Photo Journal - Josie Boettcher

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JONAS!!!! Man, I'm so lucky to have such a great kid. He is so good. He's not just kind and a good brother and a good son, he's also connected and I think that's one of the things I'm most grateful for at this point. Many friends with kids his age have been lamenting about their teens and pre-teens not wanting to spend time with them anymore, rebelling, fighting with them, disappearing into their rooms for hours and hours on end. But Jonas wants to be around. He wants to hang out with us and be in the same room as us and talk to us. It might not last forever, but I'm so glad for it right now! He's 14-years-old and he's still our kid, you know?  It was a good day. We got up and hung out around the house for a while. Then, Ben came home early and we headed to Olive Garden for lunch. After lunch, we went to Get Air for a couple of hours and had the place to ourselves for most of the time! Ben and I spent some time reading while the kids boun...

I know I've been staying home a lot, but I never want it to end. We stayed home and did school today. I need to do a couple more dates still this month, but Jonas's birthday is tomorrow and I have so much prep still to do! I need to wrap his gifts and make his cake and get decorations out. In addition, I still needed to do school today and drive him to and from Lighthouse this morning. School actually went really well today though. None of us were grumpy and we got every single bit of our lessons done. I was so happy! In the afternoon, I started Jonas's cheesecake and prepped dinner.  I did not want to go to home church at all, but I did it! I made it out. And it actually was good. I just have been feeling so distant from people and the more distant I get, the more resentful I get. I know that it's a personal flaw and I'm not proud of it. I have at least learned to question myself when I get like this, but it doesn't stop the feelings from being there. Anyway, I...

We skipped CT today because we got like a million inches of snow and the roads were crazy icy, thanks to the 7-degree weather we had this morning. We did not leave the house today, except for a quick pick up from Giant Eagle. I kind of wished we had gone out somewhere? But at the same time, the weather really was ridiculously awful. Things are ok though. Ben and I are doing really good right now. I'm happy with the kids and my home life. I just hate everything else. I wish I could make it go away! I want to quit everything. I just want to lock the doors and never leave. 

Snowmaggedon!!! We had a snowstorm today that began just as we left to bring Ruby to her choir concert this afternoon and continued on allllll afternoon and evening. We had 5 inches by the time we went to bed! Ruby did a great job at her concert and, crazy enough, almost every person from the Meadow Park small group was there and they all hugged and congratulated her afterwards. It was so sweet! One of the families from the small group was also in the choir; it's not like they were there for us. But it was still really nice. We also had another friend from Wild & Free who was there and we got to chat with her a little bit. Ben was running out to the car immediately when the concert was over because of all the snow. I just wanted to visit a little bit, but he wasn't having it! We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out and enjoying the weather.

Ok, we finally got a full school day in today. Everyone is better! We went to art class and everyone really enjoyed that. It's funny that they didn't start enjoying it until it was almost over. I really need to clean the house and mop the floors, but I'm still not up for all that mess. I'm not even ready to start cooking again yet! Although, I know Ben really wishes I would. We've just been eating little bits of leftovers or plain rice for the last week.  Clem and I went on a quick date this afternoon to Target. She was begging for this game. 😅 I did go to the mom's night out gift exchange tonight. It was a pretty good time, but I really just didn't feel like being there. I just want to stop doing everything. Can I just stop being a participant in every single part of my life that is outside of my own home?? That's what I really want. Anyway, I think I ate pork tonight, accidentally. I thought they were some kind of veggie fritter, but I heard some peop...

We stayed home all day again, but it was Clem's choir concert, so we ventured out for that in the evening. It was a little more crowded than it has been in the past, but we got our own row and tried to keep away from everyone else! Clem did an amazing job on her solo again this year and she was so grateful to have the opportunity to sing for everyone. I wasn't feeling great still, so I had to miss cell group and our pink elephant. I was looking forward to it so much! 

A rousing rendition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from my little sickies! We still did not go anywhere today. No throw up today, but we're not quite healthy yet. Wah.

Clem woke up in the middle of the night throwing up and needed me for each minute of each...session?...of vomiting. I had taken a sleeping pill, though, so I was really groggy and barely able to help. We had an awful day, full of vomit, and sadness, and misery. Jonas is feeling completely better and Ruby was a lot better, but still unable to eat much. Ollie was still vomiting and I felt so-so. Clem cried for most of the day and Ben has somehow still escaped the bug!  I insisted on, at least, reading some of our school books, which nobody seemed to appreciate. I got a little irritated with Jonas because he's been better for days, yet still seems to be annoyed at the thought of doing school! Also, all the girls had to do school on Friday while he was laid up on the couch, so it only seems fair to me that he do some work while other people are sick. Anyway, nothing happened today of note. Clem and Ruby are sincerely hoping they can go to choir tomorrow and I'm just feeling uncomfo...

It was my turn today! I threw up a whole bunch last night and felt terrible today. Ben worked from home today, but only because he thought he might get sick. I mean, having another adult here certainly came in handy a few times! It was a rough one.  *Just a throwback that I thought was cute. 

