How else will our girls learn how to be ladies if we as mothers don’t model and teach them? Since I’m not counting on the world to have too much positive influence on my daughter, I want to be proactive, constantly looking for places and ways where my girl can work alongside me, so she can learn by doing.

Fear is a strange thing to be writing about with two sweet children sitting on your lap. But it’s the very fact that I have these children that makes this subject a struggle for me. The thing I fear most is grief. I fear the way I would feel if something ever happened to them…

As my kids played in the sandbox later that afternoon, their daddy and I sat on the edge with our toes in the sand. We couldn’t help but observe all the other kids who were like those little girls: playing at the playground and making memories, but not with their parents…