Make a Mini General Lee {Thoughtful Thursday}

March 21, 2013 by Jules Leave a Comment

I think every child should get to ride around in a Little Tikes car {or some version of} at some point in their childhood. How fun is it to pretend you have miniature versions of adult things. Pretend kitchen? Dress-up clothes? Car!

My in-laws gave our children a brand new cozy coupe a couple years ago. They LOVE it! In our current house, there is plenty of room to ride it indoors. They take turns riding or pushing the car around the giant loop in our home. When my little boy became old enough to drive the little tikes car around my husband had a dream of making him a special man car . . .any ideas what he had in mind?

Find out how my sweet man made THIS and put a smile on my lil man's face over on the Homemaker's Challenge!

Filed Under: Gifts Ideas, Holidays, Homemaker, Parenting, Projects, The Ones about Homemaker's Challenge, The ones about the Rothacher Home, Thoughtful Thursdays

My Magdalene

March 20, 2013 by Jules Leave a Comment

She's almost 5.

She sits in a boaster seat now. She can so gracefully strap herself in. She adjust the air vents and opens the back window, not because its hot but because she can reach them.

She walks on her toes. Barefoot. Dressy shoes. Boots. Tennis shoes. Flip flops. It doesn't matter. Always on those toes. So eloquent as she enters a room.

She's a little ball of muscle. Twisting and turning. Flipping and climbing. and again, on her toes All The Time.

She speaks so clearly. Telling stories with such seriousness you'd think she was a tween already. Everything so intense.

She can count to 100. She can count by ones. She can count by 5s. She can count by 10s.

She can read all the letter forms of numbers up to 20. Sounding out each letter. She can identify numerous signs, symbols, and logos but the sounding out is new.

She can write her name. She can write everyone in our family's name. The can do copy work; copying letter for letter a sentence I've written for her, usually a story all her own.

She can carry on a conversation with adults and babies alike. Learning new vocabulary and teaching what's she's memorized.

Her siblings adore her. She convenes them to listen to her and they learn.. She fight with them from the back seat, guarding paper-page books against tiny fingers. She passes out breakfast and snacks.

She loves her daddy! She chats to him as soon as he walks in the door. She snuggles in his lap to read stories. She goes on dates with him.

Mags. Maggie. Magnadoodle. The sweet Magdalene Reece. My snugly, big girl, huge-hearted helper.

The growing to be a disciple of Jesus, Madgalene Reece Rothacher.

Filed Under: Parenting, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Activities for Littles & Winter Sanity {Thoughtful Thursday}

March 14, 2013 by Jules 1 Comment

I know its supposed to be turning spring...really! Any day now. But if you live in Arkansas or any state with bipolar weather like AR then you know you're gonna need some tricks up your sleeve this month {and maybe next month as well} for those days when the brisk wind is more like ice daggers. Today I wanna share 3 silly things my kids love that cost little to nothing and entertained them for quite a while.

Pipe Cleaner Art

I had some construction paper, pipe cleaners, and {glitter} glue already in our craft supplies. My 4.5-year-old just went at it! Twisting and gluing. My 3-year-old was having a little more trouble. I ended up cutting lots of different colored pipe cleaners into tiny pieces. Then she told me what picture she wanted to make. I sketched the picture she described with a marker then I helped her outline the sketch with the glue, adding different colors to each part of the picture. They both really enjoyed it!

Indoor Water Play

You may remember we recently went to an awesome indoor playground called the Wonder Place. It was filled with numerous educational centers to play in, one of which being the giant water table. My kids spent the majority of our visit there. This reassured me that my plan to make a homemade outdoor water table for this summer was definitely gonna be worth it! BUT seeing as how we are still in transition and the weather is not exactly conducive to wet outdoor play, we modified our water play.

I filled our kitchen sink with warm water and dish soap. Simply giving them a few "tool" {strainer, spoon, fork, whisk, different sized cups & bowls, grater, etc} to do "experiments" with kept them more than busy.

