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Big Family Food and Fun: March 3-9, 2024

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: March 3-9, 2024 post for this week…

Big Family Food and Fun: March 3-9, 2024

Our church building has been having major repairs done following a frozen pipe incident in January. Therefore, we’ve been meeting in a different location in the afternoons on Sundays. We’ve adjusted to this different Sunday schedule, grateful simply to still be able to meet together! Just a couple more weeks until we can meet back at our church building, so that’s exciting.

Meanwhile, Matt and I have been spending Sunday mornings at a slower pace getting kids ready for church. Instead of trudging through Saturday evening baths, Sunday morning bath time can be drawn out to two hours, letting the kids splash and play longer in the tub. The love this.

This sweet babe’s curls after a bath are nothing short of amazing…

This Sunday we cleaned out the fridge of leftovers for lunch after baths.

We had invited a few families to join us at a park after church for play time and potluck picnic. So that morning, between baths, I tinkered around putting some easy food together to pack and take. We had Cinnamon Swirl Bagels so I spread cream cheese on them and cut them into fourths to take with us.

I also made several Ham and Cheese Quesadillas. Then I just grabbed food off the shelves in our pantry like Peanut Butter Pretzels, Sweet Potato Crackers, Applesauce, and Clementines. I had some Chocolate Chip Cookies in the freezer so I grabbed those too.

At church, Josie grabbed Malachi’s sunglasses and Kelsey snapped this sweet photo. :)

The park was amazing and the fellowship was what we all needed.

Friends brought Tuna Salad and Chicken Salad on Croissants and a wonderful assortment of other goodies. We feasted together before the temps started to get a little bit chilly. :)

We let the kids play a little bit more before loading up. They were playing so hard that they didn’t notice the cold as much as we grown ups. :)

Monday morning we had a random assortment of leftover breakfast food as I had a little bit of this and a little bit of that: Apple Bread, a few slices of French Toast, and what was left of the Bagel Triangles from the picnic. I made some sausage links to go with these and everyone got enough to eat.

Eva came by at 9 and Keith and I headed to set up food for Tuesday’s Food Distribution.

For dinner that night, Elias and Brayden used their Bro Time to make dinner for all of us! Biscuits and sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, and orange juice.

Hey Brayden, look at me and say, “Elias and I made dinner!”

The best part of the day was that our dear friend Charlene came to visit from York. Her daughter has dance class in Lincoln on Mondays so we get to hang out during that time. Anna loves how Char pours love into her. We love it too. :)

Tuesday morning after breakfast (I don’t remember what we ate that day!) I made a batch of Peanut Butter Honey Puffs to have on hand.

Our little ones’ Speech Pathologist came to work with Acacia and all five kids gathered ’round for the lesson. :)

At lunchtime I seasoned the big pork loin I’d gotten for cheap last week and got it cooking on the smoker for the afternoon.

Matt got BabyBoy#11 down for a nap and I took Acacia and Josie to Sam’s to pick up a few items we needed.

Brayden, Kiya, and I went to give out food at the Food Distribution after school while Elias helped Matt at home with the littlest five kids. At dinnertime, Elias baked the Cheesy Potatoes I’d made ahead, pulled the Pork Loin off the smoker, and made Caesar Salad that I’d picked up at Sam’s.

We got home from Food Distribution with a container of berries which the little girls dug into right away. :)

Justus and Kelsey joined us for dinner so that Justus could give Brayden his weekly piano lesson. Let me just say again how much I love living close to our older kids!!

Mid-morning on Wednesday we took the five littlest to Costco so that we could pick up diapers. We grabbed peanuts and fresh fruit while we were there.

Since we had so few items, we attempted self-check out. This went especially well since we had so many little helpers. Oy.

That afternoon we prepped to fill up the Castle with guests for the weekend. Our friends, the Brock family, were hosting a Homeschool Speech and Debate tournament close to Lincoln and we had their family plus one other family staying with us. Asa/Eva and Justus/Kelsey hosted some families also. We’ve all been so excited about this weekend!

For the most part, we were just needed to provide beds and showers. But Wednesday night we got to spend several hours with the Brocks before the tournament started the next day. There are eight of them so I thawed 14 Brats and 28 Hotdogs for dinner.

When they arrived, several of us hung out in the kitchen making a pile of 20 Breakfast Sandwiches that they could grab and take to the tournament the next morning. We wrapped them in foil to make them easier to warm and go.

Their two little girls and our three little girls played and played and played all afternoon and evening. Never have we had so many hours in our house without someone throwing a fit. It was glorious.


Meanwhile, several gathered around our living room table to play a game. :)

Matt smoked the brats and hotdogs while I prepped the rest of dinner.

It was a simple meal with the Brats and Hot Dogs plus Baked Beans, Grapes, Carrots, Olives, Pickles, Sweet Pepper, and Chips.

I sliced an Angel Food Cake we’d brought home from Food Distribution on Tuesday and I pulled Brownies from the freezer that I’d baked another time.

Truly, the night was magical. After visiting and playing, we all worked together to get mattresses set up for the kids all over the house. The other family that stayed with us showed up after bedtime and Matt helped them get settled in. We are so thankful for this house God provided for us so that we could comfortably add 12 extra people for five days!

Here’s a peek at our little boys’ room where we set up mattresses. Was it a mess? Sure. But six boys slept comfortably while we had girls in a different room and parents in their own rooms.

Thursday morning Brayden helped me put 13 of the Breakfast Sandwiches into the oven to warm up. Our guests needed to be out the door around 7:45 to get to their tournament and they’d be gone all day.

We set out fruit, bagels, and yogurt plus made a pot of coffee. Our guests all got out the door and we got Brayden and Kiya to school. Then Matt left for York to work. Malachi had to be in York for video work so they met up there and Elias stayed home to help me with kids.

During the baby’s nap, the other four helped me crack eggs to make Breakfast Burritos. Only one egg smashed onto the floor, so I’d say this project went pretty well. ;)

I cooked two pounds of sausage, then we made 20 Breakfast Burritos and a batch of Pancake Sausage Muffins for grab-and-go breakfast options during the next two days.

I was somehow on an egg and sausage kick, so for dinner that night we had Quiche with Spinach and Oranges.

On Friday I decided our meals would not involve eggs or sausage. Well, except for the breakfast options we’d already made. :)

For dinner that night we had a cheat meal of Chicken Nuggets and Tator Tots with Grapes. Bliss.

Breakfast on Saturday was more of the same as our guests headed out for one final day of their Speech and Debate Tournament.

Our former foster son was visiting this weekend so we had eight littles. It made sense, then, that we would take them all to Walmart. ;) What can I say? We were out of greens and apples, plus we needed an outing. Daddy had a cart of boys and and I had a cart of girls. (Sorry, Kiya. I tried to snag a quick photo but I didn’t capture your best facial expression.)

We got our needed WIC items, checked out, then a few kids had to potty before getting back into the van. Those of us waiting by the bathroom had an apple to help the wait time go faster. :)

From there, we headed to Aldi. Matt kept all the kids in the van with a snack while I ran through the store as fast as I could. I grabbed lots of fruit/veggie pouches for the baby and littlest kids, salad kits, granola, milk, yogurt, berries, mandarins, and pear cups. Plus I grabbed crackers and meat for a picnic next week.

It was lunch time by then so I texted Elias and asked if he would get Mac and Cheese started for us so we wouldn’t have any hunger meltdowns.

We had lunch and naptime, then headed to the zoo for a couple of hours.

I had popped some popcorn to take with us so the kids sat on a bench and snacked on it before playing more and heading home.

The rest of the evening was full of bath time and leftovers for dinner. And that was our week!

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Big Family Food and Fun: December 24-30, 2023

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Here’s our Food and Fun: December 24-30 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: December 24-30, 2023

We enjoyed a beautiful Christmas Eve service at church Sunday morning, then came home and set out a simple but fun Sub Sandwich Station. We had a variety of breads, meats, cheeses, and chips. After we built our sandwiches, we toasted them in our Air Fryer to melt the cheese and crisp up the bread. So good!

