7 Days of Supper Menus

With my older boys home (and the leaf back in our dining room table), meal prep has recently become even more of a focus for me than it was before. Also, Katie, who had been helping me with supper prep, is now away most evenings putting her cooking skills to work elsewhere, so I’m back to being the main cook again.

Here’s what we’ve been eating for our main meal each day, for the past week. All of these are tried and true crowd pleasers at our house. Feeding a family is such a big job, and it never ends. I hope this post (lacking in photos, but not in links and recipes) will give you some new ideas.

Friday: Summer Salad, Homemade breadsticks, Snickerdoodles
A summer salad is basically a chef salad made on a platter.

How I make a Summer Salad: I use a circular platter like a pizza pan. First I make a bed of lettuce, and then on top of that I start making rings of various toppings. I always boil eggs earlier in the day so they are ready to go as a topping. Some kind of meat topping is a must when feeding growing boys. Chopped chicken or ham are a good choice, or baby shrimp as a special treat. Other topping possibilities include: chopped tomatoes, celery, sweet peppers, carrots, nuts such as sliced almonds, cranberries, cheese, croutons or crushed buttery crackers. It looks so pretty when it’s finished!

Katie made the Snickerdoodles and they were exelente!

Continue reading “7 Days of Supper Menus”

I don’t mean to disagree with my husband

Steve said these are arrows, not dominoes.

At Joshua’s high school graduation, as I envisioned each child reaching this same milestone in quick succession, I remarked that the “dominoes were beginning to fall.” Steve replied, “Not dominoes. Arrows. Today the arrows are beginning to fly!”

edit4I know he’s right, of course. They ARE arrows and it’s super exciting to watch them fly.

But I have to be honest, it sure does seem like dominoes at times. All of a sudden, I find myself looking around and thinking, “Where is everyone? Is this everyone I’m supposed to have?” Continue reading “I don’t mean to disagree with my husband”

Sanity Saver: 15 Minutes in the Kitchen

The number one sanity saver I have discovered, over my years of trial and error in attempting to raise my crew, is 15 Minutes in the Kitchen.

Raising lots of hungry kids and feeding them three meals a day (and snacks in between), along with all the necessary meal preparations, adds up to one incessantly dirty kitchen. Well, maybe not incessantly dirty, because there are those brief interludes in between the kitchen being cleaned up and somebody being in need of more food. Mama’s kitchen isn’t supposed to be a full-time restaurant, but it does feel that way at times. kitchen7I’ve tried various tactics over the years in trying to keep up with the endless kitchen duties. Continue reading “Sanity Saver: 15 Minutes in the Kitchen”

Photo Post: Family Outing to Fugate Woods

Being in a new area of the country means finding new places to explore! We all piled in the van recently to venture out to Fugate Woods. So often in life, simple things bring the most joy.

The photographers happily photographed whatever struck their fancy, the little ones happily ran and climbed, Micah happily hummed a tune, Steve patiently (and happily) pushed the stroller the whole way, and we all hungrily devoured a watermelon at a clearing while the boys tossed a football. The happiness was marred only by a gnat getting in Olivia’s eye and a frog getting in my shoe. Continue reading “Photo Post: Family Outing to Fugate Woods”

Singing in the mountains of North Carolina (our second family song video!)

Attempting to film a family song video while we were on a family hike in the mountains of North Carolina ended up being a fairly big and fairly hilarious undertaking. But we’re glad we did. In a large family, things usually can’t get much more chaotic than they already are… so sometimes you end up trying things that seem a little crazy and you just figure, “Why not?” Continue reading “Singing in the mountains of North Carolina (our second family song video!)”