Erika Shupe *grim rictus* Large Families on Purpose Part 3

[defraudingjezebel]

3 hours ago, elliha said:

Uhh... I saw the recipes for the "jar presents". The cookie mixes are great and probably produce nice cookies but the teas and flavored drinks sound so disgusting I got back my all day  morning sickness just from reading them... Please never gift me one of those Erika.

Yeah, I have to say that the idea of mixing Tang with tea sounds really unappetizing. And I admit that I eat and drink some trashy, gross things but I draw the line at that! 

Re: Spencer's birthday post- Melanie's drawing for him is fantastic! She truly has a great talent for drawing. Its impressive that she can make such a textured and detailed drawing on a white board. @mango_fandango I never thought about it but you're right, for some reason we only see a handful of birthdays.

[mango_fandango]

Just now, defraudingjezebel said:

Yeah, I have to say that the idea of mixing Tang with tea sounds really unappetizing. And I admit that I eat and drink some trashy, gross things but I draw the line at that! 

Re: Spencer's birthday post- Melanie's drawing for him is fantastic! She truly has a great talent for drawing. Its impressive that she can make such a textured and detailed drawing on a white board. @mango_fandango I never thought about it but you're right, for some reason we only see a handful of birthdays.

@defraudingjezebel, over the past year we've seen birthday albums for every kid.... except Melanie. Hmm.

Also, Erika never posted the schedule for this academic year. She still has one, obviously, she just hasn't posted it like she's posted all the others. 

[unforgiving]

So I just visited Erika's blog (which I never do) and noticed she has some "Encouraging quotes" scrolling on the right. This is one of them:

“It is only when we want to take our lives out of the Father’s hands and have them under our own control that we find ourselves gripped with anxiety. The secret of freedom from anxiety is freedom from our selves and abandonment of our own plans. But that spirit emerges in our lives only when our minds are filled with the knowledge that our Father can be trusted implicitly to supply everything we need.” ~ Ferguson 

I just find this such an odd quote for Erika to find "encouraging" given her obsessive need to plan, organize, and control every.single.detail of her and her kids lives.

[Antimony]

It's beginning to irk me that Erika seems to see no difference between the words "scrapbook" and "photo album". I know scrapbooking is a lot of work -- my stepmother does it but it's clearly different from a photo album. A scrapbook might include ticket stubs, wrist bands from events, ribbon form events/sports/performances/costumes, etc. This is a super personal pet peeve but, eh.

She also posted about the McCaughey septuplets and appeared to be positive about it. I can't find if they were IVF or not. I assume yes but IVF also doesn't seem to fit with Erika's "surrender" beliefs. 

Melanie's gingerbread house looks fantastic. Very Victorian. 

[alexandracabot]

Melanie's gingerbread house and birthday drawing are amazing. She's a really incredible artist. I wish she'd get a chance to go to art school! Or at least take classes at a local community college or museum.

[grandmadugger]

16 hours ago, JillyO said:

I just saw this comment from Erika under the "Gifts in a Jar" blog post. OMG people, did you know you can search for PICTURES on the Google? Thank you for the helpful tip Erika. I don't think anybody knew about this until you came along to teach us!!!

 

So now she's stealing photos from others and calling them Google's?!?!?  Has she not heard of Pinterest?

[Eternalbluepearl]

3 hours ago, alexandracabot said:

Melanie's gingerbread house and birthday drawing are amazing. She's a really incredible artist. I wish she'd get a chance to go to art school! Or at least take classes at a local community college or museum.

Silly. *smile* Art is only a time-filler until Melanie's married and pregnant. Just like cosmetology will be for Karen.*wink* 

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Antimony said:

She also posted about the McCaughey septuplets and appeared to be positive about it. I can't find if they were IVF or not. I assume yes but IVF also doesn't seem to fit with Erika's "surrender" beliefs. 

She mentions in one of her posts about family planning (or family unplanning, in her case ) that she doesn't see anything wrong with IVF as long as all the embryos are given a chance at life.  So if 6 embryos are created, all of them need to be used or put up for adoption at some point.  She said she has friends that used IVF.  I was surprised too.  I'll try to find the post.

