It’s The Picture of Happiness Month!

Today’s guest is Pam Mellskog, she says:

Working with my Dad on the farm in Galena, Ill., where I grew up makes me happy because it gives me a practical way to thank him and my Mom for all the ways they have loved and helped me over the years.

I shot this photo on April 23, 2006, during my first visit back home to the Midwest from Colorado after becoming a new parent that February with the birth of my son, Carl.

I took off my gloves and took a break from repairing a barbed wire fence in the field with Dad that afternoon to shoot this photo and others — reminders of the countless afternoons we have spent working together in the fresh air since I was a kid.

Fresh air + childhood memories + giving parents = happiness for Pam Mellskog

Pam Mellskog has reported for Longmont, Colorado’s newspaper, the Times-Call, since 2001. In 2008, she ventured into writing in the first person. She posts her “Mommy Musings” parenting blog on the newspaper’s website.
Between the lines, readers may sense how the bedlam her three young boys bring to family life simultaneously shreds her nerves and blesses her to the core. For this reason, she likens childrearing to breadmaking. However tedious the kneading, however long the rise time, nothing satisfies her yen for wholesome living more than smelling bread baking, buttering it hot out of the oven and sharing it around.