Pinning it Down ~ Baptism of Jesus

Our Catholic homeschool group meets once a month for Blue Knights and Little Flowers. My friend and I lead a small group of younger siblings during this time. (I'm planning to share more of what we do with them soon!) While brainstorming for our January session (baptism and the Baptism of Jesus), I saw this fantastic sea shell ornament! It was originally pinned by Lacy of Catholic Icing from Crafolic.

We made a few changes to it...

First, I asked my husband to drill a small hole in the shells for the string/yarn/twine to make the hangar more sturdy.

Second, we used Mod Podge, and mixed the glitter right in!

This is not the easiest project for young kids, but they are a determined bunch and had fun! I ended up gluing the image of the dove and stringing the yarn ahead of time. The kids glued with image of Jesus with a liberal amount of glitter.

I did end up trying another recipe this week as well. We were suffering from the 4 PM doldrums yesterday, so I quickly mixed up some Orange Dreamsicle Smoothies. Yum!

I halved the sugar, but next time I'd skip it all together. Orange juice is sweet enough that you do not need added sugar!

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Pinning it Down ~ Food, food, food!

I think the majority of what I pin on Pinterest is FOOD! My pinboard devoted to recipes that catch my eye is spiraling out of control. I think I'll have to divide it into several categories!

This week I chose several recipes to try out!

First up were Sugar Cookie Bars. I thought this was a brilliant idea, and I wish I'd thought of it myself. We love sugar cookies, but I find the hassle too much for everyday use. I do occasionally make roll-out cookies "drop" cookies instead, but this is a much better (and prettier!) idea.

Press your dough into a cookie sheet, bake, cut with a pizza cutter, and voila!


The recipe called for a 13x18 pan, but I used 11x17. A smaller size would work too, the dough just might not fit all at once.

I had some leftover frosting in the fridge, so I frosted a few and added organic sprinkles. They were fantastic! I did end up cutting the bars into smaller squares, though, before serving. They are rich!

A few days later we tried a new breakfast idea: eggs in bell pepper slices!


This was an easy way to add some veggies to breakfast, but I did not perfect the "prettiness" of the dish. I think the trick is thin slices that lie flat in the skillet.

The boys loved them, though, and I'm thinking we'll make them with green pepper for St. Patrick's Day!

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Pinning it Down ~ Me on the Map

Sarah and Pam are hosting a new Tuesday link-up, Pinning it Down, both to encourage Pinterest users to make their pinboards come to life, and as a way to share all the neat stuff we've all found over the past few months.

I love this idea and truth be told, it's probably part of what motivated to get back to this blog!

Here's our project this week. I originally pinned this months ago as an idea for summer geography studies, but we're starting an overview of early American history this week, and I thought it was the perfect way to help place us on the map. Big Brother has been a little fuzzy about the difference between a state, country, and continent.

He cut out seven circles representing our home, street, city, state, country, continent, and planet.



Then he drew or pasted an image on each circle and labeled them.


We hole-punched (the best part!) then added a ring. Easy-peasy, and he's an expert now!


Although the best part has been showing off his knowledge to Dad and Meema!

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