A Year {and a few days} After The Storm

May 1, 2015 by Jules Leave a Comment

No matter how much our town would like to NOT be known for last years tornado, it's now a part of our story and will forever define all of us in some way.

The valley {our church plant} lost our rented facility to the storm making it that much harder to ignore the fact that we will forever be changed do to a natural disaster. We've hopped from place to place, have exhausted members by working them to the bones, learned people's true heart and passion, and have most importantly Seen Christ. We've seen His heart and passion. We've seen His presence or absence in people when hard things hit and work gets hard. We've seen His spirit in every dwelling the Church has gathered, reaffirming that the Church is not a building!

There's enough tragedy and struggles experienced this past year we could fill an entire book but rather than focus on the spiritual warfare, I want to focus on the places God's brought us through them:

Play Place
free childcare for those parents working or volunteering after the storm
Service on the Slab
praising Jesus for his sovereignty
Mom's Night Out
stress relief for moms after the storm
Survived Super Summer
our middle-middle child got to experience a 1st for our family with her broken arm {it was mostly fun}
Adopted a Dog
Lulu the {almost 2-year-old} registered English Bulldog became part of our family
First Family Vacation
water park and tons of free attractions in Bran son MO
Baby Dedication
ELLIE! got to be the 1st baby dedicated at the valley church
Started Our Families Foster/Adoption Journey
we've started the process of opening our home for foster care through the CALL ministry and DHS
Hosted our 2nd Annal Kids' Valentine's Day PARTY
Baptism
Maggie has discovered what being a Christ-follower looks like for a year and announced this decision in baptism
Bought Land and Sent a Former Intern to the Ukraine Mission Field {short-term}
financially these were the biggest outcomes of people's generosity after the storm that we never saw coming

I feel like the two biggest things that have happened over this past year are the strides in our community and neighbor love'n breakthroughs we've had.

After nearly 2 years in our community I feel like we've finally made some big strides in getting to minister in and with our community included but not limited to helping with the big KaBoom! Playground and cook out to celebrate the park. Those in the community are starting to recognize our name which is NOT the cool part but because they know us more, they are more likely to call upon us to help in needed areas. We are here to serve and are finally feeling like we're getting that opportunity.

We have also been plugging away at loving our neighbors all the while hoping they don't think we're crazy. Our most resent cook outs {just here in our neighborhood/our front yard} have allowed us to meet at least 2 more families. Just living outside our home on purpose has let us get to know our neighbors so much better which means they can know and trust us more which means we can love them in bigger ways. It's a beautiful circle! I truly believe its impossible, or at least much harder not to hate that which you know so well. Ignorance leads to hate; hate leads to avoidance, avoidance leads to ignorance. NOT a beautiful circle. Take the time to trudge away beginning the simple circle Jesus has called us each to, right were you are today.

Live, Learn, Serve Here, Go There in LOVE.

Filed Under: Foster Care and Adoption, Parenting, The DeChurched, The ones about the Rothacher Home, The Ones about The Valley Church

#mommied Monday: Pulling Weeds

April 22, 2015 by Jules Leave a Comment

In honor of Mother's Day coming up, I'm going to be sharing stories {possibly weekly} that makes ya wanna say, "BOOM! You just got Mommied!" because it is a super power Often we feel like we just got owned by our children in the small battles so we need some encouragement when we don't lose!

We have these awesome flowerbeds all around our house! The women who lived her for the 5 years before us was the sweetest, retired, green-thumb with an eye for the adorable. One of the biggest attractions was the curb appeal. I quickly apologized to all the neighbors we met and confessed that the gorgeous front lawn would quickly fade because "I had a lot of humans in our house to feed, water, and keep alive" so the plants wouldn't be a priority, sadly.

Sure enough, last summer, lots of plants were scorched and I chose to dig up 1/2 of the awesomeness to extend our front porch for more seating and hopefully lots more missional living. I ~~hacked down~~ trimmed things back appropriately as the kids have gotten a bit bigger but failed to purchase the vast amount of mulch we need to replenish the beds and keep more of the weeds at bay.

All that leads to the flourishing, weedy, front flower bed. Yeah, it's been oozing with grass and plants that weren't there when we moved here so I'm assuming they're not supposed to be. I announced to the kids they could go in the FRONT YARD and play one afternoon with their neighbor friends {always a win} but only after they each produced 5 bucket-fulls of weeks.

