Photo Journal - Josie Boettcher

Another busy day. I’m so sick of them! But I haven’t figured out anything I can cut out yet, so I’ll just have to keep doing it. Very close to cutting out school! Haha just for a couple of days…and I probably won’t even do it. I’m just tempted. We only got a little bit of school done this morning because our new couch came!!! And then we were all excited about that, which put us back an hour or so. I worked with the girls until noon, but then we needed to get ready to go to the open gym time. It was much more calm this week, thankfully. To the point of being boring, honestly! I wish I would have brought a game or something. Too much talking about kids for my taste. But the kiddos had a great time playing with their friends and it was fine. We didn’t get home until after 3 and then the kids talked me into playing my game for an hour. Then dinner happened, then I was out the door for HC! It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve gone. I shouldn’t have allowed myself to feel awkward and cons...

Our loaner car doesn't fit us all, so I just took the kids who wanted to go to church today over to CT. Not that Ben would have gone, since now he feels weird being around people. *sigh* It was a good morning. It's always nice to sit in on a teaching! And I got to visit with Brit for a few minutes, which was def a bonus. We didn't stay afterward to hang out for long, but we never do. Just too dang hungry! It was a pretty unremarkable afternoon and evening. The kids went to home church and I cleaned around the house. Just gearing up for another busy week! Ollie finally pulled out that super wiggly front tooth of hers!

Ben's game day got cancelled this morning because of too many people having the stomach bug. Yuck! It was kind of nice to have the morning at home, though. I ended up taking Ollie on a date to Chick Fil A, then we went to Home Depot and bought a bird feeder and some seed to set up together. Let's hope the Squirrel B Gone keeps the squirrels away! I hate all these dang squirrels. The afternoon was so amazing and inspiring and fantastic. We went to Lower Lights Christian Health Center to serve a community dinner, and it was just great. We worked with a few of the people from the Meadow Park small group and served drinks and salad and pizza, but what was cool was the little snippets of conversations we got to have and just being involved in something that is outside of our Ohio normal, but felt very regular in our DE life. For most of my college career, I was working towards opening my own community center someday. I was learning grant writing and worked and volunteered at communi...

Well, nobody in the house has gotten sick still, so I'm feeling optimistic that it might have missed us! We'll keep hoping and praying for that. We got our week of school finished up this morning and it was actually a pretty good day. Nobody but Ollie argued about getting things done and it all went smoothly. I'm hoping next week will be more relaxed so I can get school done on time, but with the way things have been going lately I'm not feeling very optimistic about it. I was thinking about hosting the Grants and the McKeans over here for some hang out time this afternoon, but I texted Christina to cancel, since we were planning on having them over for dinner and the house is a complete mess. During our text convo, though, she revealed that Emma started throwing up last night! So, they cancelled. We need to get that rescheduled though, because I will completely let it slip from my mind if I don't. I still spent the day cleaning up, but the kids convinced me to star...

Today ended with absolute bullshit. But it started well, at least! We went to CACH this morning and class went great. Haha mostly because half of my kids were out sick! It was wonderful. There were only five of us and it was so chill and so nice. We made rainsticks and had a great time. Then I went to help with the self-defense class and she actually let them do physical stuff today! I got to encourage the kids to hit me as hard as they could while I blocked 😅. A little nerve-wracking and slightly painful, but fun for them! We headed home after group and I had to leave in the next five minutes to get to the car appt.  So. The car appointment. I have been operating over the last week thinking that nothing was actually wrong with the car; that some electronic thing malfunctioned and they just needed to turn it off, then back on. I dropped the car off and went into the waiting room. It took suspiciously long. Hours and hours of sitting in the waiting room with no update, just wonderi...

The morning was pretty relaxing and productive, and even the time at the library went well today. Jonas and Clem went to their speech club and the girls and I finished up school work. We dropped Jonas off at Jiu-Jitsu afterward and then I totally forgot to pick him up. *face palm* Very embarrassing! I was engrossed in my puzzle for a while, then I started prepping food for our small group dinner tonight. I just had a thought eventually, like, I wonder when Jonas will get home. Then it occurred to me that I was supposed to pick him up a half hour before!!! So I ran out and got him. He was very, very annoyed with me. Ooops!  The afternoon was good because I made the girls skip choir. The choir was going to sing for an Ash Wednesday service at the church they're affiliated with, and I just hate the pressure the kids feel to be involved in those things. So I just skipped it altogether this time. I was texting with Lauren about stuff and she told me Helena was up all last night throwing...

