Story A Day

Many of you will receive the letter below in the next couple weeks! I am making it a goal this year to raise funds for Breakthrough Saint Paul, the organization that I’ve worked at for the last couple years.  I believe that BSP changes lives, and as a result, I am matching contributions made during this fund drive!  More details are in the letter.  I hope that you will consider making a donation, even small contributions add up!  There is even an easy way to make your donation online:  www.DonateToBSP.com.  If you’d like a preview of the letter, or don’t think you’re on my mailing list, click the image below for a larger, readable version.  In addition, here are some links to the brochures referenced in the letter that detail the work we do at BSP:  Teacher Brochure,  Student Brochure,  Mail-In Pledge Card

This blog title goes along with the last blog title I was on a role with my crock pot recipes, until today!  Today I tried to cook a small ham in the crock pot, but I don’t think it was large enough to handle the heat.  By the time I got home, it was like shoe leather!  Hmmmm.  I guess I’ll need to try a larger ham next time!  So, we ordered pizza

I’m trying to get more organized with cooking, and trying to expand our repertoire of dishes.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve become a BIG fan of my crock pot.  As a matter of fact, our dinners for the last two evenings have been crock pot dinners.  I have to say, I think a minority of my cooking from now on will be done without a crock pot   It’s just such a relief to come home form a busy day at work and have yummy food waiting, with only the need for a quick side dish.  As an added bonus, the house always smells good when I get home!  Here are the two recipes that we tried and enjoyed:

Cranberry Pork:  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Cooker-Cranberry-Pork/Detail.aspx

Beef Stroganoff: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Cooker-Beef-Stroganoff-I/Detail.aspx  (very good, but we will probably try it with regular cream of mushroom soup instead of the golden mushroom next time, we werent huge fans of the golden mushroom flavor)

Tomorrow, it’s Honey Ham, and on the menu for the weekend is Chili!

Today I signed up as a sponsor with Women for Women International, an organization that strives to support women in the highest need countries so that they can in turn support their children, get an education, or even start a business.  It’s amazing to me that the equivalent of one dinner out per month ($27/month) can literally change the life of another woman on the other side of the globe.  Join me, and become a sponsor too!  Visit their website: http://www.womenforwomen.org/  As soon as I learn more about my “sister” on the other side of the world (in about 4-6 weeks), I will post info here!  Here’s a video about one sponsorship story…

A number of Saint Ben’s ladies and I spent the afternoon at a baby shower for our friend Dana.  We were just some of the 30+ ladies who gathered to celebrate Dana’s soon-coming baby!  Dana is due with her first baby in just about a month 

I finally got to uploading the photos from our 4th anniversary trip to Itasca State Park.  You can check them out at www.mazjen.com/adventures.html.  We had a great time!

A productive week with colleagues.  A long day at the airport.  A few bumpy flights.  Very sleepy eyes.  Heading to bed!

I love these meetings with other Breakthrough sites.  It certainly works my brain!  And, there is so much fruitful work that I can bring back to BSP.  Since my brain is fairly drained for the day, I’m headed to bed!  A few more hours of meetings tomorrow, and then I hop a flight back to MN. 

I spent most of the day traveling.  I traveled from Mpls to Chicago, and then immediately hopped on a flight to Manchester, New Hampshire.  I’ll be spending the next three days with the ITTI (Improving Teacher Training Initiative) Team, reflecting on and synthesizing our work from the summer.  It’s a great group of people, so I’m excited to for the next few days.  We kicked off the great conversations this evening at a fun restaurant that’s in an an old prison, so we ate in a jail cell!  Too funny

I got the full photo album from my visit to Rachel’s uploaded!  You can see it at: www.mazjen.com/adventures.html.  I’m still working on the Itasca State Park album, I guess I’ll have to tackle that one when I get back from New Hampshire.  Hopping on another plane tomorrow!