Photo Journal - Josie Boettcher

Jonas is STILL feeling really sick, so I took him back to the doctor today. It turns out that he has a sinus infection, an ear infection, and he still has pink eye in one eye! The poor guy's head is like 90% infection. 😅 It's not like this is great news, but it does mean that he can start real antibiotics today and hopefully be feeling better quickly. It's been a week!  I spent almost the entire rest of the day cleaning the house. I'd really like it to be clean when we get back from DE, so it's worth the rushing around now. I love that I'm not stressed about this trip at all. I haven't gotten anything ready or packed and I'm still just like...no big deal. 🤷 We're even still going to do stuff over the weekend and it's not making me freak out. I do want to get more of the house clean tomorrow and will probably start packing bags tomorrow too, but it's nice to just not feel stressed about it.  We went to a HC BBQ tonight and it was a really ni...

  We went to visit Anne today and Ollie held baby Ezra for like 10 minutes, just like this. She was so excited! We went to Jenny's house beforehand and read. With these two visits back to back, we were away from the house for about 5 hours and Jonas was home alone for ALL of it. 😳 We set up the iPod so that he could get in touch with us and we could get in touch with him and that seemed to work well. He wasn't scared or worried, so it was all good.  Jonas is STILL sick. Super congested, cough, and pink eye. Very frustrating that he's not getting better still! It doesn't seem like congestion should last this long. 

Ben's teaching went really great yesterday, IMO. So thankful that it's over though! There were only like 9 people at HC though. Kind of a bummer that so few people were there for it, but I really like the intimacy of a smaller group. Oh man, Ollie is in a mood though. Maria got here and she FLIPPED OUT. She was so frantic and panicked that Ben had to leave ahead of me while I stayed to calm her down and get her to bed. I ended up being 1/2 hour late for HC and missed the beginning of the teaching. But I did get to catch up with Jordan afterwards and invited him over for dinner in a few weeks, which I'm super glad about. I've had that on my heart for a while.  Today, I took Ruby, Ollie, and Clemi to Graeter's for a play date and, although it was suuuppper packed, it was a good time. And, BONUS!, Brittany came! And so did Tiffany from my old HC. It was good to see her and catch up a little bit. I had to leave Jonas home alone for the first extended time ever. He was a...

Today has been a pretty anxiety-ridden day. I woke up anxious about my production meeting at work, because last week didn't go great. Ben has been super anxious about work stuff and his teaching tonight. The day kind of revolved around our anxieties, unfortunately.  I brought the girls outside for a while, which was pretty fun. I got a little weeding done and a little relaxing done. Ollie had lots of fun with bubbles (WHY DOES SHE ALWAYS EAT THEM???) and the other girls rode bikes and generally destroyed everything they could find. But it didn't feel too hot in the shade, so I could handle being out there for a while. I did more work in the afternoon and took part in my first kickoff call! I also made pot pie for dinner and am feeling SO proud of myself for prepping ahead of time so that dinner was actually done at the right time. I have been on top of dinners and desserts lately! I also got all the snacks ready for HC and still have time to edit pictures and write this blog po...

We woke up today and Jonas was feeling sick again. Weird, shallow cough and crazy congestion. We had to look at our day and figure out what needed to change in light of him feeling sick again so soon after us having COVID. We both remember people getting this 2nd wave of symptoms a week or two after their first wave, back in the beginning days of this pandemic, so we're wondering if it's that? Ben decided not to serve in the nursery today so that he could stay home with Jonas and we texted the Shauls to see if they would prefer to cancel. They said that if he had a negative test they'd still come, so we did a test and it was negative. Rapid tests are so often wrong, but it helps? So I went to church with the girls, while Ben stayed home with Jonas and prepped for lunch. Our time with the Shauls was good, as always. We had a nice time catching up and watching the kids play. It was absolutely SWELTERING outside. Just muggy and humid and gross. And we made about 10x more food ...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BEN!!!! He is 38 today. We didn't have a super exciting day, just kind of chill. I made him sausage gravy for breakfast, we went on a date, went to the pool afterwards, and then had a nice dinner and hung out until super late. So...I didn't prep his birthday brookies early and they ended up not being cooked until like 8:25. It was a late evening for the kiddos!  Ben and I were both feeling a little nostalgic/sad today at different times. I've been in my feelings a lot lately and Ben was really missing his mom. It didn't make for tons of fun, but I am super thankful to be spending my life with a person that I can talk to about sad things without feeling like I'm bringing the whole day down. 

