I am just now sitting down to write today’s blog. I am in the mood to write about some of the positive experiences that the little Storey family has had during the new normal.
Working backwards chronologically:
The scavenger hunt: Today’s scavenger hunt was a huge success. I revamped the game from the previous days this week. Little Chirp is super into the game, and he is quite strategic. I am pretty certain that he spent the entire hour that I was out running this morning searching the house for clues. He won again tonight, this means that he is 4 for 4 on the Easter scavenger hunts. Perhaps, he should let his big brother win tomorrow?
The race with Little Fin: On my run this morning, I was on mile 5 when I heard a confident, little voice behind me say, “Do you want to race?” I looked back to see a little boy with a shark fin on his bike helmet, peddling quickly up behind me.
I do not know the name of the cyclist in the little shark helmet. Several times before the new normal, I would be out running during the 6 AM hour, and he would be outside on his bike while his mom was seeing his older brother off on the bus. Little Fin would ride back and forth from his house where his mom stood outside, and the bus stop where his brother waited for the bus. The first time that I ever saw Little Fin, I ran up behind him and said, “Do you want to race?” He took off, he peddled hard, but with training wheels, Little Fin had no shot at beating me. We would race again several times. I beat him every time, and each time defeat just made Little Fin pedal that much faster the next time.
This morning was different. This time it was Little Fin that challenged me to the race. He was with his mom and brother in a different part of the neighborhood on a family bike ride, and this time Little Fin was ready to win, and the training wheels were off! I was 5 miles into my run, and I went from tired to ready to run. I was ahead of him when we started, and he blew by me. Everything that I had was not enough. Even as he slowed up to not get to far ahead of his mother, I could not catch up. Knowing he was finally victorious, Little Fin circled back and cruised by me without his training wheels to his mother. Little Fin’s triumph made my day.
The Cupcake Family: Before the “New Normal” began, I saw a post from a local bakery on one of the Facebook pages for locally owned businesses, and they were promoting their business with a cupcake special. I seized the opportunity to support our teachers and a local business at the same time by prepaying for a large cupcake order for teacher appreciation day in May.
Then the “New Normal” happened. Sadly, there is almost no hope that school will be back in session for teacher appreciation day. I was fully prepared to write the order off, and take it as a loss. Instead, the Cupcake Family contacted me, and they asked what I wanted to do with my order. They offered to deliver the 20 boxes of cupcakes to the teachers doors. I did not feel that this was practical for two reasons – 1) Teachers do not necessarily live in the school district so the delivery process would be insane. 2) Teachers prefer to have their addresses unknown.
That same day, Ariel, the younger sister of one of my favorite kids that Little Chirp runs around with, texted me and told me that it was her birthday. That gave me an idea! I worked with the Cupcake Family to make a delivery plan to deliver each of the 20 boxes to a different doorstep. The Cupcake Family was crazy efficient, completing the deliveries in just a little over an hour.
The kids were so excited! The cupcakes were beautiful! We then all jumped onto a Zoom and had an online birthday party for Ariel and Little Chirp. It was adorable! I loved hearing the kids’ conversations with one another, and I loved Victoria’s dogs hopping on to say happy birthday. This made for a very special evening last night. The Cupcake Family has me as a customer for life!
It is the little things in life…