Happy Mother’s Day, everyone! Did you remember to get your mom a card or a gift? Come on, it’s not like you have to pick out OBX real estate for sale. How about a bouquet of flowers? Or a tin of her favorite tea? Of course, I doubt anyone would complain about a beach house (I surely wouldn’t!).

I’m actually having a great day so far, and I hope that everyone else celebrates all the special women in their lives today!

Last September we did away with cable TV. We decided to rely on Netflix streaming because most of the time the kids were either watching movies or “on demand” type of stuff. Nine months later no one misses it a bit! Of course, no matter how many times I tell that to the cable company, they inevitably call me every month to try to woo me back. And naturally they are blown away when I tell them I don’t have another service. Sigh…

People seem to have a hard time believing that one can be happy with discount dvds and streaming video. Gasp! What — how can you not watch American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, or that idiotic Duck Show??? I know, I’m such a rebel. ::eye roll::

So, my husband has released an awesome new project on Kickstarter. It’s called Mad Science The Card Game and it is super fun!!! We are almost halfway to our funding goal. I really hope we make it. In the meantime, he’s been working on several game demo videos. It’s been fun working on them with him. I guess I’m not a bad videographer because he keeps asking me to help

He’s also been busy in the studio coming up with new, original music to put in the videos. He usually uses acoustic guitar, but it would sound cool to have some pretty tunes from one of those Dave Smith Instruments Keyboards. Variety is always good, right? So far everything sounds awesome.

Be sure to check it out!

I am very much looking forward to an attempt at gardening this year. I say “attempt” because, really, I have a black thumb. I get all excited at first, but the forget to take care of my plants. But maybe this will be the year! We have a compost tumbler, so I will soon spread some of that compost out and hopefully my plants will loooove the soil! I need to get a new crock to hold kitchen scraps, too. Right now I just use an old Cool Whip container, but it’s kind of unsightly. Still, it does the job and makes it easy to take the kitchen scraps out to the compost bin. I think I just want something a little prettier

It is so hard to believe that my baby girl is going to be three in just a couple months. June is coming up — fast — and I need to start planning her birthday party. It doesn’t seem all that long ago that we were looking for baby stuff and I was oohing and ahhing over my new polka dot stroller travel system. Sigh… those days are long gone! Last summer I Freecycled the travel system. It was bittersweet, but I was glad someone else wanted it and was able to use it.

It’s wild seeing kids grow up. Just when you think they’ll never get out of one phase, they move on to the next one. But I do still miss those newborn snuggles.

My friend is building a shed in her yard, and I love watching things constructed from the ground up! We had our shed built and delivered to our house, so we never saw the construction process. I remember when we were deciding what we wanted, my husband looked at a variety of options. Who knew there were so many steel building types? In the end, we went with an Amish-built shed and we’ve been very pleased with it. Still looks brand-new! Plus, it’s got little window boxes. I know, that seems like such a small detail but it was my one request Now that spring is here, I need to start thinking about what to put in them!

So, thanks to low-carb living last fall I made my weight loss goal again. Let me tell you, it’s so weird to wear size 6 (and sometimes 4!) pants. I never thought I’d be able to do it, but sure enough… And I didn’t have to worry about something like an apidextra scam, because I simply changed my diet. I’ve found that for me, personally, avoiding grains has made all the difference. I’ve been cheating lately and I can certainly tell, so even though I might not be following a strict paleo-type diet, for the next week or two I’m going to be much more careful about sneaking in a bite of bread here or there.

Granted, it’s still a solid two months before people around here even *think* of opening up their pools, but you can tell that summer is approaching. Among all the Easter stuff, I spied some chemicals and pool safety nets the other day.

We don’t have a pool. Not that I wouldn’t enjoy one, but I am not sure I’d enjoy all the maintenance and risk associated with having one. This summer I’m sure we’ll go to the lake as usual. The kids enjoy that, and when we leave, I can just leave the cleaning behind!

So, my husband has been hard at work creating a fun new card game. He came up with the concept a while ago and has been working hard developing the rules, drawing the art, and making it a complete package. I don’t want to give too much away before he launches his KickStarter campaign, but let’s just say it involves experiments gone wrong, weird creatures with roller chain legs and raccoon bodies, and even some carnivorous plants.

Bwah-ha-ha-ha!!!!

It’s actually very simple to play and a lot of fun. And there’s no gore or magic spells, or complex plus/minus life moves. It’s something that is fun for all ages. I can’t wait to tell you more!

Whoa! Hard to believe that March is just about over. Seems like this month was the opposite of the usual - it came in like a lamb and is going out like a lion, brrr…

Anyway, April is a big birthday month around here. It’s time for me to think about gifts for guys because both my dad and my husband celebrate their big days next month. Actually, my dad is easy. I have a couple homemade gifts that I know he will love. Drew on the other hand… well, he’s a little more challenging. I have a couple ideas, but so far I don’t have a “big” gift. He usually just gets things he wants/needs so there is rarely a special something.

But I’m not going to give up! There is something super cool out there waiting for him. I just have to find it!