I Don't Know How She Does It

I love this book.


In particular, I love the scene where Kate Reddy is beating on mince pies to make them look homemade because she feels inadequate and insecure about being a working mum.


My angst about yesterday's Cake Day brought I Don't Know How She Does It to mind. I am realizing that, although we don't have children, I must be grappling with some latent sense of inadequacy and insecurity about being a working wife.


So what have I learned one day after Cake Day?

1. Chopped nuts can redeem an otherwise hum-drum plain cake.
   
2. A store-bought cake is perfectly acceptable on Cake Day if purchased from a quality bakery.
   

My mom and I discussed this yesterday afternoon. She thinks the lesson is more appropriately stated:

"Glitter and Chopped Nuts can make any near-disaster a triumph."

The former bit of the lesson is an homage to my younger sister's desperate glitter cover-up of a mistake on a late-night 4-H project. The glitter was specifically mentioned by the judge when he awarded her a Grand Champion ribbon!


I guess it's an Alloway trait, taught to three daughters by their working mum.