Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: April 7-13, 2024 post! Big Family Food and Fun: April 7-13, 2024 We planned to stay after church on Sunday to enjoy a Focus Group meeting as our church family prayerfully considers our mission and vision and how to grow faithfully in the direction God wants us to grow. After the meeting, Keith had a soccer game. So we needed to pack a lunch, snacks, soccer gear, jackets, and oh yeah, don’t forget to pack the kids. :) The day before, I had put together a 10″x15″ casserole dish full of  Simple Egg Casserole so that I could easily slide it into the oven t ..read more

Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: March 31-April 6, 2024 post! Big Family Food and Fun: March 31-April 6, 2024 Easter Sunday was a perfect way to start a new week, being surrounded by our church family all morning and then continuing our celebration all afternoon at our house. If you recall, last week the kids had made cookies and we packaged them up to hand out on Sunday morning before worship. Here’s Keith handing a cookie to some men at church. :) The time of worship, celebrating Jesus’ victory over death, was powerful that morning. It was such a gift to be all together that day! And ye ..read more

Curious how much it cost to feed 13 people every day last month? Here’s our Big Family Grocery Spending for March 2024 post! Big Family Grocery Spending for March 2024 Here are the details to share where we shopped, what we bought, and how much we spent on food during the month of March! 1. Super Saver The very first day of the month, we went to Super Saver (a store we hadn’t tried out yet) to take advantage of their Mega Meat Sale. We got pork loin for just $1.58/pound, pork roast for only $1.18/pound, pork steak for $1.78/pound, plus hamburger meat marked down that ended up being $2.20/poun ..read more

Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: March 24-30, 2024 post! Big Family Food and Fun: March 24-30, 2024 Keith has been counting down the days for his very first soccer game! Sunday afternoon was the big day, and he had his cleats and shin guards ready. :) The game location is closer to church than home, so we decided to pack lunch to eat at the church building and then go to the game from there. I made a crock pot full of Pasta with Red Sauce, a crock pot full of Smoked Sausage cut into pieces, a small crock pot filled with Costco Meatballs, a container of Carrots and Cucumbers, 4-Pounds of Cu ..read more

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 war ..read more

Get ready to put some Make-Ahead Chicken Bacon Sandwiches into your fridge or freezer for easy meals! Last week, Justus had brought over a turkey he’d picked up for super cheap but didn’t have freezer space for storage. Freezer space or not, it’s hard to pass up meat for $0.58/pound!! I decided to get it baked and out of the way. Matt spent some time getting all the meat off the bone after we got the kids to bed, and the next day I woke up to a huge pan of cooked turkey and a bag of bones to make broth. How many meals can we get with Justus’ $8.75 investment? SO.MANY.MEALS. I bagged up and ..read more

Here’s our Big Family Food and Fun: March 10-16, 2024 post! Big Family Food and Fun: March 10-16, 2024 Our friends, the Brock family, had been staying at our house all weekend for a Homeschool Speech and Debate Tournament and we got to enjoy Sunday morning with them before they headed back home. They were exhausted from their very full weekend so we didn’t rush around but instead sat and enjoyed downtime together. (Well, as much downtime as we could have with our seven littles and their six kids, ha.) I made pan after pan of Sam’s bacon for breakfast plus cut up 4-pounds of strawberries, whi ..read more

You’ll love these Pancake Sausage Muffins for a quick grab and go breakfast option! Yum You may recall my original recipe for these posted way back in 2010. Goodness, a lot of life has happened since then! Fourteen years, seven more kids, and two daughters-in-law later, I’m re-sharing this recipe with a slight improvement to make these muffins 100% transportable without any mess. Instead of sitting at a table and drizzling maple syrup on top of these muffins, we are adding the syrup into the muffin before baking. Now it’s all ready to go on the way to work or school or on a trip – witho ..read more

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. Inst ..read more

I’m hoping you’ll take time to help me with grocery cost comparisons? When I wrote this post to share about grocery costs that I’ve discovered that have NOT increased, some of your comments got me to thinking: What does inflation look like across the U.S.? Obviously I only know how it is affecting us here in Lincoln, Nebraska. Will You Help Me with Grocery Cost Comparisons? I know for sure that what I experience may not be what you are experiencing. So if you don’t mind taking some time to answer a few questions, I think we would all benefit. My goal is to always be helpful. I think I can be ..read more