Is this the little girl I carrried?

As I watched Dorothy eat her yogurt at the kitchen counter this morning, I was filled with that pang that I'm sure all mother's know: she is growing up too fast! She looked so grown up with her hair back in a ponytail, her coordinated hands spooning in the vanilla yogurt, nodding her head to the music playing on the iPod. She seems so much older than even when I left for my trip to Illinois just a few weeks ago.

Last night she asked me to read her her favorite book of poetry. Then she wanted to go through the ABCs and sing "Twinkle, twinkle, little star." Pretty soon she'll be correcting all the words she now says incorrectly, but in such a darn cute way.

All I can do is try and savor these moments.

What was THAT?

Oh, my kitchen floor. Try as I might, even with a vacuuming every(or almost every) evening it finds itself covered with goodies from my two munchkins almost immediately. I've not given up hope for a clean floor, but have simply decided it is nowhere in my immediate future.

Well, this past weekend was particularly overwhelming: two extra kiddos, a baby shower, dinner with friends (tender mercy of no dinner dishes!), and a good dose of oncoming sickness to round it all out. Let's just say that I was less than diligent with my cleaning. Or perhaps we should just be honest and say that I didn't really worry about it:) Either way, by Sunday morning there were a few more past-meal goodies than usual littering our island.

That being said, my good husband was eating a snack at the kitchen island yesterday afternoon and dropped some. *Note: we are ALL ABOUT the 10 second rule, so long as what has been dropped does not splat or stick to the floor.* Marty, not thinking too much of his dropped piece of dry cereal quickly bent down to pick it up and popped it in his mouth.

And that's when I realized my kitchen floor had gone too far.

Oh, he sputtered and perhaps even gagged for a minute. Then he looked down and noticed the myriad of food pieces. "What was THAT?" he asked. I quickly thought about the possibilities: stale pieces of buttered toast, dry bits of playdough, dried up peas, and (dare I even mention them?) crusty chunks of hot dog and banana.

I'm still not sure what IT was, my dear. But rest assured, the floor will be clean by the time you get home today!

If you put them away...

spring will come. Right?
The sun is shining, a stinking cold wind is blowing, but we're hopeful for spring. Today we purge ourselves of our winter layers and cross our fingers that no more snowstorms will send us to dig through bins in the basement in retreat.

I've always considered myself a fall kind of gal, but this past year I have found myself looking forward with new anticipation for each season. I loved watching Dorothy's joy when she discovered scarecrows last fall and snowmen this winter in our neighbor's yard. I love watching Lucy's face as she pulls herself up to the windowsill every morning to see if anything new has entered her view. So even if it is a few weeks too early to really be out of the winter, we are ushering in the springtime! Daffodils, sweet green leaves, and chirping birds, here we come!

BFFs, time capsules, and photo shoots. Oh, my!

Once upon a time, I had a best friend named Heather. We met in second grade and became attached at the hip, as the best of best friends do. We clogged together, were tom boys together, tried to shave our legs without permission together, and did all sorts of other wacky 8 year old girl things together. Well, a few years went by and my dad switched jobs. Suddenly my family was packing up and leaving the good old land of Utah for the rugged east coast. I was devastated. How could I leave my other half?

Now that we were separated, we schemed ways of getting back together. We started saving all our allowance and baby sitting money, pooling it together for a plane ticket for Heather. She came to see me in Massachusetts two years after we moved. For several summers to follow, my family went back to Utah to visit, and I always made a point of spending time with my BFF.

Well, around the time we turned 16 and started dating, driving, and other shenanigans, our lives started parting ways. We fell out of touch and did not hear from each other until we were 23 and I was gearing up to marry Marty. As it turned out, while I had been sewing my wild oats and then meeting my handsome husband, Heather had met and married her own wonderful man and started her family. Now, three years later, I've got 2 babies, she's got 3, and at the beginning of this year I decided it was high time we met up. Marty booked me a ticket, and off I went with my lap-sitter, Lucy, for Chicago (or thereabouts).

It was incredible to reconnect and see where we both have ended up. Aren't we just a sight to behold?
Heather has three of the sweetest little boys I have ever met. This one is nothing but a love bug and was a great playmate for Lucy the whole time we were there.
Here are our two tiny munchkins, all snuggle buggled and ready to go!
One of the nights I was there, Heather informed me that she had a time capsule that we had created when she came to visit me in Massachusetts. I had completely forgotten and was a little nervous as to what the contents could be. 12 year old girls are weirdos, after all.
Apparently plastic jewelry was of uber importance to our little pre-teen selves. Plastic earrings and rings made up about 80% of the contents. We had also thrown in a few random pennies--not pennies to mark the year of the time capsule, mind you. Just plain old pennies, you know, in case the U.S. currency had dramatically changed in 14 years. We had also cut out a piece of one of our clogging camp shirts and written "Clog Utah" on it--man, we were die hard. Oh, and then there were the notes we had written to our future selves. Absolute gems, I tell you. The highlights of my letter were that I was going to be married to my middle school crush, Leo Waible. I was going to have 9 kids, work as a herpetologist(google it), and live nowhere but Provo, Utah (otherwise known as Paradise--right?:). All of our free time was going to be spent helping those in need, and "passers by." Our large house, to fit our large family, was going to have candles everywhere (apparently the large amount of candles was particularly important to note). And the BEST part, the final line of my letter, was that I hoped to be beautiful like Cindy Crawford. Well at least I achieved one of my goals:).
Sporting our plastic goods.
Heather and her husband have taken up photography as a hobby, and she spoiled me with some great shots of me and the Goose while we were there. If only she lived close enough that we could get her to capture our whole family *sigh.* One day.








