Photo Journal - Josie Boettcher

CT was as crazy as I predicted. I'm getting real sick of people not showing up for their shifts! Obviously, people get sick and their kids get sick and family comes into town and on and on. I get all of that and I never make my volunteers feel bad for having to miss a week for something like that. What I'm tired of is people just not showing up. Like, no call, no show, I'm screwed over kind of situation. I can't find a replacement, I can't get any help at this point, I'm just on my own. And I don't want to throw Anne into this, but she is supposed to be there in time to actually HELP OUT in the mornings, but she's showing up later than most of the kids and parents! I don't feel like I can even talk to her about it though, because she is overwhelmed most of the time and it's not like I have replacements lined up at the door to show up to CT every single Sunday and help Oasis for FREE. So when I don't have a booth worker (cough cough no call no...

Today was a pretty decent day, considering Ben was gone and I had the whole day to fill on my own. I planned to take the kids to the movies, but after three tantrums from Ollie before 10:30am, I decided to cancel the movie outing and go get the Oasis supply bags instead! I was not winning any popularity contests around here this morning. However, I seemed to salvage my 'good mom'-ness when I stopped at Wendy's, got them all frosty's, and turned on a movie they haven't seen before at home. After the movie was over, Ashley and I took Ruby and Ollie with us to Costco and went on a spree. Super awesome! (lost mom points again, btw) I think the third time was the charm and I'm going to have to go ahead and me a Costco membership. Life is so incredibly exciting.  Not much else happened today. We had a smooth evening and bed time and I'm going to bed early to prep for a crazy day at CT tomorrow. We have the trick or treating event and I'm already several volunt...

Phew! Last day of the school week. I spent most of the morning feeling frustrated and borderline angry. Within 30 minutes of waking up, Ruby was screaming and fighting with me about freaking Magic Tracks, of all things. It just really got me in a terrible mood that I had a hard time getting out of. But, school went pretty well and we finished up before noon. We did not leave the house today, thank God. I just could not!! One of my feet is still killing me from yesterday (thanks plantar fasciitis!) and I was super greasy and just a hot mess, altogether.  Ben left for the men's sphere retreat this afternoon and spent most of the day griping about how anxious he was about it. And, although that's pretty annoying, the truth is that I know I'll be equally anxious next weekend. I'm already starting to regret registering! But I'm going. I already paid and I'm not backing out.  Strangely enough, my mood improved a lot after Ben left. I think the push to get things done ...

Well, I didn't feel great again today, but they opened up the field trip to pre-schoolers too and I thought, what the heck, we might as well go! Sadly, I announced this to the girls before Jonas had a chance to tell me he had a stomach ache. With two of us feeling bad, I would have just planned to stay home, but I told everyone already, so we just went and left Jonas home alone. Spoiler alert: I spent the entire field trip being anxious about Jonas being home alone.  We went to a limestone quarry and got to have a tour of the actual working quarry. It was really cool! After the tour, we had a picnic lunch and then went on a hike. Turns out, the hike sucked. lol Maybe it wouldn't have if I wasn't sick, was wearing better shoes, or had less whiny children, but it was what it was. By the end (it was a bit over a mile up and down hills), we were all exhausted and grumpy (grumpiER in my case). We hit the road almost immediately afterwards because I wanted to get back to Jonas.  ...

Another sick day at home! And another boring post because of me writing this late and not remembering if I did anything interesting at all. I don't think that I did.  My parents finally solidified dates for them to come out so we can redo the bathroom. I'm kind of excited, kind of terrified! They're going to be here for two full weeks, including over Thanksgiving. I'm actually really happy about the Thanksgiving part, since ours are usually pretty lonely. I mean, we always scrape together someone to hang out with, but it will be nice to have actual plans to be with family. It would be so awesome if we could get a few more people to come out like Evie, Skyla and fam, and Zach. I'll have to toss out some invites! I don't think it'll happen, but it's worth asking.  Jonas said something to Ruby tonight about learning to ride her bike (like some kind of advice) and it finally clicked somehow! She actually RODE ACROSS THE CUL-DE-SAC!!!! It has been more than s...

