Mom Daughter Connection Radio Show & Podcast is going on hiatus.  Host Alyssa Avant is currently due any day with baby #3 and will be unable to produce another show until the baby has made his arrival and things are settled around her home.

Please check back later for the birth announcement.  Blessings to you our listeners!

This week Alyssa discusses the factors that affect a girl’s decision about college and addresses the question, “Does God care?” Listen in for Alyssa’s take on making this important decision. College may not be for everyone, but regardless it’s a decision every person must make for themselves. Help your daughter to make the decision that is right for her.

Though I am not producing a show till next Monday, I will be available for you to listen to on other podcast or audios this week. Two others to be exact. I am a guest speaker at MommyFest and my audio will be available on Thursday. The topic is “The Advantages of An Organized Life”. You can also find a short audio on my exhibitor page there on “How to Get Your Household Under Control”.

The other podcast I am going to be a guest on is “The New Urban Mom Podcast” Sharon’s topic is “Inspired Organization”. Both of these are interviews and I thank both Marie Ynami of Mommyfest and Sharon McMillian of New Urban Mom for having me. I hope you’ll take the time this week to go to their sites and listen in.

I am so excited I could barely wait till today to post this week’s podcast and share the big news with everyone. Today marks the launch of a new branch of Beauty by Design Ministries. This podcast announces it’s official launch and will give you more of an idea of what to expect from our new site and branch of ministry. I hope you’ll take the time to listen to this short less than 10 minute show and that you will tell your friends about us too.

God has a perfect timing for the things of our lives. Though we do not want to admit it God’s timing is perfect, and many times we want things to occur before God has enabled them to do so. However, if we look for God’s perfect timing it is best. This week’s show I share with you from the book of Ecclesiastes about God’s perfect timing and about teaching your daughter to look for God’s perfect timing in her life.

As the graduation season, prom season and summer approach we at Beauty by Design Ministries are on the brink of releasing a new guide for moms, “Seven Easy Tips: Encouraging Your Daughter to Say No”. For the price of a meal at McDonald’s you will receive helpful insight on raising your child in the way they should go in hopes that they would never stray from it. This guide, set to be released on May 1 will be full of Biblical insights and real life examples of the things you and your tween or teen will face in the days ahead and how to help her to have the courage and boldness to say “No.”

Currently, we are seeking your testimonials as a listener of our show. If you have something to say about our show please leave your testimony in the comments here and we will get it up on our testimonials page. You will also receive a link to your website or blog if you would like, just leave us the information.

Sincere apologies, we failed to mention this week’s Top Radio Partners during this week’s show however, our top 3 partners are:

Women by Grace

Christian Top Sites

Pearls & Peridots

We are adding a testimonials page to our website here at Mom-Daughter Connection Radio Show & Podcast. I  realized today this is overdue has I have had many people to make positive comments about the show and share their thoughts.  So, why not create a place to put these thoughts and give you our listener’s a chance to see what others are saying and if you are here for the first time you’ll be able to know what to expect from the thoughts of others.

Another plus is that it will also provide you with some link love, so if you want to submit a testimonial to our site and in turn get a link to your site here on ours, all you have to do is post your testimonial in the comment section of this post.  That’s it!  Thanks!

The winner of the Sweet Tea Contest is Mirriam. Congratulations Mirriam. Look for more fun contests to come in the future! Thanks to all who participated and a very special THANKS to Cara Mirabella of Cara’s Cafe.

This week I announce our winner of the Sweet Tea Contest and then I share from my heart. I have had lots of GOD moments in the past week and I am also reading a great book. Therefore, I decided to share from both. The whole idea in this week’s show though is how we can hear God’s voice and then say YES to Him.

I also invite you on the show to watch the video I recently created for Beauty by Design Ministries. It is located here. I also shared on the show that I uploaded a longer segment of my speaking to Godtube. You can see it here. It is about a ten minute segment of a recent speech that I did. I would love your feedback on both videos and this week’s show. I invite you to leave your comments below. I also invite you to check out previous episodes of Mom-Daughter Connection.

