Spruce Up Your Homeschooling Before Spring

My daughter's friend, who happened to finish high school a year or two early, shared some tips on how to "spruce up" your homeschooling before spring.

Please keep Anna in your prayers. She is trying to obtain a presidential scholarship from a certain Catholic college. If she does so, it will help her family enormously.

5 Ideas to Spruce Up Homeschooling Before Spring 

As springtime quickly approaches, many homeschooling high-schoolers start to get really burned out and long for the warm days of summer freedom. However, there are still two quarters of work to get through before the break can begin. Here are some... 

Seton Magazine

Lilla Rose 25% Off Flash Sale

Lilla Rose is having a 12-hour flash sale. Please visit one of the following party links to take advantage of the sale prices:

Christine's party link: https://www.lillarose.biz/parties/8419

Jessica's party link: https://www.lillarose.biz/parties/8465 

If you are a new Lilla Rose customer and purchase 3 or more hair accessories through one of the above links, please contact me at prettynwrose at gmail dot com for instructions on how to receive a free flexi clip (retail value up to $16).
http://lillarose.biz/pretty

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday, at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

{pretty}

I thought that the Christmas tree that my husband and oldest son chose this year looked very pretty (it still does). Unfortunately, we forgot to take a photo of the tree with the presents under it this year.

{happy}

Our little girl was happy to receive a mantilla and doll stroller for Christmas. She had wanted a doll stroller for her birthday, but I hadn't been able to find one that was tall enough. Around the end of November, I saw this stroller at Costco for a very reasonable price, and I knew that she would like it. She is looking forward to taking lots of walks with me around our neighborhood pushing her stroller.

The face that my son is making in the background was intentional on his part. He thought it would be amusing to make a disappointed looking face, even though he was actually happy.

My friend, Elena, is responsible for letting me know where I could find the pretty mantilla for Elizabeth and her sisters. Thank you, Elena.

{funny}

During our Christmas vacation, we made gingerbread houses. Doing so has become an annual tradition in our family. Anyway, after finishing the gingerbread houses, we all left the dining room. A little while later, Kieran came and asked me to clean his red hands and face. He had eaten the red icing that our oldest son had used to make a brick path leading to one of the gingerbread houses. He had also eaten several candies off of two of the gingerbread houses. We all marveled and laughed at the fact that he had left one of the three gingerbread houses fully intact. He didn't touch the gingerbread house that he had helped his daddy and his brother make.

{real}

Kilian is my first child who has had to have his hair cut before he is a year old. He enjoyed eating a cheese stick while I gave his hair a little trim. He looks more like a little boy than a baby boy now, but his hair is no longer in his eyes.

A Mother's Holiness

A mother's holiness lies in taking care of her family. Let us all strive to pray for and take care of our families.

Advent Catch Up

I have had so much that I have wanted to share, but very little time to do so.

During Advent, we were blessed with a visit from my brother. Unfortunately, we weren't able to spend a lot of time with him due to high fevers and coughs, but he did visit for a little bit. He thoughtfully brought the children little bags filled with chocolate and a box of chocolate for me from Rohr. The bags and box of chocolate were reminiscent of the chocolates that my grandparents used to send us each year for Christmas. I was happy to see how much the children appreciated them and hear more than one of them say, "These are the best chocolates that I have ever tasted." I think that Rohr probably makes the best chocolates in the world.

On the feast of St. Lucia, our oldest son set up our nativity scene and hung up our Christmas lights with a little bit of help from his younger brothers and sisters.

Our outdoor decorations are still lighting up the night sky. Thankfully, our next door neighbor's lights are doing the same.

During the last week of Advent, my children made and decorated Christmas cookies for friends and neighbors.

We made gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies (adding peppermint extract to our recipe instead of almond extract), snowball cookies (a.k.a. Italian wedding cookies, Mexican wedding cookies and Russian tea cakes), peppermint shortbread, our favorite peanut butter fudge, and a couple of other cookie recipes. The cookies were all placed in Christmas treat boxes and delivered by my husband and/or children.

Kieran decided that the Little People Nativity figures could use a little decorating too.

Kilian learned that there are interesting things to play with in the kitchen cupboards. Kitchen clean up became a little bit harder thanks to him, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Oh, I love my children!

Hopefully, I will be able to share a few Christmas memories soon.