ABC News family life contributing reporter Lee Woodruff talked with workingmother.com editor Helen Jonsen about her new book. In it she takes us through the ups and downs of her family life with her husband, anchorman Bob Woodruff, their kids, parents, and shares her four steps for keeping it all together.

Life throws lots of stuff at us. The good, the bad and the worst. In the case of Lee Woodruff, it would have seemed all fairytale for a time. Beautiful young woman marries her handsome sweetheart. They work hard.  Start and grow a family complete with four children.  He becomes a national television anchorman, covering the world and the world’s hotspots, and literally, one day, it all blows up.  This is the story of Lee and Bob Woodruff. Their lives were changed that January day in 2006 when Bob was on assignment in Iraq for ABC news. His military carrier hit a roadside bomb. He suffered traumatic brain injury and fell into a coma. It was a public horror and a personal trauma. After fighting for his life, little more than a year later, Bob returned to the network, and he and Lee recounted their journey in In An Instant. But now Lee is flying solo as an author.  Perfectly Imperfect A Life in Progress is a writer mom’s book.  Speaking to Lee, she said, it was the extra stuff in all her journals that told of life’s moments that she wanted to share.  While very personal, many are universal.  The kind of daily things that working mothers go through all the time, and then some. Ironically for us, Lee and I both have four children with a similar age spread, one boy followed by three girls.  Each of us has had family health trauma and challenges that have thrown us into a spiral.  But, we've come out the other side. This new book is sending Lee another journey – a national book tour. I wondered if she has any hesitation about being away for three weeks straight.  She jokes characteristically, “Are you kidding?  Room service, pay-per-view!”   While away, Bob and their full-time caregiver will keep everyone moving, and then there are the favors from friends and neighbors. Every working mom knows about those. But she admits, for the children, now in with two in high school and nine-year old twins, there is that lack of continuity when Mom is not around.  “With other people at the helm," she says, "maybe they don’t lay the law down as much as I do, and the center begins to wobble a little. But then I’m back.” Perfectly Imperfect starts with the classic trip to Disney World, where Dad, in this case could not go along, and Mom is trying to have a good time in the heat with the huge daypack.  Been there. Other funny moments include her own over-40 moments (Think knees!) and learning to be a soccer mom. Then there are the poignant stories, not all about Bob's injury. She recounts her friendship with another TV wife, Melanie Bloom, whose husband died tragically while on assignment in Iraq for NBC in 2003.  How the events in their lives would "twin us in tragedy" and how her own family has coped.  She also talks about the ups and downs of her father’s fight with Alzheimer's Disease, and the changing relationship of mother and son (especially when you only have one boy). As Lee and I talked, and entered into a give and take like neighbors on the sidewalk, she broke down four tips from her all-too-personal-and-all-too-public experience. She sums them up as: laugh, relinquish, delegate and appreciate. And here's how:

• Laugh!  Duh!  If you don't laugh, you cry too much.
• Relinquish!  Let go of the guilt when you cannot do it alone.  Live in the moment.
• Delegate! Give friends and children jobs to do.  Don't try to do it all.
• Appreciate!  And when there is finally a moment to breathe, let everyone know you appreciate all of the things they do and all of the love they share.

I could not agree more. Note:  The Woodruff's are active in The Bob Woodruff Foundation, remind.org. The non-profit focuses on America's injured service men and women, raising awareness and money to help heal the physical and psychological affects of war.  Click here to order Lee's book

Read Helen Jonsen's Mom Blog here