Humdrum Happiness

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Where Have All the Babies Gone?

The last time I was at the grocery store, I got this strange feeling that there was something missing. It took me a little while to put my finger on what it was, but eventually it hit me. Look though I may, there wasn't a single baby to be found in the whole store...people rushed around buying things and visiting, but amidst the all the noise of conversation and music blaring over the speakers, there was none of the usual sounds of children talking or even crying. It made me so inexpressibly sad when I realized this; our culture is so anti-child, and I knew it was only a matter of time before we came to this, but I still find it hard to accept that a baby in public is now a rare and unusual sight. Even those parents who do have young children usually have them put in daycare and school before they're even able to walk, getting them out of sight where they cannot embarrass or inconvenience their parents' lives, or interfere with their careers. Even at Mass, if a child makes noise or cries, everyone becomes irritated with both the parents and the child, and I have even heard people complain that the parents should keep the children home until they're old enough to know how to be quiet in Mass. This makes me so angry every time I hear comments like these, because I know one day there may not be any more children left for them to complain about...at the rate of abortions happening every year, not to mention the unbelievable amount of couples who use birth control, it is a horrifying, but very real prospect ahead of us. We are literally trying to annihilate ourselves! No one even seems to realize the gravity of this situation; everyone is far too worried about finding their Pokemon to notice we are very rapidly heading towards the extinction of the human race on purpose! As Catholics, this should not just trouble us, it should deeply frighten us, because it just goes to show how much our world has fallen away from God, and how terrible His wrath is against us. Children are one of God's greatest blessing, meant to be the fruit of the love between a man and woman in the sacrament of marriage. Those who are blessed with children have been given a noble and glorious task; the raising up of future soldiers of Christ and citizens of Heaven, but the devil has so twisted it in the minds of virtually everyone nowadays that seems to have turned into a mark of shame, and embarrassment. Second to the Church, the Family is the greatest force against the legions of hell, created expressly to be a unit of Grace against the world and satan, to pass the Faith down through generations and keep the love of God burning throughout the centuries till the end of time. The forces of evil knew what they were doing when they attacked the family; without Catholic families, there are no more future soldiers to defend the Faith and no more souls to populate Heaven. To me, the sound of a baby crying is music to my ears; it means that somewhere there is still some innocence left in this messed up, sinful world of ours, somewhere there is a small, perfect little being who is unaware of the horrible forces denying his right to even exist, somewhere there is a child who depends entirely upon the rest of us for survival and love, and when I hear the sound of a child, I always thank God for one more soul who was allowed to survive and have a chance to inherit eternal happiness, unlike so, so many poor unborn innocents who are torn apart in their mothers' wombs, by the very people who have the ultimate responsibility to protect and love them.

Our Lady Mother of God, pray for us and the unborn!

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Awkward/Awesome...

Awkward...

...spilling cheese sauce all over my shirt...ten minutes before guests arrived at my house...

...playing Catan with friends and losing terribly...that is, until I let a nine year old take over for me...guess who ended up winning the game less than ten minutes later???

...realizing I have less than six months to plan out Christmas...where did this year go?!

...driving to Low Mass and having at least three people ask me if my feet even reach the accelerator...

...buying a dress because, even though I hated the style, I really liked the material, and then repeatedly trying to find a way to rip it apart and re-sew it into a style I'd consider wearing...with no success, as of now...

...our whole community losing power for several hours...

...three-fourths of the Christmas lights in my room all dying at the same time...

...thumbing through "Room"at the book section of Costco...and having to stop because I was getting strange looks from the other customers who were wondering why on earth I was sobbing in the middle of the store...

Awesome...

...listening to Sam Hunt while making fried chicken and gravy for dinner and wearing a flowered apron...it doesn't get much more Southern than that, ya'll ;)

...pillow fights

...spontaneous dancing with my brother because he wants to see if a song "works for waltzing"...=)

...laying in the sun by the creek, and staring up into the beautiful, cloudless, blue sky...

