Good Gossip: Moms go to the Oscars
Okay, we admit it. We love a little celebrity gossip but don’t want to do something we teach our kids not to do. It’s never good to indulge in stuff meant to humiliate or hurt another person. That’s why we came up with the concept of “Good Gossip,” which is celeb news minus any mean stuff. Have as much as you want because this “dish” is all guilt-free.
As always, this feature is sponsored by Great Day Farms, a national brand based right here in NWA. Look for their products at the Walmart Supercenter. Click HERE to like them and get coupons on their Facebook page.
Did we mention that Great Day Farms is once again the lead sponsor for the NWA Mom Prom? It’s scheduled for April 26, 2014. Get the details at www.nwaMomProm.com. Tickets go on sale Saturday, March 1st!
Well, we finally got those two crazy kids together. Sources say Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis have been engaged for several weeks now but they kept the news hush hush because two other members of their families had recent weddings and they didn’t want to steal any thunder from those happy events. Her ring is a simple band with a round diamond — beautiful but not overly flashy. Friends of the couple say they both want to have kids and both have a love for adventure and travel. Ashton and Mila played a (very young) couple in love from 1998 to 2006 on That 70s Show.
Looks like George Clooney (swoon) has a new girlfriend. This one is younger than him (no surprise there) but she’s not in the entertainment or modeling business. Her name is Amal Alamuddin and she is a 36-year-old lawyer in London who specializes in international law and human rights cases. She has a law degree from Oxford University and a master’s degree from the New York University School of Law. She also speaks French, Arabic and English. Impressive girlfriend, George!
Behind the Best Actor Oscar award winner is a very supportive spouse! Camila McConaughey, wife of Matthew McConaughey and mother of their 3 kids, spent a lot of time on set with her husband while he was shooting his Oscar-worthy performance in Dallas Buyers Club. She helped with his grueling diet that made him skinny enough to play the role of a man suffering from AIDS. Known for her rock-solid support of Matthew and their kids, she even made sure her gown for the Oscars wasn’t going to take the spotlight off the Oscar nominee. “Going all crazy wouldn’t be respectful. You have to coordinate but not be matchy-matchy,” she said. When her husband wore green velvet at the Golden Globes, she ditched the red dress she had planned to wear because she didn’t want their look to resemble at Christmas tree.
Gwen Stefani and her husband Gavin Rossdale just welcomed their third baby boy to the family. His name is Apollo Bowie Flynn. (The names Bowie and Flynn are taken from the couples’ mothers’ maiden names.) The new baby joins big brothers Kingston and Zuma.
Moms at the Oscars! Here’s a list of some of the celebs who brought their moms to the biggest award show on the planet this year: Jared Leto (loved that speech of his! He and his brother and their mom are pictured on the right); Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron. Whoopi Goldberg and Jamie Foxx both brought their adult daughters to the Oscars.
Source: People magazine, March 17, 2014 issue
Good Gossip is sponsored by CCF Brands, a Northwest Arkansas company which makes Great Day All Natural Eggs. These eggs are produced by happy hens who are fed premium vegetarian diets with no animal fats, animal by-products, or antibiotics. Great Day Farms also offers hard-boiled eggs, which you can find in the deli section of the Walmart Supercenter. (Love the hard-boiled eggs because they’re peeled and ready to eat! Perfect in salads.)
Post a CommentGiveaway: Suggest a song for the Mom Prom playlist and win a free gift card!
We need your help! The NWA Mom Prom is happening April 26, 2014 (get your ticket by clicking here) and we need to know what our DJ, Frankie, should play on Prom Night. He played some GREAT stuff last year which kept most of us on the dance floor all night, as you can see in the photos pictured here.
Help us make an AWESOME playlist of dance songs. The songs can be new or old — just as long as they make you want to get up and dance. (Any song that makes you want to “car dance” at stoplights will also work.) Anybody up for a little Bruno Mars, Prince, Pharrell, Justin Timberlake or Jennifer Lopez?
The Mom Prom ladies bust a move during the Flash Mob dance.
We’ll use your suggestions to create the list of music that DJ Frankie plays on Prom Night, so tell us as many of your favorites as you like. The songs with the most votes will most definitely make the list.
