How Do You Show Appreciation?

In this week's blog, I wanted to talk about appreciation, give you a great, easy recipe and encourage you to support the effort to help pets find their forever homes!

Spinach stuffed Mushrooms recipe below

Last night I was with a group of my favorite women and we were discussing the topic of APPRECIATION and how do you show it.

 So this is my question to everyone who reads this blog. How do YOU show appreciation? What do you appreciate?

 Some people appreciate the fact that they can see because they know someone who is blind. Others may appreciate that they have a roof over their head and food in their stomach.

 In my opinion, one of the most important things is to appreciate the people in your life. Sometimes, we hear about untimely deaths or accidents and people have regrets for never telling the person they lost how much they appreciated them. This is especially fitting because Mother's Day is approaching. Many times, women especially are challenged by their Mother but never realize that maybe they were just doing the best they could with what they had. In one of my past blogs, I talked about a person being everything they are and everything they are not. This is something one of my closest friends says on a regular basis.



Most of the time, the things you may have resented the most were done out of love. What is a resentment? A few of the definitions of resentment are "bitterness, indignation, irritation or dissatisfaction". Sometimes it may take decades for someone to realize that something was done for other reasons than just to cause discontent. A great example of this is that I would never let my daughter sleep over any of her friend's houses. She" hated" me for years for "ruining her life" and not letting her do what all the other girls she knew were doing. However, now that she has three young daughters she understands the reasoning behind this and is in full support of my decision. Hopefully, her daughters will not hold this against her but as long as she held this against me. In our discussion the other night, mothers were a prevalent topic and many of the women realized exactly what their mother had done for them now that they were no longer here with them and maybe felt some regret because they never had the opportunity to acknowledge them or show some appreciation.. Don't wait until it is too late to show your appreciation. We can always look back and find the faults, but  challenge yourself to find some of the good. Whatever may have been done for you probably wasn't packaged the way you would have wanted it but there was love behind whatever they did for you.

The only perfect moms are on TV and they are only perfect because their lines were written for them as well as their children's lines. If you are a Mother or Grandmother, there will be days where you want to pull your hair out because the baby won't stop crying, the kids are running amok and you may feel like everything is totally out of control and that is where you may find yourself sounding exactly like your Mother even though you swore you never would use those same words.I am not saying you will be happy every moment of the day but every single day has at least one shining moment and that is where appreciation comes in.

I wanted to focus a little on Mothers but this holds true for everyone in your life. It is important to show appreciation. Sometimes we overlook this especially with the people closest to us because it is easy to take things and people for granted. Imagine if you woke up tomorrow and they weren't there, how would you feel if you never had a chance to thank you for everything they do or tell them how much they mean to you. This is also true in business. If you have staff, highlight a good job instead of being the boss that says you get paid for doing a good job. Thank them for everything they did that day. Like anything else the more someone feels valued, the more they want to do. On the other hand, if someone feels that they are being taken advantage of, they will start to have resentments.

For this week, I would encourage you to make a least one person in your life feel appreciated each day. Appreciation comes in many forms. It may be making a favorite meal, running an errand for them, just spending some time having a cup of coffee or even just telling them that you love them. Give your kids or grand kids some time by playing a game with them. Even your pet would appreciate your time by playing ball or taking them out for a walk.

 In my opinion appreciation is in the same category as being grateful for the people and things in your life.

Love like appreciation and gratitude is in endless supply. The more you use, the more you will have!


Nothing shows love like taking the time and making food for someone so I am sharing another one of my quick , easy recipes.

Stuffed Mushrooms

1 box large mushrooms
1 bag of spinach
1/2 onion chopped fine
Nutritional yeast
garlic powder
bread crumbs
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Clean the mushrooms with a damp cloth to remove any dirt. Gently remove the stems and chop them finely.
Steam the spinach in a bit of water under thoroughly wilted, remove from the pan, I drain thoroughly to remove all the excess liquid. (If you don't have fresh spinach, you can use frozen chopped spinach just make sure you squeeze out the excess moisture)
I then add some olive oil to the pan and heat before adding the mushroom stems and onion. Season with some garlic powder, salt and pepper. Once the onions are translucent, I then add the spinach. Depending on the moisture in the pan, I may add a bit more olive oil and bead crumbs to get the right consistency to stuff my mushrooms. Once they are stuffed with this mixture, I sprinkle the nutritional yeast on top before putting in the oven at 300 degrees. I usually leave them in until the mushroom cap is tender approximately 20 minutes.

You can also use portobello mushrooms if you want to make this more of a main course instead of an appetizer. As always I like to provide some framework and then encourage you to make this recipe your own. Please share any variations that you come up with, I am always looking for new ideas to try out.

Sorry there is not a lot of pictures, they were gone as soon as they came out of the oven.

In closing, for anyone that is friends with me on facebook, you know I am constantly sharing photos of pets that need homes, or have gotten lost or that someone found. Some people may find this annoying but I do it for a a specific reason. The more times a picture is shared, the better the chances of that animal either finding their family, or having the chance to be adopted therefore I would encourage each and every one of you out there to do the same thing. It doesn't cost you anything and you may save a life. How great is that? It is a little thing and it truly can make a big difference. We may not be able to change the world but even if we can change the world for one animal it is worth it!

Have a great week and please share any feedback you have about this week's post. I look forward to seeing your comments.

With Gratitude,

Trudy