Cozy Tension Rod Retreat

I love this. Keep kids happy with a cozy tension rod retreat. Ten Rod Home Hacks.
Click here

Tennessee Breakfast Casserole

My dad was from Tennessee and he would have loved this; so will you.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Olive Oil

3 lbs. red potatoes, cut real small, don't peel! 

12 eggs

1 1/2 cups cream or whole milk

1 lb. turkey sausage, crumble and brown first

2 cups low fat cheese, grated

3 cups breakfast sausage gravy

       Homemade, frozen, or packets to make about three cups 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375.

Layer One

In 9"x13" glass pan pour 1/4 olive oil, walnut or coconut oil and move around to cover the bottom.

Sprinkle in your cut red potatoes

Fresh ground pepper on top

Layer Two

In a separate bowl, beat 12 eggs.

Add cream and mix well.

Pour on top of potato layer

Fresh ground pepper on top

Layer Three

Brown and crumble turkey sausage.

Sprinkle over egg mixture.layer

Layer Four

Sprinkle cheese on top of turkey sausage layer. 

Layer Five

Add 3 cups of  breakfast gravy over whole area.

  Either make three cups of homemade white breakfast gravy, buy frozen packages or mix up sawmill   gravy packets to equal three cups.

Place in preheated oven for 1 1/2 hours.   

Mom Stories #4 - Ivory Knife from Africa

I had been given a hand-carved ivory letter opener as a gift in college from my employer at a world missions agency.  One morning on Bob's way to work he decided to pick it up and take it to the office to use as a letter opener. 

Ten minutes later Bob pulled up in front of our inner-city church and opened his car door to get out. At the last moment he remembered the knife-like letter opener and reached in and grabbed it off the front seat with his right hand. As he stood up and closed the car door he heard someone right behind him. He turned around to see who it was and was holding the knife.

It was a young man with a stocking cap partially blocking his face.  The moment he saw Bob's knife, he turned around and ran in the other direction at full speed.  

 

Did a gift sent from half-way around the world in Africa save Bob's life? This much is sure. Out there is perhaps some would-be robber who has to wonder just what kind of pastor carries such a knife to work with him. 

"Because the Lord is my shepherd; I have everything that I need." Psalm 23:1

Dear God, Thank you for your hand of protection and watch-care.  In the name of Jesus, Amen

When has God rescued you from your enemies?

Mom Stories #3 - The Wonder of Life That I See Through My Children

The ceiling fan will never hold more than a 40-pound child…though it is definitely less expensive than taking your child to Six Flags Great America. 

The backyard swimming pool is not a bubble bath.
Salt, pepper and milk are not fish food.
Finger painting is a good hobby. Finger painting the front door is not a good hobby.
A good sense of humor will get you through most problems in life.

"He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting." Job 8:21

Dear God, Thank you for the wonder of life, love, and laughter I see through my children.  In Christ's name, Amen

Can I still laugh at something my kids do just for fun?

Mom Stories #2 - If God Permits

The home next door to us was going to be renovated.  It really needed an extreme makeover. Someone had purchased it at a good price and was planning an extensive rehab before selling it again.  

Construction workers started working on it one day and then did not return for months, possibly a whole year.  We found out from our Village Hall the construction company did not have the necessary building permits, so they were shut them down temporarily until they secured the correct ones.

Otherwise, haphazard work could be done which is dangerous to the occupants or neighbors.  A collapsed roof, a door that opens the wrong way or windows that can't open could occur.

"And this we will do if God permits." Hebrews 6:3

Dear God, I want to know your heart and Word, so this verse will be true in my life every day.  In Christ's name, Amen

Am I ever quiet enough to listen to the Voice speaking to me and willing to hear? 

