June, 2014 | PulseonParenting

Homecoming

Jun 24 2014

Who says you can’t go home? harmonize Jon Bon Jovi and Jennifer Nettles in their duet of the same name. They croon about the heady experience of goin’ back to the place where one comes of age. But Kent Haruf writes darkly in Where You Once Belonged about a hometown hero who returns to his stomping grounds to wreak havoc. Homecomings. Nostalgic? Strange? Or turbulent? I am on vacation this week in Iowa. While short on major attractions (which is fine) and long on corn bursting from fertile ground, we come because our families live here. Central Iowa is home. But it…

Summer Reading, An Excuse to Indulge

Jun 17 2014

The weather is warm. The days are longer. And if you are like most parents, you are on the run. You need a book that you can pick up and read anywhere, everywhere, if only for a few minutes at a time. Well, how about three books that fill that bill? One for each of the busiest, balmiest months of the year. This summer I am diving in to The Hunger Games trilogy. My nine-year-old son has been salivating over the yummy boxed set since it entered our household but I have declined him the privilege of being the one to bend the first…

Cub Scouts, You’re in the Army Now

Jun 10 2014

Of all the animals, the boy is the wildest ~ Plato Cub scout den mothers, I (cub scout) salute you. To take on the responsibility of guiding elementary school-age boys through Tiger, Wolf and Bear Scouts (names surely inspired by Plato himself**) amidst the chaos that ensues at meetings, you are a rare and patient breed indeed. Now I paraphrased Plato. He actually said the boy is “most unmanageable.” That may be taking it a tad too far, given how things went down at our Cub Scout Camp this past week. Present the unmanageable to a Boy Scout leader and you get…

The Power of the Post-It

Jun 03 2014

Those yellow sticky things which became the center of a class reunion “scandal” in the movie Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion. The rainbow version that my kids wallpaper our house with cute little sayings written upon them. Whoever took Post-Its to the gym is genius. And made the day of countless women by sticking one to the mirror in the locker room, visible to all who applied their makeup and gave themselves a blow-out and even to those who simply passed through (the yellow color was a smart move). On the note was written in beautifully plain penmanship: You are…

Archive - June 2014