Maxwell 29: You Can Leave Your Vest On, Second Verse Same as the First

[wallysmommy]

13 minutes ago, Granwych said:

You're braver than I am!  Sarah would probably be frozen in a doorway, whiter than a ghost.

She would probably be that way if I took her anywhere away from the smothering duo.

[Ozlsn]

9 hours ago, Granwych said:

You're braver than I am!  Sarah would probably be frozen in a doorway, whiter than a ghost.

Maybe start with the Macy's parade and work up?

20 hours ago, mango_fandango said:

I get enjoying the same holiday every year. Some people will love hiking. But it’s their only holiday. They haven’t done anything else for years. Haven’t they ever wanted to go anywhere else? It doesn’t have to be instead of Colorado, it can be in addition to it. Go somewhere on the coast, heck even another mountain range.

So much in agreement with this!! Go to the Appalachians, or the Grand Canyon, or Oregon, or Utah!! So much great hiking available! 

Go see some historical monuments! Go crash out at a beach! Hell, spread your wings a bit and go to... Canada!! I know it's foreign, but they have some pretty damn good mountains/beaches/history too...

[lilith]

1 hour ago, Ozlsn said:

Maybe start with the Macy's parade and work up?

So much in agreement with this!! Go to the Appalachians, or the Grand Canyon, or Oregon, or Utah!! So much great hiking available! 

Go see some historical monuments! Go crash out at a beach! Hell, spread your wings a bit and go to... Canada!! I know it's foreign, but they have some pretty damn good mountains/beaches/history too...

I would LOVE to see the Maxwells do Utah. See how they like others coming up to them and asking about where they will go when they die. 

[SolomonFundy]

On 4/3/2019 at 9:47 AM, daisyjane1234 said:

"I think your Holly Homemaker comments miss the point.  Many of us 'professional' women agree that children should have chores and share responsibility within the home.  Many of us also value our time at home, and would agree that women's work is de-valued. Some of us remained at home for years.  Where our concerns often lie is when young girls are raised in such a way that no choices beyond the home are viewed as reasonable.  Are young girls wearing chore packs allowed to have dreams that extend beyond the home to include roles such as scientist, lawyer, teacher, and so on?

I am a college professor who remained at home for almost two decades to care for my children and family, and valued every minute.  I returned to teaching once my youngest began college.  The key difference, however, is that I wasn't groomed from birth to be a homemaker simply because I am a woman. I was encouraged to explore a range of interests and pursue advanced education, and yes, to intentionally seek both God and God's calling both within the home and beyond - opportunities that are often denied young girls and women who are raised with exclusive goal of homemaker.  So, for me, both my time at home, and my time beyond the home, have been choices that were made very intentionally and prayerfully.  

You state in your post that you hope your daughters choose to be homemakers.  Is it truly a choice if they have been raised with no other option?  Or if any other option such as employment beyond the home and/or family business have been so clearly denigrated, such as by your blog post(s). 

I would also suggest that comments where you claim you were able to love your children more fully because you were at home (second post) are inflammatory, unfair, and most certainly un-Christian."

This is a beautifully composed rebuttal to that stupid post, and I dearly hope that Steve reads every word of it here.

 

I've got nothing against people who choose to be homemakers. It's no different than any other lifestyle or professional choice. If you are old enough to make decisions for yourself, and it's truly your preference, and you have the ability to pursue it, then good! But, it's so very sad to know that there is no other future that the Maxwells would ever want for their daughters.

Then, I remembered that these women will never even get the chance to "choose" homemaking. As limiting and stifling as the life of a fundy housewife can be, it's still a form of freedom compared to the lot of a SAHD; one that will probably never be offered to any of the Maxwell daughters. 

[JillyO]

22 hours ago, nausicaa said:

The other thing is--I really doubt every single one of the six adults wants to just go hiking in Colorado every.damn.year. I'm all for people being boring and wanting familiarity. If the same annual hike in Colorado is Steve and Teri's thing, have at it.

But I'm gonna guess, just from how human nature works, that maybe Mary doesn't love hiking as much and would like to go swimming instead, or Jesse and Anna would like to mix it up and try someplace new this year?

Completely agree. My mom's best friend's family went on the same two vacations every year. The same all inclusive resort in Turkey every summer, and the same sport hotel for skiing in the Austrian alps every winter. For two decades.

Then they got a divorce after 22 years. Turns out, it was ALL the husband. Since they split up (about six or so years ago), mom's friend has been travelling all over the world, exploring new places. We're no longer in touch with the ex-husband, but I assume he still goes to those same two places every year with his new girlfriend. Which is fine for him, but CLEARLY he wasn't taking his wife's desires into account at all.

Just like Steve and Teri don't care if any of their kids want to go on a city trip to NYC or explore the Everglades or, heck, hike some mountains in Montana instead.