As I mentioned in this week’s episode I am reading a fabulous book by Lysa Terkeurst called What Happens When Women Say Yes to God. I highly recommend it.

Sorry for the delay, but we will be announcing our Sweet Tea winner later today.  I am a little behind on getting the podcast out.  Be looking for Show #16 to be posted later today.

Because there is nothing better than sweet tea on the back porch with friends, Cara’s Cafe is sponsoring the Mom-Daughter Connection Radio Show Sweet Tea Contest. All you have to to do is leave your comments below on Show #15 and you will be entered to win 2 of Cara’s Cafe Teas in the flavors of your choice. It’s that simple. You know you want some sweet tea.

Contest winner will be announced on Show #16 on March 9 so be sure to listen in to see if you have won!

A good friend and online mentor of mine is WAHM Talk Radio’s Kelly McCausey. She often does her show as a friendly chat and calls it Coffee with Kelly. I love these shows of hers so much. So, I was inspired by her idea and thought, hey I would love to do that, however, I am not a coffee drinker, and my beverage of choice today is sweet tea. So, I am doing “Sweet Tea with Alyssa”.

This first Sweet Tea episode I share with you all some great news, a few prayer requests and attempt to encourage the mothers of teen girls as they struggle to communicate with their daughters, when they feel like their words are going in their daughter’s ear and out the other. I give you some ideas, as well as share about a mentoring relationship I have with a teen girl in my church and the results that I have seen that confirm that what I have been doing with her has been worth it. I hope you will find that the things you are teaching to your child and instilling in them over and over are working as well.

I share with you how I preach what my momma preached to me and how it has paid off! Sweet tea and preaching, good Southern stuff, from this Southern gal. To celebrate this week’s show I’m having a contest where you can win some sweet tea… check out the newest blog post above to find out the details and listen in to Show #16 on March 9 to see if you’ve won.

This week I share about money, and the importance of teaching our daughter’s about taking care of God’s money. This is something we will all have to do in life, whether your daughter chooses to live a life as a single person, get married, or get married and have children. She will have to take care of what God gives her. Money is given to us by God as a part of his provision. We are to take care of what he gives us. Many of us struggle with this, as wives and mothers, to either be content with what we have or to manage what we have, or maybe even to stretch what we have in order to pay for everything we need.

This month as I share on the show I was blessed to be able to hire a Christian financial counselor who shared with me some Biblical principles about money, some of which I’d never thought about before. I share some of these with you on this week’s show as well as another website I have found helpful as I am attempting to live more frugally this year and to get out of debt. This website is maintained by a young Christian mother, Crystal Payne. It is called Money Saving Mom and can be quite a help to you as a mom trying to make ends meet. I encourage you to teach your daughter how to manage money as Crystal’s mom taught her. I listened to Crystal’s appearances on Mom’s Love Shopping and was encouraged by what her mom taught her and she is now sharing with us, via the web.

Crystal has an awesome resource for moms who want to save money on grocery shopping. It is called Supermarket Savings 101 you can check it out just Click Here! I have purchased the course myself and really enjoyed using it.

I hope that you enjoy this week’s show. I realize that the topic of money might seem strange to some for a mom-daughter show, but honestly, every daughter needs the blessing of her mother sharing with her how to handle the money that God blesses she and her family with, because it can be a struggle, especially just starting out.

On this week’s show I am doing a review of the New York Times Bestseller “The Prayer of Jabez” by Dr. Bruce Wilkinson. I know this book is several years old, however it has just recently touched my life, therefore I wanted to share it with you. There is also a teen version of the book available and you can find them all through the links below.

You can get FREE advertising here on Mom-Daughter Connection Radio show just by linking to our site from your website or blog.  Each week, I will check my stats to see who sent the most visitors to our website and in turn post your button or link under our Radio Partners section of our website and mention you on our next episode.  This is a WIN-WIN situation for the both of us.  Click here to join our partner program and get your shot at free advertising.

Mom-Daughter Connection Show #12 is starting off the New Year right talking about setting goals. I speak about my goals for 2008, and how to align your goals with God’s will. I bring up a few things to remember when striving to reach your goals and ways to encourage your daughter as she is setting her own goals and struggling to achieve them. Many times our goals take much longer than we imagined, but remembering God has a plan is important.

