Jack's Harvest

It has been an incredible year both personally and professionally.  My gift this year and every year since we started Jack’s Harvest is working in a job that is also my passion.  I am so blessed in so many ways:

• The team at Jack’s Harvest (Emily, Phillip, Lorenzo and Will) are the most diligent, professional, fun and hard working crew I could ask for.
• I get to cook, write and spend time online (my three favorite things) and also have time at home with my kids which is so very important to me.
• Connie Pope is not only a business partner, but my village without whom my life would implode!  Incredibly grateful that all the warnings about working with your friends weren’t valid in our case.
• Peter Schoenrock for working a second job doing all of the books for Jack’s Harvest and keeping us in line financially.  I know it is a lot of late nights, but we do appreciate your work so much!  Grateful that all the warnings about working with family were also not valid in this case.
• Jojo House my brother is as we always say around here “priceless”  he works his butt off and is always willing to take on any challenge except for inputting lot numbers which is the worst job at Jack’s Harvest.  Equally grateful that all the warnings about working with family were also not valid in this case.
• Susan Herzog our business consultant keeps us in line, makes us really examine decisions from a financial basis, leverages her remarkable contacts to make sure that we are examining every aspect of our business from different angles, asks the tough and necessary questions and sends me financial documents at 1:30 AM so I know she is also working her butt off!
• Bobby Zuckman also uses his connections and time to help us build the foundation for Jack’s that we just didn’t have time to do.  His words of encouragement mean so much to me and Connie as we value his entrepreneurial expertise.  I also appreciate that he can talk me off the ledge when necessary!

Thanks to you all and thanks to all the Jack’s Harvest moms and dads who make it possible for this team to work together by supporting Jack’s Harvest.  Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, Happy Whatever you Celebrate!  From our Jack’s Harvest Family to Your Family

It has been brought to our attention that we do not take any time to revel in our accomplishments nor do we do a good job of promoting ourselves.  It is so out of character for both Connie and me to stand up and brag about Jack’s Harvest .  Sorry, I was told that it isn’t bragging for us to state clearly that we are a nationally distributed frozen, organic baby food, that we make the top two sellers in our category on amazon.com, we were the overall winner in the Cookie magazine taste test, the baby food choice of Julia Roberts for her son Henry and that we make the best baby food on the planet, it is important to shout it boldly from the nearest mountain (which in our case would be Stone Mountain, which really isn’t a mountain at all, just a hunk of granite, but I digress).

Being humble is something we all work on in our personal lives and since there is no real division between work and personal at Jack’s Harvest we are going to have to learn to play with the big boys, toot our own horns and make sure that our accomplishments are known to the world!  We are also going to take a day to go to Bliss Spa and get a facial and go out to dinner at Craft to celebrate – just as soon as we conquer the next challenge, really we are going, I swear it, this time we are definitely going to celebrate…

We had the best time and logged a new experience last week when we taped a radio interview with Jennifer Green host of “Women on the Move.”  We taped four 11 minute segments that cover all aspects of our business and friendship.  So
Tune in Saturday’s and Sunday’s from 1-2 pm on NewsTalk 1160 ” The Talk of The Town”

Listen online at www.1690wmlb.com and www.newstalk1160.com

I love finding unique meaningful gifts for Christmas and thought I would share with you some of the things I am giving this year.  First is a series of books by my dear friend, neighbor, photographer, entertainer and all around great guy Gregory E. Lang.  His books are beautiful photos (and I am biased as my children do tend to appear in the pages) with inspirational sayings that stem from a central theme like Why A Daughter Needs A Mother.  I love the stories of how families relate to each other in such diverse but similar ways.  Each time I read one of the books I find inspiration about being a parent, a daughter, a friend.  This is a gift that will be treasured by the giftee long after Christmas has past.

You can find his books almost everywhere Target, Wal-Mart, Barnes and Nobel and of course on amazon.com

This weekend I took the family ice skating.  I was born and raised in Orlando, FL and actually believed that snowflakes looked like the ones on Frosty the Snowman (you know like huge doilies that fall from the sky) until I was disabused of that notion by my first winter in NYC so needless to say, I am NOT good at ice skating, but I LOVE it.  The thing about ice skating is you just have to glide, the more effort you put into it, the harder it gets and the more you fall down (not good, wet and cold).  Also, if you try to hold onto the rail and skate it isn’t fun and it is actually much harder so it is necessary to let go and go for it in order to feel the freedom of skating.

It  isn’t that big of a stretch to apply the lessons learned at the ice skating rink into practice in your daily life.  Just let go, glide, relax and smile because it is so much easier and much more fun that way!