Surviving a Sudden Side Job

August 19, 2014 by Jules Leave a Comment

I'm excited to announce that the Homemaker's Challenge is switching things up from now on! Rather than themes for each month, we are moving to a "collum" based contributor site where each writer will share out their wheel-base. I bet none of you will ever guess what my collunm will be about! {sarcasm} Life with Lots of Littles! So, for all my mamma friends with a load of lots of littles, the 3rd Tuesday of every month, I'm hear to talk straight to YOU! This months:

When you are raising lots of littles, finding "spare time" to have an extra side job to meet financial goals can be tough. Today I am sharing from my failed attempt at this. Here are my 7 tips for Surviving a Sudden Side Job with Lots of Littles.

Filed Under: Homemaker, Parenting, Projects, The Ones about Homemaker's Challenge, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Preparing Food for Maternity Leave

July 8, 2014 by Jules Leave a Comment

Back in December, Elizabeth Ree, my fourth child was born via c-section with my older three all being under 5 and 1/2 years old. I knew my church family was planning to try and help with meals during this time of recovery and transition in our home but with it being directly between two major holidays, I didn't want feeding my family to be the responsibility of anyone else.

Preparing Food for Maternity Leave

{or any other cooking hiatus like Summer Time!}

I decided to spend about two days cooking, cooking, and cooking some more. After friends brought us some meals, and the freezer was empty, it was March. That's right, other than weekly milk runs, we didn't have to grocery shop or do major meal prep for two and a half months.

I'm sharing how I prepared food for my "maternity leave" over at the Homemaker's Challenge today is ya wanna read. 😀

Filed Under: Baking and Cooking, Homemaker, Organizing, The Ones about Homemaker's Challenge, The ones about the Rothacher Home

3 Practical Ways to Mobilize Aid After a Natural Disaster

June 26, 2014 by Jules Leave a Comment

Our community was recently smacked by a tornado. You might have heard about a couple little towns in the center of Arkansas, Mayflower and Vilonia? Yeah, that's us. Some of you reading this probably live in around our communities.

3 years ago, a massive but still smaller than this year's, tornado took nearly the same path through Vilonia.

As I tried to sift through the remains of my friends' home all I could think was, "How do these people know what to do? How do they know how to clean up rubble?"

After finally braving the question, I learned a few practical thing that I think might be helpful for others trying to come to the aid of those who have survived a disaster like this. I shared these three simple helps over at the Homemaker's Challenge Wednesday if ya wanna test'm out.

Filed Under: The Ones about Homemaker's Challenge, The Ones about The Valley Church

Easter Neighbor Gifts {Thoughtful Thursday}

April 17, 2014 by Jules 2 Comments

If you've been here any time at all, you know we LOVE a good excuse to do something fun for our neighbors.

This week, my kids were wanting to make "Easter baskets". I'd already been considering making something to celebrate summer for the neighbor kids around us who are almost out for break. With summer for school-aged kids still over a month away, we thought we'd try to do both mixed together.

Contents we used:

from the Dollar Tree

bucket and shovel
germX {pack of 3 Christmas themed- I pulled off the winter-esk sticker}
jump rope
sunglasses

from home {originally mostly from Wal-Mart}

sidewalk chalk in a large box
little bubbles that came in a pack of 8
assorted Easter grass
See Jane Work labels {on wicked sale at Office Depot}
blank note cards
post card invites to your Church's Easter service
pipe cleaners and rubber bands {we used the rubber bands to told the 7 pieces of chalk together in the shape of a flower and then made lil leaves around it}

How-to Make:

collect bucket and gift items
add grass to the bottom making it about 1/2 full
place larger items in 1st
mix in smaller items {dividing like colors from one another}
*we color coordinated each bucket using ~2 colors for fun
green and pink and purple and yellow for the neighbor girls and orange/red and blue for the boy
create label {print our FREE LABEL here} using Avery Label Template 5450 in Word
color in lettering for extra fun {sharpies worked the best without smearing the print}
cover original cheap sticker on the bucket that wouldn't com off with new label
write a cute little note about Easter linking items in the bucket {or print our cheesy FREE NOTE here}

I wrote out the note in yellow marker in a card and let my almost 6-year-old trace it {so it would all fit in the little cards we had}
throw in a postcard invite to your church's Easter service hand-deliver with smiles 😀

Happy Easter!!!

Filed Under: Holidays, Homemaker, Parenting, Projects, The ones about the Rothacher Home, Thoughtful Thursdays

Double Your Juice and Prevent Cavities {Thoughtful Thursday}

April 10, 2014 by Jules Leave a Comment

I have always heard you should dilute your kids juice to reduce the amount of sugar they're getting. Even all natural 100% fruit juice has lots of natural sugar that isn't good for their diet or their teeth. Since the first time my oldest had juice, we always done 50/50 water and juice. Starting them this way has always guaranteed they didn't know the difference. When my daughter had non-diluted juice for the first time she hated it and told me it was "spicy". On the other hand, the first time my niece had our diluted juice she was concerned and told me "Uhh, Aunt Julie. You juice has lost its flavor." LOL

Not only is this healthier for them but it double the juice and saves money! I use the large jugs to fill 1/2 way with water and then, most of the time, I combine different flavor juices to fill it the rest of the way. Turn

Having always done this as well as fed them healthy diets and assisted them in brushing their teeth daily, I took my kids' for their first dentist visit feeling pretty confident about the condition of their teeth. Boy did I leave mortified. After the dentist let me know my 1st and 3rd had an embarrassing number of cavities and my 2nd had none, I talked with the dental hygienist for a long time trying to determine what made the difference. The conclusion?

Chugger vs Sippers

Yep, I always thought it was a good thing that my 1st and 3rd would slowly sip their drink throughout the day and it drove me nuts that my 2nd would chug the beverage like it was going out of style. Now, if you already knew this, please don't leave "duh" comments. I had never been told this and maybe someone else hasn't either.

Sipping on {even diluted} juice slowly throughout the day keeps a constant film of sugar on your teeth. Chugging it allows your natural saliva to "wash" off that film even if you're not brushing after each drink.

The new rule in our house is: the kids are allowed Milk and Juice at meal time only and they can drink as much Water as they want the rest of the day from the fridge door and are allowed to get themselves in their cool new {dollar spot} water bottles.

I am one of those parents who still has all of her children using sippy cups/lidded cups to cut down on the clean up during the day. I found these awesome water bottles in the Target dollar spot. I took Maggie to pick one as a reward for doing so well while they filled her first cavities and then Jamin. Izzie got to choose one as a reward for having NO cavities. Then the larger ones we got for my niece, nephew for a week with us during spring break.

The great thing about these water bottles are:

They are simple for them to pull the lid off to fill but easy to put back on to avoid spills.
They can tote them anywhere.
If they get left in get left in the car, there isn't soured juice or spoiled milk to stink up the car.
If they get messed up or lost, they only cost $1 each.

Do your kids love juice? Are they chuggers or sippers?