I also invite my listeners to check out our FREE 7 Day How to Journal E Course. You can sign up for it in the box on our right sidebar or by clicking here.

Also I would appreciate your filling out a short survey for me that I have up on our main website at Beauty by Design Ministries. There will be a drawing for one of our 30 Day Journaling Guides for free for completing this survey. The drawing will be held on February 1, 2008.

While we would love to be able to offer Mom-Daughter Connection Radio Show without ads, it’s just not possible to carry the burden alone, so rather than charge listeners for the episodes, we are seeking sponsorship for the show. We’d like to hear what you are in the market to buy – and what advertisers you would like to hear special offers from. Your information is valuable to me. I will use it to make the show self sustainable. Please take the time to complete this short survey. I will be doing a drawing to give away one of Beauty By Design Ministries’ 30 Day Journaling Guides worth $9.97 from the pool of those who take the time to complete the survey. The drawing will be held February 1, 2008.
Click Here to take survey

Praise the Lord, the Mom-Daughter Connection Podcast hiatus is over. We didn’t even have to miss a show! God is soo good that He has created a way to allow the show to go on. A very good online friend of mine Latara Ham-Ying has chosen to bless me with access to her Audio Acrobat account, which for those of you who don’t know is an account that holds audio files that are too large to be held on my web server.

Then, another online friend, Patrysha Korchinski and I are bartering some work so that other things for the show can be paid for as well. I am feeling truly blessed this afternoon and excited that the show can go on. Praising God!!! Stay tuned as tomorrow will bring a new show!

Wanted to inform everyone that the Mom-Daughter Connection Shows 1-11 are now active in the archives.  For several days they were not available as I was switching them over to another account.  I apologize if you were unable to get to them to listen to any of them.  They are up again and you should be able to download or listen to them on the site with no problems.  Thanks for your patience.

I wanted let everyone know that I am making some changes in my ministry.  I have to do this in order to be most faithful to the Lord  in the area of finances.  Financially, I have to cut back on expenses.  Therefore, I am not going to continue doing the bi-weekly radio show and podcast, Mom-Daughter Connection.  I am foregoing this show for the time being.  It will be on hiatus until such time I feel that I am financially able to support the show or until I have a supporter who can fund the venture.  The shows up until this point are being archived and I will make them available to you all at a later date with some upcoming projects I have in the works.

Be on the lookout for more guides and recommended resources here that I will recommend as well as the same articles and devotions that you are used to reading.  I enjoy writing and will continue to do so as a part of my ministry.  Thank you for your understanding on this matter.

Better late than never, This week’s show will bring you up to date on where I have been. I hope you’ve missed me. This week’s show is about the story of Queen Esther and what we can learn from her about being “set apart” for God.

Just over the past week I have begun to realize the importance of memorizing Scripture. Sure, I have always believed it was important, and I have done so for quite some time, this week however I just had several events that fired me up on the topic. Therefore, I thought I would share my thoughts with you on this important topic. I hope that you enjoy this week’s show.

As I sit and look at my son’s huge loot of candy from the Trunk or Treat at church last night and his class party at school I’m thinking we might have enough, but maybe you don’t. If you’d like to win some chocolate then you’re at the right place. Mom’s Talk Radio Network, which our show, Mom Daughter Connection is a part of is giving away a loot of chocolate. So, if you’d like to enter it is simple. Here is the prize list and the rules:

The package includes:

• Two delicious packages of Supreme Chocolate Hot Cocoa
• A Luscious 18 Piece Package of Lindt Lindor Truffles
• A Creamy Lindt Classic Recipe Milk Chocolate Bar
• Intense Dark Mint Bliss Chocolate Treats
• Pepperidge Farm Soft Baked Chocolate Chunk Dark Chocolate Brownie Cookies
• Special Edition Mint Chip Malted Milk Balls

Estimated Value $29.97
Want to know how to enter? It’s fun and easy!

