This Woman Writes by Carolyn Henderson

Is the Bible Boring?

Posted on August 21, 2013 by This Woman Writes

Beautiful beautiful summertime. I saw it as an opportunity to stop being so stubborn and just join the group. Hah. Golden Opportunity, original oil painting at Steve Henderson Fine Art; licensed print at Great Big Canvas.

One summer when I must have been insane, I agreed to join a small women’s Bible study given by a deaconess at the church we then attended.

“You must be insane,” the Norwegian Artist commented when I told him. “You know that you don’t play well in groups like this.”

“But it’s a small group,” I replied. “I know everyone, kind of, in an acquaintanceship-sort of way, and maybe it will be a means of making our relationships stronger.”

Six weeks, one hour per week, theoretically studying King David in 2 Samuel. I say theoretically, because from the get-go we read all of one sentence, along the lines of,

“On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men.”

I was seriously ready for some thoughtful contemplation and meaningful discussion of Biblical issues. Thoughtful, licensed open edition art print at Great Big Canvas.

“The study book says to look at this sentence closely,” the leader said. “It wants us to circle all of the names, underline any prepositions, put triangles around the adjectives, and prayerfully consider what is being said here. Each of us will take turns reading the sentence aloud.”

At this rate, 2 Samuel was going to be a long, looooonnnnng book. And six weeks started to seem like a long time.

But then, amazingly — it must have been an oversight of the Bible study guide people — we hit the part about King David wandering around on his roof and espying the already married and incontrovertibly off-limits woman Bathsheba, in a state of significant dishabille, bathing on the roof below, and when we got to the sentence,

“Then David sent messengers to her. She came to him, and he slept with her,” even the study guide couldn’t obfuscate the compelling, grittily earthy aspect of the story, although it did its best by insisting that we identify the direct object (messengers) by putting a star over it with an orange crayon.

“Was Bathsheba a willing partner in this?” one woman mused, “Or did she have no choice because the king had commanded her?”

For a brief moment, we escaped the study book and plunged into real life. Leave the Crowd Behind poster; see all the inspirational posters at Steve Henderson Fine Art.

“Did she know he was looking?” another woman countered. A lively conversation ensued, with actual animation in people’s features and voices.

None of our questions or observations were in the study guide, which was ready to move on to identifying conjunctions and compound predicates (I had no idea that grammar was so spiritual), but finally, in the third week of class, we had hit upon something interesting to talk about: real life, real people, real situations, real problems without easy answers.

And the leader desperately pulled us back to the task at hand, which had nothing to do with real life, real people, real situations, and real problems without easy answers:

“I don’t think we’re supposed to talk about this,” she said. “We need to move on to the spiritual meat of the passage.”

Back to grammar.

Was this boring? Yes. Did it need to be? No.

Is the Bible boring? Depends upon how you approach it. It’s got

The Bible is like the ocean — full of life and movement and color and action. Opalescent Sea, original painting at Steve Henderson Fine Art; licensed open edition print at Great Big Canvas.

everything in it that you’d find in a juicy novel — intrigue, deception, incest, adultery, murder, theft and rage interspersed with mercy, compassion, understanding, longing, loss, love, joy, and hope, and if you allow yourself to read more than one sentence per day, and not worry about analyzing every single semi-colon for its placement and purpose, you can get something out of it.

If you read it for yourself, and don’t allow others to interpret it exclusively for you, you can learn, bit by bit, more about God, because He’s on every page, somehow. And you don’t have to read everything just because it’s there: if architectural blueprints don’t excite you, detailed plans in the book of Exodus for building the tabernacle will put you to sleep.

There’s poetry, prose, lists, stories, advice, history, genealogy, letters, prophecy. Some of it’s clear, some of it isn’t, but anybody who adores Jane Austen knows that you can’t understand everything, all the time. If the answers were easy, we’d have them all by now.

Read it how you want: bunches and bunches at a time; or one significant sentence, over which you muse for days; and a fusion of the two extremes. Don’t get stuck in a rut, and always remember what the book is: our only written resource about God, by God, using human writers.

God’s not boring. But we sure have the capability of making the book about Him that way.

Fine art by a very fine painter, Steve Henderson of Steve Henderson Fine Art.

All of the fine artwork in my articles is by Steve Henderson, a professional painter who shows and sells his work internationally.

Find and buy Steve’s art at

Steve Henderson Fine Art

Manufacturers and retailers — license Steve’s work through Art Licensing

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Recipe: Peanut Butter Smoothies

Posted on August 20, 2013 by This Woman Writes

Smoothies are cool anytime. Photo courtesy Steve Henderson Fine Art

I was in a mall the other day (I still don’t know why) when we passed by a smoothies bar.

“Oh, look,” my shopping companion effused. “Smoothies! I love smoothies!”

So do I actually, but fortunately I (and you) don’t have to depend upon a trip to the mall to get one. Fruit, ice, liquid, sweetener, peanut butter, cocoa, vanilla and a decent blender are all you need to create your own customized, inexpensive, healthy concoctions, and your creativity is limited only by the contents of your cupboard.

