We Survived! Happy Halloween!

When I did the chalkboard on Sunday,
had to put our Monday/Tuesday plans on it!

 Bye bye, Sandy! It was nice knowing you.

We were lucky this time around -- we didn't lose power. The lights flickered a few times, and the cable went out around 10 p.m. Monday night, but that was the worst of it. Many, many others in Connecticut were not so lucky, especially those on the shoreline. My heart and prayers go out to them. I hope wherever you are, you made it through OK. I know here, at my house, the wind was incredible and scary and loud and menacing. My normally creaky house was creakier than normal and made me have visions of "Wizard of Oz." But it's all over now.

Happy Halloween!
My trio had a Halloween party over the weekend.
I'm glad they got to wear their costumes.

As I type this, it's Tuesday a.m. and I have no idea what is in store for Wednesday. I'm hoping the kids have school, and that our Halloween night trick-or-treating is still on! (We want to wear costumes again! That's a princess, a farmer and a fox, above. And may I repeat: I am so happy I didn't spent a fortune costumes after two years of major storms in a row for Halloween!)

There are trick-or-treaters at the Little People House!
Don't you just love their fall decorations?
I think the scarecrow, corn stalk and pumpkin are a nice touch.
Buddy Twin thinks the pumpkin needs to go inside so the squirrels don't eat it.

There are about 8 percent of residents in my town without power, likely from downed tree lines. That seems to be the biggest issue in my area -- the winds toppled trees and big branches. But in a nice twist, the winds also gave me a blessing -- they blew a lot of my leaves away from my front yard. Yay! Less raking for me!

And my fridge is still full of food, which makes my life easier right now. I stocked up pre-storm, as everyone, did. A $50 trip to Aldi yielded tons of food. Here is a pic of just some of the yummy food -- REAL FOOD, real fruits and veggies and dairy and bread -- that I brought home:

Real food from Aldi.
Just in case anyone thinks you can't get "real" healthy food there...
(And yes, that's hormone-free milk.)

Aldi continues to be a blessing to my food budget. We are eating more fruits and veggies all around. (And yes, that is coffee creamer in the middle of that picture. It's my morning splurge. I don't need fancy coffee anymore at all. Right now Aldi has two special flavors: Pumpkin Spice and Peppermint Mocha. Both as really good, as good as International Coffee or Coffeemate brand versions and much, much cheaper! I use them in place of sugar/half-and-half.)

I got a lot done on my Monday of storm-waiting. Caught up on all the laundry. Clipped and organized Box Tops for Education for Big Girl's school. Cleaned out my coupon organizer and clipped new coupons and filed them. Read magazines from my ever-growing magazine pile that I need to purge. Made a nice meatball and pasta dinner for the family. Went to bed early! (Although I web-surfed for far too long in bed and should have turned off the computer earlier!)

Now I'm off to enjoy another day off with Big Girl and the little ones. Nothing special planned. It's still windy and dark here, so we are staying home again. It's funny to read Facebook statuses where people are moaning and carrying on like they have been snowbound with their kids for a week. It was one day! Winter is still yet to come, and I'm sure it will bring many at-home days. I don't think that's a bad thing.