Photo Journal - Josie Boettcher

Looking Back on the Good: 2023 Since I did nothing today, other than sulk around the house, feeling like garbage, I thought I might make this post an expression of gratitude. It has been a wonderful year, and here are the highlights:  - I got lots of time to hang out with Ollie 1-on-1, while the big kids were in school. We went all kinds of places and visited lots of people together! We went on walks, held hands, snuggled, and enjoyed just being with each other. We had lots of playdates with Brittany, Jenny, Christine, Anne, and our two play groups, AND I got to take her to ballet and gymnastics! - We had a St. Patrick's Day game night with HC at our house and did Yaeger bombs! I don't think I need to say much more about that. I obviously was the slowest, but how many people can say that they got to drink Yaeger bombs alongside the people they worship God with?  - We sowed seeds in milk jugs in the back yard and all of our seeds sprouted!! It was SO EXCITING. The garden was ul...

Well, I woke up as sick as ever, after a terrible night of sleep. I did nothing of any substance today: watched  Hunger Games , worked on my puzzle, fought with Ben, took Jonas's picture, texted with MaryJo. That's about it. I've been operating with the confidence of a negative COVID test backing me, but Ben took a test today and it was positive. So, apparently, I have COVID after all and left the house a couple of times, possibly infecting people everywhere. I feel guilty and frustrated with the Albinos for being who they are - and by that, I mean COVID-denying, anti-vaxing-type people. I believe they didn't know they had COVID, but if they were people that tested themselves for other people's sake, they would have known and we would still be healthy right now, rather than ringing in the new year infected and sick. I don't mind quarantining for a little while, but I'd really prefer to do it healthy.

Not much to report today. I feel really sick and didn't do much. I did take Jonas to the fish store to grab his fish for his new tank but felt awful the whole time. We had to buy a new heater, because his isn't heating up the water in the tank and I'm starting to feel like this gift is getting too expensive! Praying that I feel a little better tomorrow. So tired of being sick. 

Today was a do-nothing kind of day. I felt like garbage and mostly just laid around. Ben had some guys over to play MtG and I hung out upstairs with the kids that didn't feel good (Clem and Ollie). Because Clem is feeling bad, I thought I'd better reschedule the birthday party that was supposed to be on Friday. I'm pretty bummed about it, but it's one thing for me to show up with a cold; an entirely other thing for the birthday celebrants to be sick! It's going to be on 1/6 instead. Hopefully the closest friends can still make it. I'll have to reach out to everyone tomorrow. Too sick and tired today! I did finally set up Ruby's Barbie dream house today and ENTIRELY regret buying it for her. I had no idea how big it would be and we actually have no space for it. It's now living in the upstairs hallway and it looks terrible up there now. I'm guessing it will continue to look terrible for the next couple of years and I'm really sad about it. Oh, how...

Well, I took it easy today, but I'm also sick now, so...boo. I was feeling SO terrible around early afternoon and Ben suggested I take medicine, which, for some reason, I hadn't thought of. The meds helped a lot though! They made me feel much better and I had a few hours of energy. I did some organizing in the basement and did the dishes. I had to cancel with Christine. AGAIN. I feel so terrible about it. And I'm worried that we'll be sick for the party Saturday, but I'm really hoping this won't be a big deal! I took a COVID test, just in case, and it was negative. I'm kind of glad to have an excuse to not do anything for the next couple of days though. Jonas is at Aveen's tonight, and it honestly feels like a relief to have one less kid here. The house will be quiet earlier and everyone will be in bed around 9, leaving me free to go to bed early too.  I just have to say, Elli was getting on my nerves so bad while we were outside playing! She photobombed...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CLEMENTINE!!!  My sweet, beautiful, second-born child. I love her so much. She's a challenge for me, because she's got SO MANY feelings and a lot of them I just wish would go away, but at the same time, she's incredibly generous, loving, kind-hearted, and compassionate. All things that are difficult for me! I'm so grateful that she's my daughter. I didn't do a photo shoot with her today, like I have for the past few years. I'm hoping to do it tomorrow! I really need to get myself motivated when it comes to photography. I've let it slip so much this year. When I mentioned it to Hazel, she said that of course I haven't had as much time for photography, I've been homeschooling! And I think she does have a point. It's sad, but I think there's truth to that. I'm just busier during the days now. I love it, but it's harder in that way.  Today felt very busy, but it wasn't too bad. Again, I was up before 7, busting m...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! Whew! What a day! So crazy that we spend over a month getting ready for an event that is over so quickly. And, honestly, by the night time, I'm over it already. Like, okay, let's move past Christmas now. It's kind of sad.  The day was pretty magical, overall. I didn't sleep well again last night, but better than the night before and I stayed in a great mood during the entire present opening process. As I watched everyone open their gifts it just started weighing on me more and more heavily how materialistic the whole day is, and always has been, for me. It's tough to imagine it being a different way, but we really don't need so much stuff! I love to see the kids happy, but their happiness over receiving gifts is always short-lived and then they're just whining for more, more, more. Anyway, I don't want to turn this into a gripe about materialism and my failures as a parent. It was a good day. It's just, by the end of the day, I wa...