After lunch, we exchanged Christmas gifts with one of our housemates. She gave the kids soft blankets and fun snacks for a movie night. :)

After we put the littlest kids down for naps and older-littles downstairs for a movie, Elias, Malachi, and I surprised Matt with a brand new Settlers of Catan game. We all love this game and hardly get a chance to play because of lack of time. This was a perfect way to enjoy Christmas Eve afternoon! (P.S. I was sooooo close to winning, but then Elias snuck in the win. Stinker.)

Asa and Eva were enjoying Christmas Eve with her family, and Justus and Kelsey came over that evening after they were finished with their responsibilities at church where Justus is worship minister. We had a simple meal of Nachos and would you look at that? Matt and I got to actually sit down together to eat!

Kelsey made her family’s traditional Christmas Eve Hot Fudge for us to enjoy on ice cream after dinner!

We found some interactive Christmas Dance Party videos on Youtube and Justus led the kids in getting lots of wiggles out before bed.

Everyone settled in surprisingly well that night, then Kelsey helped me stuff stockings and set up everything for Christmas morning. “Santa” got the kids new coats or a new outfit, clocks for their bedrooms, and a weighted stuffed animal to help them with calming needs. (The kids have no idea that their awesome new animals are therapeutic. They just think they got an adorable new friend.) :)

The next morning, I stuffed stockings and set out a few extra gifts for all the older kids too. :)

We ate Egg Casserole and Monkey Bread (<—that our neighbor had made!) as everyone woke up that morning. Asa and Eva came over around 8:15 to enjoy the day with us.

We had pulled the living room doors closed and put wrapping paper on them so that the kids wouldn’t see into the room before we were all gathered to enjoy our Christmas morning together!

Then the doors opened to reveal all the treasures!

It snowed all day long, creating a feeling of special Christmas magic!

We took turns opening gifts from each other while the snow fell outside.

Keith got ear protective headphones (that we found used at a Restore and knew he’d love because working with Daddy is his favorite!) and a hat with built in light. If those were his only two gifts, he would have been as happy as can be.

We made Chicken Strips and Fries for lunch. Asa and Eva had picked up a huge cup of Cane’s Sauce for us – a family favorite. I made a couple bowls of salad, some buttered toast, and we had a Costco cheesecake for dessert. Everyone loved this meal for Christmas!

Asa went outside during the afternoon and took this photo of our snowy Castle.

For dinner that evening I set out a variety of meats, cheeses, crackers, chips, and dips that I’d picked up at Costco, Sam’s, or Aldi. It was a perfectly easy meal we could all snack on that evening.

Tuesday morning we warmed up leftover Egg Casserole. Then at lunch I felt the big need to give us some vegetables so I made these spinach-filled smoothies for the kids and these for the grown-ups. The kids had gotten oatmeal packets in their stockings so they requested those also. A weird lunch? Yes. But it filled their bellies and we got lots of greens into our systems.

Brayden, Kiya, and I went to hand out food at our weekly Food Distribution that afternoon. Before we got home, Elias warmed up leftover Lasagna for dinner that night plus steamed some broccoli.

Food Distribution was different that week because of the holiday. There was extra food but fewer people to go through the line. The lady in charge let everyone go through twice, which I loved to see as everyone was able to go home with a lot of free food for their families. When that was finished, there was still plenty leftover so all of the volunteers took home quite a bit too.

We brought home a lot of organic greens, several bunches of bananas, a large selection of breads/rolls/buns, and a few other miscellaneous items.

Wednesday morning we warmed up more Egg Casserole leftovers and ate it with some muffins we’d brought home from the Food Distribution. (I cut them in half so everyone could have a little bit.)

I cut up all the bananas from Food Distribution because they were on their last leg. They went into the freezer to be used for smoothies or Banana Bread.

Anna had a dentist appointment that morning so she and I enjoyed reading some books together in the waiting room. Any one-on-one time with our kids is rare and special.

Picking out a new toothbrush is so fun, but also, making decisions is hard, ha.

For lunch we warmed up leftover Roast and Carrots from the week before plus leftover green beans and corn. It felt good to be slowly getting the fridge cleaned out!

We had a lot of bread from Food Distribution plus several bits of lunchmeat from last week’s Sub Sandwiches. So for dinner I made a big pile of Grilled Meat and Cheese Sandwiches with Tomato Soup.

Thursday morning I baked several sheet pans worth of bacon to enjoy with breakfast and to have leftovers for upcoming meals. I also made a lot of French Toast and we ate it with syrup or applesauce.

A couple of the kids had appointments that morning so while I was with them for those, Matt and Malachi held down the fort. At lunchtime, Malachi made six boxes of mac and cheese and a pan of peas. (Someone who shall remain nameless put a pea up her nose during lunch. Never a dull moment.)

That afternoon during nap/rest time, I ran to Walmart and Sam’s to pick up some items for an upcoming birthday meal. While I was at Walmart, I checked for clearance items and I HIT THE JACKPOT. Their spiral cut hams were marked down to $0.50/pound!!!! I’ve never seen anything like this. I decided to “only” buy eight hams, ha. They were 10ish-pound hams for just $5.00. Crazy good. We have a freezer full now and I can share with our married kids plus anyone else who might need or want one.

At Sam’s I found chicken tenderloins marked down so I picked up two packages. I plan to use these for Pizza Chicken Bake and Crunchy Ranch Chicken Strips.

Later that afternoon, the kids were acting hungry so I made everyone a big cup of Smoothie using some of the greens I’d gotten at the Food Distribution that week.

While I had the spinach out, and because I really had a lot in the fridge and didn’t want it to go bad, I made these muffins with both spinach and pumpkin. Hooray for sneaking in veggies!

I can’t remember what we ate for dinner that night, and I can’t find any pictures so that must mean that we ate leftovers and I didn’t think about documenting it. :)

For breakfast on Friday morning we enjoyed Brayden’s birthday request of biscuits (that we’d gotten at Food Distribution) plus sausage links, muffins, and fruit.

I mixed up a double batch of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies that morning so we could put together and deliver Happy New Year gifts for our neighbors.

We knew an outing would benefit the kids after being cooped up for so many days in a row, so we loaded up and headed to The Front Porch, which is a coffee shop/play area at a church here in Lincoln.

I packed Capri Sun and cracker/cheese packs for the kids to snack on during a play break.

When we got home, Brayden, Keith, Anna, and I worked together to make Brownies for his birthday dessert that night.

Malachi had put pizzas in the oven to bake for us so we took those out, slid the brownies in, and had our lunch.

That evening we planned to have a big birthday dinner for not one, but two birthday boys! Yep, Brayden and BabyBoy#11 share a birthday. Kiya used salad kits to put together two bowls of salad for us. I love that I can turn this job over to her (or to Brayden) now!

BabyBoy#11 didn’t have any opinions about the meal choices for the day. :) But Brayden requested Orange Chicken (the boxed kind from Sam’s) for dinner. I baked a dish of Stick of Butter Rice to go with it and of course, we had Kiya’s salads.

Dinner was awesome, with Asa and Eva plus our friend Allan joining us.

BabyBoy#11 is battling eating challenges so he enjoyed his bottle for dinner. (And then puked up his bottle, the poor dear. Pray that we can find the right specialist for him and get to the bottom of his eating needs.) We still put a candle in the Birthday Brownies for him to “blow out” even though food is a no-go.

Then, per Brayden’s request, we added the 0 candle to turn the one candle into a 10!

After brownies, we all headed into the living room for present time. Of course, BabyBoy#11 mostly loved the tags on his new sweatshirt. :)

Saturday morning we packaged up the cookies we’d made for neighbors along with some others goodies, tea, hot cocoa, and chocolates.

I’d saved the Trader Joe’s bags we’d gotten while Christmas shopping and these made perfect gift bags.

It was sunny and 40 degrees so a perfect day to take a walk around the neighborhood delivering packages.

Whenever we try to do anything like this, I do question my sanity. It’s hard enough to keep up with laundry, dishes, and keeping everyone fed and happy. To get anything extra accomplished and then head out the door with this many little ones (stopping every few minutes to deal with a behavior issue or an ouchie or a diaper need or…) – well. I always wonder if it’s worth it.

Yes. It’s worth it.

