Photo Journal - Josie Boettcher

It's hump day! Life has been feeling really, really busy since school started a couple of weeks ago. It's been so hard to do anything outside of the house and super disruptive to the school day. How am I ever going to build in the flexibility I SO wanted??? Right now, every time I'm flexible I end up paying for it later in the week. I've been using Tuesdays as our day off of school, which is fine. But before too long, we'll have co-op every other Thursday too. I also have staff meetings every other Wednesday morning, various play groups, reading with Jenny, and keeping up with my close friends. I can't forget keeping up with the kid's friends and homeschool moms that I'm trying to get closer to OR French club, which will be every other Wednesday afternoon. I seriously could have something planned every single weekday, easily. I think I'm going to have to find a way to preserve at least two of the days of the week to be ONLY AT HOME or only doing some...

We had our nature co-op this morning and we all had a great time. I had a lot of fun visiting with moms and the time just flew by. The kids all seemed to have a blast playing with friends and exploring in the water. Except for Ollie. She really struggled today. She was sad a lot of the time and kept feeling left out. I think it’s really hard for her that her sisters have made new friends that they prefer to be with over her. My poor, sweet girl.   it makes me feel so sad for her!  After we got home, I had to go to the dentist for a cleaning. Of course, two of my fillings are falling apart or whatever, so I have to get them both repaired. Such nonsense. Definitely dreading that. But you know what would be way worse? A root canal. The mere thought makes me shudder. So I have to just handle it while it’s not that bad, as much as I hate it.  Ben’s pain really came back with a vengeance today. He’s pissed and the kids are all scared of making him mad. I just feel so sad f...

First day of the new week! Woo! Homeschool went really well today, but by the time lunch rolled around, Ollie was completely losing it. I had decided to take everyone to the pool and nearly called the whole thing off because of Ms. meanie. I’m just getting super fed up with the nasty insults, the undeserved anger towards me, and the hold-up that it all causes. We’re having these tantrums several times a day and EVERY SINGLE bed-time now. I’m sure some of it is due to all of the changes that have happened and I’m sure even more is because she and I rarely get time alone anymore. I am going to work on those things on my end, but she’s got to work on things on her end too. It is so disruptive to the rest of the family. It’s just not working. Anyway, she pulled it together at the last minute and we headed out, all set for the pool. Sadly, when we got there, we saw that the pool was closed. I had read in early July that they’d be closing the pool closest to us and leaving the one we were at...

We decided to start our day by taking the kids out to eat at a breakfast spot. It was Ben's idea, and yet he complained constantly from the moment he woke up until we left the restaurant. The cost, the kids, the ordering, the indecision, the kids, the cost...it was all terrible for him. 🙄 And I've been told that I'm not allowed to tell him when he seems to be more negative than usual because "he's allowed to feel his feelings". Which he obviously is, but still. Does everything have to be the worst thing ever? Do the kids always have to be such a burden to him? He wants to take them out and then he complains that they're not perfect. It's the same thing as Friday night. All the kids were super well behaved, but he still thought they were being terrible. He's got this hyper-control thing happening right now, where if he's not the one who's absolutely in charge of everything, then it's going to go to shit. We're having a great time ov...

Such a nice, relaxing day. We woke up late, hung around the house, had lunch cooked for us by Jonas and Drew, then relaxed some more. I played Zelda for like 3 hours throughout the day, which was amazing. I cooked a big dinner of jerk shrimp, rice, black beans, and fried plantains, and then we went outside and hung out in the cul-de-sac for a couple of hours and supplied all of the local mosquitos with their full quota of blood. I finally got to introduce myself to a couple more neighbors that I've been wanting to meet for a while. They're a little weird, but seem really sweet and their kids are adorable. I hope, now that we've met, they let their kids come out and play more often! 

Well, I'm kind of disappointed in myself because I'm not going to post for yesterday. I did do stuff and we had a good day, but I didn't take any pictures and I didn't write and I just don't remember well. I made it 235 days though! Not bad at all. Anyway, today was a good day. School went pretty well and Jenny came over for a visit in the morning, which was fun. We had cleaning and cooking to do for the HC potluck tonight, but it didn't end up feeling stressful or anything. I thought it was a great time. The pool was full of kiddos, there was no screaming or violence, everyone had fun, it wasn't too sunny, and everyone showed up! I did, of course, feel like I HAD to mop the floor and take a shower before I could relax tonight though, so I wasn't done those things until 10pm. But still, it was a fun one. 