...cleaning out my closet and discovering a box of G.K.Chesterton books I'd gotten for Christmas years ago, but never read (!!!)

...being ALMOST FINISHED with the quilt I've been working on for over a year now...

...finding THE birthday cake to end all birthday cakes...hopefully I'll be able to make it for my brother's birthday next week...

...finally figuring out how to work our coffee machine...yes, believe it or not, I am twenty-one years old, and have never once made my own self a cup of coffee...

Hope ya'll all had a lovely week! =)

Monday, July 4, 2016

Feast of the Visitation...

The Feast of the Visitation is always a much looked-forward-to day in my family! Every year we try to have friends over and celebrate the feast with some good ol' fraternal charity and yummy food =P...

This year on the menu we had grilled hot dogs (on homemade, gluten-free buns made by my brother), chips, cheese dip, salsa, veggies, watermelon, brownies, lemon bars, and many other delicious goodies to keep us well-fed all day...

After dinner, we all went upstairs to our game room for pool, "Pictionary", and a very intense game of "Never Have I Ever"...maaany secrets were divulged that night =P...

My photographer brother wandered around the house with his super fancy camera snapping photos of everyone, so almost everybody there got at least one silly picture in before the night was over. After everyone tired themselves out on the trampoline, we settled down in our theatre room to watch a movie...we were unable to finish it in one night, so we plan to regroup tonight for "Party B." =P...

For some reason this little goofball and I always seem to be wearing the same colors =)...

By the end of the night, everyone was exhausted, but still laughing and smiling right up to the time to leave. I think I can honestly say that, thanks to everyone's hard work and fun personalities, the night was complete success ;)...

Hope you all had a wonderful Feast Day!

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Regina Coeli Ball...

It's been awhile since I shared some photos from our dances with ya'll! We haven't had a formal ball since Christmas; just casual dances, which are still fun, but not quite as fun as dressing up in satin and tulle and waltzing the night away, if you know what I mean...

One of the girls got several of us ladies beautiful fans in our favorite colors...they definitely come in handy after dancing for a few hours! Some of the boys even swallowed their pride for a few minutes and borrowed them when it got too hot...=P

This time, I have a video of one of my favorite dances to share with ya'll! This is the "Glass Slipper Waltz" that we discovered went perfectly with the song "La Valse de L'Amour" from the new Cinderella movie!!! It took us almost a year to learn it, but I do believe this was our best attempt yet, despite the music cutting off suddenly, me tripping on my dress a few times, and a few people forgetting which direction was clockwise...

Despite the serious expressions on our faces, we were all having a blast ;)

Everyone had a lovely time, and we were even able to sneak in a few encore dances before the night was over ;). It always makes me happy when I look at everyone who attends our balls...old and young, everyone has big smiles on their faces and those who don't know the steps to the dances are assisted by those who do. Everyone behaves like ladies and gentlemen; before and after each dance, the gentlemen bow and the ladies curtsy to each other, and afterwards the gentlemen escort their partners off the floor and thank them for the dance. No lady is left out; the gentlemen always make sure every girl attending gets to dance, and a few of them know which ones are our favorites, so they make sure we have a partner for those dances. It's like being transported back in time to a different age, where courtesy was a common sight and respect was mutual between everyone. I love dancing so much, and when it's in such a Catholic environment, with such lovely people, I find there's almost nothing else I'd rather be doing =).

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Some Thoughts About "True Love"...

