Happy 5th to Christopher and NR-Anna

[Dandruff]

I am cynical, and I think Christopher and NR Anna's kids are not featured as often as the ABCDs simply because the ABCD kids are more photogenic.  They chose a single grandchild, Bethany, for the new cover of Keeping Our Children's Hearts.  She also happens to be the most photogenic of the ABCDs.  Steve is a businessman.  He knows what moves his merchandise.

Slightly OT but I have to say, I can't imagine having 8 grandchildren and then choosing only one to put on the cover of my reissued book.  Bethany is a gorgeous child, but she is one of eight.  Putting her on alone was a straight up marketing decision.

I would have found the book cover more appealing if all of the grandchildren were featured. Like, look at all our wonderful blessings! As it is, the picture they did choose of Bethany is not the best of her, even though she is photogenic. 

My grandmother has always had favorite children and grandchildren, but I think even she likes to brag about all of them at some point. Hell, it's the large number that makes her feel proud. 

Perhaps Steve thinks his grandchild number is too low at this point? 

More likely his grandson number.  I doubt he's feeling the lack of more granddaughters.

[nausicaa]

I am cynical, and I think Christopher and NR Anna's kids are not featured as often as the ABCDs simply because the ABCD kids are more photogenic.  They chose a single grandchild, Bethany, for the new cover of Keeping Our Children's Hearts.  She also happens to be the most photogenic of the ABCDs.  Steve is a businessman.  He knows what moves his merchandise.

Slightly OT but I have to say, I can't imagine having 8 grandchildren and then choosing only one to put on the cover of my reissued book.  Bethany is a gorgeous child, but she is one of eight.  Putting her on alone was a straight up marketing decision.

Having one child on the cover does make the book cover look more professional (rather than a photo that looks like a family snapshot), and Bethany is obviously gorgeous, but they should've chosen a professional photo of a child model. It's too weird for the grand kids to deal with such obvious favoritism. 

[anjulibai]

Speaking of group pictures, I'm surprised they haven't done (or at least posted) the yearly family ones like they used to. Every year they'd get a shot of everyone together, along with some individual pictures to update their profiles on the blog. They haven't done that in quite a while. I wonder why. 

[Arete]

I think that usually happens around Thanksgiving.

[SamuraiKatz]

It's been 5 years since the Maxwells, as Sarah put it

enjoyed standing with Christopher and Anna Marie as they covenanted before the Lord Jesus and witnesses.

I predict the event will be celebrated with a family meal and special family bible time.

Wonders what makes Special Family Bible Time diferrent from.Every Day Family Bible Time? [emoji6]

[Handmaiden of Dog]

[snip]

Having one child on the cover does make the book cover look more professional (rather than a photo that looks like a family snapshot), and Bethany is obviously gorgeous, but they should've chosen a professional photo of a child model. It's too weird for the grand kids to deal with such obvious favoritism. 

Heavens!  That would mean paying for a stock photo!  Why do that when you can use your own grandchild for free?

[Naga Viper]

I would think the bigger issue with a stock photo would be that they'd never know if the child model was godly enough.

[catlady]

Why oh why did Christopher wear his phone on his belt for an anniversary picture? It just looks so ridiculous. 

i nearly choked on my tea when i saw that photo, because Mr. CL just bought the exact same type of case this weekend.

[lilith]

On 10/24/2015 at 11:48 PM, anjulibai said:

Speaking of group pictures, I'm surprised they haven't done (or at least posted) the yearly family ones like they used to. Every year they'd get a shot of everyone together, along with some individual pictures to update their profiles on the blog. They haven't done that in quite a while. I wonder why. 

It's obviously not been scheduled for posting yet. Can't be spontaneous in Maxhell

[Justme]

I wonder if Chris and Anna don't want their children's pictures shown in the blog very often. They may want to maintain a little privacy. Sarah has said in the past she has asked for permission to post pictures of Nat's kids.

[Palimpsest]

^{Sarah's creative development of new verbs will never cease to bring wonderment to my eyes.}

I looked it up and apparently "covenanted" is a real word. I wouldn't have thought so either, but hey.

Also, there is an extremely detailed review on Amazon for one of her books. It was quite sad because this person was genuinely perplexed at the interests and actions of the children and how the father was harsh and somewhat disengaged. I am not sure if the author of the review realized that the unrealistic way Sarah's characters talk is a result of her isolation from not only culture but any other peers, and that the family dynamics are merely a reflection of the terrible entrapment she must still endure even as an adult. 

