What's Going On in Maxhell? A Whole Lotta Nothing, Pt. 2

[princessmahina]

I have nothing to snark on that post for, but dang those are some lovely little girls. Those Maxwell grandchildren are adorable!

(Also, Anna Marie seems like she needs a day off. Sewing matching outfits for baby's first photoshoot? Holy hell)

[Dandruff]

12 hours ago, WonderingInWA said:

It bothered me, too.  Call it a "life skill", Steve.  There's something really offensive about calling it an asset but I can't quite describe how I feel about it.

Same here.  Am wondering whether the male Maxwells feel the same need to prove their worth.

[SolomonFundy]

I'm just amazed that there is dust to actually be dusted in Anna Marie's house. But, low and behold, Mary actually found some on top of that chest-of-drawers. The ceiling fans may actually need a wipe-down. Steve is probably breathing heavy just thinking about it.

Anyone else get a pang of sadness from reading Sarah's opener? 

Quote

All right, so you mamas out there know about nesting mode. I suppose that’s what Anna Marie is experiencing right now!

She "supposes" that must be how Anna Marie feels, because she has no other way of knowing. It's just a word, but it follows a pile of similarly poignant posts over the course of this past year. Sarah's losing hope. 

[anjulibai]

10 hours ago, SolomonFundy said:

Anyone else get a pang of sadness from reading Sarah's opener? 

She "supposes" that must be how Anna Marie feels, because she has no other way of knowing. It's just a word, but it follows a pile of similarly poignant posts over the course of this past year. Sarah's losing hope. 

I noticed that, too. Poor Sarah.

 

On another note, though, why is she taking pictures and not helping with the cleaning? It seems like it's always Anna and Mary doing stuff together, and Sarah just kind of around. I find it so odd. She seems to have really separated herself from her sisters. 

[fundiefan]

Seems to me Reversal Anna and Mary are the ones who are nesting, not Anna.

Their lives would make me kill myself. I clean, most people do. Sometimes more thoroughly than others. I know no one else who thinks it's share-worthy. 

 

[anjulibai]

54 minutes ago, fundiefan said:

Seems to me Reversal Anna and Mary are the ones who are nesting, not Anna.

Their lives would make me kill myself. I clean, most people do. Sometimes more thoroughly than others. I know no one else who thinks it's share-worthy. 

 

Yeah, I'm due a month from tomorrow, and my DH has been getting a bunch of cleaning done (I physically can't at this point). It's got to get done, but it's nothing to be super proud of. 

[Handmaiden of Dog]

There is a deep strain of Puritanism in Steve.  I'm sure he has told his womenfolk that "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" and "Idle hands are an open invitation to the Devil."  There really is no need to live in a completely spotless home unless someone in your family has health problems that require it.  My personal motto is "My house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy."  I could wash my kitchen floor every single day or I could wash it once a week-- the next day it will be dirty again.  I wipe up when I need to and try not to get too anal about it.

My husband wants me to be happy-- a happy relaxed person to come home to is high on his priorities.  Some husbands however feel like unless their wives are spending most of their waking hours slaving away the wife is getting a free ride.  "Keep em barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen" as though a wife who spends a few hours lounging around in her underwear reading a book is cheating the husband out of something.  I also suspect that keeping wives pregnant and hard at work is supposed to ward off unfaithful thoughts because a wife who is bone tired is not going to run off with the handyman.  Except that maybe a woman who is being ground down every day with sheer drudgery might wake up one morning and decide that greener pastures await.

[HermioneSparrow]

Not even Monica Geller would be happy at the Maxhell compound.

[CyborgKin]

Ugh, my parents have started all the family on this, with a printed chart and everything: http://blog.titus2.com/2011/01/28/pushup-challenge-details/

[mango_fandango]

I feel like this photo needs one of those Internet captions that reads "When You See It, You'll Shit Bricks":

I didn't spot it for what it really was at first. Weird positioning or what.

[nastyhobbitses]

7 hours ago, CyborgKin said:

Ugh, my parents have started all the family on this, with a printed chart and everything: http://blog.titus2.com/2011/01/28/pushup-challenge-details/

I don't like forced exercise (it's not a good motivator unless you're in the military...in which case that's what you signed up for), but I would totally do pushup contests with my family. I already compete with my mom on deadlift max weight, since we've both taken up weightlifting, and I'm trying to match/surpass her 3-minute plank.

[ChickenettiLuvr]

Cute new baby & congratulations to all.

I was clicking through their blog pictures and have a huge question:

How in the Max-Hell do these frumpy fundies with little employment BEGIN to afford $34 headbands from Snugars and $46 baby shoes from Gracious May???

Silly me - working like crazy trying to stay afloat and buy a few groceries.  I'd love to have some of their invisible income, pretty please!!!

