When Gwyneth Paltrow told the world she was quitting acting to be a full time mom, it was a sad day for films and audiences everywhere. Luckily for us, she’s back and the model turned actress turned singer is stronger and taking on more challenging roles than ever. Although she admits that she can’t do films back to back anymore with her children, the roles she is taking on are well worth the wait.

Although most people believed Paltrow was British during her early acting years in the late 90’s because of her impeccable English accent in movies such as Shakespeare in Love, Sliding Doors and Emma, it wasn’t until her acceptance speech when she won her Academy Award for Best Actress in Shakespeare in Love that America truly saw the soft-spoken American girl not just as Brad Pitt’s girlfriend. She may have strayed into bad film choices during a few of her years (ah hem, Shallow Hal), but most would admit her filmography is mouth-watering to any journey-man actress.

At 38 years old, Paltrow is still the svelte, beautiful woman she was when she first came across our screens - despite her attempt to do otherwise in Country Strong.

She told Harper’s Bazaar in a recent interview, "I was so bad with the food and alcohol in Nashville," of the two-month shoot she finished April, 2010. "If you saw me naked compared to what I looked like when I did Iron Man 2, when I was exercising every day — I'll get it back together, but I've never eaten so much fried food and white flour in my life, ever. Oh, God."

However, even after two kids, a horrible diet in her country singer movie debut, Gwyneth gleams. She claims in this same interview that she doesn’t know how people like Kate Winslet do it while juggling kids full time.

She claims…in between rapping every word to N.W.A.

"I first was exposed to hip-hop when I was about 16 (1988) by some boys who went to collegiate. The Beastie Boys were sort of the way in for us preppie kids. We were into Public Enemy, Run-DMC and LL Cool J. But then I went to LA the summer between my junior and senior year of high school and I discovered N.W.A which became my obsession," she told Jay-Z in April’s two-way interview.

[The previous AND Interview with Gwyneth]

Rap isn’t her only pleasure, or vice: food, the Spanish language, road-trips, country singing, writing, alleviating poverty in New York City (she is on the board of the Robin Hood Foundation, and is a Save the Children artist ambassador), finding her children tutors, perfume. This is a woman who simply has a passion for…well, most things, it appears – and a strong upbringing.

Of her upbringing and her film Country Strong, she says, “my father, who I was incredibly close to -- "I'm country strong like the ground I grew up on" -- that, to me, is the foundation that my father [late producer Bruce Paltrow] laid for me.”

It seems like every year Gwyneth Paltrow is reinventing herself, and not in a Madonna-esque fashion.

No, her appearance or who she is doesn’t change, but it’s her extra-curricular activities, charitable work and being that continue to grow and surprise us.

In 2007, she agreed to take to the road as a quartet with famous chef Mario Batali, food writer Mark Bittman and young Spanish actress Claudia Bassols, during a Manhattan dinner. According to Food and Wine Magazine, it was agreed "after Gwyneth reminisced, in flawless Spanish, about her love of the fried food there ("I live for fried food," she says), Mario amended his boys-only rule and asked her to come along." There aren’t many striking, blonde superstars who would pack up their bags and take to Spain for a 13-part PBS special searching for the best-of Spanish food. Let’s face it, there aren’t many who would say they lived for fried food either.

[Check out: GOOP.com]

Apparently her high expectations of life don’t stop with her either. In an ad searching for a tutor, Gwyneth posted some seemingly impossible standards online for a tutor for her 8 and 6 year old children:

‘The ideal candidate will have received a classical education, including Latin and Greek, and be familiar with such elements as the history of thought from a philosophical perspective. He or she should also be musically fluent and play at least one instrument well. In addition, language skills are essential and the Tutor should have fluent French and at least one other of Spanish, Italian, Mandarin or Japanese. The Tutor will also need to be fit and healthy, enjoy many sports and pastimes both indoors and out, including painting, art, or art history and drama, as well as sports such as chess, tennis, fencing or a martial art.’

Sounds like her children will be as well versed as she is.

Although she’s always struggled with the balance of her life, it seems that she won’t stop searching for it. "Big changes always regenerate things. Because otherwise, you plateau," she says. "Life is about the plateaus and the valleys and mountains. You don't want to be on only the plateau, you know, you've got to shake it up."