Our trip ended with an unexpected two day extension when the airline had to cancel and reschedule our flight due to weather. After a momentary panic, it ended up being a great blessing to have a little more time. Dorothy and Marty were back home safe and sound enjoying some one-on-one time together, and Lucy and I still made in home late Sunday night before school vacation ended for Marty. Thanks for letting us come, Taylor family! Let's try and have less than a 10 year break between visits next time!

Spring Fever!

Doth my ears deceive me?
Did I hear that it hit 60 degrees today?
And let me tell you, we took full advantage.

Cousin Ellis joined us for some Goose rides at Grandma's.
Not exactly Disney World,
but it still extracts giggles from the little ones.

There was lots of running,
skipping,
jumping,
and the like.

Lucy loved the dirt.
And may or may not have received some of her
daily vitamins from it today.

Dorothy found a new love for yardwork.
Clean, my darling. Clean.

And we said some "hellos" and "howareyas?" to the neighbors.
They had little to say in return.

Oh, I know this taste is a tease.
But I'll take a day or two of giddiness!

I knew it was too quiet upstairs...

But I had to laugh when I found this:

Dorothy stripped her bed down to the fitted sheet
and took her chalk to it.
Thankfully chalk is a rather innocuous medium.
Pretty artistic, I think.

Breaking the Fast...

Our consumer fast, that is.

Back in, oh, I'd say November, I decided I wanted to try a little experiment. My husband always loves when I approach him with new experiments to try--they usually involve getting rid of things. This time, I decided we should get rid of EVERYTHING. Well, not quite everything, but nothing extra for the entire month of January. I thought this would be a great way to purge our consumer-loving selves after the month of December. I spent the entire last month of 2010 planning out meals for every day in January and the grocery lists to match, what kind of snacks we might like to have around or be able to make (without going overboard), and what type of household goods we would need to keep things clean (or as clean as they get at the Vieira house). We did all of our shopping up front, and prepared to hunker down for the weeks to follow. Our cupboards and fridge were full, we had paid for our farm milk up front so we could still pick it up weekly, we planned multiple trips to free places like the library to help keep our sanity, and off we went. (We did build in exceptions for gas, medical emergencies, and bills. Yuck.)

So, what were the results, you ask? Where to begin...

The month started off grand and glorious with multiple pronouncements that "This will be a breeze" within the first week. Then week two hit. Ugh. Did that one hurt. The whole family ended up sick--strep throat, ear infections, goopy eyes kinda sick. Good thing we decided doctor's visits and medicine were an okay reason to spend a little extra money. Let me tell you though, when you have to go to Target to fill prescriptions and you are NOT there to buy anything else you suddenly find a need for almost everything in the store. Why are we so hard-wired to want stuff? Anyways, we made it out of the store with just our two bottles of antibiotics and a free lollipop from the Pharmacist and went back to our home without temptations. Whew!

But then came week three..

Now for those of you that are runners, you know the wall you hit after a few miles? THE wall where your whole body aches and feels like it is ready to give out? Yes. That was week three. It was in week three that I discovered that having a candy bar stashed in the house can equal sanity. However, there was no such candy bar, and I was forced to plead temporary insanity--more than once. Now that it is February, there are some dark chocolate bars deeply hidden in a place not to be mentioned. Ahh. Can't you feel the relief? Now I have peace of mind knowing that if I absolutely must have some chocolate, it is there.

How else did we get through week three? Cakes. Maybe even some cookies. Yes, we baked our way out of that week like we were old grannies gearing up for the holidays, but it certainly kept us busy. And perhaps a pound or two heavier. I'll take it.

Then came week four, and it was refreshing to feel like we got the air back in our lungs. We could see the light at the end of the tunnel, and we were preparing shopping lists for the next month. Life was good.

Overall, I think we learned quite a few good lessons. I have learned how much I love grocery shopping only once a month and not having to think about it for several more weeks. Shopping with two tiny beans is doable, but not always my idea of a good time. We also learned that there are a lot of things that we may think about buying that we decide aren't so important after we think about them for a few weeks. So many "sale" or "dollar spot" items that I will pick up just because they are on sale or only a dollar did not make it home with us last month, and we were FINE without them. It certainly gives me the will power to avoid them more in the future. We also learned the joy of extra family time without a sudden errand to run. There was more dancing, singing, book reading, and all around goodness to enjoy.

Will we try to do this every month? No. But I do think I will keep up the month of grocery shopping all at once. I do think we learned how to have a little more restraint and truly weigh even the decision for a pint of Ben and Jerry's. So, all in all, I am happy with our experiment.

Here's to all that can be learned while fasting and the relief of finally being able to break that fast. I love the paradox that both the doing and the no longer doing bring a measure of joy.

Anyone else up for a fast?