Okay, I have to be honest here. I'm writing this late and don't remember much of Tuesday. Here's what I DO remember:  I was very sick. :( Because of that, I didn't go to nature co-op. I took the kids for a short hike near home and they played in the creek for over an hour while I sat on a rock and read my book. I didn't cook dinner.  Voila. That was the whole day! When you're sick, there's not usually much more than that, is there? 

Oh my goodness, I woke up feeling so terrible today. I kind of knew, going to sleep, that I was starting to not feel great. I woke up a dozen times coughing and clearing my throat. It didn't help that Ollie climbed in with us around 1am! Just feeling like garbage now. I took a COVID test and it was negative, which is good I guess. But I was very short-tempered with the kids' Monday nonsense...not wanting to do chores, not wanting to get up, not wanting to do school work, fighting, whining, complaining, and on and on. However, we got through it, and we even got the den cleaned today. Hooray. Ben came home in a bad mood, as usual, and then yelled at me about how stressful it was for him to cook butter noodles for dinner. All I could say is that I don't feel good and he snapped back that he doesn't feel good either so...now I'm super annoyed with him and sick of him taking his bad moods out on me. Here's hoping he goes to home church tonight so I don't have to ...

Although I woke up with a bit of tickle in my throat, and Oasis was a nightmare today, the rest of the day went pretty well! Ben stayed home from CT but was in a great mood when we got back and had everything ready for carving pumpkins. We spent a couple of hours Halloweening together and then went for a walk to the playground to throw the "pig skin" around. The kids got a kick out of Ben calling it that.  After we got back and Jonas left for group, we took the kids to this little outdoor beer garden for some snacks and then walked across the street for ice cream. I really just wanted to try something new, for once! So tired of the same old choices over and over again. We had a good time and it was nice to get out for a while. 

Okay, this staying home and doing nothing thing is starting to get a little ridiculous.   We did nothing today. At all. Granted, Ben has a cold and is feeling pretty run down because of that, AND Aveen was here, and we don’t have much money right now…but still. I didn’t even go for a walk like I wanted to because it was rainy! I played Zelda, cleaned, and read. And did laundry. Et voila. That’s all.  The girls played pretty well today, which was nice. Well, Clemi and Ollie did. Ruby was acting like a nut job half the day. Aveen left mid-afternoon and Ben watched the football game. Honestly, I don’t even know who won. I don’t know. It was just a really slow, uneventful day. Ben and I didn’t feel like dealing with the pumpkin carving stuff today, so we put it off until tomorrow. To help the girls recover from their sadness, we did a cozy movie night with a blanket fort, hot chocolate, and extra buttery popcorn. It was a nice little family hangout.  I started to feel a ...

We had the day off of school today and ended up barely doing anything! We took Ben’s car to the auto shop to get his brakes done first thing in the morning and then I hung out with Jenny for a little bit. We had midday plans with Shannon and Grace, but we were forced to cancel because of the crappy weather. I intermittently cleaned and relaxed for the entire day, really. I did get a big dinner ready and we had Aveen over for the night. After lots of hard work, nobody but Ben seemed to appreciate the food I made at all and, after dinner, I had just had enough.  Feeling unappreciated, lonely, and disconnected from Ben has just gotten me so bummed out over these last couple weeks. I just grabbed my book and decided to go up to bed for the night when we finished eating. Ben kept texting while I was up there and eventually came up to talk. I finally got some things off my chest and it didn’t turn into a fight, so I’m feeling like it was a win. It’s just that after being with someone for...

