Standiford Family

Mattey is definitely gifted in the music department.  She doesn’t always like to show off her talents though.  I wonder who she gets that from?  (Totally me.)  She has been singing since she could speak in sentences.  For her third birthday we got her a karaoke machine.  She loved that thing.  You can often hear her singing to herself.  She’s even written a few songs.  At age 7 & 8 she took piano lessons for a little more than a year but got discouraged because she wasn’t playing fun songs and their teacher moved away.  This is also a Mattey trait, to get bored or frustrated and give up.  (That’s me too.)  I’ve let it be for now but I’d love for her to take up the piano again.  I’m not going to push it because that will make her run away/fight me more.  She did choir at school last semester but decided she didn’t like it that much so didn’t continue to the end of the year.

Today, out of the blue, she asked me where her piano music was.  At first I thought this was a stall tactic to get out of unloading the dishwasher but once she found it she actually sat down and played.  I couldn’t believe it.  I was hoping this would happen some day.  She even played a song for Family Home Evening.

Who knows how long this interest will last.  I really enjoy playing for myself and sometimes others so I hope it lasts for years and years.

Check out that finger nail polish.  It’s one of her favorite colors right now.  Turquoise.

Of course this is what we as Colts fans have been waiting for.  I got some game food made and we gathered in the basement to watch the Colts play the Saints.  We thought the Colts were holding their own until the 3rd quarter when it just went down hill.  We’re a little bummed about the outcome but what can you do?  Mattey is happy because she won a “deal”.  I told her at the end of the first half if she could be quiet the rest of the night I’d give her $10.  I couldn’t believe it when she went to bed and still hadn’t said anything.  That’s quite a feat for her.  Meg only lasted a few minutes.

This is the reward I get for working on other things this week.  Actually this occurs about 2-3 times a week or whenever the kids clean their rooms.  I don’t really mind dirty laundry except that it NEVER ends.  I had the hamper empty for about 4 hours one day this week only to be filled again the next day.

As for the other stuff I was working on here’s a couple pictures of the finished quilt, front and back.

When I took it in to church this afternoon a few people asked if I would make them one or tried to walk off with it.  I was sad to see it go but it doesn’t really work with any of our decor right now.  I ended up sewing two more tops and turned one into a quilt.  I had help tying that one.  Now I have to get back to work on a bag order.

…is pizza and movie night.  The last few weeks I’ve been making home made pizza which most of us say is better than the Papa John’s we had been getting.  I don’t know about that but the little people are happy.  Everyone gets a personal pizza because no one can really agree on what they want on their pizza.  Some want sausage, pepperoni, sausage and pepperoni, or ham and black olive (me).  Some want a lot of cheese or sauce and others want a little.  You see why we all have our own?  It’s just easier.  Now today’s picture could have been taken today but it’s actually from two weeks ago when I was going to use it but used something else.  We were in a rush to eat tonight so I thought I’d use it now.

The movie for the night was Daddy Day Camp.  The kids said they’d seen it already.  I guess that was when I was at a crop or something.  They stilled seemed to enjoy all the bodily functions that were supposed to be humorous.  I wished I wasn’t eating through some of the movie.  If you like that kind of humor then this movie is for you otherwise don’t waste your time.  It’s getting harder and harder to find good family movies.  Anyone have any suggestions?

Kade was acting a little strange today.  After dinner he was foaming at the mouth.  Could he have rabies?  No, it’s just alfredo sauce.  I think the odd behavior can be attributed to his being four and a little tired.

I really wish that meant I’ve been on the treadmill running all day.  But no.  I’ve been running the kids and myself around in the van since 7:30 this morning.  The picture is us waiting for Meg to come out of school.

Here’s the run down of the day:

7:30 - Meg to school
7:40 - Mat misses her bus (for the third time this week)
7:50 - Mat to school
9:03 - Kade to school
9:15 - Back home to workout and shower
11:16 - Take meds to Kade at school
11:30 - 30 minute drive to get massage (ahhh)
1:07 - 30 minute drive home
1:47 - Pick up Kade
2:12 - Go home to wait for Mat’s bus (Kade got out 10 minutes late so we had to skip our library trip)
2:50 - Pick up Meg
3:04 - Meg to dentist (Mickey’s picking her up on his way home.)
3:30 - Leave dentist, Mat to orthodontist
4:08 - Go home

I know it’s not that bad but I’m tired of being in the van.  I’m such a home body.  I only have one more trip tonight.  I’m going to church to do some quilting.  Speaking of quilting I still have a little more to work to do on mine before I can cut all the yarns and tie them.  My fingers and lower back are so sore.

Happy (?) Groundhog’s Day.  Today started off with a bang for us.  I woke to very soft music playing.  Thinking it was my alarm clock I looked over to turn it off.  It wasn’t my clock and it was 7:30!  My alarm usually goes off at 6:55 so I can get the girls up and ready for school.  Yesterday my clock got unplugged and I later learned I had the alarm set for p.m. instead of a.m.  Oops.  So I don’t know where the music was coming from.  Maybe a guardian angel or something.  I got up and woke up the girls.  Couldn’t believe they were still sleeping.  Told them we overslept and they needed to move it.  We were out the door 17 minutes later.  Can you believe that?!  Meg was about 10 minutes late but Mat was right on time.  I wrote notes for both just in case.  I was so glad Mat was buying so there was no lunch to pack only money to find.

