells, tambourines, triangles, maracas, and more – and we could all help ourselves to the fun.

I went with Kiya, who was too shy to go by herself. Then eventually, all the kids finally came to join in.

The rain didn’t stop all evening, but that didn’t stop the kids. They had a blast. We headed straight down to our laundry room when we got home, and turned everyone’s clothes into a full, wet pile of laundry while they changed into dry jammies for bed.

Thursday morning, some of the kids weren’t feeling well. (We’d had some extra emotional situations come to the surface this week and by Thursday, it was affecting the kids physically. God be near.) Matt stayed home with some while I took others to meet Eva and Arrow at a cool church/coffee shop/play area in town.

We got to enjoy the outdoor playground also, which was a bonus. And we had the place to ourselves because of the time frame we happened to be there.

Back at home that afternoon, the girls sat at the counter doing their Summer School at Home folders, rewarded by a popsicle – while I made several huge Lasagnas for our upcoming Sunday Lunch.

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

Then we headed to a fun Party in the Park hosted by a local church. There was face painting and bounce houses, which the kids all enjoyed very much!

I got this fun photo and text from Eva telling me that Arrow was really enjoying Lolli’s Chicken Casserole. So sweet!!

Kelsey had been sending me fun photos of Little Sweetheart as they were out of state visiting family and seeing some awesome sites.

Friday morning, we packed all of our bikes plus Chicken Sandwiches, Carrots, Applesauce, Grapes, and Coconut Rolls and headed to our favorite park with a perfect bike trail for kids. We spent most of the morning there, getting lots of sunshine and exercise.

From there, we drove around dropping kids off at three different places for the afternoon. Matt and I recognized that last summer we didn’t have any kid-free breaks, which wasn’t good for us. So this summer, we have made arrangements to “farm them out” during Auggie’s naptime on Monday and Friday afternoons so that Matt and I can have some breathing time.

When we dropped Kiya and Anna off at Eva’s, Malachi met us there to grab Brayden and Keith to take them back to his office. They were all so excited about this! Apparently, the guys had plans to “make a video with Malachi.” I’m not sure how productive they were with this. ;)

Kiya and Anna got to go to a brand new park with Eva and Arrow and spent a lot of time spinning. Back at home while Auggie napped? Matt and I sat outside with coffee and had long conversation while we relaxed. It was wonderful. :)

I grilled Steaks for dinner that night, and my Helper of the Day, Acacia, made a Salad. I sliced Pears and air fried some French Fries and it was a simple but tasty dinner.

Saturday morning, we attempted something I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time (and featured in the Picnic in a Hat ebook in our Summer School at Home curriculum). Every kid got to draw a slip of paper with a picnic lunch category on it (like “fruit,” “protein,” “drinks,” etc). Then we went into Trader Joe’s and each kid got to pick an item to buy that matched the category on their paper.

Why Trader Joe’s? Because we never shop there. (It’s such a fun store, but it isn’t practical for our family.) Also, we received some summer EBT cards in the mail that we weren’t expecting. So we used part of one of the cards to splurge on this fun purchase!

How did our experience go? Well, we won’t do it often, but it was worth the effort this time. Some of our kids’ autism-brains had a very hard time understanding the task, and we had at least three loud meltdowns. This isn’t their fault and they do need to learn how to handle being in a store. But we choose to do things like this infrequently. :)

We put the food we bought into a cooler bag with ice packs, then tried out a new-to-us Library Story Time. (The one we typically go to wasn’t in session that morning.) It was well done, but we learned that this particular setting is not ideal for our crew. The Sensory Friendly Story-Time we usually go to meets our special needs much better. Still, I’m glad we tried this one out!

From the library, we headed a block away to a park we’d been introduced to a few weeks ago. We thought we’d eat our picnic, then play on the playground. Alas, the playground floor was under construction and it was all off limits.

No worries, we enjoyed our picnic and ran around on the tennis courts for a while before heading home. Our Trader Joe’s picnic ended up being Brie Cheese with Crackers, Chomps Meat Sticks, Raspberries, Blueberries, Strawberry Cereal Bars, Chips, Apple Juice, and Sparkling Water.

Back at home, it was finally hot enough to air up and fill up the pool someone had given us a few weeks ago. FUN!

After that, I turned off my computer and we headed into our time of Sabbath rest. And that was our week!

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Big Family Food and Fun: May 18-24, 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: May 18-24, 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, May 17

Saturday afternoon, I made a double batch of Lemon Muffins. Correction: I TRIED to make a double batch of Lemon Muffins. You guys. How many muffins have I made in my lifetime? We have no idea. SO many muffins. And yet, these turned out super weird and I couldn’t figure out why.

Ah. Come to find out, I had completely forgotten to add salt and baking powder. No baking powder means no fluff. We tried to like them, but we just didn’t. Boo.

For dinner that night, we simply warmed up leftover Skillet Taco Pasta and ate it with fruit. We were all pretty worn out after Keith’s big track meet day and our day in Omaha the day before that. Bedtime felt good that night.

Big Family Food and Fun: May 18-24, 2025

Sunday morning, we enjoyed a plate of Breakfast Cookie Bars as we got ready for church.

Sunday’s lunch was an amazing Salad Bar! I provided three different kinds of greens plus Grilled Chicken and a few other salad fixings. Everyone else who joined us brought salad fixings (or a dessert) and it was incredible! I asked Elias to take a picture of our spread of food, and he caught me in it too. :)

Ah, then I caught him back (at the back). :)

Our salad bar included spring mix, iceberg lettuce, and spinach, Colby jack and feta cheese, Grilled Chicken, sweet peppers, tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, craisins, salad crisps, and a variety of dressings. Our friend, Cindy, made a tasty Cucumber Salad, plus I set out a couple bowls of crackers and some rolls.

There were 27 of us that day enjoying our meal, but I didn’t get any great pictures of all of us together.

We air fried our dinner that night. :) Chicken and Tator Tots from the freezer, plus pineapple, watermelon, and strawberries.

On Monday morning, I scrambled a dozen Eggs. We ate the eggs with a super tasty Coffee Cake a friend had given us.

That afternoon, Keith received an award at school so I got to go watch him receive it.

Dinner that night was Egg Casserole and Pancakes with Strawberries. Everyone ate this meal extremely well. I think Auggie had fifths – a record for him!

ABA therapy was canceled that night, so we took advantage of the free schedule to go play at a nearby park.

Tuesday morning, we ate Breakfast Sandwiches and yogurt. Auggie had speech therapy that morning, then he and I went shopping at Sam’s and Wal-mart to stock up.

That afternoon, I took Brayden, Kiya, and Keith to serve at our weekly Food Distribution. Back at home, Matt warmed up Burritos that I’d made and frozen a couple weeks ago. I didn’t get any pictures of either of those things because we were in a big flurry to go to a really cool event at the Zoo!

All of Prescott Elementary, the kids’ school, was invited to a free zoo night that Tuesday. We have a membership, so getting in free wasn’t the exciting part of the evening. But FREE train rides? Feed the giraffes for free? Plus see our teachers and classmates all night long? This was incredible!

It was so sweet to see our kids see their friends and give hugs all throughout the zoo.

We got in line for the train right away, and didn’t have to wait as long as I thought we’d have to.

The BEST part was that one of the preschool teachers, Ms. Rachel, rode this ride with us!!

Even Auggie fed the giraffes. It was a great night, though exhausting, as all the kids were very hyped up and it was hard to wrangle them all through the zoo. We all slept well that night. :)

Wednesday we started on the second layer of Mudballs from the huge batch I had made last week. Everyone was extra wired and simultaneously extra tired as the school year is winding down. This was about all I could manage for breakfast that morning.

After we got the three elementary school kids off for the day and Auggie got settled in with his ABA technician for the morning, I got some work done in the kitchen to get ahead. I baked about ten pans of bacon like this because I was planning to serve BLTs for our upcoming Sunday Lunch. As you can see, I still make Green Smoothie several times a week so Matt and I can drink our salad every day.

When the final pan of bacon came out of the oven, I used one of the pans to bake eggs so that I could put together Breakfast Sandwiches.

We made 24 sandwiches, freezing some and keeping some in the fridge to warm up quickly and easily as needed.

The girls were being silly as they waited for the school bus at noon time.

Late afternoon, we left sleeping Auggie and Little Sweetheart at home with our friend Char who was visiting, and Matt and I headed to the school for Keith’s Kindergarten graduation celebration.

Here he is receiving his certificate. :)

Brayden was my special helper that day and he was needing some extra attention. So he helped me put together our dinner for the evening. We used the last of the Grilled Chicken leftover from Sunday’s lunch along with some croissants we’d brought home from Tuesday’s Food Distribution to make delicious sandwiches with chicken, cheese, and honey mustard or ranch (one pan of each).

We baked these to melt the cheese and toast the bread, and ate them with Grapes, Raspberries, and Spinach.

Thursday morning I made Strawberry Parfaits for breakfast before sending the kids off for their last day of school.

Happy last day of school, Kids!

That morning, I baked more pans of bacon to prep for Sunday’s Lunch. I also made a batch of Spinach Cupcakes to enjoy with the kids later in the week.

I had planned to smoke chicken legs for dinner, so late morning, I put the chicken into a bag with barbecue sauce to marinate all day.

The girls were excited to wear their swim suits to preschool for their last day so they could do special water activities.

Off they go!

Justus came to drop off Little Sweetheart for the afternoon while he headed to a meeting. But first, Auggie needed to have a chat with his brother.

Brayden graduated from 5th grade that afternoon!

After work that day, Elias and Malorie loaded up to head down to Texas to visit her family. Nothing is quite the same when they are gone and some of us had to give multiple hugs before they left.

For dinner that night, we had Smoked Chicken Legs, Green Beans, Watermelon, and Toasted/Buttered Rolls.

We hung out in our neighbor’s yard part of the evening. I snuck in this sweet photo of Kiya helping our neighbor, Ashley, with her cilantro. I love how Ashley so naturally loves on our kids.

Friday was our kids’ first day of Summer Break. It was rainy and dreary and our kids were extra screamy. Changes in routine are never easy for our kids.