1. Pick a Mom’s Radio Network host to do a blog interview with.

2. You will conduct the short interview of at least five questions with the host either by email or by phone and post the text or recording on your blog.

3. Link to the host’s show site and the Mom’s Talk Radio website.

4. Email us (support@momstalknetwork.com) to let us know where to find your blog interview!

And bam – you’re entered! (And you have some fun content on your blog!)

You can begin anytime. The contest deadline is midnight on November 29th and we’ll reveal our winner on Friday the 30th. (And blast your chocolate goodies out the same day!)

Of course I’m hoping you’ll pick me to do the interview with… so shoot me an email and comment below so I’ll be expecting it! Thanks Ladies and Good Luck!

This week’s Mom-Daughter Connection is about Alyssa’s favorite past time,
journaling. Find out why it’s so special, how you can learn to journal,
why you should journal and more!

Head over to Beauty By Design to pick up your own journal at a very special price!

This week’s show is a confession of my time of teen rebellion. It is meant to help moms who are dealing with a teen or tween who is rebelling or might in the future. It will also helps girls to see what their rebellion does. Hopefully in the end it will connect the moms and their daughters.

Just today I have noticed or gotten notice that some of you out there might not even be sure how to listen to my podcasts.  Last week’s show, “An Interview with Vicki Courtney” highlighted our tech savvy teens and tweens and the fact that some of us adults are not so tech savvy.  Therefore, I want to fix at least one of these issues, and that is “listening to the podcasts” here.

I want to also point out that my podcasts, at least the ones shown here on the Mom Daughter Connection Radio Show & Podcast website are absolutely free.  I do have some podcasts/audios available at Beauty by Design Ministries that are for sale, however these here are free.  You don’ t have to pay a dime to listen.

Now, here is “How to Listen”  :

The Listen Online Option

Well, this is pretty self explanatory. Mom Daughter Connection Radio  and most other programs offer a
simple way to listen to each new show right on the website. This is called ‘streaming the audio’. When you listen this way, no files are being downloaded onto your computer at all – you just listen and when you’re finished you have nothing to delete or clean off of your computer.

In my case, you can visit the post and click on the play button and the audio starts to play or click play in pop-up window and a pop-up window will open and you can click the play button. This option will
allow you to navigate away from the homepage and still listen to the show.

The Manual Download Option

A podcast is simply an mp3 file that has been setup to be delivered via an RSS subscription.  I always offer the mp3 file as a manual download for those who don’t want to mess around with the RSS feed. Just
click on the ‘Listen Now’ button on my site and right click on the ‘Mp3 File’ link to save it to your computer.

After it downloads, you can do whatever you likewith it. Burn it to a CD, send it to your Mp3 player or listen right on your computer without being connected to the internet.  After you’ve listened you can
delete it.

The iTunes Option

iTunes is the Media Player offered by Apple.com. iTunes is an easy option and used by more podcast listeners than anything else.

You don’t have to have a Mac computer in order to use iTunes as they do offer iTunes for the PC.  And you don’t have to own an iPod in order to make use of iTunes.

To download iTunes visit:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

Once you have iTunes on your computer you can just click on this button to subscribe to our show.

If the button doesn’t work, open iTunes and…

You can search for other great topics that interest you or you can simply browse the directory by category.  
 

Find other great Mom related podcasts:
http://www.momsradionetwork.com

iTunes acts as your little Podcasting Assistant.  Once you have subscribed to some shows, you can tell it how often you want it to check for new episodes and whether you want it to download the episodes automatically or manually.  (Click on Podcasts and then Edit, Preferences.)  If you choose manually, it will only tell you that a new show is available – then it will download it when you click to ‘get it’.

 I personally like to open my iTunes before I go to bed and tell it to automatically download any new episodes that it detects on my list.  This way it is gobbling up my internet
connection speed while I sleep and I have fresh audio to listen to in the morning. 

You can listen to episodes right in iTunes – either through your speakers or through a headset.

You can easily send the audio files over to your iPod.

You can burn audio files to a CD using iTunes.  Information about this can be found by clicking on the Help link in iTunes. 

You can also click and drag your podcast files out of iTunes to transfer them to non-Apple portable mp3 player..

