Devotions of a High Heeled Warrior

  We decided to visit my daughter this weekend. She lives in a gated apartment complex, so she told us to push the numeral code and hashtag. This is the moment it occurred to me that I might be getting old. At what point did people start referring to the pound sign as hashtag instead of pound sign? This got me thinking of other signs that I've aged that I noticed while on our trip. See if any land on your radar. 1) When you shop for clothes, you recognize the clothes on the racks have been in your closet multiple decades before. Yes, I saw parachute pants at a well-known retailer while shopping with my daughter. 2) You use the seat warmer for back pain, instead of keeping warm. I've found it much more pleasant to turn the air conditioner down and turn on the seat warmer. 3) You  find yourself craving dinner at four in the afternoon. The idea of getting home early and getting cozy sounds amazing. 4) You forget what you were saying mid-sentence. Then suddenly, two days later...

  My oldest son decided to get a dog, Ruger. He is a big, goofy boxer. I wasn't sure about bringing another big dog in the house, but I do love animals, so I okayed it. This dog has been in the middle of everything! We learned that you can't leave him unattended for long, or he will get into something. This was brought home a few weeks ago. My youngest son was trying to eat healthier, so he bought a bag of chicken breasts and asked my husband to grill them for him for the upcoming week. My husband marinated them and carefully grilled them to perfection. While he was grilling, I went into the restroom. While in the restroom, I heard the front door open and close. I assumed it was my youngest getting off of work. A few minutes later my oldest called me, asking about the fire call that had just gone out. Both my oldest and my husband are on the volunteer fire department. I told him that I didn't realize a call had gone out and didn't think anything else about it until Ru...

  I have been joking with my coworkers that this perimenopause thing has been turning me into an an idiot. I've always laughed at women who lose their glasses while wearing them,  Now, I've found myself in the same lost boat. What, you may ask, caused this admission? A few days ago, I noticed a strange smell in my car. It wasn't a bad smell, just odd. My car smelled like a delicious Italian dinner. I assumed that since I eat on the go with my job, that I had thrown some leftovers in my backseat. For the next two days, the smell evolved into a rotting Italian dinner. Imagine boiling cabbage with a slight skunk smell. On Friday, I needed to pick up someone in my church for a ladies' retreat, so I decided it was time to clean my car. I couldn't have her holding her breath for an hour. My mother asked if I had checked my trunk, to which I responded nothing would be in my trunk. I cleaned the backseat to find nothing, except a few empty food wrappers. As I put an umbrel...

  With the beautiful weather we've had lately, I've enjoyed walking in my backyard. Because we live on the border to a wooded area, we enjoy all kinds of wildlife. As the afternoon sun shown and a light breeze blew, I watched the birds  settle around my backyard. I walked the parameter of my property and noticed an area my husband is clearing. He pushed a lot of brush in a pile to burn. With the crazy amount of rain we've had lately, part of the brush has burned, but part has not. In the section that hadn't fully burned, there was this beautiful flower growing. As I saw this, I thought about how trauma and struggles affect our lives. When it feels like everything is in ashes, we stand on the fact that God is the same God in the good and the bad. The Bible mentions He will turn our mourning into dancing in Psalms 30:11. It also says in Isaiah 61:3 that God gives beauty for ashes and oil of gladness for mourning. If you've felt like your dreams have burned to the grou...