Maxwell 9: Woks and spices - what's next?

[Eternalbluepearl]

26 minutes ago, Tatar-tot said:

  The Maxwells are the laziest, most unproductive group of people I have ever seen.

Truly. It's a bunch of healthy young adults just...waiting for something. The world needs your talents now! Go do something for someone other than a Maxwell! 

[catlady]

1 hour ago, meee said:

@purjolok84 people do it though.  I found this website by accident once (is it discussed here?) 

https://www.thekingsdaughters.com/

and they seem to be at least as fundy as the Maxwells, so...

someone mentioned The King's Daughters last summer on the JinJer wedding-planning thread while discussing modest wedding dresses.  Confession time:  i'm weirdly fascinated by this company, and i've ordered a couple of skirts from them (very well-made).  i've also ordered their soap nuts*, which are a good product.  the owners seem to be Mennonite maybe.

*soap nuts are used in the laundry in a little fabric pouch; Mr CL and i channel our inner 12-year-olds and refer to this pouch as the nut sack.

[freejugar]

They must have gotten criticism about their daughters doing nothing all day long and this is their reply. The post is full of fluff and exaggerated, trying to make her seem busy but doing nothing at all. I really doubt they have multiple book orders daily.

Also, if we're fantasizing about Maxwell alternative lives, I think Anna would be a artist or performer, because of the lolly clown and the melodramatic acting in the abortion video

[Triplet3]

I like Maxwell snark as much as any other FJer, but I don't really see any evidence that Steve forced Mary to stop sewing because she enjoyed it too much, or indeed that he forced her to stop at all. They've been saying for years that Mary is artistic and that she enjoys art, so it's perfectly possible that she switched from sewing to graphic design because she prefers the latter and finds it less time-consuming to do as a way of making money (it sounds like she's trying to go into design as a home business). I assume she had the choice of setting up a home business making and selling clothes - plenty of fundie STAHDs have Etsy businesses, so it's fundie-approved - but chose to do graphic design instead.

i agree that it doesn't sound like Mary fits very much into her day considering it's meant to be a working day and she isn't studying at college/university or doing an apprenticeship. Well, actually I suppose it would be a semi-reasonable level of busyness if her graphic design study was a proper, accredited, distance-learning college course or something, but I bet it's not.

[catlady]

1 minute ago, Triplet3 said:

I like Maxwell snark as much as any other FJer, but I don't really see any evidence that Steve forced Mary to stop sewing because she enjoyed it too much, or indeed that he forced her to stop at all.

Steve has a history of making his family give up things they enjoy; he says they're "making an idol of it."  off the top of my head--Teri had to give up Pepsi, and one of the reversal boys had to give up guitar playing.  further, Christopher (Nathan?) has/had the wedding photography business, but a lot of his photos were poorly done.  meanwhile, Sarah takes genuinely good photos that seem to get no further than the blog, but she doesn't seem to be encouraged to get training and pursue even a part-time career; instead, she writes those god-awful Moody books.  so maybe there was only speculation regarding Mary's sewing, but Stevie has committed this kind of douchebaggery in the past.......

[anjulibai]

What's funny about them not allowing Mary to pursue sewing and making a business is that in Sarah's last Moody book, that's precisely what the girls of the family end up doing. They have an online business selling aprons or something, and the eldest daughter is preparing to turn the business over to her two sisters because she's leaving soon to get married. 

So, sewing is a viable occupation for an unmarried daughter in Maxwell land. It's just not viable if it's something one of the daughters enjoys and is good at. 

[Fun-Dee]

If I remember right, Sarah was told she was going to write books.  It wasn't her choice. 

[Triplet3]

@anjulibai, but Mary also enjoys and is good at art. If Steve was making her stop doing things she enjoys because she enjoys them, he wouldn't have let her do graphic design. @catlady, yes I know about Steve's 'making an idol' of things thing (I've been following the Maxwell blog for years), but in this specific instance I really do think that Mary genuinely preferred to do graphic design as a home business rather than sewing. I assume it would be too time consuming to do both as fully-fledged home businesses, and it's perfectly possible that she's grown to enjoy drawing more than sewing anyway. 

To be honest, I think the fact that Sarah has some of the Moody girls grow up to start a sewing business is evidence that such a business was a viable option for Mary. We all know that the Moodys are based heavily on the Maxwells, so Steve wouldn't let Sarah put anything in the books that wasn't Maxwell-approved. 

[Tangy Bee]

Is it a sin to admit you are bored out of your mind? Maybe Mary doesn't know what boredom is. Is that even possible?? 

[IReallyAmHopewell]

Wow! Mary is learning to do "Hand Lettering" . Shock! And she is "learning" Graphic design. Does Gothard offer that now?

Hands up if you think those packages were fake orders?

Honestly, what a boring life.  She has "activities" with whoever the hell Gigi is and with her brothers' children? Why? So the brothers can have sweet fellowship? So s-i-l can take a shower?

Soooooooo dulllllll

[kpmom]

1 hour ago, IReallyAmHopewell said:

Hands up if you think those packages were fake orders?

She has "activities" with whoever the hell Gigi is

I wondered about those orders too.  It wouldn't surprise me if they saved up a month's worth of orders to make it look like they have a lot every day. 

GiGi is her grandmother.  That's great that she spends time with GiGi and the nieces and nephews, but seriously, she has to schedule 30 minutes to spend time with them?

And I can't believe as adults they are still adhering to that 30 minute increments MOTH schedule.  Maybe it helped Teri keep her sanity during the homeschooling years, but why now?

[Coconutwater]

54 minutes ago, kpmom said:

I wondered about those orders too.  It wouldn't surprise me if they saved up a month's worth of orders to make it look like they have a lot every day. 