The kids LOVED this. They took turns ringing doorbells, handing over gifts, and whenever we caught someone at home, the kids felt so loved and appreciated by our neighbors who gushed over the gift. It was also fun to leave surprises on the porches of neighbors who weren’t home at the time. :)

Lunch was a tasty but simple meal of Croissants with Turkey, Bacon, and Cheese (with snuck in spinach) melted in the oven.

We all had an afternoon rest time and then it was Birthday Party time! We had invited a few York friends to come for the afternoon/evening to celebrate Brayden’s 10th. We usually just have family birthday time (which we’d had the night before), but since it was a significant year for Brayden, we told him he could have a party. The kids played, the adults caught up and visited. It was wonderful.

We ate Brayden’s birthday choice of Chicken Nuggets and Fries along with a tray of fresh fruit and a plate of veggies.

There was cake, there were cookies, there was a lot of laughing and joy.

After all the excitement of Christmas along with three birthdays within the past nine days, I felt some relief that we could maybe settle down for a while. Ha. And then I remembered that we have two more birthdays coming up in January. Party on!

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Big Family Food and Fun: November 5-11, 2023

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Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: November 5-11 post!

Big Family Food and Fun: November 5-11, 2023

Food and…fun? Not all of it has been fun this week.

Some people get an extra hour of sleep on the night we turn back the clocks. At our house, we got an extra hour to endure a very long morning caring for sick babies. Oy.

For the past three weeks, our family has been passing around viruses and bugs. The latest involved low fevers. The one before that involved puke. We have canceled all plans and have not let our older kids come over to the Castle for fear that they might catch all of our ailments. So Matt and I are a little on the tired side.

We stayed home from church on Sunday, and eventually, Keith had dressed himself in a football helmet, snow boots (three sizes too big), and pajama pants.

Sunday morning I put The Easiest Spicy Ham and Potato Soup into a crock pot for us to enjoy at lunchtime.

We watched church service online, then the healthy kids went outside to play since the weather was so nice. They were playing “school” and I heard them talk about setting up a school cafeteria. So when it was time to eat, I carried their lunch out to be served in their “cafeteria.” :)

Here’s poor Sissy, one of the three littles feeling so crummy all day.

Keith was well, and he had fun making a three story house out of boxes!

For dinner that night, I made a big batch of Breakfast Sandwiches. They were a huge hit and all of them got eaten, along with strawberries and clementines.

Monday morning I made a big pot of oatmeal. I put a chunk of frozen banana into the littlest girls’ bowls of oatmeal so that it would cool off faster.

I surprised Matt with a Peach Cobbler for his birthday. (Not really a surprise since this is what I make for him for every birthday and Father’s Day, ha.)

We had planned on all of our bigger kids coming to join us for a birthday dinner for Matt, but with so much sickness traveling through our house, we postponed our gathering. :( I went ahead and made one of Matt’s favorites that night for those of us who were already at the Castle: Sausage Stromboli! I hadn’t made this for years and it was SO GOOD.

That afternoon the kids helped me make one of Matt’s favorite desserts: Banana Pudding. :)

Instead of 50 candles, I just put 1 candle in the pudding. Birthday celebrations at our house are LOUD, exciting, and pretty tasty. :)

That night was a rough one with a teething BabyBoy#11. We’re finding it a bit tough to catch a break and get enough rest, but we’ll get there!!

Tuesday morning the toddlers were feeling better so we loaded up the five littlest to go to Walmart after we got Brayden and Kiya to school. The outing helped the morning go better! Someone had given us 10 Free Junior Frosty coupons to use at Wendy’s so while we were out, we grabbed all 10 to surprise the kids with after tonight’s dinner.

Brayden, Kiya, and I helped give out food at our local Tuesday Food Distribution that afternoon after school. We were blessed to bring home some food and flowers for our family to enjoy!

Being at the Food Distribution means we get home just in time to eat dinner, so I had smoked Brats and Hotdogs before leaving that afternoon. They were warm in the crock pot when we got home, and we had them along with baked beans, oranges, and carrots.

When we bought this home, we “inherited” a lot of items since it was formerly a Bed and Breakfast. Many of the items we didn’t need and donated. But we love that some of the things left behind include outdoor lights, heaters, and a lovely fire pit! We gathered around the fire pit that night and told stories – so fun (and a little crazy while trying to keep littles from touching the fire).

Justus and Kelsey were over and she captured the above photo before going in to get the fun free Frostys Matt and I had picked up earlier in the day. They made everyone extra shivery, but it sure was a special evening!

Wednesday morning I made these Flourless Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins with cheesy scrambled eggs.

We’d been given a lot of tomatoes at the Food Distribution the day before, so we made BLTs for lunch.

One of our housemates had visited family over the weekend and brought back many dozen farm fresh eggs! So we had Easy Breakfast Casserole for dinner. I taught Brayden how to steam broccoli to go with our meal.

We had a feast of Easy Breakfast Casserole, broccoli, oranges, and muffins. We also warmed up a piece of buttered garlic bread that the kids had chosen at the Food Distribution the day before. (Junior Volunteers like Brayden and Kiya get to choose two items off the tables as a thank you for their help. They usually choose something sweet, but lately Brayden has been choosing things like mashed potatoes and garlic bread, ha.)

Thursday Elias and Malachi picked up our Azure Standard order for me. We got frozen corn, green beans, and hashbrowns (30 pounds!), plus yogurt, tortillas, and palm shortening.

For dinner that night I made Quick Crock Pot Spicy Pasta Dinner with green beans and corn.

Friday morning we dropped the kids off at school then headed to Walmart with the five littlest. We had plenty of time before getting Keith and Anna off to preschool, so we decided to try taking everyone to Great Clips to get Keith’s hair cut. Were we crazy? Sure. But you gotta do what you gotta do.

The three little girls actually sat very well in the waiting area sharing the grapes we had just picked up at Walmart.

The gal was super fast and Keith is as handsome as ever.

Ope. Still eating grapes. :) :) :)

For an extra special treat, we headed to Freddy’s and picked up kids’ meals with free coupons we had been given at a trick-or-treating event a couple of weeks ago. We ate at home though, because restaurants with this many littles is a no-go. :)

For “French Fry Friday” I made ham/cheese and turkey/cheese melts on buns with tator tots and sweet potato fries, plus black berries and grapes. There was spinach hiding in the sandwiches under the cheese, shhhh.

That afternoon I made made a double batch of these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, subbing the chocolate for butterscotch chips. These are a favorite of our older boys and we were finally making plans to get together for Matt’s 50th birthday celebration on Sunday!

Saturday morning I had more bananas turning black so I made yet another batch of Flourless Chocolate Banana Blender Muffins. They had gone over so well earlier in the week, I knew they’d be a hit again (I was right)! We finished off the Egg Casserole leftovers and had yogurt too.

Our Saturday outing was to grab jackets and head to the zoo to take advantage of our membership and the indoor play area with the spider monkeys. On our way in, we had the rare treat of seeing the Red Panda playing outside!

I packed juice and peanut butter pretzels for a snack break.

For lunch back at home I made quesadillas and warmed up the last of Sunday’s The Easiest Spicy Ham and Potato Soup.

Kelsey had some freezer cooking plans and came to the Castle to execute them. Spending the afternoon in our kitchen with her was SUCH a treat!!!! Especially since we have had so much sickness and have avoided having anyone over. We’ve missed our bigs!!

She and Justus joined us for a simple dinner, which was leftover chili and sandwiches.

And that was our week!

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Big Family Food and Fun: October 22-28, 2023

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It’s Big Family Food and Fun: October 22-28!

Big Family Food and Fun: October 22-28, 2023

Last week’s illness turned into pneumonia for me (a constant struggle since I was exposed to black mold in my dorm back in college). So I stayed home from church Sunday morning, knowing that Matt would have plenty of help with the littles there.

A few weeks prior, I had put a large Pork and Hashbrown Casserole into the freezer so we pulled that out to bake all morning for lunch. Here’s a poor photo of the casserole ready to pull from the oven plus sides we grabbed from the fridge: leftover peas, that crazy bowl of leftover pineapple that we can’t seem to finish, a package of sweet peppers, and a loaf of bread to slice, butter, and toast.