Auggie had ABA that morning and Matt and I had a telehealth meeting to get the ball rolling for Keith to start ABA. So we attempted to get everyone busy with activities, then because it was raining, we caved and turned on a show for the kids to watch while we finished our meeting.

Once our meeting was over, I gave our kids a craft activity to work on at the table while Auggie finished his ABA session in a different room. This kept everyone happy for exactly two seconds. :/

For lunch that day, I made these Smoothies for the kids.

I was going to grill burgers but since it was raining, I ended up just cooking them on the stove inside. They still hit the spot and changed some of the kids dispositions for the better.

What really fixed everyone’s mood was Arrow getting dropped off to play! He was surrounded by aunties and uncles and everyone became just softer and sweeter. Phew. :)

Some of the kids helped me make a batch of Pumpkin Mini Muffins that afternoon.

 

Late afternoon, we needed an outing! So we packed up a picnic and the kids and headed to the mall to run around in their play area.

This was well worth the effort so that we could get some of our energy out.

About an hour in to our time there, we made our way over to tables at the food court to eat our dinner: Salami, Cheese Cubes, Almonds, Applesauce, Grapes, Veggie Straws, and Spinach Cupcakes. After we ate, we had a great adventure to the Family Bathroom (ha), then went back to play more before heading home.

Saturday morning we ate cereal for breakfast then got ready to head to York to celebrate the wedding of one of our favorite people. I wasn’t able to pick up my computer to work and share the day, so I’ll share more next week!

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Big Family Food and Fun: April 13-19, 2025

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: April 13-19, 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, April 12

Saturday evening was spent mostly outside enjoying the heat and sunshine.

I had put some frozen meatballs into a crock pot with bbq sauce that afternoon. So that night, we had a simple Sabbath meal of meatballs (or meatball subs) with leftover broccoli and applesauce cups. We soaked all the kids in the bathtub a long time to get all the dirt off from their day’s adventure before heading to bed.

Big Family Food and Fun: April 13-19, 2025

Sunday morning, we had our traditional Breakfast Cookie Bars as we got ready for church.

A wonderful crowd joined us for lunch that day. I had grilled 42 Brats and 28 Hotdogs in preparation for our lunch, and I simply rewarmed them in big pots before serving time. I had a small crock of Chili to go with these, plus friends brought Mac and Cheese, a bowl of delicious Veggie Salad, Chips, and Watermelon.

This was extra delicious since it was our first “grill out” meal of the season!

We had five additional families join us and the time together was rich. There were 39 of us, and I realized later that I didn’t go outside to take a picture of all the kids playing and eating together, boo.

For fun, I had brewed some fruity herbal tea: Mango Passionfruit and Strawberry Mint. They were nice and chilled by lunch time so we enjoyed fun Iced Teas with our Brats and Dogs. (Do not ask about the intense mess I made while trying to strain the tea bags out of the jars. Oy.)

The dessert section of our kitchen was very fun with Cookie/Brownies some friends brought plus Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies, Sugar Cookies, and Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Anna was wearing a new outfit that day and it came with matching glasses. She was very proud of this.

The kids played and played all evening, enjoying sidewalk chalk they’d been given at church.

I gave Auggie a ride in a stroller, then he decided that he needed to give Josie a ride.

I baked five Frozen Pizzas for dinner. I love this Sunday night tradition. It’s a perfect meal after a great day filled with friends.

Monday morning, four of the kids ate Breakfast Sandwiches, and I made Chocolate Protein Mousse for the others. There were a few Banana Muffins and some Peanut Butter Honey Puffs to eat also.

Starting this week, Auggie was to begin receiving 30-hours a week of ABA therapy , split between three different RBTs (Registered Behavior Technicians) during a 3-hour morning slot and a 3-hour evening slot each weekday. This is intense, and adjusting to this is a lot for all of us. But we anticipate that in a couple of weeks we’ll be settled in to this new routine with new people in our home.

We kicked off his ABA that morning, with his BCBA (the therapist in charge of setting up his program) joining also. Matt and I are taking a crash course in all things Autism and ABA, phew!

Mondays I try to leave the house in the afternoon for a few hours to drink coffee at Panera, work without interruption, and do a little shopping as needed. This week though, I first went to see Malachi’s office space that he rents out for his Sideline Media business – which just so happens to be in the same building where Asa works for Back to the Bible. The three of us had just a few minutes together, and they were precious minutes!

From there I went to Panera for a while to sit by myself and work. I only had an hour, but it was a productive one, and the coffee was tasty! (Their Sip Club makes having a cup of coffee super cheap, by the way. Currently I pay $5/month and can get a coffee there whenever I want/can, which is pretty much only on Mondays, but still.)

Next, I went to Sam’s to get a few items we needed, then to Walmart before heading home.

For dinner that night, I had cooked Baked Potatoes in a Crock Pot all day. I warmed up leftover Chili from Sunday’s lunch to go on our potatoes, plus I steamed some peas and got out cheese and sour cream.

Tuesday morning, Josie was my Special Helper and she was very excited about the task of cleaning out the dishwasher for me.

I took Auggie to Speech Therapy. His AAC Device had arrived and his therapist walked me through more specifics of setting it up for him to use.

When we got home, Auggie moved straight into his ABA Therapy and the girls hung out with me while I made a dozen or so Breakfast Sandwiches. We go through a ton of these every week, and they are so helpful to have on hand!

I had some Salsa Chicken in the freezer leftover from a Sunday Lunch. So I had thawed that plus baked a pan of rice and turned it all into Inexpensive Burritos for our dinner later that day.

Malachi left mid-morning to go to Omaha for a video shoot with a real estate company. He grabbed two freshly made Breakfast Sandwiches for the road, but not before playing for a minute with Acacia while he texted his client. I love how she’s looking up to him here.

After school, I picked up Brayden, Kiya, and Keith and we headed over to hand out food and clean at our our weekly Food Distribution site. The boys cleaned coolers as they got emptied out, but they also joined Kiya and me at the distribution tables to help hand out food as clients came around.

When we arrived back at home at dinner time, things were a little more hectic than normal. Auggie’s newest behavior technician and his ABA therapist had arrived at 5:00 – so he was getting acclimated to them while Matt, Elias, and Malorie were getting the other kids fed. Matt had baked a pan of the Burritos I’d made earlier in the day and the grown ups were fixing plates for kids. There was general mayhem for a while during this time of transition, then everyone settled down and played outside.

I spent some time getting lots of dirty dishes under control after a full day. Then I put together two Egg and Hashbrown Casseroles to have on hand. At bedtime, the kids came inside and ate more burritos plus some bananas before we headed them upstairs for the night.

Wednesday morning, Matt stayed behind at home with Acacia, Josie, and Auggie so that Auggie could have his ABA therapy session. I took Anna with me to Aldi so that she and I could have some one-on-one time while picking up what we needed for our family.

We drove right by Hobby Lobby so it made sense that we stop and pick out some spring craft kits. The kids would be home for Easter break for a few days, and the weather was forecasted to be a little wet and chilly. So getting prepped for this with crafts was perfect. Anna wanted to buy everything in Hobby Lobby (don’t we all).

Arrow came and hung out that afternoon. :)

For dinner that night, we had breakfast: Egg and Hashbrown Casserole with a triple batch of Pancakes and Fruit. The kids gobbled this up – and so did the grown-ups.

Thursday morning, Kiya helped me bake a double batch of Breakfast Cookie Bars for upcoming Sunday breakfasts. Later, I cut them and frozen them on two plates to last us for two Sundays.

After Keith was ready for school, he built a mighty structure with magnatiles. We knew it would get destroyed while he was gone for the day, so I took a picture of him with it so he could remember it forever. ;)

After ABA therapy that morning, Auggie had an appointment that morning with his GI specialist. Because he’s made such progress with eating, he got cleared and we didn’t have to schedule a follow-up visit with them – praise God!

I had marinated three big packages of chicken thighs and late afternoon, I put them on our smoker to prepare for a big dinner.

Kiya made two kits worth of Caesar salad.

The whole family came over and we had a feast to celebrate Kelsey’s birthday!

We ate Smoked Chicken Thighs, Mashed Potatoes, Caesar Salad, and Buttered Rolls.

It’s such a gift to have everyone together!

Kelsey’s birthday dessert request was Angel Food Cake with Strawberries and Whipped Cream. Oh my goodness – this was perfect. We all loved treat this on a warm spring day!

The night was fantastic, with minimal kid behavior struggles and wonderful conversation. :)

Friday the kids were home from school. Acacia was my special helper and we made a great big batch of Mudballs for breakfast.

Acacia and Josie were playing some kind of special game on their kitchen stools and giggling – so sweet.

I baked several pans of bacon that morning to finish off a box in our fridge so we’d have cooked bacon on hand for upcoming meals.

Then we got dressed and ready to go to the indoor play area at the zoo for the morning. I made a loaf of bread worth of PBJs plus packed pears, bananas, and applesauce to snack on while we were there.

Auggie’s RBT joined us at the zoo to continue working with him during his morning session. It was quite a week of adjusting and building relationships with new people, so there was a lot of snuggle time with Mommy and Daddy to help with reassurance and consistency.

For almost two hours, the kids ran and played on the indoor play structure. They occasionally took breaks to watch the monkeys and to go into the small room off the side to see the birds, snakes, and iguana.

 

We ate through the entire container of sandwiches and almost all of the fruit. It was a good morning outing!

We got home to put Auggie down for a nap, then I took Brayden and Kiya out by themselves to shop for something special to wear on Easter. This time with them was so good – letting them learn how to be big kids and having more grown up discussions.

We picked up a Hy-vee Pick-up order before heading home.

I was fighting a migraine so the rest of the evening was pretty chill as we played outside a while then had a simple dinner of Tacos.

Saturday morning, Anna was my special helper. She opened cream cheese boxes for me – with a pretend broken arm – ha.

I made two large Cheesecakes for Easter dessert. Plus I made a pot of Cream Cheese Corn to rewarm after church.

We got jackets and hats, then loaded up the kids to drive a few blocks toward our State Capitol building. There was an event close-by that we wanted to check out, but as we did, we realized it wasn’t very kid friendly. SO, instead we simply parked our van and let the kids walk a few blocks toward the capital building as our morning outing.

