About Dana

My photo
I'm a dichotomy of blue jeans, pretty jewelry, frugalista, and Southern girl living the simple rural life. I want to live my life holistically, thoughtfully, economically, and most of all gratefully, and encourage other women to do the same.

Friday, November 11, 2011

My Favorite Bible Studies for Women

There are so many Bible Studies out there, and many are written and designed specifically for women. I'm listing a few that I really enjoyed and learned from. I am not including links because you can google the titles and authors and find them just about anywhere.

My all-time favorite Bible Study (so far) is "Daniel" by Beth Moore. I almost didn't enroll in this study at my local church. I thought, "I know all about Daniel and the lion's den. What else is there to learn from this short book of the Bible?" I couldn't have been more wrong. There is so much prophecy packed into this book, and I learned more about the Bible than I ever have in one class. I learned just as much about Revelation as Daniel in this fascinating study. It is a little pricey (if you try to buy the videos - which I highly recommend) - but many churches have it and may offer it or loan it out to members.

I also learned from:

"A Woman's Walk with God" by Sheila Cragg. She presents much good information about strengthening your spiritual life in times of trouble and in everyday living. Short reading passages are followed by fill-in-the-blank discussion questions that you can personalize. The study really made me think.

"A Woman's Heart: God's Dwelling Place" by Beth Moore. See a pattern here? Her style of teaching jives with my way of receiving. I've tried the audiotapes with her studies, but the visual DVDs are really the way to go.

Do you have a favorite Bible Study? I'd really like to hear so I can check out some new ones.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Love,
TCB

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Boys, Boys, Boys

Did you think this post was going to be about all the cute male species out in the world? Shame on you. You obviously haven't been reading my blog much. I'm very married and very in the country and very locked in the house homeschooling and working from a home office. I guess a better title post would be: Boys, Boys, Boys (Need to Read, Read, Read).

I do, however, have very personal experiences with the two males that live in my home. (I'll only discuss issues unrelated to body noises. If you have a boy or are married, I fear you know what I mean. Sorry.)

If it wasn't for all the animals in and around our house (all curiously female), I would be the only estrogen around.

What I have to say is that I have a heck of a time getting my boy (not the man of the house) to read. I bought him a bookmark with a built-in timer so he could set it to read 30 minutes per day as part of our homeschool lesson. If it weren't for that handy bookmark, I'd be wrangling with him over whether he read just 25 minutes or **horror of horrors** 31 minutes per day.

So how (ecstatically) happy I was to see this taking place ON A WEEKEND afternoon.
It's the comics, but it's the newspaper AND I DIDN'T HAVE TO SET THE READING TIMER. Maybe there's hope yet. I keep saying, "If you can read well, you can learn anything."

And yes, I know Anthony Bourdain is on in the background, but notice my beloved is looking at the paper and not the TV. Progress!

One helpful lesson my son is seeing is how TV producers take liberties with written material. For example, he has enjoyed for the last year watching the 1970s Little House on the Prairie TV series. He is currently reading his way through the 9-volume Little House set of books and often points out to me how the book differs from the TV portrayal. He seems to be realizing it's better to read to learn more details.

I like to read non-fiction and am reading a couple of books about boys now. I will share in a future post when I've made my way a little further through them.

In the meantime, happy hump day!

Love,
TCB

Monday, November 7, 2011

Deviled Chicken Wings

I promised I would share the recipe I used for Deviled Chicken Wings in my last post. It originally comes from Sheila Lukins' book, Celebrate! I, of course, always tweak my recipes somewhat to suit my family's taste. Every time I have made these wings, there are never any leftovers. A hit! (Refer to my last post about why I, sadly, do not have a photo of these wings).


Deviled Chicken Wings

5 lbs. chicken wings
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1-2 tsp. hot sauce
1 tsp. chili powder
coarse sea salt, to taste
1/2  tsp. paprika
1 small red onion, diced, OR 4 scallions, sliced, OR onion powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put wings in a bowl and toss with garlic. Melt butter and olive oil together and whisk in all other ingredients except red onion. Pour over the wings and toss well, coating them. Put the wings on a wire rack in a shallow baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake 30 minutes more. Lightly dust the cooked wings with extra paprika and red onion/scallions/onion powder (your choice). Eat right away! They are best hot from the oven.

PS. I added the wire rack in the baking process. When I tried them without it, the wings were soggy on the underside. With the rack, they are uniformly crispy.

Happy Monday!
TCB