Before heading back to bed that morning, I made Apple Dip that our family loves to enjoy for dessert.

Asa and Eva joined us for lunch and it appears that Asa and Keith had some sort of dual when they arrived. Or is that Keith? We can’t tell.

Eva’s parents had heard I was sick and they texted to see how they could help. I requested 10 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so that I could put together easy lunches for the school kids this week. (It’s crazy how even the simplest tasks feel hard when you’re sick.) Not only did they make and bring ten sandwiches, but they made ten entire bagged lunches! We started our week with a sack full of sacks – filled with sandwiches, chips, applesauce, and treats! We felt so blessed to be cared for this way. :)

Dinner that evening was Tortelloni and spinach. I forgot to take a picture, so here’s one from this post last September. (Awww, it’s our York kitchen…)

After dinner and toys were cleaned up for the evening, we got out a new craft kit for the kids to enjoy. This might have been a favorite for me because they are completely un-messy!! And they are great for kids with extra sensory needs. These babes stayed calm for ten entire minutes doing this. That may not sound impressive, but in our world, ten calm minutes is amazing.

Monday I was still not feeling well and asked some friends to come over for the evening to help with the kids. Malachi cut smoked sausage and put it into the crock pot for dinner.

Elias boiled 2-pounds of noodles and we put a container of White Queso from Sam’s into it. (Try this – its so good!) We made Caesar salad to round out the meal. Since our friends were coming over for the evening and I wanted to be sure our meal stretched far enough, I also got out a few cans of mandarin oranges. And then I went to bed and slept the entire evening while we had extra help. :)

Tuesday I felt a tiny bit better. We needed something quick to eat so I made Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Bars. Look at those sweet little Josie hands reaching up for a bar…

That afternoon, Elias seasoned two chickens and worked with Matt to get them onto the smoker for dinner. At meal time, I steamed green beans and made Mashed Potatoes like this. Such a comfort-food meal!

Justus and Kelsey had come over and after dinner we all “helped” Kelsey wrap up some boxes to turn into Giant Legos for a Trunk or Treat project this weekend. My energy was still so low that I wasn’t much help with crowd control. :/

Wednesday morning I had a special ed teacher coming over to spend time with BabyBoy#11. I needed a little something to eat before this meeting so I (too) quickly put this Smoothie into the blender – overfilling it in my haste. The lid came off and I ended up exploding it all over the kitchen and all over myself.

One of our housemates witnessed the entire thing and came to my rescue. “You go change and have your meeting. I’ll take care of this.” And she did. Sniff. We are well cared for.

For dinner that evening I got out the tidbit of leftover roast and potatoes we had from last week plus some of this week’s leftover chicken. I put the meat on hoagies with spinach and melted Havarti cheese on top. So good!

I fried the small amount of potatoes and got out leftover green beans. We all just got a tiny serving of sides, but we all got full. :)

Brayden had a special field trip on Thursday morning and the request was that all the kids try to put themselves fully into 1897 mode, from clothing to food. He wore his button-up shirt, jeans, and boots and here was his lunch that day:

A biscuit with butter, beef jerky, and an apple wrapped up in a cloth. He took a tin can for his water and was so excited that he could hardly sleep the night before. :)

Thursday evening we had plans to go to “Boo at the Zoo” which is a very big deal here in Lincoln. So that we could have an early dinner and get out the door easily (hahaha) I made a bowl of Chicken Salad with some of the leftover smoked chicken from earlier this week. We ate it on rolls with veggies and canned fruit and it tasted SO GOOD.

Here we have “New to the Neighborhood Community Helpers:” a gardener, a teacher, a construction worker, a babysitter, a policewoman, a fire chief, and a garbage man.

Friday turned COLD. The night before, Malachi brought up our totes of coats, gloves, and hats and Matt sorted them into piles. Keith tried on EVERYTHING when he got up on Friday morning. :)

Anna got in on the fun too, but somehow her “bundling up” included huge purple pants and a princess dress from our dress-up clothes trunk, plus crocks that are several sizes too big. At least she found a hat, though. :)

The best discovery from our sorting of warm items was the Blues Clues slippers from 2001(ish). Asa was the first to wear those, then each boy after that, and somehow we still have them for Keith to wear. (And all of the little sisters. Taking turns is a whole big thing around here.)

I had an IEP meeting at school for one of our kids that morning then three therapist sessions throughout the day (one of them for me, praise God).

Because the day was packed, I simply threw a huge pack of hotdogs into a pot to have warm at dinnertime so the kids could eat before moving on to our evening events.

The fullness of this day ended with Trunk or Treat with our church family in the evening. Thankfully, Justus and Kelsey fully took over the plans we had to be a part of it. We sent a very bundled up Brayden, Kiya, and Keith with Elias so that they could enjoy the event. But Matt and I kept the littlest four at home to stay warm.

Saturday we took the day off, as much as one can take the day off with so many kids. Nobody got dressed that day; we just chilled in jammies or whatever we had all slept in the night before. We did some cleaning, we watched some soccer, we didn’t go anywhere. It was great and needed.

I didn’t get a picture of lunch that day, but I asked the boys to make 5 boxes of mac and cheese. FIVE. BOXES. Which seems like plenty, doesn’t it? Excessive even? Sure, but we have housemates and they needed to eat too.

That pot of mac and cheese was devoured before Matt and I could have any or before our housemates came down to eat. Wow. I don’t even know how much to make in the future. Eight boxes?? Ten? Make two pounds of this instead? Yes probably.

That night I used some of the smoked chicken from earlier in the week to make Chicken Gravy to go over the leftover mashed potatoes. This tasted sooooo good on a cold, jammie day. The buttered peas really hit the spot that night with the kids too. Adding plenty of butter to steamed peas makes them taste like candy, apparently. ;)

And that was our week!

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Big Family Food and Fun: September 17-23, 2023

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Ready for Big Family Food and Fun: September 17-23?

During the past few weeks, God has filled up our Castle with additional housemates. Amazing! You can read the details about this here. We filled our final third floor room last Sunday. :) :) There are 16 of us living in our house now, but I’m only counting 15 in our “who ate the food” fun because the baby is still mostly drinking formula and figuring out purees. :)

Our five housemates sometimes eat with us and sometimes eat on their own depending on schedules, needs, work, and outside plans. Meanwhile, anyone who drops by to hang out with our older boys or anyone who comes over for any reason is welcome to eat here too.

So I always make a large evening meal, knowing that we’ll be feeding anywhere from 11 to 20 people. There’s always enough and if there’s too much: LEFTOVERS!!

Leftovers for Lunch

It’s pretty chill at lunchtime here, and there’s always this and that in the fridge that needs to be eaten up. So almost every day for lunch, everyone fends for themselves (well, Matt and I feed the littles, of course). This is easy, helpful, and a great way to keep from wasting food.

Here’s a silly photo of Anna and Brayden. Anna was wearing one of our housemate’s glasses and was so very proud.

Here’s what our week looked like!

Food and Fun: September 17-23, 2023

Sunday morning I set out the tail end of last week’s goodies for breakfast: Snickerdoodle Bites, Peanut Butter Honey Bread, and Pumpkin Donuts. I love finishing off tidbits to clear out space and to avoid waste!

We had a big day planned that day! After church we were going to eat lunch (at the church building) and then drive two minutes to an Apple Orchard. We invited another family plus several young adults to join us. Altogether, there were 28 of us. I love things like this!

Saturday night I had baked a double batch of these brownies to go with our lunch.

I put 14 Brats and 24 Hotdogs on our smoker before church. While they were cooking, we put together other lunch items to take with us: watermelon, grapes, chips, carrots, and water.

We put the cooked Brats and Dogs into crockpots and plugged them in once we got to church so they’d stay warm. After church, we quickly set out a buffet and enjoyed our meal together.

The Apple Orchard opened at 1:00, and it really was just two minutes away from the church building. So off we went to enjoy picking apples together!

This outing was everything I hoped it would be, with our huge crew enjoying the sunshine, time together, and apple picking!

Eva captured this photo of Kelsey and Acacia. I can’t stop staring at it.

