Julie’s Journal

Well…today was a day.  I kept Max home (he’s been fighting a cold the last couple of days…and just needed a day of rest) and I took the day off.  I got up at the regular time and got the rest of the kids off to school, then I worked like crazy getting the porch cleaned up and then totally emptied out 3 rooms - except for the large furniture.  We had a guy coming to clean our carpets today.  I am glad I worked so hard, because he showed up earlier than I expected.  Our carpets look much better…though not perfect.  Cream is a crazy color for dining room carpet…seriously…who ever thought of that… (actually I know who thought of it - and they never ate in the dining room).  It’s just not a good idea when you have 4 little kids.  Some day we will get it replaced or refinish the nice hard wood floor underneath…someday.  Anyway…after the carpet guy left, Sam came and got our Kirby and took it to get fixed.  There is definitely something seriously wrong with it.  I am hoping it will be an easy fix and we can get it back quick…because not having a vacuum…well let’s just say, the Durocher household requires a good vacuum.  I was worn out…Max played the Wii for a bit and I think I dozed off.  I made him go take a nap and then we went and picked up Karson and Savannah.  Jasmin got dropped off, and we hung out for a while and then went to church.  Max and I also tore down all the wallpaper in our entry way…we call it the “red room” (because it has red/burgandy carpet) Sam and I have been talking about redoing it, because all the wallpaper is peeling…or being peeled…off.  There isn’t a lot of wall space in this room, because it is full of doors…it opens to the living room, there’s a door to the mud room, french doors to the dining room, has a closet and french doors to the stairs.  I feel like it’s something I can tackle and finish in a week.  I had an idea for painting it with flat paint and then using a satin paint to freehand paint a swirl pattern all over it.  I think it will look awesome if it turns out anything like I imagine.  Anyway, tonight after church, the kids and I went to Walmart to get the paint.  On our way out we saw this display that stopped the kids in their tracks.  They thought it was awesome.  So I had them pose for a picture…taken with my iphone so it’s a little blurry…but so cute…thinking I could use this in my Christmas letter.

My 3 oldest kids decided to build the Mayflower after lunch today. Not really sure when it turned from the Mayflower into a fort, but here is an account of the ten minutes they spent working together on building their fort:

2:02
Max: Karson can we have your tiny pillow.
Karson: Yep
Max:  Go get it.  Get mine too.
Max:  Baby, come here.
Savannah:  Ok.
Max: We’re supposed to have a few more pillows. Karson went up to get them.
Savannah:  Baby, you can’t come in, so sorry.
Karson:  I’ll hold the pillow
Max:  No you don’t need to.
Savannah: No, no no no no no
Karson:  Share, share
Max: How does that look?
Savannah:  Going to get more blankets.
Max:  There’s only room for one person.
Savannah:  No Baby no!
Savannah:  No Jasmin!
Max:  Come here
Max:  Sasa, baby’s goin in the fort
Savannah:  No, no jaz.
Karson:  She just wanted a little spot to get in.
Karson:  Will you keep this little spot for the baby.
Karson:  Here max.
Max:  No!
Karson:  Why?
Max: We don’t need it.
Max: Where is your sleeping pillow?
Karson:  This is my pillow
Max:  Stop Karson!
Savannah:  Fine if you don’t want a fort
2:04
Max:  This is the DS port.  I will go get all 3 DSs.
Savannah:  Are you sure?
Max:  It will be awesome.  Even more awesomer with the DSs
Karson:  This fort is awesome.
Max:  Karson, let her go.
Max:  Go bye-bye.
Savannah:  Go see momma,
Savannah:  Momma’s got a surprise for you.
(Jasmin crying)
Savannah:  Come here (to Jasmin)
Me to Max: What’s wrong?
Max:  Karson smacked her head.  Max walks back into living room.
Max to Karson:  You’re weak.
Karson: (yelling)
Max:  Get out, get out!
Karson:  Don’t ruin our fort.
Savannah: Go bye-bye Jasmin.
Jasmin: Max
Max:  Ok now why are you lying to me?
<Talking that I can’t quite make out.>
2:09
Max:  Oh my gosh!  I can’t find my darn DS. (screaming) How come it’s not where it’s supposed to be?
Max:  I’m going to ruin the fort!
Savannah:  No max don’t!  Mom!
Savannah:  Max
(Max begins to count)…1…
Savannah: Max
2…
Savannah: Max!
3…
Savannah: Max!!
4…
5…
Savannah: Max!!!
6…
Savannah: Shut up!
Savannah: Max!
7…
8…
9…
10…
Max:  Destroy!
2:12
Max: Destroy the fort!
Savannah: you destroyed it!  You’re so mean!
Savannah to Karson:  He destroyed it!
Karson:  (Screaming)

A few more minutes after this account, Max and Savannah came to me slapping each other.  After some mediation from me, they decided to work together and make the fort better so they could all fit.  And now they are “taking their rests” in the fort.  I guess it all turned out all right. 

