What a remarkable reminder that none of us can actually control what happens. We can only control the grace with which we react.

Telling my children was the toughest part. But that’s when you get strong, because you have to be strong for other people.

You don't have to live on a farm to have chickens; in some places, you just need a little bit of green space and a tidy chicken coop. To me, they're nearly ideal pets. They feed us more often than we feed them! We have 2 chickens, Goldie and Paprika, and they each produce 1 egg a day, sometimes more.

I have two cousins with juvenile diabetes. They both contracted the disease before the age of 5, and it was so heartbreaking watching them go through daily blood tests and injections. It is such a difficult disease to live with and requires constant attention; a tough thing to explain to a child.

I made the choice to have the double mastectomy, and for me it felt like the right choice, and it turned out to be the right choice.

After two rounds of chemo, I've started to notice, slowly, but surely, my hair has started to appear more regularly in my shower drain, sink drain, pillowcase and comb.

'You have chickens?' That's what nearly everyone asks next, after they find out about our family pets. They just need to make sure they heard me correctly. Perhaps it's because I don't come across to most as a rural-loving farm girl.

The broader question if Sarah Palin becomes vice president, will she be shortchanging her kids or will she be shortchanging the country?

I plan on ... encouraging so many women who are out there, who are still in the thick of it, who have yet to fight this fight, that you can do it, you can get through this one step at a time.

Telling my children was the toughest part. But that's when you get strong, because you have to be strong for other people.