Devotions of a High Heeled Warrior

You may be thinking, "What does a bird have to do with this week's blog?"  This past week has been Spring Break!  Can I get an amen from all teachers out there?  I had such great plans for my spring break.  I planned to rise early, clean out numerous spaces in my house that needed to be cleaned, and catch up on everything that I had piled to the side during my normal work week.  "So how did it go?" you may ask.  My rising early went a little later than early.  Hmmmm.  Okay, it was closer to ten o'clock.  I managed to half-clean my bedroom.  What I did accomplish was to binge watch an entire season of a television show on Netflix.  I also read three books.  So as I face the dawning of a new work week, I've felt a little bit like a failure.  I wanted to be extraordinary in my accomplishments this week, but instead, I was dismally unaccomplished.  This brings me to the starling.  "What is a starling?", you may ask...

One of the most asked questions I get is "what is it like having twins?"  Because it will be my daughters 15th birthday tomorrow, I thought I would tell you a little about raising twins in honor of my daughters.  Before I had children, I had joked with my husband about being next in line to have twins.  I didn't really think I was.  Only after having all four of my children did I find out that my grandmother had twins and lost one at birth.  No one knew until after she had died, and they found the surviving twin's birth certificate.  I really was next in line for twins.  So needless to say, finding out I was expecting two children at once was quite the shock.  As anyone would guess, I got huge really quick.  By the time I was 7 months pregnant, I was the size of a 9 month pregnant woman.  We were visiting a friend who had just delivered a baby.  The nurses thought I was the one about to deliver.  They weren't wrong.  A...

I have survived spending almost a complete week in the hospital with my daughter.  We were waiting for the VEEG to capture three seizures in order to have an MRI performed.  After days of sleep deprivation on her and my part, walking a treadmill until midnight (her part), and blacking out from exhaustion (my part), she finally had three seizures.  During this hospital captivity, I had a lot of time to think and listen.  After the first three days of non-stop HGTV, I thought I might scream.  I like the Property Brothers as much as the next person, but I could only handle so much renovation.  I started thinking about how many parents were sitting in hospital rooms just like mine feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and beat up.  So for all of those parents out there who are struggling as they dedicate their lives to supporting their child with special needs, this is for you from God. What your child is going through is not your fault.  You may think...

You might be wondering why I am posting a day early.  Tomorrow is the big day when I drive my daughter down to Arkansas Children's Hospital for a VEEG.  Megan has epilepsy and is now a possible candidate for brain surgery.  It is really scary, but also it is a chance for her to live a life seizure-free.  The hospital hopes to catch three seizures on video and then do an MRI to see if the seizures are in part of her brain that is operable.  So Megan and I will be hanging out for the next few days in a hospital room catching up on whatever it is that teen girls like to watch.  This got me thinking about our brains.  They are so complex.  Our brains contain over 86 billion nerve cells or neurons.  They are connected by trillions of connections or synapses.  When information is passed down the synapses, it can move at around 250 mph.  Why the science lesson you may ask, and what does this have to do with cake?  Our Creator made o...