If you already have a different Podcast Receiver installed you can add our feed by adding this address to your receiver: http://feeds.feedburner.com/momdaughterconnection

This week Alyssa interviews fellow Christian author and speaker, Vicki
Courtney about her new book, “Logged on and Tuned Out”, a non-techies guide
to a tech savvy generation.
Learn how you can win one of her books on the show.

If you would like to win a copy of Vicki’s book please leave a comment below. I will be announcing the winner on the next episode of Mom-Daughter Connection.

Carrollton, MS – Being a tween or teenager in today’s society can be challenging. Images of what the majority considers to be ideal beauty saturate print, television, online and radio media. Young women gravitate to the flashy and glamorous lifestyles of celebrities and adopt them as standard codes of conduct. Mom and business owner Alyssa Avant wants young girls to know their identity does not have to be defined by society’s standards, but by the morals and ideals in their hearts.

Avant is the founder of Beauty By Design Ministries, a vocation created to empower young girls and help them turn to God for guidance and inspiration. As part of her mission to uplift tween and teenage girls, she believes solid and open relationships between mother and daughter is crucial. To nurture that bond, Avant created The Mom-Daughter Connection Radio Show, a bi-weekly segment that covers important topics relevant to today’s young Christian woman. On September 25 Avant will welcome Christian author and speaker Vicki Courtney to the show to discuss her new book, “Logged On and Tuned Out”, a non-techie’s guide to parenting a tech-savvy generation.

“We’re extremely excited to have Vicki as a guest on Mom-Daughter Connection,” says Avant. “She is a recognized authority in the Christian community and we are honored to have her share about her new book with our listeners.”

The interview will be pre-recorded and airs on Tuesday, September 25. Through 17th day, September, 2007, listeners can email their questions to be answered during the interview to: alyssa@beautybydesignonline.com. In the interview Courtney will address the importance of parents staying tuned in to what their kids are doing with all of their technological gadgets (internet, cell phones, iPods, text messaging, etc.), and how to gently guide them away from danger while remaining “hip” yet responsible teens.

Those who send in their questions will be entered into a random drawing to win a copy of Courtney’s new book. The winner(s) will be announced during the interview.

About BeautyByDesignOnline.com:
BeautyByDesignOnline.com is a full-service ministry created to uplift and empower young girls in today’s society. The company offers products, speaking engagements and interactive events all designed to help turn young girls’ hearts to God. To learn more, please visit http://www.BeautyByDesignOnline.com .

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For this week’s show be sure to have your teen or tween girl listen in I
speak more directly to them this week and announce a new project I have in
the works with them in mind. As well as a special guest for Show #7. You
don’t want to miss a minute of this week’s show.

I am excited beyond words right now everyone, because in just a few weeks I’m going to be interviewing Vicki Courtney for an upcoming episode of Mom Daughter Connection Radio Show & Podcast. The show will air on Tuesday, September 25.

In case you’re not familiar with Vicki here is some information I copied from her website:

“Vicki Courtney is the founder of Virtuous Reality Ministries® which reaches over 150,000 girls and mothers a year. A mother herself of three teens, she seeks to provide both teens and their parents with the tools necessary to navigate today’s promiscuous culture. She has done hundreds of radio and newspaper interviews and appeared on CNN, Fox News, and CNN Headline News to discuss issues impacting teens. She is the creator of VirtuousReality.com, an online magazine for teen girls, which has attracted visitors from all 50 states and over 30 countries. She is a national speaker to women of all ages and the best-selling author of numerous books including, “Your Girl: Raising a Godly Daughter in an Ungodly World” and its counterpart, “Your Boy: Raising a Godly Son in an Ungodly World,” and “The Virtuous Woman…Shattering the Superwoman Myth.” She is also the author of the best-selling magabook, “TeenVirtue: Real Issues, Real Life…A Teen Girl¹s Survival Guide,” which won the 2006 ECPA Christian Book Award; “TeenVirtue 2: A Teen Girl’s Guide to Relationships” and “Between,” a magabook for girls 8-12. Vicki’s latest release is the third magabook in the TeenVirtue series, “TeenVirtue Confidential.” Her much anticipated book for parents “Logged On and Tuned Out: a non-techie’s guide to parenting a tech savvy generation” is slated for a September 1st release. Vicki has also written several popular Bible studies for women including “The Virtuous Woman” and “Get A Life!” Her newest DVD studies are “His Girl” for teen girls and “Your Girl” for moms, which is based on her best-selling book by the same title.”

