Happy Mother’s Day!

By Sarah and Athena

Hi! This is Sarah, I am helping Kristen and the kids get JAR Farms off the ground, but I like to be behind the scenes since the story of this farm is really the incredible story of the four of them.

But this week, I am writing this newsletter because I want to write about Kristen. (Surprise, Kristen!)

It’s Mother’s Day, and I have been so lucky to witness the ferocious mama bear love of Kristen firsthand in the recent months I’ve been helping her kids build their dream.

I asked Athena for three words to describe her mom and she said “diligent, hard-working, and the smartest woman I know” among a lot more words, because containing her to three is hard. I asked her what words would never describe her mom and she said “lazy” and we both laughed at the very idea.

I asked her if there was a certain meal or activity that made her feel most comforted when she needs her mom. And she said, “Honestly, it’s anywhere she can just sit and talk to her.” Talk through what’s upsetting her and what to do next. “She’s amazing at just seeing the whole picture.”

Jack honed in beautifully on the core of Kristen as a mom: She’s got a gigantic brain and a gigantic heart. When those two combine, she can solve any problem she cares about and when it has to do with her kids, let me tell you. . . SHE CARES ABOUT IT A LOT. Like, we’re talking the “don’t get in her way unless you want to lose an arm” kind of caring . . .

Jack’s friend Nick chimed in as we were talking, “She’s like a second Mom to me, so I think I can answer this too. Kristen doesn’t talk the talk. . .she’s ALL WALK.”

Well put!

I mean, how many of us are reading headlines about the worries and the world we’ve saddled onto Gen Z and generation alpha, shaking our heads, shrugging and wishing there was something we could do…

…and how many of us are working every day on a teen wellness farm because our kids said it’s what their community needs?

My partner, Paul, came to the farm for dinner this week and he put this same quality another way.

“You know how when you are watching a Zombie movie, and it’s like you and one other guy are the only ones not infected by the zombies and you turn around suddenly he’s infected? It’s like she’s this forcefield who is just keeping herself and her kids from being infected by zombies.”

I bet the moms reading this are a lot like Kristen. Or your wife is or your mom was. I know I am. We all fight so hard for our kids.

I bet this is why there aren’t more moms in Zombie movies. They’d be over too quick.

For those of you amazing moms out there raising girls, we are HOPING you can come to our VERY FIRST JAR Farms dinner with the incredible Chelsey Goodan. Chelsey is a teen coach and mentor and author of the absolutely incredible “Underestimated: The Power and Wisdom of Teenage Girls.”

I have two tween girls, and when this book came into my store, I absolutely devoured it and then sent it to everyone I knew with daughters. I keep copies of it in my car, just in case a friend even utters any struggle with a teen girl. I am great with my daughters but it still helped me so much. I use things I learned from this book every single day with my girls. (And frankly my grown-up girl-friends because really a lot of our wounds are coming from our own inner teen, aren’t they?)

I recently curated a corporate book fair for one of the largest companies on the planet. We had business books, plus some other non-fiction and some novels too. The title that disappeared the fastest? Chelsey’s. I blinked and they were gone.

Here’s the deal. . . because it’s our very first event, it feels like a celebration. There’s been so much work and life and hard things that have led up to this moment for Kristen and her kids. And so all-walk Kristen has decided to pay for your meal. We’ve lowered the ticket price to just thirty dollars which basically pays for your copy of Chelsey’s book. And that absolute teen-taming genius will sign for you after she drops life and family-changing wisdom on us all.

(Of course, if you’d like to donate more, that’s awesome! All of the proceeds go to building out the teen programming for JAR Farms and gifting scholarships for those who can’t afford our retreats but could really benefit from them. We’re a non-profit, so it’s tax deductible!!)

Come on out, grab a book, toast this amazing Zombie-killing mom, and check out this gorgeous gorgeous property on May 24!