Easter.

Last week, I alluded the fact that we had a lot of Easter pie orders.  All the pie pickups were almost equally divided between Friday and Saturday, with a heavy emphasis on meringue pies and on our new cookie pie.  And while all went exceptionally well on Friday, by 3:15 in the morning on Saturday, I was deep in the throes of a Thanksgiving pie prep flashback.  We even had a pumpkin pie on order for a 9 am pickup and as I measured the sugar into the bowl and whisked the eggs for the pumpkin mixture, I saw our steamed up windows and our stack of orders yet to be baked and basically, I needed a brown paper bag to steady my hyperventilation.  I was so very worried that one misstep would lead us down the road of making French Silk whilst weeping.

But in the most interesting turn of events, we did just fine (!).  In fact, we sorta of pulled the whole thing off without a hitch.  Pie orders were ready by 9 am.  We had plenty of extra pies on the shelves.  (We did run out of both baby boxes and nine-inch boxes, but it wouldn't be a major PJP event if we weren't out of something crucial.)  But whatever, because by the time we locked our doors a little after 1 on Saturday afternoon, we realized that we had navigated our first big Easter holiday weekend without any crying or fighting.  And that can only mean one of two things - we are either maturing and applying some of what we are learning...or the apocalypse is indeed near.

Here is where the mature decision-making skills showed up:

1. We cut orders off by noon the previous day.  This really helped us build our baking schedule and not make changes to it at varying points in the day.  I know this sounds rather obvious, but I'm really great at accepting last-minute orders and not reflecting that information in our counts.  It is as awkward as you would expect.
2. We worked long hours.  I'm not saying that for the sympathy vote (though I've suffered a bizarre knee wound that led me to Google "blood clot" in the wee hours of the morning...thanks for nothing but panic, WedMD), I'm saying it because we knew the long hours would be necessary to complete the orders.  And I've learned that not going to bed at all is preferable to not having orders ready for pickup.
3. We had a strong team working.  Mac and Sanae came in at 5 am and Jeanne eventually called Barb at 6 am and asked her to come in...and Barb said yes.  We all work well together and there was some laser-precision focus going on in PJP Buttonwood before the sun rose on Saturday morning.  And a lot of coffee drinking.
4. We spent 30 minutes listening to the sounds of whales on Spotify after I threatened to let my anxiety run rampant in our 1,050 square feet.  It worked and now the whales and I are on a first name basis.
5. We decided to enjoy the process as much as possible, despite all the background noise in our heads and the unrelenting whisper that we were a short step from messing it all up.  I think this is effectively called "getting better at filtering all the things our brains try to tell us."

You are on notice, Thanksgiving 2k15.  We are learning stuff and we are coming for you...

Team PJP.