A blessed good morning to you. It is 55 degrees on this January 17th morning. That is way above normal. It isn't raining at the moment and my Accuweather app tells me it won't be raining for at least two hours. I really like that app because it seems to be really accurate. But, not only is it not raining, --- the sun is actually peeking through for the first time in a week. Tomorrow we are supposed to have the only sunny day in the next seven days. It really poured last night as I was sitting here in the sunporch listening to my music.

This week is the inauguration of Donald Trump as our new President of the United States. I hope and I pray he will be a good president. Certainly the process of him getting elected was frightful. The country was torn apart and continues to be so. The current president ran an administration of "give away and welfare". People got used to the government giving them "help" when they couldn't make it on their own. And --- that sounds like it is a great idea. The problem became that so much of our society decided that they didn't have to work because they could make more money through gov't handouts and programs. College students enrolled in school in record numbers with no expectation of having to actually pay back the money for their student loans, and in fact at least one candidate for president was proposeing that all college should be free and the gov't could pay for it. However, the elected candidate, Mr. Trump, believes that people should stand up and work for a living and benefits.  It is going to be a very tense time in this nation for some time until Mr. Trump proves that he has the best interest of the nation in mind in his decisions. But of course, therein lies the problem --- knowing what is best for the nation. There are only about 320 million answers to that question; one for each citizen. So, my friends, if you have ever prayed for the health and welfare of our great nation, please continue to do so. The new set of leaders is going to need every bit of help they can get.

I don't seem to have a lot of visitors this morning in the back yard. We had some earlier but are in between feedings I guess. But even earlier we only had a couple of cardinals, a wren, and a couple of downy woodpeckers. I had two squirrels here for a bit but a cat came through and the squirrels took off. They know that several of the cats around here will go straight after them; and yet they leave my birds alone. It all works for me.

I can actually see blue sky off in the west. What a great sight that is. I think I will put on my crocs and go out and pick up some of the branches that are down in my back yard. I break them up into small pieces and put them in the trash can and tomorrow is the day to take the trash cans to the street. So, I might as well make good use of quasi warm temperatures and no rain and do something productive. I have a couple of feeders to fill while I'm out there too.

I pray your week has gotten off to a wonderful start. Keep an open line to God and listen for God's voice speaking to you. God has great things in store for you this week and you need to be ready to receive them. Peace!