Suddenly, on a Friday afternoon, after 11 months of delays, a Montgomery County building inspector approved Green & Bean Boutique to open its doors to the public. It's been so long that even with a door propped wide open, it's beared asking ~ can we actually come in?
That was September 26th, and here we are nearly a month later and's shocking how fast the time has whipped by. I've met a lot of faces from lots of different places, wrapped a lot of gifts, and given lots of lengthy explanations about what took us so long. Slowly more product tags make their way onto the shelves, and shelves are simultaneously shuffled around to make space for everything we have coming in in prep for the holidays. It's only early days, but I'm confident Christmas may kill me if I'm not well prepared.
Not only is it just me in the shop for now, meaning I'm here every hour we're open (6 days a week), all gifts are wrapped by me, and all orders packed and shipped ~ or locally delivered ~ by me too. Running the online shop is no walk in the park either, and oftentimes it's impossible to be on the computer while being in the shop with people constantly popping in and out.
These are not complaints, but context for why I'm spending more time prepping now, in hopes that December won't take me out along with 2025 itself.
I’ve even started pre-wrapping items. Christmas puzzles, mixology kits, journals, even mystery packs of chocolate. To keep everything organized, I’ve made a spreadsheet to go along with it.
At the moment, despite a full calendar to prep, I somehow find myself scrambling. Time management can be incredibly difficult when you’re not in control of how time is being managed. That being said, there was probably a bit more I could have gotten done in the interim. I have a tendency to always feel like what I’m currently doing is something I could have done slightly earlier if I was more efficient or organized or focused or superhuman and other attainable attribute I may have forgotten. Alas, I am just me, and me is learning to plan ahead and execute whatever is possible in the present.
