Even with two parents, raising children is hard. When a parent is doing it alone, however, the simplest tasksfrom coaching childrens sports, surviving family holidays, and getting the kids dressed and on the buscan seem downright impossible. Cheryl Pontius, a single mother of four girls who are now single parents of their own, knows this all too well, and she looks back at her adventures in these essays that celebrate familyno matter what form it takes. In Half an HourWas It Too Much to Hope For? she writes about the time when daughter Brittany, ten, was asked to watch Melissa, eight, whose parents would be home by 10:00 p.m. What could possibly go wrong? (You have to read to find out!) In Birthday Insanity, she looks back at celebrating a party with several giggling girls followed by a scavenger hunt throughout her apartment complex. Throughout the adventures, which are exasperating, tiring, comedic, and poignant all at the same time, the children and the parents somehow survive.