We were way past naptime when we wrapped up, but we were able to get a photo with all 15 of our family members. It’s so rare and wonderful for all of us to coordinate schedules and be together like this.

Naps were extra good that afternoon. :)

Somehow I had managed to throw Easy Crock Pot Fajitas into our Instant Pot that morning so they slow cooked all day and made dinner super easy. I had never used our Instant Pot as a slow cooker, but both of our Crock Pots were full of Brats and Dogs that morning so I attempted it. It worked!

The meat (organic, grass fed fajita meat provided by one of the gals living with us right now) was absolutely incredible.

Malachi built this Fajita Burrito Masterpiece:

Monday morning I baked a double batch of Pumpkin Muffins (minus the chocolate chips). This made 24 muffins, and by the end of the day we were down to 6. I love watching food disappear! I made sausage links to enjoy with the muffins. Plus I got out our Pampered Chef apple-peeler-corer-slicer to cut apple rings for the kids.

After we got Brayden and Kiya to school, Keith and I headed to the Food Distribution site to help set up for Tuesday’s food giveaway. This is SUCH good one-on-one time for us and he loves being a helper!

I’m not sure that this is what Ms. Kathleen had it mind when she asked us to put the snacks out on the table. If you can’t build a tower of muffins, what even is the point? (Truly, Keith couldn’t see any other way to display these. I had to sneak in later to re-adjust the table.) ;)

Lunch was leftovers. :) Dinner was simple and delicious! I made Ham and Cheese Melts on buns they sent home with us that morning when we were setting up food. I had Colby jack, pepper jack, and Havarti cheese slices so I made an assortment with these sandwiches.

We enjoyed them with corn on the cob, spaghetti squash (cooked like this), watermelon, and peas.

After dinner, I sliced more of the apples we’d picked at the orchard and we ate them with Caramel Apple Dip. I hadn’t made that dip since last fall, so it tasted extra good!

Matt borrowed our neighbor’s leaf blower and Keith helped him clean up the parking lot area in our back yard. Keith takes every job very seriously. And I’m not sure if you can tell, but he’s wearing a spiderman hat someone had made just for him. It didn’t come off of his head for the entire day. :)

Tuesday morning we loaded up the kids and headed to Costco. My goal was to get stocked up on basic baking ingredients – which I did. But I also bought frozen pizza because I like having it on hand. AND, the strawberries and raspberries were still priced really low. So I got 2 containers of raspberries and 16 more pounds of strawberries. I’m out of control. :)

Raspberries make a great snack, but they taste better when you first put one on each finger. :)

That afternoon, Brayden, Kiya, and I went to help with the weekly Food Distribution. We got home at 5:30 tired, hungry, and in a hurry because Brayden had a piano lesson with Justus at 6:00. Thankfully, Malachi had baked chicken for sandwiches and Elias had build sandwiches and already fed the little ones. The rest of us grabbed ours and I didn’t even care about adding fruits and veggies because it was a bit hectic as we transitioned back home. :)

Wednesday morning I made Eggs in a Nest for breakfast with strawberries and Whipped Cream.

For a mid-morning snack, I cut more strawberries into what was left of the whipped cream. Keith, Anna, Acacia, and Josie helped me eat it. :)

We were preparing for a huge meal on Sunday in which we were planning to feed around 50 York University choir members. So during naptime, I went to Aldi to get a few things we needed for our family and a few things we needed for the choir meal.

It was the final evening the Lincoln Zoo was going to be open in the evening before next spring, so we took advantage and headed to the zoo that night.

I had packed hotdogs for us to eat there, along with fruit cups, carrots and ranch, and cold drinks. One of our new housemates joined us. Of course, the littles all love her and it appears that she’s never going to be allowed to eat a meal with our family without a child on her lap. :)

Thursday was a very full day. Matt was gone all day in York, I had two meetings scheduled, and some of our kids had extra behavior issues that needed to be dealt with. And that was just before 8:15am.

I sent our school kids off (one of them still in tears) with our neighbor who was gracious to walk them to school for me because I had already started my morning that was full of meetings for our littles. Case workers came, someone from our Early Development Network came – it was good and necessary but exhausting.

Why am I sharing this? Because while I love food and sharing food and all the fun that we have, it’s all mixed in with some very real life, very big challenges too. I think that’s why I love sharing about the rest of it so much. It reminds me of all the goodness God gives and all the fun we have each day. :)

So back to the food and fun…

I’ve been getting bags of organic pears at Aldi and they are perfect right now! They are small, making them great to hand out as snacks. Here’s Josie, looking as sweet as can be with her tasty pear.

One of our housemates provided us with a farm-raised chicken and I tried my hand at smoking it. I rubbed it down with Redmond’s Seasoning Salt and smoked it on low heat for the entire afternoon. Meanwhile, I made Mashed Potatoes in the Crock Pot and just before time to eat, I steamed broccoli. I love meals like this!

We had all those strawberries, so I had no choice but to make Strawberry Shortcake for our dessert after dinner.

No one complained about this choice of desserts.

I was continuing to prep to feed the York University Singers on Sunday so when I baked the shortcake, I also used oven space to make a double batch of Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars.

That evening, I also stirred together an extra large Easy Breakfast Casserole. Then on Friday morning I slid it into the oven to bake while I had my God time. When the kids got up, the casserole was ready and we ate it with strawberries and shortcake. (The cake is about as sweet as muffins, so I figured it would be a perfect side plus fun for the kids to feel like they were eating cake for breakfast!)

I got a little bit too ambitious and made a batch of Peanut Butter Honey Granola. (I wanted to make the most of the hot oven, plus I always like to try and get ahead.) It mostly worked out, but with trying to get kids fed and off to school I let it stay in the oven a little bit too long. It’s extra toasted. :)

That afternoon, I cooked seven pounds of hamburger meat in my Instant Pot like this. Then I turned it into two huge pots of Chili for Sunday.

As I finished that up, all kinds of crazy hit the house as we had some friends from out of state who were in a hurry but needed a place to shower. Yep, come on over! Meanwhile I was getting ready to have a rare night out at an Adoptive Moms Support Group (life giving and needed!!). We ate a super simple meal, taking full advantage of our air fryer to enjoy “French Fry Friday.” Tonight it was fries with nuggets.

Saturday morning we ate good ol’ cereal as we were getting other food items made.

The kids washed the remaining apples we’d picked on Sunday at the apple orchard. I cut them and cooked them down to make applesauce. (I used this quick method.)

It made a huge bowlful that we can eat all next week!

We had been invited to a party to watch the Husker football game that afternoon and had been asked to bring dessert. We made Chocolate Cupcakes with hidden spinach. The spinach was then perhaps counteracted by the candy pumpkins I put on top, but aren’t they cute?? :)

I also made a big bowl full of Strawberry Fluff to take to the party to share.

We ate leftovers for lunch with Caesar salad. As we were wrapping up, our neighbor John brought over this huge bucket of apples! They were from a tree on his family’s property and hadn’t been sprayed. The remind me of our apple picking days at our favorite orchard closer to York. We enjoyed bags and buckets of those apples year after year and eventually became friends with the Claytons, owners of the orchard. We miss this! How grateful we were to receive this bucket from our new friend in Lincoln.


After an early nap, we loaded up and headed over to our Husker Game Party. During half-time, we all headed outside to enjoy a pinata the host had set up for all the kids.

Go, Kiya, go!

The kids definitely didn’t care about football, ha. They actually only barely cared about the food. But they had been talking non-stop about how we’d been invited to swim while we were there. So finally we got them all ready, with the help of Justus and Kelsey, and let them have what will probably be one last outdoor swim of the season.

Knowing that they’d hardly eaten before that and that they’d be starving after time in the pool, I quickly made a late dinner plan for when we got home. Indeed, joy turned to hungry melt-down as we left the party. We gave them all a handful of peanuts that we had in the van (phew!) and I hurried to make a pile of French toast with sausage when we got home before bed. You’ve never seen such small children put away so much food at one time. :) :) :)

And that was our week!

P.S. Total grocery spending so far in September: $1100 and we are VERY stocked up on basics right now.