I use an ancient Vitamix passed on from my mother-in-law, and the beauty of these kitchen tanks is that they puree/frappe/masticate/liquidate pretty much anything because their motor is so powerful; a cheap box store model may not like chugging at ice cubes, so if you’ve got something cheap, go slowly, and use ice that’s as crushed and small as you can get it.

During the warm months when the goats are producing lots of milk, the Norwegian Artist and I live on lunches of smoothies — made with milk, they’re a great source of protein, and when we toss in fruit, they pack in that much more nutrition.

Oh, and by the way, I post recipes for fast, easy, healthy, inexpensive food every Tuesday. Join me. And catch up on what you missed in my Recipes section.

Recipe: Peanut Butter Smoothies

Ingredients:

2-3 cups ice cubes (I use the 16 blocks from a plastic ice cube tray, but remember what I said about cheaper blender models and the limitations of their motors)

2 cups milk

1/3 cup peanut butter (I use the natural kind, you know, the one you have to stir because the oil separates out)

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 ripe banana (optional)

1-2 Tablespoons chocolate chips, chopped, for garnish (optional)

Dump everything but the chocolate chips into the blender and turn the

Whether we’re talking smoothies or life, do it your way. Inspirational posters are a great way to enjoy art, from Steve Henderson Fine Art

thing on. If the mixture gets too thick, you may have to use a tamper tool, which for the Vitamix is designed to stir stuff around without hitting the running blades. With a regular blender, you may just have to turn the machine off, make sure the blades are still, and then stir the contents.

Keep blending until all the ice cubes have been obliterated and the entire mixture is smooth. Sometimes little chunks of bananas show up as surprise textural elements, which really grosses out Tired of Being Youngest, but if this is the case, just blend longer.

If you’ve got a cheap blender, listen to the motor. If it sounds strained or if it stops altogether (there should be a re-set button somewhere on the appliance), add more liquid and make the mixture less thick.

Pour the mixture into glasses (it makes 3-4 cups), and sprinkle chocolate chips atop.

Don’t wait on the economy to improve or change. Make lifestyle changes that work by reading this book.

Most of the stuff you buy at a mall food court, you can make at home — yeah, even cinnamon rolls — and once you get into doing this, you may find you prefer what you make at home: you know what’s in it, and it’s a lot cheaper doing it yourself. This is all part of my mantra: learn to cook. It’s the most practical hobby you can ever pick up.

And hobbies, oddly enough, are an element to saving money — learning to live on the resources you have — which is the theme of my book, Live Happily on Less. We’re all feeling the economic squeeze these days, but the answer doesn’t have to be a second, or third, job. Buy my book. I’ll walk you through realistic, sustainable ways of using what you’ve already got.

“There is something here for anyone wanting to live well on less and then do more of those things they enjoy.” — Amazon Reader Review

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There Is Always Hope

Posted on August 20, 2013 by This Woman Writes

Hope, and peace, and rest — they are priceless. Peace, original oil painting by Steve Henderson.

From Start Your Week with Steve., the free weekly e-mail newsletter of Steve Henderson Fine Art.

Steve Says:

“Hope is such an overused word. Politicians bandy it about as in, ‘The hopes of the middle class,’ and ‘the hope for a future.’ It always sounds good.

“But hope isn’t something that just sounds good — it is a lifeline for the human race. All of us, at some point in our lives, will go through a period in which the only thing we have to hang onto is a hope that better days will come:

“We lose our jobs. We contract grave illnesses. We suffer a financial setback. We lose a relationship that means our life to us. Whatever it is, it’s not good, and the uncertainty of not knowing when it will end, when it will just go away, makes a bad time worse.

“And so we hope for something better. And while we hope, we work toward a solution — we fill out job applications, research health options on the Internet, pull out the budget book, call the person who won’t call us back. We do what we can.

“And we hope.

“And that’s the frustrating part — when we’ve done all the doing that we can, and the only thing left for us to do is wait, and hope.

“If you are there, you may feel that you have reached the end, and at the end there is nothing, but there is always hope. If you are a praying person, you know this in a different way than someone who does not pray, but hope is such a universal concept, such an essential part of our human existence, that the story of Pandora’s box — out of which everything escaped but hope — is a part of our collective psyche (if you’ve never heard the story, follow the link and read it — it is, indeed, a story of hope.)

Want to watercolor? Check out Step by Step Watercolor Success by Steve Henderson Fine art

“I paint what I paint, and the way I paint it, because I believe in hope, and goodness, and mercy, and beauty. Yes, there is despair, evil, harshness and brutal ugliness, but if we focus on those exclusively, then we lose sight of the sweetness — so fleeting, so frail — that life does have to offer.

“There is always hope.”

Read more — how to encourage your child to read, learning to watercolor, at Start Your Week with Steve..