Along the way, we saw a blind man who appeared to be lost. So Matt went to find out what his need might be. We found out where he was headed, and it was just a bit past the capitol building, so he joined us on our walk and Matt got him to where he had planned to be. I loved our kids’ reactions to their daddy helping this man. What a gift for them to have Matt as an example of Jesus’ love.

At the capitol building, we climbed the stairs and explored for quite a while.

We had to potty, so we walked to find a bathroom, seeing lots of doors to senator’s offices – so exciting. :)  But truly, the kids were amazed that we got to walk inside the capitol building for five whole minutes!

Back at home, we warmed up a lot of leftovers for a lot of hungry kids. Then, Matt took Anna on a one-on-one outing as prescribed by our Family Therapist. They walked just a few blocks from our house to a free event inviting kids to come paint rocks. Anna loved it!

The rest of the day was spent cleaning and getting ready for Sabbath and Easter. And that was our week!

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Big Family Food and Fun: March 23-29, 2025

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: March 23-29, 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, March 22

We typically spend some time on Saturday afternoons cleaning floors as we prepare to move into a time of rest. Anna was excited to help me vacuum (until she wasn’t).

Acacia wanted a turn. Then Auggie was indignant that anyone would dare to use HIS vacuum.

We were blessed with some time with some friends who came over that afternoon. Our kids have so much fun together, and the trampoline was their play place of choice that day.

At dinnertime, the girls finished off the last of a pineapple, using toothpicks to poke and eat it.

I had been cooking a pot of Ham and Potato Soup all afternoon, so at dinnertime, all we had to do was scoop and eat. (I used broth from a turkey I’d baked earlier in the week, which made this soup extra rich and good!)

We gave all the littles their baths and spent time brushing and braiding hair before bed. As we were getting ready to head upstairs for the night, we got to greet a group of college guys who had made plans to spend the night with us. Our long-time friend York Andrew (in the red hoodie) had coordinated with Malachi, who had coordinated with me to make these plans. And here they all were! This is the best.

Big Family Food and Fun: March 23-29, 2025

Sunday morning, we ate our traditional Breakfast Cookie Bars before church. When we got home at lunchtime, we set out a huge buffet of buns/tortillas, meats, cheeses, veggies, and dressings for a Sandwich and Salad Bar. This turned out to be fantastic (especially since it included five of those college guys who had stuck around)!

I’d baked a turkey a few days prior in preparation for this meal, plus I’d baked lots of sheet pans worth of bacon. We had some leftover ham that also got chopped up. Elias and Malorie had picked up four kinds of sliced cheese for people to pick from. The Long family brought perfect salad fixings.

People built a sandwich or wrap however they wanted, then many of them used our Air Fryer to toast it to perfection.

We had huge trays of Chocolate Chip Cookies and Rice Krispie Bars for dessert.

The Perez family supplied lots of fruit to round out our meal.

It was a great feast, with 31 of us gathered together spread throughout the kitchen, dining room, and living room.

For dinner that evening, we got out leftovers – and I forgot to take any pictures because I guess it wasn’t very exciting. :)

Monday morning, we ate Breakfast Sandwiches that I’d made ahead and frozen. We got the first round of kids off to school, played all morning with the others, then I went to Costco during the afternoon. I got stocked back up on diapers and wipes, plus took advantage of sales on clothing as I get everyone all set up for spring and summer. (This was just cart#1. I went back in for cart#2, which I filled with groceries!)

We had planned for Family Therapy that night, but our therapist needed to reschedule. So Matt and I decided to go with Plan B that evening. I quickly threw together a picnic dinner (Chicken Nuggets, spinach, dressings/dips, grapes, and Granola Bar Bites). We loaded up and headed to Pioneers Park, looking forward to a fun picnic in the sunshine, then a walk on the fun trails to the Nature Center.

Whelp.

Everyone screamed all the way to the van (not quite everyone – Matt and I sort of held it together). I handed out apples to curb the hanger on the way there. When we arrived, the sun went behind clouds and the wind was as it always is during March in Nebraska. So it became chilly and our dinner threatened to blow away. One of our kids refused to eat and just screamed during the entire meal. So yay, a family picnic. :/

Oh! And the trails we love and looked forward to were gated off and locked because the Nature Center wasn’t open yet for the season. Ha, ya just have to laugh.

With food in everyone’s bellies (except for the one who refused to eat), we loaded back up in the van and drove to the potties. Then we went to the playground for the rest of the evening. Everything went better at that point, praise God.

We played for almost an hour, getting back home in time to get ready for bed, eat a little bit more, then get settled in for the night. (The one who refused to eat at the park happily ate their fill at this point.)

Tuesday morning, Justus texted this photo with, “Tell me you’ve been spending a lot of time with Lolli, without telling me you’ve been spending a lot of time with Lolli…”

Yeah, girl!!
Some grandmas give their grandbabies cookies and candy. I teach them to love butter.

Auggie had speech therapy that morning, then Anna helped me make Spinach Cupcakes to use up some spinach in the fridge that was expiring.

Hmmm. Did I let her lick the spatula? Yes, I did.

Eva texted this photo of a loaf of Honey Oat Bread that she made that afternoon, along with a precious video of Arrow gobbling in up. :)

That afternoon, I put together two Quiche for Matt to bake for dinner. Then Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and I went to our our weekly Food Distribution site to hand out food to the community and clean up afterward.

Back at home, we enjoyed our Quiche with fruit and spinach.

I had been slow cooking two large Pork Butts all day like this. (I had picked them up at Costco the day before.) They shredded easily, so I finished them up and put them into two gallon-sized freezer bags to use for an upcoming Sunday Lunch.

The kids had been playing outside, and came in hungry before bedtime. They had strawberries and bananas, then grabbed one of the cupcake-muffins I’d baked earlier and headed back outside to play more.

Then they came back again and finished off the last three pieces of Quiche. No leftovers tonight! I am always shocked by Spring appetites! Playing, jumping, and running outside in the fresh air always makes kids extra hungry. I love it!

Wednesday, we met with Auggie’s ABA Therapist to finalize a draft detailing his upcoming therapy program. Malorie was awesome during that two hour meeting to keep track of Auggie and the little girls for us – no easy task.

Arrow came to hang out that afternoon! He enjoyed chewing on plastic broccoli for quite some time. Before I knew it, I was singing the Veggie Tale theme song. I guess we can call this “Silly Songs with Lolli.”

Two families joined us for dinner that night! We’d been wanting to connect because we knew of each other back in both of our early York days many years ago. I didn’t get any pictures of all of us, but I did get this shot of our buffet: Smoked Chicken Legs, Party Potatoes, Salad, Green Beans, and Rolls. I had picked up Gelato at Aldi a couple weeks ago and we enjoyed that treat for dessert.

Very Worth Noting: Our friends, the Case family, heard that we’d be getting together with these friends, and they know how difficult it can be for us to visit while chasing kids at the same time. So some of their family came over to stay with Auggie outside and to monitor the others so that Matt and I could have adult visit and catch up time. What a gift!

Thursday morning, I made a loaf of bread worth of French Toast. It had been a while since I’d made this, and the kids were pretty happy! These two were very excited to help me crack eggs.

Mid-morning, Acacia and Josie had a dentist appointment. They did great!

Thursday after school, I moved immediately into a therapy session with one of our kids. So Matt and Elias held down the fort, plus Kelsey joined the helping crew when she came to pick up Little Sweetheart!

It was dinnertime after that, and Matt warmed up leftover meat and Party Potatoes from the fridge. Kiya put together a couple of salad kits and we all filled plates and ate.

Kiya helped me make a triple batch of Flourless Peanut Butter Brownies. We turned most of them into mini-muffins and made a few regular-sized muffins for our Friday breakfast.

Brownies for breakfast? Yes. When they are made like this!

Special Helpers

Per our Family Therapy homework/instructions, we have been working now on creating a very structured chore system for the kids. Instead of assigning each kid specific chores for each day, Matt and I have decided to experiment with the idea of assigning a kid to a day of the week as a Special Helper. There are seven kids and seven days of the week, so why not try this!?

On any day of the week, all of the kids will have jobs to do – that’s how our family rolls! But on each kids’ Special Helper day, they will be pulled in extra times to do whatever Mom or Dad need. (They might also get extra privileges on their special day – no more fighting over who gets to lick the spatula, right?)

We think the best part of this, besides being able to teach the kids more about life skills, is that they all very much need one-on-one time and very rarely get it. So this will hopefully be an extra benefit for them to meet some emotional needs for positive, healthy attention.

All that to say, Friday was Acacia’s day and she took her job very seriously and worked very eagerly.

We had two appointments that morning for Auggie, first meeting with the Special Ed teacher assigned to him through EDN (early development network). Then after that, we had a meeting with his EDN coordinator. He was pretty tuckered out by the end of the morning!

Later that afternoon, I made a batch of Homemade Ice Cream to tuck away for our upcoming Sunday lunch.

Earlier, I’d browned and seasoned five pounds of Taco Meat for our Chipotle-Style Burrito Bar on Sunday. A few days prior, I slow cooked and shredded Salsa Chicken for another meat choice for Sunday. Both will be warmed and served in crock pots that day!

As the kids were arriving home from school, I put 15 burgers on the grill for dinner and I made a blender full of Smoothie to hold everyone over and cool everyone off since it was a very warm day. This was our fruit and veggie for the night, enjoyed before dinner instead of on the side. :)

Some of our neighbors were out enjoying the sunny weather, so our girls drank their smoothies with Ms. Ashley and Ms. Sarah.

When dinner was ready, we enjoyed Burgers and Fries with Pickles.

Then we gathered everyone (which took forever because we were missing a lot of shoes, ugh) and headed out to walk around the neighborhood. Neighbor Ashley and her son joined us for the walk.

We stopped at several houses to say hello and to drop off invitations to a Neighborhood Party we were planning in our yard for next Friday evening. Even Auggie was excited to go onto people’s porches and participate in this!

Saturday morning, I made another batch of Homemade Ice Cream for Sunday.

Anna was my Special Helper for the day and she helped me load the dishwasher.