We stayed home from Wild & Free today because we had to wait for our furniture delivery, and it sounds like we really dodged a bullet! Claire texted to tell me that her and the boys were covered in mud by the end of the hike. She said it was super slippery, muddy, and icy for the entire two miles. Whew! So glad we didn't go to that! AND....new furniture came!!!! The kids are so excited that everything reclines and so am I! It does take up more space and it's really annoying that the kids feel like they need to lay down every time they're sitting right now, but it's just the first day, so it probably won't always be like that. :) The guys were super friendly and they ended up unboxing and putting everything together, which we did NOT pay for, so that was super exciting! It was tough to get back to school work after that! But we did it. :) We had pizza and a movie night on the new furniture today and we finished the Mysterious Benedict Society . It's sad to sa...

Ben was off today, but he told me that he thought we should still do school, so I did what the board of director told me to do. And the kids were pissed. So mad! We got school done anyway, and spent the rest of the day relaxing. I had considered going to HC tonight, but I honestly just did not feel like dealing with parking at Rachel's. I know that's pretty pathetic, but it's true. The new furniture is coming tomorrow! So we had to get the room cleared out and ready for the delivery in the morning.  *The girls created a ballet just for us! It was beautiful. :)

I t was my morning to serve at CT, so we all went today. Ben was dreading it because he feels like he needs to sit with our HC, but he is feeling super awkward because he won't talk to anyone in HC about what he's feeling about church. I feel for him. On the one hand, he feels like he's so open and willing to talk, but on the other, he has such a limited amount of topics he's willing to actually discuss and barely any of them have anything to do with his feelings! So he's alienating himself from a group of people he loves because he's perceiving disapproval...when most of them probably have no idea what's even going on. And maybe they will disapprove, but if he loves them, he should give them that chance. At least that's my opinion. I agree that it's hard to talk about, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't. He gave conversation a half-hearted attempt, he said, and hung out with HC for about 10 minutes afterward, but waited in the car for me to ...

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!! I had a bit of a panic last night and this morning. One of my Saturday workers texted at 11pm to tell me that she was too sick to come in this morning, so I got up at 7am to start texting subs. Praise the Lord, one of them was able to cover for her! I had decided I was just going to cancel child care for today if I couldn't get a sub. I did not want to spend this morning at work! But, thankfully, it did not come to that.  I spent the morning relaxing and puzzling, then Ben and I ran out to Giant Eagle to get ingredients for our big, seafood, Valentine's dinner. I spent most of the afternoon cooking. Here was the menu: Salad with strawberries and candied pecans w/ poppyseed salad dressing, cheddar bay biscuits, shrimp cocktail, crab cakes, lobster bisque, and shrimp scampi. We also got cheesecake for dessert! Ben set out candles to make everything all pretty and romantic and the kids really enjoyed the fanciness of everything. :) I had totally forgot...

Another very cool opportunity today! We got to go to the ballet!!!! It was beautiful and wonderful and entertaining, BUT we all would have been happy if it had ended 15 minutes sooner. The seats were really cramped and my toes were falling asleep. 😅 But, wow. WOW! We had to leave the house around 9:15 to get there in time, and Christina followed us there, since she's not comfortable driving and parking around the city. We couldn't find her once we parked, which delayed us another 5-10 minutes, but we did finally get there! We ended up having to wait for a bunch more families to show up before we could be seated anyway, so our few minutes late didn't matter, after all.  It feels so good that it's Friday and it felt so impossible to do any work once we got home from the long morning, so we just took the rest of the day off and I started my new puzzle! We don't have any plans this weekend. It should be fun! 

This week is a complete lost cause, school-wise. We are not getting a damn thing done. I freaking quit. Well, I don't quit, but I am really discouraged! We have stuff to do CONSTANTLY and I'm never able to just sit at home and get our school stuff done! However, all of the things we're doing are good things. What am I supposed to do? We just don't seem to be able to get anything done in the afternoons. Maybe I need to start doing school at night? I feel like I could be productive again after dinner. But it feels like I'd have a rebellion on my hands if I tried to do that. 😅  Today was the Valentine's Day party with CACH and we did squeeze in a little bit of school, pre-party. But not much. I had to finish making all the valentines and I had to cook the food I planned to bring to the party so...just not a lot of time for anything else! The party was actually fun. I often don't get to have meaningful conversations with people, but I had several today, and tha...

