Teachable Easter Baskets

April 19, 2014 by Jules 7 Comments

Just like we try to be purposeful during the Christmas season we also want to use the Easter season to not only have fun among those we are called to love but to also teach and celebrate what Easter really is.

I mean, its only the day we celebrate the most important event in the history of people. {yeah, I’m Sorry…My Kids Don’t Believe in the Easter Bunny. Don't ask, they'll be confused.} The day a Perfect Man with all resources at His disposal chose to conduct the largest bailout that has ever been and ever will be for all the scanky, dirty, and despicably unworthy- US. I don't know about you, but a creepy bunny bringing cavity inducing goodies to my littles just doesn't seem to do such an event justice.

I got the idea of unEaster baskets from good oh Amanda. Now, don't think this amazingness went down all glamorous with no squabbles, confusion, and utter annoyance at my littles inability to understand simple directions but it was more purposeful than just sitting out baskets of goodies while giving credit to a cute furry mammal.

unEaster Baskets:

During their nap I put together their Easter baskets with little goodies I'd been collecting and hid them.
As they began waking up I was still finishing up writing egg labels that helped make everything in the basket point back to Jesus in our lives.
When they were all awake, I had sat them all at the coffee table with a bucket of rocks and markers.
We walked through what sin was: bad choices, and how those sins hardened our hearts like rocks.
Then we talked about Ezekiel where is says God is going to take our rocked up hearts and replace them with new ones.
After much confusion and worries over whether they would get in trouble for confessing, they each came up with a couple bad choices they had made and we drew a picture of or wrote the word on the rock.

Here comes the fun part:

We all walked outside with our sin while we talked about how Jesus said He promised to take our sins away and chunk them as far as the east is from the west: so far we couldn't even see them on the other side of the fence.
While we talked, we wondered to the back of the yard where I had hidden their baskets under a red bedsheet.
Then I reminded them that on a Friday, Jesus, who was perfect and never made a single bad choice, picked to pay for all our sin by dying.
I ask them to chunk their rocks onto the sheet that was a picture of His blood that paid for our bad choices.
When all the rocks were on there, I told them how God redeems all those bad things, takes them away, and replaces them, just like our rocky hearts, with new exciting things.
I pulled the sheet off the tops of the baskets while wadding the rocks up inside it, revealing their baskets of gifts.
We sat on the trampoline and read through the promises of Jesus and they found what represented that in their baskets as a reminder of that truth.
Then we wore sunglasses, ate candy, and squabbled over how to get off the trampoline and how much candy they were allowed to eat at once.

Just when I began to get annoyed, explaining to hubs that I thought it was a waste, He just smiled and said he liked it. When we were putting everyone to bed {EARLY because of sleep deprivation this week}, Jamin ask Matt what Easter was. Matt told him that it was the day we celebrate Jesus coming back to life. To which Jamin responded, "and taking our rocks?" #winning I think this will be a regular tradition, of sorts.

What kind of tradition does your family have to celebrate the true meaning of Easter?

Ideas for purposing Easter basket goodies:

Filed Under: The ones about the Rothacher Home

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

Moving On After Moving

April 11, 2014 by Jules Leave a Comment

Moving.

Yeah, we all say confidently, "I told God I would go where ever He sends me." as if that makes being a nomad any easier. We'll say, "We plan to settle in like we are here to retire." as to reassure our new congregation but the fear still lurks.

We just celebrated our 1 year anniversary at the valley here in Vilonia but we haven't even lived in our home for a year {until July} and it's happened. God allowed us to have that ideal neighbor relationship. The one where you stock one another our the window wondering if it's too soon to invite them over for another playdate, dinner, or nap-time chat in the yard. Blessed isn't the half of what we've experienced.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who God can choose to move.

Today, I'm just sharing my heart about the toll moving takes on friendship in our lives. Find the rest of this post over at A Common Bond.

Filed Under: The Ones about A Common Bond, The ones about the Rothacher Home, The Ones about The Valley Church

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?

Filed Under: Hand-Dandies, Parenting, The ones about the Rothacher Home, Thoughtful Thursdays

Where did you learn the “F” word?

April 4, 2014 by Jules 2 Comments

repost: originally part of a post published Feb 25, 2012

Remembering that children learn about beliefs through actions means we need to pull our junk together!

I am weary of hearing parents complain that their children are conducting themselves in sinful ways but the child is simply mimicking what they've seen {somewhere- parents, daycare, TV}. Since we are all sinners the main thing we need to teach our children is the "F" word. Yep! The word we all dread.

Forgiveness.

We all dread it. We're scared to let it fly out of our mouths in fear of having to confess we've done something wrong. "Will you forgive me?" Yes, we need to not only say this word but SHOW it to our children.

After a long day of chasing my preschooler around reminding her of boundaries she already knew, I flew of the handle and screamed at her. Yes. I did to raise my voice. I did not yell. I screamed at her to get back in her bed for the Umpteeth time after she woke both her siblings in the other room. Ya know, the my throat hurts not kind of screaming at a ball game. Did I mention I was Running down the hall at her. And yes, running looking like a fool down the hall. My heart pounding with its irregular palpitations, making myself sweat over a silly preschoolers defiance.

NOT my finest moment. It's actually taken me over 2 months to confess this to you.

After slamming her door I sat on the ground and began to cry. What the smack is wrong with me. God quickly brought to my attention that I can't expect her to obey the 1st time if I'm not going to demonstrate to her that I am obeying my heavenly Father the 1st time. I was not showing love to her by becoming quick to anger. Ugg. I had to go in and ask for her forgiveness even though I all wanted was for her to be sitting in tears over her bad choices. I dried myself up a bit and headed in...

"Maggie, mommy needs to ask for your forgiveness. I am sorry I screamed at you. I was throwing a fit and we know that both of those are bad choices. Will you forgive me?"

"Yes mamma!" No hesitation. No questioning how quickly I would jump back to this sinful behavior. Just, "Yes". I hugged my baby for a long time with more tears.

As I headed into the other room to quiet the other two children and comfort them back to sleep I see Maggie's door open.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!" I thought. "This is ridiculous. Doesn't she know how hard it was for me to ask for her forgiveness and now she's going to get out of bed Again!?!" I shushed her and tried to wave her back into her room before she disturbed her sibling yet again and she began to stomp her feet before throwing herself onto the ground and sob.

I quickly put the baby back in his crib and rushed out of the room attempting to muffle the fit in the hall. I snatched her up, wrestling all the anger building up within me. Heart racing. Teeth gritted. Trying my hardest not to 'raise my voice' again- "Maggie, What Is the Deal? You are Supposed to be IN your bed!"

"But mamma, I needed to ask you to forgive me."I squeezed her harder than I ever have. "Mamma, I'm sorry for getting out of my bed and making bad choices. Will you forgive me?"

"YES!!!"

What are we showing our children. Are we 'practicing what we preach'? I am challenged to evaluate my behavior based on if Christ would want me training my child in the way I'm living.