 

Even if the author was an FJer or of another snark background, I hope Sarah reads that review. Not that it would do anything in reality. If someone else brought this up already, I apologize. 

It might have been a review by an FJer.  We actually had a long discussion about how to review Summer with the Moodys fairly and constructively, while still honestly pointing out the major flaws for unsuspecting buyers.  Bottom line, it's badly written propaganda for the Church of Steve.  

I think we decided that some of the harsher and mean spirited critical reviews were not written by FJ members.  There are a couple of vicious reviews there, like the person "assuming" that Sarah is a child.  However noticing that the Moody father was omnipresent and harsh and the mother apparently totally disengaged was fair game to most of us.

Rest assured though, Sarah did not read any negative or constructive reviews .  If you look at the comments, Steve not Sarah responded to a few.   He was asking for emails with specifics on where the grammatical errors were because, per Steve, the book had been  "professionally edited" (by other Maxwells naturally).  I eventually broke down and sent him a few examples, but there are too many errors for me to cover them all without demanding payment for my time!  Sarah needs to fire her editors.

It's been 5 years since the Maxwells, as Sarah put it

enjoyed standing with Christopher and Anna Marie as they covenanted before the Lord Jesus and witnesses.

 

I predict the event will be celebrated with a family meal and special family bible time.

 

 

Wonders what makes Special Family Bible Time diferrent from.Every Day Family Bible Time?

Special Bible Time is even longer.

[Eternalbluepearl]

Why oh why did Christopher wear his phone on his belt for an anniversary picture? It just looks so ridiculous. 

i nearly choked on my tea when i saw that photo, because Mr. CL just bought the exact same type of case this weekend.

I couldn't believe he didn't take his phone off for the picture. Maybe he thinks it makes him appear successful? 

[Justme]

Why oh why did Christopher wear his phone on his belt for an anniversary picture? It just looks so ridiculous. 

i nearly choked on my tea when i saw that photo, because Mr. CL just bought the exact same type of case this weekend.

I couldn't believe he didn't take his phone off for the picture. Maybe he thinks it makes him appear successful? 

Or, he doesn't realize we ALL have one. This isn't 15 years ago ... 

[Elegant Mess]

Wow!  It's hard to believe that it has been five years since the Great Nuptials 'O Death!

That wedding truly had all the markers of a Maxwell wedding:  preaching by Stevehovah, off-tune singing, and (OMG!) the kiss that was practically nonexistent.  That's a wedding I really wish MamaJunebug could have crashed for us.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

Christopher should watch out or he will make an idol of that phone. 

If he's in IT the phone is his master, not his idol.  Or does he just take lousy pics and leave the IT stuff to Nathan?  I'll be honest, I kinda melded them into the same person in my head...eliminate the distinction without a difference.

[SPHASH]

Why oh why did Christopher wear his phone on his belt for an anniversary picture? It just looks so ridiculous. 

i nearly choked on my tea when i saw that photo, because Mr. CL just bought the exact same type of case this weekend.

I couldn't believe he didn't take his phone off for the picture. Maybe he thinks it makes him appear successful? 

Or, he doesn't realize we ALL have one. This isn't 15 years ago ... 

I've had a cell phone since 1998, and       dropped my land line in 2001.

[VodouDoll]

Oh no, WHY is his belt phone front and center in his anniversary photo? Christopher! Someone is taking a nice picture of you and your wife! Take off your damned phone for five minutes! It looks so weird.

[kpmom]

Christopher should watch out or he will make an idol of that phone. 

If he's in IT the phone is his master, not his idol.  Or does he just take lousy pics and leave the IT stuff to Nathan?  I'll be honest, I kinda melded them into the same person in my head...eliminate the distinction without a difference.

Tut tut.  Only Jesus (and Steve) is Christopher's master!

The Maxwells really like to point out how hard they work so maybe that's why he left the phone on his belt.

I honestly don't know what Christopher does besides take terrible pictures.  He didn't seem to be involved in One Ton Ramp.

His bio on their site is very vague. 

[sparkles]

Christopher should watch out or he will make an idol of that phone. 

If he's in IT the phone is his master, not his idol.  Or does he just take lousy pics and leave the IT stuff to Nathan?  I'll be honest, I kinda melded them into the same person in my head...eliminate the distinction without a difference.

Tut tut.  Only Jesus (and Steve) is Christopher's master!

The Maxwells really like to point out how hard they work so maybe that's why he left the phone on his belt.

I honestly don't know what Christopher does besides take terrible pictures.  He didn't seem to be involved in One Ton Ramp.

