Time for Trudy's Tuesday Blog

Time for Trudy's Tuesday Blog

Hope everyone had a great week!
Today's topic is FRIENDS. There seems to be a lot of pressure for little girls, teens and even women to have a BFF or a "bestie" which implies that one friend holds more importance other another. I hate labels of any kind and these two are on the top of my list. When we start to compare one friendship to another it becomes a competition and that is where jealousy comes in. In the world of technology as soon as you go somewhere or do something your first thought is to post it on Facebook. This is great until one of your friends that wasn't included sees it. Let's be honest not all friendships are the same each one is a unique relationship between two people. I love things that are not complicated and this goes for my friendships as well.I am fortunate enough to have great women in my life and we each share an individual friendship but none of them are a duplicate of another. I have a friend that I don't see for years at a time but can pick up the phone or hangout with her and it is like no time had passed. She knows me better than anyone and I know her just as well. We have been in each others lives for good times and bad and we both know if either one needed the other we would be there in a heartbeat. We have been friends for more than 35 years and there is no one in my life that can duplicate this relationship. I had talked about recycling relationships in one of my other blogs. I mentioned that I reconnected via Linked In with someone that I was friends with over 30 years ago. From the moment we met up for dinner last December, we have been inseparable. We talk every day and are even working on writing a novel together which is just about finished. No one can replicate this amazing relationship either. Both of these are incredibly important to me but are entirely different and I could not even begin to compare them. I am also very grateful to have forged  relationships with other women in our circle. Sometimes we do things as a group, sometimes it is just a few of us and sometimes it is just two of us. Not everyone has the same interests or dynamics. Two of my friends are going to Thailand on vacation. I have no interest in going but thrilled for both of them. I am taking them and picking them up from the airport and can't wait to see pictures and hear about their trip when they get back. There is no jealousy. The best way I can paint a picture is to think about your life as an arena. In your arena you are the main attraction. There are tons of seats but they are in different sections. You will have a select portion of your people in the VIP section. This is the area where the friends that I just described are sitting. Then you have the other seats in the arena that are further away from the stage. Throughout the years people will change seats, enter the arena or even exit on their own but this is all part of life.  Everyone one in your life plays a part but they all have a different role. Relationships change as we grow.



As I promised, I am sharing a story about another one of my rescue pets. This week I am focusing on Peekaboo's journey. About 13 years ago, my daughter was working down the street from the town animal shelter. She used to go there on her lunch hour to give the animals some affection and attention that they may not have had. She noticed a small chihuahua in a cage in the back with a badly injured eye and inquired about her. She was told the dog was going to be euthanized that afternoon so she should look at the other dogs if she was interested in adopting. They said it wasn't worth the money to get the eye fixed since she was about 10 years old. This didn't sit well with my daughter (I guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree). She demanded that they give her the dog and after some debate they agreed and charged her the full adoption fee even though the plan was to put this unfortunate baby to sleep.  My daughter brought the dog to the vet to see what could be done for her eye, the only solution was to remove it but he informed her the dog was pregnant and it would have to wait until after she had the puppy. Unfortunately when it came time for Peekaboo to deliver the puppy there were complications so she had to be rushed to the emergency vet.  The puppy was too big for her so it never developed properly and was stillborn. Peekaboo was devastated and tried to mother one of her stuffed animals. It took lots of time, love and affection to get her back on track before we were finally able to get her eye removed. After my daughter started having children, Peekaboo became very neurotic, the loud noises and sudden movements of the kids gave her anxiety. So about 6 years ago she came to live with me and my husband. My daughter knew she was getting old and wanted her to be in a peaceful environment for however long she had left. Peekaboo thrived. From our best estimate she is at least 20 years old, she only has the one eye and is now almost totally blind in the other but she is able to get around. She sleeps a lot, eats, loves to cuddle and is still feisty and keeps the other pets in line. She definitely rules to the roost. We laugh and say she won the "Puppy Lotto" twice!

Peekaboo

Don't buy an animal when you can adopt, there are so many wonderful pets like Peekaboo that would love to be part of your family. If you can't adopt yourself, you can use your social media to help create awareness so you can help an animal find a home!

Recipe Time

I will leave you with a quick, easy and delicious recipe with step by step instructions. I used what I had so you can always make substitutions.

Veggie Lasagna

12 lasagna noodles (I typically use oven ready but didn't have any on hand)

Spinach

Mushrooms Yellow squash

Basic tomato sauce *

Nutritional yeast **

Salt and pepper

Boil noodles according to package

Saute vegetables in a pan with a bit of olive oil

 Since I don't like a mess I start layering my lasagna so I don't need to use more than one frying pan.
Put some sauce at the bottom of the pan and place 4 lasagna noddles, then add the mushrooms, cover with some sauce and sprinkle of the nutritional yeast.

Layer the next 4 noodles, the yellow squash and finally the spinach. Top with sauce and more nutritional yeast. Then cover with the remaining noodles add more sauce and a final sprinkle of yeast.

Bake at 300 degrees for 45 min

ENJOY!

 * Recipe was in January 23rd blog
** Nutritional yeast was used instead of Parmesan cheese, check out the blog on The Smoothie Vegetarians for other ways to use nutritional yeast,

As always, please like, share and comment!

Until next time.

With Gratitude,

Trudy