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Big Family Food and Fun: July 30-August 5, 2023

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What does our Big Family Food and Fun look like as July ends and August begins?

Before we dive into the week, here are a few more photos that Kelsey took during last week’s surprise birthday party. She was intentional about getting pictures with me in them, since I am usually taking the pictures and therefore not in them. :)

Friends kept showing up to surprise me all day long. Amazing!

The chip and dip buffet:

I had a hard time winding down that night! What a fantastic day!

Big Family Food and Fun: July 30-August 5, 2023

And now for the new week!

Sunday for lunch I tried Pizza Chicken in the crock pot (usually I make it in the oven). It sort of worked??!? I made 8-pounds of chicken thighs at once, so the middle chicken pieces didn’t get thoroughly cooked while we were at church. We ate what was ready and I finished cooking the under-done pieces in a skillet while we ate the rest. We had green beans, corn, bread/butter, and No-Bake Cookies with our Pizza Chicken.

Sunday evening we were invited to swim at our friends’ house and have dinner with them. We had THE BEST TIME!!!!

There were plenty of adults and teens to help with our littles so they got to have fun in the pool too. Then we ate a delicious feast of Sloppy Joes on homemade slider buns, baked beans, grapes, cucumbers, watermelon, salad, pickles, chips, and Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats. We felt so spoiled!


Monday morning we enjoyed Pumpkin Bread and Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread – both made by friends who gifted them to us. So good!

Here’s how Josie felt about it her chocolate bread breakfast. ;)

We needed to go to the bank to both set up an account and to get some paperwork signed/notarized. So  we figured out a way to do it without taking seven babies into the bank, yikes! I packed grapes, animal crackers, and water or juice for everyone and we headed out.

First we stopped at a park to wear them out a little bit. Then we loaded them back into the van and headed to the bank where I stayed with them and handed out snacks while Matt went in to get our account set up. After wayyyyyy to long (it couldn’t be helped), Matt came out and stayed with the kids while I ran in to do my part. We are thankful that the bank people worked with us and that we could get this necessary business done!

Meanwhile, it was past lunchtime because the bank needs took much longer than we anticipated. So I texted Malachi to throw Chicken Strips into the air fryer so we’d have food right away when we got home. At 12:50, we finally made it back and gave them chicken and canned fruit while I warmed up peas to complete the meal. Naptime didn’t happen until almost 2:00 that day but we sure were thankful to finally have our bank account set up and paperwork taken care of!

Dinner that night was Breakfast – pancakes, scrambled cheese eggs, sausage, bacon, blueberries, and applesauce. This is one of our favorite meals! And having a griddle on my stove is INCREDIBLE. I cranked out a huge amount of pancakes in a very short amount of time. Amazing!

The weather was beautiful that evening so we took another walk to the Sunken Gardens before bedtime.

We finished the Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread on Tuesday morning, plus I got out our apple-peeler-corer-slicer and made apple spirals for the kids. (This is actually faster than slicing them and the kids love it!) They ate the apples with our favorite “caramel cheese” so breakfast seemed like a real treat!

Matt kept all the kids occupied outside of the kitchen after breakfast because after eating chocolate bread – I desperately needed to sweep and mop. Then we packed a lunch and headed to the zoo for our morning outing. I used the rest of our leftover smoked chicken from last week to make Chicken-Ranch-Spinach Melts.

We weren’t sure how this would work since these are hot sandwiches. But I packed our cold side dishes and drinks in one cooler with ice. Then I packed the hot sandwiches in a separate insulated lunch bag. I toasted the sandwiches in our air fryer at 10:30 and at noon when we ate at the park, the sandwiches were still hot. Amazing! Now we know!

Flamingos are our favorite. Watch the video here to learn why.

Each time we go to the zoo (we have a membership and we live six blocks away so we can go as often as we are able), we choose something different to “feature” for the kids so that every trip is special. This time it was the Dino Dig. We chose a table by the digging area so that the kids could play and then eat when they were ready. The hot sandwiches were a hit, plus we had applesauce, chips and salsa, and juice.

We headed home and put littles down for a nap then I headed to Costco. I underestimated how long my shopping would take – and how many carts I would fill. Phew. Every time I’m buying food or clothes I’m struck by the reality of how many kids I have. You’d think I’d be used to it by now, haha.

I needed many basics, plus I was getting items for our kids’ lunchboxes for first couple of weeks back to school. Plus I needed diapers, and the yogurt was on sale, and….

I was an hour later than planned getting home. Matt had fed the kids leftovers for dinner but it didn’t matter. They were screaming and extra needy anyway. We somehow unloaded all the groceries while holding very loud children.

All said and done, I spent $653 for Costco groceries and we are well stocked up, at least for a few days before we run out of fresh produce again. :)

Wednesday morning Matt and and Elias headed to York to work on our houses there. Malachi was my side-kick all day, helping me with littles. I had an at-home 9:00 meeting for our littlest kids. Then at 10:30 we decided that a fun morning outing would be McDonald’s Play Place. Malachi’s app told us that we could buy nuggets for a good deal so I told the kids that everyone would have a fun snack of 2 chicken nuggets each and that we’d play and come home and bake pizzas.

Good idea, Mom.

Except – do McDonald’s Play Places not exist anymore??? It’s a been a long time since I’ve looked for one. My phone told me there was a Play Place so we drove to that location. But in fact, there was no Play Place. Moving on to Plan B…

Malachi still grabbed nuggets, we handed everyone their tiny 2-nugget snack to eat in their car seats, and we headed to the Scheels to enjoy their Play Place. Phew.

Oh but did I mention that our wagon broke while we were in there?! Good grief.

The kids had a great time playing, Malachi grabbed himself some frisbee golf discs, and we headed home – much later than intended. Too late to bake pizzas before having screaming children who had become hangry.

Soooo, when we got home I told the kids to wash hands, get a drink of water, and meet me at the table for fun sliced apples. We scooped out peanut butter for them to eat with their apples, I found leftover pancakes to warm up with butter, and that was lunch. THEN IT WAS NAPTIME, thank you Jesus.

Oh wait. It was not naptime. I had missed the fact that the three little girls had been taking turns smearing their peanut butter in each others’ hair. Oh no they hadn’t. Oh yes they had. I took them to the sink at stuck their head under the water to clean their hair the best I could. And then it was naptime. Wet hair and all.

That afternoon I experienced something new…

Grocery Delivery

After yesterday’s crazy Costco shopping trip I decided to see how I could make grocery shopping easier to meet our family’s needs. So I put in an Aldi order and took advantage of a Free Delivery deal.

Having my groceries delivered to my door? AWESOME. But will I do it again? I’m not sure. Probably not??

While shopping, I noticed that Aldi’s online prices were all higher than in-store prices. This is the case for both pick-up and delivery. With the high volume of items I need to buy, it will not be worth it to pay the extra amount per every item. Anyone have experience with Aldi pick-up or delivery? Any tips for how to save? Or should I skip it and just shop in the store somehow each week?

Is it still only Wednesday?

Thank goodness for afternoon rest times. I enjoyed some down-time (sitting with my feet up  and uploading pictures of all of our food, hehe) then got ready for company. I was so excited about this because friends from York were coming for dinner. Kelsey happened to be free to join us and I’m not sure if you know this, but she is a professional watermelon-cutter-upper. That’s always her job when she comes. ;)

There were 22 of us for dinner that night and it was magical. We smoked two different kinds of brats and ate them with salad, watermelon, grapes, oranges, carrots, chips, No-Bake Cookies, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. (<— awww, I wrote this when Asa was only 15.) We enjoyed our visit so much!!

I was visiting with our guests, the bigger littles were playing outside with their kids and our neighbors, and it was getting close to bedtime. Kelsey grabbed the three little girls and gave them a bath to get the rest of the peanut butter out of their hair. Bless. Then Kelsey, along with guests Julie and Emma put them girls down for the night. This was such a precious scene as they said goodnight and headed to bed…

Thursday was my big birthday. :) Just like the day before, I had meetings all morning for our little ones (The Early Childhood Development team is highly involved with our kids ages 0-3 because they are all at high risk and need early intervention. We met with them frequently in York and now we are getting set up with our new team in Lincoln. Lots of meetings later, we are almost ready to roll!)