Well, I realized late last night that I skipped my hangout with Kylienne yesterday. *face palm* Very unfortunate for such a fragile relationship! I heard back from her this morning and she was pragmatic, as usual. She said we could just reschedule and it was no big deal. *shrug* I feel like I would have been much more annoyed! But, on the other hand, I also would have texted to remind my friend that we were supposed to hang out. So...it's almost 95% her fault. 😆 Just kidding, of course!  Today was my typical crazy Wednesday. We did as much school as we could until we had to leave for speech and debate club at 11, then me and the younger two did more school at the library. But, really, we just didn't get much done. It was too short of a time and the girls were very distracted. We left a short while later to bring Jonas to BJJ. We thought we'd stay there and hang out, but the girls were starving so we ended up going home in the middle and then I came back to get Jonas after ...

While Clem was away this past weekend, I spent a few hours working on her miniature kitchen she got for Christmas. We were working on it together, but it turns out she just doesn't have a lot of interest in building these miniature sets! She just wants to decorate them and put her stuff in them. So, I thought I'd surprise her. She was very surprised and very excited! However, she seemed to take it for granted that I would keep doing these for her, because she ordered two MORE sets for me to do! You know, to round out her miniatures house. 😅 I don't really mind, as long as she doesn't give me a timeline.  We went to a midday play group at Meadow Park church today, from 1-3, and it was WILD. Last week was pretty chill, but this time was chaos. It was nice to see Leslie and Kara again, but there were also six or seven other moms there with their multiple children and it was kind of a shitshow. Thankfully, next Monday is a holiday, so it's cancelled!  Ben grudgingly w...

I felt so conflicted today because I AM super stressed and I AM super overwhelmed, but opportunities like this are exactly why I homeschool! So we went to Wild & Free today, rather than getting our actual work done and met everyone at the Battelle Darby Creek Nature Center for a program made SPECIFICALLY for our group! We got to learn about cold-blooded reptiles and even pet them! The kids were so excited, and I was ecstatic to be there. Such a cool opportunity.  Clem made up a whole song about getting McDonald's (I wish I had recorded it 😆), so I caved and bought them food on the way home. Then we did school for a while, but half-heartedly because it was already afternoon and we were all pooped already! We decided to do pizza and a movie night tonight, since it looked like there would be no other nights this week we could do it. We continued watching The Mysterious Benedict Society . Such a fun show!

Predictably, choosing not to go to CT while feeling sick made Ruby furious with me. It made Ollie feel thrilled though, so I guess it balanced out. :) We just sat around doing nothing today. Trying to feel better! The girls played and I puzzled (I finished it!). We watched TV. It was really not an exciting day. But Jonas and Clem came home! So we went to get them, then grabbed a quick meal at Jason's Deli, which Ben regretted almost immediately, stomach-wise, and we had to rush home for him to go to the bathroom. *sigh* *This is a photo Christina took yesterday. Ollie looks miserable!

None of us are feeling great, so I had to cancel plans with the Browns for dinner tonight, which was a bummer. I don't know. Ben doesn't feel like going, but I think they've been good friends to us and I don't want to cut off relationships, even if we do end up in another home church (or church). So we rescheduled for a couple of weekends out. Hopefully we'll be better by then! I have no idea what this is. Ben is throwing up today, I've had bad stomach cramps and diarrhea, Ollie is congested and had a fever last night and Ruby and Jonas still have congestion. Such random symptoms! Emma's birthday party was today and Christina told us to come even if we're not feeling well. Pretty crazy how some people literally couldn't care less about getting sick. *shrug* The girls still really wanted to go, so I took them while Ben convalesced. It was actually a lot of fun for me...and the girls, I guess. 😅 I was consistently having conversations, which I really ...

I started feeling pretty crappy yesterday, along with a couple other people in the family, so it was a mostly at-home kind of day. Sadly, I had to cancel with Jenny for today, when it feels like we haven't seen each other in forever. I did have to get Jonas and Clem to speech club, since they missed it Wednesday, but it was more of a drop off this time. When they got back, Jonas and Clem started packing because they have their home church retreat this weekend! Of course, I was slightly panicked (aka crying in the car) because it snowed another couple of inches this morning and they're driving out into the middle of nowhere where the roads may not be plowed and the risks of getting into an accident with their young, college-aged mentors are much higher!!! But they ended up getting there safely, which was a huge relief for me. I hope they have a great time! 

