What Miracles Will Unfold in 2023? Appreciating YOU "in the moment!"

  Dear family and dear friends,                                                                                      8 January 2023

It is a new year!  20-23 says Val’s new maroon 8x10 planning book.  So loud.  So bold.  What majestic works will the Savior bring about in this year?  The prophet asked for us to watch for miracles to happen as we put aside lesser things in our lives.  What will they be? Let’s count!  I see a big miracle in the life of our youngest, Maria, 

who just closed on a house close to the Colorado School of Mines, the college where she and her husband are working on graduate studies.  Never mind, the decision had been prompted by multiple times of untoward flooding in her apartment.  And preceded by unprecedented interest rate increases.  A house is a house is a house.  And Penny and Jacob and Maria are celebrating.  Penny is the calico cat, adopted upon arrival in Colorado.  She is shy, but not so shy about sharing her opinion. 

Big sister Kristen volunteered immediately to come on Martin Luther King Day weekend to be human slave labor.  And Mom couldn’t be left out of the action.  So, two partially awake humans will be driven before the break of dawn on Saturday, and prayers include color choices and fast swathing of deck and doors, so that moving in becomes possible directly.  Never say never to the blessing of service.  And putting shoulder next to “shoulder to the wheel,” in feeling unity and joy in making everything more clean, lovely and of good report! 

Holidays have left us feeling grateful for gathering, in spite of virus and sputtering that often accompanies winter get togethers, musical moments, kitchen cuisine, 

nativities, 

games, 

January brings strides of granddaughter turning seven, great grandma turning 93, 

 and always memories of birthdays--new life, gifts, guiding light, and desires to make our humble stalls fit for a King! 

 (this picture is celebrating front room clean up time with grandchildren at their home.)

I love visiting and reviewing journals with my mom, especially being reminded of the blessing of remembering and appreciating something “in the moment!”  Reflecting upon visits that wonderful year of coming home for a moment from Honduras on the way to Guatemala.  Baby blessings.  Piano connections. Walks.  Time for the temple. 

Time to reflect on the blessings of questions of learning from Old and New "Testament."(another word defining “Covenant.”)

Still, every day, is it possible to be even more astonished at the propelling power of promises? 

Promises to care.  Promises to watch over.  Promises to remember our prayers.

  And know that our prayers are remembered.  Thank you for choosing daily to become the answers to prayers.  Blessings as you seek to lift and lighten and love. 

 Sincerely, Laurene and Val Starkey