It's Christmas Eve! It ended up being an incredibly stressful and unenjoyable day for me, honestly. I had way too much wrapping left to do, tons of prep for Christmas breakfast and for food for the Christmas dinner at the Albino's. I ended up being busy from 6:40am until we went next door. And I didn't handle it gracefully. I was not a happy camper.  When we got to the Albino's, we realized we forgot something, so I said I would run home and grab it. Then I texted Ben and said I needed to use the bathroom and laid on the couch reading for 15 minutes. He texted, worried about me, and I said I got distracted and would be there in a second. I never wanted to go back! I feel bad, but I just didn't want to be there! We exchanged gifts after dinner and Ashley gave me and Ben nice shirts. We got Kwin something to help him with his figurine painting and I got Ashley a $30 gift card to a nail salon, based on Kwin's recommendation. She did not look very excited about it! ...

It's the eve of Christmas Eve! Ben is done with work for three days. We're done with school for almost two weeks. And it feels like it's party time! I have a crapload of stuff to get done, but couldn't help but relax a little. I worked on my puzzle, read a little, wrapped a little, and hung out with the kids. We ended the night with video games, which was a lot of fun. 

TGIF! What can I say about a day like today? It was so full of nothing that it's pretty unremarkable. Puzzles. Meals. Cleaning. Reading. That was 90% of my day. I told Jonas I would take him to try playing ping pong at the club that Patrick goes to and I had totally forgotten about it. At 4pm-ish, Jonas comes in saying he didn't get into pajamas after his shower because he knows he has ping pong tonight and I was just blown away. Like, did I agree to that? WHY??? I did take him, though, and he had a tough time. In between the first three matches, he sat next to me and did his best not to cry. He couldn't talk at all, because he'd start crying. I asked if he wanted to leave and he said he didn't. He kept going! After the 4th match, he finally started to see the benefit of getting beaten so badly over and over again and he learned a lot. We were there until 9:30pm. I could not believe how long it went on! I was so ready to get out of there. Home now and drinking a gla...

Gargh! I'm not getting anything done! I had the whole day to do things, but everything takes so darn long. I ran to the store and the post office this morning, then got back just before Brit got here. I had a wonderful visit with her, then got lunch ready for the kids. I proceeded to spend hours organizing and cleaning and doing computer stuff and, before I knew it, it was time for pizza and a movie night! I think I got enough done that I won't be stressed tomorrow, praise God. 

It was a good day! I have been getting up WAY TOO EARLY for how late I've been staying up, but I haven't been letting the tiredness effect me too much. We had breakfast and then I worked on the marble run with Jonas again and we finished it! I had a staff meeting to go to and I brought Clemi and Ollie along with me. We stopped at McDonald's on the way and they were really good the whole time. The meeting felt absolutely pointless, though. Like, I'm usually pretty encouraged by these meetings, but I just wanted to get home! I cancelled my play date with Christine after she told me that all of her kids are sick. She encouraged me to come anyway and I was like, no way! After we got home, I got everyone ready to go to the Guard Tower to get some MtG cards for Ben and by the time we got home, I realized I completely dropped the ball on dinner!  We watched a Christmas movie, wrapped some presents, and went to bed. I really hoped that I'd be able to get everything done tod...

Woohoo! Last day of school before Christmas break! I think we’ll have a structured thing or two a day, just to stay in the habit, but it will be nice to have the days to use how I want…at least somewhat. School went quickly today and then me and Jonas started working on this very complicated marble maze engineering set Ben got him for his birthday. We spent THREE HOURS on it already and we’re only 2/3 done!! I feel like that’s kind of what you want though, right? For it to occupy you for more than 5 minutes. I mean, once it’s built, it won’t be that interesting. It’s the journey! And I’m getting all of this time with him, which is cool too. Maria came this evening so that Ben and I could take Jonas out for birthday sushi. His birthday day was so NOT about him that I felt like he needed some special time with just us. It was such a good evening. The sushi was delicious (and expensive!) and I loved the little Japanese restaurant we went to, Yoshi’s. Afterward, we went to Scene 75 and pla...