Matt and I were blessed to go to a Baby Dedication Celebration for Arrow and Little Sweetheart that morning while Elias and Malorie stayed back with all of our kids. Before leaving, I made a bowl full of Chicken Salad to serve for lunch when we got back.

The morning was incredibly powerful and emotional as we prayed over the babes and dedicated their lives to Christ. What a special morning!

Matt and I arrived home in time for almost all the kids to melt down when we walked in the door, ha. I got out the Chicken Salad and other lunch fixings, and we got them fed.

Since Anna was my Special Helper for the day, she got to help me make Chocolate Chip Cookie Pies for Sunday’s Lunch dessert.

Matt had picked up some Chalkboard Paper for super cheap so the kids “helped” him get it up on the Play Room wall. Of course, it didn’t stick, so the project took all afternoon. Keith was in his happy place, helping Matt use his tools.

We moved into our time of Sabbath rest that evening, so I’ll share the final results and more details about our Saturday next week!

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Big Family Food and Fun: March 16-22, 2025

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: March 16-22, 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, March 15

It was a little bit chilly that afternoon and we needed to keep our kids active. So we put Auggie down for a nap and handed Elias and Malorie the baby monitor while we loaded the other kids up and went to the Children’s Museum for a couple of hours.

The sun was shining just right on the museum’s small outdoor area to create some warmth, so the kids made some music with the fun instruments.

Back at home later that afternoon, the kids ate Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins to hold them over until dinner. Then we had a simple meal of Mac and Cheese with frozen peas stirred in.

I caught Acacia practicing writing her name. Sooooo sweet!

Big Family Food and Fun: March 16-22, 2025

Sunday morning, the kids ate Breakfast Cookie Bars while we got ready for church. I had done all the prep work for our big Sunday Lunch on the Friday before, so all I had to do that morning was set everything out. The dessert section featured the leftover muffins from Saturday plus Brownies and Gluten Free Cookies that Kiya had made from a mix. (One of our friends coming over that day is celiac so it was fun to have these for her!)

I had Smoked several pounds of Chicken and a Pork Loin on Friday, then put them into crock pots. That morning, I poured some chicken stock into both crock pots, then left them on warm to be ready to serve when we got home from church.

I got Rolls out of the freezer, put a pot of Baked Beans on to heat while we were gone, plus put a package of Hot Dogs into my final crock pot to cook for kids to eat. I also steamed some Green Beans and made a pot of Cream Cheese Corn to stretch our meal.

When we got home, everyone worked together to get all the food set out. Our friend Cindy brought a huge crock pot full of Potatoes, our friend Breck brought Fruit, and the Phillips family brought Salad and Veggies.

The spread was fantastic and the time together was even better.

There were 32 of us gathered that day, and the fellowship was sweet.

 

This was one of my favorite scenes after lunch when people were gathered in the kitchen working together to put food away and talking, talking, talking. I’m so thankful for this home God provided for us so that so many can gather together to be in community.

Matt and I enjoyed our Community Group time later while the kids watched a movie with Elias and Malorie. I put three Frozen Pizzas in the oven to bake for our dinner, we played outside, then called it a day!

Monday morning, a few of the kids struggled with our “this is how we get ready for school” routine. After all, Spring Break last week was awesome!

The sun came out mid-morning so we headed outside to soak it up. Our neighbors have a trampoline and are kind enough to let us use it. The giggles were pretty sweet that morning.

And speaking of giggles, can you hear this picture? Oh, these girlies.

As soon as the girls got on their preschool bus, Auggie headed inside with Matt for his nap and I headed out to do some shopping. I had gone through all of our spring/summer clothes and needed to start shopping for some of the kids’ needs. All the kids needed sandals and I hit the jackpot on those.

Then I headed a few stores over to pick up several items from Aldi.

We had a Family Therapy session at our house that night, so I made a very early dinner of Mini Hamburgers, Fries, Baked Beans, Fruit, and Pickles. The rest of the evening was spent working with our Christian therapy team.

Tuesday morning, we ate a plate full of Angela’s Egg-Free Banana Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies that I had in the freezer.

I had bought 8-pounds of strawberries at Aldi the day before, and we’d already eaten two pounds. But that morning, I cut up another pound and made Cheesecake Parfait with them. SO GOOD. Somewhere in there, I blended up smoothie for Matt and me.

Auggie had speech therapy that morning, then he and I headed to Walmart and Sam’s to pick up just a few necessities.

That afternoon, Brayden, Kiya, Keith, and I went to our weekly Food Distribution site to hand out food to the community. Brayden and Keith helped clean coolers and mark canned goods.

Kiya helped sweep the kitchen afterward. :)

Back at home, I’d cut all of the Pork Loin leftovers from our Sunday Lunch and Matt had stirred in barbecue sauce to rewarm. He made a salad and we enjoyed a tasty and simple dinner.

One of our trees outside was blossoming and beautiful! But we’d been promised a big snow storm, so I took this picture, not knowing if the snow and cold would disturb the tree.

Sure enough, Wednesday we woke up to a storm and school was canceled for the day. We’ve lost track of how many snow days we’ve had this year. Brayden was eager to help me bake his favorite muffins: Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins.

We used our mini muffin pan to make these more fun.

We had a turkey in the freezer from Christmastime, and I’d been thawing it. This day was a perfect day to bake it, so I rubbed seasoning all over it and baked it all morning.

We watched shows during the afternoon to pass the time indoors, Matt played games with the kids, and Malachi made his famous Hot Cocoa to celebrate the snow.

The turkey was cool enough by mid-afternoon to get all the meat off the bones. I poured broth all over it that had naturally cooked out of the turkey, and I put it away for our upcoming Sunday lunch.

Kiya made dinner that night almost all by herself (and I didn’t get any pictures of her doing it, boo). We had Orange Chicken, Steamed Broccoli, Rice, and Buttered Rolls.

Thursday morning, Josie insisted on putting an apron on at breakfast time. My aunt had given me this apron after her granddaughter outgrew it. So I had to send her a picture to prove that it was still being put to good use. :)

Throughout the day, I turned yesterday’s turkey bones into Broth. Our friend, Terra, came over to play with the littles while Matt and I met with Auggie’s new ABA therapist as we get a program set up for him.

Then we were blessed to have both grandbabies here all afternoon. They are at such a fun age to sit side-by-side to “play together.” That have sweet little babble conversations and Lolli and Pop just get to enjoy them. So much of our day is filled with therapy needs for our kids – and THIS is therapy for us. It was a delightful afternoon.

The kitchen was hopping that afternoon when everyone got home from school. Why have an afternoon snack when you can just move right into dinner at 4:45? Everyone is starving at this point in the day, so I cut up the $5 ham I’d cooked in a roaster all afternoon. Brayden made salad, Kiya buttered rolls, and we got out a fresh pineapple that I’d cut earlier. Acacia decided she couldn’t wait, so she started to eat the countertop.

Kelsey had come to pick up Little Sweetheart, and she blessed us by staying to eat with us. (Justus had worship team rehearsal that night.) Magically, all seven kids sat at the table gobbling up food at the same time.

Afterward, Matt took kids outside to pick up branches that had fallen during Wednesday’s snow storm. Kiya did her part, then helped me use leftover ham to make Egg Casserole.

Matt told all the kids that if they worked really hard to get the branches picked up, we’d have a special treat. A neighbor had told us that DQ was giving away free ice cream cones that night. So we loaded up and headed out to enjoy this. Amazingly – I think because they’d had such a full day at school, then a good dinner, then worked hard in the fresh air picking up branches – they all sat still and were so sweet enjoying their ice cream cones on this special outing!

Friday morning, I baked the Egg Casserole that Kiya and I had put together the night before. We ate it with the rest of the Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins Brayden had helped me make earlier in the week.

I baked eight pans worth of bacon for our upcoming Sunday lunch. I had planned to set out fixings for people to make Turkey Bacon Sandwiches or Salads.

Little Sweetheart came to join us for the morning, and we all went outside to enjoy the sunshine.

We had a full evening with Auggie’s therapist coming again to spend the evening assessing his needs as she works out an ABA therapy plan for him. Our friends, the Case family, wanted to give us a break and brought over a huge Chinese food dinner for all of us to share together that night. What a blessing. :)

Their daughter enjoyed a nail salon with our girlies after dinner.

Saturday morning, I made a quadruple batch of No-Bake Granola Bar Bites to have on hand.

We had planned on going to our favorite library story time, then to a park. But Keith woke up not feeling great, so instead, Matt stayed home with Keith, Kiya, and Brayden while I ventured out to the library on my own with the youngest four kids.

I appreciate pictures like this one, with the three little girls holding hands so sweetly as they walked into the library. The reality is that I’d been screamed at and had battled with at least five of the seven kids for most of the morning before arriving at the library at 9:15. Their poor broken hearts often choose to sabotage any kind of calm we try to encourage and provide in our home. (And Auggie is a screamer because of his disabilities.) Outings are exhausting to make happen, but very worth it. Because this —>

And also this.

Kelsey and Little Sweetheart met us there (the only reason I felt like I could tackle taking the four littlest out on my own). Little Sweetheart was precious as she took it all in.

Back at home, we decided to leave Keith behind to hang out with Elias. Then the rest of us packed a picnic and headed to a park to play and eat. Today’s lunch was simple: guacamole with chips or crackers, peanut butter on graham crackers, cheese sticks, hard salami, and applesauce.

After we played until way past Auggie’s naptime, we headed home, got him down, then had the kids play outside all afternoon. I made a double batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies – and look! They actually look pretty. ;) For some reason, I’ve had a difficult time figuring out the oven in this house, and my cookies never turn out pretty. This time, they did what they were supposed to do!

We did a little bit of cleaning as we prepared for our time of Sabbath rest. Friends came over who had been without power and water since Wednesday, the poor dears. They borrowed our showers and washing machine, and I hope were encouraged after their days of living out Little House on the Prairie life. :)

And that was our week!

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

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

First, the tail end of last week…

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!

We were prepping for an extra fun Sunday Lunch time in which we were having a breakfast themed meal! Brayden, Kiya, and Anna were excited to help me bake on Saturday afternoon. We got out cake mixes and cans of pumpkin to make this super simple recipe. Are they cupcakes or are they muffins? The answer is yes. They are a treat and perfect to go with a brunch!

