when things are hard, and they always are hard

I follow Emily Belle Freeman. She and David Butler have a podcast called "don't miss this".  She posted an end of the year recap and talked about some hard things in her life.  That is the formula of life isn't it.  We come to mortality.  Things are great, things are hard, we find joy and we find faith in both the hard and the great.  That's why we are here.  It doesn't make it easier but it is the purpose of life. I love the way she writes and a couple lines struck a chord with me:

"here's my heart Lord, take and keep it" (from a hymn)

But God, he whispers back.  (and we need to learn to hear the whispers of the spirit don't we?)

"the God of angel armies.

The God of rams in thickets.

The God who makes sure the cruse of oil will not fail"

This is the powerful God that we can rely on and trust.  The God who loves us.

Picture taken from Andrea.  They all went tubing at soliders hollow on NYE.  Cute Marshall and Noah!

And we have our own struggles and our own hard things.  I feel, sometimes that people need more than anyone can give during this craziness. When I talk to friends, family, co workers, ward members, it doesn't really matter who it is, everyone is struggling with issues that are real and really hard.

Meanwhile our weekend was good.  Here's some photos from skating.  Yesterday we went to the Walkenhursts for dinner and for Come Follow Me.  We had a great discussion that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

Rob went back to work after a two week break today.  He was not very happy to go.  He is worried more about covid now than he has been, he got test results back about high cholesterol and triglycerides that were a surprise to him.  He comes from a long living family and he thought he was safe.  Now he is sad (i know the feeling) and changing his diet, and worried about his health.  I am helping with the preparing and buying of healthy food, and am being supportive.  I have been slowly dying my whole life so it doesn't seem as drastic to me.  We both need to be in better health though, there is no argument there.  Our great wish is to retire and serve missions.  To do that we need to be spry. Anyway he doesn't want to travel now so our sibling trip in March is out (well my siblings are still going we just aren't), and he wants to cut back on work travel (I don't know if that is realistic) and he doesn't want Grace to have her Sweet 16 here at the house (she is mad) 

I'm supportive, Covid won't last forever and we can plan a different birthday party.  Also (fingers crossed) maybe we will have a wedding this year, and for sure we have a missionary this year so there is that. 

Michael is still doing not well, still living at mom and dad's.  They are taking the sad and hard steps they need to help him, and to get back into their own home.

Hannah starts back to school this week.  She is sad to leave Ezra but she's on her last semester so that's a big "whoo hoo!!!"

This morning I went to breakfast with Michelle, Kayleen, Laurie and Suzanne. It was a lot of fun to see them.  They all have sons who are preparing for a mission, so exciting times!

There is always a mix.