First three weeks of October 2016

On Monday 3rd, a pasta maker and ravioli press I had ordered arrived, and so I got busy making ravioli! (My first lot was spinach and ricotta).
Lucy was also very enthusiatic, and pleased that I had bought a Marcato pasta maker, as that's what her friend Gi's family had in Sardinia!

It was pretty good, but I still need to find the perfect filling.

Making tagliatelle with the left overs!

Lucy with her church friends Heather, Myste and Daisy.

Thursday 6th October. Tom watching The Great British Bake Off (which we are all fans of!), wearing the new, more comfortable sling I bought him. He wore it for most of October, and was very independent - doing everything himself one-handed! He made incredibly little fuss.

From Friday 7th- Saturday 8th October, Jack went on a Priest's Church History Tour:

Fri 7th: (from) 8pm Wigan Chapel for Sports Night
Brief session together
Travel to Hotel 
Dress code: Casual

Sat 8th: Breakfast
Church history tour start
(Preston, River Ribble)
Lunch
MTC tour and Temple
Liverpool Docks
Dinner
7pm Leave to travel back home

I got these photos from the Stake Youth Facebook page. Jack said he enjoyed it!

8th October. Some of Harry's Lego creations.

I took Lucy to a hospital appointment on Monday 10th October (nothing new), and on Tuesday 11th and Thursday 13th I did some Water Safety talks to groups of Primary school children as part of 'Safety Zone'. I happened to be at work one day when a Community Fire person and Community Police Officer were planning it, and got roped in! It was pretty straightforward - there were materials already prepared by the RNLI, and I just had to give the same talk for about 10 minutes, several times over to small groups.
All the appliances were driven out of the bay to give us space. This was my corner.

Our lovely fire station!

On 14th October Lucy took her 2nd driving test and failed it. 

Since Lucy got back from Sardinia in September, it's been a bit of an adjustment for her. She was under growing pressure to get a job, get her mission stuff sorted out and pass her driving test. I think she felt a bit shy/under confident/lethargic, so it got off to a slow start. She applied for some shop jobs in Peterborough and had a couple of interviews, but didn't get them, which turned out for the best because she and Jack both got jobs at the local Tesco a couple of weeks later.

A letter from Ryan Garrick, from his mission.

Wednesday 19th October. I intended to do a 'quick touch-up' of the paint in the living room, only the paint looked a completely different shade once it dried, so I ended up painting the whole living room!

A Facebook post from later that day:
Today I got the whole living room painted and everything put back again, helped friends who moved house to unpack, painted a table and touched up the hall, stairs and landing (luckily the paint matched this time!), made tea, cut Jack's hair, took the kids to youth (Lucy had a hypo on the way and used up all her sugar supplies - thanks to Ann for letting us raid her food shop for additional supplies, up at church!) and showed a bunch of Girl Guides around the fire station this evening. I'm a bit tired now!

I was quite pleased with what I got done! In the afternoon I'd gone over and helped Tracey and Colin Jackson to unpack their living room. We sorted through loads of stuff, and I took a car full of stuff away to the charity shop. They were really happy with how good the place looked afterwards.
Dan and I gave the local Guides a safety talk, and showed them all the equipment on the pump, in the evening.

A snap of Lucy as we were leaving for youth, with her sewing kit.

On 20th October I held the first card class I've done in ages. I'd cleared loads of craft stuff out in September and it had the effect of making me love what I have left so much more, so I wanted to use it, and I really enjoyed making up kits for the class. 

Throughout October, I sold the cleared out craft stuff on Ebay. It did really well, and was really satisfying to post off.

In October too, we started having the missionary Elders over for dinner every Tuesday. I figured it would be easier to just get into the routine of them coming regularly, and I wanted their nice influence in our home. Harry mostly misses them though because he has Scouts on Tuesday nights.