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!

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! =)

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!