Stick Horse Cowgirls

  The rain this morning seemed somehow to reflect my somber mood.  Just have a case of the blahs the past couple of days.  We just returned from our trip to Alabama to see my mom and sister.  We brought my mom’s two beloved cats with us because she will soon be moving to a special unit due to the Alzheimer’s Disease.   The cats are old and confused too.   I can’t help it!  When I see them, I feel a little sad.  They are  isolated in a spare room until they hopefully acclimate to their new home which includes two cat friendly dogs!  Actually, the female cat has always been somewhat antisocial, and hides out.  The friendly orange tabby, Chester,  just lays on the daybed.  Poor thing, he seems so confused and sad.  The only option besides traveling to Arkansas with me, was euthanasia, and I just couldn’t do it.  Not many people want to adopt a senior animal, and Tuscaloosa is overrun with homeless pets due ...

I’ve used this picture before.  It is a favorite of mine, V and me at age four.  I am using it again because it has a picture in the background of my birthday cake.   This is the only picture I can recall of any of my numerous birthday parties (Mother where were you and the camera?): V and I are to the right of the photo, V forward in the darker dress, me over to the right edge of the photo in white.  My little brother (now the big-time lawyer) is to the left edge, at age two. You will notice that we were all dressed up.  That’s the way birthday parties were “back in the day.”  They aren’t pictured, but you can bet that my mother and the other mothers who were there were not in jeans, either.  Everyone dressed for special days back then. Back to the cake: It was a Circus Cake, complete with carousel top and plastic circus animals on it.  I know without asking that my mother purchased this cake from Kohler’s Bakery.  It, really, w...

Yes, there are bright spots in the dismal terrain of broken families in which I work.  As I work to help clients manage the dissolution of their families, normally I am in an acutely adversarial role.  This is required because the parties are so polarized from hurt that they are unable to be collaborative.  I understand that.  Been there, done that myself. Often where children are involved I see parents so blinded by t heir pain and their own rejection issues that seeing the best interests of the  kids is impossible.  Many is the time I have had clients tell me, “ I want him to have every other weekend, PERIOD.  It’s best for the kids…”   Yeah, right.  It’s best for the kids to see Dad four days a month?  No, it’s a great way for you to jab back at him for his hurt to you and to have some control in this life of yours that has spun out of control. But, they are sincere most of the time, I have come to understand.  Pain colors pe...

    Hello, first day of summer!  You are welcomed as a long lost friend.  I love your blue skies, fragrant flowers, fresh, colorful fruits and vegetables, and—SUNSHINE!  After a long, dreary Spring, I look forward to the end of the school year.  I work at a public high school, so I really cherish having  time to putter around the house tending to long neglected chores, working in my garden, visiting friends –I love it all!  If only I could get to the beach!!!  It’s not in the cards this year!  Maybe a little trip to the hills of northern Arkansas if I’m lucky!     I did a little shopping today—scored a couple of  bargains at T. J. Maxx—I bought some Sketcher slip on shoes and sparkly starfish earrings—it must have something to do with my wistful longing for the beach!!!   I ran a few errands in preparation for my trip to Alabama later this week to visit my mother.  She will be moving soon to a dem...

I was a Brownie and then, for one year only, a Girl Scout.  I remember saluting and saying the Girl Scout “Promise” and our motto: Be Prepared. Prepared for what?  Truthfully, that question never crossed my young mind back when I was saying these words in unison with my sister scouts.  Five decades later, I know: Be Prepared for Curves Life is Certain to Throw You. This motto came to my mind while I was at an informal gathering of friends recently—all women.  One of them told me her story, words tumbling out of her mouth so that I could not get a word in edgewise; I could tell the words were pushed out by pain.  I know, from experien ce, of her need to have someone else listen.  She is not my client but she found out I am a  lawyer and felt compelled to tell me.  I was riveted: Jon and Mary did it all right.  They were correct to the Nth degree.  Jon’s parents were Missionaries.  He grew up in the mission fields of easter...

Summer is most definitely here.  With the turn of the season, my tastes in food turn, too. We tend toward the meat-heavy in this household, I’m afraid.  Through three-quarters of the year my homemade vegetable soup is chocked-full of vegetables, but there are plenty of chunks of beef in it as well. Now that summer is here, however, we’re tending toward the vegetarian-style, without meat.  There seems to be something about oppressive heat that turns one’s fancy away from red meat—at least in this household.  When the fall crisp hits, we’ll be returning to stews and pot roasts, I can tell you; but for now summer tastes run toward foods like: Sweet iced tea .  Lots of it.  With lemon, please.  Occasionally you will find a slice of lime or sprig of mint in mine, but usually it’s lemon. Fewer sodas and more lemonade —even the sugar-free Crystal light kind.  Just seems to be more hydrating.  Needless to say, our consumption of water goes ...

I was walking down my drive way yesterday from MIL’s home to my own.  It is a good walk.  We are within “sight” distance, but still it takes me a fair few minutes to make the trek.  Let me put it this way:  she’s almost to one end of my 11 acres; I’m almost to the other end. MIL had fed me with one of my favorite comfort  meals: meatloaf and English peas.  She knows I love the little Le Sueur peas.    Ummmmmmm .  (No, I did not snap this picture, but it sure looks like her meatloaf!) As I walked, I spied my neighbor, Midlife Countrygirl , out doing her usual gardening.  I’ve written about Mary before, and all her industry.  My hat is off to this woman.  She cans, she gardens, she mows, she keeps up her pool, her house is spotless…SuperWoman if ever there was one.  One of the things I love about talking to Mary is that she brings me up to speed on what’s happening in the area.  “ You know we’ve got a bear out he...

It’s gettin’ summertime down here in the South—actually, I’m hearing that much of the nation is under a heat wave.  I am born-and-bred Southern, so I don’t know why it always seems to catch me by surprise each year, but it does.  Little car’s outside thermometer has twice this week  registered over 100 degrees F on the asphalt as I pulled out of the parking lot at the end of the day, although it cooled by at least ten degrees out here in the country. I worked last Saturday and have worked loooong hours this week.  I have been tired, needless to say.  But the other day, as I pulled into MIL’s driveway after work, I realized that for the first time in several days I felt pretty good at the end of the day.  Maybe this is because I had just settled a difficult case in a way that I am convinced will be of benefit to the poor seven-year-old caught in the middle of his parents’ torment.  Or maybe it’s that common-cold/pink eye virus losing its potency....