Today was a great day with the kids. School went awesome, we headed out for a play date mid-morning, and then got back to a productive school day. It was a lot of fun! I actually did lose my temper a few times, which isn't typical for me lately. I felt pretty frustrated with myself for being so short, but nobody seems to hold it against me too much.  Ben and I were "fighting" earlier, which could have contributed to my bad mood. Really, he just hasn't been speaking to me since last night. I should report this in the past tense, because we're mostly made up now. But it was very stressful. I knew he was furious at me, but I really couldn't figure out what the huge deal was. It turns out, it made him incredibly angry that I didn't believe something he said to me while we were fighting. We talked through it. I think things will be okay, but I need to work on giving him the benefit of the doubt more often and potentially trusting my gut a little less often. Fee...

We had our Wild + Free group today. The kids were super excited to take a break from school! I got them all ready for creeking and then we didn't go creeking. Jonas was so disappointed! I ended up telling everyone I was going to cut lunch short and head over to the creek, since the kids wanted to go, and most of the moms ended up coming too. Usually these mornings fly by, but today dragged. I think it's because we were just standing around watching the kids play.  After we got home, we didn't do much school. I read to the girls, but that was it. We had to run a couple of errands that made everyone miserable, but were necessary, and I cooked a delicious chicken stew for dinner.  Immediately after dinner, I had to go to another CACH thing. Tonight was orientation and a tour of the church we'll be meeting at. Oh my gosh. I honestly just want to abandon Dwell and switch over to this church! It's incredible! So many nice classrooms, enough space for everyone, rooms outfi...

  Just another manic Sunday. We got up early, went to CT...as always...and did our usual thing there. It was fine. I think I just am feeling a little done with it right now. I have to drag myself in every Sunday and I'm doing the bare minimum during the week. I'm hoping something can get me excited for the job again, because they deserve better than this! Maybe Anne will come back and rescue me. :)  After CT we just hung out at home. It became pretty obvious the difference it makes not hanging out with the Albinos anymore. We had something going on with them every weekend before Ashley decided to never get past her anger. Ben actually asked Kwin about it yesterday and Kwin said that Ashley said she just couldn't bring herself to forgive me for hurting her kids that way. I swear, she has concocted an entirely different version of our very brief text exchange than what actually happened. And the longer she avoids me, the less I want anything to do with her. I've been pray...

Back to school today! It was a good one. We got our work done and everything went smoothly. Woo! We headed to our last HOP(ish) night at HC and the kids were so sad. They all want to keep doing it so much. At first, I was pretty against it, but it has been kind of nice having it be a family thing, rather than a find a babysitter, make sure everyone is settled and in pjs, then head out in time to not have to pay more than $30 thing. The kids loving it has definitely been cool too. And, honestly, the drive hasn't even seemed like a big deal with us all doing it together! It would be a different story if we were having to pay our sitter for the almost half hour drive there and back. We'll just have to see what happens! Either way, we're good with it, I think. I guess I can't really speak for Ben, since I haven't asked him his thoughts lately. 

Today was a very busy day...for Ben. Which made it seem like a busy day for me too, honestly. He got up and went to breakfast with Jesson, so I was alone with the kids in the morning. I mean, we really just chilled out and played, but I had a near-panic attack when our Switch stopped working. 😓 I was upset enough that I asked Ben to stop and buy us a new one on the way home from breakfast! I'm right in the middle of Zelda!! I would be so upset if I couldn't play anymore! Thankfully, we had started to see this coming a few weeks ago and discussed getting a replacement soon. He went out and picked it up and then I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how to get everything transferred over. Since we have a Nintendo Family account, I needed to get each person's profile moved over and all of the game data and save data moved over too. This might have been easy for most people, but I was near tears half of the time.  Ben and Jonas headed off to play Magic for the rest of...

Ok, today was a little rough too. Very annoyed about it. What I'm telling myself is that we all have to get used to these new routines. Clem spent, in total, probably an hour and a half crying today. She turned everything in late and fought against every single assignment. The rest of the kids did okay today. Ruby was a rock star. I'm thinking homeschool might be just what she needed. We have the same routine every day and she gets a lot of unstructured play time. It seems to be really helpful for her so far--the whole 3 days we've been doing this. Jonas is doing well too, but Clem. Man. She just wants everything to be quick and easy. As soon as she's assigned something that takes more than 10 minutes, she is just angry. We have a full week next week and I am curious to see if I can allow myself to be more flexible for co-op days, busy days, etc. I'm going to have to get used to not getting things done at the time that the curriculum prescribes. I wanted FREEDOM, no...