I wasn't quite comfortable with my 2-year-old standing on a chair, step, or sharing the bench with his sisters for a prolonged period of time...there may or may not have been shoving involved. I chose to give him his own small tray of water with soap, and some safer tools on top of a drop clothe. #winning

Playdough Art

My kids all three love Playdough, like most kids. They do seem to get bored with the same ol' roll, smash, etc. They haven't quite mastered the molding concept yet. Soooo, I have saved a silly amount of cardboard circles from frozen pizza and we decided to use them in our playdough-play. We made, pizzas, faces, several other meals, and lots of "imaginary" things...

Once I got them going on these activities and gave general 'rules', they played interdependent very nicely. Giving them a "new game" seems to help them play well together as well as stay focused for a little longer.

Hope these help spark some ideas in these last few weeks of wacky weather and indoor boredom!

Filed Under: Homeschool, Parenting, The Ones about Post Series, The ones about the Rothacher Home, Thoughtful Thursdays

It’s SuperBaby

February 18, 2013 by Jules Leave a Comment

Click to Enlarge Image

The FamilyCord Super Baby Facts - Brought To You By FamilyCord

DISCLAIMER: asJulesisgoing.com is not affiliated with 
and does not supporting cord blood banks and or 
stem cell research in anyway by posting this 
image from FamilyCord.

These superbabies are too stank'n CUTE & informitive!;)

Filed Under: Parenting, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Surviving the Stomach Bug {Thoughtful Thursday}

February 14, 2013 by Jules 3 Comments

Sorry, I know this isn't your typical Valentine's Day Thoughtful Thursday post but this is very relevant to our lives this week.

Monday morning my sweet little, regularly energetic , 2-year-old slept in late and 30 minutes later was asking to go night night and snuggled in my lap for a long time. That was the beginning of this weeks yack-fest. I won't go into the details of who won the up chuck count but I do want to share a 3 things that helped us manage a household full of littles who are very good sharers. Keep in mind, these are just practical tips to add to the normal love'n, movie watching, snuggling, washing, book reading, diaper changing, temp taking, water chugging that goes with stomach bug 2013.

1. The War Zone:

Our children are 2, 3, 4-years-old so the likelihood of them all making it to the bathroom when they feel sick in the middle of the night is pretty low. For some reason all 3 kids think the appropriate time to begin their barf marathon is between 10pm and midnight...gross. We decided to be proactive in this late night strike and make our Hazmat Team clean up a little easier by

tucking towels on the pillow as well as over the bed right where the mess is likely to occur then we
placed an empty trashcan right next to the bed just in case the attack was faster than the child and finally we
made a trail of towels from the bed to the bathroom along the path they will be taking several times in the middle of the night.

2. Tracking Meds:

With this years stomach bug came nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and low-grade fever. Needless to say we had a couple of medicines we were trying to use in making everyone feel a little better. To keep track of meds as well as limiting the ways this thing might get passed back and forth we

labeled medicine cups with each child's initials,
used a small empty picture frame and a dry erase marker to remember who took what medicine at what time, and we then
marked water bottles with different colored straws so there would be no sharing.

3. The BRAT Diet:

With everyone's tummy still curdling, gurgling, and a little on edge to say the least, we needed something to help get things back on track. The BRAT diet was something we've used since our kids started table foods. {AVOID Milk}

The BRAT diet is a historically prescribed diet for patients with gastrointestinal distress such as diarrhea, dyspepsia, and/or gastroenteritis. The BRAT diet consists of foods that are exceptionally bland and low in fiber. Low-fiber foods were recommended as it was thought that foods high in fiber cause gas and possibly worsen gastrointestinal upset.
The American Academy of Pediatrics states that most children should continue a normal, age appropriate diet. The foods from the BRAT diet may be added, but should not replace normal, tolerated foods. Sugary drinks and carbonated beverages should be avoided. ~Source

B. Bananas. I'm thinking any form of this would work. Peel and eat, mash it up and eat with a spoon, or slather on your toast.
R. Rice Nuf said.
A. Apple Sauce I think the consistency of the sauce version of the apple is part of its magic.
T. Toast We have several adorable "toast stamps". One says, "I love you", another is a heart, and another is a mickey mouse. Just to add a little fun. My kids don't eat a lot of toast so we've subbed dry {healthy} cereal several times.