Photo Journal - Josie Boettcher

Today was a less fun one. 😅 It was insufferably hot. Like, more hot than any person can take, I think. Stepping out of our cabin door was like stepping straight into a sauna. So disgusting, sweaty, and nasty all day.  Ben and I went on a date to a restaurant with really delicious food, but his hangover came a'knockin' right in the middle of his meal and he could barely eat anything. We cut the date short so he could get home and go to the bathroom. Coincidentally, I started cramping and bleeding at almost the exact same time! Hooray! So it was good we were home, but still kind of sad having such a brief date.  I took the kids to the pool after we got home and it was incredibly crowded and sunny and hot. Did I mention yet how hot it was today?? So gross. And hot. We were in the warm bath of a pool for a couple of hours before I couldn't stand it any longer and left. Not much else happened! It was a slow, hot day and we were all a little bummed that Ted's family and Skyl...

Today was a fun one. We broke our normal routine and didn’t head to the pool in the morning. We had a big bowman family cornhole competition starting at 11 that Ben and I both participated in. It was a blind match-up and I was with Eddie. I was so nervous he was going to be pissed, but we actually worked well together! I think there were 13 teams and we ended up in 5th, which is way better than I ever thought any team I was on would do. We even beat Ben’s team.  After the competition was over, we all headed to the pool for a couple of hours and then I made dinner for all of the Ted Bowman people. The kids kept themselves pretty well occupied today, thankfully. Skyla and Brandon left mid-afternoon and Ted and fam are heading out tomorrow. I wish they weren’t leaving early. The kids enjoy their girls so much. After dinner, the kids’ crappy, entitled behavior finally got to me and I just kind of cracked. I had a whole hissy fit in the cabin and was on the verge of tears. Every day on ...

Today was a typical Cherrystone day: swimming in the morning (and in the evening), sweating, trips to the store, eating with family, etc. I was kind of hoping it would be a good date day for us, but Ben was hungover so...not a great day for a date! Cherrystone hosted a family dance night that was fun. Me and the girls got our grooves on for almost 2 hours on the dance floor. :) I was one of the only adults out there, but I don't even care! You can't play a party line dance song that I won't dance to. lol 

It kind of felt like the first real day here, since Saturday was spent unpacking and setting up and yesterday was a rain day. We had a typical Cherrystone day: pool, wandering, eating with family, going to activities. It was fun. I spent a lot of time hanging out with MJ. Ben is mad because I don't want to play cards. He really wants me to convince someone to play cards with us, but I don't even want to do it! He's getting super frustrated. Maybe I'll see if someone wants to play tomorrow. *sigh* We went over to these bouncy pillows and, for the first time ever, I actually got on them. I was sitting back watching and then I thought, what did I lose all this weight for? I thought the point was so that I wasn't sitting, watching my family live, but was PARTICIPATING in that living!! So, I took my shoes off and hopped on. It only lasted about 5 minutes before Ben scared me off and I got super dizzy, but I did it! I got on. I participated. I'm proud of myself.  We h...

Whew! Days off of work make me want to quit. I should be at CT right now and it feels so good to not be there. Kind of bummed I didn't give myself two Sundays off for this trip, but that's life. I didn't really need them both, just don't want to rush back a few hours after I get home from my trip. Today was a rainy day and rainy days in Cherrystone are NO GOOD. Nobody has a big enough space to host a bunch of other people, so we basically all go our own ways until we can be outside again. In truth, it wasn't terrible. Our family sat under our canopy and on the covered porch, hanging out, watching the rain, reading, and listening to music until it got too bad and we had to retreat inside. We had a couple of breaks in the rain, when people would go off to mommom and poppop's. Jonas ran over to Bingo in the rain too. But Ben and I pretty much just stayed here. We did go to an acoustic concert at the pavilion later that evening. It was fun, but we were nearly the on...

Well, I finally broke my streak. For the first time in 2023, I did not take any photos OR write my blog. I feel weird about it. Like, disappointed in myself? But why? It's my own, personal thing. Why am I making myself feel guilty for having two days when I didn't check in?  Anyway, Jonas came home from camp yesterday...FINALLY. It was hard having him gone. I really missed him and felt concerned that something would go wrong or he would get sad and I wouldn't be there to help. But, ALSO, functionally it was harder. You'd think having one kid out of the equation would make things easier, but that just wasn't the case. He wasn't there to handle his end of the chores and I usually have him help us with packing and prepping for trips. He said that it might have been the best week of his life though, so....I guess that's worth me being a little sad for a week.  We got to Cherrystone today! We ended up leaving the house at 5:30am and it was pretty terrible. But I ...

Man, I'm starting to feel a bit drained. The heat is so yucky and the girls have been fighting a lot. Trying to handle everything peacefully really takes a lot out of me! It's very sad, but it's true. My default is to snap at them or make some decisive action that hushes everyone up so I can have peace and quiet and, while that works for me, I worry that my kids were feeling unheard, so I've been trying to do better or at least different. It's exhausting and I also have this nagging insecurity that flares up every time my kids get on my nerves saying, 'You shouldn't be homeschooling them. Look at how awful you are. You can't even stand a few weeks in the summer!' I'm trying to fight it off and tell myself it's not true. I'm trying to pray about it, asking for confidence and stamina. I want to be successful for all of our sakes, but I'm so afraid that in the end I'll fail everyone. And, on that happy note, the day goes on! I had to...