The holidays can be an incredibly stressful time for parents, so I’ve turned to parenting expert Sue Groner for some tips and tricks for dealing with family-related holiday stress.

It’s late on Christmas Eve. You’re bleary-eyed, devoid of cheer, and still not done wrapping presents. Every time the wind blows, you’re on high alert like a reindeer caught in the headlights. Was that a footstep? Are the kids still asleep? Wasn’t there an extra roll of tape around here somewhere?!

As your thoughts drift to tomorrow, your spirits are raised a bit. You think of the excited looks on your kids’ faces as they unwrap their gifts. A halo of bedhead encircles them and their eyes are wide and full of incredible joy. Your heart just might burst.

Then you consider what will happen when sugar is added to their already excited little bodies. And what will happen when this mixture is then combined with judgy relatives just waiting to help improve your parenting skills.

Does this rollercoaster sound familiar?

The holidays can be a bitch. With all the warm, happy, holly jolly feelings, there is also a definite side of stress. Whether money is tight, there’s family drama, or your kids have reached a point of overstimulation you’re just not sure they’ll come back from, it can be difficult to know just how to deal.

Since I’m no expert, I decided to pick the brain of Sue Groner, founder of The Parenting Mentor and author of the new book Parenting: 101 Ways to Rock Your World.

We are always looking for books to add to our To Be Read list. We look for books of all levels: picture books, beginner chapter books, middle-grade fiction, and books that busy moms can enjoy. Figuring I can’t possibly be the only one out there who is hunting for good reads for a variety of age levels, I put together a list each month of the books my family has been reading. Sometimes our thoughts on them will be gushy and glowy. Other times they’ll be lukewarm. Either way, we’ll let you know if we think they’re worth your time.

If what you read here is peppered with errors, know that it’s not fully my fault. I’m bleary-eyed and yawning incessantly because I stayed up far past my bedtime one too many nights this week. But that’s what happens when you find a really good book, right? You get a little lost in it.

With all of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season starting up, I need to stake out some Me Time. It’s a true need. If I don’t, I might unravel completely. This week, that Me Time came in the form of getting lost in the pages of a really good family drama. But I’ll tell you more about that in a minute…

ON OUR BOOKSHELF | NOVEMBER 2017

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One of the holiday traditions that I get super excited and all squealy about is our children’s book advent calendar. Since we’re big-time book lovers, it made perfect sense for us to turn our “calendar” into a basket overflowing with books. We do the whole cheap chocolate thing too, but the girls and I absolutely love the excitement of opening up a book each and every night leading up to Christmas, getting under a cozy blanket, and reading by Christmas tree light.

Before I give you a peek at some of the books that are included in our tradition, I thought it might be helpful to give you a few tips. This does not have to be an expensive tradition! I am the Queen of Cheap. I would not run to the nearest bookstore and shell out hundreds of dollars on books that we’ll only read once a year.

How to build a children’s book advent calendar library without going broke

1) Be flexible. The books don’t all have to be about Christmas. I include any wintry books that make us all holly jolly. If there’s snow involved, it can be considered! This makes it much easier to do the next step.

2) Shop your personal library. Comb through your children’s book collection and make a great big pile of books that could work. You might be surprised at what you already have. Depending on how many books you own, you might not even need to go out and purchase more.

3) Get thrifty. If you do need to fill in (we did), don’t head straight to the bookstore. Hit up tag sales, consignment stores, and library sales first. You’d be amazed at how many used books you can grab for a dollar.

We are always looking for books to add to our To Be Read list over here. We look for books of all levels: picture books, beginner chapter books, middle-grade fiction, and books that busy moms can enjoy. Figuring I can’t possibly be the only one out there who is hunting for good reads for a variety of age levels, I’ve decided to try something new.

Once a month I’ll put together a list of all of the books we’ve been reading with some of our thoughts on them. Sometimes they’ll be gushy and glowy. Other times they’ll be lukewarm. Either way, we’ll let you know if we think they’re worth your time.

Skim through and see what looks good—for you, for your kids, for a gift. And let us know what you’ve been reading!

On Our Bookshelf | October 2017

My daughters are obsessed with making videos, which made me take a closer look at the weird things kids watch on YouTube.

Kids are weird. But lately, the things they watch on YouTube strike me as really weird. Is this just me reaching old lady “in my day…” territory? Or are the things kids are watching (and emulating) on YouTube really freaking strange?

The other morning I woke up, groggy and still tired. When I grabbed my phone and unlocked my screen, I saw that my six-year-old had recorded a nine-minute video while I was sleeping.

It started off with my daughter’s grainy face in my almost-pitch black bedroom. It was near impossible to figure out what she was saying, as her whispers were drowned out by the white noise machine (which, it’s worth noting, is on for this very reason). Soon she gets up and wanders around the upstairs of our house, continuing to whisper some kind of song while staring intently into the screen. She eventually goes into the bathroom and turns on the light so that she can see herself more clearly and I see that, even though the sun hasn’t completely risen, she’s fully dressed.

She continues her song, which I can now identify as the line “We’ll do this togeeeeether,” over and over and over again, making different dramatic faces as she sings. The rest of the nine minutes is filled with her sitting on the toilet (while continuing to sing), a view of the ceiling of my bathroom when she (thankfully) puts my phone down to take care of business and wash her hands (popping her face into view every so often so that she can get really dramatic), and flicking the lights on and off. It culminates with her sitting on the floor of her room, applying lip gloss as theatrically as one could ever dream of applying it.

Why does she feel the need to document the seemingly mundane? YouTube.