While I was in our living room filling out paperwork and answering questions, Matt and the kids made a picnic lunch for us. They made Chicken Salad and put it on croissants for sandwiches, plus packed applesauce and chips. I had splurged on Kirkland’s Organic Chocolate Milk for a special treat for picnics but none of the kids enjoyed them very much. A bummer, but now I know not to buy them again. :)

After we ate, the kids ran around the park and attempted to climb a tree.

After naps, they put together a special show for me for my birthday, hahaha.

Elias cooked and perfectly seasoned the shaved beef steak I had gotten in our Aldi delivery, then everyone else worked together to put together a buffet for Steak Nachos for my birthday dinner. All the Bigs were able to join so all 15 of us were together – just what I wanted for my birthday!

My nacho bowl was so delicious!! Cilantro, white queso, seasoned steak, corn, black beans, garden tomatoes, and chips. It was a perfect birthday meal.

Ah, but then there was cheesecake!!

After we ate, we headed outside to hang out.

Kelsey taught me how to play Cornhole. Super fun!

It was a great birthday!

Friday morning we ate cereal and bananas, then headed to a bookstore that was featuring a Reptile Storytime.

We ended up being there with several families from church which was a fun surprise! Most of our kids were brave enough to pet the snakes. :)

Since we were already out and about, we found a park that we hadn’t tried out yet and ate the rest of the Chicken Salad on croissants and No Bake Cookies with juice and clementines. But oooops. This park didn’t have bathrooms, which is a no-go with this many kids! We cut our picnic short and came home so that we could make a mess of food all over our kitchen floor. I mean, so that some of the kids could potty while we finished lunch in our kitchen. :)

For dinner that night I decided that I wanted NO DIRTY DISHES (or drama), so I threw a bunch of chicken nuggets into the air fryer and made these smoothies. Disposable plastic cups with fun straws for the win!

Malachi had made himself a pizza for lunch and the cardboard circle was still on the counter. So that became my fancy serving tray for the nuggets. Nice, eh? The kids ate outside while playing because the weather was wonderful.

Meanwhile, Justus had been coming back and forth all day working with our smoker to made his delicious ribs for some buddies that night. Brayden was his side-kick, which is good beyond what I can express. Our little kids need our bigger kids pouring into them like this. Thank you, God, for moving us to Lincoln so that we could be together in these ways. We all need this.

Acacia gave up on her straw and went all in, drinking her smoothie like a big girl.

Plan B again

If we’ve learned anything we’ve learned that we can make plans, but they almost always need to change.

Saturday morning we had plans to go to Walmart to get a few school supplies and some of our WIC items for the month, especially formula for BabyBoy#11. But, the roofers we’d been waiting on for over a month to come do repairs FINALLY came that morning. So Matt needed to spend time with them, pushing back our plans.

By 11am we were finally able to get out the door, and we decided we needed to work our plans out differently. I put together a snack of animal crackers, applesauce pouches, and cheese sticks and we made our way to the store. All the kids stayed in the the van with Matt and he handed out snacks while I ran into Walmart and hurried as fast as I could to get everything we needed. It wasn’t a very fun outing for the kids, but at least the necessary shopping got done.

I forgot to take any pictures, sorry! I got formula, cereal, juice, cheese, yogurt, frozen hashbrowns, spring mix, spinach, grapes, pears, bananas, strawberries, plus a few packs of glue sticks, crayons, and pencils. Matt and the kids were hanging in there in the van, bless. We unloaded groceries as fast as we could when we got home then quickly warmed up leftover brats and served them with watermelon before naptime.

We made fresh green beans from our friends’ garden that night plus corn on the cob. I put a bunch of Burritos from our freezer into the air fryer to heat up while the veggies cooked and that was dinner. (By the way, make these burritos to have on hand for nights you don’t feel like or have time for cooking. They are so great!)

This was my view of dinner from the corner of the room where I sat feeding BabyBoy#11.

We just have one more week before school starts. We are both excited and sad that summer break ends and a school year begins. When do your kids start their school year again?

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Easiest Crock Pot Pasta (5-Minute Prep!)

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This truly is the Easiest Crock Pot Pasta recipe. Ready to spend only five minutes making tonight’s dinner? :)

Here are the fine details about this Easiest Crock Pot Pasta dish and why it truly only takes five minutes to prepare:

  1. You can use whatever cooked meat you have in the fridge or freezer. Leftover hamburger meat, taco meat, cooked chicken, cooked turkey, diced ham, bacon, sausage…
  2. You can use whatever variety of pasta you like and have on hand.
  3. You throw the pasta into the crock pot UNCOOKED. This is my favorite.

Ready for the “recipe?” Such as it is…

Easiest Crock Pot PastaYum

Easiest Crock Pot Pasta (5-Minute Prep!)
 
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Author:
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 16-ounces uncooked pasta, any variety
  • 1-2 pounds cookied meat, any variety
  • 32-ounces chicken or beef broth
  • 2 cups water
  • 3 Tablespoons dried minced onion
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 2 cups shredded cheese
Instructions
  1. Stir everything except for the cream and cheese into a crock pot.
  2. Cook on low for 3 hours.
  3. Stir cream and cheese into the crock pot mixture.
  4. Serve.

Do you see how easy this is? Do you see how wonderfully this uses up leftovers you have in your fridge or random bits of pasta you might have in your pantry? Isn’t it lovely that you can dump all this into a crock pot and then walk away?

I suggest serving this dish with a steamed veggie or a salad, and fruit as side dishes. Miracle of miracles, all 10 of the people who eat food at our house loved this. This almost never happens, but with this dish, everyone eats it happily!

 

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January 2023 Groceries and Meals We Ate

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Here’s a look at our groceries and meals we ate in January!

The first part of January is a bit of a blur and I didn’t cook much because our church family brought meals to us for over a week. Why? Because this happened:

We were blessed to welcome home a baby sibling to some of our current foster/adopted kids. This little guy is so sweet and gets at least 4,000 kisses every day.

January 2023 Groceries and Meals We Ate

With a newborn in the house, it didn’t work for me to make my normal monthly trip to Lincoln for a big grocery haul from Costco and Sam’s. So instead, I opted for two big pick-ups from Walmart. The first one was the largest I’ve ever ordered!

This order cost $750.
I got chicken, hamburger meat, ham, lunch meat, frozen hashbrowns, $150+ worth of fresh and frozen fruits and veggies, shredded cheese, cheese slices, sausage patties, salad kits for Elias and Malachi, cream, butter, sour cream, bread, buns, bagels, and chips.

I also splurged on some convenience items since Matt and I aren’t getting quite enough sleep at night right now. This has been well worth it so that when our hands are full we can have Malachi bake some pizzas or throw nuggets into the air fryer.

When I got home from the store that day, none of our big kids were available and Daddy was holding Baby, but all six of our other littles pitched in to bring in groceries and put food away. It was so cool to see them all so eager to help! Even our 1-year-old got in on the action. (I couldn’t get a good picture of all of them helping because they were all moving around and trying not to trip over bags!)

It took over an hour to put all the food away, but we sure were stocked up again!

Instead of putting away all the meat I had bought, I decided to make a few meals to try and get ahead for the next couple of weeks.

I put an entire package of chicken thighs into a big casserole dish and made Pizza Chicken (forgetting the cheese before placing the pepperoni, oops!). I put this into the fridge to bake that week. That made dinner so easy that night!

My 7-year-old helped me crack about 2 dozen eggs into baking dishes. I whipped them, then baked them in the oven for half an hour. I put cheese on top right away, which melted. Then I built 23 egg, cheese, and sausage breakfast sandwiches for our freezer. This has been awesome for early before-school breakfasts for five of our kids!

Meanwhile, instead of freezing the 5-pounds of ground beef I had brought home, I cooked it in a big pot. I packaged it up in separate containers, one for tacos later in the week, one for whatever I needed in the future (which I froze), then I added chili ingredients to the rest of the meat in the pot. We ate the Chili with grapes and strawberries for lunch after church the next day. SO EASY and nice to come home to a hot meal ready to eat.