Today was rough. I wanted to say it's been a nightmare, but it was about as good as a day can be when you got two hours of sleep, have been cleaning and disinfecting for the last 20 hours, have a torn retina, are bleeding heavily, and have your own stomach knot, promising a terrible night ahead. My little girlies got hit this time: Ruby and Ollie. I went in to check on the heater in the girl's room last night and the smell of vomit slammed into my nostrils. On closer inspection, poor Ollie threw up in her bed and squirmed all around in it, trying to get warm. She clearly tried to get to the trash can next to the bed, but mostly it was just in the bed and in a puddle on the floor. We got her cleaned up and into my room on the floor and she was up at least every half hour for the whole night, vomiting. Ruby joined in the fun around 4am and it seems to have hit her a little less hard. She only ended up puking three times, total, but she had explosive diarrhea running down her legs...

Just yesterday I joked with Claire that I've been wishing we could get sick so we could cancel some stuff. Well, the joke is on me! Jonas spent HOURS last night puking and pooping his guts out. I was up with him several times and spent the first hour or more of my day cleaning. The poor guy is just not used to being sick at all. He hasn't had a stomach bug in years! He is so sad. I have no idea if anyone else will get it and I am so nervous about it. It's one thing to wish for a cold to sideline you, but another thing entirely to be sidelined by a dang stomach bug. *sigh* On the upside, it was a slow, relaxing day, aside from the half-dozen loads of laundry and sick-care I had to do. I started a new video game and that was really fun. I played for hours. 😅 I'm hoping and praying for no middle of the night vomiting tonight, but I'm going to get myself prepared for it, just in case!

We had our CACH Christmas party today and it really is the time I feel loneliest in this co-op. I'm just not a party type of person, I think. The larger the crowd, the harder it is to have conversations with people. However, I saw Kara Brown's husband sitting all alone and looking miserable, so I did sit and talk to him for almost 20 minutes. We got to talking about church and it sounds like he's in a similar place as Ben with things. It just makes me wonder how many people are in that same spot. Kate and her husband are struggling, Kara's husband is struggling, my husband is struggling, and me to some extent, and what I'm hearing is nearly the same from everyone. There's this idealistic talk within Dwell about doing life together, but nobody can get in any time with anyone as a real friend. You're scheduled in and that's the only time you get. We want to DO LIFE with one another. We want to hang out, have dinners, celebrate, mourn, and so on. We want to...

This was officially the busiest day I can remember having. It was so much. We all got up early, got dressed, and got out of the house to get to the parent meeting at 8:30am. We got set up and, despite the issues with the website in the morning, had a decent turnout and a smooth morning. For the first time, I was actually able to hang out in the lobby, rather than in the baby room! It was pretty sweet. People did seem happy to get the Christmas cards and, although it was maybe a little bit over the top, I'm glad I did it. After the parent meeting, we headed over to Chick-fil-A for lunch and killed about an hour there. Then, I took Jonas to the Longview barber shop in Clintonville for his birthday haircut!!! He was so excited and ended up loving how it turned out. I am still getting used to it, but it looks good on him!  I had 45 minutes between the time he finished up and when Clem had to be at choir, so I drove home, dropped three kids off, then drove all the way up to Westerville ...

SNOW DAY!!! Well, not exactly for us, but it was still snowy outside! What it meant for us was that we didn't have to go to Wild & Free. Of course, all the other moms in W & F were super excited to take their kids sledding and I was just like, no, I'm not going out in this weather. But my kids don't need to know that! I was grateful to have the morning to do school because I already have no idea how we're supposed to get school done this week so I needed the time.  I had to run out and pick up the 3D printer we bought Jonas for his birthday and as I was walking out of Micro Center all I could think was that I was going to get robbed, carrying this enormous, expensive thing to the car by myself in the snow. It would have been so easy. Thankfully, that was just my imagination and I did get it home safely. :) I stopped at Starbucks and grabbed 10 $10 gift cards to give my Wednesday employees. I'm so grateful to them all for being there that I just wanted to do ...

We went to CT this morning and it was so nice to sit in on the teaching. I feel like I rarely get to do that. It was a good one! I spent some time talking to a couple of friends and then Ben and the kids were like, why are we still here? Can we please leave? So, without any further visiting, we headed out and grabbed some food on the way home.  I finally finished decorating for Christmas after we got home, so now it looks very festive in here. We spent the afternoon relaxing and it really has just been a rejuvenating four days. I'm so grateful for this time I've had over this holiday! It makes me want to go to Delaware even less, knowing that it will not be relaxing at all. * I didn't take any photos today, but found this one from two years ago that's so cute. 

We did some school this morning but had to end early because I was signed up to serve at Lighthouse as the lunch monitor today. I hated it so much. All the girls had to come because I couldn't leave them home alone for an hour and a half and they were fine with it because it felt like a social event to them. I had to walk around the building over and over and over again, watching the kids to make sure they were behaving themselves. It sucked, but then it was finally over! I cleaned up, collected the trash and had the girls carry it downstairs while I gathered my stuff. Well, I get down there, thinking we're leaving, and Ollie says that her bag ripped open and something yucky spilled all over the floor. SO instead of leaving, I found some cleaning supplies and spent the next 20 minutes squatting on the ground, cleaning up someone's coffee that they dumped into the trash can with the thin trash bags. Good times! I was so freaking annoyed. And Ollie felt guilty, which sucked b...