Mother to Mother w/ Cheryl Moeller and Co-host Lisa Jungheim

Mother to Mother w/ Cheryl Moeller

Motherhood is not easy and we sure don't want to go it alone.  We need each other and that's why Lisa and I have teamed together to be your cheerleader, your sister, and your friend.  Our show is geared to make you laugh, inspire you from God's word, share with you whatever mothering advice we might have picked up along the way, and motivate you to share more family meals with our easy method of making dinner with two crockpots. 

Proverbs 31:26 "She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue."

Cheryl and Lisa talking today on Mother to Mother w/ Cheryl Moeller about laughing your way through motherhood, Family Time Meal Time thoughts and inspiration, and cooking with two slow cookers.  Click here


1. You can either laugh or cry and we have decided to laugh our way through motherhood.  Warning:  There's going to be a lot of laughter!

2.  Meals:  The Foundation and Formation of a Family Click here for the Whole Article

3. Another part of every Mother to Mother Show will be an audio cooking demo. Here's the two recipes for today from Creative Slow Cooker Meals: Use Two Slow Cookers for Easy and Tasty Meals.

Mulled Apple Cider  

Ingredients: 1 gallon fresh apple juice or cider 1 cinnamon stick 4 to 6 whole cloves (optional) 2 apples, washed and cored (but not peeled) 2 individual herbal apple tea bags

Directions: 1. Add all ingredients to slow cooker and stir. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours. 2. To serve, strain out cinnamon stick, cloves, apples, and tea bags. Ladle into mugs.  

Finger Lake Moose Munch  

Ingredients: 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1/2 cup real maple syrup 2 tsp. vanilla extract 2 cups 5 minute oats 2 cups bran flake cereal 1/2 cup sliced almonds 1 cup raisins 1 cup dried cranberries 1 cup dried blueberries 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions: 1. Toss ingredients together in the slow cooker until everything is evely but lightly coated. 2. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours, stirring once halfway through baking. 3. Let cool completely. Store at room temperature for up to one month in an airtight container.

All recipes are from 
Cheryl's Latest Book - Buy Now!
Available in spiral paperback and on Kindle (and other e-readers)

How Often Do You Eat Dinner as a Family? Take This One Question Survey...

A one question survey - how often do you eat dinner as a family? See how your answer ranks among other's answers. Click here to take it now

Creative Slow-Cooker Meals by Cheryl Moeller

Make these two recipes today for after school snack and breakfast tomorrow from Creative Slow-Cooker Meals. Mulled Apple Cider (Puts the apple back into Apple Cider) Ingredients: 1 gallon fresh apple juice or cider 1 cinnamon stick 4 to 6 whole cloves (optional) 2 apples, washed and cored (but not peeled) 2 individual herbal apple tea bags Directions: 1. Add all ingredients to slow cooker and stir. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours. 2. To serve, strain out cinnamon stick, cloves, apples, and tea bags. Ladle into mugs. I love drinking apple cider year round, but it never tastes quite the same out of season. This is a great way to spruce it up! For variety, substitute two pears instead of the apples. Finger Lake Moose Munch Ingredients: 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1/2 cup real maple syrup 2 tsp. vanilla extract 2 cups 5 minute oats 2 cups bran flake cereal 1/2 cup sliced almonds 1 cup raisins 1 cup dried cranberries 1 cup dried blueberries 1 cup chopped walnuts Directions: 1. Toss ingredients together in the slow cooker until everything is evenly but lightly coated. 2. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours, stirring once halfway through baking. 3. Let cool completely. Store at room temperature for up to one month in an airtight container. This is a great "make-ahead" recipe, and I always make sure to keep some Moose Munch on hand! It's delicious with milk in the morning or as a grab-and-go breakfast on the way to....

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"'Stay' is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary." ~Louisa May Alcott

My Mother Scares Me - Comedy with Chondra Pierce

Why I have two slow cookers going early in the day......

My "What's for dinner?" survival plan I learned from Children's Literature: Always be six steps ahead of the rest of the family.

I like to go ahead of the wolves and have the slow cookers started before they even know what happened.

"Then, in a very sweet tone of voice, the wolf asked the little pig to meet him at Mr. Jone's turnip field the next morning. "All right," said the little pig. The little pig got up early and was back home safe and cooking his turnips by the time the wolf arrived.