Mom Stories #1 - Because of the Rain

My car was in the body shop on a rainy day in September.  I needed a few specific groceries to finish a recipe for dinner, but it was raining too hard to ride my bike. Trying to get something else completed on my list, I went to the garage to clean a little. Deciding to make an area in the garage for the camping equipment, I opened my husband's vintage cooler he had taken on a father-son fishing trip in June. Inside the cooler, I found a lot of canned and boxed groceries.  He had obviously not used up everything on his fishing trip.As a family, we enjoyed a great dinner as we thanked God for his provision of unexpected food I discovered because of the rain.
"And my God will meet all your needs accourding to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19

Dear God, In the morning, afternoon, and evening, may I often thank you and tell others all that you have done. In Jesus' name, Amen
What three things has God done lately for you, your husband, your children, your parents or your siblings that you can tell someone about today? 

Chocolate Blueberry Almond Cake - Mom Vegan Slow-Cooker Meals

Wet Ingredients:

1 cup Coconut or almond milk
2 cups Organic blueberries (if frozen, thaw first)

1 cup Maple Syrup
1/2 cup Coconut oil or vegetable oil

1/2 cup Applesauce 

1/4 slivered almonds 

Dry Ingredients:

3/4 cup Dark Hersheys Cocoa Powder

1 tsp. Salt

1 1/2 Baking powder

1 1/2 Baking soda

1 3/4 cup Flour (your choice of flour)
3 Tablespoons Flax Seed Powder

Directions:

1.  Mix wet ingredients softly.

2.  In separate bowl, mix dry ingredients.

3.  Mix contents of both bowls together.

4.  Pour into prepared pan or slow cooker.

Bake in a prepared slow cooker, covered, and on high setting.  90 minutes, then check.
OR

Bake in a prepared glass pan 9in x 9in.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake 40 minutes, then check.

Serve with fresh blueberries.

STORYTELLING IN A DIGITAL AGE CONFERENCE – ONLINE CONFERENCE with Bob and Cheryl Moeller

Still not too late to join for this time...

Tuesday Evenings, 6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., April 7, 14, 21, and 28, 2015

Venue: Online

Cheryl Moeller’s “Storytelling in a Digital Age Conference.”
For those that register, I will send a link for you to click on for a google hangout group.  It’s real easy to click on and join at the given time.  You need a gmail address and a webcam.

The conference covers Storytelling, Writing, Blogging (Social media, too), Speaking, and Publishing.

10 Editing Hacks

14 Commandments for Bloggers

6 Best Ways to Speak Nationally

Publishing Your Way

New this session:  Bob Moeller will do a one hour session one of the evenings (April 14) on “The Art of Storytelling.”

Cheryl Moeller, M.A.R., was a literary agent from 1992-2002.  She received her first book contract in 1998 and has authored or co-authored 10 books.  Cheryl’s Books

See more details and to R.S.V.P.

Everything's Coming up Peeps

My sister, Carolyn, lives near the Peeps factory in Bethlehem, PA. No factory tours but there's a retail store nearby (retails stores also at Mall of America in MN and National Harbor in MD).

 If you like Peeps but not the sugar there's many "sugarless" gifts such as charms, stuffed animals of all sizes, and paperweights. 

Who needs the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile, when you can follow the Peeps Mobile or Peeps Bus? 

Now, 3 flavors of Peeps milk... probably NOT available at Whole Foods Grocers or Trader Joes. smile emoticon

Decorate your beverage glasses at Easter brunch or dinner with a Peeps propped up at top.

Make a wreath for your front door to welcome guests to your home (my wreath). Hint: you don't need to use glue, just wet the back of the Peeps 
smile emoticon 

Everything's coming up Peeps in this hostess dress.

I love this list of art contests using Peeps: click here

STORYTELLING IN A DIGITAL AGE CONFERENCE – ONLINE CONFERENCE

New this session:  Bob Moeller will do a one hour session one of the evenings (April 14) on “The Art of Storytelling.”

April Tuesday Evenings, 6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., April 7, 14, 21, and 28, 2015

Venue:Online

Cheryl Moeller’s “Storytelling in a Digital Age Conference.”

