10/06/2026
The funny thing about running a SELF-SERVE porch stand is that sometimes… y’all catch me outside. 😂🩷
And when you do, there’s about a 99% chance “Hey! How are you?!” turns into us standing in my driveway talking while your treats are slowly getting warm. 🤣
But truthfully? Those are some of my favorite moments of this entire little business.
It’s the repeat customers pulling back into the driveway because they loved something they got last weekend.
It’s meeting someone who’s been following Mae’s online and finally decided to stop by.
It’s kids telling me they smile every time their school bus passes my house because they know this is the house with all the treats. 🥹😭
And this weekend, it was a friend standing on my porch that I hadn’t seen in SIX YEARS.
I really wish that Ring camera would’ve caught the hug we shared.
Six years is far too long when it’s someone who was such a huge part of one of the biggest transitions of your life. She was my coworker, my friend, and someone I leaned on heavily during my first year of being a mom. She was there for the questions, the advice, the reassurance, the laughs and the really hard days when I was just trying to figure this whole motherhood thing out.
Eventually, life changed. She needed to step away and take care of her family, and our lives went in different directions.
But our friendship never really ended.
And standing on my porch six years later, we picked right back up where we left off. 🥹🩷
She’s watched me grow from that brand-new mom trying to figure out who the heck I was and what I was doing… into the mom, woman and now small business owner standing in front of her today.
Getting to hug her again, catch up on life and show her this crazy little thing I’ve built was one of those moments I don’t think I’ll forget.
And THAT is the stuff I tuck away for the hard days.
Because Mae’s Sweet Retreat is absolutely brownies, oatmeal creme pies, cinnamon rolls and entirely too many late nights in my kitchen. 😂 It’s grocery runs, dishes, packaging, labels, ingredient lists, trying to figure out what the heck y’all are going to buy this week and occasionally wondering WHY I thought baking for the general public was a good idea. 🤣
But it’s also this.
It’s conversations on my porch.
It’s familiar faces coming back.
It’s meeting new ones.
It’s kids getting excited when they pass my house.
It’s friendships finding their way back around after six years.
It’s getting to be a tiny little part of people’s weekends and, somehow, y’all becoming a pretty big part of mine.
Somewhere along the way, this little self-serve porch stand became about a whole lot more than selling baked goods.
It gave me a way to connect with people and my community right from my own front porch. And every conversation, every repeat visit, every “see you next weekend,” and every person who takes a few minutes to stand there and talk reminds me WHY I keep doing this — especially on the days when running a small business feels really freaking hard. 🩷
So yes, technically the porch stand is self serve…
But if you catch me outside, just know there’s a VERY good chance you’re getting a conversation with your brownie. 😂🤷🏼♀️
And I wouldn’t have it any other way. 🩷
