It’s quiet now and I can officially kick my shoes off and take a deep breath. Earlier I heard the occasional whir of the compound miter saw coming from my basement as Charlie was down there cutting the board and batten pieces for the countertop, while I was catching up on emails and messages. We are making progress.
About a week ago we joined the Brookfield Chamber of Commerce, which by the way, is made up of an amazing team of people. Via email, I met Anne who is by far one of the most fun, enthusiastic, accommodating and supportive people I have ever met. From the very beginning she offered ideas and suggestions to help us grow our business. Well, on Tuesday morning I received an email from her, stating that she knew it was short notice but her caterer for the monthly luncheon, which was this Thursday had fallen through and she was wondering if I was interested in catering the event. I knew we couldn’t handle that request, but told her we would be happy to contribute desserts, and so began a dessert menu in my head for the rest of the day.
Later that same evening, we made the local paper. I had done the phone interview the week before and knew that it would be coming out on Wednesday so we were surprised to see it the night before posted by someone on Facebook from the community. We were like excited children reading that article with huge smiles on our faces. If you would like to read it, you can find it here.
Wednesday came and went like a blur. I went to work, ended up leaving the office later than I had anticipated, and didn’t begin my baking project until 4pm, but with a large cup of coffee, a little mellow folk rock, a husband that orders you Chinese so you can keep baking, and even finds a Chinese place that has really great french fries, you can accomplish a lot. By 9:00pm, there were lemon bars, chocolate chip biscotti cookies, and pizzelle cups filled with chocolate mousse.
I went to bed that night feeling accomplished, however I woke up nervous. If you know me personally, then you know there is what some people like to call shyness about me, others call it introverted. My Myers-Briggs test says I’m the latter. But its okay, I work through it, heck, I taught yoga for ten years and had to talk to my students. But…I was still nervous. So I went to my stress relief, and at 6:00am that morning was making pecan lace cookies. There, now that there are more cookies I definitely feel better.
Charlie and I attended the luncheon, and everyone we met was so supportive. Truly, I feel like this community has embraced us with open arms. What in the world did I have to be nervous about? People we didn’t even know recognized us from the news article, which was very funny and made us feel like some kind of celebrity. Everyone is kind and supportive. Sometimes I just need to remember to breathe.
After the lunch we dropped off the final permit applications, went home, and literally fell asleep on the couch.
Today was mostly catching our breath, and catching up on those things at home that we’ve been falling behind on. Our grass is now a very reasonable length again, Charlie is working hard on the counter, the laundry is not overflowing anymore and our dear Hope has finally got a long overdue haircut.
Even though it was a whirlwind of a few days, and I know there are more coming our way, we are having fun and enjoying the learning, the growing and all the wonderful people we are meeting.
cafetere.com 