News? -- Updated

I am going to my 36 week appointment in a couple of hours. I will post more later.

Well my cervix is the same but she did drop a little. Everything else looks good. Next Thursday I will be full term. My dr. gave me some thing to help me sleep better. I hope we can get control of these contractions or at least sleep through them.

Hope

What has Lent taught me so far? There seems to be a theme running through it for me... hope! God uses all things for good and I think for me it was not some accident that my grandmother past away at the beginning of Lent. I have been praying daily Divine Mercy chaplets for the repose of her soul. I have been praying evening prayer after the kid(s) go to bed each night. I have been reading St. Louis de Monfort's Friends of the Cross. And the theme through them all is hope. And it is not some human desire for something good to happen -- it is more than that. I love what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says paragraph 1821: "We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love him and do his will. In every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with the grace of God, to persevere "to the end" and to obtain the joy of heaven, as God's eternal reward for the good works accomplished with the grace of Christ. In hope, the Church prays for "all men to be saved." She longs to be united with Christ, her Bridegroom, in the glory of heaven."
On a personal note, I saw my papa (grandpa) today for the first time in about five years. He has come to CO indefinitely to stay with my parents. I am thrilled and feel completely blessed to have him here. God is so good, I am surrounded by the people I love, living in a beautiful place, and awaiting the birth of another gift from God as I contemplate the love of God in His plan of salvation for us. I hope your Lent leads you to the great peace He is giving me.

Update -- Prayers please

My grandma: Clarisse Bowen past away yesterday. DG, RA, and my mom are heading out to the funeral and to see/meet the family tomorrow. RA has never met my dad's family. And the last time DG saw them he was twoish. It will be a good trip for everyone. I get to stay home and contract. Please pray for my family and the repose of Mama's soul.

Glasses

He can see...

It is funny, he use to sit in the car and not look around much. On the way home today he was looking out every window and pointing things out.

Prayers please...

I am truly spoiled at age 36, I still have 4 living grandparents. I type that with a sad heart as my paternal grandmother is inching closer and closer towards death. My dad is able to be in NC with her right now. For my Catholic friends, I am asking that you would pray a Divine Mercy Chaplet for her. It is a beautiful prayer to say for the dying. Thank you for your prayers!

Lent and other people

So here is my Lent to do/not to do. I am posting this to hold myself accountable and to give others motivation and support in their endeavors. And maybe a little catechises for those who read my blog and don't "get" Lent.
DG (my 7 yr. old) is a perfect example of why we as Catholics (and other Christian faiths) give things up for Lent. He is on a streak of, "If I don't want to or it isn't fun then I WILL NOT do it!" We need to train our wills. We need to be able to tell ourselves no. We need to be able to make sacra fices for others, ourselves, and God.
This leads me into what I have decided to do and why. I seriously thought about giving up Internet contact for Lent. I knew that was biting of more than I could chew. But I spend A LOT of my evenings on FB. And I haven't been good about taking personal prayer time. So now in place of FB during Lent, I will pray. I will continue to blog and email and read the news but no more countless hours of chatting and looking at pics and ...
However, this won't be hard for me. And sometimes we/I need a challenge. So DG comes by his struggle honestly. He gets it from me (and Adam). I have a very weak will in the things I perceive others telling me I can't or shouldn't do or even in the little things in my day. So, I have decided that I am going to do a GUS and TOM jar just like the kids. GUS and TOM= give something up and take on more - thanks Gayle at http://mom3crazygirls.blogspot.com/
This will force me to do the harder things for me -- the little ones. No soda today, no drive thru next time you get in the car, do a chore Blake would usually do before he would do it, take an extra 15 minutes in prayer, play whatever the kids want you to for 30 minutes...
Now before I publish this, I have one more question to ask. Why when I suggest someone give something up (when they ask for advice not unsolicited) or when I ask what people are giving up or I state what I am doing, do those around me get so defensive. Why is what I am doing in my faith life an affront to those who aren't doing it? Is it a guilt thing? I am confused by this.
I hope and pray my friends and family have a blessed Lent that leads them to a beautiful Easter Resurrection!

