In which the water rises but my blood pressure doesn't

My week was hijacked by floods and spiders. I'm not a huge fan of either one of those things, but to try cleaning up two inches of water in your basement while worrying about where the (poisonous!) funnel spiders are hiding, well it was almost enough to send me careening off the gratitude wagon.

You know how in the cartoons they show a frazzled, perhaps recently electrocuted, wet and shaggy, crazy-eyed cat hanging on by one paw, flapping in the wind like a flag? That would be me this week. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Except for the crazy eyes and maybe the shagginess. That part's real.

Anyway, I hung on, whispering thanks when I could, asking for grace when I couldn't. And wouldn't you know it, the list is longer than ever?

#54 The profound sense of satisfaction I felt after going all homicidal on a funnel spider
(And you can add to YOUR gratitude list that I'm not showing a picture of the dead spider here.)

#55 Reinforcement (for me, for the kids) that it's "just stuff"

#56 Prayers that reach a God who sees, a God who cares

#57 Soft green fleece, my go-to winter gear

#58 Yak-trax

#59 Ice shimmying off trees like cliff-diving teenagers

#60 Snow day!

#61 Waffles served before we lost power

#62 Play dough lattes (because while I had finished making the waffles, I had yet to make my coffee when the electricity failed)

#63 Power restored after just one hour!

#64 Real--as in double-shot, light on the milk--coffee, made the minute the power returned

#65 A very heavy pile of library books

#66 A boy who clambers to read them

#67 Pink mac-n-cheese. Delish, I tell you.

#68 A snowstorm giving us one more shot at skiing for the season

#69 And with the cousins this time!

#70 A husband willing to forgo pre- and post-night-shift sleep to take his son and nephews skiing

#71 A sister who never fails to bring the best snacks, and whose proximity is, hands down, my number one reason to love living in Ohio