25 October 2013

What a month October has been.  Having Mr. Brown back in school has been stressful in unanticipated ways, although it has also been a great blessing.  Soccer season finishes this week, to our great relief.  It's been really fun, but we're ready to do something else in the evenings besides practice and games.  Mr. Brown and I have been working on greater honesty with each other as well, and that has been really hard and painful but I trust that our relationship and we ourselves will be better for it.  The garden has wrapped up production for the year.  When I came home from work yesterday Mr. Brown had finished pulling out most everything that's coming out after the frosts we had this week, and the backyard smelled like basil.  Before it got really cold, I got a good start on the bed along the back fence where I want to plant raspberries and rhubarb next spring, and Mr. Brown dug up some bushes by the roots so they won't be cluttering the fenceline any more.

We spent last week at the church most days helping with the winter clothing distribution: handing out clothing shipped to us from Utah to the needy who were referred by their case workers.  There was so much to do.  Mr. Brown was there every day, and I took Friday off so we could all go and help.  It finished on Saturday, and we were exhausted afterwards, but it was very rewarding to work hard at something and see how our efforts were helping people.  The kids were troopers through the whole thing (although by the end Bobo was so not excited to see the church building again).  I hope we get to do it again next year.

The kids and I are anticipating Halloween.  (Mr. Brown has to go to class on Halloween, how sad is that??  I will miss him and he's not happy about being gone.)  The celebration starts tonight: we're going the 'Zoo Boo' at the Detroit Zoo, which was a good time last time we went.  Tomorrow is the church Trunk-Or-Treat, and then we'll carve pumpkins (the ones from my garden!) on Monday and trick-or-treat the neighborhood on Thursday.  I love Halloween for the friendly, neighborly feelings that it generates around town.

I just found out from my boss this week that when my developmental assignment finishes in November, I'm being sent to work in the budget office for the Robotics Program Manager.  It's supposed to be for four months, and we'll see what happens after that.  I have no idea.  Life is sure an adventure.