Gone are the days of trust.

It takes a village to raise a child is no longer a valid statement. There are so many awful people out there that we tend to keep our young close on hand.

Gone are the days when they were sent out the door to play after breakfast not to be seen again until their belly called them home for lunch and the dinner bell ran to call them home at night.

Gone are the days when the little ones could stand and talk to a passing elderly person to learn about their life. and for the elderly to spend a moment with the youth.

Gone are the days when an adult stops to help a child in need for fear of being accused of something other then kindness.

Gone are the days of trust.

I live next door to a dentist office and across the street from a funeral home. This exposes my children to a lot of different people. some we know, most we don't. While putting the four littles in the van I realized the youngest wasn't wearing shoes. I told them to get belted in while I ran in for the shoes. As I turned my back to go inside, a man must have walked out of the dentist office because when I came back out a few seconds later with the shoes, he stood right beside my van talking to my children. My heart skipped a beat and dropped to my stomach. What was he doing? what was he saying? why was he beside my van? I couldn't there fast enough. In reality he was about 2 feet from my van. he had his hands in his pockets in a non threatening way and he was just simply talking to them. Likely lured to the van by Grace. She loves people. all sorts of people and always manages to make friends where ever she goes. The man smiled at me when I walked up and told me that Grace was having a hard time getting Eli into his seat to buckle him. He smiled at me, told me the children were beautiful, told me to have a good day and walked away.

I felt a moment of shame for instantly wondering what harm the man could be bringing to my children. Telling myself that he seemed nice. Just as quickly telling myself that things are not always as they seem.

I wish there were not so many untrustworthy people in the world. So many evil people who bring harm to children. I know there are more well meaning people than the evil ones, but the evil ones are SO awful that we can no longer trust ANYONE.

My Gavin Project

I have spent the last 4 weeks working on my Super G (Super Gavin) Project.

I am part of a group of women that met through iVillage. We all had babies due in October 2007. We call our children the Pumpkin Seeds and each other our “invisible friends” We have seen each other through sick babies, the terrible twos, terrifying threes and so on. Our pumpkin seeds are now 5 ½. We have comforted each other through many losses in life. Whether it be the loss of a pregnancy, a parent or other family member or the loss of that perfect marriage. We have celebrated new babies and new husbands.

We recently lost one of our own. Gavin was a Pumpkin Seed. His parents were told early on in his short life that he wouldn't be able to do anything. He wouldn't so much as sit up or eat on his own. He defied all of his doctors. Not only did he sit up but he eventually progressed through all of his early life milestones. His mother, Kate's, goal was to watch him walk into Kindergarten on his first day. And as a Christmas Gift, Gavin began to take steps on his own. And he would of walked through those doors on his first day of Kindergarten, unassisted.

He suddenly fell ill 4 weeks ago and within the week he was gone. If you would like to read more about Gavin and his family, Kate's blog is here: http://www.kateleong.com/

Gavin always wore a superman shirt. He was “our” super hero. When Gavin went to the hospital, someone posted a superman logo with a G rather then a S. I offered to make my imaginary friends applique shirts with the super G logo. I thought maybe 30 shirts, but the number quickly jumped to 93 shirts.

I have prayed over these shirts. I have prayed for the people that would wear them. I have prayed for Kate, Ed, Gavin and little brother Brian. I have prayed for their family. I have prayed for myself: please God help me get these shirts done, please don't let me sew the front to the back, please don't let my sewing machine eat the shirts and please oh please don't let me sew my own finger in a rush to get them done.

As I sewed the last few shirts today, I have continued to pray. I had decided that I wasn't going to make myself a shirt. I didn't want people to think that the G logo stood for my daughter Grace. But as soon as I had that thought, I realized that the G does stand for grace. Not my curlied hair version of Grace. But the lower case grace. And the G stands for God. For it is through the Grace of God that all things are possible. It was through the Grace of God that Gavin defied all doctors. That Gavin stood as an example of what can be done through God. G also stands for Gift. What a wonderful gift it was to witness what all Gavin was able to accomplish.

I made myself a shirt and I hope that someone asks me what the G is for, because I am now prepared to answer.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God Ephesians 2:8

Super G

God
Grace
Gift
Gavin

How the Japanese teach Multiplication

(or so I've been told)

My son Ben showed me this method this morning and I really wish I would of had this when I was a kid. This is a fantastic way to help those kids who struggle with math.

We are going to multiply 132 & 25. So here we go........



Now you are going to drawl lines for each and every number you are multiplying. and you are going to group the lines so you can clearly see the number you are working with. Take 132. you will drawl 1 vertical slanted line. then 3 vertical slanted lines together and then 2 vertical lines together. for 25 you are going to drawl 2 horizontal lines together and 5 horizontal lines together. confusing? yes very??? look at the picture.....


Next use a marker to quickly put a dot where every line intersects and then group as follows (I used a high lighter to clearly show the 4 groups of dots:


Now count the dots in each group and line them up to add the number of dots together, Add as normal, right to left and carry as needed.


My answer is:


Calculators answer is:


Now lets do 13 & 22



Of course a calculator is faster. But when you have a child that struggles with math, finding fun ways to get the answer is a huge help. some kids are very hands on and multiplying is hard to grasp. you can use this method for even simple multiplying.