Well, only the second day of homeschool and already I'm feeling stressed! Ben decided to take a couple of days off of work because he's been feeling a little crazy lately (so glad that he's doing this!) and we thought it would be really fun to go to COSI this afternoon. I was totally down with the plan, but I haven't quite figured out how to be okay with not doing everything that's on the curriculum for the day. I mean, it's only my second day, but I do have a tendency to stick to schedules whenever possible. That IS what they're there for! It really makes me feel super uncomfortable to not get everything done. SO. I decided to try and condense everything into the morning so that we could leave after lunch. It was not fun! I felt pressured for time, didn't let the kids take a snack break, and continued working well into lunch. Neither Clem or Jonas finished their work by the time we had to leave. The thing is, Ruby's curriculum is quick and easy. 2 h...

Such a great first day of school! There were definitely some hard parts, but all-in-all, I thought it was an awesome day. I think the fact that I'm being productive and I have purpose made being with the kids all day much more enjoyable than a typical day at home with a bunch of bored kids. Looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings! I went out for a drink with Jenny and Jen in the evening. We talked about not fun things for most of the time, but it has been six months since we got together, so it makes sense that a lot of it was catching up on hard things. It was still really good to hang out with them both. I need to remember to be praying for Jen & Ryan!

I seriously need to get these posts online. Anywho, tomorrow is the big day!!! First day of homeschool…ever. I feel like I can do it? I feel like it’s going to be awesome? But I’m so worried in a month I’m going to be like, why did I do this to myself. I’ll never know if I don’t try though, so here we go.  We had our Wild & Free co-op today and the kids had a blast again. I had a terrible headache and would have preferred to stay home   but it was good! I met a new person, Claire. She was easy to talk to and is brand new to the group. She’s from Mississippi and pretty lonely out here. Man, I seem to attract the newish to the area friends, don’t I? I love how engaged Ollie gets in the learning activities. It’s a side of her I don’t see often. Hoping to see it more through structured homeschool activities!  Other than co-op, I mostly just read. It’s pretty sad. Kind of a waste of a day, honestly, but book club was this evening and I have missed this group's meeting...

We got up and got moving this morning, which is just not normal for us.   We did our French lesson and then headed to the library. Ben joined us, which was fun. Honestly, the early start made the day seem so long. It was good to see just how much we’ll typically be able to fit in a day when we don’t waste our entire morning, but I feel like I every time I checked the clock it was still morning.  Anyway, the day eventually did go by. I worked really hard to get through as much of my book as I could. I have book club tomorrow and I just got the book this morning. I don’t think there’s any chance on earth that I’ll even be close to finishing it, but it’s worth a shot! We had family HC again tonight and it really wasn’t bad. The kids were pretty well behaved and I actually really did enjoy getting time with some of the HC kids that I don’t see as often. I mean, the basement was pretty much chaos and I don’t know how I feel about this being forever, but I also feel really sad ...

I so did not feel like being at ct today. It was fine though. Everything went pretty smoothly and I ended up not being too mad about being there. I thought I’d get some yummy food on the way home, but Ben was being all grumpy about everything, so I told him to just forget it. And he did.   Butthead.  The rest of the day was pretty relaxed! We didn’t do much. We DID make an epic blanket fort. My period still hasn’t come, which is confusing and a little frustrating, but the depression has backed off and only the fatigue and irritability remain.  School starts in just a few days!!!

We headed out and met the Popescos for a hike and some creeking at Highbanks this morning. A little walk turned into a big adventure and we all were so glad it did! We had hiked out to the river and played around there for a long while, but someone (maybe me?) kind of jokingly suggested we follow the creek back to near the parking lot, not actually knowing if it was the creek...but we did it anyway! It was way more fun and much cooler than it would have been following the path, although probably a bit longer. :) Good times!  After we got home, we rushed to get dressed and get the kids fed so that we could go out on our date. Maria got here and we headed out to Buffalo Wild Wings for a late lunch. Very yummy, as always, but Ben scolded me for a long time about texting Ashley back. I'm sure I haven't gotten into it on this blog, but Ashley has been upset with me because she didn't like how I handled something that she never should have dragged me into in the first place, hone...