This January has been one illness after another, minor ones like ear infections (my child) and sore throat/headache (me). But still, we’ve been laid out missing work and church off and on for three or four weeks. Lots of Vicks Vaporub for me; my children taking Nyquil—excuse me, Equate brand nighttime cough and cold medicine—sleep helps a lot.

The weather has switched between 50 degrees above and a few degrees below zero. Today for the president’s inauguration it’s a polar vortex taking things down to 8 degrees above zero Fahrenheit. The sun is shining brightly and the ice on the sidewalks is so cold it’s like glass, less slippery than wet ice, but more painful to hit. Joshua and I listened to the president’s inaugural address and tried to remain optimistic; he promised Mars!!! That’s better than promising the moon, right?

One or two things I agreed with; a lot I disagreed with, and a lot were platitudes and rah! rah! encouragement that under most presidents would be window dressing. Trump actually believes what he’s saying and will take the bull by the horns; he has a pile of executive orders all drawn up and waiting for his signature today. When he says he’ll make the U.S. a manufacturing powerhouse and drill for oil to become the world’s largest producer of it, he’ll certainly do all he can to bring that to pass. He also says he wants free speech and no more using media to hound people politically. Says the guy who castigated his supporters last time he lost…

I anticipate either Ukraine will be hung out to dry in an effort to make peace at all costs, or we’ll have our boots on the ground over there. Trump doesn’t do half measures.

Well, the Second Coming of Christ is in the works, whether Trump expects that or not; it’s not yet. Some people are joking that Trump is the second coming, because it’s his second term as president; some are saying it’s the second coming of the anti— because he’s obnoxious, dishonest, and a bully. Whatever Trump does, the Savior, Jesus Christ, will come. We need to hold together, love, forgive, and live the commandments in the meantime.