In the past couple of years, quite a few of my friends and acquaintances have gotten married and I've been privileged to be an observer of their friendships, courtships, and marriage. I used to think love looked the same no matter who it involved, but now I realize how many types of relationships there really are...too many to count actually! I've seen the "knight and his princess" love, the "best friends since childhood" love, the "star crossed lovers" love...there are so many and each one has been so uniquely different from the other that it leaves me in awe of how perfectly they fit each individual involved. It's like they were made specifically for each other, with all their life experiences preparing them for that moment when they first laid eyes on each other...and I believe that is exactly what happened! Most people would say this is silly and naive, but I really believe that God had created us to each be the perfect fit for our future spouses (excepting those who are called to the religious life; that's a different post for a different time =P) and every moment of our lives is meant to be a step closer to when we find the one He has created for us. It may be tomorrow, it may be twenty years from now, but if I've learned anything from watching my friend's romances, it's that it will happen at the perfect time and in that moment you will realize how well it was all planned out from the beginning. In my personal experience, I've found knowing that it's not all up to me helps me sleep much better at night =P. When you stop worrying about whether you're good enough, or if you'll be able to handle putting your heart in the hands of another human being, or whether you missed your opportunity for love, you're whole life changes. When something goes wrong in my life, or a door has been closed with no other opening in sight, I always try to imagine how this will help me be the person my "true love" will need one day. Maybe if that door had remained open, I would have done something that would keep me from meeting him, or maybe that trial was to help me one day understand something he went through, or maybe my heart needed to be broken so he could be the one to put it back together. Not knowing what the future holds is part of the charm; if God told us everything, it would spoil the surprise =). Life is so much more exciting when you can look around you and wonder whether that person you passed on the street, the guy you met at Mass, or the girl you saw at a party is the one God has planned for you, or if you've even seen them yet. One of my friends who was married earlier this year told me that when she met her husband, her whole life suddenly seemed to make sense, and on a different occasion, her husband told me the same exact thing about her! To me, that remark made a huge impact on the way I viewed love. It's not just chance or something to be played with, it's a carefully planned time in our lives that is intended to help us reach our ultimate goal of being in Heaven. The first end of marriage is the bringing of children into the world, but the second is the edification and saving of your spouse, and I love that thought. Being the one planned from all eternity to help save the soul of the one you love seems to be a wonderful, amazing privilege, and one I pray I'll be prepared for when the time comes. Years ago a priest friend told me to not worry about finding my future spouse, just to give my heart to Our Lady and St. Joseph and ask them to keep it safe until I meet the one Our Lord has chosen for me to be with, and this has been some of the best advice I have ever received! I tend to worry too much over...well, everything, so it is not always easy for me to just trust in Our Lady to work it all out for me, but when I do just give it all to her and St. Joseph to sort out, I never regret it. In summary, don't worry about whether you are still single, or despair of finding that special someone one day; just give it all to Our Lady and she will write you a more beautiful love story than you could have ever planned for yourself. =)

What are your thoughts on "True Love"? Do you share my views, or do you feel differently? =)

Monday, June 20, 2016

Happy Father's Day!

Last year for Father's day, we thought it'd be fun to go to a national park for a hike. You can read about how that fiasco went here, but long story short, we ended up getting lost in the woods without any food or water, hiking up and down cliffs for three hours, and being eaten alive by mosquitoes...This year we decided we'd rather stay home and have a nice quiet dinner with a movie =P.

My dad's favorite foods are cheesecake and caramel, so I mixed the two into one scrumptious dessert...I had planned on making my own caramel like I normally do, but our refrigerator has apparently broken, so all our milk and cream has gone sour =(. Luckily my mom had some caramel left over from our vacation when we made sundaes, so I just used it instead.

Crust

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup margarine
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Filling

24 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup caramel

Crust

Combine all crust ingredients and press into 9-inch springform pan. Bake 10 minutes at 325 degrees F. and remove from oven. Turn oven to 450 degrees F.

Filling

Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, flour and vanilla extract, mixing at medium speed until well-blended.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Reserve 1 cup of cheese batter; stir 1/2 cup of caramel topping into this reserved cup of batter.
Spoon half of plain batter over crust; cover with the caramel batter, spread remaining plain batter over the caramel layer.
Bake 7 minutes at 450 degrees F, then reduce temperature to 250 degrees F and bake 40 to 45 minutes more.
Remove from oven and loosen cake from rim, but do not remove rim until cool. If you have any caramel left, you can drizzle some on the top of the cheesecake to make it look a little more fancy ;).

Hope you all had a lovely Father's Day! =)