Back to Ohio means back to being busy! I’m giving that an exclamation point, but I am not excited about it. We had school in the morning, and it went really well. The kids worked efficiently and got everything done quickly. After school, we had a field trip at Get Air with our co-op. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go, but it felt like a fun, winter-vacation-y thing to do, so we did it. It was just us and four other families, but I actually enjoy those more intimate get togethers so I can actually have real conversations! I talked to Josie the entire time. We just get along really well. I like her a lot. She eventually told me how starved she is for real fellowship at her church. It made me want to invite her out to HC sometime, but honestly, I don’t think she’d be getting what she’s looking for in our group either and I think that’s kind of a shame. After the field trip, we headed to the grocery store so I could pick up stuff to cook for tonight and the kids were so upset that I forced them...

We got up at 6:30 this morning and got on the road at 7:30. In some ways, the drive home was better than the drive out and in other ways it was way worse. It was better in that it was more efficient. We stopped the same number of times, but they were super quick stops. There wasn’t an ounce of traffic, and it was cloudy, so I wasn’t being blinded. It was worse in that the girls fought A LOT and I lost my temper with Clemi several times, when she did her usual victim bs. Eventually, the drive was over. We made good time and got home around 3:15pm! I, of course, started laundry as soon as we got home, then got to have a horrible “discussion” with Ben about something shitty he did while we were away. But the house was clean, and festive, and Ben had stuff for dinner and bought a cake for Jonas. So I wrapped up all of his gifts and got prepped for a birthday celebration in between unpacking and laundry. Dinner was yummy and we sang to the big 12-year-old. Ben and I are ready to move past o...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JONAS!!!  Man, we’re so lucky to have this kid in our lives. He’s obviously not perfect and we have plenty of little spats, but he is a kind, loving, responsible, and funny kid. He’s a good big brother and such a great son. God blessed us so much with him. It was a very busy day of party prep, partying, and then party clean up! But there were some really special moments thrown into the mix. 1. MJs gratitude when I told her that we work better together, so I was going to stick with her all day. 2. When Marme, dad, and I were sitting around the table making subs, talking, and laughing. Many hands make merry work! 3. The kids’ excitement to spend time with their cousins. The party was good, but it was kind of tough having Evie there. She brought a random friend to serve as a buffer between her and her family, which is just plain insulting, honestly. Nevertheless, I crowded her space and asked her 30 min worth of personal, prying questions anyway. Did she think some r...

In some ways, today was much more chill than yesterday. The only thing we actually did was go to Aunt MaryAnn's for a visit. BUT. MJ was HIGH STRUNG today and we bickered on and off all day. She was annoyed with me and I was annoyed with her. She wants me to be a go, go, go type of person and I am NOT. So she's working her butt off to prepare for the party tomorrow and I'm just like, why don't you chill tf out? And then I disappeared for 2.5 hours and that REALLY annoyed her.  Aunt MaryAnn's was very nice though. She bought a gingerbread house for each of the kids and that was super fun for them. I didn't get one this year, so everyone was excited! I brought my nice camera in the hopes of taking nice pictures, then realized that I lost my camera battery at some point. It wasn't in the camera, it wasn't in the battery charger, and it wasn't in the camera bag. So. Let's just hope I left it in a different battery charger at home? I have no idea. Ver...

Today felt like an exhausting day. The morning started slowly enough, but Ollie woke up at 6:50, so I didn't get much sleep after that. Thankfully, I went to sleep at 9:15 last night! Alisha came to visit me around 11 and hung out until 1 or so. This is kind of mean to say, maybe, but it felt like our visit could have been achieved over the phone. Is that a stupid thing to think? Maybe it's just because we didn't go anywhere, but I usually appreciate face-to-face visits. Idk what's wrong with me. Anyway, it was good to get a couple of hours to catch up with her and I am glad she got to hang out with the kids. She always asks about them, but I don't think she'd ever even met Ruby and Ollie before.  After Alisha left, we headed to the movie theater to watch Wish , which I did not like. I know that the science behind us all being made of similar stuff to stars is real and everything, but that was the basis of the whole movie and I couldn't help but feel it was ...