What Does Home Life, Parenting, Small Business and Literacy Have in Common?

it probably has to do with the alphabetmom.com

I thought you’d never ask, because I’m sure it’s a question that has been keeping you up at night. It sure keeps me up at night, because, well, I’m launching a blog with these four platforms.

Your next question might be, well, why? Because these are four areas of my life that I consider myself to be an expert at.

Parenting

Not an expert, like Bill Gates is at computers or Oprah Winfrey is at, well, being Oprah Winfrey. But let me start with this, I have been a parent for almost 22- years and I think that qualifies anybody with a medal of parenthood.

Yes, I do.

There have been ups and downs, highs and lows, tears and laughter, but through it all, I wouldn’t trade that job for any in the world.

Period.

I have a 21-year old son and a 14-year old daughter that are my world. My late son, Samuel, who I will periodically blog about, would be 18 and graduating from high school.

Photo of author Cindy Foust with her family
The Alphabet Mom with her husband and children.

It’s certainly a bittersweet time for Scott and me. And as I enter the blog-o-sphere, I plan to share some of my heartaches, some of my joys, many of my failures, but plenty of successes as a parent.

Samuel Thomas Foust

Why you might ask? Gosh ya’ll have a lot of questions, but frankly, it’s pretty simple…it’s what I know.

My life, my heart, my world, is wrapped into the three hearts that I helped bring into this world and I want to share that with my readers.

Listen, parenting is not for the faint of heart, and sometimes you just need someone to lean on, to look to, to laugh with, to cry with about your kids. Consider that person me.

It’s a privilege that I take very seriously and I’ll be here blogging away about the many facets of parenting and look forward to your comments about yours.

Home Life

Listen readers, what you will fast discover about me is I can cook, and I mean DELUXE can throw it down.

Now, to be clear, I don’t have fancy culinary credentials…no degree from a Parisian cooking school but where I do have my degree from is my very own kitchen.

Listen, it all really started for me on Ollie Caples Road, when I was in my mid-teens and I think I must have just meandered into the kitchen and scooted my mother over. Well, that’s a lie, I ask her to please scoot over and impart her culinary wisdom to me and let me tell you, it was the start of a great love affair.

Nothing gives me more pleasure than for my family, my friends, acquaintances to be standing around my island waiting to sample my food. I love the smells in my kitchen.

I also love to open my pantry door and alphabetize my spices. Okay, that’s a lie, but I do love to look at them.

I love for my kids to make requests for their favorite foods, even if it’s at 11:00 at night, or for my daddy to call me and ask for a pecan pie.

That’s life for me, plain and simple.

And I want to share that love, that passion with my readers…all four of you. So, get ready for the ride…

Ellie Mae has hit the culinary blog world and you will get a little bit of everything…butter, gluten free, powdered sugar, homemade spaghetti and meatballs, just whatever I want to share.

Small Business

Where do I start? I have a dream…just like the late Martin Luther King, Jr., that started 15 years ago and quite simply, it is the dream that will not die.

Gosh, when I started Alpha-kidZ, I didn’t have a business plan, I was under capitalized and had no idea about distribution. This was a recipe for disaster, and boy, have I had plenty of those through the years.

But hang with me, readers, I’m making the turn and I want you to make it with me. And along the way, I’ll give you advice, inspiration and quite a few “what not to-do’s.”

But like being a parent, who has been gifted with three beautiful children, I was gifted with this company, and I will not quit until I see it reach the goals I have set, or surpass those goals and force me to make new ones. So, buckle your seatbelts.

Literacy

Well, duh. I’m a children’s book writer for crying out loud and I know it may sound like I’m about to quote national statistics for improving reading levels in the United States of the Universe, but I’m not.

I am however, going to talk about ways to improve your own children’s literacy and reading skills. And like everything else on my blog, it will be fun. Trust me.

 So, readers, you won’t see me blogging about fashion (I’m a disaster), politics, or what J-Lo wore to the Oscars.

I’m not saying I won’t periodically make a tiny departure from my platforms, but I want to be a consistent blogger and stick to what I know, and be someone who keeps her readers wondering what in the cat hair she is going to say next.

So, hang on, tune in, share the word and let’s become better friends…I’m looking forward to it.

Question: What are some things you would like to see me blog about that pertain to my four platforms?

Pizza is Good Therapy

especially if it’s homemade

Wait. What?

Am I saying you should make homemade pizza when you can order Johnny’s? Or buy it in the frozen pizza section? Yes, yes I am.

Why? Because it is a fantastic family (and friend) fun night. This blog will routinely and consistently encourage family togetherness by using the three “F’s”…food, fun and fellowship. So, passengers, please buckle your seatbelts.

Now, don’t get overwhelmed! It’s as easy as one-two-threE-make me a big ole’ cheesE-just leave off the anychoviE-I can eat a whole one, just mE.

Notice the bold words all rhyme and enunciate the “E.” It’s this thing I can do, I haven’t figured out how to use it to make me rich, but I can rhyme in my sleep. Some people can fly helicopters, I can rhyme.

I have no idea where that comparison came from. I’m just good that way.

