Devotions of a High Heeled Warrior

This week, we celebrated a milestone.  It has been two years since Megan had a portion of her brain removed in brain surgery.   When we were presented with the option of brain surgery, it was a last resort.  We were praying for healing and trusting that God knew what was best for our daughter.   After praying, we felt brain surgery was the way God was directing her.  We had an amazing brain surgeon who gave her such amazing care.  He had only been at the hospital a few years, but we knew God had brought him there for Megan.  As Megan went through brain probes directly on her brain to map the seizure activity, she stayed strong and full of faith.   We even recorded a video of her singing, just in case she was unable to sing again.  As many know, she not only is able to sing, but sings every Sunday on the worship team.  God was faithful.  I was told that as we recorded the video, nurses were touched and were crying in the hallway....

My husband is a bit of a hoarder.  He tends to hang on to things for a long time.  It was really cute when I found a poem he wrote to a girl when he was a teenager.  Of course, I had to read it with a sappy, romantic voice.  There were his credit card payment receipts from college.  I complained about them, but then at one point, he actually had to use them to prove he had paid off the card off during a dispute.   After this moment when he was justified by hanging onto things, I've struggled with getting him to let go.  I can't talk.  I'm a teacher, and teachers have a problem.   We also tend to cling to things with the idea that we may one day use them.  That box of toilet paper tubes could be lovely elves at Christmas.   The little plastic circles that hold the laminating film could be great tracing tools for shape identification.  Do you see  my problem?  Between my husband's desire to insure he has everything h...

So my dog is determined to drag me into trouble.  This week, I took my very large Weimaraner out for his daily business (He needed to potty). Because he's a little stinker, he always flops on the ground and rolls in the sun.  However, this particular time, as he rolled, the lease unclipped.  There was a moment where he looked at the leash clip in my hand and then at me.  I saw his eyes narrow.  I knew what he was going to do.  As I yelled, "Noooo!!!!" and dived after him in slow motion, he turned and ran for the road.   I grabbed at him, but came away empty-handed.  He was a brown streak across the lawn.  I ran into the house screaming for my teenage son to come help me.  My dog loves to go for rides in the car, so I wanted to grab my car keys.  Suddenly it hit me, my daughter had driven my car to work.  The only car available to me was my 6' 7" son's car.  The seat is stuck as far back as it can go.  This means ...

Have you ever noticed that everything seems to come back into style?  I took my daughter shopping at a trendy store and noticed that half of the stock was what I wore in high school.  It's funny that I'm not cool until my wardrobe fills the shelves.  However, there are some things that should never come back.  See if you agree with me.   1) Perms - My mother convinced me that straight hair was too flat.  A perm was the way to go.  I can still remember the acrid smell of perm and the tug of rollers pulling my hair out of my scalp.  I looked like a poodle for days after a perm.  I haven't gotten one since I've moved out.  2) Teased hair - I would take a comb and tease my hair within an inch of its life- the higher, the better.  It would take a half a can of hair spray to achieve greater heights.  Notice my triangle hair in the picture?  That took a perm and a can of hair spray!  3) Banana clips - If you lived...

You have the opportunity to change anything around you.   This can be either positive or negative.  I think everyone on the planet has heard, "If your friends jump off a bridge, would you?"  As parents, we say this to try to get our children to stop following crowd mentality and think for themselves.  This can work beautifully unless certain circumstances happen.  These circumstances are in play today.   1) When a person feels insecure and unaccepted, they isolate and become hermits or they give up their values they've held in order to fit in.   This leaves them feeling even worse about themselves, although most in this category would never let on how they really feel. 2) When a person feels threatened, they go into something called, "fight or flight."  This happened during caveman times.  In order to survive, a caveman would have a rush of adrenal chemicals flush his system to tell him to fight the saber-tooth tiger or run from the dino...

This weekend, my husband and I were able to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of some dear friends, the Zaragozas.  This couple knew each other for only two weeks before getting married.   In today's world, that would spell disaster.  Let's face if your child showed up with someone they met only two weeks before and said they were getting married, you would probably hide your child until the urge for spontaneous marriage passed.  This marriage, however, beat the odds.  If anything, it shattered the odds.  They are the parents of ten biological children and one adopted child.  This is also an enigma.  I can honestly say that most arguments my husband and I have are about how we raise our children.  I have four children, so they had a lot of opportunities for differences with ten children. However, this couple are not only as in love today as they were the day they were married, but also have left a legacy of Godliness, love, and priori...

Quarantine has had a big drawback for me.  I couldn't go to my gym, so I've become a little lazy in exercising.   My husband is trying to get fit, so he has been very good at walking.  He invited me to go for a walk with him on a beautiful trail by the White River near where we live.  I'm not sure why I accepted, but alas, I did.  Keep in mind that this is the same trail almost 2 years ago where I ran a 5K race.   That race was what started my whole blogging experience.  In 3 weeks, I went from a non-runner to winning second place in my age division, so when I took off on this trail 2 years later, I thought this would be no big deal.   What I failed to remember is that 2 months of not setting foot on a treadmill makes one rather slow and out of shape.  My husband and his friend started the trail chatting the whole way.  I wanted to start with a flourish, so I started speed-walking.  It wasn't that goofy arm-swinging speed-walk, b...