June 6th, 2009 the 65th Anniversary of D-day - Do Your Kids Know What D-day Is?

Too many of us take our personal freedoms for granted and do not realize the price that was paid so we could be free to speak our mind, to worship as we desire, and to be free from fear of our government.

No, the freedom we enjoy today was not easily won, and it wasn't for free, too many people paid too high a price so we could live the lifestyles we live today.

The generation of men who fought that insurmountable battle on Dday so selflessly, won't be with us much longer to share first hand, their experiences that day, or during any battle in the war.

If your child has a grandparent or great grandparent alive that was old enough to remember the war, and the changes our country went through during that time, have them interview their grands, and better yet, tape their interview for their children's children.

No relatives alive from that era? Borrow one. It's just too important not do connect with that generation before they are gone or unable to remind us of the horrors of war, the horrendous loss of life, the sacrifices at home to support the war and everything else needed to be heard.

Memories fade much too quickly to give justice to the sacrifices made that day, to the sacrifices of an entire generation.

Any WWII vet that was involved in combat will usually be the first one to stand up and voice the many reasons our country should always, always try diplomacy and any other means necessary to avoid going to war.

This too, is an important life lesson for all of us to remember.

Children learning when they are children, how to get along with all walks of life are the children that grow up to be leaders, voters and civil servants working hard to get along with all walks of life of different nations, religions, colors and languages.

No matter a person's native language, we all speak the language of humanity. I challenge you to find any person, of any color, in any any free nation, that does not appreciate belonging, being loved, being valued and being free.

Those men who lost their lives, or changed their lives forever, did so for you, for me, and for all of our children to follow; they did this so all of us would have the freedoms we enjoy today, and will continue to enjoy tomorrow.

That is why you should have your children talk to those who were there. History is best learned in a first hand exchange between those who were there, and those who were not. The interaction of storytelling from one generation to another was, in a way, the first internet. The exchanging of information from one group to another.

That pivotal battle on Omaha Beach, D-day - June 6th, 1944 and the numerous conflicts that followed are the reason we can blog our opinions, march on the Mall in DC for the causes we believe in, write letters to the White House, and much, much more - all without any negative repercussions from our government. That doesn't happen everywhere, and our kids need to know this!

* If you really can't interview someone than go here for a start: listen, look and learn: http://www.army.mil/d-day/

Read Tom Brokaws The Greatest Generation

In Memory of Erma Bombeck and Helen Zakour

I always liked Erma, scarastic zinger thrower that she was. A lady whose unique perspective is one I can identify with and appreciate. Erma once wrote something like - life gives us a bowl of cherries, and then we choke on the stones - I remember chuckling when I read it. Then this month, I lived it. Everything was going great, life was good. Suddenly I had a wakeup call. In the midst of everything, BAM - a deep and sudden loss. For a few days I spiriled down into a dark place.

Simply put: a good woman in my life died suddenly.

She wasn't my BFF, not even a daily phone call/email friend. She was what I would call a periphial friend, someone I met through a close friend. Helen was a woman who, everytime I spent time with her I came away feeling better than I was before. Helen always managed to open my eyes. Helen always had something warm or positive to say to lift you up if you needed it. In this day of rush around stress, Helen was a truly gentle person. She was peaceful, loving and giving. She was also a human machine, getting anything and everything done, and then doing it with flair. Then she was sick. In little over a month she was dead. Her death threw me off course like I've never been before. After her funeral, all I could do was THINK. It made me question my own mortality. It made me re-evaulate how I spend each and every day. It made me challenge my faith. Helen was a truly faithful person, she lived it and relied on it, and yet... this. Why her, how could this happen? In the end, I realized it is not ours to know and understand everything. Part of humanity is the challenge of letting go when we need to. We need to have faith when we don't understand, when we can't see the reason, and when we are angry with the results.

When life has provided a big bowl of cherries for us, we need to be grateful when we don't accidentally hit a pit. When life batters us with lemons; we need to make lemonade.

The lemonade I've made from Helen's death contains the following things: trying each day to do something Helen would do for someone else, to enjoy each and every single cherry life gives me, to always remember if I didn't hit a pit now and then, I wouldn't enjoy, or be grateful for, the cherries nearly as much. Think of the "Helen" in your life; reach out to someone you know who least expects it. Be the lemonde to a friend bombarded with lemons.

Be Helen. From my perspective... the world needs a lot more Helens.

Give Your Children the BEST Gift of the Season - The Gift They Shouldn't Live Without

Feeling the stress of pre-holiday gift giving? Always in the search of that "perfect gift." Problem solved! Give your children the gift of knowing the value in living a life being grateful. Make your child happy with this gift! The sooner our children, everyone for that matter, learn that the true secret to happiness is gratitude, the better off we all will be. Help your children find the Zone Being grateful for the many blessings in your life is the best way to keep yourself in the zone - that utopia of positive thinking, paying it forward, treating people with care, sharing your gifts and overall happiness. As parents, we all know our actions teach volumes more than our words. Children who grow up in an environment of grateful and positive people, tend to become another generation of gratefulness. Experience the benefits of living in the Zone People who are focused on and appreciate all they have been given do not have time for envy, jealousy, spitefulness and selfishness. It has been my experience that:

• Children growing up in this type of environment learn to celebrate their peer's victories and accomplishments versus envying them.
• Because they can appreciate their peers accomplishments, they allow themselves to be inspired by them, instead of being stifled or intimidated by them.
• Children grateful for what has been given to them, tend to take care of their gifts, because the appreciate them. This includes both their god given and material gifts.
• One could make the connection that children raised to appreciate their god-given talents are less likely to abuse their mind or body housing those talents.
• These children have a better sense of the value each individual offers the world and therefore they are better able to see the positive attributes of the people around them.

Don't stress over the holidays and perfect gifts, you are only instilling this sense of stress in your family at a time when should be for exhibiting gratefulness in all that you have, all that you have created, all that has been given to you, and all that is yet to come. In all things given there is a lesson to be learned. Those who learn it, tend to receive their gifts to the fullest extent. What am I #absolutely grateful for?

1. My family.
2. Our health.
3. Our gifts that enable us to provide for our family.
4. Our ability to give some of what has been given to us.
5. My husband, partner, friend and lover.
6. My daughter when she sings out loud with out knowing it and her passion and zest for life.
7. My one son's ability to acknowledge the team effort behind his many incredible athletic accomplishments and his determination to get what he wants during the difficult transition between high school and college.
8. My other son's confident sense in who he is which allows him to defend those his peers would ignore, his sense of justice, his willingness to go against the grain when he feels it is just, and to wear what he wants to wear, not what is expected to wear.
9. The incredible generous spirit in my new found world of Twitter and all that accompanies it.
10. My belief in a higher power which enables all of the above.

Happy Thanksgiving, tell someone how grateful you are they are a part of your life. Better yet, show them!