2017 | PulseonParenting

What to Expect When Your Son Starts Puberty

Jun 27 2017

I am in awe of the transformation. I am a little sad, too. My younger son, born breech at barely five pounds, is becoming a man. At age 12 he is hands-down taller than me, with a cracking voice, acne and, um, hair (more on that below…). It boggles my mind, a glimpse into what is in store for his twin brother, who has yet to join him in this journey. I decided to repost What to Expect When Your Son Starts Puberty from April, 2015, to help us Moms (and Dads, of course) navigate these changes, changes in our little boys that…

Jun 22 2017

My family lives in a free-spirited town. A place where you can’t say I’ve seen it all, but you regularly get a little closer. Like the other day. As my favorite barista was handing me a much-needed java, I spotted, making a bee-line across the local highway, a bicyclist pulling a child trailer. Even in my coffee-deprived state I was present enough to think OMG, that’s dangerous, then realized with relief that the trailer did not chauffeur a toddler but an oversized stuffed toy huskie. An arthritic toy dog, who I swear had a look of frozen terror on…

Jun 17 2017

It’s here! Summer break. Honestly, my head is spinning the school year went by so fast. And I feel totally unprepared. So I dug up this post from 2015 (which also earned a repost last year) to help refresh my brain on how to (and not!) navigate summer with kids. And I hope it helps you, too: Two years ago, as the school year drew to an end, I wrote a post that received some flak. In Hooray for Summer? (In retrospect, Horrors, It’s Summer! would have been a fun title…) I described the difficult transition for parents, myself…

Jun 09 2017

Homeschool is out for the summer! We did it. We really, really did it. 175 full days. Sometimes we hummed along without a hitch, and some days drug on. And on. And on. In other words, our school year was much like a traditional one, with ups and downs. And here are some of them: The “ups”: I got to spend lots of time with my kids. Every day. We haven’t spent this much time together since before the kids started all-day Kindergarten. I feel like I know them so much better in their “tween” stage; I’ve had more time…

May 31 2017

It could have been awkward. It could have been confrontational. It could have resulted in animosity. But it wasn’t, and it didn’t. It was a case of two parents trying to sort things out and do the right thing, two parents who believe it takes a village to raise children in the best possible way. How empowering that is, especially when the reason for coming together is a child’s mistake. I like to think I can tell when my kids are lying (oh, silly, silly Mommy….) and when their desperation for my understanding is based in their innocence. But conflict between kids,…

May 23 2017

Summer, summer, summer. Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen. While sunscreen is recommended year-round to prevent burns, aging and the increased risk of skin cancer, in the warmer months we dress less and slather up even more. Have you ever wondered whether those chemical sunscreens are safe to use in such large-and-frequent proportions? In this repost from July of 2015, I describe some of the myths and facts surrounding the totally-tubular and ubiquitous poolside essentials. Everyone notices when someone sports that gorgeous sun-bronzed skin from a sunny vacation. But my family? The people who get sunburned through car windows? We return from a…

May 17 2017

It was four years ago that I attended a dry yet helpful seminar on learning WordPress. Soon after I sat down at my laptop and built a bare-bones website on which to enter my musings on being a parent. Fast-forward a whole presidential term later and no one is more surprised than me that in a few short weeks Pulseonparenting.com will reach 200 posts. When I hit publish on “Hello World (the sequel)” back in 2013 I thought I was embarking on a fun, new hobby that indulged my love for writing. I never expected to still be here on…

May 09 2017

“Do you work?” I haven’t been asked this question, in this way, for awhile. And how thankful I am for that, for those three little words stir something in me that can only be described as unpleasant (and a little gross): a turbulent goo sloshes in my stomach, a heat rises in my chest and a fog clouds my brain. The sensation isn’t quite anger or embarrassment but a discomfort, unease at having to respond that while I don’t have a career outside the home, I do indeed work within it as a mother and homeschooler and writer. Am…

May 03 2017

Every Boy Scout knows the Scout Law like the back of his hand (and can recite it so fast it sounds like one word): A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. Although it wouldn’t flow trippingly off the tongue, I think after “clean” should come really, we mean it. And thrown in somewhere should be: Awkward. Really, really awkward. I don’t suggest this to poke fun, I’m truly being sympathetic. Being 13-ish is tough and it shows. I remember my own middle school experience and it was no fun, but on…

Apr 25 2017

The C scale wafts through the house from the front room, my son warming up his piano fingers for “When the Saints Go Marching In.” He provides the background melody for the fiddle piece his brother is working through for a recital. Then joining in is my daughter, learning the first few measures of Bach’s “Minuet I” on her violin. It’s a discordant masterpiece. No dueling pianos here, but rather a solo piano fending off violins attacking from two separate fronts. Whew. Just another afternoon of music practice. I have long been a lover of the arts, having sacrificed my…

My name is Heidi Black and I have it all... Maybe not in the traditional sense of the phrase but I do feel I have it all: three beautiful, healthy children, a devoted husband and father and the privilege of being a Domestic Engineer. (I used to call myself a SAHM but that just doesn’t fit when my day is filled with coordinating 5 schedules and preplanning their execution, all up to a week in advance.) And now, indulging in a not-so-secret desire to write, and following the advice “write what you know” I am ready to share what I have learned from this ironic life journey and along with you, discover answers to those many questions related to parenting.

Archive - 2017

What to Expect When Your Son Starts Puberty

Rules of the Biking Road: Hand Signals

Hooray for Summer (Exclamation Point): Steps to a Successful Break (Question Mark)

Homeschool: a Year in Review

Parenting Shall Overcome: When Kids Misbehave

Are Chemical Sunscreens Safe?

Time to Spread My Wings and Twitter. Uh, I Mean Tweet.

Happy Mothers’ Day to the Working Mommas ( aka, all of us)

The Boy Scout Law, Updated

Why the Arts are Important