We woke up to snow this morning…7 inches!  What!?  It WAS nice to have our Spring Break extended by one more day…and I’m looking at only 3 days of teaching this week.  That’s a nice way to ease back into the routine.

Today wasn’t such a great day.  I don’t know what it is, but my kids were like trying to eat all day.  By about 4 I decided it had to be because they were bored.  They were also fighting a lot.  Well, he have been spending a lot more time together this last week, I guess.  Anyway…after they have consumed half of the snacks and stuff I bought for lunches this week, I closed the kitchen…no more food till Dinner.  And I started giving them jobs to do. They were kind of motivated since we got back on track with the Dave Ramsey way of working for money to GIVE, SAVE & SPEND.  But it was hard to make them do a good job.

We did dye our Easter Eggs today.  I actually did half of them.  It just isn’t the same.  They don’t care about decorating them, they just want to eat them.  I suppose it will just get less important to them.  It’s kind of sad.

I also got paint out today for them to do a painting.  Savannah did a cute fairy picture…Karson painted something about firemen or robbers or something…Max just played and made designs and stuff.  It was really funny.  Karson wanted to PAINT his egg with watercolors.  It is actually really cute.   I thought it was funny that he wanted to be different.

I told you I’d post my pages from the Scrapbook Weekend I went to last weekend, so here they are.  They are from Jasmin’s album.

I know…7 pages isn’t much…but I spent Friday evening and some of Sat. morning preparing for the workshops that I taught in the afternoon on saturday.  And after I taught them, I slept until dinner…so really…I only worked on MY scrapbook for about 8 hours all together ( I’m guessing.)

The last page I really love.  I made 3 pockets, with notes that slip out.  The first one tells about how Jasmin was named after our babysitter Jasmin (aka MIMI), the last one is about her and how she is important to our family, and on the middle one I have asked Jasmin to write a note to baby Jasmin about her.  I actually would like to make a page like this for each of our kid’s albums and have her do the same for them. I asked her to think about what she might like to write.  I think it would be so special for them.  She has been so much a part of their lives the past 5 years.  I know they will enjoy looking back at something like that when they grow older and perhaps won’t see her as often.

…I think I’ve kind of developed a theme with color, embellishments and techniques in this scrapbook of Jasmin’s.  I really like the unified way it looks compared to my other album…where the pages are designed around the event.  You should see some of my old albums.  Too funny, yet, I love to look through them.  They are so different than what I do now.  You can see how I went through phases of materials and design.  Interesting (to me) to compare all the albums.  I have finished 1 wedding album, 1 album of a trip to Florida, 2 baby albums of Savannah’s, a college album (me) and 2 Sam and Julie scrapbooks (1990-2000).  UNFINISHED:  Karson’s (left off at 3 wks), Max’s (left off at 6 mos.), Jasmin’s (about 3 weeks done), & Savannah’s from age 3-9!, a super cute ABC album I started when Savannah was 3, and another Durocher family album that ends at 2002 and only has about 17 pages in it.  I really do like to scrapbook.  I should do it more often.  I have a friend that does 30 pages in one day!!!  That’s not me.  We approach scrapbooking from two totally different views.  I really think mine out.  Envision it in my mind, sometimes sketch the design.  I have a lot of layering.  I coordinate colors.  I often add embellishments and draw/doodle on my pages to enhance the design of the page.   It’s more of a work of art by the time I am through, I’m afraid.  Which doesn’t work well for me in getting anywhere with these unfinished albums.  But I enjoy it when I get the chance to work on them (over the past few years it has only been 1-4 times a year).  What I really should do is instead of blogging about it, get up and go clean up my room so I can set up my scrapbook stuff to do some more pages.  Yeah.  But it’s now midnight, so maybe tomorrow.

…when your kids have the camera and the baby in another room!

photo by Savannah (who also happens to be the one squeezing Jasmin’s cheeks)!

It’s been crazy around here the past two weeks.  Here’s a recap of our life lately.

We pulled Karson out of Young Fives and moved him to Kindergarten at Max and Savannah’s school.  Now we have both the boys in Kindergarten right next door to each other.  Anyway, he’s happy and we are happy and it solved our day care issue with him, since it’s all day K.  Now we only have to pay for Jasmin…it cuts our childcare costs in half.

Kindergarten is going better.  The first day was awful, but each day it gets easier.  I’m figuring stuff out and enjoying it more.  The afternoon goes by so fast, it’s crazy.  One thing about half day kindergarten…I don’t know how you are supposed to fit everything in!  I really like my class.  They are a good group of kids.  We have fun, and I think maybe most of them love me.  One little boy gives me a hug and tells me he loves me everyday.  So cute!

Here’s a picture of my class and their flags that they made last week.

Our camper is still sitting in our driveway after four weeks!  I have barely touched it except to get things we needed out.  Though tonight, I did clean out the refrigerator because we unplugged it for a while this afternoon.

