Up at six. Pack some lunches. Wake the kids. Make breakfast. Get them dressed and out the door, clean up, feed and walk pets. Start laundry. Nuke the coffee for the fifth time and force yourself to go to your desk and close out the millions of distractions in every room of your house. You are a Power Mom.

Nurse the baby three times in the middle of the night. Sit with the toddler who’s had a nightmare. Drag yourself through the morning playing with blocks and reading board books until, mercifully, naptime arrives. You are a Power Mom.

Do the shopping, fold the laundry. Off to a PTA meeting, plan a benefit for the local Red Cross. Drive for the field trip, pick up the baseball bat, the new ballet shoes and get home for the bus. Now there’s homework and dinner….

OK, you get the idea! When I was asked to edit a Chicken Soup for the Soul book about stay-at-home and work-from-home moms, I had no idea what the job would entail, no idea where to start and no idea where I’d find the time. The title of the book itself, Power Moms, was enough to scare the hell out of me. What was a Power Mom and how was I going to find 101 of them to write stories? It was one of those moments in life, a duh moment, where you just know you have to say yes and get on with it.

It was, actually, a perfect fit for me. My first novel, Four Wives, had just been released. The book is about a lot of things, but at its core examines what it means to be a stay-at-home mom. Though the characters are fictional, the book mirrors my ten plus years of experience in the trenches with my kids, and ironically was the beginning of a new career that has started my transition back into the paid work force. Four Wives got a lot of local press for touching on the realities that many women face after abandoning their careers, and because people found it a little nuts that I had written the novel from the back of my minivan while waiting for my kids at nursery school.

But nothing is nuts when you’re a mom and it occurred to me that I might actually be a Power Mom! As I began reading the 1000 plus submissions for the book from around the world, I realized that Power Moms come in all forms and that there is no shortage of supply. Chicken Soup for the Soul –Power Moms will be released on March 24th and the video trailer says it all! Author Jodi Picoult writes about her early years as a stay-home mom and writer. Lynne Spears writes about raising Britney. Mary Himes, wife of Congressman Jim Himes, writes about the sudden change in her life. Other moms write about making their decision to quit their paying jobs, and how they manage to afford it by digging coins from the couch cushions to pay the bills. There are doctors and lawyers, teachers and actresses, all doing the same job day in and day out – providing the primary care for their kids.

Reading over a thousand stories, I felt a powerful sense of community out there – a community of (mostly) women who have put their dreams and ambitions on hold to raise their kids. I began to see the arc of that life which exists across diverse socioeconomic and geographical divides – from making the decision, to living day-to-day, to becoming obsolete. The book began to take shape around this arc and I started to see my own life at a point upon it. I could see where I have been – the sleepless nights and sometimes tedious days with the babies, to where I am now – kids in school, a new career. And I can see where I am headed as I stuff bags full of outgrown clothing to give away.

There is the intellectual debate about women staying at home, or “opting out.” We all know the issues. Reliance on husbands for financial survival, declining value in the workforce. The decision is not easy and the social implications complex. Lisa Belkin of the New York Times has been covering this topic for years and writes about it in her foreword for Power Moms.

But this book is not a social statement. It’s a guidebook to a life that many women choose, a virtual support group for Power Moms everywhere who do a million jobs everyday, literally powering through the challenging task of caring for others and making it their work to raise human beings. To all of my fellow Power Moms, I hope you find this Chicken Soup for the Soul book as inspiring to read as it was to edit. And let me know what you think, because there are more on the way!

Stay tuned!

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