Photo Journal - Josie Boettcher

Day 299 of my 365 Photo Journal Today was a pretty decent day. Jonas went with his friend Allie to Scene 75 this morning for her birthday and he had a blast. Ben's dad came to help us out with our drainage issue in the yard. It doesn't seem like too much actually got figured out, but we appreciated his coming out to help out anyway! There was just a lot of activity today. Like, a little bit too much. I weeded while we were all outside, which maybe it's not all that much stuff, but it felt like a lot. I was sweaty. 😅 There was the typical food, laundry, dishes, and cleaning up around the house. Probably the best thing about today was that Ben took all the big kids with him to the grocery store so that I could have a little bit of quiet time while I worked AND he cooked dinner too...all this after he was outside doing work all morning. I felt very loved! I took a ton of pictures of the kids today, but I'm not so much in the mood for editing right now and I need to get my...

Day 298 of my 365 Photo Journal Brit came to visit today! I'm having a tough day and just super overwhelmed by all of my feelings. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. 

Day 297 of my 365 Photo Journal My friend Ellen came to visit today with her kids Autumn and Quinlin. Her kids are pretty shy, but Autumn did hang out with the girls for most of the time. Quinlin (5) needed Ellen to play with him the whole time, so we just got as much visiting in as we could. Ellen and I met while Clemi was in pre-k with Autumn and just really enjoy each other's company. She's wonderful to talk to and I'm glad we saw each other at VBS this year and set up this play date.  I didn't remember to get pictures today, but I'm going to post my b&w photos that I've been waiting to reveal! I might use this picture of Ruby instead. I haven't decided on hers yet!

Day 296 of my 365 Photo Journal Whew! Halfway through the week. Thank goodness. Today was an extremely productive day for me. I cleaned all three bathrooms, cleaned the entire upstairs and downstairs, including vacuuming AND mopping. Exhausting! I've still been doing productive things daily, but I kind of slacked off on cleaning again, so it was nice to get some of that done and have a clean house to sit in afterwards. In other news, we got our new pool pump already and it's such a blessing that it came sooner than expected. We already got it hooked up and the pool is cleaning itself as I type. We also switched to a new internet service provider today and got that all set up and got ATT cancelled. Pretty busy! I have to admit that I was less present with Ollie than usual though. She just kind of followed the big girls around all day and did what they were doing. My temper was short and I just did not want to be interrupted at all today. It killed me to even make lunch for every...

Day 295 of my 365 Photo Journal  I went over to Jenny's to read today and before we left the house, Jonas shyly asked me if he could read with us, Bible already in hand. I couldn't hear him at first and he started crying because he was too embarrassed to repeat himself! But I pieced it together and, of course, told him he definitely could. During our time discussing Romans 2:1-16, he did contribute a bit. I talked things out and explained some concepts to him that he didn't understand yet (but wouldn't ask about). He really seemed to enjoy that kind of "intellectual" discussion though. (I'm only putting that in quotes, because I certainly don't feel intellectual while discussing things, but that's what it is.) I got Jenny's 3-month photo, although she's about 14 weeks right now, so I'm a little late. Unfortunately, the picture isn't sharp enough for my liking, but it is what it is! At the end of this series, I'm going to go back...

  Day 294 of my 365 Photo Journal  Well, I'm not really sure what to say about today. I took lots of pictures, that's for sure! I got a few of the girls playing with Play-Doh this morning and then finally took our b&w photos for the wall. I'll be editing those for a couple days, I'm sure. Then, this evening, we hung out outside for a looong time, until way after bed time, and I took pictures of the kids out there too. I felt kind of bad for them, because they thought the sitters would come tonight, but only Maria was available and we're nervous about one sitter putting all four kids to bed, especially when no one besides me and Ben has ever put Ollie to bed...at least not since she can remember! So anyway, I stayed home with them and wanted to let them have a little extra fun tonight. At one point, I came inside and noticed Jonas watching TV. I asked him why he hadn't come outside with us and he was like, "I had no idea everyone was outside!" Like,...

Day 293 of my 365 Photo Journal Man, did I wake up in a bad mood this morning. Ollie has been waking up almost every night lately and it is draining me. Last night it was 12:15, which felt like just seconds after I had fallen asleep, and then again around 3:45. I went in and laid with her the first time, but the second time I just watched the monitor to see if she would calm herself down. I'm just tired. And I'm tired of parenting today. Ben took over all the meals again, thankfully, and pretty much just let me do my own things. I worked on a few little things around the house: fixing the cabinet doors that fell apart years ago (much, much more complicated that I wanted it to be!), filling in the picture frames with the new photos I ordered, switching out the photos on the fridge, and cleaning and organizing the dining room. We got some good family time out front, went for a short walk, and all got in the pool together. Then, apparently, I broke the pool pump. :( I plugged it i...

