Anna-Marie Maxwell is pregnant with #4!

[bean]

My grandma's signature treat is mini Ritz peanut butter sandwiches dipped in chocolate, they are quite tasty. Some she tops with sprinkles, others with an almond. I have no idea where she gets the patience to dip those little things one by one. 

[princessmahina]

Tagalongs are still good, but that just might be my undying love of Tagalongs talking. And the fact that I like to put them in the fridge so they're nice and cold.

Also, Oreos dipped in good chocolate. I went through a whole box once, to my everlasting shame. My only criticism of the product: they were the clearly inferior Single Stuf Oreo. If someone could make chocolate-dipped Double Stuf (or Triple Stuf) Oreos (and magically make them zero calories), I would become the head of the Nobel Prize committee just so I could award them a Nobel Prize for making the world a happier place.

Ooh, those Mega Stuf Oreos would be amazing dipped in chocolate!

[Guest]

It kind of did come with a free tract. http://www.hamiltonfamilyfarms.com/Soap.html

I like what I can see of Anna but she was always a good match for Christopher, fundie-wise.

 

 

 

Damn, the last thing I need is a lecture from my soap.  It was probably very nice soap, but this would ruin it for me. 

[AliceInFundyland]

I need to talk about Oreos for a minute. Until the mid90s they were made with lard. And so we ate Hydrox cookies in my house. Do you have any idea what it's like to tell your friend you can't eat an Oreo? When the switch happened my father was delighted, as he had often bemoaned the inferior quality of the Hydrox. But we were hardcore ovolacto. And now I cannot be around Oreos with any level of composure. I like the filling and coated ones as well.... I have the same problem with other sweets that have gone gelatin free (Junior Mints, Skittles).

...and then there are things like s'mores and jello (well, jello shots) ...i can make a smore with the fluff, or the fairly inferior fauxmellows...but I guiltily admit to being drawn to both. I won't purchase these things, but I have a hard time saying no in a group dynamic. Bad vegetarian. 

[Anonymousguest]

I think mint chocolate dipped Ritz sound Devine!  So much better than gs thin minus or Keebler with their plastic y chocolate coating. 

I've seen peanut butter Ritz dipped in chocolate or white chocolate,  why not mint? 

 

[MamaJunebug]

NRAnna will be my favorite Maxwell when she wakes up and realizes that there's so much more to life than being a Maxwell, married to the family's biggest prig. I hope she separates herself and her kids from the Collective, sets up a cozy, loving home, lets her talents shine and follows her dreams. Until then, I just feel sorry for her.

Yeah.   There's certainly something to be said for NRAnna's heart for the lonely like PSarah (see what I did there?) and her creativity and energy, ---and that hair is To Die For---but I'm  not on the Love Train just yet. Looks to me like she was raised in a fairly extreme home (she thanked her parents for training her, at some point in her wedding/reception) and the 3 layers of protective clothes and anti-stain body armor her kids wear to table suggest that she has a very SEVERELY planned and calculated day, one that her MIL could only wish she'd achieved. 

 

I don't begrudge NRA any of that: makes eminent sense to wash bibs and coveralls and hose down plastic molded bibs rather than wash whole changes of clothes.  She's probably able to do the calligraphy and the "we're expecting" photo shoots, and to throw parties precisely because she has her housekeeping and childraising down to a science.   

 

Said another way, I imagine she approaches her keeper-at-home gig the same way she did her goat milk soap business. 

 

None of that is reason to dislike her and I don't dislike her!  I just don't have a fangirl response to her.  I do admire her evident self-discipline. 

 

Other things to note: "raising children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" is not code for plumbing line. It basically reflects a dedication to making sure they're aware of God's love (nurture) and aware of God's laws (admonition).  

 

The only GS Cookies worth having are the lemon thingies and the Thin Mints, but given all the choices available, those are so far down my list that when I don't have a young relative in Scouting I don't even think of them.  YMMV but ya know I'm right!  J/J

 

 

 

[AliceInFundyland]

Sugar is my favorite kind of drift (and, I really dislike my current title).

-The saltiness of a Ritz or a pb Ritz is more complimentary to chocolate than to mint chocolate.

-I sold gs cookies; I'll still eat cold thin mints and tagalongs. I think there is a large nostalgia component there. I've worked in two high end candy/chocolatiers. I love and will drop money on artisanal/gourmet ice cream or chocolate. But I still want Reese's over pretty much any other peanut butter/chocolate thing I try. Even though those things are often very good. I attribute it to nostalgia. 

