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.

Pandora Sphinx moth. First time I’d ever seen one.

Sunset.

The ballplayer.

At the pool.

Sleepy girl. She got a bad rash this week and we had several sleepless, itchy nights.

Extra passenger on my windshield.

Tire swing.

Big pile of dirt.

Pastel eggs. Nature’s own dye.

Linked up with Jeanette at Life Rearranged.

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.

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.

Ruthanne and I hosted a photography workshop this weekend called The Shoot Shop, for people who want to learn how to use their digital SLR cameras. We had been planning this since the first of the year and it was finally time to do it. I was nervous about teaching in front of a group of people, but after it was over I was ready to do it again. Our students were great and it was fun to be able to teach them how to get the most out of their cameras. Here are three reasons why I think it was a smashing success:

1. People showed up!

When we first came up with this idea we were all excited. We made plans and had big ideas and then we got ready to launch and it hit us, what if nobody wants to come? So let me tell you it was great fun when our class started filling up, and then finally seeing those real live bodies Saturday made it a real workshop and not just one where Ruthanne and I talked to stuffed animals and pretended real people showed up.

(We totally would have done that if we had to.)

2. I talked out loud and survived!

I actually didn’t get that nervous. I didn’t have to look at my notes as much as I thought I would either. I was talking about something I enjoyed doing so it felt, surprisingly, kind of easy.

3. We taught people how to use their cameras!

We really did. Because when they first got their some of them really didn’t know much at all, but by the end of the day they were changing ISO properly, adjusting aperture and shutter speed and they were genuinely excited to have this knowledge. I’ve even seen them posting their photos on Facebook so not only did they learn, they are practicing what they learned! Doing homework! It’s like a teacher’s dream.

I’m actually looking forward to doing it again– just one more reason it was successful.