[sparkles]

1 hour ago, ChickenettiLuvr said:

Cute new baby & congratulations to all.

I was clicking through their blog pictures and have a huge question:

How in the Max-Hell do these frumpy fundies with little employment BEGIN to afford $34 headbands from Snugars and $46 baby shoes from Gracious May???

Silly me - working like crazy trying to stay afloat and buy a few groceries.  I'd love to have some of their invisible income, pretty please!!!

Freebies, probably, in exchange for promoting them in the blog. More than once, IIRC.

So, over the weekend, I started re-reading the blog again from the beginning. One, because the newest Maxwell-Bot notwithstanding, the current blog is as boring as fuck, and two, because I always find some new WTFery. Aside from the maddening passive voice, overuse of sweet, endless repetitions of hearts being open and thanking god for every brain fart, I started thinking how much the Maxwells strive to suppress any emotion other than happy, happy, happy. Every single thought that isn't rejoicing in Jesus is somehow sinful, from Teri's back pain to typical sibling squabbles and so on. And then there's this gem: Steve believes that crabbing about the weather is somehow sinful because god creates the weather and everything god does is good so crabbing about it is dissing god.

The way I see it, the Maxwellian god is pretty much the Anthony character from the classic short story/Twilight Zone episode, "The Good Life." Everything MUST be good or else you get sent to some horrible fate out in the cornfield. Tornados: GOOD! Back pain: GOOD! Uriah breaks down for the umpteenth time: GOOD! Dad forgets the pizza: GOOD! It's even creepier when you consider that A. Cornfields? Kansas? Need I say more? and B. Joshua Maxwell looks uncomfortably like Billy Mumy's Anthony. Something to think about? <cue Twilight Zone music> 

In all seriousness though, I can't imagine how repressed the Maxwells must be, never being allowed to express and process negative emotions without feeling they've sinned. 

[Eternalbluepearl]

Why is God so concerned with convicting Steve of his bad attitude about winter weather? I just don't believe in this version of God. I don't believe we are here as some ultimate test of our ability to be cheerful 24/7. Gosh, Steve, how nit picky can one person be? 

[anjulibai]

So I saw this comment and response on the post about cleaning for Anna Marie.

Quote

Lydia and Ruthanne are just gorgeous. Hoping for another photo session of all the children. It would be great to do a photo session on each of their birthdays so you can later see how they changed each year. Anna Marie is a talented seamstress.
—
Their parents get plenty of pictures at their birthdays and other times. For this aunt with our growing number of nieces/nephews, that would be a little much ;).

Anyone else think this is an odd response coming from someone that takes pictures of his sisters cleaning? From a family that "grows up around cameras"? There are only 9 nieces and nephews, and their birthdays are spread out. She could be doing a small shoot each month - it wouldn't be that hard. And aren't they supposed to be amazing photographers? 

I don't know, it just seemed strange to me. 

[Eternalbluepearl]

11 minutes ago, anjulibai said:

So I saw this comment and response on the post about cleaning for Anna Marie.

Anyone else think this is an odd response coming from someone that takes pictures of his sisters cleaning? From a family that "grows up around cameras"? There are only 9 nieces and nephews, and their birthdays are spread out. She could be doing a small shoot each month - it wouldn't be that hard. And aren't they supposed to be amazing photographers? 

I don't know, it just seemed strange to me. 

Maybe Sarah wants her own life and this comment about adding more photo shoots of her brothers' kids struck a nerve? Hmm. I can't blame Sarah if that's what it is. Hard to say. I think I might feel annoyed if I did so much picture-taking of and cheerleading for other people's kids and people were asking me to do more of it. 

[kpmom]

1 hour ago, anjulibai said:

So I saw this comment and response on the post about cleaning for Anna Marie.

Anyone else think this is an odd response coming from someone that takes pictures of his sisters cleaning? From a family that "grows up around cameras"? There are only 9 nieces and nephews, and their birthdays are spread out. She could be doing a small shoot each month - it wouldn't be that hard. And aren't they supposed to be amazing photographers? 

I don't know, it just seemed strange to me. 

It seemed like a rude, Steve-like response to me, whether it was intended that way or not.

The Maxwells  chose to share their lives (such as they are) on the blog, and shouldn't be surprised when people ask questions, or want more information.

The Maxwells don't owe their readers more information, but if you're going to share on a blog, it seems rude when they put people off who ask for more.  They don't have to provide more pics or info., but could be a lot more polite about saying no.

 

 

[Howl]

22 hours ago, Handmaiden of Dog said:

There is a deep strain of Puritanism in Steve.  I'm sure he has told his womenfolk that "Cleanliness is next to Godliness Stevehovah-ness and "Idle hands are an open invitation to the Devil." 

Fixed it for ya! 

