Once Upon A Pandemic: an American woman's chronicle of wifeing, mothering, and humaning in a wonky world is a book painfully-birthed [no] thanks to the lingering coronavirus pandemic. Written by motherhood and parenting author who brought us Musings for Mom: inspiration, humor and practical advice for the imperfect mom, Nicole Merritt, Once Upon A Pandemic documents an almost middle-aged, American woman's diary-style account of living, working, and raising kids through a dividing, depleting and scary as hell time in a nation's history. Once Upon A Pandemic is a brutally honest peek into the head, heart, and sometimes intentionally, but purposefully wordy foul-mouth of an average, imperfect woman who, like so many others, is pretty blindly navigating her family to what will hopefully be the other side of an unrelenting global health pandemic. With real-time, shockingly candid, sometimes gut-wrenching, other times hilarious, often faith-finding, but always relatable journal entries, Nicole Merritt's chronicles do an incredible job of lovingly reminding her readers of her [and their] flawed but unquestionably beautiful humanness. Once Upon A Pandemic reminds us that sharing our stories and being vulnerable is what keeps people connected and makes us stronger, individually and collectively. Nicole Merritt leaves her readers feeling heard, seen, and in good company with her frank confessions on her continued journey of self-discovery. Once Upon A Pandemic is a bookshelf and coffee-table must for anyone who has, is and values remembering what it is like living, working, loving through and trying to survive, mentally and physically, the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2.