HOW TO ENTER: We’ll make things even more interesting with this little bonus. If you click the words “post a comment” located below and tell us what your favorite dance song(s) are, we’ll automatically throw your name into the online hat to win a $25 iTunes or Google Play store gift card.
You can also email your answer to us at giveaways@nwaMotherlode.com.
You can use the gift card to stock up on songs for your own music library or keep it handy so you’ll have some free cash to use the next time your kids ask, “Mom, can I download this app? It costs 99 cents.” (Raise your hand if you hear that question at least half a dozen times a month.)
We’ll also have a bowl on the edge of the Mom Prom stage on Prom Night that will hold song requests. If you think of a song you really want to hear while you’re at the Prom, just jot it down and toss it into the bowl. The DJ will pick song requests out of the bowl throughout the night so he can keep your favorites coming.
There are SO MANY cool things planned for this year’s Mom Prom. (Click here to see more details on that!) Ticket sales have only been open for a week and we’ve already sold more than one-third of the tickets available. Get your ticket asap if you’d like to come!
INCREASE YOUR ODDS OF WINNING: If you’d like to increase your odds of winning the music gift card, just share! Email friends and family about the giveaway and CC us so we’ll be sure to give you credit. We’ll give you an extra chance to win for each person you tell. The email is giveaways@nwaMotherlode.com.
(You can also earn an extra chance to win by signing up to receive the free email newsletter we send once a week. The sign-up box is at the top right of this page.)
BE SOCIAL: You can also earn extra chances to win by commenting on our Facebook page, following us on Twitter or following us on Pinterest. If you do any of those, just mention it in your comment or email so we can give you proper credit.
FLASH MOB NEWS COMING SOON: Last year’s Flash Mob Dance was SO much fun, so we’re doing it again this year with help from our awesome dance friend and Zumba instructor, Kelsey. (That’s Kelsey in the polka dot dress at last year’s Mom Prom. This girl can DANCE.) Stay tuned and we’ll let you know when the YouTube video — which will teach you how to do the Flash Mob dance — is available. No worries! It’s a short dance and it’s super easy to learn!
Can’t wait to dance with all our fellow mamas at Mom Prom 2014!!
Mealtime Mama: A newlywed’s double cookie chocolate chip cookies recipe
Guest post by Jamie Claire of The Sparkle Kitchen
I’ve been married for almost five months now.
I thought for sure by this point in my marriage that I would have fine-tuned the art of husband-feeding. But alas, our pantry still looks like two people who would never run into each other at the grocery store.
Husband’s food is almost entirely pre-packaged (a leftover, so to speak, from his bachelor days). He insists on keeping breakfast toaster pastries, frozen pizzas, and chocolate sandwich cookies on hand at all times. As for me, I keep the fridge stocked with sweet potatoes, kale, duck fat, and chorizo. I can find a way to incorporate sweet potatoes and coconut milk into anything. Try me.
While our grocery lists may not overlap, we do tend to see each other at the dinner table. To keep things from being, you know, awkward, we’ve both learned to do a lot of giving. My husband may not have gravitated to the pumpkin curry when we started dating, but he loves the stuff now. And he can even pronounce quinoa. And I thought that I had transcended simple snack foods until he started making me homemade popcorn that could bring tears to Mark Bittman’s eyes. Tears. It’s. So. Good.
We both get so much joy from serving each other meals that are new to us or from showing us new ways to enjoy foods we already know and love.
This recipe incorporates the third love of my husband’s life (behind me, and in first place his American Brittany Spaniel, Ketch): chocolate sandwich cookies. To paraphrase the great philosopher Ron Swanson, it’s his first favorite food (chocolate sandwich cookies) inside his second favorite food (chocolate chip cookies).
I served these as both cookies and bars to some of our friends at a game night this past weekend and we were very pleased.
I’m more of a cookie dough person, so I love cookie bars that are soft and gooey in the middle. And I’m going to come clean here and let all of the like-minded cookie dough fiends out there know that this cookie dough is amazing.
The chocolate sandwich cookies add some serious crunch. Not that you should eat cookie dough. You totally shouldn’t. Husband likes his food cooked (lame), so he prefers the slight crunch of the cookie format.
