Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Seventeen

There are times in everyone’s life at church when there is a strong desire to laugh, but it would be most inappropriate.

One of my very favorite services is the Lord’s Supper (otherwise known as “communion” to some believers). At Maynardville (now the First) Baptist Church, this service has always been conducted with the utmost propriety. This is the service that commemorates the broken body and shed blood of the Lord Jesus, sacrificed that the world might be saved.

As a wildflower enthusiast and more recently a student of medicinal plants, I keep running across plants with recurring name components. The terms balm, bane, and wort come up often, so I decided to see why. Prepare to delve into the world of ethnobotany, the study of plants used by humans.

New research reveals that a bad digging technique can as much as double the load on the joints in the body, leaving people susceptible to chronic injuries.

The results reveal the risks that gardeners might be running if using a bad digging technique and comes at a time when more people are recognizing the health benefits of gardening.

There are many places in the Scriptures where God through His prophets details to varying degrees the terms and conditions of His covenant with mankind. The very first place He speaks of it is during Moses' summary of the creation story found in Genesis Chapter 1.

Zap! Boom!

My mom has an awesome superpower.  She can respond with clever comebacks at the speed of light. Seriously, it’s like a lightning bolt comes out of her mouth.  Zap! Boom!

She’s got you.

One time she had two Zap! Booms! in a row. 

We were at a nice restaurant with some friends. Mom ordered a side of coleslaw.  They served it to her in a scoop on top of a leaf of lettuce and in a small white bowl.

Soon after we started eating, my mom said, “Well…lookie here!”

About twenty years ago, I was the kitchen manager at the Hickory Star Restaurant on Norris Lake. Always looking for new recipes, I came across this one. With a little tweaking, it became my own. First, let me tell you about my time at Hickory Star.

Mindy Grimm took over as Union County's ICare Drug Coalition coordinator in July 2017, and while she's hosted monthly meetings and a couple of tailgates during football season, events haven't been her focus. Instead, she's hard at work gathering data on youth drug and alcohol abuse to build a program targeted at Union County's unique needs.

"We don't know what we don't know," she said. "We're reassessing the whole framework to try to build a foundation for the kind of change that we need."

Be the Good Lord willing and the creek [not the Indians] don’t rise, I’ll be signing books–including my new book More Tales from the Hills and Hollows of East Tennessee at the Red Gate Festival and Rodeo.

God willing and the creek don’t rise is a saying I remember from my childhood. However, most of the folks in my family replaced “God” with “The Good Lord.”

After hearing them blurt out this saying, I often asked my relatives what they meant. Most were so shocked that a child had listened to what they said an answer was not forthcoming. Others mumbled something about having a plan to do something but knowing that their plan could be interrupted by fate.

A new study examines what may cause chronic back pain in runners and the exercises to help prevent it. The study, published in the Journal of Biomechanics, suggests that runners with weak deep core muscles are at higher risk of developing low back pain. And, unfortunately, most people’s deep core muscles aren’t nearly as strong as they should be.