Obviously October

we've had some rain

Front pots ready for winter

I forgot to mention that on the Monday of the previous week, we were due at the dentist  for our 6 monthly check up. I was supposed to be going to the osteopath on the Tuesday, but he had to cancel, so I ended up changing my appointment to Monday as well. Our dentist has left the practice, so we now have a new one. We both have a couple of fillings to get sorted, and husband has to have a new crown.
Home for lunch and then later to the osteopath, who was full of his usual jokes. he was quite pleased with me and doesn't need to see me for 6 months. I was pleased about that.
On the Monday of the next week, I had had a bad night, and woke quite late, too late in fact to go and help with the distribution of the harvest which had been on the Sunday. I had a couple of bad nights, coughing, and we hadn't even put the heating on.  Later in the week I found that a teaspoon of Covonia cattarh mixture helped no end, so I felt less zombie like the next day.
On the Tuesday, I had quite a long walk in the morning, down to the hospital to get my blood tests done. It was a fasting test, there were about 30 people ahead of me even though the clinic had only been open for 10 minutes when I arrived. Within half an hour, I was on my way, and I managed to find a cafe serving tea and toast. Fortified, I then walked through town and got the bus up the hill. In the afternoon,I rang our friend to see if I could visit, but they had a visitor, so she moved into the kitchen and chatted to me there. She sounds so bright it is amazing. During our chat, she told me that the Dr had said that when he sent her in hospital he did not expect her to come out, but she told him that a lot of prayers had gone up for her.
Sadly, later in the week, we heard news of a young man, son of old friends, in his twenties, with a wife and baby, had lost his 9 month fight with cancer. Many people had been praying for him too, but the treatments had failed. It is hard at times to accept God's will and plans for people, but He knows everything from the beginning. It's so very difficult for his family too although they are believers, what does one say to comfort someone? Only the promises of God can help at such a time.
Someone recently shared something on facebook about what not to say to the bereaved,and I think that I have been guilty of saying many of then at some time.
 I was very struck once, at a funeral of an elderly chap, when I spoke to his wife and said how sorry I was for her loss,and how she must miss him, she replied, 'Yes but we wouldn't want to bring him back from Glory would we'. I'm not sure that I could respond so well if I lost my other half. Sadly as Gandalf said to Pippin in Lord of the rings, 'Death is not the end, it is just another path that we all must take.' How important it is then to make the choice now to be right with God whilst we can still do it. Anyone can be transported into Eternity in the blink of an eye, and it is a horrible thought to think that many who have never bothered with God in this life will spend eternity separate from Him.
Actually it would be far more embarrassing for them to be forced to spend an eternity in the presence of One whom they had despised and rejected.
Doing good cannot earn us a place in heaven, although the life of a believer should be characterised by good works. Many of them though are done in secret, such as giving of money, so that we do not boast.
If you are a believer please remember that bereaved family in your prayers. Many people will doubtless say, 'what a waste of a life', that one so young should die, but in God's economy a life lived for Him is not wasted. That young man has run his race, he had finished his fight and he has kept his faith in the face of difficulty and illness, there is therefore a crown of righteousness laid up for him, 2 Timothy chapter 4 verses 7 and 8.
I hope that what I have written here will not deter you from reading my blog in future, but I feel that it is important to address these matters.
When we called to collect Lydia on Wednesday, she was asleep. That showed us that she can still be unpredictable in her nap times, the previous week she had nodded off during lunch.  She played quite happily after we had taken her to our home and given her lunch. She is getting quite adept at doing little puzzles,

Little miss mischief

On Thursday we arrived at their home to discover that Nat had refused his breakfast becuase it was served in the 'wrong' bowl, he had even thrown it away, Daughter was needing to get off to work,so I supervised his brekky,and then Grandad walked him to school. I took Lydia home, she insisted on bringing Macca Pacca, then later kept going into the hall and saying 'Buggy',  so I got ready to take her out. Macca Pacca came too, till she dropped him, so I popped him into my shopping bag for safety. I had to take my prescription in, I was almost out of thyroxine, when I spoke nicely to the receptionist, she managed to get one printed for me, I was so grateful. When I eventually got home with Lydia,she was almost asleep, so Grandad carefully lifted her out of the buggy, and carried her up to the travel cot for her nap.
She was late waking for her lunch, but ate reasonably well. I think it was that day, when I discovered she can now reach the front door handle, and pull it open, so we now need to keep the handle locked and the key out of her reach. The time seemed to pass relatively quickly, and soon it was time  for Grandad to collect Nathaniel. He and Lydia didn't play quite so well together, Nathaniel wanted the trains out at first, but then played with other things that Lydia decided she wanted, so it got a bit fraught.
However it was soon time for home, and I commented we hadn't watched Thomas for a while. Nathaniel decided to complain about not having watched Thomas, so I reminded him he needed to ask, and ask nicely to be able to watch Thomas. It's not long since he would hear the clock strike and declare, 'Time for Thomas'. I wonder what boys become interested in when the are too big for tank engines? With my son it was Lego and building fantastic models.
On the Friday, I had to go for my asthma check. The nurse said she had to weigh me and measure my height. Having grown last year I now appear to have shrunk again! When she announced my weight it was nearly 2kg lower than when the Dr weighed me last week. I pointed this out and she said, 'Oh one of the scales must be wrong.' So I said, 'or perhaps I could have lost a bit, I need some encouragement', she laughed and said 'of course!'.
I needed a new peak flow meter, and a new aerochamber, then we got so involved in discussing how to treat cattarrh, that she quite forgot to do the prescription. I was back in reception booking our flu jabs, and getting my blood test results, all normal, and cholesterol acceptable, when my phone rang.
I couldn't answer it, but when I was about to cross the road, I found a voicemail, from the nurse,so had to to a smart about turn, and up the stairs to collect it.
 I caught up on some housework, mainly ironing and tidying, for the rest of the day, it was showery, so I was in and out like a fiddler's elbow, with the washing, happy days!