Find and buy Steve’s art in the following online venues:

Steve Henderson Fine Art (Inspirational posters begin at $10.95; original paintings and signed limited edition prints for reachable, reasonable prices)
Great Big Canvas (licensed open edition art prints begin at $29.99)
Light in the Box (licensed open edition art prints begin at $9.99)
Sagebrush Fine Art (licensed open edition art posters begin at $16)
Amazon.com, AllPosters.com, Art.com (licensed open edition art posters begin at $17.99)

Manufacturers and retailers — license Steve’s work through Art Licensing

Posted in Art, art education, blogging, Business, Christian, Culture, Current Events, Daily Life, Economy, Education, Encouragement, Faith, Family, finances, frugal living, Growth, home, homeschooling, homesteading, inspirational, instruction, Life, Lifestyle, News, Parenting, Random, Relationships, religion, self-improvement, spirituality, success | Tagged hope, newsletter, Pandora's box, peace, workshop | Leave a comment

Feeling Like a Rich Person on a Normal Budget

Posted on August 16, 2013 by This Woman Writes

Living simply is one of the first steps to living well. Purple Iris, original watercolor by Steve Henderson

Years ago, when my sister brought home prospective husband material to the family, she mentioned that the potential son-in-law liked butter on his bread. My mother was horrified.

“Do you realize how much more expensive butter is than margarine?” she demanded. “You won’t be able to afford living with him.”

I won’t go into detail about the reaction to my bringing home a Norwegian Artist for inspection; suffice it to say that time has proven him to be a wise investment — despite the additional impediment of his also preferring butter over margarine.

Often, in our quest to save money, we go for the cheap stuff because, well, it costs less, but that’s really only at the counter where we swipe the debit card. Take pop, or soda, or carbonated drinks, or whatever it is you call it, for example. Even the name brands, on sale, are relatively cheap, sort of, especially when compared to real juice made with real fruit.

But when you add up the potential dental issues from the sugar overload, or the possible health side effects from the chemical additives and artificial ingredients, or just the cost itself from the sheer quantity that people tend to ingest — because it’s “cheap,” so why not? — then pop isn’t an inexpensive option. If you bought juice — the real stuff, with a quantifiable amount of fruit product in it — you wouldn’t drink as much because you couldn’t afford to, but if you accepted the juice for what it is — a delicious, luxurious item to be enjoyed — then you will compositely get more out of it than you do the pop. (Oh, by the way, if you haven’t learned the trick of watering down the juice to half water, give it a try; it still tastes good and you can literally drink twice as much.)

When it comes to beverages, there are many superior alternatives, like tea, to soda. Afternoon Tea, original oil painting at Steve Henderson Fine Art; licensed open edition print at Great Big Canvas.

Let’s go back to the butter versus margarine. I use butter because it tastes better, but I go one step further — I buy organic butter (which is a reachable price at CostCo) and use less of it, but when I use it, I love it. Rather than slather it — and the corresponding calories — on cheap bread to compensate for the innocuous taste of both, I judiciously add butter to artisan bread and luxuriate in the taste of quality. This is how rich people eat — good food, made with fine ingredients. Go to any billionaire’s home for lunch, and I doubt that you’ll get boxed, orange, macaroni and “cheese” product.

“It’s unrealistic for a normal family to feed itself on all organic ingredients.”

I hear you. I raised a family of six, and we couldn’t afford to eat all organic. But we did eat well, with the best ingredients I could buy, and we spent about as much, or less, than our parental colleagues feeding the brood out of boxes. While they had fruit roll ups, we had oranges; their boxed pudding was homemade at our house; hot dogs and potato chips at the neighbor’s was vegetable soup and baked potato fries in our dining room. You get the idea: you have to fill those little tummies with something, and it costs just as much, or less, to create it in your kitchen from decent, healthy, and sometimes sublimely luxurious ingredients.

Take what you’ve got — your circumstances, your resources, and run with it. Run Free, one of the inspirational poster collection at Steve Henderson Fine Art

Because that’s where the luxury part comes in: on a budget that doesn’t look like your billionaire friends’, you can’t afford a pantry full of fresh, organic, artisan ingredients flown from disparate parts of the world, but you can incorporate an amazing item amongst the beans and rice, potatoes and sausage, pasta and sauce: every now and then, go for the gold in an accessory food, like an exotic hot salsa for those beans, a specialty sausage from the meat counter to pump up the potatoes, a wedge of real Parmesan cheese (not the stuff in the green tube) to lightly sprinkle over the pasta.

Think of luxury foods like a fine cashmere scarf — you can drape the latter over a t-shirt and metamorphose instantly into Glam Girl. Luxury items, food or not, are like that scarf — you won’t have a whole bunch of them, but if you’re not spending your money on massive amounts of cheap things that clutter up the living room, you’ll save enough to splurge on one gloriously beautiful item that you love and use all the time.

And you’ll feel rich.

Yes, you need a certain amount of money to live, but it may not be as

You don’t have to be rich to feel rich.

much as you think. Live Happily on Less walks you through the realistic lifestyle changes you can make to live like a wealthier person than your bank account says that you are.

