life lessons | PulseonParenting

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

Jun 02 2015

A year 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 wholeheartedly included, to having the kiddos home for three months. I outlined my plan to keep us all from going crazy, which, it ends up, was a near-total flop. Disappointing, to say the least…I needed a solid strategy because I was really not looking forward to the loss of (forgive me) my freedom. But this year? I am…

Remind Me, Who is This For Again?

Mar 12 2015

Take a look at Pinterest, she said. There are some really cool ideas, she said. Boy, were there ever. I “pinned” five. I liked even more. That unsettling combo of excitement and stress started to bubble up from my stomach toward my chest and pulsed into my head, which began humming with white noise. Then, in a rare moment of clarity, a voice said: Stop. This is ridiculous. Who is this actually for??? It was time to plan the annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. My boys’ den leader, whom I greatly admire, approached me and asked if I would help…

A Reason to Recharge

Jan 22 2015

The other morning I needed to recharge. I went to Friday Flow yoga and reconnected with some amazing people. I got my favorite Chai from my favorite local coffee place. “Me Time” at its best. Maybe it was the clarity that only yoga and a jolt of spicy tea can provide, but I got to thinking about this thing we call “Me Time.” The time we take for just ourselves. The time we rarely indulge in because we have responsibilities and commitments. A sense of obligation, and even guilt, makes “Me Time” sound too decadent and selfish. But “Me Time”…

Coffee Shop Time Warp

Jan 06 2015

Over winter break we took our three kids to a favorite coffee spot for hot chocolate. As we settled in, I found myself more interested in “people-watching” and couldn’t help but notice the family sitting across the room: parents and their four twenty-something kids. There was Dad, bespectacled and reading. Sitting beside him was his slightly-grunge son wearing Buddy Holly-style glasses and playing on his phone. Mom was sitting at the other end of the table, talking with her stylishly-dressed daughters. Another son, with All-American features was in seated in the middle, partaking of his coffee and alternating between conversation…

Farewell, My Friend

Dec 22 2014

Last week I travelled back to Iowa to celebrate the life of a childhood friend. She was kind and vivacious. A daughter, a mother of four. Why she was taken so soon from the many who loved and needed her, no one will understand. All I know is the acute pain of bidding farewell to someone I’ve known for decades, and my age as well. When I learned she was gone, I had been standing impatiently in a restaurant awaiting my overdue takeout order, making a mental inventory of everything I needed to do that night, the next day,…

Thanks to You

Dec 02 2014

Before dinner each night, our family goes around the table and shares “gratitudes.” Mostly, my kids are grateful for legos and pasta and our dog (translation: grateful to have toys and a pet to play with, and food on the table). Occasionally they are thankful for each other. This exercise has been a great way for them (and my husband and myself as well) to remember the little daily wonderments of our existence. But nothing helps us reflect upon life’s big picture than that fantastically chill holiday, Thanksgiving. I realize this is belated but in the spirit of family time last…

Clarity

Oct 28 2014

I hate to be cryptic instead of concrete but this time I need to be, to protect those involved. For several months I have been ruminating over something, wasting my energies. I was investing emotional currency into a situation I could only speculate about and it was unhealthy, draining and unproductive. Then recently, a turn of events shed light onto the whole deal and things seemed to make sense…the reactions or lack thereof, avoidances and interactions that I tried to dissect came together to form a picture different from what I mentally painted. What a relief it was to have…

It’s OK to be Cliche

Sep 18 2014

Be grateful for everything you have. I was reminded of that recently after learning some tragic news about an admired acquaintance. I took pause to enumerate all that is good in my life. I have my health. I have a marriage to a wonderful man that has lasted more than twenty years. I have three exuberant, healthy children that can drive me nuts (yes, that is a blessing!). Then post-reflection I checked my email and began, almost reflexively, stewing about some thing and some one and some situation that was described in the time-suck that is my inbox. How…

The Itchy Trigger Finger

Sep 03 2014

I came across this quote the other day from one of my favorite comediennes: If you are creating anything at all, it’s really dangerous to care about what people think. ~Kristen Wiig And not even a week prior I tuned in to an episode of the tv show Glee on in-flight entertainment. Not being privy to the goings-on at McKinley High, the premise was out of context but a statement by Idina Menzel’s character to daughter Rachel was not: No one achieves success by playing it safe. I may not have her words exactly right but that was the gist of her message. And…

Beautifully Sad

Jul 22 2014

A friend on Facebook posted this sad yet beautiful quote recently and I couldn’t get it out of my head. We have all suffered loss, or if we haven’t we will at some time. The loss can be a death in the family, a breakup, or having to give up a pet. In any circumstance of a loss, this quote embodies guidance, reassurance and hope: “The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around…

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