Welcome!!!

As I'm about to reek of newbie blogger nerdness....Hi, I'm Jen!

Thanks for stumbling upon my new project....Solitude Stew.  I thought of the name awhile ago because the older I get the more I feel like my life falls into categories. Some relate to others while some stand alone. Keeping them straight in this noggin of mine in a manner that nurtures and respects what they do for me in my life is another story.

Its not easy to get together with friends when the responsibilities of taking care of my family are front and center. There’s dinner to make, kids to bathe, and THEN all the clean up that follows. Or maybe you’ve experienced this….standing at the kitchen sink wishing to be anywhere but here as your children relentlessly whine for more juice and a snack. Ring a bell...anyone??  Sometimes though, meeting with friends or escaping out the door for a 30 minute run is exactly what I need to unwind and remind myself that life doesn’t have to be so serious ALL of the time.   In other words, I need solitude....and sometimes I just feel like I'm swimming in a big bowl of thick stew.

So I am embarking on this journey into blogging with the hopes that I can better enjoy the possibilities of how these different categories cross lines and can ultimately bring more joy to my world. Is it cliché to say I need to better “balance” things? Is it too much to ask to have happy kids and a fulfilled husband, a clean house, a huge garden, oodles of time to train for distance races, good health, and the uninterrupted time to make a five course meal? Clearly I have work to do!!! 

I’ll be writing about things that I enjoy doing including running, cooking, and gardening. I will write about people that I love….my husband, my two daughters Ella and Paige, and my girlfriends (too many to list here). I’m sure I will be including a bunch of random stuff about myself too, a given…I hope. Thanks for following if you so choose, and feel free to give your two cents. I can’t promise I’ll take the advice, but it will surely give me a new perspective!

Aaah, and my very first blog post is in the books!!!