Milestone.

Just shy of our second anniversary, PJP celebrated a SIGNIFICANT milestone today:  neither Jeanne or I went to PJP Buttonwood, rather we left it solely in the hands of Gunnar and Mac.  I KNOW, RIGHT?  Mark it down in the history books, people.

We've realized for a while now that World Pie Domination can't happen if our five-year plan includes standing inside PJP Buttonwood all day, every day.  Well, I guess we've realized it in the most high-level, theoretical sort of way...in practice, not so much.  Our controlling natures and our incessant need to hover over all things PJP makes it hard to not be there...not really because we need to, but because we want to (most days, anyway).

But back to growing World Pie Domination.  Growing is on our to-do list.  We aren't entirely sure what that means right now, but we have a lot of ideas bouncing around (imagine that).  And whatever it eventually means will also likely mean that will have days that we need to work on the business, rather than consistently in the business.  (Stab me for just spewing that overly used platitude here...I just rolled my eyes at myself.)

And so when we looked at the calendar and realized this week is spring break for Mizzou and Columbia Public Schools and Mac said he could work all week, we decided to rip off the Band-Aid and just go for it (does it surprise you that as a kid, if I needed a Band-Aid, I just wore it until it dangled off by just a thread of adhesive?).  As in, we would both just not go to PJP Buttonwood for one solid business day.  The rules were that we would call the store to check in and they would call us if they needed us and they would also make us a list of areas that they found confusing, frustrating, overwhelming, or just generally annoying so that we can work to improve those areas.

As expected, Mac and Gunnar were absolute pie-baking rock stars.  When Jeanne made her fifth or sixth call before noon to check in, Mac began to chide her for her lack of confidence in their skills...which just proves the theory that most of what gets in our way of true growth is well, ourselves.  Awesome.

We will go back to a regular schedule tomorrow and visit with both Mac and Gunnar about how they felt during their Day of Independence.  And then the real work of identifying what worked, what didn't, what needs to be improved, and what was a challenge to them both begins.  Our responsibility to fix it all already feels arduous and I don't even know what they are going to say yet.

So there we go...23 months in and our PJP journey still pushes us to mature and grow in ways we could have never anticipated.  She's a patient girl, that PJP.