[louannems]

On 4/4/2019 at 1:45 AM, mango_fandango said:

I get enjoying the same holiday every year. Some people will love hiking. But it’s their only holiday. They haven’t done anything else for years. Haven’t they ever wanted to go anywhere else? It doesn’t have to be instead of Colorado, it can be in addition to it. Go somewhere on the coast, heck even another mountain range.

When you stay in a holiday cottage here in the U.K., it’s common for the owners to leave a “visitor’s book/comments book”, where guests leave comments/recommendations (eg “we loved our stay”, “this pub is really good”, “x attraction is fun and good for kids” etc). Some families come back for another visit. I remember reading through one visitors’ book for a particular cottage where one family stayed there over TWENTY times. I just remember thinking “didn’t they ever want to explore a different bit of Somerset?” or wherever the hell it was. But I guess some people just don’t like change. We always went somewhere different every holiday. Sure we’ve visited Devon several times (southwest), but different bits each time. 

I'm guilty of this, I admit!  My three kids and husband and I stayed at the same ocean resort for 7 nights every single August for 30 years. After the kids grew up, our daughter would frequently join us.  The place is delightful and there are 10 different cabins.  We do switch among 3 of them.  It's a short walk to the ocean.  I admit we didn't take our kids to other states for vacation, but we all did love this beach.

I grew up in a very patriarchal home which was extremely stressful to me.  Lots of corporal punishment and tons of threats of punishment.  But our family had a cabin at the ocean where my best family memories are.  The cabin was sold long ago but my own family discovered these cabins there and kept returning.

And yes, I once did write in the guest book about returning every year!

[HereticHick]

8 hours ago, lilith said:

I would LOVE to see the Maxwells do Utah. See how they like others coming up to them and asking about where they will go when they die. 

Yessss!  Suck it, Gentiles!

 

PS For our readers not familiar with the Latter Day Saints--Mormons call the rest of us "Gentiles"

[Alisamer]

19 hours ago, Granwych said:

You're braver than I am!  Sarah would probably be frozen in a doorway, whiter than a ghost.

Give her a Hurricane and tell her it's a slushy. That'll unfreeze her pretty quick, I bet!

[IReallyAmHopewell]

2 hours ago, HereticHick said:

Yessss!  Suck it, Gentiles!

 

PS For our readers not familiar with the Latter Day Saints--Mormons call the rest of us "Gentiles"

Didn't they evangelize in Salt Lake City years ago? Or am I thinking of the wrong boring family?

[PennySycamore]

This reminds me of the classic scene from Guys and Dolls where Guy takes Sister Sarah to Havana and plies her with milk-bases cocktails.  This is what ensues when Sarah has had a few too many:

 

[fundiefan]

9 hours ago, louannems said:

I'm guilty of this, I admit!  My three kids and husband and I stayed at the same ocean resort for 7 nights every single August for 30 years. After the kids grew up, our daughter would frequently join us.  The place is delightful and there are 10 different cabins.  We do switch among 3 of them.  It's a short walk to the ocean.  I admit we didn't take our kids to other states for vacation, but we all did love this beach.

 

For about ten years, when my nieces & nephews & cousins were kids, we went to a cabin resort every year, on the same lake and each family had the same cabin. Not all together, each indiviual family had a cabin, and usually the same one each year. There are 8 cabins at the resort and we typically used five or six for our family.

It worked perfect - the lake, there's a bar, a game room, several cousins had boats. We jet-ski'd, swam, drank, played whatever outdoor game we felt like (giant Jenga is a blast), had bon fires every night, spent a few evenings in the bar...it was an amazing week we all looked forward to every year. 

Then, the kids got older and had too much going on and jobs and started getting lives of their own, so we stopped going about 10 years ago. In 2012, some of us went again and a lot of the kids joined us, even though most were in college at that time. We definitely enjoyed it and were all thrilled to be back. 

But, we haven't gone since and probably won't. The kids are now grown, some with families of their own, others with no interest in a week with their parents and aunts/cousins. Its time has passed. 

All that being said - even though we went to the same place every year, and did a return trip many years later - because we all love the place so much - every single person who went did so by choice - except of course the kids when they were little, but there were several years when one cousin & his family did not go because their older son was in baseball and he didn't want to miss his games. There were other options, and we all went on other vacations to other places then, and now. No one was required to only go on this one vacation with only our group. No one was required to go at all. And once there, no one was required to do anything they didn't want to do. 

Like most comparisons to Maxhell - it comes down to choice. It's not inherently wrong with going to go to the same cabin in the same state on the same mountain range every year. If it's the choice of everyone concerned, and if it's not their only choice for travel/vacations/recreation and if they have decision making power to go or stay and to hike or not and to feed the chipmunks or not.

Given Steve's penchant for controlling every second of his family's lives, I sincerely doubt any of them have a choice outside the married ones. And even then, abusive power is strong and can hold for years even after you're "gone" - and none of the married sons is actually gone, living their own lives. 