“It’s a refreshing look at living on less that doesn’t require the extreme tactics that many others propose.” — Amazon Reader Review

Posted in Art, Beauty, blogging, books, Christian, Culture, Current Events, Daily Life, Economy, Encouragement, Faith, Family, finances, Food, frugal living, Growth, home, homeschooling, inspirational, Life, Lifestyle, money, News, Personal, Random, saving money, self-improvement, Uncategorized | Tagged amazon.com, budget, live on less, rich, save money | Leave a comment

How to Encourage Your Child to Read

Posted on August 15, 2013 by This Woman Writes

Houses do not build themselves, and when you do it yourself, you work hard for something you’ll be very grateful for later. Sophie and Rose, original oil painting and signed limited edition print at Steve Henderson Fine Art; licensed open edition art print at Great Big Canvas.

For two years, we lived as a family of six in a renovated barn while we built our house. Available living space was somewhat under 1200 square feet, with a chunk of that devoted to the Norwegian Artist’s office — at the time he was a telecommuting commercial illustrator. At night, we all slept together in the loft — four kids aged 2-10 in bunk beds; the Norwegian and I on a full-sized mattress set precariously atop a wooden bed frame that frequently buckled during the night, but only if one of us turned over.

Rain pelted merrily — and noisily — on the tin roof, and when the wind blew (which it did, violently, for the two winters we were there), the moaning was almost human. A wood stove kept us warm, and yes, we did have electric lights.

While it all sounds cozy and warm and comfy, it had its opposite moments, but 15 years later as I look back the primary thing I remember was our nightly story reading. Once it was dark, everyone bundled into their appropriate bed, I adjusted the ticky tacky light over our non-existent headboard, and I read aloud to the kids and the Norwegian. Appropriately, we enjoyed Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series, and while we were crowded and tired from working all day and building on our house in the evenings and the barn was messy and our bath tub was a big green plastic Christmas ornament storage box, we were grateful that insulation kept the wind from blowing snow onto our ceiling.

Reading is the ultimate travel experience. Embrace Each Day poster, based upon the original painting, Provincial Afternoon, by Steve Henderson. See the complete line of inspirational posters at Steve Henderson Fine Art.

After the Little House series, we traveled to C.S. Lewis’ Narnia, and after that, we tackled Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which is arguably not little kid fare, something that became obvious in the next to the last chapter when the seven-year-old asked, “Who is Mr. Darcy?” (That seven-year-old is now 22 and a confirmed Austenite; not only does she know who Mr. Darcy is and wishes she could meet a 21st century equivalent, she quotes extensively from Jane’s writings. She also knows that Jane’s last name is spelled with an “e” and not and “i.”)

Reading aloud is a timeless activity that is well worth exploring with your own family, especially, but not exclusively, if you homeschool. As a society, we get really tense about the whole concept of reading, focusing on Success by Six and pushing our children to perform by that age or less, convinced that the reason people read less and not as well these days is because they didn’t learn to do so early enough.

None of my kids learned to read until they were 7; one was 8 — as adults, all four of them read extensively, all the time, and wildly different things: The Son and Heir is the walking encyclopedia replete with information about penguins in Southern Australia and the warfare plans of the Battle of Hastings; Eldest Supreme, who can’t get enough of Elizabethan and Edwardian royal history, consults her brother when she, for some reason, needs to know the mating practices of Monarch butterflies.

These, my friend, are memories well worth having. Seaside Story, licensed open edition art print by Steve Henderson at Great Big Canvas.

But they all read — and they all remember, with fondness, the many many evenings that we explored the world of books together as a family. The beauty of reading to your children is that you can introduce them to really good literature that is beyond their own ability to tackle right now: Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth, despite its clear prose, is beyond the reading ability of the average 6-year-old, but well within his or her listening capacity. When you, as an adult, read to a child, you free him from the world of Green Eggs and Ham (which is a great book, by the way) and let him enter the wonderful, magical world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit.

Even Beatrix Potter, associated as a children’s writer, is better with an adult in charge: “They implored him to exert himself,” is a line my four-year-old granddaughter can repeat, in tandem with me, from The Tale of Peter Rabbit. She doesn’t know what she’s saying, but she sure has fun saying it.

If you want your child to read, then read aloud to him. Show her the wonderful world of books, allow him to create images in his mind to match the words, explore brave new worlds together. I assure you that the memories you build will be fine, strong, beautiful, enduring ones.

Yes, we lived in a barn. This experience is one of the reasons that the

You don’t have to live in a barn, the way I did, to achieve success with your finances. Join me, at Live Happily on Less, and we’ll explore your opportunities.

house we live in now is fully paid for and has never required a mortgage payment. While this may not be your experience, you, too, can free your financial life from expectations and Live Happily on Less. My book, Live Happily on Less, explores the different — and sustainable, and realistic — lifestyle changes that you can make in your own life to live better — now — on the resources you have been given.

$5.99 digital and $12.99 paperback at Amazon.com. I assure you, it’s worth the purchase, and even if you consider yourself a money saver, it will open your eyes to new vistas.

“Get this book if you want to learn how to live on less, do it with creativity and in a manner that suits your personality.” — Amazon Reader Review

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How to — Not — Evangelize

Posted on August 14, 2013 by This Woman Writes

I don’t pretend to be anything other than I am — a middle aged Christian woman who drives a Honda Fit (and I generally leave the Bible at home, next to the sofa). Photo credit Steve Henderson Fine Art

I drive a Honda Fit.

