It’s funny. As you so vividly outlined, once you get the structural part of a stepmom/ex-wife relationship working, then it seems to just fade into the background and become a regular part of your life, allowing other elements to move to the fore and “turn into” problems that take up most of your attention.

The thing that keeps me going with our website is thinking about all the women out there who are still in the throes of tooth loss(!), hair loss and have their stomachs in constant knots (me, for those last two). I also ache for the kids, having the two women in their lives at war, stuck in the middle. I wish I could just wave a magic wand and have everyone get along, so we could turn to other things, but at least have that strong, extended-family feeling that supports us when we need it.

At any rate, nice to hear your voice (although Jill’s doing a good job of keeping me riveted too). I hope your job calms down soon and we get to hear more of your perspective. Not so much along the lines of “taking sides”, but perhaps just sharing more about how you got from here to there, in terms of harmony between you two.