 

[wallysmommy]

9 hours ago, Alisamer said:

Give her a Hurricane and tell her it's a slushy. That'll unfreeze her pretty quick, I bet!

I thought about that.  I would tell her it's fruit punch like they serve at wedding receptions.

[socalrules]

I will gladly take part in an experiment by going to Hawaii every year, staying in the same hotel and laying on the same beach for the next 30 years. I will not complain but will do it for FJ and report back as to whether I am bored by the sameness. It will be a sacrifice but I think I can do it. I just need someone to pay for it all. Remember, it’s all in the name of science, I think. 

[SPHASH]

Good news (sarcasm), Griselda Teri's new book will be released May 8th!

[tabitha2]

Lord a mercy can you see A Maxwell girl or guy drunk  off their Ass from a like one fruity mixed drink? I picture  bouts of sobbing, laughing hysterically at nothing, trying to dance , religious babbling and yelling and possibly punching someone and telling everybody how they really feel.  All the repression of 20 or 25 years exploding. Hopefully clothes on though.

[fundiefan]

2 hours ago, tabitha2 said:

Lord a mercy can you see A Maxwell girl or guy drunk  off their Ass from a like one fruity mixed drink? I picture  bouts of sobbing, laughing hysterically at nothing, trying to dance , religious babbling and yelling and possibly punching someone and telling everybody how they really feel.  All the repression of 20 or 25 years exploding. Hopefully clothes on though.

Take out the religious babbling and you described my later teenage years. I drank but didn't know how; had no tolerance; no sense of when to stop. I was totally the emotional drinker. I cried. Anyone within hearing distance heard about whatever heartache or drama I had and it was, of course, amplified by the alcohol. I was the stereotypical emotional drunk. 

I cringe now when I think of what I used to drink and how much and what I did. I never got in trouble, was never the driver and didn't get...loose....I was too busy crying in a corner. 

 

[dairyfreelife]

On 4/2/2019 at 2:51 PM, anjulibai said:

I think Caleb Thomas for a boy is likely.

No idea for a girl. I suspect they'll go for a D name, but who knows. 

I think the same with a girl starting with D and a boy starting with a C. They seem to like Biblical (Abigail, Andrew, Benjamin) or names that relate to Christianity and the Bible in some way (Bethany and Christina). If Chris and Anna M didn't already have a Daniel, my best guess would be Danielle or Daniella for a girl. Deborah is a possibility, but there's not a lot of D Biblical names that aren't really different (Dorcas) or not okay to use for a Max baby (Delilah). Of course a virtue middle name, Charity or Patience or similar. 

I would also pick Caleb as their choice for a boy name, but unsure the middle, though figure perhaps a family name that's also Biblical in nature. Thomas would seem to fit that pattern. 

[anjulibai]

You know, if they have another girl and decide to go with a C name, they might choose another place name from the Bible. Cana would work. Both Bethany and Cana are places that Jesus performed miracles. 

Well, in any case, we have a month and a half to wait.

[meee]

What about Dorothy?

[singsingsing]

Dorothy or Dorothea would be cute. 

[Black Aliss]

On 4/4/2019 at 6:45 AM, tabitha2 said:

It’s The Maxwells. Can you see them on a beach, even a quiet private one?  But I can see them enjoying old house tours or boat tours if they tried them. 

 

They can't go to a beach unless maybe somewhere along the North Sea, because they would see immodestly-clad women and Steve and Jesse would be defrauded. Although lots of women hike in shorts, so it's almost as bad up in the mountains.

[fundiefan]

“Give her of the fruit of her hands;
and let her own works praise her in the gates.”
Proverbs 31:31

That's their choice of bible verse. 

Aren't they of the brand of Kristchen that doesn't believe in works? 

Yet, somehow, they appratnely believe that Terri's regurgitating bible verses in book form for money is a work to be praised at the gates? 

 

[tabitha2]

Dorothy or Dorothea would suit them very . It mean’s Gift of God and she can be Thea, Dory  or Dot/Dotty. 

[PennySycamore]

10 hours ago, tabitha2 said:

Dorothy or Dorothea would suit them very . It mean’s Gift of God and she can be Thea, Dory  or Dot/Dotty. 

Or even Doro.  That's George and Barbara Bush called their daughter Dorothy.

Dorothy was on the short list for names for our first.  Even though my husband said he didn't want any family names for our kids, he made an exception for girls names from his side.  He had a great aunt Dorothy.

We did eventually have a daughter with a name from my family.  Our premie was named after my mom's mom (and also Katharine Hepburn) because she needed a strong name and they were both strong women.  Her middle name was the name of my mom's oldest sister, but I don't think that my husband knew that.  

[Eclipse]

Anyone have any ideas what Teri’s new book will be about?

Mine are:

101 ways to clean a ceiling fan

How to Grandparent: 15 minute prescheduled blocks of time to stunt the grandchildren’s development