Next, the wolf asked the little pig to meet him by a very nice apple tree. "All right," said the little pig. But, again, he got there early and hid in the tree while the bad wolf looked for him.

Finally, the wolf asked the pig to go with him to the fair. So the little pig got ready before sunrise and was there when the fair opened. He had lots of fun on the merry-go-round. When he started for home, he bought a crockpot to take along. Then he saw the big, bad, hungry wolf coming to the fair, late, as usual. Into the slow cooker leaped the little pig and the crockpot rolled safely past the wolf right into the little pig's house."

                                                                       Buy Now!

 

 

 

My Husband's TV Season Begins Again this Evening - "Marriage: For Better For Worse."

Marriage: For Better OR Worse, a fast moving Question and Answer Television Show Marriage: For Better For Worse is a weekly show dedicated to helping people restore and refresh their marriage. Host, Pastor Bob Moeller, has a heart for couples to enrich and refresh their marriage relationship. Since the inception of the show, the phone lines have been packed with people calling to ask for advice. Each broadcast begins with practical teaching and marriage advice, followed by answering questions from viewers. A personal invitation video to tonight's debut for this season. Click here More details about Marriage: For Better For Worse Click here

School Photos - This Made me Really Laugh!

One bad school picture can haunt you forever.  Believe me.  I speak from experience.

I was home feigning illness the day my fourth-grade pictures were taken.  So I posed
on another day, for another photographer more fond of extreme close-ups than his
predecessor. As it turned out, the picture looked fine - until it was pasted into the
school yearbook. 

Next to all the head and shoulder portraits of my classmates, my all-cranium shot
made me look like something out of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  For the
next two years I was known as "Balloon Head Burkett."

Wait.  There's more.  Thirty years later, I ran into an old grade-school chum.
After a very pleasant conversation, he said, "Hey... didn't you used to have, like,
a really big head?  It looks fairly normal now.  Did you have surgery or something?"

- written by author and columnist Michael Burkett


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Nothing to do with the funny story above, but this is Momlaughs in 1st grade
at Macomb Park Elementary School in Warren, Michigan.  I am in the middle
on the bottom row

Text Messaging for Preschoolers

There comes a time in every child's life when they are finally too old for the baby monitor... That's when it's time to move on to cell phone text messaging between you and your preschoolers. Forget those outdated phonetics and learning the ABC's -- today's hip family is moving straight into texting. Everything these days from business alerts to love notes are getting abbreviated in texts. Kids don't need to learn to read "See Spot run." They need to be able to alert their mothers to pending demands for munchies: *S4C = Starving for Cookies. See how it works?

 
Look at all the positive advantages to staying in touch with your preschoolers by texting... You can stay in close communication when you are at the stove and they are sitting at the table building a Lego castle. 

Another advantage is that your preschooler is more apt to respond to your text message than your voice. Let's say your four year old is going on a bike ride with dad. Don't yell out the door, "Kyle are you wearing your helmet? That is so yesterday. Just text him, K RU Wearing HMIT? He's sure to answer with something like, HOSBO. (Helmet on and seatbelt on.)

Texting is quicker and allows for more discreet conversation when called for. For instance, say your child is at grandma's and you remember you didn't send along a diaper. Simply text: RYPT (Remember your Potty Training). When he has a discreet moment he can text message back, 2 LATE.

Texting allows preschoolers to strengthen eye-hand coordination, build small motor skills and increase vocabulary. Where else do four year olds get to practice on an area the size of a small tooth? It's worth noting that while tots as tiny as three are able to grasp the art of texting, adults, on the other hand, are frequently reduced to tears trying to find the comma on their cell keypad. We recommend checking out resources to help you at your local library such as, Pushing Buttons for Dummies and Grownups.

Text messaging can also be used to help build your preschooler's self-esteem. Simply send random messages as, URGR8 @ PD (You are great at Play Dough). Your child should never wonder at any given moment what you are thinking.
 