To sweeten the deal, I encouraged them to use their new gardening gloves each of them got in their unEaster Baskets along with their new buckets. THEN I added that they would be earning an entire QUARTER for their hard work {a nickle a bucket} and if they wanted to earn more nickles when they'd finished their 5-manditory ones, they could. Izzie knocked hers out and was knocking on neighbor-friends' doors in no time. Mags was a little more particular about which weeds she wanted to stuff into her bucket. And Jamin...Jamin loathes manual labor and suffered through 2 buckets until I started chopping away at things and told him he was allowed to stuff his bucket with my clippings {saving him the "pulling" part of the job}.

#boom #mommied Happy Monday All. Winning...one morning at a time.

I would LUUUUUUVE if you would share your #mommied stories with us on the as Jules is going facebook page or find me on Instagram to share awesome documentation of your #mommied moment! Don't forget to use the hashtag so we can all find it. Maybe by the time Mother's Day gets here we will all feel the true power God has given us as mommies to train up His lil blessings.

Filed Under: #mommied, as Jules is living, Homeschool, Parenting, The ones about the Rothacher Home

YOU Can Help KaBoom! Vilonia

April 2, 2015 by Jules 2 Comments

Thank you so much for loving us! I know many of you feel we've forgotten about your humble offerings to help but We Have Not! It takes time to pull a community back together after something like this or to even assess needs so thank you to those still waiting in the wings to jump right in when called upon!

A need has arisen and we need Your Help!

Vilonia Is Getting a PUBLIC PARK/PLAYGROUND on April 18th, 2015!
We're talking "Extreme Park Makeover Show" is going down in our town and you can be a part of it!

This is something I've been passionate about since we moved her and I'm so excited to see how God has chosen to let that happen. The local schools have awesome playgrounds that are open to the public but that's only when the schools themselves aren't using them. Totally understandable but as a homeschool mom with lots of littles, I'd love a place to get my kids out of the house for some great educational outdoor playing, meet friends for a picnic, or just get the wiggles out. And now its happening and I didn't do any footwork. hehe

A group called KaBOOM! will be assisting our community in building an amazing playground, funded by Kimberly-Clark, in the same space that last years tornado destroyed the former baseball fields and tiny playground equipment.

Thus far, the professionalism of this group is top notch! Maggie was selected as on of 35 out of 300+ students to be a part of the Design Day and therefore I get to be a part of the adult planning team. eeek!

The night of the Design Day meeting, the kids sat around and dreamed up their ideas for the perfect park. They chatted with news reporters and colored inspirational drawings. Maggie, in preparation for the meeting, drew no fewer than 30 ideas in a notebook to share with the group {she didn't really know how this was going down} so she copied as many of those down onto her giant paper as she could. She ask friends prior to the day what ideas they has so she could share them as well. <3 That child!
After the kids finished up, the parents compiled their ideas, looked through the gazillion options KaBoom! had for equipment and even down to the colors tried to plan a park of our kids dreams.

{just an example of the possibilities}

Right now, we are currently in the 6 weeks of planning between Design Day and BUILD DAY. There are tons of details for our town to work through and figure out. There are many things I'm attempting to help but with but the main ones I'm focusing on right now that I need YOUR help with are:

How YOU Can Help!

We are collecting toilet paper cardboard rolls! You know, the inside thing you throw away or make pretend binoculars out of and then throw away. Yeah, we are collecting those for a fun project since our playground is being funded by the Kimberly-Clark's "Tube-Free" Scott toilet paper campaign. Don't toss'm. Bring them to ME 😀
We need tools! THIS is the list of tools needs and if you have 1 or 5 of those items, we would LOVE to borrow them for 3 days {prep day 1 and 2, and some of them for build day} but better yet, if you have connections with a hardware store that could donate or loan a giant number of them at once, that would be Even better!
We need YOU! There are so many ways we need you but we definitely need committed hands to show up on BUILD DAY, April 18th, from 8am until about 3pm right here in Vilonia {I'll get ya directions 😉 } We need help ranging from helping play with small children, moving mulch, drilling equipment together, serving food, registering the volunteers as they come in, and to I'm sure I missed something else. This would be great for a short mission trip or youth event. Signing up your Group to help would be a guaranteed fun day they'd remember forever. The Valley will use heading up a Serve Here day with our crew!
Here is the Link to sign up online or you can print this Reigstration Form for Vilonia KaBoom! Park Build Day for large groups and then input them each. 😀

If you have any questions or have another possible way you'd like to help, hit me up! Thanks in advance!!! This is going to be so fun.