It’s a great little car, and more than once random strangers have approached me and asked about gas mileage, maneuverability, and cost; I show them how the back seats go up and down to create amazing space in a compact car. We part on friendly terms, with both sides having enjoyed the conversation.

Not once have I accosted an SUV or double-cab pickup driver in the parking lot and said,

“Hey! You! Yeah, you with the gas guzzling vehicle that is wasting your money and the planet’s resources — you need to be driving one of these things!”

And then, after they snarl back at the intrusive middle aged lady inappropriately butting into their business, I would say to myself,

Being still, and quiet, isn’t such a bad thing. It’s not an easy thing, but it’s a good thing. Be Still poster by Steve Henderson

“It’s their fault if they spend too much money on gas. I told them about the Fit.”

Suffice it to say that the likelihood of their looking twice at a Fit now is low, since they associate the car with the intrusive middle aged lady.

Obviously, if I truly wanted people to see the advantage of the Honda Fit, hammerfisted tactics would not be the way to go about it. And just as obviously, if a person isn’t remotely interested in a small car, he is not going to be open to hearing about it. Although my product is good, I won’t sell it by making people feel stupid, and I won’t get anywhere, fast, with someone who is uninterested. They need to see the need, and when they do, they’ll take a second look at my wild orange miracle car.

Many people sell Christianity — they call it witnessing — the way you don’t want to tell others about the Honda Fit:

“Hey! You! Yeah, you the sinner who is going to burn in hell unless you accept Jesus Christ, right NOW, as your Lord and Savior — say these words and you’ll have eternal life with the God who loves you, but walk away and you’re damned forever!”

And then, when the listeners walk away, because this approach isn’t particularly engaging, we say,

“Well, their damned soul isn’t on my hands. I TOLD them, and they chose not to believe.”

Our actions, when they involve listening, compassion, and love, speak louder than our words. Beachside Diversions, original oil painting and signed limited edition print at Steve Henderson Fine Art; licensed open edition print at Great Big Canvas.

This isn’t witnessing, it’s hocus pocus, the belief that simply saying the words — no matter how badly and how insensitively — is enough, because we have been given the Great Commission to “go out and tell the world.” We don’t do anything else this way, and when we are truly concerned about the result — the sale of the car, the firmly getting it across to the toddler that he can’t cross the street by himself, the potentially dicey confrontation with our immediate boss — we choose our actions, our words, our place of interaction, carefully, because we want the person listening to be receptive to our message.

Jesus knew this, and the example He set is one we can be free to follow. He took time to get to know people — not just so that He could add another notch to his rope belt — but because He truly cared about their thoughts, their fears, their ideas, their experiences, their hopes, and their lives. When He could help them He did, and while admittedly He was more adept at this than most of us are — I can’t put mud in a man’s eyes and heal him from blindness, can you? — all of us can take time to see what we can do, and do it.

Actions. Words. Motivation. Like the Trinity itself, these three elements work in tandem to bring about results.

In order to tell people about your hope in Jesus Christ, live your life, first, walking closely with the Master. Talk to Him. Lean on Him. Love Him. Let Him love you. Experience the joy and trust and hope that you want to tell others about, and you may find that you don’t have to use words.

Field of Dreams, original oil painting by Steve Henderson

Join me Wednesdays for my articles on Contempo Christianity, a look at life, as an ordinary Christian, in the 21st century.

All of the Fine Art on my website is by my Norwegian Artist, Steve Henderson.

Find Steve’s work at the following online venues:

Steve Henderson Fine Art (Inspirational posters begin at $10.95)
Great Big Canvas (licensed open edition art prints begin at $29.99)
Light in the Box (licensed open edition art prints begin at $9.99)
Sagebrush Fine Art (licensed open edition art posters begin at $16)
Amazon.com, AllPosters.com, Art.com (licensed open edition art posters begin at $17.99)

Manufacturers and retailers — license Steve’s work through Art Licensing

Posted in Art, blogging, Christian, Culture, Current Events, Daily Life, Encouragement, Faith, Family, Growth, home, homeschooling, inspirational, Life, Lifestyle, News, Personal, Random, Relationships, religion, self-improvement, spirituality, success | Tagged evangelize, great commission, Honda Fit, Jesus, witness | Leave a comment

Recipe: Yukon Gold “French Fries”

Posted on August 13, 2013 by This Woman Writes

Yukon Gold potatoes. Photo courtesy Steve Henderson Fine Art.

Who doesn’t love French Fries? But who doesn’t also know that they don’t really qualify as the day’s vegetable — I mean, soaked in grease and dripping with calories.

But fast food doesn’t have to be bad food, and Yukon Gold “French Fries” are a low grease alternative that actually does qualify as something decent to eat — potatoes, when they’re not junked up, provide Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, Potassium and Manganese — and they’re cheap.

While you can use any variety of potatoes for these baked fries, look for Yukon Golds, which have a buttery flavor and texture that is mmmmmm yummy. Yukon Golds come in all sizes, from a little smaller than a golf ball to “real sized,” what you’d expect a russet to look like.

