Sarah Pachter is a wife, mother of a large family, and a full-time journalist who burns pots (occasionally), juggles work and home (not always successfully), and is a warm Yiddishe mama (always). In her new book Supermom! (Who? Me?) she shares her ups and downs—the sweet moments of parenting and those racked with guilt—openly, one friend to another, in her light engaging style that every woman can relate to.

So, how does Supermom deal (or not) with her kid’s Purim costume crisis? Read below to find out…

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Purim. The happiest holiday of the year will soon be here, so why am I feeling so far away from perfect happiness?

Faced with the huge choice of costumes and the cacophony that comes with them, the question becomes moot. The children continue gaily digging through the bags of costumes that we’ve assembled—and preserved!—over the years, and I continue staring disbelievingly at the ever-growing pile of costumes awarded a no with a capital N.

They casually reject the nicest costumes, tossing aside fancy dresses, gowns, capes, and hats. I glumly acknowledge that this is not unique to my humble home, but that the same scene is taking place in Jewish homes everywhere.

When I was a child, any colorful bit of material, any mask cut out of a simple sheet of paper, fired our imagination and could qualify as a costume. We really weren’t picky.

Am I right? Or do I have a selective memory? Keep Reading…

For all those in need of a good laugh, a good cry, or just a plain good read, please read on!

A book that you’ll think has been custom-made especially for you has just been released! It’s called The Punch Line, and trust me, it really does pack quite a punch! Brimming with entertainment, inspiration, and life’s lessons culled from some of the oddest, yet most interesting, subjects and items, The Punch Line is a book that you’ll love right from the first piece!

Click here to purchase online.

Here is an excerpt l’kavod Purim:

The Purim Theme

I come from a very simple family. The mishloach manos we send usually consists of a nicely decorated bag or a plain brown basket, filled with standard nosh like potato chips, pretzels, lollipops, etc. So we were all in for a surprise when this year, my married sister announced that she’d be having a ‘theme’ for Purim. Yup, she said, everyone on her block had a ‘theme,’ and she was beginning to feel left out, backward, out-of-step with the times here in Boro Park. She explained that one neighbor last year dressed all her kids up as yellow and black striped bees. She sent mishloach manos made up of a jar of honey, honey cake and a small box of Honeycomb cereal. Another neighbor’s family was costumed as astronauts. They sent over a plastic container in the shape of a rocket ship, filled with moon-shaped sugar cookies and star fruit. So, she concluded, this year, she’d also come up with a ‘theme.’

I meekly suggested that she might want to try the original Purim theme – with Esther, Haman, Mordechai – but she looked at me like I’d just suggested she trade in her brand new Hummer for a trusty old horse and buggy. Seeing that I couldn’t talk her out of it, I shrugged my shoulders and left her to plan her Purim shebang. Keep Reading…