I think things are finally starting to happen here and I’ve opened my ’store’ to the public now with a little less in it than I’d planned but it will come. I’m still pretty uneasy about it because I’m a perfectionist and as I’m still learning about websites and shopping carts and everything in between, I’m finding it quite intimidating.
It was to open last night. I’d sent out my newsletter to those on my mailing list in the morning that it would ‘open’ later that night. And I can tell from the counter on my website that many looked and found the virtual doors still closed after all that work of redesigning the store after many years. Last night, as things seem to be, things didn’t go as planned. I had my whole evening laid out and as I was sitting down to make it happen, I got a phone call that I just couldn’t say no to. I was aggitated and kind of put out at first until it donned on me that the store could wait another day or two and it wouldn’t be the end of the world because here, in my own home, we were making a memory for four people that mean the world to me and I relaxed. It’s not to say that I’m not a little perturbed that things didn’t go the way I wanted them to but I can accept it and deal with it.
What happened is the boys’ god-father had talked about giving them his huge fish tank the other day. I casually said, ‘Sure, why not?’ Little did I know that as soon as I agreed, it was a plan in motion that took a life of it’s own. So I got a call saying to get the house ready last night about dinner time because we were getting some fishies. Now I know some of you are going, “She put this off for fish?!” Yeah, I did…lol. And here’s why…That god-father of theirs has been battling cancer for 10 months now and when he wants to do something, I don’t care what it is, I drop everything for him because we have no idea where the chips are going to fall still after all this time. So much hope yet so much lies in the balance. It makes me crazy when I think about it. I’ve dealt with so much illness, dying and death in my life that I know that every day has to count so darn it, if he wants to give my kids his fish tank as a gift and spend hours teaching them (well, me…lol) how to care for them, I do it. So despite not opening my store as planned, I have one person happy to give some fish and three little boys happy to get some fish. And in turn, I’m happy watching them all make a little memory.
But it’s open now. Not all the items are visible yet but they’ll come as the week wears on. I’m not sure I’m comfortable with it yet. I know clothes. I know pricing. I know shipping. What I don’t know is how this Mals cart is going to work and I have this vision of ‘Hotel California’ - you know the line…”You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.” as my cart malfunctions (even after a billion test runs) and you are left with things in your basket but you can’t pay for them or whatever ever other glitches that can happen with an online store.
Excuse me but the boys are rifling the grocery bags in search of pudding and I should go put the stuff away as it’s close to dinner time.
Thank you again for your patience and understanding of why I didn’t open the store yesterday. Sometimes, you have to let the most important people in life take precedence and last night was one of those nights.
Kristen
PS. I thought I’d share a sweet little moment that my five year old and I had this morning (excuse his run on sentence but he’s just starting Kindergarten on Tuesday…lol) and this is when I remember that I really do like being a Mom despite the days that challenge every inch of my sanity.
Nicholas just came up to me in the kitchen while I was making them breakfast and he spied the hot chocolate mix on the counter and says to me:
“Mom, remember when I was small and we made a snowman last year when it snowed and we were freezing cold and you brought us in and then you made us hot chocolate to drink when we were wrapped in your housecoats? I liked that. Thank you. Can we do it again when it snows?”
You bet we can…sigh. I love Nicholas. He always remembers the good stuff. 
