From day to day it doesn’t seem like much happens. Then I look back to the last time I wrote on this blog and am astounded by how much has happened and how much has changed.

• We’re in a new house in Tooele, Utah. We closed on the house at the end of November and are now pretty much settled in (at least in the upstairs). We love the house, we have fallen in love with Tooele, and particularly enjoy our new Ward, the Tooele 19th Ward in the Tooele South Stake.
• Jared has successfully undergone open-heart surgery, has a new conduit and valve, and made a remarkably fast recovery. It certainly helps to be in good physical shape when undergoing heart surgery!
• Heather and Ty are in Australia. They’re about half-way through their assignment from Ty’s employer. Heather has completely avoided winter, one of her personal goals.
• Winter has finally arrived. Up until this week we’d hardly had any winter weather and very little snowfall. That’s all changed. I had to snow-blow thirteen inches earlier this week and another seven inches yesterday. More is coming tonight and next week. I’m very happy that we still had the snow blower in storage and didn’t sell it!
• We’ve both had tough winter colds but fortunately, no flu. My cold has hung on for a month and is finally easing out of here.
• Our first (and so far only) great grandson has celebrated his first birthday! Congratulations, Crew!

And then, there’s been another mass school shooting, this time in Florida. I’m more and more convinced that our government in Washington is completely removed from reality and has long since forgotten who they work for. The left and the right are more and more divided and are more interested in damaging each other than doing what’s right for the country. While the country isn’t nearly as divided as it was near the end of the Vietnam War, I think the divisions are more venomous.

It’s time to take protecting our children seriously and work towards real solutions. There isn’t one single solution. It will take a broad set of actions, many of which will anger some part of the electorate. Get going, Washington, and start doing your job.