Photo Journal - Josie Boettcher

Today was really nice. I mean, objectively. So when I look at my mood in relation to the day, it feels unfairly bad! I've just been so overstimulated and overwhelmed that every day is kind of a bad day. 😣 It's not right. I know it's not! It's such a terrible attitude, but it's all just too damn much right now. I don't know why my plate is shrinking, but it is. And now it's overflowing.  However, I did get to wake up a little later than usual today and get a shower before having to come down and start breakfast. We didn't do school today, just got ourselves ready for our field trip. We went to the art museum for an 11am start, but I took 70 in the wrong direction at first, so I had to turn around, making us just a few minutes late. We weren't the latest though! Haha so at least they weren't waiting for us, specifically. The museum tour was so fun! I chaperoned the bigger kids' group, which was nice. And they didn't horse around (? is that...

I haven't hung out at BJJ for a while, but I finally had some time this evening, so I planned to stay there. So sad, but Marcela was leaving just as I came in! So we didn't get to catch up at all. She gave me a bunch of hugs, and actually kissed me on my head before she left! 😅 I was disappointed to not get to hang out, but it's ok. It was a long day and I'm pretty burnt out anyway. 

Today wasn’t bad. It was a little less busy, but I still felt like I was in a rush all day. Maybe I really need to just clear my calendar for a week. Like, just cancel every single thing for a whole week and give myself time to get caught up. Could I do that?? How bad would it be? Definitely something to think about. So, today. School all morning until noon, then I got dressed, made lunch, and drove over to Jenny’s. We had a good time catching up and it felt like such a relief to tell her everything that’s been going on over here, church-wise. I start to feel guilty, like I’m hiding things, when really we just haven’t had a conversation in a while! But writing the words in here and in texts, and saying them out loud last night and today, all help me to feel more settled and less scared. I’m grateful for all of the little interactions with my friends, and the feeling that I’m not alone in all of this upheaval. After Jenny’s was grocery pick up and laundry and putting groceries away and ...

Another busy day. I’m so sick of them! But I haven’t figured out anything I can cut out yet, so I’ll just have to keep doing it. Very close to cutting out school! Haha just for a couple of days…and I probably won’t even do it. I’m just tempted. We only got a little bit of school done this morning because our new couch came!!! And then we were all excited about that, which put us back an hour or so. I worked with the girls until noon, but then we needed to get ready to go to the open gym time. It was much more calm this week, thankfully. To the point of being boring, honestly! I wish I would have brought a game or something. Too much talking about kids for my taste. But the kiddos had a great time playing with their friends and it was fine. We didn’t get home until after 3 and then the kids talked me into playing my game for an hour. Then dinner happened, then I was out the door for HC! It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve gone. I shouldn’t have allowed myself to feel awkward and cons...

Our loaner car doesn't fit us all, so I just took the kids who wanted to go to church today over to CT. Not that Ben would have gone, since now he feels weird being around people. *sigh* It was a good morning. It's always nice to sit in on a teaching! And I got to visit with Brit for a few minutes, which was def a bonus. We didn't stay afterward to hang out for long, but we never do. Just too dang hungry! It was a pretty unremarkable afternoon and evening. The kids went to home church and I cleaned around the house. Just gearing up for another busy week! Ollie finally pulled out that super wiggly front tooth of hers!

Ben's game day got cancelled this morning because of too many people having the stomach bug. Yuck! It was kind of nice to have the morning at home, though. I ended up taking Ollie on a date to Chick Fil A, then we went to Home Depot and bought a bird feeder and some seed to set up together. Let's hope the Squirrel B Gone keeps the squirrels away! I hate all these dang squirrels. The afternoon was so amazing and inspiring and fantastic. We went to Lower Lights Christian Health Center to serve a community dinner, and it was just great. We worked with a few of the people from the Meadow Park small group and served drinks and salad and pizza, but what was cool was the little snippets of conversations we got to have and just being involved in something that is outside of our Ohio normal, but felt very regular in our DE life. For most of my college career, I was working towards opening my own community center someday. I was learning grant writing and worked and volunteered at communi...