I've got writer's block.  Tonight I'm supposed to be writing our monthly newsletter to send to our ministry partners.  It's not that I have nothing to say, it's more like I have too much to say and can't decide what/how to say it.  There are so many wonderful and miraculous things happening in our inner city neighborhoods, and through our urban church partners.  And Dave comes home from work and tells me stories, and when the kids are in bed he's on his laptop until 11pm most nights, and it's not a burden it's a privilege, and he's excited and overwhelmed, and we're thankful to get to be a part of such transforming work...and that was a really long run-on sentence!
And on the home front, things are clipping along: Ruby rides the school bus in the morning, and this year she has a 3rd grade friend who has taken her under her wing and reads to her on the bus.  And LouLou misses her sissy, so I have been extra intentional this week to give her soooo much attention.  During the boys' nap times we've prepared the dinner meal for the day, baked a pie, painted, drawn pictures, played lots of board games, picked veggies in the garden, played on the swingset.  Whew!  It's been great, but I'm also really looking forward to Saturday when Ruby can be the one to keep LouLou entertained =-) 
And Joseph has basically potty trained himself at the ripe old age of two.  He stays dry up to 4 hours when we're away from home, and even most nights (crazy!), but his poor bowels still have a lot of recovery from his malnourishment and parasites, so I can't keep him in big-boy undies.  Oops, I just announced that on the world-wide-web.  But hey, 9 months of changing those terrible diapers has earned me some indiscretion.
Ok, to change the subject:

Our new family ritual after dinner is to "play Olympics" as Ruby calls it.  She loves to race anybody (mostly her daddy) down the block on scooters.  Don't let this fuzzy pic fool you.  Dave is not in the lead.  The girl smokes anyone who races against her.

So far this week, the minute we get home from picking up Ruby from school, the girls beeline for their bedroom and spend as long as I allow (until suppertime) playing with their dolls and just being together.
Ok, enough procrastinating.  I need to o write a newsletter =-)