Day 292 of my 365 Photo Journal Yay for Saturday! I stayed in bed until almost 8:30 this morning, Ben made cinnamon rolls for the kids (he actually handled almost ALL of their meals today!), and we really just hung out for a bit. I randomly felt super sick and had to run and throw up around 9am. So that was a fun surprise. 😒 I'M NOT PREGNANT. No idea what the heck that was about. While I was recovering. Ben took all of the kids outside and let them play while he did yard work. Really, the day was pretty chill for me. I just puttered around and did some little things around the house. Still feeling motivated to do stuff! Love it!  We went on a great date tonight. It was so nice to just be alone with Ben for a while and the timing was great too, because I had just about lost my ish by the time the sitter (Maria) showed up. We went out for Indian food and talked while we ate, then walked around Target and spent money on things we didn't need. It was just stress-free fun! I love m...

Day 291 of my 365 Photo Journal HAPPY BIRTHDAY BENNY! You are wonderful and amazing and I'm so lucky to be married to you. So glad I've gotten to spend the last 13? 14? birthdays with you!  Today was okay. I was hoping to have this magical, relaxing, awesome day for Ben, but of course that didn't happy. The kids were grumpy and I ended up feeling pretty grumpy too a few times. We did pick up some Chipotle for lunch, which was a nice treat, and we paid to rent the new Black Widow movie from Disney and watched it on the big screen downstairs. Once we forced the kids to leave, it was a nice time! lol Besides the birthday cake (pecan pie bar) picture at the top, I have to include these pictures of Ollie crying, because it's not her birthday, and Ollie being adorable with her ice pop earlier. 

Day 290 of my 365 Photo Journal Tomorrow is Benny's birthday!!! Woohoo! We have a few little ideas planned for the day and I really hope it goes well. He always does such an amazing job making me feel loved on my special days and I always feel like I just don't do as good of a job for him. I am making a special dessert that he loves and got him a fancy gift (that I really, really hope he likes!), but other than that, we'll pretty much just being doing our normal thing and maybe throw in an outing to mini golf. We'll see how he's feeling! He felt kind of crappy today, so it may be movies and treats in bed all day for him instead.  I did a few things around the house today, organized another cabinet, cleaned, etc. Nothing exciting. I have had a few jobs over the last couple of days, so that has been taking up a lot of my free time. That and OLLIE. Who is obsessed with my right now and barely leaves my side and calls for me all day long. I went out and vacuumed the poo...

Day 289 of my 365 Photo Journal I woke up feeling a little bit better than I did yesterday! But then I got cramps and my period started, so womp womp on finally starting to get better. Today, I organized the kitchen counter a bit more, cleared off the mantel, organized a section on the bookshelf, and hung some artwork in the den. I was up and around a lot less than yesterday, but I'm realizing that stomach discomfort slows me down so much more than anything else. I just cannot be productive when I feel sick in that way. A cold? Psh...no big deal. A few cramps/nausea/dizziness? I'm laying down as much as I can.  I met our new, but temporary, neighbors today. They're not very happy about the house and only plan on staying for a year (or less if they can manage it). It's nice to have next door neighbors with kids and it'll be interesting to see if we end up getting along well. I found the wife, Laura, to be pretty boring and gossipy. I liked the husband, Dan, a little ...

Day 288 of my 365 Photo Journal  I should have gotten together with Jenny today and taken her 3 month pregnancy picture. 😞😞😞 I hate being sick and I hate that it's getting in the way of the stuff I want to do! Today was, however, the first day in a while that I woke up NOT feeling worse. I don't feel much better, but I feel 'slightly' better and that's a start! I spent a bunch of time organizing, cleaning, and working on editing photos today. It felt good! I got stuff done. I wasn't a lazy lump. But for some reason, I'm still feeling really terrible about myself. I don't want to go into it too much, but I'm really hating me right now. My personality, my appearance, and my drive to work hard are all a huge disappointment to me. I'm hoping I can climb out of this and start to find some shreds of self-compassion/love again.  I just got a couple of random photos of the kids playing today, since we're not doing ANYTHING while I'm sick. Jona...