[HoneyBunny]

On July 3, 2016 at 6:15 PM, HermioneSparrow said:

New post. Mary cleans the wood of the beds, maybe I'm crazy but who the hell does that? Oh I know the ceiling fans cleaners. I don't like calling people weirdos but damn.. .

Seriously?  My first thought was who the hell doesn't do that. I'm no Becky HomeEc-y but I am allergic to dust. I clean the wood furniture at least once a week.  One a month I scrub all the baseboards and actually rubber band a microfiber cloth around a year stick and clean the BACKS of wood furniture. I simply breath better when I do this.

[sparkles]

18 hours ago, kpmom said:

It seemed like a rude, Steve-like response to me, whether it was intended that way or not.

The Maxwells  chose to share their lives (such as they are) on the blog, and shouldn't be surprised when people ask questions, or want more information.

The Maxwells don't owe their readers more information, but if you're going to share on a blog, it seems rude when they put people off who ask for more.  They don't have to provide more pics or info., but could be a lot more polite about saying no.

 

 

The Maxwells are "great conversationalists" only as it relates to the sales pitch, and what they're selling is Jesus. They're well trained in how to draw people in and engage them before making the pitch. If you express interest, they know how to go in for the kill. If you don't, that's the end of the line. They don't know how to hold an actual conversation that's not about Jesus because that's their entire frame of reference. So when blog readers, etc., comment on things not directly related god or Jesus and the Maxwells need to go off-script, they end up sounding terse and dismissive. You haven't raised great conversationalist, Steve, you've groomed a bunch of salespeople. They'd probably make a killing with an MLM product.

[fundiefan]

On 7/4/2016 at 9:45 PM, mango_fandango said:

I feel like this photo needs one of those Internet captions that reads "When You See It, You'll Shit Bricks":

I didn't spot it for what it really was at first. Weird positioning or what.

What am I not seeing?

[mango_fandango]

4 minutes ago, fundiefan said:

What am I not seeing?

I was on my phone when I first saw this and genuinely thought Christopher and Joshua were peering in through a doorway. I only realised that it was a photo later. Still, the positioning was a little weird.

[fundiefan]

Ah. That makes me feel a little better. I thought I was losing it that I couldn't notice anything.

 

 

[Palimpsest]

On 7/5/2016 at 5:55 PM, kpmom said:

It seemed like a rude, Steve-like response to me, whether it was intended that way or not.

The Maxwells  chose to share their lives (such as they are) on the blog, and shouldn't be surprised when people ask questions, or want more information.

The Maxwells don't owe their readers more information, but if you're going to share on a blog, it seems rude when they put people off who ask for more.  They don't have to provide more pics or info., but could be a lot more polite about saying no.

 

I always like it when Sarah gets snappy on the blog.  It's a sign of a human response - and it probably does discourage a few demanding leg-humpers.

Sarah must be sick and tired of the blog and of being the designated Maxwell photographer.  She's been doing it for years.  At one point Anna was supposed to take it over, but that idea obviously petered out - probably because Anna's writing skills are even worse than Sarah's.  Sarah only seems to enjoy the Ellie posts.

If you think about it, Sarah is easily the hardest working Maxwell woman and has been for a long time.  Her Moody books, bad though they may be, are possibly the best sellers of all the Maxwell publications.  She did all the accounting for John and Joseph's folded construction company.  She helped out with One Ton Ramp and the MOTH forum.  She used to do most of the mailings and probably still does.   She helped home school all her younger siblings and probably did the lion's share of the chores until Mary and Anna were able to help.  I'm not sure what Anna and Mary are doing these days, but cooking, cleaning, practicing the violin, and drawing pictures can't take up all their time.

As Sarah is now writing her new book series, and claims to enjoy writing, it must be infuriating to be dragged away from it frequently to take silly pictures of her sisters cleaning and write filler crap for the blog.  Why should she want to spend time photographing her brothers' children when they can do it themselves?

Sarah seems to be as bored with the blog as we are.  Free Sarah!

[MissManners]

Hello, first time poster but very very long time lurker! The Maxwells are amongst my "favorite" fundies. I also think that Steve is the one answering questions. The tone of the writing and the terseness matches his personality and demeanor. I am sure that Sarah is resentful, but she also appears to be a friendly person. I don't think she'd be snapping at people who ask questions, in fact I think she'd probably love to answer questions and get to chat with her readers. The other mark against Sarah being the one who answers the questions is that Steve is also filtering out the Free Sarah comments and probably comments about how she is too old to be a child etc. Steve would never let her hear any of that for a variety of reasons! Steve would probably be suspicious that she could converse with heathens or start a romance behind his back via the website comment function. I often wonder if he doesn't take her posts and delete anything remotely interesting or compelling and leaves just the most boring bits to be published... she wouldn't even know what goes on the website since I'm sure he's the only one with access to the "back end". I would doubt that he'd let her even upload her blog and photos let alone manage commentary coming in.