Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: March 17-23, 2024 post!
Big Family Food and Fun: March 17-23, 2024
We had been gone all day the day before, so this Sunday started off with an easy breakfast of Breakfast Cookies from the freezer.
We were finally able to meet for church back in our own building after many weeks of being displaced due to a frozen pipe bursting situation. It was so good to be there! Sam’s is right on the way home so we grabbed two Rotisserie Chickens for lunch to share. (And I picked up hamburger meat while I was at it.)
I’d made sides in the morning before church so we warmed them up to eat with our Rotisserie Chicken: Cheesy Potatoes, Green Beans, Cream Cheese Corn, Baked Beans, plus Pineapple Fluff.
Our friends Kermit and Caitlyn joined us plus Justus and Kelsey and Asa and Eva came. There were 15 of us altogether. :)
Justus had picked up a turkey super cheap ($0.58/pound!!!!!) but they didn’t have freezer space so it had landed in our freezer. I had been thawing it and decided to get it baked that afternoon.
I do it this way – boring but good. :)
We had leftovers for dinner, random bits of whatever we could find in the fridge. So this freed my time to work on the turkey plus the kids helped me use over-ripe bananas to make a Banana Cake for Monday’s breakfast.
They turkey finished baking and Matt turned on an audio book to listen to while he took all the meat off the bones after the kids went to bed. My hero. :)
Meanwhile the Banana Cake had cooled and I had made a simple Cream Cheese Frosting for it and covered it to have Monday morning.
Monday morning we enjoyed pieces of Banana Cake with bacon. I made quadruple the amount of bacon we would need for that morning so that we would have extra ready for future meals that week.
Matt had saved the turkey bones for me, so I got out our huge stock pot and started a big batch of broth.
Eva arrived to help Matt so Keith and I headed off to help set up food for Tuesday’s Food Distribution. It’s always a bit hard for me to keep him focused on our work, but if I say, “Keith, will you help me take this apart?” he is ON IT.
Monday afternoon I spent some time making some Turkey Bacon Cheese Sandwiches for easy grab and warm up meals.
Elias had taken Brayden out for Bro Time and Kiya wanted to help me in the kitchen. So she put cheese on all of the sandwiches after I assembled them.
We packaged them up for the fridge or freezer, feeling great about having 25 ready-made sandwiches plus 5 wraps!
I used more of our cooked turkey plus the broth that had cooked all morning to make Turkey Noodle Soup for dinner. Oh, this is good stuff! So good that I was excited to eat it and almost forgot to take a picture until we’d already filled our bowls and worked on seconds. (By the way, I shared turkey sandwiches and cooked turkey with Justus and Kelsey since it was their bird, after all.)
Tuesday we stayed home all morning because we had a case worker visit for BabyBoy#11. (We’re working toward adoption!!!!!)
After getting Keith and Anna on the bus for their afternoon preschool, Matt stayed home to put the baby down for his nap and I took Acacia and Josie to Walmart to pick up a lot of our WIC items for the month. This gave Matt an hour and a half of quiet time to get some work done and it gave the girls and I a little outing plus restocked our fruit and veggie supply. :)
We got home in time to put groceries away. Then I left to pick up Brayden and Kiya from school so that we could head over to our Food Distribution to hand out food to the community. We came home with some too:
Remember the van door debacle from last week? The parts came in and Matt was able to get us all fixed up with a working door again. PHEW. That is a relief and now no children are allowed to touch the new door handle. ;) Isn’t she beautiful?
I had put Baked Potatoes into the crock pot to cook all day so we had them for dinner with leftover Rotisserie Chicken from Sunday and cheese dip.
A friend of ours is the principal at Lincoln High School and Matt had been talking to him about trying to watch at least one of their home soccer games. The weather was just right for this so after we fed the kids we loaded everyone up and headed over. We found a perfect spot on the “non-fan” side where we could climb all over the bleachers and not drive everyone crazy.
I sent this photo of the game field to Malachi who had played both teams last year during his senior year of high school soccer. :)
We got home just in time to brush teeth and tuck everyone into bed so Wednesday morning we had a simple breakfast of cereal so that we had more time to clean up and get ready for school.
After Brayden and Kiya got off, we got the other five ready and went to the indoor play area at the Zoo.
The snacks I packed turned into the kids’ lunch because they just kept eating and eating. We had cheese and crackers, applesauce, fruit/veggie pouches, and juice.
Then Anna, who was being very sweet and grown up that morning, took out the clementine she had packed. She peeled it all by herself and enjoyed her dessert.