The normal pre-k teacher called out of co-op today, so I led pre-k this morning and it went very smoothly. We spent like an hour this morning trying to make all of us girls twinsies. :) Very time-consuming, but cute! I really enjoy this co-op. So glad we joined! After co-op, we headed to a playground to visit with a couple of ladies and their kids. One of the women was kind of crazy...like super conservative republican crazy. I mean, we share some points of view, but I had to push back a few times. She's definitely a person who thinks that everyone either shares her beliefs or is going to HELL and needs to be informed of their destination. I'm more on the love them no matter their choices team. So there was some interesting and uncomfortable conversation happening there. But, in a way, it was refreshing. I always see these kinds of things posted by people online, but don't usually get to interact with them face to face. Hopefully I introduced some things to consider when sh...

School went great today! We got done early and then headed to Dwell for my staff meeting. The kids got to play in the indoor playground while we met and, although I'd rather not have to do these at all, it was as good as it could be, I think. I also always feel pretty encouraged after these meetings. I always feel like the worst employee and the least knowledgeable, but not so alone.  The afternoon and evening were kind of a blur after that. I made a big dinner and it turned out pretty good and we watched Ellie and Ivy for a while during a parent-teacher conference that Kwin had to attend. I cleaned up while Ben visited with Kwin into the evening and then just some TV and bed.  Not a very exciting day. Ben and I did get into an argument tonight though, which added a little spice. *sarcastic voice* Our marriage is at a low point right now and I'm really sad about it. When I brought it up, he just wasn't receptive to talking about it. I'm sad and frustrated!  I'm feel...

Today went ok. I decided to skip nature co-op because Ruby's behavior is starting to decline, and I think it could partially be due to a less consistent schedule lately. Just lots of screaming, fighting with siblings, fighting with me, and whining about school and chores. But for the earlier part of the school year, she just wasn't doing that. Trying to diagnose what's going on! She even screamed at me today that she wishes I wasn't her mom. Super hurtful and frustrating!  After school work was done, I took Clemi to La Chatelaine as a reward for her memorizing Psalm 91!!! So proud of her and Jonas. I have NEVER been able to memorize anything so long. They are champs! The little girls will each get a treat/eat out if they can remember a few of the short memory verses they've learned in the last 8 weeks. I think they can do it!  We took a long walk as a family after lunch and went all the way to the playground. I need to get myself out there and exercising more becaus...

Man, I have been GRUMPY today. I slept so well and I was so optimistic when I first opened my eyes. But very quickly, my ears were assaulted by screaming and fighting and I almost immediately felt angry. The anger stuck. All day. Just no tolerance for the constant bickering and snarking at each other right now. It was pretty sad how short-fused I was. But the day did get better and the kids did calm down their nonsense.  I ran out and get the car registration done, along with a grocery pick up. While I was out, the kids called and Ollie had just fallen down and banged her head. Of course, I'm panicking now at the BMV. Is it an emergency?? Do I need to rush home? Should I call Kwin and have him check in on them? In the end, I decided to just let it go. Ollie was already done crying by the time they hung up with me and there was no blood. Thank God, everything was fine when I got home 40 minutes later. Also, THANK GOD the Ohio BMV is so much better than the Delaware DMV!!! I never us...

We decided to head over to Marietta today and I'm glad we did! It's a lot of driving for a day trip, but Patrick was there and it would have been sad to miss his visit. We just sat around waiting for the first couple of hours, because Dennis and Hazel were at church. When they got home, we ate some lunch and then Hazel and I brought the girls to the apple orchard. Best apple orchard ever. Honestly. It's nice and small, uncrowded, and still inexpensive. I even bought a shirt!  After that, we just hung out while Hazel had an anxiety attack about the placement of the TV that the guys hung. After that passed, things were a bit smoother. We got some dinner from Smitty's and then headed home afterwards. It was a nice, quick visit, but I think our relationship with them gets better the more time we spend with them. I'm trying to make it a point to see them once a month. It's only been two months haha but I'm hoping I can keep it up. Since it really has to be on me,...

