May 8, 2014

Today is a day for celebrating student nurses, flowers, veterans, pie, victims, and children.  

National Student Nurses Day - Celebrated on this day within National Nurses Week, this is a day to appreciate those special people who are learning how to become the nurses that we will depend upon for help with all manner of problems.

Iris Day – Irises are a beautiful flower named after the Greek Goddess of rainbows. Irises come in many different colors and if you see my father's house, you'll find many of them. There are 300 different species of Irises, which my father certainly doesn't have the space for, much to my mother's relief.

V-E Day – While the war in Europe officially ended on May 7th in the afternoon, when German General Jodl officially surrendered, Stalin disagreed with Churchill & Truman on how their victory should be announced so it was delayed until 7:40pm when Churchill had enough and announced what everyone already knew anyway by that time. He declared May 8th to be a holiday and people began celebrating and dancing in the streets until a thunderstorm ended the festivities. But they picked back up again first thing in the morning on this day in 1945. They pooled their rationed resources and had street parties all over England. On May 9th, the war effort resumed as they were still fighting Japan.

National Coconut Cream Pie Day – I'm not a fan of coconut but my husband is so I might have to make one of these for him today. Here’s a recipe you can try: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/old-fashioned-coconut-cream-pie/

Time Of Remembrance & Reconciliation For Those Who Lost Their Lives During The Second World War – This day is celebrated today and tomorrow. It was created by the United Nations in 2004 and it urges all United Nations Countries to pay tribute to all the victims of World War II. This is the day chosen for celebration because this is the day that Adolf Hitler's Third Reich officially ended.

National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day - This is a day to focus on the importance of children’s mental health.  We don’t often give a lot of thought to the mental health of our children, although when we see problems we sit up and take notice.  Unless we get a wake up call like that, we just tend to assume they are fine.  Find out how you can make sure of that because some mental health issues are not as obvious as others.  http://www.samhsa.gov/children/national.asp

To celebrate today, plant some irises with your children while you tell them, in an age appropriate way, about World War II and all the people who fell victim to the evil that happened then, as well as the joy of V-E Day.  Then sign up for a nursing class so that you can better gauge your children’s mental health while you share a coconut cream pie.