Filed Under: Cool Ministries, Homeschool, Parenting, The ones about the Rothacher Home, The Ones about The Valley Church

#mommied Monday: Playroom Cleaning

March 9, 2015 by Jules 2 Comments

My kids had a neighbor friend over to play after dinner and when she left we told them it was time to clean up. The complaints started and we reminded them that we serve our friends by cleaning up after them and we show gratitude by taking care of our things {ie Clean Ya Junk Up}.

Matt was heading out for a run so we set a timer for the time he would be gone and explained that whatever they didn't have cleaned up by the time he was home for baths they would be grounded from.

More than 1/2 way through their timer Mags runs out to check the clock only to run back into the playroom yelling, "Guys! We have time. We might not get grounded from anything. If you help Jamin do his job and I grab the extra stuff we won't get grounded from ANYthing!" Izzie responded excitedly, "Uh, you help Jamin and I'll grab all the extra stuff."

BOOM! #mommied

Filed Under: #mommied, as Jules is living, Parenting, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Why Would I Talk about My Depression?

February 18, 2015 by Jules 2 Comments

Because God uses story to binds us, His most priced creation.

I remember fretting over whether or not to publish my story, the beginning of my journey living with depression. I worried I was slipping further and further away and all I need to do was get closer to Jesus. The Christian world doesn't talk about "mental health." Even the few people in my past that I knew dealt with or had dealt with anything of the sort acted as though satan had taken a hold in their lives and then Jesus delivered them from it, leaving me feeling, once again, like a faithless Christ-follower. An imposter. The others dealing with this just didn't talk about it. Some didn't deal with it. If there was family history, you just brushed it behind that giant neon green elephant in the room and acted like it wasn't apart of who they were, where they'd been, or even what they were living in at the moment.

Depression is:
a mental condition characterized by feelings of severe despondency and dejection, typically also with feelings of inadequacy and guilt, often accompanied by lack of energy and disturbance of appetite and sleep. Synonyms: unhappy, sadness, melancholy, misery, sorrow, woe, gloom, low spirits, heavy heart, despair, hopelessness, etc

The Main Causes of Depression:

There are lots of things that can increase the chance of depression, these are just some of those:

Abuse
Certain medications
Conflict
Death or a loss
Genetics
Major events
Other personal problems
Serious illnesses
Substance abuse

Pretty much, it's all Serotonin's fault. It's one of many brain chemicals, the one associated with "happy feelings". Depression, no matter the cause, is a chemical imbalance in the brain.

God has given me writing as a tool to work through the stuff floating around in my head. I often read something, hear about hot topics and am not quite sure what my option is on it. Maybe that's a middle-child thing. Anyways. Not only does writing help me walk myself through how I think about things it helps me identify how I feel. It gets all that emotion out of me. Sometimes its super silly and others it's totally nasty. Some I publish and some are still "drafts".

Depression is one of those "draft" topics God has ask me to open up with others rather than just He and I {and my computer}. I wasn't sure why at first but after the anxiety of pressing the publish key, I felt relief. Like this was one less thing satan was holding over me. One less 'secret' he could use against me. One less thing I feared if it came out. It was out. It didn't matter how anyone responded to it. I was free. That's all I needed, to shake those chains off.

Talking about my depression hasn't *fixed* it. I so wish it had. Sadly {budump bump}, I still take a medication to help levelize the chemicals in my brain. It helps me feel less...crazy. Psycho mom. Yeah, I said "less". Again, I wish this was a healing story as some may have come looking for but this is something I'm still walking through. The term bipolar comes to mind at least once a month as I experience good days and then very quickly bad days. {Thanks Aunt Flow. Rrrrr}

I guess, I'm writing this as a follow up of sorts. God has confirmed over and over again that my tiny little blog and a simple post series about my experience are a blip in the conversation that so desperately needs to be blown wide open in the Christian community.

From long-distance, life-long, and in-my-own-back-yard friends, there is someone I know who is secretly going through this alone. Satan is winning if we hide, ashamed, in the dark. He wins if we can't confess our habitual brokenness. He wins if we hide it, protect ourselves against the murmurs that 'might' happen. We are unable to fully grasp the gospel in our personal, well-worn lives. We are denying that we need Christ's blood to ooze into this crevices in our world, as if He didn't already know about it.

From former students, my own peers, or strangers, confessions of living my story have tumbled in! Do you know what that did? Shamed us? Killed us with that gut wrenching pain? NO! It bonded us. I'm not even just talking about believers being bonded over suffering from the same downfalls. I'm talking Across. The. Board. God wants to unite. Glue together. Tether. Fasten. Attach. Knot. Eternally Secure His most prized creatures to one another and Himself.

#realness is my anthem!
This verse my song.
Boast happily in weakness!

2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.