Subjects not covered and photos not taken to share with you here: One major preschooler fit as we were trying to get out the door to go to the zoo, one baby puking on the zoo indoor play place floor, and one major toddler fit all the out of the zoo and all the way back home. BUT, these outings are super fun and super worth all the effort to get there and get back home. Truly. :)
Back at home, we got Keith and Anna on the bus for preschool then Acacia and Josie went outside to enjoy the sunshine.
Acacia: “I a Mommy!!”
Josie: “I digging! I outside! I not inside. I outside.” :)
Malachi stopped by that afternoon to pick up some of his mail and Acacia promptly put on his shades. :) Note the little sleeping blob on the bean bag beside Acacia. That’s Josie. She “doesn’t need a nap anymore.” Okedokee.
When Brayden and Kiya got home from school, Elias took Brayden out for some Bro Time. (They go out twice each week so Elias can pour into him.) Kiya and Acacia helped me in the kitchen, cleaning out a dishwasher all by themselves. :)
Meanwhile, Josie was making BabyBoy#11 belly laugh with her games.
For dinner that evening, we pulled out leftovers to eat so that nothing went to waste in our fridge. Kiya made a package of Caesar salad to go with our meal.
We finished off the Taco Rice Dinner that I’d made last week – eating it as a dip with chips. Plus we had Kiya’s salad and leftover green beans.
The next morning we got out pre-made Breakfast Sandwiches and Pancake Sausage Muffins for everyone to warm up in the air fryer.
This particular day turned out to be quite amazing for me. We had made arrangements with a dear friend/babysitter in York for Matt to drop off our three youngest with her while he worked on one of our properties for a few hours. That left me at home with only four kids – and part of the day they were all in school. So I had three and a half hours of COMPLETE QUIET TIME in our house that afternoon. Oh, it was life giving and wonderful! And our little ones loved their time with their precious Emma!
I decided to grill burgers for dinner that night because the weather was lovely and because as meal-prep time, I didn’t have any littles underfoot. We had our Burgers with Tator Tots, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, and Pickles.
We decided to go to Costco on Friday morning to grab diapers and ended up turning it into a big stock-up trip. I’d been trying to focus on using up what we had in the pantry and freezers but getting restocked on all of our basics brought a lot of relief to me that day so that meal planning and prep will be easier.
I’d had a first breakfast around 5:30am and a second breakfast around 7:30 but those were small “meals” so by the time we loaded up at 10:00 I was ready for my first lunch, ha. I grabbed the one leftover burger from the night before, chopped it up, and warmed it up with leftover corn to eat on the way to the store. Weird? Sure maybe. But it hit the spot and kept me going!
Matt ended up with four of the five kids in and on his cart on the way in. Anna hung with me until we redistributed kids in our two carts for the actual shopping time.
We got a variety of random items from crackers to berries to applesauce to chicken and hamburger. We got avocado cups, cream, half and half, coffee, sliced cheese, shredded cheese, pistachios, chicken nuggets, and several items we use that were on sale. I love watching the end caps of each aisle to see what is featured at a big discount! (Matt’s cart was full of two more kids, diapers, water bottles, and chips.
We got to enjoy some free samples, the likes of which made a sweet chocolate mess all over Acacia’s face.
We made it home in time to get Keith and Anna on the preschool bus then Elias and Matt brought in all the groceries with Acacia and Josie trying to help them bring in huge, heavy boxes. :)
I dropped off Acacia and Josie to spend time with a friend from church who watches them for two hours each week. They love going there and always have fun adventures. :)
Matt picked them up and brought them home. Again we see evidence that Josie doesn’t need a nap anymore. ;)
For dinner that night we had Orange Chicken with Rice and Spinach. This is one of our favorite splurge meals from Sam’s. We go through two boxes in one meal, which costs $25.96 – much more than our typical homemade meals. But this fed 5 adults and 6 kids on Friday night, which breaks down to $2.36 per person. MUCH cheaper than ordering take-out!
We were able to find the Husker men’s basketball game and watched it, sort of, between chasing kids and changing poop diapers. ;)
Saturday morning I made 15 Scrambled Eggs and cut up leftover Baked Potatoes from Tuesday night. I fried the potatoes in butter with salt and pulled apart several Clementines for us to eat.
After breakfast we loaded up to go to York just like we did last Saturday. We had been invited to a birthday party so we worked out details for Asa and Eva to help us spend the day there (they were already in York for a photo shoot).
I packed up a big bag full of extra “just-in-case” clothes, diapers, wipes, and snacks.
Matt and Asa spent four hours at our rental house working on repairs while Eva hung with the kids and me, first at a Carnival and then at a Birthday Party. We saw so many York friends that day!!
We got home in time to make Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup for dinner.
Then we got all seven kids through bath time.
And that was our week!