ETA: The discussion actually takes place in the comments below the following posts.  She got some push back from her readers.

http://www.largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2011/07/family-planning-q-does-bible-actually.html

http://www.largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2012/12/family-planning-2-q-does-bible-actually.html

[Jingerbread]

On 12/12/2015 at 2:08 PM, Pseudoname said:

Yeah, I jumped on my soapbox too quickly.    Apologies to anyone upset at/by my post.  I realise that crazy in this context wasn't intended to mean stereotypical Hollywood movie/tv bedlamic versions of crazy mental illness.  I tend to be oversensitive on the subject due to prejudice that I have experienced first hand.

 My intentions were to make people aware of the stigma that surrounds mental illness, not blame the poster, but I realise that it seems as though that is exactly what I did.

Although I would still caution anyone from making an armchair diagnosis of mental illness.  People are all different, there is no 'normal', as my psychologist tells me.

If there is no range of normal, then we are all abnormal and in need of the help your psychologist sells.  No one is diagnosing anyone, merely discussing the possibilities.  Discussion leads to increased awareness, and that saves lives.

[Jingerbread]

5 hours ago, Antimony said:

She also posted about the McCaughey septuplets and appeared to be positive about it. I can't find if they were IVF or not. I assume yes but IVF also doesn't seem to fit with Erika's "surrender" beliefs. 

Metrodin.  http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,987455,00.html

The kicker is they wouldn't reduce because they're deeply religious and put their trust in God for his will to be done, but that wasn't good enough when they wanted a baby in the first place.  If you're going to take control from God to have a baby because his will and yours don't match, you don't get to give control back when his will and yours line up, and claim to be religious.

 

[umsami]

11 hours ago, defraudingjezebel said:

Yeah, I have to say that the idea of mixing Tang with tea sounds really unappetizing. And I admit that I eat and drink some trashy, gross things but I draw the line at that! 

 

I remember a tea/tang recipe in an old Better Homes and Garden red plaid cookbook from like the 80s.  I think they called it Russian tea.  I have no idea how it tasted, though.  

[Jeebusismycopilot]

14 hours ago, defraudingjezebel said:

Yeah, I have to say that the idea of mixing Tang with tea sounds really unappetizing. And I admit that I eat and drink some trashy, gross things but I draw the line at that! 

I have a punch recipe that my mum used to make for the kids table at our family christmas party and it was made with tea, orange juice and some other stuff (I can't remember. I think there might have been sprite in it) and it was pretty good. It came from her Chatalaine cookbook I think. I will have to ask her what was in it. I do know the 2 main ingredients were cold tea and orange juice. 

[mango_fandango]

Looking again at that meal planning post, Erika doesn't seem to know what a condiment is. 

Condiments we include (but not all of them all the time) are: chopped celery, carrots, cucumbers, red bell pepper, yellow sweet onion, pecans, hard boiled egg, cheese, chowmein noodles, crushed pretzels, raisins, and corn chips; 

Erika, condiments are things like ketchup, mustard, salt, pepper and so on. Not stuff you put on a salad.

[formergothardite]

8 hours ago, umsami said:

I remember a tea/tang recipe in an old Better Homes and Garden red plaid cookbook from like the 80s.  I think they called it Russian tea.  I have no idea how it tasted, though.  

It is fucking awful. It is the gift you give to that one person you really, really hate. 

[usmcmom]

*speaks in embarrassed whisper*....I like Russian tea.  It was first introduced to me in college when my roommate's mother sent her a  container of it for the winter.  I think they called it Friendship tea.  Maybe I like it because it brings back fond memories of waiting a half hour for my hot pot to heat up enough water for us each to have a cup.  But I did just make a small batch for myself a couple weeks ago.   I like to sip it when I have a cold.  My recipe is a little different than Erika's, I think.  I use ground cloves (my favorite) and cinnamon.  I have given it as a gift - but only to people who've told me they like it; and I tend to make it more as a gift basket filler to go with other "snow day" items. 

[Antimony]

I just don't remember the last time I even saw Tang. I remember it as a kid and the monkey commercials but I haven't seen it with my own eyeballs in forever. I know it still exists. Maybe I don't look at the powdered drink section enough.

[Seven Severn]

22 hours ago, defraudingjezebel said:

Yeah, I have to say that the idea of mixing Tang with tea sounds really unappetizing. And I admit that I eat and drink some trashy, gross things but I draw the line at that! 

 

We called that spiced tea. My mom drank it all the time. It was instant tea, Tang, and instant lemonade mix. It was popular in the '70s and '80s in my area. It could be served hot or cold. Mom kept a small canister of it on the kitchen counter. At the time it seemed old lady-ish to me so I shied away from it.

[Heathen525]

Some assisted-reproductive technology stuff I learned from my ObGyn SO.