His bio on their site is very vague. 

Both Christopher and Jesse are involved with Joseph and Swift Otter as well as whatever else they do. 

From Swift Otter's website:

 

In addition, I am privileged to have two other talented members in the studio - Christopher and Jesse. Christopher handles most of our client interactions, is the project manager and is an excellent at quality assurance software testing. Jesse loves frontend work (the frontend of a website is what you see when you go to a website). He doesn’t just greatly enjoy frontend development, he is really good at it.

I find it interesting that for all of Steve yammering on about how successful his sons are, none of them has really made a go of ONE thing. It's a little bit here, a little bit there but essentially, it takes a lot of parts to make up that sum. IT, construction, irrigation, real estate, photography, and what else? If they were so danged successful, they wouldn't be all over the place.

[Palimpsest]

Christopher should watch out or he will make an idol of that phone. 

If he's in IT the phone is his master, not his idol.  Or does he just take lousy pics and leave the IT stuff to Nathan?  I'll be honest, I kinda melded them into the same person in my head...eliminate the distinction without a difference.

Tut tut.  Only Jesus (and Steve) is Christopher's master!

The Maxwells really like to point out how hard they work so maybe that's why he left the phone on his belt.

I honestly don't know what Christopher does besides take terrible pictures.  He didn't seem to be involved in One Ton Ramp.

His bio on their site is very vague. 

Both Christopher and Jesse are involved with Joseph and Swift Otter as well as whatever else they do. 

From Swift Otter's website:

 

In addition, I am privileged to have two other talented members in the studio - Christopher and Jesse. Christopher handles most of our client interactions, is the project manager and is an excellent at quality assurance software testing. Jesse loves frontend work (the frontend of a website is what you see when you go to a website). He doesn’t just greatly enjoy frontend development, he is really good at it.

I find it interesting that for all of Steve yammering on about how successful his sons are, none of them has really made a go of ONE thing. It's a little bit here, a little bit there but essentially, it takes a lot of parts to make up that sum. IT, construction, irrigation, real estate, photography, and what else? If they were so danged successful, they wouldn't be all over the place.

The books. Steve and Teri's and all Sarah's Moody books are also published by Communications Concepts, Inc.

Do we have a master list of all the businesses, including the ones that have already folded, anywhere?  For some reason I think there were two irrigation projects with different logos at one point.

[princessmahina]

Really? They have Christopher in charge of client interactions? He seems to me (just from what I've seen on the blog and his condescending photography website) that he's the most dickish, most Steve-ish of all the kids. No wonder they need to branch out. Christopher is probably scaring away all their customers with his death speak and holier-than-thou attitude.

[nausicaa]

Really? They have Christopher in charge of client interactions? He seems to me (just from what I've seen on the blog and his condescending photography website) that he's the most dickish, most Steve-ish of all the kids. No wonder they need to branch out. Christopher is probably scaring away all their customers with his death speak and holier-than-thou attitude.

Seriously, right? Get John on that, stat! (And I'm not just saying that because he's the hottest, I swear.)

And I've noticed the same thing sparkles, the dabbling looks bad for their brand and also affects their income. Since Steve is such a control freak, I'm surprised he hasn't just assigned careers for the boys, like he did hobbies for the daughters. Even without education or natural talent, they're much more likely to see success if they pick one thing and really stick with it. 

[anjulibai]

I think the Preparing Sons book encourages dabbling.The examples it gave were of guys making money several different ways. I'm guessing Steve realizes that businesses fail at a pretty high rate. He knows that since likely one venture is not going to pan out, if you want to support a large family, you'll need to have more ventures your working on. 

[sparkles]

I think the Preparing Sons book encourages dabbling.The examples it gave were of guys making money several different ways. I'm guessing Steve realizes that businesses fail at a pretty high rate. He knows that since likely one venture is not going to pan out, if you want to support a large family, you'll need to have more ventures your working on. 

The problem with this approach though is that you end up being a jack-of-all-trades, master of none.  If you're constantly jumping from venture to venture, you really can't dive deep and you'll never really grow or command the kind of income that would support a large family. When I hire a professional, regardless of what field he or she is in, I don't want a dabbler, I want a specialist with knowledge and training. Construction and IT seem to be pretty secure businesses, yet they've had failures in both.

[JMO]

Isn't it time for her to be pregnant again?  I think their youngest is 6 months old.  I'm betting on a rattle by Christmas.  

Sarah actually described her sister-in-law as having "spunk, determination, joy, and adventure".  Aren't those qualities not allowed by Stevehovah?