So, where was I? Oh yeah, homemade pizza family night for therapy and calories. Did I leave anything out? Get your notepad ready and take a gander at how easy and fun this is.

First, make a list of all the ingredients you and your tribe like on pizzas. At my house, our ingredient list looked something like this:

  • Mozzarella cheese
  • Pizza sauce (I make homemade, but in the jar is      fine…that’s a lie, don’t do that, make it from scratch)
  • Sliced bell peppers (red & green) and purple onions
  • Mushrooms (ours were fresh, you can use canned)
  • Sliced jalapenos (and lots of them!)
  • Sliced Roma tomatoes
  • Cooked sausage, crumbled
  • Cooked hamburger, crumbled
  • Pepperonis
  • Canadian bacon
  • Italian seasoning, salt pepper and olive oil

Now for the crust, listen, don’t overthink this. First, they have crusts already premade, that you can buy, but I made my own this time.

You will notice my best friend, Linda Lou, in these pictures, and sometimes, when she’s being real sweet, she will make the crusts with her bread machine, but she’s very busy and important and didn’t have time, so I used Martha White pizza crust mix.

This crust is super easy, just add water and oil. I rolled each crust up in Saran Wrap and refrigerated for about an hour, so it would roll out easier.

Now, the fun part…getting everything ready to assemble! No matter how hard I try, I just can’t put all the pizza toppings in old Cool Whip bowls so I arranged everything in my tomato bowls that I’ve had for 20 years.

At this time, I start heating up the oven! I want my crusts cooked well and a little crispy, so my oven was on 400°.

I got the pizza pans out, slathered the cutting board with all purpose flour to help with the roll out, and everyone got started. My oven is big enough to cook two pizzas at a time, so we let everyone start putting their pizzas together.

First, rub a little olive oil on your pizza pan so it doesn’t stick. I love the pans with holes in them (pretty inexpensive for first time buyers) and after you roll out your crust, lay it gently on the pan. Sprinkle the Italian seasoning and salt and pepper on the crust.

Next, I like to pinch the sides down and make it fit perfectly, because, well, I have OCD and I want it to look like we are at a pizza kitchen in Chicago, right? Nah, I just have OCD.

At this point, it’s time to start assembling your pizza and anything goes! We start with pizza sauce and build our way up. Linda Lou, you will notice in these pictures, kind of hijacked the process and wouldn’t let anyone else make their own!

But that’s okay, her thrill level isn’t very high.

My son, who will guest in a lot of my posts, considers himself the junior Bobby Flay, and so he got to make his own. Not too shabby, son.

Watch out, Bobby Flay!

 I also want to mention that we used pizza stones. Mine are from Pampered Chef that I bought years ago, and I had never really used them for anything. But Mrs. Chef-Boy-R-Dee, Linda Lou, says you should lay your pizza pan right on top of them, that it helps with cooking them all the way through.

And what do you know? She was right.

De-lish!

So, what are you waiting for readers? This is a fun night for family, and kids love it!  Now, we all know they aren’t going to put anything on theirs but cheese, but hey, they are in the kitchen and they are cooking! That’s something, right?

Incidentally, Linda Lou wanted me to let you know that hers were the best…as if we could dispute that!

Question:  What are some fun family activities you and your family like to do together?

Dr. Cindy Foust-heimer is in the House

(or on the blog)

If you are new to my life (which means you have no idea who in the ding-dong I am), my name is Cindy

Foust and I am an author who lives in small town America.

Closeup of author Cindy Foust seated with her books stacked in the background
The Alphabet Mom, Cindy G. Foust

And I love it.

I love that I know at least one person at the grocery store. I love that my children go the same high school as me and my husband. I love that when I walk in my church on Sunday mornings my pastor hugs my neck and I get to worship God in the church of my choice with my family.

Yep, that’s about as small town as you can get. I have been married to my husband, Scott, for nearly 24 years and we “re-connected” at our 10-year class reunion.

Well, if you want to call it reconnecting because I never connected with him before that, in case your INQUIRING minds want to know. No, sadly, I thought he was a MOW-RON (enunciated just like I typed it) in high school.

Yes, Scott was all popular and had a beautiful girlfriend that was a cheerleader. I played sports and was very unfortunate looking. PLUS, I drove a 1979 Mercury Monarch (except some of the letters on the back were missing and it spelled MO-A-CH…social status seal of death.)

But, as fate would have it, (along with contact lens and the dissolution of Ogilvie home perms), we ran into each other at our 10-year class reunion. I’m telling you now, if we had had Nancy Grace back then, I would have turned him in for being a stalker.

Why? Because I was still operating under the misapprehension that he was a MOW-RON, as he stalked me around the room, but he persistently pursued me and a few weeks later we did in fact have lunch, and the following year, we did in fact, get married.

Fast forward 24 years and here I am writing a blog.

Wait, what?

I know, there’s a lot of filling I’m leaving out of the Oreo, but I’ll get to that soon enough. You will just have to stay synced in to my blog every week, so you don’t get left out of the loop, and there’s nothing worse than being out of the loop.

