Amber Marchese: My Kids Are My Number One Priority

Earlier this year, Real Housewives of New Jersey's Amber Marchese was diagnosed with breast cancer for a second time after having been first diagnosed with the disease in 2009 and undergoing a double mastectomy. These days, Amber is putting a new focus on her family.

"As a Real Housewife of New Jersey, I thought I would be writing about how many pairs of shoes are in my closet, but, frankly, I just don't give damn," she writes in her column for People. "The once superficial, empty gratification of buying shoes and handbags is just not my concern any longer. Trust me, I sometimes wish it was. If it is your guilty pleasure, I don't begrudge you, I am happy for you. I still enjoy material belongings. I am being treated for cancer after all, I'm not dead! However, those items do not bring lasting happiness to my life. Instead, my children and those little moments of time that I get with them bring peace. Believe it or not, we are big homebodies. There is nothing like being in with the family. I love how each of us would rather be together as a family than with anyone in the world. I get sad to think of time in the future when they will be more interested in their friends, especially Michael being so close to 16 years old. But we are not are not at that time yet."

Amber shares in the post, that when she does have to visit doctors and specialists, she tends to schedule all her appointments in one day in order to have time to spend with her family. Back in May, she had to undergo a partial mastectomy to remove a tumor from one of her breasts. She later shared that her cancer had not spread.

"I have always said my job as a parent is to create this beautiful, loving life for them so they are never in a hurry to leave, and when the time comes that they do, they love coming back," she writes. "Jim and I both work so hard for that to happen. I had absolutely no clue that I would enjoy being a mother so much. At one point, I thought I was never going to have children and pictured myself as corporate executive in Manhattan. I could even tell you what my corner office looked like in my mind; however, plans changed, and thank God they did. Being a mother is the only job that brings me absolute happiness, drives me absolute bat s--- crazy sometimes, but is an occupational hazard that I welcome. It's like mommy battle wounds, 'hoo ra'!"