[Melissa1977]

Yeah.   There's certainly something to be said for NRAnna's heart for the lonely like PSarah (see what I did there?) and her creativity and energy, ---and that hair is To Die For---but I'm  not on the Love Train just yet. Looks to me like she was raised in a fairly extreme home (she thanked her parents for training her, at some point in her wedding/reception) and the 3 layers of protective clothes and anti-stain body armor her kids wear to table suggest that she has a very SEVERELY planned and calculated day, one that her MIL could only wish she'd achieved. 

 

I don't begrudge NRA any of that: makes eminent sense to wash bibs and coveralls and hose down plastic molded bibs rather than wash whole changes of clothes.  She's probably able to do the calligraphy and the "we're expecting" photo shoots, and to throw parties precisely because she has her housekeeping and childraising down to a science.   

 

Said another way, I imagine she approaches her keeper-at-home gig the same way she did her goat milk soap business. 

 

None of that is reason to dislike her and I don't dislike her!  I just don't have a fangirl response to her.  I do admire her evident self-discipline. 

 

Other things to note: "raising children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" is not code for plumbing line. It basically reflects a dedication to making sure they're aware of God's love (nurture) and aware of God's laws (admonition).  

 

The only GS Cookies worth having are the lemon thingies and the Thin Mints, but given all the choices available, those are so far down my list that when I don't have a young relative in Scouting I don't even think of them.  YMMV but ya know I'm right!  J/J

 

 

 

Exactly my thoughts.

I'm pretty sure that ABCD kids are very spoiled comparing with NRAnna's.

She's more maxwellian than Maxwells. I can see Steve proud of her: an scheduling queen that wears frumpers and has a baby each year.

The funny thing is that while she's pregnant and cleaning and sewing and training kids, her husband is doing...what? How can Christopher teach his kids about hard work?

[blessalessi]

The funny thing is that while she's pregnant and cleaning and sewing and training kids, her husband is doing...what? How can Christopher teach his kids about hard work?

I tend to feel nearly as sorry for Poor Christopher as for Poor Sarah. (Notwithstanding my loathing of his hellfire brand of proselytizing!)

He seems to be the Lost Boy in the Maxwell clan, and most of his "accomplishments" seem to be have been chosen for him by others.  Teri has described him as being sneaky and spiteful as a child (whereas John was apparently highly popular with his siblings despite his rebellion!).  His marriage to Anna was arranged by Sarah, after his first courtship to a more spunky girl totally failed. His house was sold to him by his parents, who wanted his nest-egg to build themselves a better one round the corner. His Dad vetoed his ambition to be an EMT and so he is working for his little brother Joe because his piss-poor photography skills and ridiculous "modesty standards" can never bring him an income from doing something he enjoys.

He has a passel of beautiful kids, but their care is really Anna's domain and credit. His job is to bring home the money (in increasingly difficult times) while any traditional male leadership role is totally usurped by his power crazy Dad around the corner.

Nathan, Joe, and John have much more in their lives that they have chosen for themselves. Nathan was married before the family got so isolated, and has a whole not-so-secret fundie-lite life with Mel's family.  Joe is Dad's favourite, runs the family business and lives nearly a whole mile away from the compound.  And John is cavorting around the country, possibly planning a new life for himself. 

I think that if Jesse ever unbuckles his seatbelt and gets out of the back of the family van to live his own life, Christopher may feel well and truly overtaken.

 

[anjulibai]

I don't know. I still get the feeling that Christopher feels really superior to everyone in the family. Objectively, his life is pretty blah at this point, but he's got 3 kids in a very short amount of time, a 4th on the way, and he's got the first and favorite grandson. He also is likely to have way more than his eldest brother, and will have way more than his next younger brother for some time now. In their lifestyle having children is what matters (especially firstborn boys). So, from their perspective, God must be favoring Christopher the most. 

[Arete]

No, I agree with the people who think Christopher is a lost boy.  That doesn't mean he is also not a sactimonious prig with not an ounce of talent for photography.  Nathan got out while the getting was still good.  He got to DATE his wife, no matter what bs is on the blog.  Both Nathan and Christopher suffer from the Mark of Steve.  They were born and had a few years of life without the extreme sheltering, playing with kids they were not related to, being on a baseball team.  Joseph?  Joseph is Steve's version of the Virgin Birth.  His atonement child.  Conceived without sin because his parents got on the Quiverfull, sheltering bus.  Never exposed to any nasty 1-18 year old deviants the other sinners in the neighborhood were producing.  The older 2 will always have the "stain" they can never rub away.  At least Nathan has exposure to Melanie's relatively normal family.  

