Hi Peg and welcome to the forum. Now be honest  thereÂs nothing normal or ordinary about step-family life! :-) heehee! Welcome, welcome.

I, too have a bio-daughter who is 17. Oh the fun of having a teen daughter. I made the mistake of arming mine with a cell phone  so  uh ÂI could keep in contact with her. The result? A huge phone bill!

Reiki?! Wonderful! IÂm fascinated by the metaphysical  and IÂve just started investigating classes in my area. I found a local intuitive center that offers all sorts of interesting classes.

Glad you're here ...

Cool beans, another "lady lawyer." What type of law do you practice - I have been practicing tax law for about two years - I love it (I was a judicial clerk before that for one year, liked that too, but tax law pays a lot better). I am going back to school in the fall to get my L.L.M. in Taxation.

Seeing how I live under a big fat rock called the Internal Revenue Code, I have no idea what reiki is. What is it?

Glad I am not the only one... I don't know what reiki is either, but I am off to google to find out!! :-)

Welcome to the step-family forum Peggyo! I love it here!

I have 5 kids - a 16 yo SD, 11 & 3 yo daughters, 6 & 2 yo sons. What a crazy family we have!!

Welcome aboard!
P

Mom 2 4, I couldn't agree more, there's nothing ordinary about stepfamily life! Sometimes I wonder, "what was I thinking?" I hope you find some good classes be sure to keep us posted. I'm fascinated by things metaphysical. Where in California are you? We used to live in the south bay area- Palo Alto and Santa Clara. Just love it and really miss the weather and the variety of everything.

Lea, I'm a litigation consultant, which basically means that I live in jeans, work at my home office, never go into court (hardly) and I analyze cases and write briefs for litigators. I used to do some estate planning, which involved enough of the IRC rock to be flabbergasting.

Reiki? It's basically hands-on healing and a form of asian metaphysical study, that works by helping people to attune themselves to their/the spirit so they feel better. I started studying it after I had become hooked on meditation and my teacher died and I wanted a new teacher. The one I found was a Reiki master so I studied that. I'm amazed at what it can do- (here comes the testimonial part- haha!) my 16 yo daughter had heart problems this year and my mom had a small stroke and Reiki helped both of them. My daughter went from having a serious heart condition (2-2 AV block) requiring a pacemaker to the doctors not being able to find anything a week later when she went in for surgery, so she didn't have to get the pacemaker. Big WhewÂ. Plus it just helps during those self-imposed parent-time-outs.

Pashan, you can't imagine how much I admire your raising a family of five kids. SO impressive.

Thanks for the welcome!

Hi Peg! I'm in the East Bay, and I found a great place offering classes in Walnut Creek. Are you from the Bay Area, or did you just live here for a while? Congrats on your daughter and everything working out well. I'd love to take a reiki class, but I don't think this center offers it. I'll find out next week when I go for a freebie class to learn more about them.

And yeah! Another work-from-home Mom! I've been self-employed and working from home (with a hub of activity generally swirling around me) for three years now, and I don't think I could ever work for someone else or commute again. I'm so spoiled, and I just adore being my own boss! We'll have to compare notes on how we've "trained" our kids to behave while we're working, especially when on the phone with a client! ... :-) It's not just the little ones, it's the older ones, too ... when they're off of school they have been known to interrupt me 10 times an hour for really important reasons (you know, something like "Mom, where's the mustard"...) ...

Hi mom 2 4!

We lived in the Bay Area for a few years while my ex and I were going to grad school. It was bliss. We have some friends in the East Bay- they all bought in Oakland was it was up and coming- just after they finished up their commune-in-Berkeley phases. I lived in Davis for a few years when I was little but have lived around the country otherwise.

I hope you love your class. I swear meditation saved my sanity when I got divorced. (I think it did... maybe I'm being presumptuous in thinking I'm sane... haha) You know, I just remembered that a "new" kind of meditation was born in the East Bay in the 70's or 80's. It's called light body meditation- it was the first kind of meditation that I tried- except for TM which I cound not do at all. But light body is great and I recommend it. In any event, keep me/us up to date.

Peggyo - I am not part of a stepfamily, but I did a search on Reiki and found you. I just wanted to say hello as I am also a Reiki Practitioner. Does your family let you practice Reiki on them? I am fortunate that mine does. Do you Reiki your garden? I haven't tried it, but have heard good results. Enjoy your time here - I have made many new friends - I post mostly on the Diet Forum, but get lots of great information and suggestions from several of the forums here.