For our blog spotlight this week, we’re excited to introduce Leila and her daughters who blog at Like Mother, Like Daughter.

About Leila

We are a family who live in Central Massachusetts. My husband is a Boston Irish Catholic from a big family. His upbringing was smack dab in the middle of respectable Catholic America, not untinged by 60s unrest.

I am about as different from him as you can get: I’m an only child, my parents are divorced, my father was an immigrant from Egypt, I was raised on the cutting edge of the feminist/relativist/sexual self-fulfillment/diversity revolution. My upbringing was smack dab in the middle of 70s hippie snotty know-it-all America, not untinged by anomie.

I’m a convert to Catholicism who always knew, despite my zero-population-growth education, that I wanted to have a large family! I guess it comes from reading the right books!

Together we’ve raised seven children (our eldest is 28, our youngest 12). We live in a big house that we can barely take care of. We never have enough money. My mother lives with us (she also converted to Catholicism, about 6 years after I did). We are retrograde conservatives who would probably live off the grid if we had more skills and didn’t like baseball and shopping at Marshall’s so much.

When and why did you start your blog?

For many years I have thought of writing a book about family life and my philosophy of life in general, mainly because every time a friend asks a simple question and gets a volume in response, her only recourse is to say, “You should write a book!”

Naturally these conversations also got me thinking I should start a website. I always held back because I felt that I hadn’t yet “been through my wars” – I simply didn’t have enough experience. I simply didn’t know if my approach to discipline,  for instance, was something that made my life go smoothly at the moment, or would actually result in self-disciplined adults.

And so on.

I remember being quite sure, as a young mother, that I was a genius for having four fairly placid, serene children. Then I had my dear number five child and realized that I simply had no idea! She was happy, all right, but she never slowed down for a second. I was an exhausted wreck through her toddlerhood! I deeply regretted any smug advice I had given any of my friends before her arrival! After seven children I can say that I temper all my advice!
I still feel about myself that I’m a work in progress, but at least I’ve seen some battles, and after all, you can’t blog after you’re dead!

I was also holding back because I wasn’t sure how to begin.

In 2007 my daughter Rosie took matters in her own hands and started the blog to make it possible for us to share with each other and friends our crafts and other girly stuff that makes the boys’ eyes roll. (Although they lurk and enjoy – they just don’t like to admit it!)

If you look at those early comments you can see we were commenting on each other! Fun.

What is the goal of your blog?

We try to have the kind of blog that we would like to read! One that’s crafty, practical, and philosophical. One that’s fun, with pretty pictures, and hopefully smart. One in which the writers know where to put their apostrophes.

We really love sharing what we have made and, as Rosie says, “our domestic triumphs.”

For me, it’s a way to share what I’ve learned by re-inventing the wheel in terms of being a wife and mother – with all that those roles entail.
I often think that if there is anyone out there like me – sort of hyper-intellectual and domestic at the same time, but with few resources for raising a large family – a person who learns everything from books, which in the end isn’t very practical – maybe I can help her not have to re-invent the wheel herself.

A big challenge today is to live frugally on one income; to be committed to educating our children; and to keep cheerful even when other people don’t seem to value any of this.

I sort of want to say with it all, don’t be afraid, because if I can do it, so can you. For instance, I learned to cook by joining the Cooking and Crafts Book of the Month Club. (Remember, there was no Googling recipes back then!). One of the books was Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. And master it I did!

Every night my poor new husband ate dinner at somewhere between 9:30 and 11 p.m. He then lovingly did all the dishes, of which there were many, as anyone who knows Julia can well imagine.

I later found out that he would regale his co-workers the next day with a count of how many objects he had washed the night before! It never occurred to him or to me that this wasn’t exactly the best advertisement for my homemaking skills. I think he was rather proud of me!

Somewhere along the line I learned a killer efficiency, and I think I can help the naturally non-efficient person become more so.

How has your blog changed since its beginning?

I’ve somewhat taken over, with the girls’ permission, because they are very busy with school (teaching and studying) and let’s face it, I now have the time. So it’s more my thoughts than theirs, although they promise me that soon they will contribute more! They have many posts brewing, but no time to get them out there.

I think our pictures have gotten better.

It’s changed from being just for ease of communication among the family to a way of meeting new people and putting our ideas out to the world at large – not only to the young mothers who wonder how on earth you manage a family, but also to those who share our love of quilting, thrifting, and cooking.

What kind of impact has your blog had on you in “real life”?

My family makes fun of me for photographing everything, especially the random shots of my home. (I think the pictures help give the feeling for our readers that we are not perfect but that there is something here that expresses our spirit, and that they could express their spirit as well by seeing these little glimpses and thinking to themselves, “If they can do this, so can I! I can do it better.”)

The girls and my mother agree that it is fascinating to realize how many other people out there, in totally random places, have the same goals as we do — making a happy family and a calm life without sacrificing the individual character of the family. I do really enjoy the blog, so it has given me a great sense of satisfaction.

What’s your favorite part about blogging?

I love meeting our bloggy friends, I really do. People are wonderful in their comments. I think there is a hunger out there to find like-minded women who see the value in serving God, raising a family, serving others, and creating beautiful things. People like us really enjoy meeting “kindred spirits” and blogging makes that much easier!

Do you have any specific goals for the future of your blog?

I am looking forward to having my daughters-in-law (of which there is one in the near offing!) join us! I would love to make it more of a homemaking, child-rearing, and homeschooling resource with indexed entries. I’ve gotten started but it takes a lot of work! Eventually I would love that material to become a book that could be used by any young lady as she gets started in her life.

I would love to have a feature for sharing books that have changed us. I would love to be able to sell some of our vintage finds, books, and handcrafts. But I would never want our blog to become a vehicle for selling things. Of course a few bucks would come in handy, but I think we all agree that the main purpose of our blog is to share our love of our family with others.

The blog is a conversation – one of those great conversations you have with your closest friends, where you jump up to show her what you’ve made recently, and where you talk about everything from Plato to the price of potatoes. We have a great time doing that – in “real” life or on the internet!

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