So today was the last regular class for Bible Study Fellowship, and we sat around in our circle and discussed the Gospel of John for the last time. I have always loved the final chapter of John, when Jesus appears to His disciples as they’ve been out fishing, tells them where to cast their nets, and invites them to come eat, cooking fish over the fire He’s built on the beach. I’ve just looked up the Sea of Tiberias and found the lovely painting pictured here by the French painter James Tissot. (By the way, I’d always assumed that the fish that ended up getting grilled was one of those caught by the disciples, but the wording of the actual text makes clear that Jesus had brought it along: “ When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.” [John 21:9 NIV]}
I don’t have pictures of this event, as I felt it would be a little invasive to use the people involved as part of a public post, but this is a picture of our house. Let me tell you what went on here yesterday, because it was a very fitting final occasion. With a closing date looming just three weeks away, I don’t think we’ll be hosting any more parties here. (We hope to have our first party at the new place on Memorial Day.)
Before I get to the subject of today’s post, I have to ask: Did you notice that the website looks different? New lettering and new features on the sidebar and at the bottom. I’m pretty sure I’ve posted about this upcoming change in a previous post, but it has taken a very long time. Jim has labored to get all of my sites onto the WordPress platform, which has its own challenges, but which gives me much more in the way of flexibility and features.
Hope you recognize the quotation in the title as being from Gone With the Wind. Mammy says it when Scarlet has her baby, although I can’t remember if it was baby #1 (Wade) or #2 (Bonnie). Bonnie’s the one who ends up being killed in a horse-riding accident. (Spoiler alert, and not that Bonnie has a thing to do with the subject of this post. Also, Hattie McDaniel, who played Mammy in the film, was looked upon by some as giving in to the racism of the novel by agreeing to play that part. And then she won the first Oscar ever by a black actor and couldn’t sit with the rest of the cast at the awards ceremony! Well, all that is a subject for another day.)
Yet another blog post generated from a Gretchen Rubin idea. (I guess at some point I’ll have to start paying her a commission.) She had 
An Unseen Angel: A Mother’s Story of Faith, Hope and Healing after Sandy Hook by Alissa Parker, published by Shadow Mountain Publishers, 2017. Available through many sources; cover image is from 
Pretty bad, huh? I’ve posted about these muffins before and have used my new recipe card app to write out what I did the time before this. They came out pretty well in that version but still didn’t have the rise I wanted, so I tried yet another combination of leavening with the awful result you see here. They tasted fine, but boy! People had to be pretty hardy to risk eating one. I made four dozen of these things for the Easter breakfast at our church Sunday and only brought home about a dozen, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Still and all, though!
Today’s pretty happy around our house. My son, Gideon, was informed today that he has been accepted in the MFA program in creative writing at Virginia Tech. Getting to this point has been a long, long process that actually started well over a year ago when Gideon was a senior in college. At that point he really wanted to go to grad school and worked pretty hard on writing all the ridiculous stuff that the various schools required—mission statements,
One item you will never find in my kitchen is a sponge. I lhate them! They have all these crevices and crannies to trap debris and germs. You can tell how awful they are by the many helpful hints out there about how to sanitize them: boil them, put them through the dishwasher, microwave them. All of which is very well and good, but while the gunk may be sterilized and the germs killed, the sponge itself is still FILTHY. (One of our family sayings is “filthy, just filthy,” from a neighbor’s description of the old Magruder’s grocery store back in Virginia.)