A Thank-You Note

To the grandmother and granddaughter at the end of the cul-de-sac;

To the mom and her tween son in the minivan;

To the grandmother who lives on the good sledding hill;

(and to Mama, our last customer):

Thank you.

Thank you for seeing the kids' "for sale" stand in our front yard today. Thank you for turning around and coming back. Thank you for stopping. Even though you don't really know us, except in the vaguest sense (except Mama), and stopped just because, because "of their sweet, happy faces." You made them happier.

Thank you for purchasing not lemonade nor homemade cookies but homemade maracas, made of little dinosaur paper cups filled with rice and taped together, then decorated with stickers.

Thank you for saying kind and encouraging words to my two enthusiastic entrepreneurs, who dreamed up both the homemade musical instruments and then the "for sale" stand without realizing there might not be a demand for maracas.

Thank you for understanding that they can't tell a dime from a quarter and giving them a dollar coin anyway. Especially because they were asking for a penny.

Thank you for proving me a pessimist instead of a realist: I didn't think a soul would stop and buy maracas and that I would have to come up with a way to salve the disappointment on their faces and in their hearts. I have stopped at similar stands myself in the past so I should've believed other people would, too. And you can bet I'm going to stop even more often in the future.

love,

Mommy Hungry

P.S. We'll be out on Monday with "Zinger Punch" and cookies!