I am looking so forward to my interview with her, someone I look to as a role model in girl’s ministry. The interview will be about her newest release “Logged On and Tuned Out”. I hope you will look forwarding to tuning in to hear more about this latest book of hers.

This week’s show is a topic that almost all teens and tweens struggle with as well as some of us adults, self-confidence. Find out where our confidence should really come from, as well as how to boost yours and your daughters. I hope you enjoy the show.

This week’s show is our Back to School Special Fall Fashion. I am covering how to make sure your daughter finds modest clothing as well as what are the latest more modest styles. I also cover a couple of questions from our listeners sent in via email. If you have more fashion comments or questions please be sure to tune in to our FREE teleseminar next Tuesday, August 21 to be a part. In order to join the teleseminar you must be a subscriber to the Mom-Daughter Connection Weekly Ezine. You can join by clicking here and filling in the opt in box at the bottom of the page. You will then receive an email with the call in information for the teleseminar.

Announcing the next Radio Show and Podcast which will air Tuesday, August 14th will be a “Back to School Special” Fashion Forecast. Find out what the teens and tweens are wearing this fall as well as if you really want your daughter to be “in style”. Learn some still very fashionable alternatives as well as how to deal with difficult fashion situations you might face with your daughter. Have a comment or question for me for the show? Contact me at alyssa@beautybydesignonline.com and I’ll do my best to address your comment or question on the show.

This week’s show is on the topic of spiritual gifts. I am quite fascinated by them and have studied them for years. This week I introduce you to the concept of”spiritual gifts”, clear up what they are and are not and recommend some books and scripture to you. There will be more on the next show, set for Tuesday, August 13. Find the lists of books and scripture at http://www.beautybydesignonline.com/2007/07/31/spiritual-gifts/

This week I cover the topic of “Finding Mr. Right, Instead of Settling for Mr. Right Now. I know as a teen I struggled with always wanting a boyfriend, or someone to go out with. These guys weren’t always the “right” person for me. I dated often just to have a date rather than because we were compatible or because he was someone I would truly consider as a “potential mate”. I encourage you in this week’s show to help your daughter with this tough topic. I give some tips and ideas from my own experience.

I am so excited about our first online seminar by Beauty by Design Ministries and Mom Daughter Connection, “Teach Your Daughter to Give of Herself, Her Time and Her Talents”. Visit http://www.beautybydesignonline.com/seminar_salespage.html to find out more about this online audio/video conference and to sign up!

I want to celebrate the launch of my first show with you! Therefore, if you are here to listen to my show, as soon as you listen to it, post a comment here on this post and I will award you just for listening! That’s Right, I will send you a FREE download of my first book, My Heart To His: Prayer Journal Devotional Guide. So, don’t hesitate, listen and comment now! You will need to leave your email address so I can email you the download link. However you might want to leave it like this: alyssa @ beautybydesignonline.com with a space between so you won’t get a bunch of spam. Thanks so much!

It is exciting to announce the launch of Mom-Daughter Connection. This is Show #1, My Testimony. I hope you enjoy as I tell you about my call to ministry and why I started Beauty By Design Ministries. Also this week I’ll be giving away the Spa Party in a Box as our contest prize!

Yes, I’m throwing a party, a BLOG PARTY! Want to join in on the fun! Well, you can, and it’s easy, simply post a blog on your blog about the launch of my show, Mom Daughter Connection Radio Show & Podcast. The first show airs tomorrow, July 3, so let’s get this party started! Then come back here and mention your blog and blog url in the comments section. I’d really appreciate your participation! Thanks everyone!

Catch a preview of the professional audio introduction we had made for the new show that is launching this Tuesday, July 3rd.