Salmon and Souvlaki

For yesterday:  Last night, I was infinitely grateful for my covenant group women.  They are a blessing from God to me.

Today, I am grateful for a quiet day at work, with no students, and a chance to get caught up and feel a bit more under control again.

Today, I’m grateful for a clean house, a nice day of sewing with friends, and brave little shoots of garlic pushing their heads up through the soil.

Today, I am grateful for the weekend, an easy Monday at work, and the Thanksgiving holidays!  I’m looking forward to the rest!

Today, I am grateful for my washing machine because I’m really glad I don’t have to wash our clothes by hand!

I was thankful yesterday, I promise, but when I went to the computer to post it, Nik had turned it off.  And good for him, because we’ve been trying to cut down on our computer consumption recently.  Turning the computer completely off is a good way to do that.  But it meant no posting thankfulness on Tuesday!

So here’s my Daily Gratitude #14 for Tuesday:
Yesterday, I was thankful for a safe home, a legal and honest way to make a living, and a loving family.

And here’s #15:
Today, I am grateful for a loving Savior who does not give us more than we can bear and a good reminder of that truth.

Today, I’m grateful for this recipe, Warm Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad.  Kristen told me about it weeks ago and I finally made it last week when I was desperate for some good food.  And let me tell you – it delivered.  Nik and I liked it so much we made it again today.  It’s good, good, good.  It even makes me want to eat chickpeas (which I generally don’t enjoy).  And even though she says to skip the allspice, I use it and I think it adds a really nice flavor to the salad.

I had some blood work done last month.  I just recently got my explanation of benefits from my insurance company.  This statement always shows what was billed and then how much the insurance company actually pays.  The second number is always lower but this time it was particularly ridiculous.

The lab company charged my insurance a total of $611.46 for nine (9) different tests.

My insurance company paid them $81.12.

That’s a difference of $530.34 or a payment of 13% of the total.

For example, on one test, the lab charged $120.42 and my insurance paid $11.89.

That’s INSANE.  What if I didn’t have insurance?  Would they have expected me to pay $611 for those tests?  Would they have charged me less?

Wow, wow, and wow.  I’m ever so grateful for my health insurance and also astounded that this kind of stuff probably goes on every day.

(I missed yesterday – I know.  The day got away from me.)

Today I’m grateful for sunshine and good friends and a sewing room and warm fall weather and Sundays to rest.