-For the fact that we got the mid-tier insurance from my employer. The last two years, as we battled multiple major illnesses, I had selected the cheapest monthly option. Both years, we paid out the nose until we met our full out-of-pocket max, which was fine because that plan is cheaper overall if you hit that max, and, boy, did we. This year, I am only at my university through July (so less than a full calendar year of health expenses), and we went into this year without planning a major surgery or other event. We have already had more pop up than we anticipated, but on the mid-tier plan we're not suddenly paying $1,000s of dollars every week until we hit that out-of-pocket max.

-That our oldest is suddenly doing better in school. This fall his grades slipped, and we couldn't figure out why. But suddenly this month he seems very on top of things, and is subsequently actually turning in homework, which has significantly improved his grades. I asked him last night what he thought might account for the change, and he didn't have an answer. So I am chalking it up to some brain development, just in time to start getting his CV in shape for college planning.

-For our real estate agent. We have a commercial space that we rent, and we had a maintenance issue last week. Our tenant was all worked up and frothing at the mouth about it, demanding we fix it immediately. (This is a fix that would be, in total, $250 out of pocket for her.) Well, we are new to being landlords, so we weren't sure what to do, so we called our agent. She showed me in our lease how the tenant is actually responsible for the fix and assured me that we weren't the crazy ones. It helped my husband and me find our backbone, which will improve our relationship with our tenant. (Well, it improves the relationship from our perspective. The tenant is now crashing out, but now I realize that is not my fault nor something I can control.)

-That we got closer to answers on our son's tummy issues. He has had tummy and eating issues for two years now. Bloodwork and everything was normal last year when our pediatrician had him tested for a bunch of stuff. But then earlier this week his bloodwork came back with a marker for celiac disease. We're doing more tests next week to confirm, and then we will move on to how to address it. I am not happy that my child likely has a chronic illness, but oh my goodness, I am so glad it is not something worse. I am so grateful for a diagnosis. It is the first step to solving the problem.

Calico Kitty drank copious amounts of chicken and turkey broth in her old age. It kept her strong. I'm sure the bone broth will benefit Old Man.