Document folder disappeared from Ventura, only is on iCloud

I've done plenty of searches of this problem. I'm on Ventura 13.2. In finder, there is no "preferences" option in the drop-down, only "settings". Documents was not, but now IS checked on the Finder sidebar settings after which I restarted finder and my mac, since the doc folder did not immediately, or ever, appear. I then read to go to apple system preferences - icloud. My apple dropdown is system settings, then I have to click on my apple id to get to a screen that has icloud. I'm told to disable Desktop & Documents within icloud. I did that, but was not given an option to keep a copy. How can I get a copy of the docs folder back on my mac?