They turned out fun and made a nice display!

We also made a batch of these Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins, and made them in our mini muffin pan.

Dinner that night was a simple meal of Spaghetti with Corn and Spinach. Then we spent the evening having special prayer time as we reflected on our week.

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

While Sunday Lunches are BIG, you may notice that our Sunday breakfast and dinner have become routine – the exact same every single week. This has been a perfect way for me to streamline and save brain energy (and more fully enjoy Sunday Lunches). Plus the kids love our breakfast and dinner choice, so that’s helpful too (no food fights during these meals, yay!). Because we are trying to Sabbath during this time, having Breakfast Cookie Bars made ahead and in the freezer for Sunday mornings is perfect and easy.

Note that Sabbath for us doesn’t mean curl up in a blanket and do nothing for hours. This isn’t possible during this season of our lives. For us, Sabbath has become a full day’s break from routine work. We use paper plates, I make food ahead of time, I don’t do laundry, and I don’t think about upcoming needs. We choose to be in the moment during this 24-hour period of time.

We enjoy community – the best part of our Sabbath rest. We worship together at church and visit all morning, connecting with our church family and meeting visitors. Our older kids and many friends come to enjoy lunch with us at our house. Then at 2:00, Matt and I send the kids downstairs to watch a movie with a big brother while we have Community Group in the afternoon – a group of four couples loving on each other and sharpening each other in the Word.

By the end of Sunday, I’m both tired and so, so refreshed by the goodness God has brought through delighting in community. This has been an amazing practice that we hope to continue forever.

Sunday Lunch

So back to Sunday. I had in mind that we’d all enjoy a breakfast-themed meal. I made Biscuits and Sausage Gravy, Egg and Hashbrown Casserole and lots of Muffins. Friends brought Grapes and Berries, Coffeecake, Pastry, and “Baby Jesus in a Blanket” (you might know them as pigs-in-a-blanket but my friend taught me their real name because that’s what they have at Christmastime and I’ll never call them anything else from here on out).

It was an incredible feast! This meal far surpassed my vision for what it could be, and we were all delighted as we enjoyed eating together. We’ve learned that DELIGHT is a big part of Sabbath – fully enjoying every bite of food, savoring a sweet treat with coffee, enjoying wonderful conversation.

I didn’t get great pictures of everyone around our tables (as in, I did get some pictures but I caught some people with mouths open and they wouldn’t appreciate me posting them here, ha). But both our dining and living room tables were full and precious – with 28 of us gathered and sharing life.

Dinner that night was our regularly scheduled Sunday night Frozen Pizza.

We ate and played outside all that evening as the weather was absolutely gorgeous! Matt, Keith, and Malachi were kicking a ball in the yard. Then Keith ran off to play with a neighbor while Auggie got in on the action.

Josie was so excited to discover day lilies poking up out of the ground! Fresh green growth after a long, cold winter – We are all excited for this!

To end our day, we loaded up four bags of food and headed for a walk to fill one of our neighborhood Little Free Pantry boxes.

Monday morning we ate Yogurt with Granola then dug out some short sleeved shirts and shorts because the temps were supposed to be warm! We packed a picnic (tortillas, meat, cheese, and spinach for wraps plus apples, clementines, applesauce and Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins. Then we loaded up and headed to the zoo.

Eva and Arrow met us there – Arrow’s first zoo experience!

We watched a special Cheetah run and listened and learned more about Cheetahs.

As is our zoo tradition, I packed a bag of apples because the minute we walk into the zoo, everyone is somehow starving. Several kids chomped on an apple while we sat at the Cheetah presentation – even Auggie!

We continued on, seeing the animals along the chosen path of the day. Then we stopped to feel some animal furs. Arrow wasn’t sure what to think, but he reached out and gave it a try too. (His hat though!!)

The zoo was pretty packed that day, but at lunchtime we found a picnic table right by the Dino Dig – the best sandbox ever.

The kids played and played, getting soaked in sand and sunshine. Bath night after days like this are the best. Bring on the bathtub sludge!

We went home to get Auggie a nap and the rest of the kids continued to play outside all afternoon. Eva had told us that Chick-fil-a was offering free kids meals that day with purchase of an adult meal. Matt and I went back and forth and couldn’t decide if the free meal was really worth the effort, ha. There’s a reason we don’t take our kids to restaurants. Well, many reasons, but managing this many at an eating establishment is something special.

In case you’re wondering, we decided to go for it. It was spring break after all, and we wanted the kids to make fun memories.

They actually did very well and even got to enjoy the play area for a little while. How many trips did I take to the potty with little girls? I lost track. Also, how many napkins did we go through? Eh.

Everyone slept well that night!!! Tuesday morning, I made a big pan of Rice Krispie Peanut Butter Bars for breakfast.

Six kids stayed behind with Matt while I took Auggie to his Tuesday Speech Therapy appointment. He surprised us both by saying “bubble!” It was a good session. :)

When I got home, everyone was trying to play outside but it was still too chilly. So several of the kids joined me to make two loaves of Apple Bread with some bruised apples.

At lunchtime, I seasoned some hamburger meat I had in the fridge to feed everyone Tacos. Then the temps were warm enough that everyone could play outside all afternoon.

Before I left to take kids to  our weekly Food Distribution site, I fired up our smoker for the first time this season! I made our favorite marinated Smoked Chicken and put it in a crock pot to stay warm until dinner time.

Anna was privileged to go with us to Food Distribution this time. (Matt was going to be home without help, so we decided that if I took Anna and he was at home with the youngest three kids, it would be manageable.) She did great and the big kids were eager to teach her how to do the volunteer work.

Back at home, we devoured our Smoked Chicken with Steamed Broccoli, then the kids played outside again until bedtime. This is one of my favorite times of the year – when the weather gets nicer and the kids want to be outside for hours. Why did I not get any pictures of this fun? I guess because we were all enjoying the fun and I wasn’t in picture mode. :)

Wednesday morning, I put a Roast in the crock pot at 6:00am so it could slow cook all day. Later, I put potatoes in another crock pot for Mashed Potatoes. And I made a blender full of “salad” for Matt and me.

After breakfast, we loaded up all the kids and met Eva and Arrow at Morrill Hall, a museum on the UNL campus. Brayden and Kiya had been before, but this was a new outing for the rest of us.

It wasn’t super easy wrangling three preschoolers and a toddler through the museum, but we managed to find some fun play areas that kids of all ages could enjoy.

I spy two Coppinger astronauts.

Arrow and I were pretty fascinated by this cool water shaping table.

Back at home later, we ate leftovers for lunch, then played outside all afternoon with a brief run to Hy-Vee to grab our WIC pick up order.

Elias and Malorie had gone to Texas to visit her family for a few days. We excitedly welcomed them back and the kids helped unload Malorie’s car.

Meanwhile, Auggie has been having the time of his life outside in this nice weather. His two favorite things to do are ride this little bike and push a little stroller. He goes back and forth from bike to stroller. Now that we have a diagnosis for him, it has been very interesting to watch his behaviors with a more clear understanding about they way his brain processes. We still have much to learn.

And who is this?? Malorie brought some Star Wars costumes for the kids that her brother was happy to pass down. I truly wasn’t sure which little girl this was coming around the corner!

Aha! It’s Sissy (Acacia). :)

I finished up dinner by shredding the Roast in the crock pot and mashing the potatoes. We were expecting guests to arrive at this point in the evening, so I got out extra plates. A mom and two teenage sons had arranged to stay with us for a few days while they were in the area for a Homeschool Speech/Debate Tournament. We were so glad to meet and host them – such a delightful family. We ate together, got to know each other, then got everyone settled in for the night.

Thursday morning, we headed to the Children’s Museum for a morning outing. Eva and Arrow met us there, then Kelsey and Little Sweetheart plus Kelsey’s mom, Nicole came too. SO MUCH FUN!

Nicole and I have been friends since college so it’s always extra fun to see her when she visits!

Kelsey and Eva took their babies to the “Ages 3 and Under” room so that Arrow and Little Sweetheart could talk about their plans for the day. I love doing life with our kids in Lincoln!!

We ate apples and pears on our way home, then warmed up chicken and ate spinach for lunch.

Auggie napped, everyone else played outside, and I baked some Crustless Cheesecakes to have on hand for snacks.

We were taking full advantage of the gorgeous weather that day, so Matt loaded up everyone’s bikes into our van and I loaded up a picnic. We all, including Elias and Malorie, headed over to our favorite park that has running/walking/baking trails, a skateboard area, basketball court, playground, and disc golf. Our kids love this park!

Kids played, Elias took a jog, Malorie walked, kids biked and ran – we all soaked up Vitamin D. This kind of outing is my favorite! OH! And a long time reader, Suzy, was at the park that day too. She recognized us from our photos so we got to meet and chat!

I’d packed Mini Corn Dogs, Carrots, Peppers, Apples, Clementines, and Chips for dinner so kids ate as they got hungry.

Then we drove over to Freddy’s to finally use some free ice cream coupons we’d been given back in October during a Zoo event. This was a perfect Spring Break treat to enjoy after playing hard all day!

We took the ice cream home to enjoy because taking all the kids back into a restaurant like we’d done a few days prior did not sound like a wise choice. Plus, the ice cream cups were huge and we wanted to portion it out better at home. Nobody needed to eat THAT MUCH ICE CREAM in one sitting. :)

Friday morning, I let the kids eat cereal for breakfast so that I could focus my kitchen attention on prepping for our upcoming Sunday lunch. I had also reconnected with a friend from York who had also moved to Lincoln – and she had a baby this week. We arranged for us to take a meal to her family that night.

Some of the kids helped me make a quadruple batch of Brownies.

I got some chicken marinating for the smoker later. And I made two pots of Baked beans – one for our Sunday lunch, and the other to take to our friend that night. Last but not least, we got some mini Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins out of the freezer to take the the park.

We loaded up the kids and headed to a park to meet up with family for a fun birthday celebration for Little Sweetheart. Justus and Kelsey brought two Rotisserie Chickens for lunch, Eva brought Strawberries, and we contributed the Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins. What a sweet celebration for such a sweet girl.