After dropping them off I checked the news on line to see if that rascally groundhog saw his shadow or not.  They say he did.  6 more weeks of winter.  Darn it!  I was not happy with reading this news but living here we don’t usually get Spring until mid to late April anyway.  I thought about going out to ask our resident groundhog what his thoughts were and also wondered if I could use that as my picture of the day.  But when I looked out the window at the snow coming down I decided I’d stay where it was warm.  (We really do have a groundhog living under the shed.  He doesn’t bother us and we don’t bother him.)

I wasn’t really thinking about what I was going to shoot today but Mickey took care of it for me.  I have been working on a 90″ X 90″ quilt for the last several days.  An area leader of the woman’s organization at church has asked us to make quilts to donate to the LDS humanitarian services.  She has asked us (all the women in the area/stake) to make 100!  Our congregation/ward is making 13.  Oh, and she gave us two weeks to get them done.  I really got into this challenge.  I remembered that I had an unfinished project I could use to make a quilt.  Years ago I was inspired by a quilt in a Target ad.  I wanted to make the girls matching quilts.  I bought all the fabrics and cut up all the squares.  (I can’t remember if I had my rotary cutter or not.  If not that was a lot of cutting.)  I had one twin one done except for the borders.  I had also started sewing the other one.  Since the girls would not like these quilts now I torn the borders off the first one and used pieces of the second to add to the first.  Long story short I got the top done and had plenty of fabric for the back.  I got it all sewn together (pillowcase method) today and I’ve been tying it since 3:00 with lots of interruptions.  I think it’s beautiful.  It also has 500 squares.  There’s no way I would have taken on something like that if a lot of the work hadn’t been done already. I hope my quilt provides comfort and warmth to whomever gets it.

All day Kade has been giving me compliments about the quilt.  He’s also asked several times if I’m done yet because he thought it looked done.  For the past few days he’s been asking me if I can make him a quilt.  The girls have chimed in that question too.  I’ve told them not now.  Those projects will have to wait until my life is a little less crazy, maybe during the summer when I’m not running them around everywhere.  And do I really want to spend 100’s of hours (and dollars) working on something they’ll just stain or tear?  I might have to wait until they are much older.

You may be wondering at the title and the picture.  Scriptures aren’t just for Sundays but for everyday.  We have been reading scriptures as a family pretty much everyday since August 1st of last year.  Mickey thought it would be a good idea to celebrate the little things this year like we did for the honor roll girls.  So for January we decided to set a goal of reading everyday and the reward would be going out for ice cream.  We also thought this would help the kids get into reading with us and maybe remind us to read.  I don’t think that really worked but we did it.  We read at least one scripture for all 31 days of January.  That’s a nice little accomplishment.  Now that we’ve had the reward maybe the kids will get into it more.

This evening began like any other Sunday evening.  We had dinner.  I mean breakfast for dinner.  We read our scriptures together.  We played a game together.  We had family prayer.  And then Kade wanted to wrestle.  The most surprising part may be, for you not me, that Kade wanted to wrestle me, his mother.  We’ve done this a few times in the last week or so.  I let him think he’s got me pinned only to flip him over and pin him.  He doesn’t like it when I tickle.  I guess that’s not allowed, along with fake biting/eating, but kissing him is.  Back to the story, Kade jumped me as soon as we said amen.  The game was on.  We went a few rounds before he moved on to Mickey.  I just couldn’t resist tickling him.  I guess he had enough.  When Kade moved to Mickey the girls decided to join in too.  I ran to get the camera thankful Mickey hadn’t gotten to it first.

Here are the kids trying to take Mickey down.  I’m not bragging or anything but I got Mickey down in one move.  I went for his weak spot.  The ticklish one under his arms.  He,he,he.  He said I cheated.  I don’t agree.

Can you believe it?  Here it is, January 31st and I’ve made it through the first month of blogging everyday.  I really didn’t know if I could do it.  There have been some days that I’ve regretted my goal but I pushed through that regret and found something to shoot and write about.  I’m glad February is a short month.  Then it will be March before you know it and Spring will be here soon.  Yes!

Almost a year and a half ago I posted a sneak peek about our half bathroom we put in downstairs.  Today it finally got the finishing touch so I thought I’d share a picture of it.  The light, although good for a bathroom, is not necessarily good for taking a picture.  The green got a little weird at the top.  Check the sneak peek for the true color.  Love it!

(This is the view while sitting on a closed or open toilet.)  The finishing touch is the shadow boxes we hung up.  I also finished painting the pocket door.  Earlier this week Mickey installed the trim, which is white.  I really love the way this bathroom turned out.  And it’s also a huge convenience when someone takes forever (at least 30 minutes) in the other bathroom because she’s taken her ds in with her.  I won’t name names but she is no longer allowed to have the ds in the bathroom.  By the way, it’s not me.  I don’t have a ds.  That leaves two guesses left.