CACH day! I love it there. I mean, teaching a class isn't my favorite thing to do, but I think what I chose for this semester is right up my alley. I enjoy doing crafts and it's fun to choose simple, hour-long projects that these girls can handle. It's a bit of prep but worth it. Class went pretty well today. I made somebody cry for reprimanding them when they were going crazy with the acrylic paint. Honestly, I did not feel bad. I apologized for speaking harshly with her and told her I'd be more gentle in the future, BUT the rules are the rules, and she's old enough that I expect her to follow them. She cheered up a little after I encouraged her about her project, and she didn't seem to hold onto any resentment, so I guess it's all good? I had a quick convo with her mom afterward to let her know what happened and she didn't seem upset but said that her daughter is pretty sensitive to any correction. I guess it just rattled me because I don't make ot...

CRAZIEST DAY EVER. First was our goodbyes to mommom and popppop, then we rushed out the door to get to the parent meeting. Ollie stayed home because she hasn't been feeling well, so the other three went to their respective rooms to help out. All of my workers and volunteers showed up! And the rooms were full, but it wasn't crazy, crazy. Just regular crazy. When it ended, we had just enough time to grab McDonald's, get the girls dropped off at home, then get Jonas to Jiu Jitsu. I decided to sit there and hang out since I haven't gotten a chance to catch up with Marcela in a while. We got back from that, I relaxed for a half hour or so, then I took Ruby and Clem to carol choir. We decided to spring for dinner out at DQ, then we went to small group after that. Right now, it just feels so much easier than HC because Ben is comfortable there at this point. We didn't hang out forever because Ben's nerve pain has been really, really bad lately and his eye is hurting hi...

I woke up to breakfast in bed this morning, and it was amazing. Ben got up early and went to a biscuit place nearby AND to Starbucks to get me tea. It was so sweet and I felt so spoiled. When we left the hotel, we went around to a couple of stores in and around Polaris, then headed to our movie at 11:30. So, we're about 30 minutes into Anaconda and the movie turns off and the lights come on!! I got super annoyed and Ben went out to complain. After a WHOLE thing, the manager pointed out that the tickets I bought were for 2:30 , not 11:30! When they don't have any tickets sold for a movie, they shut it off. They did turn it back on for us, but it was a very frustrating situation and we missed 15 minutes of the movie! Alas, mistakes happen and it WAS my fault, after all.  I was kind of panicked when we got home because I had forgotten to get an email out about the parent meeting tomorrow, asking for volunteers. So I did that, first thing, then started prepping dinner and doing la...

*sigh* It's the first week of the month, which means super busyness allll week long, and I am not happy about it! Today really started with a bang. We did school in the morning, since it might be one of the only days we have time to do it, and Jonas headed to Lighthouse. Then, I had to do stupid lunch duty with Lighthouse (THE WORST THING EVER) but since it was at the same time as this open gym/game time for CACH, I had my parents bring the girls over and then met them after my torture was done. So I guess lunch duty isn't actual torture, but...it sucks. The game time was fun though! I was so surprised to see Leslie there when I walked in! Kara invited her along, which was so fun. Another lady that I know from small group was there too, and my parents, of course. It was a really fun time! But I couldn't stay long because Ben and I had our night away!!!  He finished up work around 3 and we left shortly after that to check into our hotel. The plan was for him to run, shower, ...

So crazy, I never, like literally NEVER, want to go to CT anymore but when I'm there, I'm so glad to be there. I'm always so grateful for good conversations and have a great time visiting with friends. Today was no different. I did not want to get up and go, but I'm really glad that I did. We didn't spend any time visiting with HC afterward, since my parents were with us...and because Ben doesn't want to do that anymore, but it was a good morning, and everyone felt like it was a great teaching.  The rest of the day was pretty chill. It's crazy just how much time my parents will spend on their phones. Hours and hours, just sitting on the couch, staring at their phones. It's wild! 

Today was such a nice, relaxing day! We had a slow morning, then me and MJ went out to lunch at Kitchen Social. As always, it was packed and I didn't like my waiter OR my seat, BUT the FOOD!!! So dang good. Those biscuits are the things dreams are made of. *drool* Ben went on a couple of dates with kids today...he squeezed it in right before the end of the month!  Clem was invited to the Calumet dance by a couple of her friends that go there and she was so excited to be included! She was adorable in her little "western" outfit (that was the theme of the dance) and reported that she had the BEST TIME EVER when we went to pick her up. I'm so glad she has good friends who thought of her and invited her along! Her first dance!!

Marme called me late last night and asked if they could come today instead of tomorrow. Apparently, where they were headed, North Carolina, was expected to have a snowstorm this weekend. The house is not exactly guest ready, but what choice did I have but to say yes! So they got here just before dinner. And that was pretty much my day. We had speech club in the early afternoon, but I mostly just did meal prep and cleaned. I made chicken tikka masala and naan for dinner and it was sooooooo good.