I Don't Know How She Does It: The Life of Kate Reddy, Working Mother

So, it's 2002. I'm a professional, working mom, with two kids in pre-school and a husband who travels for work a LOT. I have a master's degree and a great job. I serve on four boards of directors for area nonprofits. And I'm exhausted.

Took the kids on vacation, and after getting back, I came down with shingles. Yup, the one old people get. I was in my 30's. My doctor tells me I'm too stressed out and need to take a vacation. She's stunned when I say I just got back from one.

Enter Allison Pearson's debut book, I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT. I read about this book coming out in Britain and manage to get a first edition, months before it arrives in the States.

It's brilliant. And I love it. And that's when I decide I can do this. I can write a book.

So, I find a part-time job still in my field, quit all the boards, enroll my oldest in kindergarten and start to write. The rest is history.

Here's why you should read this book:

MONDAY, 1:37 A.M. How did I get here? Can someone please tell me that? Not in this kitchen, I mean in this life. It is the morning of the school carol concert and I am hitting mince pies. No, let us be quite clear about this, I am distressing mince pies, an altogether more demanding and subtle process.

Discarding the Sainsbury luxury packaging, I winkle the pies out of their pleated foil cups, place them on a chopping board and bring down a rolling pin on their blameless floury faces. this is not as easy as it sounds, believe me. Hit the pies too hard and they drop a kind of fat-lady curtsy, skirts of pastry bulging out at the sides and the fruit starts to ooze. But with a firm downward motion - imagine enough pressure to crush a small beetle - you can start a crumbly little landslide, giving the pastry a pleasing homemade appearance. And homemade is what I'm after here. Home is where the heart is. Home is where the good mother is, baking for her children.

THE rest of the book goes on with her reading between the lines of the parent's note about the event and how you have to read between the lines to see that store-bought items aren't good enough - which is why Kate Reddy is up in the middle of the night doing this.

I could relate to that. In fact, for years, there was a board member for the arts agency I worked for who came in regularly and said to me, "Leslie, I don't know how you do it! You should write a book!"

Of course, my replay was always, "When would I find the time?"

So I made time.

Check out I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT. It literally changed my life and led me to write books.

Enjoy!