Back at home, I had been smoking a Pork Loin for Sunday lunch, and added the marinated chicken to the smoker. Once this round was finished, more chicken went onto the smoker to cook. My plan was to take some of the chicken to our friends for their night’s dinner and to save the rest to be rewarmed for Sunday lunch.

Late afternoon, I packed up Smoked Chicken, Party Potatoes, Baked Beans, Green Beans, Rolls, and Brownies and headed out to deliver them to my friend. I got to hold/feed her newborn – oh so sweet!

Meanwhile, Elias had asked to make dinner that night. He started out on the smoker (yes, our smoker got a workout that day!) with a big pan full of Smoked Queso that he’d put together. Around 4:00, a storm rolled in and we decided we better move everything inside. So he transferred his dip into a glass dish and finished it off in the oven. He and Malorie and Matt had started to feed the kids while I was delivering dinner to our friends, and they were chowing down. This was such a good, fun Friday evening meal!

I was hosting an Adoptive Moms Support Group that evening, so as my friends were arriving, Elias and Malorie helped Matt get kids to bed. Bonus Buddy was here visiting for the weekend and to say that everyone was WOUND UP would be an understatement.

Saturday morning we got ready and headed to our favorite Sensory Library Storytime.

We played in the main library area for a while after story time. They had a new Construction Zone set up, which of course was Keith’s favorite!

We came home and ate leftovers for lunch, plus made Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins to have on hand for snacks.

We put Auggie down for a nap, then handed Elias and Malorie the baby monitor to listen for him while we took the other kids to the Children’s Museum for a couple of hours.

Back at home, we cleaned a little and moved forward into our Sabbath. And that was our week!

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Big Family Food and Fun: December 29-January 4, 2025

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: December 29-January 4, 2025 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: December 29-January 4, 2024

I stop working on Saturdays in the afternoon so that we can move into our special time of Sabbath rest that we’ve chosen to practice for our family. Therefore, each week when I begin these posts, I start by backing up to share what the last part of our Saturday looked like. :)

Last Saturday was amazing because we asked some friends to come help with our seven littles so that Matt and I could spend time with all of our adult kids for a few hours. We all met up at Justus and Kelsey’s house, had a Secret Santa gift exchange, ate a super delicious meal courtesy of Famous Dave’s (Justus and Kelsey had gift cards!), then played games for four hours!!

We laughed so hard and had so much fun. Phew, we needed this.

Back at home, we walked into this scene with our kids having the time of their lives with Ms. Kathi and Ms. Terra. The other kids were hanging with Mr. Matt and since the weather was beautiful that day, they’d all been playing outside most of the time we were gone. Our three caregivers rocked it for us and we are sooooo grateful for the gift they gave us that day.

That morning before we headed to Justus and Kelsey’s, I’d put a Melt-in-your-Mouth Beef Roast into a crock pot to cook for our dinner. Kiya had helped me scrub potatoes and we filled another crock pot so we could make these mashed potatoes to go with our roast. When we got home, I realized I’d forgotten to add the carrots I planned to throw in with the roast. So I quickly made peas while Terra mashed the potatoes for us. We got hungry kids fed, bathed, and tucked in for the night after an awesome day!

Sunday was Brayden and Auggie’s birthday! Brayden chose all the meals for the day. (When Auggie gets older, we’ll have to figure out meal choices having two birthday kids in one day!)

We had Scrambled Cheesy Eggs and Hashbrown Patties for breakfast.

Brayden wanted Lasagna for his birthday lunch, and we had some of our normal Sunday crowd join us after church. Friends brought a Pasta Bake and Oranges to help complete our meal. We made Caesar Salad and Corn, plus Oreo Brownies for the birthday dessert.

There were 29 of us gathered that day.

It was fun to celebrate Brayden during this time! Meanwhile, Auggie was having a lovely birthday nap. :)

Two stick candles side by side make an 11, right? ;)

The weather was sunny and gorgeous! Our friend Mandy stopped by and many of us headed out to take a walk together to fill up our church’s Little Free Pantry. It’s just a few blocks from our house.

Back at home, Auggie woke up and shared a hug with his Birthday Bro.

Brayden wanted to make his birthday dinner for the family: Orange Chicken and Onion Rings.

I got out cucumbers and carrots to offer a veggie with dinner. Brayden did a great job!

Then it was Auggie’s turn to blow out candles. He’s the big 2 now!

Elias and Malorie had to run to Walmart and asked if I needed anything. You guys? I am a sucker for these cheap hams. I’d gotten four of them on clearance for a $1.00/pound last week. But just in case, I asked them to look and see if by chance they’d been marked down any more to $0.50/pound.

Sure enough! There was an entire case of them. I asked them to get four for me, then I worked to create freezer space!

See how hard this is to resist??

Present time! Auggie was pretty excited about his magnetic toy set.

Brayden started playing school right away with his new Dry Erase Board. What a great day!

Monday morning, I made a blender full of smoothie for Matt and me. The kids ate yogurt and granola, plus Banana Bread.

I spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen that morning getting ready for company to come. I had chicken bones in the freezer that I’d saved after a Rotisserie Chicken purchase. I used the bones to make Chicken Broth for soup, knowing we’d need it for a big crowd we’d be feeding on Wednesday.

I also put several pounds of boneless chicken thighs into a crock pot with two jars of salsa. I planned to have it ready to turn into Taco Soup.

I also cleaned out one of our dishwashers and was so happy to see this top rack. This is what our dishwasher looks like after a big Sunday Lunch. We eat, we visit, we drink coffee and have dessert together – it’s such a beautiful time. I love a dishwasher full of coffee mugs to remind me of our awesome time of fellowship.

Late in the afternoon, I blended the onions and carrots that had cooked with the chicken bones and stirred the veggies back into the broth. This makes it so rich and extra nourishing.

I shredded the chicken and put it into the fridge with the broth to be ready to make a huge amount of soup on Wednesday!

For dinner that night, I put one of our $5 hams into our large roaster to cook. This created the easiest, cheapest meal on earth. The ham was delicious, and we ate it with leftover mashed potatoes and veggies from the fridge. I also cut up two pineapple, which really hit the spot! (By the way, the spiral cut hams we get so cheap are coated in a brown sugar glaze which we don’t love so I rinse it off before cooking it.)

Tuesday morning we spent time cleaning and making beds as we prepped for our friends to come hang out with us and spend the night. We LOVE it when the Brocks come to visit! They also have a large family (there are eight of them!) and our kids all get along well. They arrived just before lunch and we had the goal to eat quickly then play games all afternoon!

Lunch for our large families was a simple spread of Summer Sausage, Cheese, Crackers, Chips, Dips, Veggies, Fruit, and Zucchini Bread and Banana Bread that the Brocks brought.

I love it when our table is full of Coppingers and Brocks, but the sweetest scene is….

THIS. Their little girls and our little girls like to sit together in these special seats. Meal time is crazy and loud at our house, but when the Brocks are here, everyone is calm and grounded (at least for a time).

We played games all afternoon, then Brayden, Kiya, Keith and I took two from the Brock family to help hand out food and clean at  our weekly Food Distribution site.

This particular week, there were fewer volunteers available, fewer clients who came through the line, but extra food to hand out because of the holiday. Our kids worked very hard and very well and we were so proud of them. Putting our kids in situations like this where they serve is sooooooo beneficial in so many ways.

Brayden wanted to take a picture of Keith scrubbing a cooler. And do you see those strawberries above? Clients who came through the line took as many as they wanted, but at the end of our give away time, there were still many flats worth of berries and they needed to be eaten or frozen right away. We brought home many, many pounds of strawberries that day, and then we all promptly ate many, many pounds of berries as soon as we got home. What a great treat – free strawberries to feed our collective 13 kids!

After everyone ate their fill of berries, we ate our actual dinner: Hawaiian Chicken, two pans of Stick of Butter Rice, Steamed Green Beans, and Rolls.

We had invited our friend, Breck, to join us for dinner because she knows the Brocks too. It was such a great time of visiting before everyone moved into playing more games as we rang in the new year. (Some of us rang in the new year by going to bed before midnight, ehem.)

Wednesday morning we celebrated the first day of the year by eating 28 Eggs and lots of Bacon. (The Brocks had brought six dozen eggs from their chickens!)  The plate of bacon you see below was just a small portion of what we baked as people ate it as fast as it came out of the oven. We finished off all the strawberries we’d brought home the night before from the food distribution plus we ate more of the Zucchini Bread and Banana Bread the Brocks had baked and brought with them.

Kids played and played all morning while the grown ups visited and worked in the kitchen to prep for a huge lunch.

We had invited all of our older kids to come for lunch so that they could catch up with the Brocks, plus we invited another family to come join as they have great connections with the Brocks too. Altogether, there were 30 of us, and it was a great time of visiting and feasting.

We went through at least three pots of coffee that day. Lunch was a huge roaster full of Spicy Ham and Potato Soup, two crock pots full of Chicken Taco Soup, and a big assortment of anything else we could set out to fill everyone up: rolls and croissants, fritos, sliced oranges, carrots and cucumbers, crackers, and cheese.

Take note of Elias wearing Malorie’s shower cap. :) He was doing an oil treatment on his scalp and wasn’t shy about walking around like this most of the day. It was hard to take him seriously, but somehow we managed to have real conversations and play games with his crazy-headed self.

We filled our dining room table.

And spilled over into the living room. Meals and times like these are truly awesome.

The rest of the day was spent playing more games together. In fact, the Brocks intended to head home mid-afternoon but by the time our third game ended, we realized we needed to give them a bite to eat for dinner so that they wouldn’t have to stop and feed all their kids on the way home. So we pulled out all kinds of random leftovers (I forgot to get a picture), rewarmed soup, and got them filled up before sending them on their way. What an amazing visit!

Thursday morning we decided it was a pajama day. We also had a refrigerator that looked like this, so I declared it to be a Leftover Day for all three meals. (I had Lasagna and Soup in our pantry fridge also.)

As I was clearing out food for kids to pick what they wanted for lunch, I pulled out the spinach that was expiring and turned it into these Cupcakes. I find it amazing how much spinach I can manage to stuff into my blender to make these. What a great way to eat greens. ;)

Later in the afternoon, I looked up “ways to use cottage cheese” because I had quite a bit in my fridge that needed to be used. I found a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies and the girls and I gave it a try!

