This is how I make laundry detergent now and I love it. I used to make the liquid but it was so messy. Now it’s simple: one box of borax, one of washing soda, one of grated Fels-Naptha soap, one of oxyclean. The oxyclean scoop is the perfect measuring spoon.

I got this for Mother’s Day. I really like it. I’ve wanted one for years, but appliances are never fun purchases.

Miniature car wash. Good for 14 minutes of uninterrupted work time, or until they run out of bubbles.

Paint on her face, not blood.

We got two kittens. I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of them.

Blue sky.

My friends came over! I’ve missed them.

We let our chickens out every evening. We are on this crazy rotation now. Big dogs get out of the pen for about 3 hours a day. The kittens who get terrorized by the dogs right now, get let out in between dog time. The chickens get let out at the end of the day and they put themselves up at sunset. We are so going to have to hire a caretaker when we go on vacation this year to manage our “farm”.

Sunset over baseball.

We penciled in a family fish fry for this past Friday a few weeks ago. I bought fun colored lights and we got a fire pit. I planned a festive outdoor gathering with lights and a fire. The family fish fry part was a success, but my outdoor evening got rained on.

Saturday we planned a spontaneous shopping/eating out trip, but before we left I insisted on some Mother’s Day pictures since I knew Sunday would be too busy. We had 2 extra friends over, but they are just like my own kids so they, along with the dogs, got in one picture.

We got some astonished looks and heard some out loud counting along with some comments like, “5 girls and only one boy!” as we left the restaurant. I never even think of our family of six as being considered large, but you add just two more and I guess people are amazed. I thought it was kind of funny.

It feels completely and wonderfully like summer right now. Even though we do school year round, the long days and so much time outdoors makes it still feel like a summer vacation. We’ve spent a few evenings around our fire pit watching the kids chase lightening bugs after a late evening of baseball, playing and walking with the dogs or just swinging on the swing set. The evenings are still cool enough to enjoy a fire and not yet muggy and so hot that we are just swatting mosquitoes. We come in dirty, smelly and all in need of a bath, but it feels so good.

I’ll take dirty kids who have played hard over clean, bored kids any day.

Long summer evenings are my favorite.

A fabulous sunset enjoyed at my cousin’s house on Monday.

Tuesday they played a ball game then came home for more baseball.

My baby girl knows how to relax.

I moved everything out of my office Monday and painted it white. I de-cluttered and cleaned up all day Tuesday then walked two miles. On Wednesday I was a slug all day and couldn’t figure out why until I remembered Monday and Tuesday.

Everything is still out of my office because I’m waiting on my new desk to be installed. Chaos rules in the living room aka: my temporary work-space.

We saw a King snake and are glad to have him around.

We were twinkies!

She wanted her hair did.

Huge puffy clouds on Thursday that I couldn’t get enough of.

My kids have rediscovered Cadoo and play it every night now. After baseball of course.

We went shopping for new swimsuits for my big girls and this one and her brother were a total disaster in the dressing rooms and the dressing room police was irritable with us.

It made me remember why I hate shopping.

Linking up with Life Rearranged. Find me on Instagram. I’m @melissastover and I’m addicted.

My son has fallen in love with baseball. It’s all he wants to do. Every single day. When he isn’t at a game or practice, he’s making us practice in the yard with him. I’m glad he’s found something he loves to do. It’s so much better than him sitting in the house playing video games.

We’re spending a lot of time outside right now. I’ve added some potted plants to the porch and my garden is growing! Sometimes we just sit on the porch and enjoy the evening.

This weekend we got the fire pit going and I hung out some colorful lights. It was just like a camp-out without having to use a public bathroom or sleep on an uncomfortable bed.

We are savoring the sweetness of summer. How about you?

I don’t really pay them. I sort of guilt them into it. The little one is really easy because if i say that one of the others is going to brush my hair, she runs up quick to beat them to it.

Some other things you might find in my Instagram stream this week: the eyesore also known as the guinea pig cage. We have tried a few different things and the answer is nothing is easy or looks good.

Fresh eggs! We are getting enough to feed us now.

The rest: school, play, work.

I’m Melissa Stover on Instagram. If you’re on Instagram, leave your name in the comments and I’ll follow you.

I read this article by Tofurious this week: Should You Post the Same Content on All Social Media Profiles?  I don’t share every photo I post to Instagram on Facebook or Twitter. I post one every once in a while on Facebook, rarely on Twitter unless I’m @ing someone on Twitter in the picture. I love how he calls posting different media in different places rewarding followers. If you follow a person on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook then all content they post goes across all mediums in exactly the same format, it can get repetitively annoying.

I try not to do this. How do you feel about cross sharing the same content on multiple profiles? Does it bother you at all? Or is this just a problem for those of us who are overly socially engaged?

But, I do round up a few Instagram photos to post on my blog for Insta Friday. I hope that doesn’t annoy you if you follow me on Instagram. I really love Instagram. I love seeing how creative people can be with their phone images. And there are some awesomely creative people out there! I’m hope that now that Facebook owns it won’t change anything (like blurt every single Instagram photo you take across Facebook).

One of my favorite photo editing apps is Camera+. Do you have any that you can’t live without?

Linking up with My Home Sweet Home Online.