Today was a pretty relaxing Saturday. We went to the Guard Tower in the morning and wrapped a few other errands in with that. I needed to go to Home Depot for a couple of little things and we spent some time looking at bathroom supplies. We got a 0% APR coupon, so we're going to try and order the big things we need for the bathroom while the coupon is still valid. We agreed on a shower and tile, for starters. But pulling the trigger and actually buying that stuff is going to be hard for me! There's still a part of me that worries that dad just won't show up or something.  When we got back, we had lunch and lazed around for a while. Then we got ready for our date! Ben and I met Jenny, Alex, Rachel, and Mark at the Rusty Bucket for dinner and then headed over to see Dusty Slay. Oh. My. Gosh. We thought his material we watched on YouTube was funny, but this show was hilarious. Several times, I had to wipe away tears from laughing so hard! It was so good. We didn't get to s...

Jenny came to visit this morning, which was great. It's been forever since we got to hang out and catch up. The kids were a little crazy after her visit though. Nobody wanted to focus on school anymore. It didn't help that Ellie stayed home from school and was playing right outside of our homeschool window. Ollie begged to go outside for like an hour and I finally gave in. But once one kid was outside, it was a slippery slope and everyone was begging to go outside. We did finish everything up eventually, but I was pretty grumpy by the end of the school work.  I took the kids for a walk today because I really feel like I need to get outside for a walks a few days a week. This is mostly for my own health, but the kids need the exercise too! Jonas started complaining after the first cul-de-sac and Ollie was begging me to carry her by the halfway point...and I refused, of course. But we made it!  In the evening, we played a game with the Albinos. We haven't done a game night in...

It was a regular, wonderful homeschool day today. We stayed home ALL DAY! So good. We got school done super early and it was just so relaxing.  Ben and I finally had a conversation tonight. I feel like we've just been avoiding each other since we got back from Maine. He said he 'feels like he can't talk to me' and I haven't wanted to fight with him or make him feel worse. I'm hoping this will be the start of things getting better. 

We had a field trip today! We went to Marmon Valley and learned how early settlers did some things. It was really nice to have a field trip that was actually educational, rather than just fun. It's frustrating to sacrifice a whole school day just to watch the kids play. They made candles by hand, used hand-tools to drill a hole in a log that they split themselves to make candle-holders, and ground their own corn for johnny cakes. Everyone had a great time. Afterwards, we had a picnic and it was a little awkward. I joined a group of ladies that I don't normally talk to and there was zero conversation happening. Like I tend to do, I filled the silence with uncomfortable TMI about myself. I mean, it got convo going, but I hate how I end up making myself a project (for lack of a better word) in an effort to get people to have open, vulnerable conversations. I guess it was good? But I still walked away wishing I could hide under a rock and rethought every word I said for the rest of...

We had nature co-op today and I have to admit that I did not feel like going. I couldn't think of a single reason to not go, but I've been so bummed at home and just want to disappear. I don't know. It's been tough dealing with Ben's pain and parenting and school. More than his pain, it's been tough to handle his moods...which have been awful. Anyway, group ended up going really well for a couple of hours. Things went downhill when Ollie whispered to me that she peed herself and I found out that Ruby sat in poison ivy. *face palm* I rushed us out of there, panic-washed all of the poison ivy stuff, and we had a relatively relaxing afternoon and evening. 

It was a good Monday! My stupid period started yesterday, so that's a huge downer, but other than that, it was a good day. We got school done really early, by 11 or so, which is amazing. I am trying to teach them color theory in art right now and I had an assignment that I wanted them to do and Jonas got all pissed at me about it. Since we were done early, he was so excited to get to his screens! I burst his bubble when I assigned art and when I talked to him about that being a problem, that every day is just a rush to get to screens, he started crying. Then, when he was done his artwork that he worked on for almost an hour, he crumpled it up and put it in the trash. *smh* Very frustrating. I don't know what a better way of communicating with him would be, but as soon as he gets upset, he starts spouting all of the ways that I'm failing him as a mother. And then I get super annoyed and just want him to shut up. I know I'm awful. I get it. I don't need to be told! An...