These cookies (or bars) are fantastic with a big scoop (or two) of ice cream, milk, or sandwiched together with buttercream. You won’t go wrong. Now, if only I could find a way to add sweet potato…
Double Cookie Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yields 3 dozen cookies or 16-20 cookie bars
You will need:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup white sugar
1 2/3 cups brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. coarsely ground sea salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
20 chocolate sandwich cookies, crumbled
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Method:
Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 9×13 baking dish or a baking sheet.
In a large bowl, combine baking soda, baking powder, salt, flour, and cinnamon. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together butter, sugars, and vanilla for a couple of minutes, until creamy.
Add eggs, one at a time, and continue to stir.
Gradually incorporate flour mixture (about 1/3 of the mixture at a time).
Add crumbled chocolate sandwich cookies and chocolate chips last. Mix until evenly distributed.
For cookie bars: pat dough into prepared baking dish and bake for ~25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
For cookies: bake for 12 minutes.
Jamie Claire Kiser is a Fayetteville native who lives in Bentonville. She’s a retired lawyer who now works in banking. Jamie Claire and her husband Zach are proud Humane Society foster parents and are full-time owners to two dogs of their own. You can find more of Jamie Claire’s recipes (and a ridiculous assortment of dog pictures) here.
Mamas on Magic 107.9: Funny week!
We all know that sometimes parenting can be, well, kind of a buzz kill. We’re always having to remind them to eat their vegetables, take their medicine, wash 
behind the ears, hold still for the Kindergarten shots, and the list goes on and on.
And that’s why it’s so important to balance out all that serious Mommy responsibility stuff with a little good old-fashioned fun and silliness. So this week we’re dedicating our Mamas on Magic 107.9 radio segments to FUN — and how to work more of it into your everyday routine with the kids.
Listen to Magic 107.9 at 7:45 a.m. each morning to hear the segments or listen to them online by clicking the LEFT side of each audio bar below.
Monday’s segment:
Tuesday’s segment:
Devotion in Motion: Why we all need Spring Break
31 And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.
Mark 6:31 (NKJV)
By Bro. John L. Cash, minister, educator and father of 2
All my kids came over for a supper of take-out Chinese food last night. We all work in the field of education — except for Seth; he’s a beginning mechanic at the Ford dealership. As ever, we had a wonderful time with the food, fellowship, and foolishness, but I noticed Spencer was not his usual relaxed, easy-going self. When I asked Susan about it later, she replied, “He’s fine. It’s just Nine Weeks Test Week. Spencer and the 7th graders are all overdue for Spring Break.”
And, in a flash, I realized she was exactly right. I’m writing this on my lunch hour on the last day of school before Spring Break, and everybody is getting more 
exhausted and irritable by the minute. If “The Eagles” wrote a song about the week of school before Spring Break, it would go like this:
Some teacher’s gonna hurt someone
Before the week is through;
Some kid is gonna come undone
There’s nothing we can do.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I love being an educator, and my fellow schoolteachers are some of the most dedicated and loving individuals on the planet. And the kids I work with are great — they help make my life rewarding, cheerful, and worthwhile.
But from time to time, all students and teachers need to take a break. That’s why schools have a lot of holidays and vacations. Without the times of rest and recreation, the educational process would become impossible. That’s why you always hear about the legislators proposing a year-round-school-year, but nobody ever adopts it!
The Bible teaches that rest and relaxation are holy and necessary. A little old lady from my church once told me, “Brother John, I try to be like Jesus. When the Lord lived among us, He ate and He rested. So, I try to do those things, too, so I can be like Him.”
So, if you get a Spring Break, have a great one. And if you don’t get a Spring Break, try to find a way to make one of your very own. We always do well when we strive to be like the Lord Jesus — in all His ways.
Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad.” He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and has spent the last 28 years being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. (On week days has a desk-job at a public school, and until recently taught Latin on closed-circuit-television.) He and his lovely wife, Susan, live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where the Preacher is hoping to sit in the sunshine and breathe the cool Spring air this week.) Their kids include Spencer (age 22), his wife Madeline (age 22), and Seth (age 19).
Stay in touch!