Day 1 of Kids Summer Shake UP 2023 at Parma Heights Baptist Church

This year I am helping in grades 5 & 6 as a runner (aka gopher).  The first day we had about 33 in this group and split them up into 7 smaller groups with 4-7 kids in each.  Some groups had one leader and others more than one that stayed with their small group the entire morning.  After the opening rally in the pavilion, our first activity was capture the squirrel (similar to capture the flag). The kids got to run around in the woods which most of them seemed to like.  One girl slipped and got her shorts all muddy so I took her inside to call her mom to bring another pair.  She missed the skit, but got back to her group in time for the snacks and devotional.  Today's lesson was Jesus is the bread of life and the feeding of the 5,000.  

Our second activity was crafts where small groups worked together to build a city scape using cardboard rolls, boxes, crepe paper, bottles, and some other miscellaneous items.  The kids really got into this and worked well together.  Here are some of the things they created:

Pink Group getting started

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Two Wasted Stressful Days of Jury Duty!

Terrible Mail

My husband got the notice in the mail about three weeks ago to report for jury duty downtown at the Court of Common Pleas.  He of course did not want to go, so we prayed that God would arrange things so he would not have to report.  He called Friday to see if he had to go on Monday, and we were delighted that he didn't; however, they said to call again on Monday to see if he had to go on Tuesday.  This alone is anxiety producing and stressful!  Unfortunately, it turned out that he did have to go.  Since he is not familiar with downtown, we both went down on the bus together and I showed him the way.  

We met up with a girl who was there on Monday so she showed him which elevators to use and how to get to the jury room area.  All day was very boring since he never got called.  He brought a book along to read (The Writing Retreat) and a lunch.  He had almost two hours for lunch!  A lady who lives a few streets away from us recognized him from walking our dog down her street quite often and offered him a ride down the next morning with her husband.  We thought that was very nice of her!    

I was stressed out too waiting for his call to give him directions to the bus stop. It was a beautiful day and I couldn't leave the house because he had our only cell phone that we share so I had to stay by our home phone. They finally let them go around 3:00 and he called me for directions to the bus stop because it was different from the one we got off at coming down.  They gave him a bus pass to get home which was nice!  I went to meet him at the bus stop with our dog, Roxy, but the bus got there earlier than I expected so met him part way.  I felt bad I wasn't there to greet him when he got off.

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Got A Surprise Package

We got a package from Amazon but didn't order anything.  The name on the box didn't even sound like a name.  It was something like joke oooooo but with our address.  Usually an Amazon delivery truck comes down our street every day so we didn't open it and decided to give it to the driver when the next one came by.  It sat our dining room table for at least 3 days before my husband saw an Amazon truck come and went out with it.  The driver told us we might as well just keep it because even if he took it back, they still wouldn't be able to deliver it to the right person since there was no way of knowing the right address. 

We opened and inside was a toy I never heard of.  It's a Got 2 Glow Fairy Pet Finder!  There are some instructions on the back side of it but very small print and difficult to read through the plastic bag that it is in.  Too bad it wasn't something we could have actually used!  I'm going to give it to a little neighbor girl who walks by our house with her dad all the time.  The funny thing is, they haven't been by in a while, probably due to the bad air quality days we had recently and the high temperatures.  We'll keep a look out.

Have you ever heard or had any experience with this toy?  I even looked at a YouTube video showing someone talking about it, but they didn't seem to quite know what to do with it either!  

Pickleball Noise Makes Neighbors Angry

I love playing pickleball but if I lived so close to the pickleball courts that I could hear the ball, maybe the noise would make me nuts too, especially if people are playing real early or real late at night.  Fortunately, we live two blocks away from our closest courts so the noise does not reach us.  Apparently though, lots of people are bothered by this pickleball noise as the sport grows in popularity and more courts are being made in neighborhoods.  According the an article my husband found, Shattered Nerves, Sleepless Nights, Pickleball Noise is Driving Everyone Nuts, some people even are moving because of it!    

Below is just a short video of my husband playing so you can hear the sound the ball makes.  

 

So, what do you think?  Too noisy?

Related post: Our Neighborhood Mystery is Solved

My Husband's Favorite Reads In June

My husband had read three books in June that he loved!  One was based on a true story and the other two are both by Sally Hepworth.  Below are his reviews on these favorites:

Three Sisters by Heather Morris is based on a true story.  Three sisters make a pact to always stay together and be there for each other, but when two of them are sent to a concentration camp by the Nazis, that pact is put to the test.  Will they survive to see their sister again?  This book is really good!  The parts about the concentration camp are very powerful!  I loved all the three sisters and liked the very good ending!  

 

The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth, Gabe and Pippa's house is near a cliff where people sometimes go to end their lives.  Gabe has a way of talking people off that cliff.  However, one day with Pippa watching, a woman and Gabe talk until the woman is falling off that cliff!  To Pippa, it looks like Gabe pushed her, but she doesn't really believe it!  Could he have?  Sally Hepworth is always good, but this book is fantastic!  The characters are really good and I thought I knew how it would end, but I was wrong!  LOVED THIS ONE!  

In The Mother's Promise by Sally Hepworth, Alice is a single mother who has a 15-yr.-old daughter, Zoe.  When Alice gets sick with Cancer, she is told that she needs a support person to help her and drive her around.  Unfortunately, she has no one except Zoe to count on.  Kate, a nurse, and Sonja, a social worker come to her aid, but they are dealing with their own problems.  This book is really good!  All the characters seem real.  I especially loved the parts with Zoe!  This is Sally's best book yet!  I LOVED IT!  

      Unfortunately, for me, I didn't read any books in June that is was thrilled with so hopefully, maybe I'll do better in July.  You can see all our book reviews at Grab A Book from Our Stack.

  Related posts you might enjoy:

O   Our Favorite Books We Read in 2021

Looking Back at Our Favorite Reads in 2016