To aid you in your journey toward cyber-nurture here's a handy and up-to-date dictionary of common 

Preschool Texting Messages and Answers:

SGHWYCT = Show Grandma how well you can talk
G3GO3 = Gaa, Gaa, Gaa, Goo, Goo, Goo
TYN = Take Your Nap
IYD = In your dreams
EYB = Eat Your Broccoli
FVC = Favorite Cereal
NMSOCP = Need more sugar on Cocoa Puffs
DC = Diaper Change?
2 Late = No translation necessary.
*VIN4C = Starving for Cookies
OHFFS = Only Healthy Food for Snacks
PMSOHH = Put More Syrup on Ho-Ho's
IJMYT = I just made you tofu
RUK? = Are you kidding?
SC$SH = Success with Shopping (found Pampers 50% off)
SB? = Seatbelt On?
PT = Potty Training
2 Late
SC = Drink Your Sippy Cup
JC2LCC = Just Chugged 2 Liter Coca-Cola
TMM = Text Message Me Urgent Please
CTHDFC = Can't Talk, Helping Dad Find Comma 
 
It should be noted that a recent study found that irritated tots were turning off their new technology gadgets at an alarming rate and climbing into their parent's laps to demand stories and facetime instead.

Celebrate the Ordinary with the Best of the Midwest!

My mom reads "101 Ways to Celebrate the Ordinary" every day.  She says

it really helps her and puts life in perspective for her.  My mom is a Midwesterner

through and through.  She was born on a dairy farm north of Big Rapids, MI and has 

lived most of her 81 years in MI, IN, and OH. 

I agree with my mom about the gift book 101 Ways to Celebrate the Ordinary.  I am crazy about it also and suggest it frequently as a help for mild depression.  I am quite

serious about this!

It also makes a perfect gift for just about everyone including a sister, neighbor, mom, 

grandmother, aunt, niece, cousin or a friend.  

Meet the author, Midwesterner Diane Reed Loew "Farmer's Wife."

Diane Loew is the author of 101 Ways to Celebrate the Ordinary and hosts her own radio show.  She's also a columnist at Randomramblingsof.com,  Grand Rapids Press,  and several other sites including here at the thebarndoor.net. 

 

Farmer's Wife's Wiggles and Wigglettes

It was not until I moved to the Southwest that I truly appreciated the Midwest.

Mind you I only stayed in the Southwest for two long years. I kissed the ground literally when we moved back. 

101 Ways to Celebrate the Ordinary is 100 percent Midwest snippets.  It's the

definition of and best of Midwestern life.  I suggest it not only as a gift, but also to my writing students as a great example for them to follow in writing a gift book.  

                                

Try my mom's idea - read 101 Ways to Celebrate the Ordinary often and see

if your spirits don't rise or even soar.

                                           Check out 101 Ways to  Celebrate the Ordinary

Please leave a comment here as to how you celebrate the ordinary in your little spot.

Farmer's Wife's Thoughts on Creative Slow Cooker Meals (Cheryl Moeller - Momlaughs's Cookbook)

 

Diane Reed Loew is the author of 101 Ways to Celebrate the Ordinary and hosts her own radio show.  She's also a columnist at Randomramblingsof.com,  Grand Rapids Press,  and several other sites including thebarndoor.net. 
Diane's column this week was about Creative Slow-Cooker Meals and it means a lot to have farmer's wife saying this:

"I am not writing about Creative Slow-Cooker Meals cookbook because the author is a childhood friend.

I also am not writing about Creative Slow-Cooker Meals cookbook because I have stock in the slow cooker companies.


I am writing about Creative Slow-Cooker Meals cookbook because this is just too good not to share!Click here to read the rest

I was a guest blogger on Kay Swatkowski's American Grandma

How To Know if You Are An “Over the Top” Grandparent by Cheryl Moeller

Posted on: February 24th, 2012 by Kay Swatkowski on American Grandma

All of us have run into grandparents all too eager to show us pictures, slides, jpegs and endless other representations of their grandchildren. While these pictures are immensely interesting to the grandparents themselves, they can prove to be a “real snoozer” for the casual participant (trapped victim).

Here are ten ways to know if you have become the slightly obnoxious, (okay, at times really obnoxious) “Over the Top” Grandparent:
1)  You hold up traffic at busy intersections trying to interest the driver in the next lane with pictures of your grandchild’s first visit to Santa (and it’s now August).  Click here to read more on American Grandma

American Grandma - My fav Grandma Site