I used all whole wheat flour instead of some of the white that the recipe called for. They turned out pretty tasty. I froze most of them for an upcoming Sunday Lunch. And check out the awesome three-tier cooking rack Malorie got me for Christmas!

Bedtime at our house is quite the hectic situation, with so many littles struggling with behaviors or needing attention. Matt put on Acacia’s leg brace and read to the three little girls while I wrestled with Auggie then read to the three older littles. By the time I got into the little girls’ room to tuck them in, Josie and Acacia were already fast asleep. I soaked in their sweetness for a moment.

Friday morning we had a lot of prep work to do so that we could be ready for what we thought would be a full weekend. I put a Pork Loin into a crock pot to cook for Sunday’s lunch. I also put several pounds of boneless chicken thighs into our large roaster with barbecue sauce to shred for Sunday as another meat option. Here’s what it all looked like later in the day when it was finished.

Mid-morning, we loaded up all the kids to burn off energy in the indoor play area at the Zoo. I packed snacks because even though they ate all morning and would eat all afternoon, we need to eat also while we’re out and about.

We came home and finished up a jar full of Ham and Potato Soup leftovers.

Friends came for dinner that night, so I made 9 Pizzas from crusts I had in the freezer. We ate our pizza with Caesar Salad.

One of the reasons we’d arranged for dinner with friends is because they had some toys to hand down that their kids were finished with. A tool set and work bench? Keith was in heaven!

And check out this amazing play kitchen they brought. The little girls got lost in there while we grown ups visited, and Auggie even played for quite a while. Such a cool kitchen!

Saturday we had a meeting out of town, but had some sick kids which changed a lot of our plans. We ate leftovers for all of our meals and tried to catch up on some laundry. And that was our week!

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Big Family Food and Fun: December 22-28, 2024

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: December 22-28, 2024 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: December 22-28, 2024

Saturday evening as we kicked off our Sabbath time of rest, I baked a pan of Crunchy Ranch Chicken that had been prepped ahead and in the freezer. The kids all love this chicken so they eat it well (something I can’t say about most main dishes). We served this with Tator Tots, Spinach, and Canned Pineapple – all super simple and fun! (And yes, this pan of chicken wasn’t enough for all of us, but we each had a little and filled up on the rest of the food.)

Sunday morning, I put an entire bag of frozen meatballs from Costco into two crock pots. I poured a jar of spaghetti sauce over one pot and barbecue sauce over the other. They cooked while we were at church. So easy!

We came home and set out fixings for Meatball Subs and Sliders with a variety of rolls/buns, sliced cheese, and banana peppers. This was a huge hit! I had leftover chips from Malachi’s birthday gathering last weekend, so I set those out too (which, of course, was all our little kids wanted to eat – a reminder of why I don’t serve chips very often, ha). Friends brought salad and a veggie tray, plus we had grapes and desserts.

28 of us gathered that day for this feast. Sundays are my favorite!!!!

One of our guests was a friend from our older boys’ childhood and he brought his girlfriend so we could meet her. These guys grew up playing soccer together and it was a beautiful day. So what did all the guys do after lunch? They headed to the yard to juggle a soccer ball. We gals hung in the living room with babies and visited. This was a delight.

Late in the afternoon, we gathered all of our kids plus the loaves of Apple Bread and Eggnog Bread that we had baked on Saturday so that we could deliver them to our neighbors for Christmas. The temps outside were amazing, making this outing extra fun.

We knocked on doors and had such a great time handing out loaves of Christmas Bread and visiting with neighbors.

One particular stop is always a favorite because these neighbors go ALL OUT with decorations. They invited us all inside to see their special Christmas displays. We stood and watched their train go around and around the tree for quite some time!

At one of our final stops, we discovered the most incredible porch swing of all time. Getting a picture of the kids on a moving swing is next to impossible, so here is the least blurry of all I attempted. :)

Back at home with lots of hungry kids, we warmed up leftover noodles and chicken from Malachi’s birthday dinner Chicken Alfredo night. Brayden requested mashed potatoes, which did sound good with the leftover chicken. So I quickly made some with instant mashed potatoes I’d gotten from Azure Standard to have on hand for meals like this.

Last week at Costco, I scored four quarts of half and half for just $0.97 each. They were marked down because they are close to expiring. So on Monday morning, I used some of it to make a really rich version of Warm Vanilla Soother. My goal was to get some good nourishment into Anna because she’d been sick and not eaten well for a week and a half. However, that morning, everyone liked this treat except for Anna. Boo.

Either way, we drew fun faces on plastic cups to enjoy our Warm Vanilla Soother, plus I made some sausage links.

The temperature was in the low 50s that day, so we headed to the zoo to play in their indoor play area with the Spider Monkeys. We were all so excited that the Red Pandas were out that day – a rare treat for sure!

The Red Pandas are the most adorable creatures at the zoo, and there were four out playing that day.

We made our way to the indoor play area, admired the monkeys – including a baby monkey – and then played hard on the climbing jungle for over an hour.

We put coats back on and went to visit the giraffes before heading home.

I had put Hearty Bean Casserole in a crock pot before we left so that we’d have lunch ready right when we walked in the door. I was so glad I had done this because everyone had played hard and was hungry when we got back. We sliced apples to eat with our beans and everything tasted extra good after our morning outing.

I put Auggie down for a nap, then headed to Sam’s and Walmart. I did not want to join the crazy crowds at the store on December 23, but I needed to seize my opportunity to pick up a few more needed items for Christmas and upcoming birthdays. Oy, having THREE birthdays in our family between December 20 and 29 adds a lot to the holiday season. I wanted to be sure our birthday babes felt celebrated.

So I got all the food needed to meet their birthday meal requests, plus got more fruits and veggies to fill everyone’s bellies throughout Christmas break.

Back at home, Kelsey and Little Sweetheart had come over to help Matt with all the kids. The boys played outside while three of the girls had fun playing a game at the table with Kelsey. So sweet!

My final stop on the way home from shopping was Raising Cane’s for a huge cup of sauce for our Christmas dinner. :) I texted this picture to all of the adults in the family, letting them know that I’d acquired the sauce, so Christmas could now happen. (We started this tradition last year, eating Chicken Strips with our favorite Cane’s sauce for lunch after we open gifts. It’s fun, easy, and a great way to feed this many people, especially picky kids on a special day.)

For dinner Monday night, I made 18 mini hamburgers with pre-made patties I’d picked up marked down at Sam’s that day. We ate them with fries and pickles, making for a simple meal before watching a Christmas movie that night.

Just as we were settling into the living room for our movie, our neighbor dropped by with a gift for the kids. SO SWEET.

Christmas Eve day was a bit nuts all morning and early afternoon because the kids were so anxious for Christmas! We tried to keep the kids occupied in good ways so that they didn’t eat each other, oy.

I had picked up small items for Matt for Christmas, so I called the kids in one at a time to each wrap a present for Daddy to put under the tree.

They worked together to set up School in the pantry and played for a while. But as it turns out, having your 9-year-old sister for a teacher isn’t as much fun as one would think. ;) Nor is being a 9-year-old teacher to students who are also your siblings and who also don’t want to gather around you for Circle Time. So…

I called off school and invited everyone into the dining room to frost and decorate a cookie. We’d rolled, cut, and baked these a couple of weeks ago, then froze them for Christmas time. With the big mess out of the way, it was great to simply hand everyone a knife with frosting and a few sprinkles and let them enjoy their cookie. I have yet to taste a sugar cookie as good as Cream Cheese Cut-Out Cookies. So good.

After this, we got everyone dressed and ready for our Christmas Eve Candle Light service at Heartlands church.

We came home to a simple but special dinner of Nachos with Apples and Martinelli’s (sparkling apple cider).

After we got the kids to bed that night, Matt and I got the living room all set up for Christmas morning.

We had Egg Casserole for breakfast on Christmas morning with Monkey Bread that our neighbor made plus fresh fruit.

Justus, Kelsey, and Little Sweetheart arrived a little before 8:00. We wished our housemate/friend Kermit a Merry Christmas before sending him off to visit family for a few days.

Asa, Eva, and Arrow joined us a while later, plus our friend Kayla. (Elias and Malorie were visiting her family in TX so we FaceTimed them later.) The morning was crazy and fun as we opened gifts.

These three were very proud of their new dresses, hats, and gloves. :)

With this many people, opening gifts and stockings took all morning long.

Keith has been wanting roller skates since our time skating with family in Kansas in November. When he opened his gift, he put these on and skated throughout the house most of the day.

It was beyond awesome to have our two grandbabies with us for their first Christmas!

We enjoyed our second annual tradition for Christmas lunch: Chicken Strips with Cane’s Sauce. It’s the simplest, allowing us to eat something fun without having to work so that we can continue to enjoy our time together. We had chips and dips from Costco, plus veggies and cookies.

During the afternoon, we turned on a movie for the kids so that the adults could play a game together. It was the first time in several years that Matt and I actually got to enjoy game time with our grown kids!!

We’d surprised them with decks of the game Jibber Jabble in their stockings – a game created by a friend of ours. We had SO MUCH FUN playing this for over two hours! It was super cool knowing that our kids grew up with the creator of this game. And truly, what a great group game. Check it out here.

Later, Asa and Malachi spent a long time putting together our big family gift: a ping pong table. We’ve been wanting to put one in the basement for a while and this Christmas the time was right. Everyone is pretty excited about this!

The rest of us hung out with babies and kids while the ping pong table construction was underway.

Dinner that night was more of the same from previous meals, with Little Smokies, Cheese and Crackers, and Pickles added to the mix. The entire days’ food was super simple and fun.

Kiya was excited to try out her new Dominos game, so Eva and I played with her and taught Brayden and Anna to play also.

Thursday morning we were all feeling the let down after the Christmas hype, so some of the kids’ behaviors were pretty challenging. We took them to the Children’s Museum to burn off some energy.

Eva and Arrow met us there for a while. Auggie, as the much older kid, decided that he needed to explain some of the features of the museum to Arrow.