For those that register, I will send a link for you to click on for a google hangout group.  It’s real easy to click on and join at the given time.  You need a gmail address and a webcam.

The conference covers Storytelling, Writing, Blogging (Social media, too), Speaking, and Publishing.

10 Editing Hacks
14 Commandments for Bloggers
6 Best Ways to Speak Nationally
Publishing Your Way

Cheryl Moeller, M.A.R., was a literary agent from 1992-2002.  She received her first book contract in 1998 and has authored or co-authored 10 books.  Cheryl’s Books

In 2009, she also began to teach writing conferences to now over 600 people.  Sign up so you don’t miss one blog post –  Cheryl’s Writing Mentor Blog posts Click here

Suggested donation for the four day (evening) conference is $75 ($25 will count as fee for service, $50 you will be receipted for as tax deductible).

Please feel out form below. Click here

Donate on paypal or snailmail today to reserve a spot. Click here

A Mom Who Embellishes on Facebook:

Put on facebook:  We remodeled our entire family room.

Actually:  I picked up all the toys for the first time in two years and discovered we had a different color of carpeting than what I had remembered.

Put on facebook:  I had lost over 50 pounds and was feeling terrific.

The truth:  I left the trunk open in our car coming home from Best Buy and our new television fell out on the tollway. It weighed about 50 pounds and I feel terrific that the police aren’t pressing charges for the 21 car pile-up I started.

Put on Facebook:  You may remember my telling you about our trip to California and how it gave us all stomach flutters to see wave after wave.

Actually:  We all had supper one night at the California Pizza Kitchen and got food poisoning and the wave after wave was actually…well you get the idea.

Cheryl  

FIFTY SHADES OF PORN FOR WOMEN

BY CHERYL MOELLER

I am always interested in how we as women rationalize our sin and I certainly see myself in the reasoning at times. 

A seminary student told us she is going to the Fifty Shades of Grey Movie because anually she watches the Oscars. She likes to have watched each film that year, so she can make an honest opinion if the Oscars have chosen correctly on the winners.

Are there any redeeming characteristics to porn? No. Good porn is an oxymoron.

Some of my acquaintances have complained about their husband watching porn, but they have gone alone or with their husband to every PG-13 (yes some of them are raunchy at least at the plot level if not more) and R Rated movie, without saying, "No." Maybe they did not watch it to make their husband happy, maybe they wanted to watch it for themselves. They are now worried because their husband is watching porn even though they have been watching it with their husband for 25 years.

Porn is not going to help you, your husband or your marriage. The old excuse that it's "just the two of you" is not going to impress God. It's not "just the two of you", it's also the two or twenty people in the porn pictures or film.

Some feel as though because they have not said, "No" in the past, it would be hypocritical or too hard to start now. What if your kids used that reasoning about something they need to quit?

If you haven't started saying, "No," the time to start is now.

It's porn.

I have heard the compromise excuse that somehow there is only five bad scenes in a certain movie. If those scenes were put into flash frozen photos and made into a magazine, it would be 100 pages of porn.

At first many thought Fifty Shades of Grey was a man's fantasy, but actually the books and movies are targeted to women. In the interest of never denying ourselves in Modern America, isn't it interesting that instead of flourishing, we have encased ourselves as slaves from some time travel to the past, gone horrid, like torture chambers from the Middle Ages.

The truth or should I say, the trick here is that Hollywood is teaching to love a woman is to torture a woman. The real truth is a woman bleeding from being beaten with a whip is hate, not love.

God is against porn, but not to take your happiness away. Porn is like drinking a swimming pool full of pickle juice to quench your thirst.
 

In the end you will not be satisfied, instead it will bring destruction and death to a relationship.