I totally forgot until Thursday that today is Karson’s birthday.  What kind of mom forgets to plan a party for their kid’s 5th birthday!?  I feel terrible.  It is going to be very hard to have a party now anytime close to his birthday because our family has so much going on this week.  Luckily he doesn’t really care that much.  I was going to plan a party at Fun For all Kids.  We did Max’s party there and it was so easy.  But he just wants it at home.  Last year we had a big party with an army theme, so I guess this year would be his year for just a family party anyway.  I think we are kind of planning for Thursday night.

Tuesday is Penny’s memorial service.  I am kind of looking forward to it, but then kind of anxious to get past it.  It’s been kind of strange having so much time pass between her death and her memorial service.  Sam has been working on putting together a slideshow of her, but we wish we had more pictures of her…we don’t even have enough for a whole song.  That was the thing about Penny.  She was always helping behind the scenes, serving people and ministering to them…it seems that she avoided the camera at most of our family celebrations because of that.

This weekend we took Pirate Island out to flavor fruit farms.  My nephew Josiah wanted it for his birthday and so we had the party out there.  Because we came out there for free, Meckley’s gave us all the perks of a party…free hayride, doughnuts and cider, walk through the corn maze and free tickets for the inflatable.  The kids had a blast and our shows were really fun.  It was a beautiful day and the kids were all great.  We were tired though and Sam is sick this weekend, so it was a lot more work for me tearing down.  We pulled out right as Laura the elephant was pulling in to our spot.  Perfect timing.

I’m writing this at 2 in the morning.  When we got home I took the kids upstairs and gave them all baths/showers…but trying to get them in bed was challenging. You know how kids love to stall…and I just had no patience…so I came down and asked Sam to finish putting them to bed and Jaz and I layed on the couch with a bottle and fell asleep for a few hours.  So now I am wide awake.  I put the roast in the crockpot and got it cooking for lunch and did some laundry, wrote some emails and updated my school’s website.  Now I think I am ready to go back to sleep.  I don’t know if we’ll go to church tomorrow…it’s always weird going without Sam.  He’s staying home and hoping to get some extra rest.

Yesterday we slept in and when we got up, we were tossing around the idea of going over to Muskegon for the day to the Muskegon Summer Celebration. We went to that fair last summer with the Octopus Show. Sam’s Aunt and Uncle and cousins work that fair with their food concessions and it’s always fun to see them. So we decided to head over there around noon. Sam has a GPS unit that we tried to use. Only it doesn’t always take you the most convenient route. We ended up putting it away and going our own way. Anyway, we ended up getting over there around 3:30. We stopped up at the fairgrounds to get passes and the campground pass and key from Aunt Suzy so we could go let out Betsy’s dog, Oreo at the campground. We drove over there and did that first and then we went back over to the fairgrounds. The great thing about being carnys is that we can usually get into the fair without having to pay. We actually were at the fair all day and never paid anything! Joyce gave us armbands for the rides and Aunt Suzy hooked us up with food. We really appreciate that…because going to the fair can be so expensive! The kids went on lots of rides. They have a lot of kids rides at that fair and they had such a great time. They were all the same rides as they had last year. Savannah got me to go on the Cliffhanger with her. It was a little faster than I was expecting, and we screamed a lot. I also went on the bumper cars with the kids…I loved that. Later, I took Karson down the big slide…we went so fast. We ended our adventure with a ride on the carousel, it was baby Jasmin’s first carnival ride. She so loved it! It was really cute. We left around 8:00 and decided to go get something to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings near Grand Rapids on the way home. When we got done eating it was just about dark and as we drove home we saw fireworks everywhere from the highway. It was kind of fun looking for them as we were riding in the car. Anyway, we got home about 12:30. It was a late night especially for the kids, but we had a great time.

Tonight we took the kids over to Cascades Park to see the fireworks. They were awesome! It was perfect weather…no bugs! Mimi even met us there and joined the kids on our blanket. Sam got us all treats from the concessions trailers…caramel apples, cotton candy and popcorn. It was baby Jasmin’s first fireworks show. She actually watched them, the noise didn’t even bother her. Karson spent most of the fireworks show under his blanket with his ears covered.

Well, I didn’t draw today…or yesterday. But tonight, Max and I made a book. Max has been having some difficulties learning some of his sight words, particularly his color words. I really want him to be able to get them learned before the end of school…so I have made up some flash cards and found some good worksheets for practice online. I really want his practice and learning to be meaningful to him, so I thought of making a book together. We decided on a color (blue) and went on a treasure hunt with the camera searching for blue things. He said the words, and I wrote them in later. This is the book we made. We plan to make one for all the colors. Our first book is called Blue. I want to get it printed, laminated and spiral bound.

You can click on the title to see it. I will probably make a couple of changes…Sam said I shouldn’t have the text in Comic Sans…he just showed me bancomicsans.com…too funny, but it really probably is the most over-used font, so I will probably change it.