The beginning of another day in Brooklyn,...The kids are up and ready to go. So am I - almost...They are certainly little livewires...

God gave me another interesting seatmate on my way here, from Memphis - An immigrant from the Ukraine whose mom is orthodox and dad Jewish. He has attended a charismatic church for some time, but also hangs around with the Orthodox (Jews) in his part of town. He says they talk of rebuilding the temple. I asked whether this was fantasy or an actual determination. He said the latter - interesting....As with most Russians, he was pleasantly philosophical...

One of the first things Susanna and I did upon Mom-arrival was to buy a new vacuum - her old one is useless....Micah had mixed feelings about the noise it makes, wanting me to assure him that God would protect us from it...

Alicia came for the weekend, which was lovely. On our way to the market with the kids on Saturday, we bumped into Toni - hope to see her when Dad and I return after the baby is born....Yesterday, Sharon came into town so we could go out to lunch together. What a stimulating and interesting visit we had -as always...She has begun a group called "Just Listening", which she presents all over the country - a means of listening to especially poorer people without the lenses of a person's ow cultural values...We discussed spiritual issues of course, as they are what we both are most interested in..She reminded me of a time at the cottage - years ago- when one of you girls told one of her girls that she had a black heart. Needless to say, this was discussed by the family and the kids were told just to sort it out together...which you always did! In any case, I said to her, "Sharon, the Protestant response to that comment would be...."But don't take it personally..." We laughed and laughed. Amazing that we have such a good relationship with so much honesty and differences we honestly articulate.

Tom came for dinner and told us of his ongoing writing on his novel - sound quite unique...But must go as a little boy wants to watch the Wiggles...