Episode description

Rosie is a mother of three girls (ages 7, 6, and 4) and author of Congratulations! It's Cancer A Memoir. Today we talk about her personal experience with cancer, homeschooling, and learning not to yell. She was born in Utah but raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She has her bachelor's degree in Marriage and Family Therapy and met her husband while getting her Cosmetology License. She loves writing, chocolate, and collecting pretty books!

• Homeschooling can give kids a voice in their own education. It allows you to follow their natural motivation.
• Listen to what you're kids are interested in, and then pull in curriculum that relates to what they love. They will learn so much more!
• You don't have to teach everything yourself, even if you homeschool! There are so many resources you can turn to and be an example of how to learn something you don't know.
• Rosie's molar pregnancy resisted all the regular treatments and at some point in the process of multiple D&Cs, light chemo, heavy chemo, surgery to remove 1/4 of her uterus was determined that the molar pregnancy was actually cancer.
• Hearing from the doctor "this isn't going to be a normal pregnancy" lead Rosie to think it might be a baby with disabilities, but she never thought they could have meant cancer.
• The strong marital support that came from her husband helped pull Rosie through the challenges she faced in dealing with the cancer.
• Rosie felt through the cancer her lack of control over aspects of her life. It's helped her to focus more on the choices she can make, rather than the circumstances that she could control.
• Teaching our kids to ask questions when they don't understand opens the door for teamwork in your family to face problems together.
• Changing how we see our kids can affect how we parent. We can let them be full participants in the family.
• We can control our behavior and the environment in our homes and can help teach expectations, but cannot control our children's behaviors.
• Your child knows where they need to be independent and it's your job to foster that independence in ways that are healthy and appropriate.