 

[JillyO]

Can someone remind me how big the age gap between the first round of kids and the post-reversal kids is?

[halcionne]

Can someone remind me how big the age gap between the first round of kids and the post-reversal kids is?

Seven years, between Sarah and Joseph.

[Arete]

Seven years, between Sarah and Joseph.

And isn't it scary that with just 7 years Sarah's writing about Joeseph or any of the reversals often takes a maternal tone?

[blessalessi]

She practically did mother them, while Teri was crying in bed upstairs, didn't she?

[twin2]

No, I agree with the people who think Christopher is a lost boy.  That doesn't mean he is also not a sactimonious prig with not an ounce of talent for photography.  Nathan got out while the getting was still good.  He got to DATE his wife, no matter what bs is on the blog.  Both Nathan and Christopher suffer from the Mark of Steve.  They were born and had a few years of life without the extreme sheltering, playing with kids they were not related to, being on a baseball team.  Joseph?  Joseph is Steve's version of the Virgin Birth.  His atonement child.  Conceived without sin because his parents got on the Quiverfull, sheltering bus.  Never exposed to any nasty 1-18 year old deviants the other sinners in the neighborhood were producing.  The older 2 will always have the "stain" they can never rub away.  At least Nathan has exposure to Melanie's relatively normal family.  

 

From my time on the ISB, I have kind of felt that Chris had been the odd one out in Steve-O's eyes.   Nathan, as the first born son had rank, and Joseph, for the reasons you have stated.  However, given how well good old Chris has been filling his quiver, I suspect that his rank is rising.

[Arete]

His rank is definitely rising for the reason you stated, but it's a family rank, not an individual rank.  Steve will never look at him as anything of worth other than a quiver filler.  His quiver is very much dependent on Anna Marie producing arrows.  The guy has nothing that is just for him.  Same with Sarah.  Steve commands, she obeys, but he doesn't seem to consider her worth other than being a diligent little worker bee in Steve's failed projects.

[nomoxian]

His rank is definitely rising for the reason you stated, but it's a family rank, not an individual rank.  Steve will never look at him as anything of worth other than a quiver filler.  His quiver is very much dependent on Anna Marie producing arrows.  The guy has nothing that is just for him.  Same with Sarah.  Steve commands, she obeys, but he doesn't seem to consider her worth other than being a diligent little worker bee in Steve's failed projects.

I don't think Steve sees the projects failing as his fault. Steve can do no wrong. Steve is God on Earth.

[Arete]

I don't think Steve sees the projects failing as his fault. Steve can do no wrong. Steve is God on Earth.

True.  They get composted into all his other failed projects and then come out as the fertilizer of  "x years of business experience.  Hire me as a consultant, and I will sink your small business faster than you can say A-MEN!"

[SPHASH]

What's with all the hate on GS cookies? I love 'em!  Especially the Samoas, Tagalongs, and Thin Mints.

[halcionne]

What's with all the hate on GS cookies? I love 'em!  Especially the Samoas, Tagalongs, and Thin Mints.

Yes, Samoas!

[LilMissMetaphor]

Twizzlers coated in chocolate are super awesome...

[apandaaries]

What's with all the hate on GS cookies? I love 'em!  Especially the Samoas, Tagalongs, and Thin Mints.

You had me at Samoas...so much coconutty and chocolate deliciousness.  I've had to ban purchasing them, because somehow when I'm grading, they all disappear (magic!).  Still they infiltrate my household... Girl Scouts and their cookies are clearly in league with the devil.  

[SassyPants]

Who here has consumed an entire sleeve of cookies at 1 sitting? [at some point in their life]

Raises hand in shame.

If not cookies, Ritz crackers, plain or dipped ala Maxwells?????

 

[AliceInFundyland]

Twizzlers coated in chocolate are super awesome...

Although I would not personally care for it, I am fascinated by the idea. I never encountered that before. Where?? ....Actually, white chocolate makes a regular twizzler sound kind of interesting. Kinda.

Oh, and I thought of a way I don't like Oreos. Deep-fried. Ick.