Ingredients:

8 Yukon Gold potatoes, 3-4 inches long or the equivalent

Olive Oil

Salt

Cut the potatoes into 3/4 to 1 inch chunks. Generally, I slice the potato lengthwise into three slices; holding it together, I flip it 90 degrees and make three more slices. I then stack the lengthwise slices and cut one-inch wedges. It doesn’t have to look uniform, as long as my culinary student daughter, Tired of Being Youngest, isn’t in the room. Look at the chunks in the picture at the top of the page — just make something that looks like that.

Coat the wedges with olive oil. I lay the wedges, in one layer, on a greased cookie sheet and pour over a tablespoon or two of oil, then mix it in with my hands.

Sprinkle with salt.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Take out the pan and flip the potatoes with a pancake turner. Bake another 15 minutes. By now they’re done. If you want them browner, flip again and bake until the wedges are the color you want them to be.

These go great with a salad on the side; and if I’ve got the oven warmed up anyway, I toss in a frozen chicken thigh or breast and let it cook (in a separate pan, with a little chicken broth poured over the top) alongside the potatoes.

Customize your lifestyle into one that saves money.

Potatoes are cheap, good food, and part of saving money is looking for cheap, good food that can be cooked and used in a variety of ways.

Saving money is a lifestyle, and my book, Live Happily on Less, shows you how you can make saving money a part of your lifestyle. Short, fun essays talk about the things our family has done through the years to achieve a mortgage-free house, 7 acres of land that we own outright, our car that we bought with cash, and our business, Steve Henderson Fine Art.

There are only a few books on living happily on less and this is a good one. — Amazon Reader Review

Posted in blogging, books, cooking, Culture, Current Events, Daily Life, Encouragement, Family, finances, gardening, Green, Growth, health, homesteading, inspirational, instruction, Life, Lifestyle, money, News, Personal, Random, recipe, saving money, self-improvement, Uncategorized | Tagged french fries, healthy, potato, recipe, yukon gold | 3 Comments

Excellence, Not Perfection

Posted on August 13, 2013 by This Woman Writes

See the YouTube video of this painting in progress, from blank canvas to finished work, set to the Carol of the Bells by the TransSiberian Orchestra and Metallica

From Start Your Week with Steve, the free e-mail newsletter of Steve Henderson Fine Art:

Steve Says:

“I like to think that Santa is really really good at what he does, but he doesn’t worry about perfection. If there is a little spot on the robe of one of the Nativity figurines he is painting, then he doesn’t toss the whole thing aside and start over. Being very skilled at something doesn’t mean that you won’t make mistakes, and actually, the more skilled you are at what you do, the more you know how to deal with mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes become the most talked about aspect of the piece, as in,

“That’s really amazing! What inspired you to do it that way?”

“Making mistakes is also a sign that you are progressing in your goals, because it’s impossible to learn something new without making a mistake or two along the way. Frequently three or four or five. If you never, ever make mistakes, then you’re probably not pushing yourself hard enough.

“And speaking of pushing yourself, these last couple weeks I have been exploring various movie making software, in my efforts to create myWatercolor Success Digital Workshop, the youtube teaser of the digital workshop, and a musical video featuring the painting above, These Gifts Are Better Than Toys.

In Step by Step Art Success, you’ll learn watercolor as you paint Purple Iris. The original Purple Iris, by Steve Henderson, is available at Steve Henderson Fine Art.

“In the push-me, pull-me process of learning new software and video platforms, I am fully aware that I have made, and will continue to make, mistakes, but each mistake impels me to learn something new, and while a YouTube video may not be perfect, it’s very, very good, and I am pleased with that. (By the way, in the Santa YouTube video, watch the Nativity figures closely in the last half — Santa’s face at the top doesn’t change, but the figurines sure do — in time to the music.)

“If we wait until we can do things perfectly, or if we undo every project we start because we made an error here, a misspelling there, then we will never do anything.

“And if perfection is our constant and consistent goal, we’ll scare people off from sharing with us, because they will think,

“It’s not perfect. And he/she won’t like anything I do if it’s not perfect.”

“I would far rather that people be eager to show me what they’re working on, because they think,

“He’s always creating, and he’s excited about creating. Maybe he’ll be excited about what I’m doing, too.”

Of course I will. Because I get excited about people creating, trying, striving, learning, making, moving forward, imagining, and fulfilling.

“Santa’s toy shop is a great place, because there’s a lot of activity there. Let’s make our lives a version of that toy shop.”

Read more at Start Your Week with Steve.

A two-day workshop for the price of a DVD — that is a good deal, indeed.

International artist Steve Henderson sells art, and teaches it. Steve’s Step by Step Watercolor Success Digital Workshop is designed for beginning and intermediate art students, and it walks you — step by step — through the painting process. At the end of it, not only will you have learned a lot about watercolor, you will have a finished painting, Purple Iris, of your own that you will feel proud to hang on your wall.

A two-day workshop costs around $250 — Steve’s digital watercolor workshop is $14.95 for the download and $19.95 for the DVD — and it covers what you would learn in that two-day workshop.

