Motherhood Later in Life: Celebrating Our Joy!

1. Growing up in the 80s, I wasn't allowed to express myself the way that many of my peers were able to since my mother was very conservative.

2. Because of this, I promised myself that I would give that freedom of expression to my children.

3. I think it's important that we allow our children to express their individuality; to explore, to find out for themselves what they like or they don't like as long as it's safe.

s there anything more dreadful than the big mamma screw up? I hate it when I mess up. And I absolutely agonize over it for weeks after. So much so that the story I’m about to tell you actually happened several weeks ago, but I have been replaying it in my head over and over and over again, and oftentimes, I even cry about it. I haven’t been able to let it go. I made a mistake. I made an honest-to-goodness human mistake. And I’m having a tough time forgiving myself.

1. When my husband took the girls shopping one weekend and got home with Forever 21 shopping bags, I knew there was going to be a problem.

2. Forever 21 is appropriate for older teens and people in their 20s. It can have a lot of oversexualized attire and slogans on its t-shirts.

3. As parents, we had to decide what the girls could and couldn't keep.

4. I realized that I needed to teach the girls to dress for their body types to look their best and also help them find the style they're comfortable with.

1. My desire to become a mother was so great that I never stopped to think about what it would be like to be an older mom.

2. When I did become a mom, I realized that my situation was different from other moms with kids the same age as mine.

3. Even before I had children, I've always been considered weird, so I've learned to live with the challenges also though other younger moms thought I was strange.

4. But through all these challenges, I was still able to get the family that I wanted and love.

1. This Valentine’s Day, the girls at the homeschool co-op, including my three 12-year-old daughters, were all determined to let their crushes know how they felt about them.

2. I had to talk to the girls individually about this to be able to both meet their needs and address their concerns and growing development.

3. I'm hoping my approach would help them develop into confident adults who can have healthy relationships.

So, I got into the most interesting discussion with one of my friends. She knows that we attend church on a regular basis. And by daily, I mean two to three times a month. I would love to tell you that I’m dedicated and get up every Sunday, but unfortunately, that has never been me. Two to three times a month is about as regular as I seem to get. In any case, she wanted to discuss with me whether or not I should choose my children’s religion.

1. My girls have managed to corrupt the word ‘Yes’ to a frustrating, non-response -- it really doesn't mean anything; doesn't bring about an action, and doesn't confirm that an action has been committed.

2. By not following up when I call on them, I‘ve managed to turn this around.

3. But we just keep cycling around my NON-RESPONSE and their YES NON-RESPONSE.

4. But I've grown used to it and I realize that I'm going to miss this when they're in their teen and, eventually, go to college.

My mother's legacy has been a path to self-empowerment because she taught me to understand that strong women are confusing and imperfect. But we are who we want to be and live the life we want to live. In doing so, we can enjoy our lives despite our mistakes because it is a life of our own making.

1. Most of our family traditions begin organically.

2. For our girls, being the Buckeye lucky charms has been a tradition since they were 6 years old.

3. But at its core, our real Buckeye tradition is to love dad. To love him and support him whenever we have the opportunity to do so, just as we do for everyone in our family -- we are always there for each other.

A way to dress that helps me find a new self-image that gives me the confidence to move toward my goals to return to my ideal weight and feel good about myself! Self-image is not frivolity but an important component in feeling good about ourselves.