A few nights later we baked our Pizza Chicken, which I served with broccoli, corn, strawberries, and oranges. While waiting for their plates to be fixed, six of our littles stood at the counter and finished off an entire 5-pound bag of oranges! I couldn’t keep up with slicing them! :)

One morning for breakfast, I toasted some bagels and served them with Warm Chocolate Soother. I forgot to take a picture until the kids had almost finished eating everything.

I spent a few minutes one morning slicing 3 pounds of cheese for easy snacks.

A super easy meal one night was BBQ Chicken Legs, baked potatoes, and peas. This tasted soooooo good!

All month long our family passed around a lovely variety of illnesses. One night when Malachi finally had an appetite again, I made him a plate with warmed pumpkin muffins with melted butter, a sliced apple, and a peach cup. Best thing he ever tasted, so he said. :)

I invested in a handy gadget to make our own healthier and much less-expensive Uncrustables. My daughter-in-law, Eva, spent some time helping me make a bunch for the freezer so I can pull them out for kids’ lunchboxes.

She threw all the scraps into a pyrex dish and I used them to make Easy Bread Pudding. This was so great because nothing went to waste and then I had breakfast ready to bake the next morning!


Mid-month, our kids had two snow days home from school. We took advantage by making some extra fun foods. I had some pre-made pizza crusts in the freezer, so one day I let all the kids make their own mini-pizzas.

The next day we made these Snowflake Quesadillas.

When the four littlest were napping, I trudged outside and got a big bowl full of clean snow. We made Snow Ice Cream, which was sooooo much fun because Grandma was there to join us for a few days! The littles had never tried Snow Ice Cream, and they loved it. I made a bowl for Elias and Malachi also, which was extra fun because it reminded them of their childhood days. :)

Matt and I were blessed to have a night away at a church retreat (we took Baby with us) while Grandma and big brothers/sisters-in-law and a few others came to help hold down the fort. It took a lot of effort to prepare for our get-away so I was thankful for the bag of Chili in the freezer which I thawed and warmed for a meal the night before we left.


I also put in a second Walmart pickup order for the month so everyone would have easy food to eat while we were gone.

The retreat was wonderful and everyone back home had a great time with their caretakers. We brought home a huge bag of miniature candy bars (leftover from the snack table at the retreat), so I used them up one Sunday when we served a meal to young adults at church. Candy Bar Cheesecake anyone?

Prepping for the meal was made easier because one of our daughters-in-law has been coming once a week to help me. She helped me prep three huge cheesecakes on the Friday before the Sunday meal. So thankful!

Sunday meal and fellowship, a fantastic time!

I’ve been using my crock pot more since Baby came, and Spicy Ham and Potato Soup is one of my favorite easy meals to make in the morning. It cooks itself all day and is ready to eat at night.

I had picked up a 7.5-pound pork roast that had been marked down to $1.69/pound. So I put it in the crock pot to cook one day and then shredded it to pull out and use for these meals. Have you tried this yet: Make 5 Meals with 1 Pork Roast?? I love this inexpensive meal deal!

I had also found a great mark down on ground beef so I cooked it all and made a big batch of Sloppy Joes.

Maybe I’ll never pay full price for meat again?? It’s pretty great to find these deals!

Another markdown I found was these 1/2 pound burger patties. Even with the markdown, it still felt like a splurge to buy these. So I used them to make Hamburger Steak one night with mashed potatoes and veggies. It was a higher maintenance meal (with toddlers tugging on my legs) so by the time I had the meal completed, I didn’t remember to take pictures and I was reminded why I stick to Simple Meals right now. :) :) :)

On the last Saturday of the month, I made a huge pile of pancakes and scrambled a dozen and a half eggs. I don’t make pancakes much anymore so the kids (and the hubby) were thrilled!

The Uncrustables Eva had earlier in the month made were such a hit (and so nice to have in the freezer!) that I made twenty more at the end of the month.

Therefore I had a lot of crusts again and made another Easy Bread Pudding to bake on a Sunday morning for everyone to eat before church.

It was a great month with great eats!

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Recipes I Miss Making!

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I don’t have time for this right now. But I wonder if you might? Here are some recipes I miss making!

None of these recipes is hard, which is why I felt that it was worth putting them into a list as a suggestion of recipes you might want to check out. These are some of the recipes I hope to make again once our little ones are a few years older!

Recipes I Miss

The salad dressing recipes above are sooooo much healthier than anything I can find at the store. That’s why I miss making them. I kind of just “don’t read the ingredient list” on the kind I’m buying right now, ha!

What’s fun is this:

While there are several recipes on my site that I find too complicated to ever attempt again (see that list here!), I’m looking and seeing that MOST recipes are still incredibly doable even during our busiest seasons in life!

Click on any of these links to get dozens of recipes that are easy, healthy, and fun for families!

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Meals I’m Making with my Grocery Haul

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I recently shared details about all the groceries I bought in April. Some have asked, “What meals do you make with all of these groceries?” So I decided to give you a peek into what I’ve done with all this food!

If you’d like to see more specifics about what I bought and how much I spent (oy!), you can do that here.

 

First, did you see that I bought quite a few boxes of prepared snacks at Costco and Sam’s? Yep, it’s soccer season! I used all of the following groceries for snacks either to take to the ball field or on stroller walks for the littles:

  • Granola Bites
  • Yogurt Squeezies
  • Heavenly Hunk Snacks
  • Fruit Bars
  • Gogurt
  • Applesauce Squeezies

Next, it can be assumed that all of the fresh fruits and veggies I pick up throughout the month serve as snacks between meals or as side dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Along with frozen veggies, I typically keep these on hand as much as possible:

  • Mixed Greens
  • Spinach
  • Broccoli
  • Petite Carrots
  • Blueberries
  • Strawberries
  • Clementines
  • Pears
  • Apples
  • Grapes

Now, here’s an idea of some of the meals I put together with some of groceries I bought in April:

  1. I used the canned chicken and croissants that I got at Costco to make a meal of Chicken Salad on croissants with spinach.
  2. I used the Cinnamon Streusel Bread from Costco along with eggs from our neighbor to make french toast. SOOO good.
  3. We marinated the chicken thighs in barbecue sauce, then threw the chicken on the smoker. This is one of our favorite meals!
  4. Usually, on Fridays, we make a simple meal of chicken nuggets and fries in our Air Fryer. We call this “French Fry Friday.” But I also call it “Mom’s Night Off.”
  5. We used the pizza-making-kit to have a fun pizza night. Everyone loved this!
  6. The loaves of bread I bought were used to make quick sandwiches. All of the adults in our family often need to eat on the run, so it’s good that I keep bread and lunchmeat on hand for them. Also, about once each week we make peanut butter sandwiches for lunch for the little ones.
  7. I also used a loaf of bread along with the sliced cheese to make a meal of grilled cheese sandwiches. I served it with tomato soup, which I already had on hand, and fruits and veggies.
  8. I plan to use the Tilapia for fish tacos soon!
  9. I baked the package of hamburger patties and put together burgers for all of us to eat while watching Malachi play a soccer game one evening. We went through almost the entire package of 18 burgers that night because an outing like that calls for all hands on deck!

That’s some of us at a recent soccer game. :)

Snacks I made with these groceries

  1. I used the almond butter from Costco to make two big batches of Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough Bites. I love having these on hand for the kids to eat. (I already had honey and coconut flour to use in this recipe.)
  2. I used the baking ingredients to make muffins. We eat muffins like crazy at our house, working our way through these recipes.
  3. I use all of the mixed greens and frozen fruit to make our daily smoothies. (Like this for the grown-ups. Like this for the kids.)

Justus College Graduation Party

Our Justus graduated from college at the end of April. We had a “Fire Pit Party” so much of the food I’d picked up from Costco or Sam’s was set aside for this gathering. I filled in some gaps with a last-minute Walmart pickup order.

  • Hotdogs, Brats, and Buns
  • Boxes of Individual Chips
  • Potato Salad
  • Grapes
  • Strawberries with Cream Cheese Parfait
  • Small water bottles

Stay tuned for a post coming soon that shares the cost breakdown for some of these meals!

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