The mood continues. Super mad. Super frustrated.  What did I do today?? Hmm. Oh, I took Clemi and Ruby to Target (WHERE THEY TOOK OUT THE STARBUCKS FOR SOME UNGODLY REASON!!!!!!) and let them pick out some gifts for Benny. Afterwards, I decided to take the kids to the pool. I warned Ruby and Ollie that I would not be getting in, so if that was going to be a problem, we would just stay home. Of course, they said it was fine. And really, they didn't bug me about coming in much. We stayed for a couple of hours and I was only asked to get in twice. I don't know why I hate going in that pool so much. I don't like getting my crotch wet, for starters. 😅 Also, it's boring for me. Just standing there, getting splashed by kids, being crowded, watching bandaids float by. Haha j/k j/k I haven't seen any bandaids float by, but I know that it is a very real possibility!  Anyway, Brit came to visit with Anna and Luca this afternoon and it was SO nice to see her and catch up for a...

My grumpy mood from yesterday continued/intensified today. So...kind of a long, boring, rambling non-story, but here it is:  I have been working at BrandSwan for a little over a month and, before Cherrystone, Ollie was napping every day at 2pm and the big kids would have quiet time then too. 2pm became my real, focused work time, when I could talk to Jane without disruption and when I would possibly be able to make client calls. Since Cherrystone, Ollie hasn't napped once. Not only is she not napping, but she HATES quiet time and WILL NOT stay up there. While I was super sick with COVID it was like, who cares? But as I started working again, the not napping and not having a quiet time thing started to become a real problem. This week, I've been enforcing the quiet time. She did okay yesterday, but today was a freaking disaster. That girl screamed her head off for like 30 minutes until I let her come down and patted her back and whatnot. I'm sitting here trying to calm her d...

I took the kids to Graeter's to play this morning and we got some ice cream afterwards. They actually loved it there and we were the only kids for about a half hour, so that was really cool. After ice cream, we went to the library and stocked up on some good books for the next week or so.  I got some more plans semi-solidified for the DE trip and worked a bunch this afternoon. This evening, Ben and I talked a lot about our future plans for Calumet and moving and whatnot. Of course, it kind of devolved into a disagreement and tension. So sucky. And now I'm writing this post still in that mindset of I'm going to have to give up all my hopes and convictions because Ben is terrified of change and hard things. It's just frustrating to be on totally different sides of something so important. It makes me want to give it all up, but at the same time, I know God's just going to keep bringing it back. We'll see what happens. 

I finally got the kids out of the house today! I took them to the splash pad in Hilliard it wasn't too crowded. I spent an hour on the phone with MJ and then finally called Pam to confirm our plans in CO. SO. After 15 minutes talking to Pam, it came to light that she did not remember we were going to CO at all. Not only that, but after she looked into it, she realized that she didn't end up confirming our booking at all. We have nowhere to stay in Colorado. And then all hell broke loose. 😅 Children crying. Frantic phone calls and texts. Cancelling stuff left and right.  DURING all of this chaos, I'm getting texts from Ben saying that Patrice is at our house! BECAUSE I HAD PLANS WITH HER THAT I WAS NOT AT OUR HOUSE FOR!!!!!! So embarrassing and ridiculous that I forgot.  After everything shook out, we are abandoning the idea of going to Kansas and Colorado this year. We are going to go to DE for 5/6 days and to Marietta for 2/3 days. It's not as epic as the original pla...

It was a decent day; very work-heavy, which I don't mind. The time flies by when I'm working and I enjoy it. Yesterday, I spent hours organizing and cleaning the bottom floor of the house, but left the den because it was just too crazy to tackle. Today, after working, I finally did the den. It took FOREVER and it just always puts me in a bad mood. I wasn't yelling at the kids or anything like that, but I just ended up feeling sour and grumpy.  I started the day by finally taking my official work picture. I took 160!!! And I ended up with like 5-6 that I felt like were okay. It's hard taking a self-portrait with a real camera when you don't have a remote! Which I don't. I have been feeling so frustrated with my camera. My photos have been blurry and grainy lately and I can never seem to get enough light. Maybe I should be keeping the flash on the top of my camera like Aunt Deb does? IDK. I always felt like it added an artificiality to the photos that I didn't...

It's another rainy day today and the only time we got out of the house was for another umbrella walk. It's a simple thing to do, but everyone loves it!  Ben and I sat and talked quite a bit about moving today. It just feels so impossible when we really think about it. You know? I'm trying to get Ben to wrap his mind around the idea of building an addition onto a smaller house. [For instance, there's a 2 bed, 1 bath, 1,000sq foot house for sale over by Cooke Rd. right now. It sits on 3 acres of land. If we built on a 3-car garage with a mud room and laundry room behind it and four bedrooms, 2 bath on top of it, we'd have everything we need. I'm not sure how much that would cost, but I am confident that we could do a lot of the work. We'd just be living in discomfort for a while during the building phase. So we need to get a house that's cheap enough that we can build onto it, but it would open up our options so much if we think of it this way.] It's o...

