SNOW.

I haven't left the house for days, and this magical little wonderland of a neighborhood, covered in white, has been the sweetest wintry respite.

I was *more than a little nervous* for Dave's long & late commute home Thursday.  This blizzard-display can only make you feel your small-ness and His great-ness.  I am so much more dependent than I think to recall…..such tiny, powerless little people.

And then we were all together to settle in for warm food and warm blankets (and a drippy roof, that showed a little weakness with all that ice on top…we couldn't blame him:).

When the snow stops falling, everything is whispery quiet.
But Friday morning held the perfect-thick-powder for sledding….
and scads of neighbors were everywhere with sleds and snowboards and cross-country skis.

The kids proved another year older.  They wanted to sled alone and (almost) never broke a tear.  I mostly just got pictures of June because the other two wouldn't stop much to breathe it all in:).

So far, we've only really run out of coffee, and Dave marched the few city-blocks for two fresh cups.

The things is, it's been really beautiful.  But there has also been the usual work of life, the bickering, the lots-of-entertaining of the kids.  And the milk will run out, and the snow will get melty-messy, and life will go on.
And these patterns become more endearing to me as the years go on.  Because the contrast of life is incessant.  I write a blog like this because I tend not to give much attention to the beautiful without stopping to really peer into it.  But the beauty abounds.  And the messes mount again.  And it's all good, because it all leads back to Him, the source of all beauty and the redeemer of messy.
I'd be lost without Him, idolizing the wonderful (and being failed again by it)…..and crumbling under the life-messes.  He brings sustaining power to beauty and hope to mess.
And, Oh!……how we need Him.

So it's Monday.  And Dave's at work and the laundry has mounted and the leaky-roof-water-bucket needs to be cleaned up.
So here's to another *wonderful* *beautiful* day…..