Summer officially began last week and for many, it means melon season. According to the UDSA, in 2022, approximately 21.1 pounds of melon was available per U.S. consumer. Of the melons available and enjoyed by consumers, the three most popular melons ranked, in order of availability: watermelon (14.1 pounds), cantaloupe (5.3 pounds), and honeydew (1.6 pounds).
The Book of Judges is a Christian favorite. From Ehud slaying the fat man Eglon to Gideon selecting the 300 weirdos who lap water like dogs as his army to Samson slinging jawbones, Judges provides a host of wild and fantastical stories. From laughter to fascination to frustration, this book offers so many unique details that stick in our minds from a young age. Who doesn’t love Jael pounding a tent peg through Sisera’s skull?
June 25th would have been my 58th wedding anniversary. It’s not really a sad day for me because the 25 years I had Chuck were wonderful with lots of laughs and precious memories.
On June 25, 1966, it was every bit as hot then as it was this year. The heat and humidity were horrendous and the worse part; there was no air-conditioning. We were married at my home as I was still living with my parents.
Hummingbirds are unlike any other bird. Spanning the Americas with over 330 species, hummingbirds belong to Trochilidae, the second-largest bird family in the world. However, only the ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) inhabits the Midwest. This hummingbird migrates south in late summer, with the males migrating first, typically in August. Before the non-stop flight to overwintering sites, this bird needs abundant food sources to fuel its journey to Florida, Texas, Central America, or Mexico.
Where can you bike ride in the buff and stay on the right side of the law?
Can you believe I just asked that? It’s another crazy press release! These people just have too much time on their hands and make money at it.
So this is World Naked Bike Ride month! I can’t believe all the days and months that are dedicated to some of the craziest stuff. To do this, they ranked the best cities for naked biking. Sorry, to disappoint you, folks, but Beardstown didn’t make this list either.
Have you ever received a package in the mail that had the words “Fragile: Handle with Care” written on them. These words are put on a shipment to protect the contents of a package. In an ideal world such boxes would be gently moved from place to place and nothing would ever be damaged. However, in the real world “Fragile: Handle with Care” means nothing to some package carriers. These words often seemed to often be overlooked by delivery services and packages often thrown or carelessly dropped.
I think it’s safe to say that most places in our county have been pretty much cicada free. At least I haven’t heard many complaints. Now, Jacksonville, that’s another story.
I’m not sure why we don’t seem to have any and I’m not going to make any guesses, but I’m really glad we’re not experiencing what some communities are experiencing.
This week I received a press release that said add cicadas to your favorite list of ice cream toppings. Excuse me! Not on my ice cream!
In life, seeing things from the proper perspective can make all the difference. When we look with the wrong perspective, we can get the wrong picture and that can affect our attitude and our outlook.
For example, a shoe company sent two shoe salesmen to a foreign country to explore the market and determine if they should try to open a shoe store there to market their shoes. After a week both salesmen wrote back to their company. The first said, there is no use to open shoe stores here, no one wears shoes here. The second wrote back and said move speedily to open a store, no one is wearing shoes here…what a great opportunity!
Greetings Beardstown! Allow me to start by introducing myself. My name is CJ Monroe and I am the new Lead Pastor at First Christian Church here in Beardstown. I have served in full-time ministry for almost 15 years now, almost exclusively in youth ministry. Our family has been here for a little over a month now and are so excited for our new community we get to minister to. My hope and prayer with these articles, much like the others I have seen written in this column, is to inspire faith and remind you of the hope that can be found in Jesus. I believe that this hope is always so necessary, but especially when the world seems to get darker, hope can feel out of reach.
As you well know, my 20 y/o grandson, Mason, is my tech person, the one who gets my phone back to normal after my magic fingers screw it up. His favorite question is;
“Grandma, how did you do this?”
My best and always response is;
“I have no idea.”
I recently had an unexplainable situation with my car. And that question popped up again.
I take my car to the dealership to be serviced regularly. A couple of weeks ago it was time for an oil change and its usual checkup.