Welcome: The Door

Welcome to our new website... and especially MainStreet Musings, the blog feature we've all been excited to debut! That is, until I realized I'd be the one doing the debuting... Karen's the writer around here, not me! So for the past few days, now that the store is finally decorated and the windows are done, I've been pondering what I wanted the first blog to be about. I've thought about my favorite Christmas memories, beloved traditions... holiday recipes – we are a kitchen store after all! In the end, what I settled on was...a door. Yes, our door does look festive. Marty decked the plain wreath I'd picked up at Brainers with berries and bows... she would have added glitter if she could, but the two of us have been banned! The white snow looked a bit stark against the golden Angels in last year's windows. Two jars of glitter later, the girls protested, "Never again!" We're still vacuuming glitter from between the floor boards! But enough of that, back to the door. Why a door, you ask? Because a door represents so much of "my" story of Acorn Farm.

You see before there was Acorn Farm, there was The Village Peddler.Some of you old-timers will know what I'm talking about. It was the store I started back in the eighties. It's crazy to think enough years have gone by that the '80s is a whole category on Pinterest and Party City! Back then it wasn't a kitchen store...heck, I didn't even know HOW to cook back then, but it was the "door" God opened revealing an affection for retail I didn't know was there. It was the "door" He graciously closed (although it didn't always seem so at the time) replacing retail with the task of raising four rambunctious boys. It was the same "door" He left slightly ajar, until eighteen years later, just as our last was getting ready to leave the nest, He seemed to be opening again. It looked like the perfect answer to the silent prayers I'd prayed as I'd walk down Main Street, past the store... PAST because those four boisterous boys would have turned it upside down in no time... seeing someone else behind "my" counter. Perfect, that is, until several months into the renovation the economy crashed! Hardly a day went by the first few months after reopening, that someone wouldn't remark, "There are a lot of stores closing. Doesn't seem the best time to be opening your doors!" Just goes to show... His ways are not our ways... His timing... always perfect!

It's been this same "door" He's used to bless me with so many wonderful friendships... the amazing women that work alongside me, the many of you that came in as customers, but quickly became friends.. .the folks from near and far that come through our door each day, sharing a bit of their lives and enriching ours in the process. In the coming weeks, this door will see a lot of hustle and bustle, and many times it's that same hustle and bustle that keeps me from focusing on what the season is all about. I'm hoping instead, this year, each time it opens, I'm reminded to welcome the season...the gift of a "door"

Merry Christmas everyone!!
Kathy

"I am the door..." John 10:9