Whew. What a week! I'm finally feeling somewhat normal today. I have some aches in my legs that are strange and I kind of feel like I have a cold? But I have no coughing, sneezing, or other cold symptoms. It's hard to describe. Just that head cold kind of feeling. Things around the house have gotten so far behind that it has started to feel impossible to catch up with it all. I did clean the girl's rooms today and threw down a bunch of clothes to wash. I really need to clean the bathrooms. 😐 They are not looking good. And I'm getting my sense of smell back, so I imagine I won't be able to neglect them for much longer anyway.  I took the kids outside to play in the rain for a while today. We went on an imaginary hike up a mountain in Colorado and we had to stay on the path or we'd fall down the mountain. It was a good time. :)

I thought I'd be feeling even better today and would get to be somewhat productive, but I was wrong. I feel terrible. Way worse than yesterday. I have a cold on steroids, can't breathe, I'm tired, have blurry vision, totally out of it.  I brought the girls out to swim in the little pool out back and sat outside for an hour. It was so much worse than I expected. 😅 Something about the heat just makes everything worse. When I'm done complaining on here, I'm going to lay down and pray that tomorrow is better. Thankfully, Jonas is doing a lot better today. He was feeling really bad yesterday. And I'm also so thankful that Ben doesn't seem to be too sick of taking care of everything yet.  It might look like I did my hair on purpose or something, but really, I'm just trying to find the best way to keep it so it gets the least knotty, prayerfully resulting in the least amount of hair loss. I've been losing SO MUCH hair, especially since I've just been l...

There's not really much to say. We're quarantining and I'm absolutely miserable. I'm so sick. I'm a little less sick than yesterday, but still. I just want to sleep and stay in bed forever, but I feel terrible that Ben has had to do everything since we got back from the trip.  I also feel the next trip looming over me and am feeling like I have no time to live in between the two. I wondered if I would feel like this, having three trips this summer, but chose to plan them all anyway. I hope I can rally by the time of the Colorado trip. It should be a great time (other than all of the driving) if I can get in the right mind set. 

I have COVID. I feel horrible. This sucks. I attempted to edit these very low-quality pictures I took in Cherrystone and man, they are rough. I have no idea why my camera performs so badly in lower light, but it's a mess. I was so jealous looking over at Aunt Deb's fantastic quality photos that she was taking at the same time as me. It's ok, just kind of bummed me out! I'm doing my best to edit them and make them decent, but they still don't look very good. The sunset barely looks like anything at all and the photos are hazy and grainy. Oh well! 

Leaving went fine, but Jonas was crying and everyone is sad and it's crappy to know that we might not see many of these people again until next summer. Either way, I'm very glad to have had this week here and am so thankful that it worked out to get the dates booked for next year.  I have taken my family for granted for almost my entire life. I have mixed feelings about this. Like, was I wrong? I always felt like they didn't put in the effort towards me  and that's why I didn't put in effort to get closer to them. BUT, thinking back, I was a very sullen and angsty young person who really pushed most people away. I didn't have much interest in spending time with that side of my family. It probably didn't help that my mom always talked badly about them either. By the time I had the Holy Spirit in my heart, I feel like I went to things more often, but still didn't pursue close relationships with anyone. So, maybe I was wrong or maybe it just was what it was...

It's pack-up day! This sucks. I mean, I'm so ready to get a shower and be in my own bed again, but all of the work that goes into getting there is exhausting. There were still plenty of fun things today though. We started the day with the pool (duh), but didn't stay quite as long as some other days. It was pretty busy and I just wasn't feeling it. In the evening, we had one last big family dinner and then karaoke. I thought about singing, but I get a pit of sickness in my stomach every time I think about singing in front of other people, so I opted out! Jonas went up and sang Basketcase , though, and he did SO good. He wasn't even nervous! How is it that some people just don't feel the nerves and some people are frozen by them? Clem went up and sang We Don't Talk About Bruno with Marisa, Ruby, and Ollie too. It was very sweet. :) Big Ed and the Boys went up and did Sweet Caroline , as they do every year, and we started a new tradition for the girls to sing ...

It's starting to feel like the last hurrah. 😞 We've had a great trip, but the sleeping situation is getting a little old and I think we're all (me and Ben, at least) tired of being dirty. We had a slow morning, went to the pool, and then Jonas headed to the pier to go crabbing in the afternoon. We hitched a ride with Uncle Ed and went to visit. It was actually a nice time. We didn't stay too long, but Ollie loved seeing the crabs and the big kids were having a great time checking the traps and catching crabs. Ruby actually stayed behind and read her Bible with mommom and poppop.  We had a big, Ted Bowman family dinner in the evening and then got out the glow sticks and hung out at the fire again. It was a really nice day. We also did a photo shoot with the kids at the beach at sunset. I'm not sure how the photos turned out yet and won't get to them until we're settled at home, but Aunt Deb took pictures with me and I'm sure we got some good ones! Tomorr...