Yellow farmhouse pleasures on a winter day

• Being "forced" to make a sledding track for the oldest in 8" of new-fallen snow

• A pine tree, pendulous, bows toward the house

• Bending a thousand times to shovel the driveway
• The sizzle of freshly diced potatoes sliding into hot, brown butter in the skillet

• The way a meal feels in your belly after hard physical labor
• Staying up late to fold all the laundry
• The abstract art of shadows on snow: a line drawing in the night

• Discovering a child amongst the nativity: love and awe and reverence in 5-year-old form