Day 287 of my 365 Photo Journal This Monday is the Friday-est Monday ever. Since Ben took the day off, it just doesn't feel like a weekday at all and I'm SOOO grateful for it! Totally not ready to get back to real life. I woke up feeling crappier again today, sadly. This is like 5 days in a row of waking up feeling worse than the day before. BUT, despite that, I am feeling really motivated to do stuff around the house still! 🥳 I honestly feel like I haven't felt motivated to clean and organize since I was pregnant with Ollie, so I'm excited. I've organized the pantry, done like 7 loads of laundry, swept, vacuumed, mopped, cleaned tables and counters, AND stayed caught up on dishes. Hoping this feeling holds up for a while! Honestly, if I were less sedentary, I might actually be able to feel healthier...which I'm kind of desperate for right now.  The only photo I took today was a screen shot on my phone 🤦, but I am working on editing beach pictures again for th...

Day 286 of my 365 Photo Journal Oh, what a day! There's nothing like driving FOR-EV-ER and ever and ever and ever for days in a row to let you know that vacation is truly over. Once we finally got home (honestly, we made good time. It just felt like an eternity in the car, listening to kids movies), although I felt like garbage, I was actually motivated to clean and organize! I love the feeling of getting home and sitting in a clean house. I'm thanking God for safe travels and an attentive husband. Ben drove us nearly 2,000 miles, not including day trips, and never complained about being the primary driver or the responsibility on his shoulders. These trips wouldn't be possible without him! At one point, we attempted to leave the movie running and give Ollie headphones to listen while Ben and I listened to the radio up front. It's awesome that our van is capable of doing that, but unfortunately, our 2-year-old is not quite capable of it yet. 😅

Day 285 of my 365 Photo Journal  We're on our way home! Kind of. We left this morning, after a very, very hectic couple of hours of packing and cleaning. We had what felt like the longest drive in all of history before we got to our hotel, went for a quick swim, and then settled down for the night. The rooms were HUGE and it was awesome to get them for free with our credit card points! Ollie's been doing this awesome (NOT awesome) thing where she gets her arms out of the top straps of her harness and turns around in her seat. Normally, I'm very upset about this and flip out a little, but this one time, I saw her playing with Jonas's toes while he slept and it seriously cracked me up. 

Day 284 of my 365 Photo Journal  It always kind of feels like the day before the trip is over the trip is over. Right? Even though we don’t leave until tomorrow, a lot of today was spent getting ready to leave: packing the car, packing the house, planning food bags and the overnight bag for the hotel, cleaning. I wish we could just be home tomorrow, rather than having to split the trip, but the drive is just too long. We didn’t go anywhere or do anything too special today. The tide got a little higher than it has been and I sat out on the rocks enjoying it for a couple of hours, just reading and watching the kids play. I also got a couple of the photos that I was hoping to get and we used our super big bubble thing today for the kids. All around, it was a pleasant enough day. Packing just sucks. Vacations being over also sucks, but I can’t wait to get back to normal life. Praying our next two drives go well!! Ooh! Also, I found out Brit is pregnant with baby #2! Praise God!

Day 283 of my 365 Photo Journal  Well, tomorrow is our last day in Maine and it is bittersweet. The bitter: knowing I won’t be in Maine for another year or two. The sweet: being back in my own house, in my own bed, with my own routine. Also, I’m feeling sick, which makes me just want to get home. My throat started hurting yesterday and today it feels much worse. I’m also just completely exhausted and I was really irritable today (unfairly, as always). We went up to Camden this morning and visited Mt. Battie. We were really excited to go up there, but the day was so foggy that we had no view whatsoever. The castle was fun though and, despite the cost, I don’t regret getting up there this year. After that, we went into town and did a little shopping. The restaurant we wanted to visit wasn’t open yet, so we ended up coming back here for lunch. Ben and I are both feeling a little frustrated that we haven’t had a single good meal out since we got here. Eating out is usually a big part...

Day 282 of my 365 Photo Journal  We had a functional morning of getting our trash permit situated and going to the laundromat. And despite the beautiful 60 degree, cloudy, foggy day, the laundromat was STIFLING hot!!! Nonetheless, we got it all done, came home, ate some lunch, and headed back out. I know Ben seems pretty content to hang out at the house, but I really like to go out a little bit while I’m here! We talked about it and Ben does understand how I’m feeling, so he was open to making sure we had some time out of the house every day. After we ate lunch, we headed out to the Owls Head Lighthouse and walked up to the top. I love it there. I know it’s just a little lighthouse, without too much to see, but it’s still one of my favorite places to visit while I’m here. We went into the gift shop afterward and found some birthday gifts for Marme and a really cool new windchime for us! And, of course, the girls bought stuffed animals “with their own money”, because you can’t get s...