Photo Journal - Josie Boettcher

Today was a big, family-centered day. I mean, they all are at Cherrystone, but we had our Bowman family cornhole competition and our everyone family dinner today. So, before all of that kicked off, Ben and I took the kids to the pool. It made me a little grumpy because I don't like rushing out of the house in the morning, especially on vacation. But Ben's vacation mode and my vacation mode are very different. He always wants to be doing something and I really want to take the opportunity to do nothing. But then I feel guilty sitting around at home while he takes the kids places. Therefore, I rushed out of the house with everyone to be at the pool when it opened. We hung out for about an hour and then came back to eat lunch before the competition started.  I'm no pro at cornhole. I'm decent - probably like lower, middle-of-the-road. Normally, I'm paired up with someone much better than me and we can make it towards the top of the 15 teams. However, this time I was pa...

Today was a great day. It was raining in the morning, so things started off very slow. I got caught up on my blog, edited all of my pictures I've taken so far, took the kids to a craft at 11, fed everyone lunch while the girls played out in the rain with Bailey, then took all the kids (including Bailey) to tie-dye shirts in the early afternoon. It was just really relaxed and fun. In the evening, we had dinner with the Ted Bowman people, then went to the pool really quickly in the evening. Perfect first full day in Cherrystone! 

We made it! We got up at 5:20am and got into the car at around 6:20am. The trip felt long. I was so sleepy and every time I wanted to go to sleep, Ben would tell me he was about to fall asleep, so I didn't feel like I could nap very much. Ollie was bored. She tried to contain her complaining, but she started asking how much longer every five minutes on the second half of the trip. I just hate having to drive so far to everything we do. It drives me nuts. Ben had me drive for the last stretch and it was, of course, the traffic stretch. But thank God I was driving because Ben gets really angry in traffic and, this way, we were all still in reasonably good moods when we arrived. It is hot and muggy. I wish there was a breeze, but the cottage is air conditioned and I spent most of the afternoon getting it unpacked and organized. I went to bed with Ollie around 10:30pm (crazy!!!) and Ben and Jonas stayed out at the fire with Eddie. Ruby slept in dad and MJs camper and Clem went to bed o...

It was the ultimate prep day and it was terrible!!!! I didn't stop moving from 9am until 10:30pm. Ben was having the most chill work from home day ever, chilling and looking at news, and listening to music, and playing games on his phone. Here I am, rushing around sweating, crying at times, completely panicking. It was really an awful day and I wanted to cancel the whole damn trip for most of it. It felt impossible to get everything into the car. We ended up taking a seat out, at Jonas's suggestion and, honestly, it's the only reason we were able to get everything in. It rained on and off all day, but I managed to get outside and harvest a bunch of stuff from the garden. I had to take hours of valuable time to process it all before it went bad, which was anxiety-inducing. I would have been so excited about it if I hadn't had to rush! But I'm drying the calendula and chamomile for later - salve and tea, respectively. I'm using the daisies for a bruise balm and go...

Today was kind of prep for packing day. Christina took Clem and Ollie to the pool with her and they were gone from 11am - 8pm, Jonas was at camp still, so it was just me and Ruby, running errands. Ruby said she felt like she hadn't been home enough lately, so she didn't want to go to the pool with the McKeans. We ended up running errands for a couple of hours and throwing a date in there too. I finally read the next chapter in Talking to Your Kids about God and we discussed that together while eating donuts at the new Dunkin' on Fishinger. Then we got to Target and did a big camping shopping trip and got Ruby one of those Butterfly Tea drinks. THEN we went to the library and picked up our books and then we finally got to go home! Of course, I shouldn't have relaxed because I have a million things to do before we leave on Saturday morning, but I did take an hour to sit and read before getting back to work. It was a long day and I do not feel even close to being ready for...

We went to the Scott's pool today and spent pretty much the entire day there. It wasn't quite as silent and awkward as usual. Christina was in more of a talking mood. However, there was some awkwardness because I got there long, LONG before Sarah and the girl at the front didn't want to let me in. Then she came and found me at my seat and warned me to not come before the person whose guest I was. It was pretty uncomfortable! I just wanted to leave, but the girls would have pitched a fit.  I went and grabbed all of the counselors from GEM after the pool, then we had dinner and then went to small group. Guess how many people showed up tonight. 17! I had 7. Crazy. Coincidence?? I sure hope so! But I think not. Ben's teaching went well and the people we were in our small, small group with complimented both he and I on our teachings and told us they were really excited to see an actual deep dive and have actual answers to questions they had about the chapters. I really appre...

Such a great day! We went to W&F this morning for the first time in forever, but it was great. I spent most of my time catching up with Claire, but got to talk to Anne for a while, along with her sister Kate, and Brittany. I am just so comfortable with the whole group. I almost can't believe I was thinking about quitting. The kids will just have to suck it up and go hiking with me every Tuesday, whether they like it or not! Jillian is going to be out for the next year, which is a bummer, but Clem hasn't been enjoying her time with Violet lately anyway. She thinks Violet is getting mean.  After Wild & Free, I did some stuff at home, then went grocery shopping, then picked up five kids from camp and dropped them all off, then prepped dinner for the rest of the evening until David and Mackenzie showed up! I wasn't sure what to expect from tonight. I was a little nervous because I had never even spoken to David really before, but it was a wonderful night. We got along w...