Ready for the Storm

Hurricane Sandy is supposed to hit our area sometime tonight. We're already getting some heavy winds and light rain. I'm not worried about having to evacuate, like the folks in more coastal areas, but with the towering old trees that we have around here a power outage is a very real possibility.

I'm a person that likes to be prepared ahead of time. My hubby says I go into panic mode. Actually I think I'm pretty calm about it. Mostly. Today, during a full day of teaching my kids, I ran around the house like crazy getting ready for the storm.

I came close to getting caught up on the laundry, because even if the power goes out, we have a busy week ahead of us. I froze extra ice cubes in the hopes that we'll be able to save the perishables that we have in stock.

Then I also did a bit of cooking, trying to think of things that could be eaten cold if necessary. I made four loaves of bread, one pound of brown rice, a dozen and a half hard boiled eggs, a pound of bacon, and two pounds of chicken. Yesterday I made a huge tub of yogurt. Tomorrow I hope to be able to make some applesauce. None of it will go to waste even if we're lucky and have no outages. I'll be able to cobble together hot or cold meals of some sort by mixing in some fruits and veggies we have on hand with all that I cooked. It will actually be a time saver on our busy weeknights.

Just now I finished putting fresh batteries in all of the flashlights and gathering up some candles. I even have a stash of glow sticks ready, they're great for keeping the kids calm and happy during a dark night.

Oh, I undecorated our porch too, storing our Halloween decorations safely in the garage. I'm sure my kids aren't the only ones wondering whether they'll get to trick or treat this year. If Frankenstorm ruins our plans, at least we're fully stocked on candy!

I feel as ready as I can be for the storm, even as I hope that all of my preparations were in vain. I pray that everyone in the storm's path stays safe and well and that this storm turns out to be not so scary after all.