Catching Up

The Visitation of Our Lady to St. Elizabeth

I apologize for the lack of posts. Let me catch you up on what's been happening since I last posted.

This cake was seriously delicious. Must eat with frown.

My daughter had her first birthday on June 30, and her birthday party was on the Saturday before that. Although I was under a lot of self-made stress in getting things "just right", everything turned out well, the sun decided to shine (rain was forecasted up until a few days before), and above all, my daughter was happy, no meltdowns or temper tantrums!

Ice cream: can't go wrong with cookie dough!

There were storms about every other day before her party, so a lot of things (online) didn't get done. Because we can't afford internet (but pay our taxes every year), we get internet from our public library/police station, conveniently located across the street. When a storm hits, the internet goes down, and it takes a few clear days to get up and running again. So today was the first day I could get to anything, Pinterest, Facebook, or my blog. I'm not complaining, because it's nice sometimes to take a break and just enjoy living life. I was able to get to so many more things since I wasn't procrastinating, even just reading books that I needed to catch up on, and detoxing from the level of news that those with internet get every moment of the day. I tend to get riled up about politics, the state of the Church, and other problems in the world, but when you are only watching the night time news, there isn't all the distraction at your fingertips. I realized that I was focusing on finding out as much information as possible, instead of just knowing what I needed to know in my state of life, praying for those who are misguided and those who are deliberately doing the misguiding, and then getting on with my day to day life. There isn't much I can do or say as a housewife that hasn't already been done or said, and instead of adding fuel to the fire, I can just pray that decisions that were made this past week will eventually be reversed, and that the whole world will come to acknowledge the True Faith. And then return to being excited about the 5 steps my daughter is now taking!

We got to chill right next to the polar bears!

Feast days that have passed: on the 29th of June, we celebrated the feasts of Sts. Peter and Paul. I spent the day with my daughter, enjoying the sunshine and breeze, getting ready for our big outing on Tuesday, and trying very hard to figure out a napping schedule for the almost-toddler. Tuesday was her birthday, and the commemoration of the original feast of St. Paul (they didn't used to have to share a day). We spent the morning at home, and left for the zoo, where we spent our whole afternoon. By the end of the day, both parents were pretty sore (I was still recovering from it today!), and Eleanor was exhausted. Thankfully we had done cake and candles on Saturday, or I'm not sure we would have done them this year! Wednesday was the feast of the Precious Blood. July is also dedicated to the Precious Blood, so more on that doctrine and history later. And finally, today is the feast of the Visitation, which reminds us of the blessing of expectant mothers. Today, let us especially pray that the abominations of contraception and abortions be eradicated. God, through His message from the Angel Gabriel, and Mary have shown us how blessed it is to be able to bear children, and a privilege that no men and not all women can share in.