7 Simple Ways To Keep Your Dog Busy and Happy!

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ve probably noticed there are a handful of ingredients that show up again and again in recipes for homemade health and beauty products, like witch hazel, coconut oil, and hydrogen peroxide. Now that summer is here, I thought I’d highlight another of my go-to ingredients that will surely come in handy over the next few months: aloe vera.

I can’t believe that Independence Day is just around the corner! It seems like summer is already flying by. But I do love all of the opportunities to have backyard barbecues with friends and family, so I’m not really complaining! ;-) The 4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays for that very reason, so I always like to celebrate by sprucing up the backyard a bit. A few pieces of summer-y or patriotic decor (along with a playlist of upbeat songs, of course) always go a long way towards making the holiday feel extra special!

I once read that ants are estimated to outnumber humans by over one million to one, and it isn’t hard to believe! Almost everyone deals with ants in their house or apartment at one point or another, and they’re never short on numbers.

My son Erik is always looking for ways to attract more birds to our shared yard (he and my daughter-in-law Kaitlyn live in our basement apartment), which is great because I get to reap the benefits! There’s nothing I love more than sitting out in the backyard and listening to them sing in the morning (the birds, not my kids).

My daughter Britta has definitely emerged as the gardening guru in our family. Today she’s sharing with us her homemade organic fungicide that is just as effective and much cheaper than the commercial alternatives and won’t hurt the environment, our pets, or our families. Way to go Britta!

We spent a lot of time in the backyard this summer! With our new fire pit and all the bird feeders we added, the patio was a main attraction. Unfortunately, those cute little birds left their droppings all over the place, and the patio umbrella was looking pretty dingy! There was also lots of dirt, dust, and pollen on the umbrella that I didn’t even notice until I started moving it around.

This post is sponsored by the maker of OxiClean™. As always, all ideas and opinions are entirely my own. The OxiClean™ brand provided free product for this post.

One of our favorite ways to spend time together as a family during the summer is sitting around a campfire. There’s a little fire pit area in our backyard that we utilize regularly during the warmer months! But we recently upgraded to a new fire pit that has made those campfires even more enjoyable. I actually like it so much that I couldn’t resist the urge to tell you all about it in today’s post! :-)

Now that we are all getting outdoors more (hooray summertime!), most of us (some more than others!) are having to deal with pesky mosquitoes that love to try and ruin our outdoor fun.  :-)  I have to admit, here in this semi-arid desert state, we don’t have to deal with mosquitoes nearly as much as those of you in the midwest or back east. But any mosquito is an unwelcome mosquito!

This post is sponsored by TIKI Brand. As always, all opinions and ideas are entirely my own.

Even though there are plenty of things that I love about the summertime, there are a few things about it that I wish I didn’t have to endure. Because although summer brings longer days, patio weather, and family vacations, it is also responsible for sunburns, oppressive temperatures, and of course, wasps.

Yesterday was the first honest-to-goodness SPRING-LIKE day we’ve had thus far this year! I seriously wanted to find a meadow filled with wildflowers and run through it singing “Walking On Sunshine!” OK, not really….but you get the idea. :-) It. Was. A. Picture. Perfect. Day. The kind of day when our minds (and hearts) turn towards getting out in the garden again! So today’s post couldn’t have been more perfectly timed! Britta is going to share another garden idea (the girl is OBSESSED I tell ya!) that’s not only extremely PRACTICAL, but BEAUTIFUL too!