A revival is a husband and wife turning to Christ in complete humility and saying we are lost and undone without you. We desperately need Christ in our relationship for He and He alone is the source of love, hope, honesty, and true intimacy.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me." Psalms 51:10

Leanne's Caramelized Onion Quesadilla

What's for dinner?   

Leanne's Caramelized Onion Quesadilla

Ingredients: 

5 large sweet or yellow onions, peeled and cut into thin slices, caramelized with 2 TB of brown sugar.  Caramelizing onions on stove top in a frying pan takes about 1 hour on low heat, stirring every 10 minutes.  Don't leave the kitchen!

                        Leanne and her sister waiting for their onions to caramelize

Package of soft tortillas (can use spinach tortillas)

Low fat Mozzarella Cheese  Some of the family will put a TB of

1/3 lb. of chicken breast cooked with taco seasoning/water, shred your meat

This is very good also with just caramelized onions and cheese and microwaved for 25 seconds.

To show you what the caramelized onions look like  Click here

I caramelize mine with 1 TB coconut oil and a little water and the brown sugar.

Serve with a chopped salsa, fresh tomato or avocado.

Our Son Stood Strong

'Twas a February day in an Illinois middle school classroom, Carleton Washburne School, where one of our older sons was a student.

The teacher asked all those opposing abortion to line up on one side of the room and those that saw no problem with this perfectly "legal" option on the other side.

More and more stipulations were given and more students went to the pro-abortion

side of the classroom.  

When at last our son was the only remaining student on the pro-babies, pro-life side of the classroom.  

Shaming, bullying, and intimidation was used to tell him how simply being the minority, the only one, was reason for him to believe he was wrong.  He stood strong.  

God loves all babies.  We love all babies.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart". Deut. 6:5-6

10 Reasons Why Mom Gets Distracted in December

Take a break for a bit of humor today.

During the holidays dads are thinking about playoff games and kids are dreaming about Christmas vacation, but Mom’s mind is definitely somewhere else…

1. While everyone else stampedes through stores at 4:00 AM the day after Thanksgiving to buy this year’s most popular toy, Mom is still trying to remember where she hid last year’s most popular toy.  Read the other nine.

Thanksgiving Postcard from God Devotional

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Thanksgiving Postcard from God Devotional

It was 10:00 a.m. the day before Thanksgiving. In just a few hours the doors to our inner-city church would open, and we would host our urban neighbors, many of whom were Native Americans, to a free Thanksgiving dinner.

We were making last-minute preparations when we heard a loud knock at the front door. Another interruption, we thought as we trudged toward the door. When we opened the door, we were greeted by two delivery men from Sears.

"Will you sign for this?" one of the men asked as he shoved a clipboard our way.

"Sure, what is it?"

"A freezer," he answered.

"We didn't order a freezer."

"Someone did," he said. With that, he and his burly partner pushed past us and wheeled a full-length deep freeze up the steep steps and into our church.

As we studied the invoice, we discovered a sister church, New Hope Church in Crystal, MN, had purchased the appliance for us. That's strange, we thought. They never told us it was coming.

Our minds returned to the Thanksgiving dinner. Within a few hours, the first flakes of snow started coming down. In Minnesota in late November, that can mean anything from a dusting to three-foot snow drifts. On this particular day, it meant the worst. By 4:00 p.m., the flakes had turned into a major-league blizzard. The timing couldn't have been worse. By that late hour, all the food for our dinner had been prepared—a dozen turkeys, nearly a hundred pounds of mashed potatoes, and scores of piping-hot pies.

But we had no one to eat any of it. All our food and effort was about to go to waste.

That's when we remembered the gift we had received only hours earlier. We wrapped the food and carried it upstairs to our new storage freezer. One week later we held the postponed dinner and served a hot Thanksgiving meal to a church packed with grateful neighbors and needy friends.

Looking back, we realize we received more than an appliance from a department store that day. We received a postcard from God.