Why we have lots of kids and homeschool

This is a great answer and of course there are more reasons but I love this.

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/why_big_families_might_be_easier/

Valentine's Day

Well, I have never been a big one for secular holidays and Valentine's day has to be one of the biggest. So being on (modified) bed rest right now didn't really change my plans today except for one major change.
I was unable to attend Mass this morning. So as my family pulled out of the garage, I pulled up EWTN and watched Mass. What a blessing!!!!
My mom met Blake and the kids at Mass and took them to breakfast afterwards.
Before they all left for Mass, DG gave RA a stuffed bear that she named Poolly. The kids got cards from Grandma & Grandpa Helgoth. RA got a tin with M&Ms from Daddy. And Mommy got chocolate covered strawberries.
But the best part of my day was when all 6 of us (and I say all six as the baby is definitely taking up room) got into our bed and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory from Netflix on the computer.
So much for yucky secular holidays. Hope you all had a great one. I think I'll go find a strawberry.

Scouting

Well this year we dove in with both feet to the world of scouting. RA is part of American Heritage Girls. If you have never heard of it before, you should check it out. http://www.ahgonline.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=18722
As they say they are dedicated to the mission of building women of integrity through service to God, family, community, and country. RA is in the youngest part of the troop: Pathfinders. I help the older girls who are in jr/sr high: Pioneers and Patriots. We are a small troop about 15 families (all Catholic and most home schooled -- at least right now). We have so much fun and are learning so much.
DG became a cub scout this year. He is a wolf. And a couple of months ago they got their second wolf. Blake is a den leader for wolves. Again a smaller pack (they just started this year) but a great group of families. There is a lot of the same families in both cubs and AHG.
So we are busy.
One of the great things DG has done this year was to earn his religious award. He and I (primarily) worked on it in conjunction with school. It was a great process and this weekend he received it at Mass.
If you have kids and they aren't in scouts, think about it, pray about it, and if you want ask a scouting family. It is worth it.

Toothless

So a week ago, I mentioned that DG had a dentist appointment this past Monday. We went and Dr. V said, "I think we need to slip a couple of those out." So today we went in and they pulled a tooth. He did really well.
The bottom two teeth (below the upper hole) are adult teeth. The one on the right is the one that didn't push the tooth out.At this rate, we'll be eating soup and milkshakes for a while. Needless to say we aren't having steaks tonight.

Picture update

The Helgoth's prep for the egg dropThe egg droppers (Cub scouts, American Heritage girls and some parents) "Bombs away" This is the highest drop. Where RA's broke. DG's broke on the first drop. (Fantastic idea, bad mechanics -- we needed to tie it tighter.)CertificatesEgg Drop? I thought we got to play.Me (yes a picture of me) handing out badges and awards to the Pioneer/Patriots (the level I lead for Jr/Sr high girls. Imagine we working with that age level)

RA receiving her necklace for attendance, completion of different sections, and bible memorization.

RA's American Heritage Girl troop at an awards day.

DG and Daddy went to see the Harlem Globetrotters with the Cub Scouts. The kids got to sit court side during warm ups.

I wish you could see this better. It is a snowy owl. It was at a barn about 40 minutes from us. Usually (oosually as PG would say) they don't come any farther south than Canada. This is also an adult male which is very rare to see.

Teeth or lack there of

The fun thing happening here these days has to do with teeth. My oldest DG (7) got his teeth later than most and so we knew the first loose tooth would take a while. We were a shade concerned when his bottom tooth started growing in behind his baby tooth. Then he lost baby tooth next to it. About two weeks later, the tooth above came out. Despite the lack of tooth fairies around, the kid is getting more quarters then he knows what to do with. The back to back teeth are both still there. But we see the dentist on Monday.
The funny thing happened when his sister (5) about a week ago began complaining of a sore tooth. A day later, no tooth!
I keep telling them to stop soon all we will be able to eat around here is soup and ice cream!
Pictures to follow!