Billy Ray Cyrus - Some Gave All

Monday was Memorial Day, a time when we are to remember those who fought and died for our country and it's freedoms.   I know this song is old, but to me, this song is what Memorial Day is. Some had to give all they were.

At this point in my life, all the family that I knew that were actually soldiers, have passed on except for my dad who was in the reserves and my Uncle who was also in the reserves in the 60's.

My kids have grown up without close family that were Veteran's, and the connection to Memorial Day is not what I would have hoped it would be, but songs like this allow me the ability to talk with my kids about what it means and why we should remember on Memorial Day.

Of course, with all the fighting going on in the Middle East, my kids do understand more than the generation before them, when there was nothing but peace. I still had Veteran's to learn from, but my cousin's kids, who are older than mine, yet she is young than me have no idea. The whole thing seems so foreign to them.

I hope that you listen to the words of this song, play it with your children and family, and remember what it means to be American. What it means to have the freedoms we have and what was given up for those freedoms. They didn't come free.

Lee Ann Womack - I Hope You Dance

After spending the whole weekend with my daughter at a dance competition, I thought this song might be a good fit for today.

If you've never been to a dance competition, don't let what you see on Dance Moms scar you. It is not like that. Our whole dance company is crammed in a tiny room to change, there is no separate large rooms with all this space for each group, no you are packed in and sharing with everyone! There is no fighting and yelling at the director or anyone else or you are gone, and there is no reason to do that in the first place.

I watched my daughter dance, put all her emotions and heart into what she was doing. Leave it all on the stage at the mercy of the judges, and come out a better person for it.  She has been dancing for four years competitively now, and she is thirteen now. She has learned to be confident in herself and her ability, to be proud of what she has learned to do and to push herself to greater and better things. She is already thinking of college and what she needs to do to get into college, grade wise but even more importantly extra-circularly.   I have also seen her become more and more comfortable talking with older people and other people about what she does and what she enjoys. She is a more confident person as well as a dancer now.

More than anything thought, I owe all that to my daughter's dance studio. I was lucky in that I found a studio, with an owner and instructor that believed like me, and she holds the kids to high standards but she doesn't yell at them. She keeps them responsible, but she teaches them responsibility, values, commitment and so much more in the middle of dance.  I have been fortunate to find a studio like that, and I never want to have to let go of that for my daughter.

I hope that today, you each are able to step back and take time to think, to reach out and to take a step and dance. To move forward in life, don't let anything or anyone hold you back, but strive to become the wonderful person that you were made to be.

Zac Brown Band - "Knee Deep" Feat. Jimmy Buffett

Zac Brown Band, I have to confess that I just really like this group. Everything they put out there is good and honest.

Knee Deep has been especially good for me in the last couple of years. After undergoing a full hysterectomy and then having to deal a few months later with a diagnosis of Lupus, and all the emotional, physical and mental stress that came with both happening so close together it has been a rough time.

Every time Knee Deep came on though, I would forget about everything and relax in the images that it created in my mind. The bright blue sky, the water, the white sand beaches and sitting in a beach chair not too far from the water watching it come closer to the chair with the tide and then back out again. It was my own few moments of paradise in the middle of the chaos that was my life.

Things are finally on an upswing for me physically, my health is stable and I am able to do so much more than I had been able to do. I still have limits that frustrate me, because I was used to trying to be super mom to three kids, and I do not have the strength or stamina to do that anymore. I fatigue very easily, but between the dozens of medicines and hormones I am now taking, I have things to a place where I can function again.

I still love this song, and this is one thing I am able to share with all my kids, because they all love this song too!