• Friends,  Spreading the Bloggie Love

    Love of Piper.

    Piper of Love, a friend of mine (and quite possibly a friend of yours), received some heartbreaking news last week. I am standing* in unison with a bunch of wonderful, lovely ladies who also adore her, to help hold her up during this time in which she doesn’t feel so strong. A bunch of us contributed pictures for the video: Amy – DooblevayAngie – A Whole Lot of NothingHeather – Soft SkiesJenny Grace – Miss DisgraceMelisa – Suburban ScrawlMelissa – Rock and DroolMishi – Secret Agent MamaMomo – Momo FaliRachel – A Southern FairytaleSarah – SarahndipiteaTara – If Mom Says OKWeaselmomma – World of Weasels…and then some more chimed in.…

  • Jew Stuff

    What Kind of Gift Should I Buy For A Bar or Bat Mitzvah?? (I’ll Tell You!)

    In my endless quest to educate the people, I am giving you a gift: Part Two (of two) in my gift-giving series. Yesterday I wrote about Eagle Scout gifts; today I am discussing Bar or Bat Mitzvah presents. First, let me share a little information about what a Bar or Bat Mitzvah is. A girl becomes a Bat Mitzvah, which means “daughter of the commandment”, and a boy becomes a Bar MItzvah (“son of the commandment”). In the Jewish religion, youngsters become “adults within the community” at the age of twelve (girls) or thirteen (boys). Basically this means that they are responsible for observing the commandments, they are able to…

  • My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  Proud Moments

    What Kind of Gift Should I Buy For An Eagle Scout?? (I’ll Tell You!)

    By far, the general search topic that brings people to Suburban Scrawl (besides the “Melisa with one S” search, of course) is anything that has to do with “Eagle Scout”. As it turns out, there really isn’t much out there regarding etiquette for Court of Honor speeches and gift-giving. People ask me about the gift-giving thing all the time anyway, so I thought I’d write a post about it as a public service, you know, because I’m all about giving the people what they want. First, for you folks who arrived here because of a search and may not know from being a regular reader what it means to be…

  • Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  Proud Moments

    Acts of Bravery

    It’s Prom Season! Did you know that? If you’re not a parent or if you have small children, you probably don’t put any thought into the biggest dance of the year at all, but in my house the chatter is in full force. It was a given that the older boy and his girlfriend of six months would be going. She bought her dress last Saturday and has put much thought into her hair and other details, but then preparations had to cease because there was one detail that my son had to take care of: he had to ASK her. HUH? I know. And it’s not even that easy.…

  • Amazing People,  Reflections on Parenting,  Spreading the Bloggie Love

    Get To Know Project Runway’s Laura Bennett

    If you know me “in real life” or happen to follow me on Twitter, you know that I am a huge fan of “Project Runway“. HUGE. If it is at all possible, my entire world comes to a screeching halt when the show is broadcast on Thursday nights so I can watch and also take part in the Clever Girls Collective Project Runway Twitter party. When it’s not possible, I’m watching it at 5:45 a.m. on Friday morning. If you’re a regular reader, you’ll remember how Sue rocked my world by not only getting a headshot of Tim Gunn at last year’s BlogHer conference (okay, and signing it herself on…

  • My Sister Has Mad Skillz,  Proud Moments,  Shameless Promotion

    Just a Reminder…

    It’s been a while since I have done a shameless self promotion post on this, so I guess today is as good a day as any to use this space for just that reason. Some of you newer readers may have absolutely no idea that I actually have a book out there. It’s called Remembering Ruby: For Families Living Beyond the Loss of a Pet. Although the target age range is 4-9 (ish), it’s really a book meant for families to share together. I can also say that many adults have told me that they read it and found the story to be very helpful. The book has two parts.…

  • My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  Too Funny To Ignore

    It Takes A Lot of…Something!

    Everyone, parent or not, knows what it’s like to be completely crazed on busy days when activities, errands, and other obligations run back-to-back. Our family experiences this more often than we’d like, unfortunately, but for now it can’t be helped because we’re at the mercy of the teenage type of schedule. Tonight we had a Freshman/Sophomore lacrosse game. (Don’t ask how it went.) (Okay, you probably just figured out how it went, so never mind.) Luckily our home field is at the elementary school in our neighborhood, so I walked down the block and back home when there was a little more than one minute on the clock, to preheat…

  • Random Thoughts

    Rock-A-Hula Luau, Midwest-Style

    The movie “Grease” holds a huge amount of magic for so many people my age; there’s just “something” about a movie about teenagers in the 1950’s that came out in the 1970’s and is still fun to watch today. One of my favorite parts was always the finale, in which the boy gets the girl and everything is tied up in a neat little package. As I became a teenager myself, I became cynical of the setting in the last scene*: I mean, what school DOES THAT for its graduating seniors? And then, of course, there was “Grease 2”, the movie which Michelle Pfeiffer always seemed to forget to list…