Me and My Shadow

Evelyn is rapidly evolving into a quilting buddy that would have made Jezebel proud.


For the past couple of days, she has hardly left my side. This is new. She has never been a dog interested in changing her location just to be near. She'd rather sleep.


Which is pretty much what she did most of the day but she'd wake up enough to follow me into the next room when I changed my location.


Don't look at all that crap stacked beyond her. I am, ahem, cleaning up my office. No, those aren't the same files that have shown up in pictures for the past three months. They are just moved around because I was looking for my lost checkbook. Don't dare say anything about the checkbook. No need. The other person in this house has the lost checkbook lectures all covered...


Mercy, she is just so darn cute.



The following picture does not ACCIDENTLY have my feet in it. I actually had to straddle her for more than two hours everytime I got to that end of the long arm. I didn't want to make her move for fear she'd get disgusted and decide that being a quilting buddy is stupid.

But my goodness, take a look at that nice straight line on the edge of my quilt. I am positively giddy over it.


At one point, I went back into my room for something or other and she followed me in and seemed to hope I'd get up on the bed with her to take a nap.


I made peanut butter cookies, instead. My kids will recognize this recipe from The Joy of Cooking:


The red bowl is my favorite one. I got it for my 18th birthday and it was part of a set of four of various sizes. This is the only one left. I always smile when I use this bowl.


The Cattlemen's Coffee cup is a gift from my younger daughter.



Here is a cookie.


Here is the whole batch:


Evelyn got part of a cookie.


Here are some parts of Jezebel's Quilt.




I am using dark blue backing with matching bottom thread. To start, I am using a smoke top thread but will add in some yellow and perhaps some blue.


It was a most mellow day although I did take time out to write some scathing letters to attorneys and parents.

In came to light that one parent had enlisted his/her 7 year old son to search the other parent's home for meth, marijuana, etc. The parent had described to the child, in detail, what he was to look for. The poor child had a meltdown at school and confessed all. Bless his heart.

In case you are wondering, there aren't any drugs at the other parent's home.

What is WRONG with people????

In another case, I learned that all the parties unilaterally decided to ignore a court order and drafted an informal agreement that doesn't bear any resemblence to what the court ordered less than a month ago...HELLO!! Two of the three parties have lawyers and, of course, I represent the child. None of the lawyers knew about this bit of foolishness and counting me, that makes ALL of the lawyers left in the dark. The one party without a lawyer called me to ask if they could do that which resulted in a vigorous letter to the other lawyers. I expect the rest of the parties will call him a tattletale.

And on a final note for the week, let me share a bittersweet story about a young couple that came in with their two darling young children seeking a custody/visitation order. They came to court having already agreed to the terms of the order. They are married, African American, young, have been together several years and are currently separated. I don't know what brought them to their current situation but I watched the man gaze at his wife and if there was ever love and regret on a man's face, there it was. He held his children so close and you could see that he was drinking in their scent. They clearly adored him, as well. The mother was reserved, quiet, forthright and sweet. She never directly looked at her husband but she assured me that they could work together. They were bending over backward to be respectful to each other and both independently told me that it was "all about the kids." I shared with her, quietly, that her husband told me that she was a good mother. She smiled - a genuine smile. "He did?" she murmured and glanced his way, eyes glowing. His eyes filled with tears that he quickly wiped away. Both of them had adjusted their faces to calm serenity by the time the children turned back towards them. The children must have been aware that something was going on but they were both extremely excited about Santa Claus and told me all about their stockings and the Christmas Tree and the reindeer. Bless these parents for making sure their babies had Christmas even as their own worlds fell apart.

Some couple you really want to stay together even it doesn't work out that way. I don't have the wisdom to know exactly what is going on with this family but I am going to say a special prayer for their safety and happiness, all the same. If you are so inclined, I wish you would, too.