Find and buy Steve’s art in the following online venues:

Find Steve’s licensed open edition artwork, like Eyrie, at Great Big Canvas.

Steve Henderson Fine Art (Inspirational posters begin at $10.95)
Great Big Canvas (licensed open edition art prints begin at $29.99)
Light in the Box (licensed open edition art prints begin at $9.99)
Sagebrush Fine Art (licensed open edition art posters begin at $16)
Amazon.com, AllPosters.com, Art.com (licensed open edition art posters begin at $17.99)

Manufacturers and retailers — license Steve’s work through Art Licensing

Posted in Art, art education, blogging, Christian, Christmas, Culture, Current Events, Daily Life, Education, Encouragement, Entertainment, Family, frugal living, Growth, home, homeschooling, inspirational, instruction, Life, Lifestyle, movies, music, News, Personal, self-improvement, success, technology, Uncategorized, YouTube | Tagged excellence, newsletter, Santa, success, watercolor, workshop, YouTube | Leave a comment

Affordable Back to School Shopping

Posted on August 9, 2013 by This Woman Writes

Autumn is on its way, and with it, back to school shopping. Indian Hill, original painting by Steve Henderson sold; licensed open edition print at Light in the Box.

Every month of the year demands its big chunks of spending — December has Christmas, April taxes, July hamburger and briquettes.

August ushers us into the new school year, and whether or not the clothing from last year fits, its time to buy the kids school clothes. Lots and lots of school clothes, judging from the advertisements and the subtle notifications from your children themselves.

As homeschoolers, we never had much of a problem with this: if a child wore the same outfit two days in a row, the other students at the school said nothing, especially since, if they were older, they had probably worn the same t-shirt and shorts the year before. If they were younger, they were looking at a future wardrobe selection.

Left to their own devices and budget, our kids made some really, really good clothing choices. Enchanted, original oil painting at Steve Henderson Fine Art; Licensed open edition art print at Great Big Canvas.

But even homeschoolers operate within society, and our children were subtly, or not so subtly, swayed by peer pressure, media manipulation, and the latest musical sensation, and especially in the children’s teenaged years we found ourselves fielding insistent requests for this style or that. Because we’ve always been oddly independent, it was easy to meet these demands by handing over most of the year’s budgeted clothing allowance to the budding adult and allowing him or her to run with it (I say most because we reserved a third in case they made some really, really stupid decisions and wound up with the option of walking around naked).

The essential “trick” to saving money on clothes is to recognize who’s in charge in the first place. No, I’m not talking about the dynamics of parent/child relationships, although that is a factor. Wresting who is in charge of your children’s clothing purchases starts when they are tiny babies who yell a lot, but not in words. From the beginning of parenthood, YOU need to be in control: not the people who are creating the fashions and selling them to you.

When you find clothing styles that compliment the wearer’s body type, everybody’s happy. Ocean Breeze, original painting by Steve Henderson Fine Art; Licensed open edition print at Great Big Canvas.

As long as the latest fashion element matters, you will be at the mercy of the people creating this fashion element — and they change it every year.

Look at it this way: if you have a daughter, and you want to buy her some fun, licensed apparel, will Hannah Montana’s face be on the front? You can probably pick this stuff up used, real cheap, at a second hand store. But your daughter won’t make it through the first day of school — although five years ago, she would have been the fashion diva of the second grade class.

This is control — media and manufacturers influencing people of all ages to do the selling for them. So recognize this, don’t fall into it yourself, and start teaching your kids. As you and your family gain confidence in yourself, here are some things to think of when shopping for clothing:

Look at your child’s body and buy clothes that compliment it. If she has a tummy, belly shirts look gross, really. If he’s built like a number two pencil, even slim jeans look baggy.

Cheap clothing really doesn’t save money. After each washing — sometimes the first — it loses shape, form, and structure. Have you ever seen a sweater that is twice as wide as it is long? It didn’t look that way on the rack, but mutated after a few launderings.
Young children, especially, don’t mind hand-me-down clothes from an older friend or neighbor. Lilac Festival, original oil painting by Steve Henderson Fine Art

Buy fewer, quality items of a basic nature that can be accessorized. Fashionable grown-ups on a budget do this all the time — think of the little black dress that, with a tailored jacket and flat heels, fits in the office; after hours, replace the jacket with a sheer silk scarf and stilettos, and you can head out for drinks. Of course, your eight-year-old won’t be spending the evening in the bars, but the black turtleneck that goes over the skirt on Monday, finishes Friday with a pair of jeans and a colorfully knitted bolero jacket.

If you want name brand clothing, check out a quality second-hand or consignment store first. Yeah, the clothes have been worn before — when you buy new in the store, wear it once, and wash it, the next time you wear it you will be wearing clothing that has been worn before.

Cultivate friendships, even shallow ones, with people whose children are one or two sizes ahead of yours. There is no shame in wearing hand-me-down clothing, especially when the people handing it down buy at the finest establishments.

If your child really really wants the latest shirt with a face on it, buy one, or two, just not an entire closet. Treat this purchase as what it is, a special, luxurious splurge.

