Happy Halloween!!

When I was a kid we were poor. My single mother owned a home and worked her 40-40+ hours a week, and paid for dance lessons and after school care, etc. with the help of child support from my dad, who didn't make THAT much either. At least, not until I got into high school. By then, my mom had re-married, and the penny pinching days were over.
My mom was so good at this whole low-income thing that I had no idea we'd been strapped until I was in college, and had to begin grocery shopping for myself. I realized that the kind of frozen pizza we had been eating every Friday night (which by the way, was the biggest, most rad luxury any kid in the Copperfield neighborhood ever enjoyed as far as I could tell) cost less than a dollar. Friday nights , though, were awesome. We had pizza, Pepsi, and popcorn (why did I never see the alliteration???) and we got to eat/drink these things from a beach towel spread out on the living room floor, so that we could see the TV while TGIF was on. This is the ONLY time we got to eat in the living room. It was so awesome. My mom ROCKS!
Another thing she was really good at is Halloween. We definitely couldn't afford to go and buy an elaborate costume (I didn't know that either), so my mom, who, to this day, swears she is not creative, MADE them for me. My two favorites were:

1) A peacock. The school my grandmother worked at had an aviary. She collected peacock feathers for I-don't-know-how-long and we glued them to a fan-shaped piece of cardboard. My mom made elastic arm straps and bought a silver-sequined tiara. At the time over-sized sweaters were still in fashion, and I owned one in purple. I paired that with black leggings and - voila! - a bird is born. It was awesome.

2) Miss Copperfield. The year after the peacock we recycled the tiara, and I was a beauty queen. My mom altered an old yellow bride's maid dress with small white daisies around the collar to fit my height. She then made me a paper sash that said Miss Copperfied on it in perfect stenciled glitter letters. I carried a bag of candy instead of a bouquet, and wore my tiara with pride.

Recently my mom and I talked about these hard times for the first time. She told me about making sure to go grocery shopping for what she knew my sister and I would need for two weeks on pay day, paying the bills, and then praying nothing would come up in between. She was so stoic and resourceful. I always had the coolest birthday parties, with the best goody bags. My mom must have SCOURED the dollar store to fill them with the coolest things you can get for a dollar. These were the few occasions we ate real pizza.
Even though my mom does not read this, I cannot stress enough what an incredible job she did raising her little girls, and what an awesome example of a single mother she was. She is SUCH an inspiration. I love and admire her immensely.

Have some warm-fuzzies for your Halloween.