GiGi is her grandmother.  That's great that she spends time with GiGi and the nieces and nephews, but seriously, she has to schedule 30 minutes to spend time with them?

And I can't believe as adults they are still adhering to that 30 minute increments MOTH schedule.  Maybe it helped Teri keep her sanity during the homeschooling years, but why now?

I'm not at all surprised Chris and NRAnna do the 30 minute schedule, but I wonder about the other two...

[anjulibai]

@Triplet3, I don't think Mary's that good at art. No better than any amateur that has time to work on it. She's also been told that's what she is to do, likely because they don't want her being creative at sewing. They have admitted in the past that Mary has a genuine talent and drive to be good at sewing. Yet she no longer does. I see no instance that Mary wants to do graphic design. That just seems like something they steered her to so that she could do work for her brothers. This is in the same way that Sarah was steered to writing children's books - it was done to provide a product for Titus2.  

[Black Aliss]

 

Thank you! I love this so much, but especially this stanza:

17 hours ago, Fun-Dee said:

Oh I'm a Maxwell and I'm okay

I sleep all night and I pray all day!

I ship a box, I make some cards

I preach to the elderly!

I make some bean burritos

for the extended family!

 

 

[FloraDoraDolly]

53 minutes ago, Coconutwater said:

I'm not at all surprised Chris and NRAnna do the 30 minute schedule, but I wonder about the other two...

Nathan and Melanie's girls are older, so maybe the 30 minutes is their recess from homeschooling?

[SPHASH]

12 hours ago, Foudeb said:

but they could be hospital clowns for sick children, putting that Lolly costume to good use, 

The only good use for that Lolly costume is to burn it!

[Naga Viper]

11 hours ago, Tatar-tot said:

The Maxwells are the laziest, most unproductive group of people I have ever seen.

Unproductive, yes, but I don't know that I'd characterize them as lazy. More like pathologically industrious at spinning their wheels.

[LaughingDonuts]

It's just so sad. They mention their, "single years" and imply it's a short season of waiting. Sarah has spent almost half of her life trying to fill time while she waits for a husband. I saw a quote to the effect of, "I'm not a princess waiting for her prince. I'm a queen ruling my own empire, with or without a king. The Maxwell girls are Rapunzels, locked in Steve's house with invisible chains.

[Howl]

11 hours ago, Naga Viper said:

pathologically industrious at spinning their wheels.

On a roll today!  Post count, just sayin'. 

And this?  Depressing and so, so true. 

Quote

The Maxwell girls are Rapunzels, locked in Steve's house with invisible chains.

I've been thinking about his lately.  These "ministries" are men using patriarchy as a cover to enshrine their own personalities/idiosyncrasies/pathological need for control.  In fact, that is what patriarchy REQUIRES. 

Stevehovah, Michael Pearl, Mark Driscoll, Doug Wilson, Doug Phillips, John Shrader, really, the list is just endless.  

 

[danvillebelle]

On 6/1/2017 at 10:07 AM, catlady said:

someone mentioned The King's Daughters last summer on the JinJer wedding-planning thread while discussing modest wedding dresses.  Confession time:  i'm weirdly fascinated by this company, and i've ordered a couple of skirts from them (very well-made).  i've also ordered their soap nuts*, which are a good product.  the owners seem to be Mennonite maybe.

*soap nuts are used in the laundry in a little fabric pouch; Mr CL and i channel our inner 12-year-olds and refer to this pouch as the nut sack.

I had some dresses from them back when I was in my seriously modest/semi-Amish phase (about 16 years ago).  They are excellent seamstresses and their clothing is extremely well made.  

[church_of_dog]

I'm someone who appreciates the value of a routine in my day, even when I'm not rushed or trying to accomplish a huge amount.  So I can't snark too hard on that.  But even so, there's a limit of reasonableness.

What I can't figure out is HOW these things fill up their day?  I can't imagine them lounging away their time, but I also can't imagine them working at a molasses-slow pace.

So this is the only way I can figure out how things might take them forever to accomplish:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BxExRETg2Y

[HereticHick]

Chelsy Bontrager praises Anna's tech skills on her new website:

 

http://www.chelsyrenee.com/

"I've got my domain name back, I have a fresh new design, and I'm back in business, of sorts! I'm very grateful for the team of ladies who helped me get this together!

*Photography credits go the incredible HannahElise, as usual. She nails it every time + I am always SO HAPPY with her pictures!
*Header designed by the skilled Rachel (Wissmann) Busenitz, who designed my last header as well, and has a great eye for clean lines + layout, which is just what I love!
*Domain Name Resolving + Redirecting Assistance + things of that sort by the talented Anna Maxwell, who knows far more about these tech issues than I could ever dream of knowing!"

[PennySycamore]

@church_of_dog,

It took me forever to learn how to embed video as well and once you know, it's easy peasy.  All you need to do is to copy the link and paste it in the body of your post.  If you use the link thing, the link will post and not the video, though.

I copies and pasted the video of the link you posted.

 

[HoneyBunny]

Mary's schedule reminds me very much of my summer break schedule...when I was still in elementary school.  A little fun, some work, some learning (in my case it was piano). It's the kind of thing you do at 12. Once I graduated 8th grade, I was expected to be out of the house doing something gainful. That summer I was 13, I took typing (dating myself here) in summer school and babysat; the next summer was volunteering as a candy striper (ditto) and babysitting. After that I was 15 and old enough to have a real job. 

This generation of Maxwells seems stuck in perpetual puberty. 

[Triplet3]

By 'good at art' I did mean 'good at art by Maxwell standards'...