What's a postcard from God? It's one of those providential, serendipitous events that appear in our lives, marriage and family—a reminder that God has not forgotten us. For us, it's like receiving a short note that reads, "Dear Cheryl and Bob, I was thinking of you today. Just thought I'd let you know. Love, Your heavenly Father."

The ways in which he sends these timely postcards are as unpredictable as they are amazing. The net effect seems always the same: to encourage and strengthen us, often when we need it the most.

Piles of unwanted junk mail are delivered daily. As catalogs, sales brochures, newspapers, and a host of other materials accumulate on our desks, our goal is to dispose of the piles as quickly as possible. In the same way, our lives, our marriages, our families, and schedules can become cluttered with carpools, shopping, taking care of kids, exercising, committee meetings, weekly deadlines, and urgent calls to make. Our goal can become simply to get through the day.

In the midst of sorting through such clutter, it's easy to overlook the simple notes our heavenly Father sends to remind us of his love. When we take the time to sort through "coincidences" of my life, we discover simple but much-needed messages reminding us, "I love you. I haven't forgotten you."

Signed, Your God.



By Cheryl and Bob Moeller

8 Reasons to Stay Home on Thanksgiving and Black Friday

I have never been shopping on Thanksgiving Day or Black Friday.
Here's my 8 reasons why:


1. With deals not all that great, the retailers are not winning and neither are the
shoppers. 
2. It's crazy dangerous for three thirty something sisters, reunited Thanksgiving week to
be out shopping at 2:00 a.m.  
3. The thrill seeking of shopping super deals is lessened knowing that you have just run in front of a
single mom who won't get a toy for her child if you grab the deal first.
4. It's not safe nor smart to wrestle someone to the ground for a free sample of cheese spray.
5. Thanksgiving has always been "it's a gift to be simple celebration." The harvest is in
and we give thanks to God with a grateful heart. Let's keep it that way or cancel it
6. It's an intergenerational holiday gathering to unconditionally love your friends and family.
7. Its hard to run or walk in the mall after a Thanksgiving killer family football game.
8.  Missions need you the other 364 days of the year also, but volunteering on the day of
thanksgiving with your family is about as pure and sweet as it gets. This year start a meaningful holiday tradition your children will never forget and will repeat. Your Thankgiving dinner will taste better because others will have a Thanksgiving Dinner, love, hugs, and the Gospel message.

Remember the dangers involved in shopping the sales?  Instead risk it for something important.  

The only way retailers are going to close Thanksgiving Day is if no one
shops.  If I don't go, I am voting that the stores will stay closed until Thanksgiving
is officially over.

3rd Anniversary of the Homegoing of my Dad

 Rev. Roy Webster was a Tennessee boy but ministered from 1949-1996 in the Midwest.  

My dad went home to be with his Lord and Savior on a Sunday morning. He loved to go to church and Sunday, December 13, 2011, he walked into the presence of the Lord during the Sunday morning worship hour.

He told me when I was ten years old that he wanted to make it to 80 years of age and he passed away at 81 3/4 years. God blessed him with a long life. 

He loved football and senior year his team at Clinton High School, Clinton, TN were undefeated.He was a young soldier serving during the era of WWII because he joined the U.S. Army at 14 years of age in 1943. He rode on a bus from TN on an unpaved dirt road (common in 1943) all the way to TX. The army thought he was 18. He envied his older brothers serving our country and he decided to join them. He became a Sargent at 15.  He was found in 1944 at the age of 15 while standing in line to board a ship in CA headed to Japan.  A boat that did not return.  His family had been searching for him through the Red Cross.  He went back to play football for two years for Clinton High School.  He then served in the National Guard from 1947-1949 as he attended Eastern Tennessee University.  He was called to duty several times in the state of Tennessee for a prison riot and hostage situation and civil unrest in another major city.

While some in Hollywood boast of being married 61 days, my dad was married for 61 years mid-century (August 25, 1950) mid-America (to a Michigan girl), the love of his life Gladys Windquist, he met at Owosso Bible College in Owosso, Michigan.

