Homemaker Archives - Page 31 of 42

Recovery?

March 27, 2012 by Jules 4 Comments

This past week Matt and I took some of our Relentless students to St Louis on a
Spring Break trip while our children had a 5 day sleepover at their Nanna's house.

Limbo doesn't even begin to explain where I'm at right now. Our family is not playing a simple game of see who can keep their balance while crawling under a pole. No, we have been on a full-blown roller coaster with an end beyond the horizon filled with flips, tight turns, giant loops, and hills that take your stomach away and force out feelings you didn't know you had. All this since October of 2011. Going and going and going...

Preparing to travel. Traveling. Preparing kids to be away from home. Readjusting to being home. Preparing to travel again. And the cycle starts over.

Where is the recovery in this cycle?

We're all running in circles.

Where is the rest?

We're all tired and sick.

Where is the peace?

We're all on edge; our bodies sore with stress.

Our poor home has felt the wake of this coaster. It's winds blowing through reeking havoc in every corner of clutter. Filling trash cans with debris. Tearing our home to pieces, literally.

We need time to stretch the aches out of our inner most muscles. Time to rest our eyes not just in sleep but from the hustle and bustle of looking for what's next. Time to regroup, reorganize, clear out, clean up, settle down, have a seat, Enjoy one another.

I'm ready for a smaller house. A smaller yard. Less maintenance. Less responsibility. I want a to-do list diet: fewer things on my plate that are making me chubby with anxiety.

I'm ready for routine. I'm ready for predictable. Not just knowing about the millions of things that are filling up our calendar but a standard. I'm ready for almost dull, monotonous, SLOW way of life.

I'm trying to find peace and enjoy this stage. I don't wanna miss life as we are traveling through it. I'm so glad I have my camera back so I can remember to stop and capture each moment. Not only to remember it later but to notice it now.

I know God did not build us to run as fast as the machines we've created. I want to get back to the pace of the garden. Walking in the cool of the evening! Chatting with our maker. awe...

Filed Under: Being a Help-Meet, Homemaker, Parenting, The Ones about Jules Life {Randomness}, The ones about the Rothacher Home Tagged With: house keeping, life in limbo, organization, peace, roller coaster, travel

“Oh, you can make milkshakes out of icecream?” {Thoughtful Thursday Link-Up}

March 15, 2012 by Jules 4 Comments

That's right. I'm slack'n and didn't get the Thoughtful Thursday link up ready to go before 9pm. But here it is!

After dinner one night my girls were so excited to tell their daddy they were getting "SHACKS" for dessert! My husband came to me wondering where I was going to pick up shacks for them and when I told him I was making them he said, "Oh, you can make milkshakes out of icecream?"

Uummm, yeah! Duh. hehehe

Desired amount of icecream, any added flavoring you want, blend, pour, slurp!
I also like to put plain yogurt and frozen fruit in a blender and calling it a "shake"! My girls LOVE it and think it's the best snack/dessert Ever ;o)

I'm sure you have some way more Thoughtful things to share. Link'm Up below! {open 'til next Wednesday}

Filed Under: Baking and Cooking, Being a Help-Meet, Hand-Dandies, Homemaker, Parenting, The Ones about Link-Ups, The Ones about Post Series, The ones about the Rothacher Home, Thoughtful Thursdays Tagged With: homemade shake, icecream, link up, milkshake

Micro Cooker {Thoughtful Thursday Link-Up}

March 8, 2012 by Jules 3 Comments

Another must is my Pampered Chef Large Micro Cooker for Microwave. I think you're supposed to use it for rice, veggies, etc but we brown our ground beef in it. Score! Brown 1 lb beef with no grease burns in a quick ~5min! (then chop it with the mix-n-chop, wink wink)

I have since bought one of each of these pampered chef tools off eBay for my mom. Love'em
I should sell these babies ;o)

Revive Frost-bit Chicken
Brown Ground Beef {for stew} & break apart using pampered chef chop-n-mix

*Note: I am not being paid for these recommendations/reviews but if you know how I can- bring it!

Do you have any gadgets that have made your life in the kitchen easier? Please share a link in the comment section below! {sorry, link-up messed up}

Filed Under: Baking and Cooking, The Ones about Link-Ups, The Ones about Post Series, Thoughtful Thursdays Tagged With: cooking, ground beef, pampered chef, weekly

Goodwill find!

February 28, 2012 by Jules 2 Comments

I love the goodwill!

This past month I had the weird opportunity to go overnight to stay with my parents and see a friend all by myself. It was super weird and if your a mom you know what I'm talking about. Relaxing, healthy, but...weird!

Anyways. While I was there my mom and I got to fart around a little, run some errands, and check out the new, GIANT Goodwill in my hometown. I found these:

SCORE!!!

I'm been looking, pricing, and watching for 'preschool' chairs to go with my kids table we got serveral months ago. If you don't know anything about these they normally run anywhere from $15.00 for used and as high as $30.00 brand new. I found these for $20.00 - for the SET OF 4!!! That's $5.00 a chair! They in perfectly usable shape just a little ... loved on. I decided I'd try and paint them. I'd been looking for multiple colors so they would go with our 'theme' in the playroom. The hope of having a couple chairs that were primary colored (blue, yellow, red) and a couple that where secondary colored (orange, green, purple) made the hunt even harder/more expensive.

I found this Krylon paint at Wal-Mart for ~$4.00 each. I only found 2 that were "Fusion for Plastic" so I got those and then thought I'd try the normal stuff since I hadn't found all the colors I wanted in the plastic type. And I already owned the black attachment on top of the orange can. I highly recommend this tool if you plan to do lots of spray painting projects! I helps keep your hands (fingers) clean, keeps an even spray, and your fingers don't hurt afterward from pressing down so hard.

I laid out a very used drop clothe on my driveway while my kiddos played in the yard. I cleaned them all up with multipurpose cleaner, warm wet rag, and a magic eraser (LIFE SAVOR- everyone who has kids should have some- cheap brand works just as good) if necessary.

After srubbing them all down and make sure they were completely dry I fliped them all upside down and spread them out so the different colors wouldn't blow on the chair next them. I started on the bottom so I'd feel free to use the rest of the can on the seat and back parts that would actually show!

I started with the orange and was super disappointed in how it looked...spray painted.

I did as well as I could and then moved onto the green "Fusion for Plastic" to see if it looked any better before I completely gave up. YEP! There's a reason they made special paint for plastic. The green looked GREAT! Only wasted 1/2 can... I took the other non-plastic specific paint back and searched at other Wal-Marts near us for the other colors. I found 5 of the 6 colors I wanted in the 3 different stores. Well worth it and I didn't make extra trips, I only went to ones I was already near for other errands I was running.