It has been over six months since I’ve posted on our blog. Looking back at our last post, dated March 13, 2020, I’m thinking it was just a coincidence that the post was about bad luck and superstitions. Although it was posted two days after my boys’ school closed and the reality of the pandemic set in. At that time, I became a full-time mother to 4 boys and also a school teacher, soccer coach, chef and many other things. I made the tough decision to hit pause on Julie’s Beet pretty quickly. My oldest son was 5 at the time, so you can imagine I had my hands full(I still do!). I closed our showroom on the UWS and moved the boxes that contained Julie’s Beet into my apartment. It was difficult to move backward with this dream but it was the right decision for me and my family.
We finished the end of the school year in distance learning and were ready to move on to summer. We rented a house on the Jersey Shore and had a pretty care-free summer. We went to the beach A LOT, spent hours playing in the sun and continued to do lots of cooking and eating. Baking is a project my boys enjoy and quickly became a popular way to fill time during the pandemic. When August hit, it was time for us to return to NYC. I was hesitant to ‘get back to reality’ but knew the time had come. The transition went better than I expected. The kids were happy to see all the toys they hadn’t seen for months. We quickly got used to putting our masks on before leaving the house and continued to spend as much time outside as possible.
The end of summer came pretty quickly, and I am happy to report my 3 older sons are back in school. It hasn’t been entirely seamless but I am learning to be flexible with their schedules and put confidence in our school to make the right choices to keep the children safe. I’m finding more time to devote to Julie’s Beet as we get back into the school routine. I have opened the online shop with a limited inventory. I had the opportunity to record a podcast with my dear friend Brandy at For Animals. For Earth. You can check out the episode here. I am still looking for culinary gems from across the globe, although it may be a while before I am able to travel outside of the tri-state area! I have goals to get this blog back up and running. It will be a mix of food information along with my personal stories of how it is to be a small business owner and mother of 4 in these trying times. I hope you will continue to follow along!
Welcome back and Happy Friday!
Julie