Keeping it affordable. Following the very latest fashion. Being well dressed. As with any three options, you only get two out of three. I’d go for doors numbers one and three.

Saving money is a lifestyle — you grow into it and customize its fit.

Any time you shop, there’s the potential to spend more money than you intended to. This is normal — after all, everything in our society is set up to encourage us to spend, spend, spend.

But you don’t have to be influenced by this. Live Happily on Less walks you through the doable, sustainable, customizable changes you can make in your family finances to live better on the resources you have been give. Available at Amazon.com — paperback or digital; or borrow through Amazon Prime.

This article was originally published at ThoughtfulWomen.org

Posted in Art, blogging, books, children, Culture, Current Events, Daily Life, Economy, Encouragement, Family, finances, frugal living, grandparenting, home, homeschooling, inspirational, Life, Lifestyle, money, Motherhood, News, Parenting, Random, saving money, school, shopping | Tagged affordable, back to school, clothes, fashion, school clothes, shopping | Leave a comment

Why Do You Homeschool?

Posted on August 8, 2013 by This Woman Writes

Confidence is the main thing that most parent teachers lack, and if you don’t know how to do something well enough to teach it, then find the right resource. Digital Watercolor Workshop by Steve Henderson

Why do you homeschool?

It’s a good question to ask, because why you do it in the first place will ultimately determine how you go about it. Years ago, we lived in a town where there were a lot of homeschoolers. A disproportionate number of them were doing it because they couldn’t afford to send their children to a private school, and it showed.

Once there was a financial opportunity to send the child to a private school, they took it, often interrupting studies mid-year, because Option B was “better” than Option A. In their minds, homeschooling was the least of two good options, and because it was just a temporary fix, they never plunged into it wholeheartedy, or joyfully, and they missed all the good things that can come from the experience.

Yes, You Can — that’s the attitude that will lead to success in your homeschooling experience. Inspirational poster by Steve Henderson Fine Art

They also never gained the confidence that is so crucial for parent teachers to develop, if they’re going to do this successfully for the long term. To gain that confidence, you have to walk into the room with the idea that what you’re doing is good, right, and worthwhile, and while it may not be the only option on the table, it’s the right option for you.

Obviously, we live in a world with color and grayscale, as opposed to black and white, so there will be no ONE reason why you homeschool, in the same way that you have no ONE favorite color or ONE top TV show or ONE best friend, to the exclusion of all others. But you will have a series of reasons of varying levels of importance, and they are the basis of why you are opting to do something so countercultural in the first place, something that draws attention from and comments by others, something that can easily put you on the defensive if you’re not comfortable and confident with your motivation.

Writing is another area where teacher parents feel a lack of confidence, but it doesn’t have to be as hard as they think it is. Grammar Despair, the resource for writers, at Amazon.com

Your reasons, also — while they may mirror some of the reasons why other people around you are homeschooling — are not identical to theirs, and it’s important to get a grasp onto this as well. Otherwise, you may be overly affected by someone else’s way of doing something, and what works for them, won’t work for you.

Let’s take this as an example:

Many people choose to homeschool for religious reasons: they do not like the absence of religious discussion, in any form, in the public school arena, and they want to raise their children with spiritual instruction incorporated into the total school curriculum. Family A, which feels strongly about their beliefs, purchases curriculum primarily based upon how it aligns with their value system, and Bible study is an integral part of the daily work load.

Family B, while they are spiritual as well, homeschool primarily because they do not like the strong peer-oriented culture of the public school system, and they want to raise their children to a sense of independence. Designated Bible study is not a critical part of their daily work load, and the curriculum choices that Family A uses may not work for Family B.

Neither one is “right” or “wrong,” just different. While they can discuss — perhaps animatedly — their individual choices and ways of doing things, they can easily pressure one another, or be pressured by one another, into making choices that don’t work for them, by sentences like these:

Free yourself from insecure feelings about what you teach, and how. Spirit of the Canyon — licensed, open edition art print by Steve Henderson at Great Big Canvas

If you don’t integrate Bible study into your daily studies, then you do not have a complete academic package.

Bible study wastes valuable time that could be spent in other academic areas.

Two different belief systems, two different ways of going about it — and two extremes, incidentally. Most of us will fall somewhere in the middle.

But the important thing is, you have to know where you fall, or you will, literally, fall.

So why do you homeschool? It’s a good question to ask, and answer, before the new year begins.

Thoughtful, beautiful, serene and gracious. Thoughtful poster series at Amazon.com

While you’re purchasing books and curriculum for the year’s adventures, why not consider some inspirational artwork for your walls? Steve Henderson’s prints and posters are affordable and fun, and the upbeat subject matter adds color to your home and walls.

Find Steve’s work at the following online venues:

Steve Henderson Fine Art (Inspirational posters begin at $10.95)
Great Big Canvas (licensed open edition art prints begin at $29.99)
Light in the Box (licensed open edition art prints begin at $9.99)
Sagebrush Fine Art (licensed open edition art posters begin at $16)
Amazon.com, AllPosters.com, Art.com (licensed open edition art posters begin at $17.99)