On our way home, Matt surprised the kids with a rare drive through to Arby’s. He had a coupon for three $1.00 fries so we took those home to share with our lunch. Meanwhile, I texted Malachi to please warm up leftover chicken so that it would be ready to feed hungry kids when we got back.

I got out spinach to offer some sort of nourishment with this meal. Everyone had about five fries, haha. It was still a treat for them that they appreciated.

Late that afternoon, some of the kids played school while others hung out in the basement trying to learn to play ping pong. On skates. ;)

For dinner that night, I made a big pot of spaghetti sauce with boiled noodles, green beans, and corn. I also warmed up some leftover Alfredo sauce with chicken for those who wanted white sauce on their noodles.

After dinner, I used the rest of the red sauce to put together a huge Lasagna for our Sunday lunch. We will celebrate Brayden and Auggie’s birthdays that day, and this meal was Brayden’s request.

We got the kids ready for bed, knowing that soon, Elias and Malorie would be back from their trip to TX to see Malorie’s family. There was a lot of excitement when they walked into the room!

We had some present time with Elias and Malorie since they’d missed our Christmas gathering the day before. Then Malachi took the girls for a ride through the living room before we headed upstairs to tuck everyone in. :)

Friday morning, I remembered that this time last year, I’d gotten ham marked down to $0.50/pound post-Christmas. Matt was SUPER DAD and took care of all seven kids by himself while I ran out to see if I could score the same deal. Indeed, spiral cut hams were marked down. They were $1.00/pound instead of $0.50/pound, but I wasn’t going to complain. I grabbed four then went to see what else I could find.

I picked up ground chicken for $2.51/pound (to make Chicken Cheeseballs) and hamburger meat for $3.34/pound. I also ran to Aldi to get fruit/veggie pouches for Auggie and got some meat deals there too!

Back at home, everyone had shoes on and we loaded up to drive 30-minutes to visit our dear friend, Elina. The kids ate bananas, applesauce, and cheese sticks all the way there. We got to meet several of her friends and some people who work with her each day. Then we gave her the Christmas gift we’d brought.

Elina’s friend was kind enough to take a picture of all of us together.

Back at home, Brayden put together a Caesar salad for us, which we ate with leftover chicken and Banana Muffins.

The afternoon was spent playing and cleaning. Matt turned a table over to repair it and had lots of help.

Dinner that night was Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Tomato Soup and Clementines.

Then we gathered in the living room to work on a fun craft that Malorie’s mom had sent back for the kids as a Christmas gift. So fun!

Saturday morning, I put a Melt-in-your-Mouth Beef Roast into the crock pot for our dinner plus got Crock Pot Mashed Potatoes started.

The rest of the morning was spent getting ready for sitters to come hang out with the kids so that Matt and I could spend the entire afternoon with all of our adult kids at Justus and Kelsey’s. This was much needed and our sitters were so awesome to do this for us. I’ll share more about this next week!

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Big Family Food and Fun: September 22-28, 2024

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: September 22-28, 2024 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: September 22-28, 2024

Sunday morning was extra sweet as we woke up to our first day of fall weather. Thankfully, I’d spent some time on Saturday digging out the kids’ jackets and long pants so that we were prepared. These two were so proud of their matching outfits that I’d found on clearance at the end of last winter. I love how grown up Auggie looks now.

Elias hopped in with us on the way to church and Acacia insisted on holding his hand a good part of the way. He was sweet to oblige.

And if those photos aren’t sweet enough, this conversation between Auggie and Little Sweetheart happened at church.

Then Brayden, who isn’t always interested in holding babies, asked for a turn with Little Sweetheart. It was precious.

Yes, we were also focused on worshiping Jesus during all of this. But if these aren’t pictures of Jesus at work, I’m not sure what is. :)

Back at home, we had just a couple friends join us as many of our usual Sunday Lunch crowd had other plans for the day. I had made Pulled Pork, Baked Potatoes, Baked Beans, Watermelon, Rolls, plus Chips and Guac.

For dessert we had No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars. These are tasty (and messy, ha).

Keith had soccer that afternoon, so I packed sliced oranges, cheese sticks, and the last of these muffins from Saturday for the kids to snack on during his game.

It was a bit breezy and we were grateful for our jackets out there.

The oranges hit the spot – but more importantly, we could make silly faces while eating them.

Back at home, I pulled out broth that had been in the freezer all summer and thawed it in hot water. Then I used spaghetti noodles and canned chicken to make this Simple Noodle Soup. It hit the spot! I sliced a loaf of Applesauce Bread to go with it, plus got out a can of Pineapple and cans of Mandarin Oranges.

Monday morning I made Ham and Cheese Quesadillas for breakfast.

Matt’s dad was flying in from California that day so we had big plans for all of our kids to come for dinner to spend time with him. I decided to make Breakfast for Dinner and I started working on the food that morning after we got our elementary kids off to school and I’d taken Auggie to the chiropractor.

Anna helped me crack 30 eggs into a big casserole dish.

We turned the eggs into a large Egg and Hashbrown Casserole to bake at dinner time.

Meanwhile, I cooked some frozen berries to make Berry Syrup to go with pancakes.

We got the girls changed into school clothes, fixed their hair, and put on shoes – an ordeal that takes at least an hour. They waited for the bus like this, which was rare sweetness Matt was able to capture on his phone.

When Grandpa arrived, he was exhausted from flight delays and a very long day. Justus, Kelsey, and Little Sweetheart were the first to arrive and read books to the kids while I finished making pancakes.

 

We were all excited about this huge breakfast spread: Pancakes, Egg and Hashbrown Casserole, Bacon, Sausage, Berry Syrup, and Homemade Applesauce.

Malachi arrived and he and Grandpa looked together at photos on Malachi’s phone. They share a love of photography, which is a sweet part of their relationship.

Grandpa had met Little Sweetheart in July when Kelsey and I had gone to California for a few days and taken her. But he hadn’t met Arrow yet. It was fun to capture this moment when Asa and Eva arrived with Arrow.

Tuesday morning our friend Christina came over for a few hours to hang out. She brought some hand-me-downs from her daughter so immediately the box of clothes got dumped out and a fashion show began.

Tuesday afternoon, I took Brayden, Kiya, and Keith to help at our weekly Food Distribution. Kiya and Keith started out sitting with me, handing out food.

Then Keith went to help Brayden and Mr. Jim clean coolers.

Brayden really shines here.

For dinner that night, I had pulled out a package of prepared Teriyaki Chicken I’d gotten on sale at Sam’s a few weeks ago. I put them in a crock pot and they were ready at dinner time.

Before leaving for Food Distribution, I’d also put a pan of Stick of Butter Rice into the oven to bake and gotten Broccoli ready to steam. Matt and Elias finished the meal and started serving it before I got home with the other kids.

Wednesday when we dropped the elementary kids off at school, I captured this hug. Acacia has insisted on giving Keith and Bonus Buddy a squeeze before they head in for the day. Keith only had time for a quick side-hug today. He had to go be a big kindergartener.

We loaded everyone up at home so that we could take Grandpa to see Sunken Gardens. We knew he’d love it and that he’s want to take some photos. Josie took his hand to lead him to the van – so sweet.

We only had four kids with us and we weren’t in a rush, so we were able to really enjoy the garden that day.

We stopped and had a snack with the fish to hold us over until lunchtime.

Arrow came to hang out for the afternoon and got to know his great-grandpa better.

Then, Malachi came over to visit with Grandpa too.

I went to pick the kids up from school, taking Applesauce Bread for them to snack on before we headed home.

Most of the older kids were coming over for dinner that night to spend more time with Grandpa since he was leaving the next day. I made a big pot of Spaghetti Sauce with two different kinds of Pasta, Salad, leftover Green Beans, and Clementines. I also used our griddle to make Texas Toast.

We all played outside for a while and visited before the kids loaded up to leave.

This scene was a favorite:

Thursday Little Sweetheart came over. She and I assessed the situation in our play room in which someone had (once again) dumped out one of our toy boxes. I decided to throw out and give away most of its contents because if all we’re going to do is dump out toys and not actually play with them, what even is the point? Little Sweetheart signed off on this and we spent some time cleaning it all out/up before the kids came home.

Auggie and Little Sweetheart walked with me to pick kids up from school. We left just as Malachi arrived to take Grandpa to the airport to head home.

Keith cleaned out his backpack at home to reveal a sailor hat he’d made during center time at school. I asked him how he’d put it together and he proudly said, “I used a cantaloupe!” Oh baby. He’d used an envelope. We can all see how he’d get those words mixed up. Cutest thing I’d heard all month.

For dinner that evening, I used the leftover Pulled Pork from Sunday to make Meat and Cheese Melts.

I also made two plates full of Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and four cans of Tomato Soup.

Friday morning, Acacia had an appointment with her Orthopedic Specialist to check in about her club foot. She got fitted for new braces (she’s slept in braces since she was a newborn – well, after a series of casts and a surgery and…). The doctor felt good about how her leg is doing and told us to keep doing what we’re doing.

We came home and made a triple batch of Banana Muffins for snacks.

After we got the girls on the preschool bus and Auggie down for a nap, I ran out to grocery shop. I scored some incredible deals on meat mark-downs at Walmart!

Then I went to Aldi to get restocked on milk, yogurt, fruit/veggie pouches for Auggie, and other needed items that I buy there.

For dinner Friday night, I went all out and made several rounds of Chicken Nuggets and Tator Tots in our air fryer. The kids ate bananas also, and the entire evening was spent playing outside with neighbor friends.

Saturday was super full as:

  1. We met friends from York at the zoo for the morning.
  2. Our church Community Group met at our house during the afternoon for fellowship and Bible study.
  3. My brother and his family were in town and stayed with us to visit my nephew.

Therefore, I was so busy enjoying people that I didn’t get a lot of pictures to share. This is what I packed for our lunch and snacks at the zoo:

Here are a couple photos from the zoo with all the kids:

All my brother’s family joined us for dinner that night plus Justus, Kelsey, and Little Sweetheart. I’d put a Pork Loin on the smoker all afternoon then Matt sliced it and put it in a crock pot to stay warm until we ate together. I’d also made Baked Potatoes in the crock pot, Green Beans, Cream Cheese Corn, Buttered Rolls, and Rice Krispie Treats.

It was a full week and a great one!

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