An unexpected running partner

One of my 2012 New Year's resolutions was to become more active...much more active - I would like to say by the end of the year that I am in the best shape of my life.  I've been good about working towards that goal so far, but I slipped a bit recently; I've been so lazy this week and I felt a bit worried about falling off the exercise wagon completely.  I just didn't feel like running or any other exercise, despite making grand plans to get a good workout or two in at the gym.  Yesterday afternoon, I had planned on going to the gym before my elder stepson came home from school, but I didn't do that either...lazy, lazy, lazy!

Somehow or another, I finally found my motivation about an hour after dinner last night.  The gym is close to where we live, so I decided to run down there and have a punishing workout, arriving back home just before the guys' bedtime.  I announced my intentions to my family and my elder stepson immediately begged to go with me.  Both of my stepsons are too young to use the gym, even supervised by an adult, so I couldn't let him come with me for my weight circuits.  Rather than just say "no," I suggested a run instead - a quick one to the gym and back.  He eagerly agreed and within minutes, we were out jogging together under the street lamps.

My elder stepson is 13 now and, like most boys at that age, he's already starting to break away from who he was as a child to forge his own personality as a young man.  We see him less than we used to because he spends more time doing his own thing these days.  While this is definitely good and healthy, it makes all of us grown-ups a bit wistful because we see that he's not a little boy anymore.

When we reached the gym, neither of us were tired, so we kept going...and going, and going.  Next thing we knew, we were more than two miles from home and still feeling quite robust.  I was very impressed with my stepson's stamina.  He's obviously much younger than I am and a lot of that energy is effortless, but I've been training since November to be able to run this long without stopping and he still did it like it was no big deal at all.

The two of us had some good chat out there, and we planned out routes we'd like to take on future runs.  We arrived back home just before the guys' bedtime, feeling quite tired but proud of ourselves.  We both agreed to do it again the following Wednesday evening, which is the one night that nobody in our family has any scheduled activities.  I dropped to sleep exhausted not long after the guys did, feeling very much back on the fitness wagon.  My husband mapped our route on Google Earth and it turns out that we ran 4.66 miles.  I felt great about that, and even better about having a new activity to do with a certain young man in our house.

If I could wrap this story up with a moral for those of us with kids in our lives (especially those of the adolescent persuasion), it would be to remain open to connecting with them in a variety of ways.  When my stepson asked if he could join me at the gym, I could have easily said "no, you're too young" and gone off to do my own workout.  But instead, I tried to make room for him in my plan and was hugely rewarded for it.  Sometimes the answer really is "no," but if the kids are wanting to do an activity with you, it's probably in your best interests to turn it into a "yes" somehow.

Resurfacing...again

Oh, look what happened - I stopped blogging again.  I'm here now, but my life has been so busy, I'm not going to promise any regular appearance anymore.  I might just rear my head every once in a while and offer a recipe or just say hi.  In addition to all the other things that keep me busy and sometimes stressed out, I'm starting my own business.  I know that some of you who read this are in business for yourself and I just have one thing to ask you: HOW ON EARTH DO YOU MANAGE?!  The amount of work that goes into starting your own business (or at least the amount of work/research/money/sweat I've put into mine so far) is staggering.  I won't say much about it now because there are many details not yet finalized, but this is a business venture that will allow me to combine and share two of my biggest passions.  More on this later.

All is well on the family front.  The boys are practicing their lines for their Christmas plays and they're both doing a marvelous job.  I won't be going back to Seattle for any holiday celebrations and I'm trying not to get too down about that.  The reason I'm putting off a visit is that there's a bigger trip in the works for March; I'm flying out to Seattle for ten days on my own, then I'm meeting my husband in Phoenix for the wedding of a family friend and the two of us are going to have a little southwestern honeymoon because we never had a proper one after we got married.  We'll have five days to get from Phoenix to Albuquerque and then we fly back to Glasgow from there.  I am beyond excited!  Since I moved away, my plan has been to pick up one unvisited U.S. state per trip back home.  I've been to Arizona before, but New Mexico is indeed new to me, so I'm very excited to have a road trip wth my husband *and* to get my one state checked off the list.

If I don't manage to get back online for a while, I want to wish you all happy holidays.  All the best to you and your families for a safe and beautiful season!

It's good to be back

Hello, fellow stepmoms and friends. It's been quite a while (6 months!) since I last posted, but I had a lot of catching up to do here in my new life in my new country with my new family. I went back to the States in February to get my UK spousal visa and that whole process went just fine, even though it was terribly expensive and the visa only lasts for two years before I have to renew for another exorbitant fee. No gripes, however. I'm here now and I'm legal. That's plenty of reason to celebrate!

The guys are back in school now - what happened to the spring and summer?! Wherever the time went, we enjoyed ourselves even though we didn't get to go on a big family holiday. These are just tough times and I'm sure you're all feeling it to some degree. Next weekend, we're going to the Peak District for a two-night camping holiday. That's about as far as we're going to get from home for a while, so you'd better believe we're going to make the most of it. I hope the weather cooperates. We could really use a bit of sunshine around here. It's been raining nonstop all week here in Glasgow.

On a more domestic note, dinner tonight was breaded fish and chips with steamed carrots. I'm just trying to keep track of what I'm doing for dinners so I don't run out of ideas. It's inspiration for future meals when I can't be bothered to plan in advance! Though I try to avoid pub fare at home (burgers, fish and chips, etc.), it always goes down a huge treat with the boys and requires the least amount of effort. Of course, the trade-off is that these ever-so-popular meals aren't as healthy as the ones I lovingly prepare from scratch. I always try to maintain a good balance and so far, I think I'm doing a pretty good job.

My brother and I were chatting on the phone last night and he asked me what my stepsons call me. "Do they call you Devin or Stepmom...or what?" I laughed and said that they sometimes call me Devin, but most of the time they call me Hon, because that's what my husband calls me. He thought that was hilarious. We're a house of hons.

For those of you stepmoms out there, what do your stepkids call you?