What's it like to re-open our two Lix Homemade Ice Cream stores & kitchen in Puerto Vallarta after being closed for 3 months? (we now have three stores).
After less than two weeks...
someone stole a chair from outside our Fluvial store
we had to fire an employee
we lost 27 tubs of ice cream because one of our brand new freezers broke - again
It's been PEACHY!! LOL
When things like this occur, I tend to let it affect me in a not-so-good way... I feel bummed, maybe get a headache, a stomachache, a heaviness in my heart. I know it will be easier for me to accept 'what is' than to fight it. Sometimes I can't do that right away.
Meanwhile, my husband is playing his computer games and looks over at me calmly and says ' 'that's just business', and goes back to fighting the monsters or whatever it is that he plays. He's familiar with it after being an entrepreneur all his life. (Don't get me wrong, he did feel very defeated after losing several tubs of ice cream last week, it just didn't take him long to bounce back - especially after he personally worked so hard to make all that ice cream - the work and money that went into it is no sack of small potatoes.)
I'm learning to let things roll off my back - thanks in big part to the Life Coach School Podcast - Brooke Castillo... who teaches that our thoughts are EVERYTHING. No matter what happens, we control our thoughts and don't have to make anything that happens into a negative that ruins your day - LOVE THAT!! Definitely not always easy to do, but it's interesting to listen to what your thoughts are all day - we can control them, not the other way around.
This sounds like "A Course in Miracles", which I started reading years ago - life can be easier if we don't judge everything as good or bad,
everything has been like a hazy dream with re-opening
Hell, the last three months with this pandemic has been a hazy dream - and I KNOW you can relate!
Mostly it feels good to have our shops open again. It feels like some sense or normalcy has come back, even though the 3 months off was in no way 'off' for me. Mostly it was fun stuff/classes and I was home a lot - but I still had all the bills to pay for two stores, baked all the cookies for the ice cream cookie sandwiches, other work projects and delivered ice cream when Todd was sick for 4 weeks (it was a urinary issue, not covid). I'm also taking care of our elderly greyhound pup, Miss Asha 24/7... it's breaks my heart that she's slowing down and is having some issues, she's 14 1/2 now - enjoying each precious day with her. Todd was also busy with work projects, delivering ice cream, shopping, making ice cream as needed, cooking meals (he's the chef in the family) and being sick.
are we busy?
No, sales are not anywhere near what they would normally be at this time of year. Many tourists and ex-pats that normally live here are not back. Business is slow slow slow. However, our employees are getting paid full time again, they have something to do, we feel good about being open. We're basically breaking even so far, that's it.
what we love about being open again
seeing our employees again
making people SMILE with our artisan yumminess
we decided to continue to DELIVER ice cream (the cool thing about being closed is that we delivered ice cream for the first time - met lots of new customers, and people love that we deliver!)
We aren't positive that our stores can stay open. The Vallarta beaches and malecon have re-opened, hotels are opening, restaurants are opening, though nothing is allowed to be at full capacity. Depending on how the pandemic is in Mexico, we're prepared that we may have to close again. We hope not, but we're also realistic.
We do the best we can, and are going to go with the flow.
xo
Kathleen Naomi