- Higher-order multiples (e.g. septuplets!) almost always happen when people don't listen to their doctors. Often when a woman is told to take one pill a day to get them pregnant, they think, "if one pill works, 3 will work better!" Or when the woman is told she is hyper-ovulating and to abstain/use protection this cycle, the couple will have sex and conceive anyway. Multiples are a bad thing for fertility doctors and patients, and they will shame a practice if they hear it's having triplets, for example. Some practices are even rationing prescriptions so women don't intentionally overdose on chlomid.

 

- Catholic/anti-abortion couples will ask doctors to deposit the extra embryos in a woman's "vault" - read vagina. This is the loophole they use to justify IVF, because they are "giving the embryos a chance."

[AliceInFundyland]

On ‎12‎/‎13‎/‎2015 at 9:58 AM, defraudingjezebel said:

Yeah, I have to say that the idea of mixing Tang with tea sounds really unappetizing. And I admit that I eat and drink some trashy, gross things but I draw the line at that! 

Re: Spencer's birthday post- Melanie's drawing for him is fantastic! She truly has a great talent for drawing. Its impressive that she can make such a textured and detailed drawing on a white board. @mango_fandango I never thought about it but you're right, for some reason we only see a handful of birthdays.

This woman has the worst taste in beverages I have ever encountered. No competition.

[Honeysuckle]

I was posting some awful recipes from my collection of church cookbooks on another forum a few years back, and I included Russian Tea as the beverage. I got some pushback for that. Apparently people who grew up with it genuinely like the stuff.

I still have some faith in humanity though. At least nobody spoke up in defense of the "Amish Pork Chops" recipe I posted.

[Jingerbread]

1 hour ago, Heathen525 said:

- Catholic/anti-abortion couples will ask doctors to deposit the extra embryos in a woman's "vault" - read vagina. This is the loophole they use to justify IVF, because they are "giving the embryos a chance."

When a Catholic friend had an ectopic pregnancy, which has no chance of making it and a chance ofkilling her, her fallopian tube was removed since that was justified as not an abortion, and the loss was an "unfortunate side result" of removing the "problematic" body part.

[iweartanktops]

On 12/13/2015 at 0:46 AM, JillyO said:

I just saw this comment from Erika under the "Gifts in a Jar" blog post. OMG people, did you know you can search for PICTURES on the Google? Thank you for the helpful tip Erika. I don't think anybody knew about this until you came along to teach us!!!

 

How the hell does she know this?! It's not in the Bible!  

Oh, wait. God must have told her... 

15 hours ago, mango_fandango said:

Looking again at that meal planning post, Erika doesn't seem to know what a condiment is. 

Condiments we include (but not all of them all the time) are: chopped celery, carrots, cucumbers, red bell pepper, yellow sweet onion, pecans, hard boiled egg, cheese, chowmein noodles, crushed pretzels, raisins, and corn chips; 

Erika, condiments are things like ketchup, mustard, salt, pepper and so on. Not stuff you put on a salad.

Bold is mine. 

Erika, these are called toppings. 

[princessmahina]

2 hours ago, AliceInFundyland said:

This woman has the worst taste in beverages I have ever encountered. No competition.

With the "coco" recipe and the Russian tea, I'm inclined to agree. Why not just drink water? Or regular cocoa? Or tea with lemon? It's like she's going out of her way to make things gross.

[AliceInFundyland]

24 minutes ago, princessmahina said:

With the "coco" recipe and the Russian tea, I'm inclined to agree. Why not just drink water? Or regular cocoa? Or tea with lemon? It's like she's going out of her way to make things gross.

I know right? There are so many good beverages that are low or no calorie. Fundie mystery #9688...

[defraudingjezebel]

2 hours ago, Honeysuckle said:

I was posting some awful recipes from my collection of church cookbooks on another forum a few years back, and I included Russian Tea as the beverage. I got some pushback for that. Apparently people who grew up with it genuinely like the stuff.

I still have some faith in humanity though. At least nobody spoke up in defense of the "Amish Pork Chops" recipe I posted.

Yeah, it seems like the divide between lovers and haters of this drink are split along generational and geographical lines. When I was a kid my mom always fixed me Crystal Light. I think I tried Tang once or twice but didn't like it (I'm not a fan of orangey drinks, even plain OJ). I have a feeling that sugary drinks are a rare occurrence in the Shupe household, so I doubt she uses these recipes for her own family on the regular.