You chose not to give us any background to the judge's decision. I would estimate that the judge believes the mother lied to him on a prior occasion.
Litigation is occurring in North Carolina, so it seems reasonable that the North Carolina court granted mom permission to move with the children at some point in time, perhaps because she claimed to have great employment prospects in the other state. Then she decided to be "self-employed", even though she apparently doesn't have a viable business model, and dad moved for change of custody and/or modification of support based upon the fact that she's barely contributing to the support of the kids and has much greater earning capacity than she's achieving through "self-employment". Am I about right, so far?
So now the judge has heard mom claim, "I'm doing the best I can, and I can only make $10,000 or so per year," and has responded, "Then get a real job." The reason he said "apply to 45 employers" is because he thinks she'll lie to him, or make a half-hearted effort, if he doesn't mandate that she make a broad job search.
There's a possibiity that the judge hasn't issued a final ruling on some of the issues before it (e.g., modification of custody?) and wants mom back in court in four months so that he can enter those orders (e.g., if it's a pending issue, give dad custody) if she hasn't followed through and obtained a job.
But you're making us guess. She should talk to a lawyer in North Carolina (where the case is being heard), and discuss the details and history of her case with the lawyer.

