A small biz and also stepkids

A HUGE shoutout to the mamas out there working or running their own businesses while also, ya know, being mamas at the same time.

Technically, I am not one of you — I'm a stepmom. 

When our journey started seven years ago (?!), I was a different person. And so were my kiddos. Now, they're (somehow?!) 11 and 15. (Math. Time. Gah! Stop with the growing-up thing!)

My business is only 2(ish) years old, so both kids have been around to watch it grow.

Sometimes they watch from a distance. Sometimes they're very close-up (so close, in fact, that **actually** getting work done is not very practical). #worklifebalance

But someeeetimes, I get to drag them actually into my business-ness, and they help me out with things.

That's what happened last week. I have these locally-screenprinted T-shirts that I wanted to post on my website — and my stepdaughter offered to model them for me.

I was like, OHMYGOSHYES that's a great idea! 

Except some of the shirts have an adult size AND a kids size — and having me model the adult size alongside my stepdaughter is a little ridiculous because I'm actually shorter than my "kid" model.

However ... her brother is taller than her...

Yes. I asked the 15-year-old if he would also help model some shirts with his sister.

Spoiler alert: He agreed!

The experience was, um, interesting? Getting an in-focus shot with them both positioned properly was a tad difficult ... what with one of them (I'll let you guess who) bouncing and squirming and giggling the entire time.

But I'll take giggles over whining, and in the end we actually got some semi-usable shots. 

I'm so thankful for these kids. I'm glad they get to watch my business grow, too.

Hopefully they're learning that life can take lots hard work — but that doing what you love is possible.

And so very worth it.

(You can watch the ridiculous "photoshoot" process in this 60-second video)