Well, except an unexpected gas bubble while you are walking down the grocery aisle and there’s nowhere for you to go, you just have to stand there while other shoppers walk by you as they wonder what in the name of all that’s holy you ate.

Yes, that’s worse.

And just so you know, in case you were worried that this would be the same old run-of-the-mill blog, with a blah, blah, blah platform, I did do a lot of research before I launched this big mac. For the last two (long) years to be exact.

And here’s what I know.

Writing a blog is something I have wanted to do for a long time, but I wanted to be prepared for it. After all, I only have 173,000,000 other bloggers to compete with. Easy…right?

You cannot believe the opinions out there about what to do or what to write about or what audience to target. One of the most consistent strategies though, that frankly, has me a little worried, is that the bloggiest should be willing to “help their audience” or “help them solve a problem.”

Incidentally, a bloggist is, like you know, a biologist or orthopedist, only they can’t give shots or prescribe medicine…except some days I bet my readers wish they could take medicine after they read my blog. I’m betting.

Wait, what?

What if the bloggist is the ONE who needs a problem solved or needs help? That is routinely the case with me, as you will notice the more experiences I share.

To be quite honest, though, I’m not sure I can solve my readers problems every day, with every single blog post. I mean, I’m not really Dr. Cindy Foust-heimer, no relation of course to Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who by the way, was just on the Ellen show and she’s 91 and she’s still giving sex advice.

To be clear, I will NOT be giving sex advice on any day of the world. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Fortunately, I do know what I can do, and that is impart insight and motivation to my readers, by using much of which has happened to me. This insight will come from my years as a parent, a small business owner, a mom, a cook, a friend and a wife.

And most of the time, I can write it in a way that will make you spit your coffee out while you are reading it.  That I will guarantee.

So, do we have a deal? Just keep a box of tissue by your computer, so you can clean the coffee off your keyboard after you read my blog every day.

See, I’m already helping you solve your problems.

Question: Who remembers Ogilvie perms, Mercury Monarchs and Dr. Ruth Westheimer?

 .

What the World Needs is Another Blogger

and her name is the Alphabet Mom

The Alphabet Mom, Cindy G. Foust

 So, I write a blog? That means I have something in common with 173,000,000 other people in the world. Seriously, you didn’t miscount your zeros. I join one hundred seventy-three million other people in the world who write a blog.

I read somewhere that one blog is created every half second. So, in the hour it takes me to write my first blog post, 7,200 other bloggers are also busy creating their platform. That doesn’t count the ones already out there. So, in one day, 172,800 will attempt to commit their message to paper, well the computer, anyway, and now that number now includes me.

For starters, after I read the book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World by Michael Hyatt, it changed my entire business philosophy. I have spent the last nearly two years studying Mr. Hyatt’s work, and let me tell you, it has been eye-opening.

You see, I have a business, my own business, that I started in 2004, and let me tell you, times were vastly different, and by vast I mean like the Grand Canyon vast…no, like the Pacific Ocean vast…no, like space vast…yeah, that’s big enough. But I’m chasing a rabbit, as usual, and I forgot where the rabbit hole was.

Oh yeah, Platform and getting myself noticed. This book got me to thinking about standing on my platform, the one I have worked for nearly 15 years to build and shouting my message from the roof top. Well, by using my computer, anyway, cause with my luck, I’d fall off the roof.

Except, I was going to have to make some changes, some changes that have been agonizing and changes that are so different from where I started 15 years ago. So that’s what I’ve done, I’ve started a blog. It is my prayer that this new “platform” will allow me to be the 173,000,001st person to brave the space that’s even vaster than the Grand Canyon, the Pacific Ocean and space all together, and that’s the internet, and deliver my message. My singular, all-my-own, authentic, bath-by-fire, crazy, nerve-wracking, gut-wrenching message (Mrs. Sylvia Brass, my 7th grade English teacher and the reason I’m a writer would be so proud of all those adjectives).

Because if there is one thing I have learned from these years of co-mingling wife-hood, motherhood, business-owner-hood and author-hood, someone somewhere will always be interested in how you do it. That’s right, the most frequently asked questions I hear are the “how to” questions.

The thing is, I am still trying to figure it out myself. So, without further ado, off we go braving the wild frontier together. Hopefully you will join me in my weekly attempts to bring humor, common sense (ok, not so much but it sounds good) and quite frequently, self-deprecating narratives that make fun of myself and document the rather inexplicable things that have happened to me (well, that continue to happen to me).

I like to think it’s a cross between Petticoat Junction (that’s a #tbt if I have ever heard one) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. How’s that for a blog hook?

Some days it will seem like a train wreck that you can’t take your eyes off of, so you have no choice but to read my blog to see what you are missing here in Nutville. Incidentally, I will frequently make up words, much like my beloved mentor, Dr. Seuss, except he has been able to sell 222 million more books than me, and he’s been translated into 15 languages, so that makes him a little more renowned than me.

For now.

Question: What topics would you like for me to write about from an author, business-owner, wife and mother perspective. I will take these recommendations seriously and I can assure you I have plenty of experiences to share.