I started getting muscle spasms in my back at the end of March and they lasted all through April, then I got hit with the plague which lasted two weeks, and now I'm behind on almost everything I need to take care of outside before it's too blasted hot to work out there. So my kids have decided that my Mother's Day gift is manual labor all day Sunday to help me catch up...the plan is to muck out and expand the goat shelter (we are getting three more at the end of the month), build the chicken coop (silkies! So much silliness in one breed!), finish fencing in the veg garden so that the dogs stop digging in it, and mulch the fruit trees & grape vines (something like 20 plants). I am feeling so lucky to have such wonderful children who aren't afraid of hard work/getting their hands dirty!

Also, my husband's birthday is at the end of the month and his gift got delivered yesterday. After this present, they are all downhill from here; I will never be able to top this. He is obsessed with pellet ice (I mean, who isn't?) and I found a countertop pellet ice maker that didn't cost thousands of dollars. Yup, feeling pretty smug right about now.