                         Rev. Roy Webster in Pastor's Study, Warren Wesleyan Church

                                                       The Four Webster Daughters

Dad and Mom were married 61 years and here they are at their 25th wedding anniversary party at Flint First Wesleyan Church in Flint, Michigan









He never turned on a computer, but he had more friends than most of us will ever hope to have on Facebook. He never met a person that he did not like.

My dad really did love his mom (and dad), baseball (and football), and apple pie. Oh yes, and automobiles.

He loved wining the grandfather with the most grandchildren on Father’s Day for several years in a row.

And, then to know that he had 2 great-grandsons. (Now, he has 4 great-grandchildren.)

He spent the last decade of his life, calling and talking with members of his former churches that he was not sure of their salvation. He would present the Gospel and give them a chance once again to respond to the claims of Christ. And, he kept calling them until they trusted in Christ as their Lord and Savior. 

Raised in the hills of TN, he was blessed to minister in east Michigan where many southerners had come up to work in the hey day of the car industry. When he retired in 1996 from the pastorate, he wanted nothing more than to go back to his people in Tennessee. And, that is from where Sunday morning, November 13, 2014, he went to be with the Lord, among the twiggy dogwood trees, soft biscuits with sweet honey, good old southern gospel quartet singing, and his people. Now he is singing with his much loved family members and friends who went on before him.

My Hyperemesis Gravidarum was not glamorous and neither is Princess Kate's

My Hyperemesis Gravidarum was not glamorous and neither is Princess Kate's.

                                                          by Cheryl Moeller


The tabloids have whispered Princess Kate is trying to get attention with her inability to handle morning sickness.  I can tell you Hyperemesis Gravidarum is not morning sickness, unless it's morning sickness on steroids.

I threw up non-stop for a total of 24 months of my life.  On the ground, aisle #6 in the grocery store, padded church pew, hospital floors, friend's purses, and in my own lap.  This went on for at least four to five months with each of my six pregnancies, except for my second one which was less.

I learned the most wonderful people in the world love and care about me during my non-stop lock-ins.  For when I trembled as if the end was near, a loving person would make sure it was not the end.

With #6, as with the others, I was literally penned in my upstairs bedroom and unable to walk without aid.  Needled to my IV's and feeding machine, I thought I heard vacuuming.  I opened my eyes and there was the school crossing guard vacuuming our upstairs halfway.  She said, "Go back to sleep.  It's okay I got worried because I hadn't seen you for a while."

My gorgeous sister-friend and neighbor, Cecelia Feicht, R.N., came over daily with shots when I finally was allowed to be at home.
                                             

Cecelia Feicht

Faint from throwing up 1,000 times, a friend, family member, or stranger would give me the hope to continue.  They always went beyond "just showing up" by giving of themselves with acts of service, hugs, food, and gifts.

Hundreds of people helped our family, including me, in 1981, 1984. 1986, 1987, 1996, 1998.  I will stand up and thank them again.

Bob, my husband, and our children always went to great lengths to make sure I was watched.  Bob was the ever present friend and prayer warrior.

The kids all had to do things most children don't learn so young like knowing when to summon adult help, washing the same sheets for the fifth time in one day, and washing a sink full of really grimy pots and pans.

God always exceeded expectations.  For example with #4 pregnancy, the former Director of the Home Economics Board in the state of Ohio, volunteered to cook for three months.  Because I could not smell food, Virginia Wiley cooked at her home and delivered meals each day with her husband E.B.

There are so many friends and family that deserved to have one of our children named after them.  I apologize for not doing that and you know who you are.  Maybe I can sneak in your name for a grandchild's name.  For you, I will try.

And, I love the name Princess Kate.

                                          Worth it all and but, by the Grace of God alone.
                                                                RJ and Melissa
                                                                Mackenzie and Megan
                                                                Andrew and Brent