Maxwell 34: Vest Management While Climbing a 14er

[kpmom]

5 hours ago, NancyDrewFan1989 said:

A little off topic, but I came a cross an article about a woman in Kansas who ticked off her neighbors for having an X-rated Christmas display on the roof of her house. Is this anywhere near the Maxwells?

https://wtvr.com/2019/12/11/womans-naughty-christmas-light-display-turns-off-neighbors/

Gosh, could that be the same woman who Steve complained about because she had the nerve to swim in a bathing suit in her own backyard?  That would be an appropriate response to Steve, I’d say.

And @grammyj that’s nice that your hubby allows you to read Steve’s Corners before he does, but please tell me he does not allow you to read those Corners that Steve has deemed FOR MEN ONLY.  Who knows what could happen to a woman if she so much as glances at those Corners! 

[NancyDrewFan1989]

43 minutes ago, kpmom said:

Gosh, could that be the same woman who Steve complained about because she had the nerve to swim in a bathing suit in her own backyard?  That would be an appropriate response to Steve, I’d say.

And @grammyj that’s nice that your hubby allows you to read Steve’s Corners before he does, but please tell me he does not allow you to read those Corners that Steve has deemed FOR MEN ONLY.  Who knows what could happen to a woman if she so much as glances at those Corners! 

If so, then she is fighting the good fight. 

[grammyj]

Well yes, kpmom, Grampyj does allow me to read Steve's Corners. And what has happened?  Well, some days I forget to put the toothpaste on his toothbrush before he goes to bed, or I might even go to bed before the hour he has designated and consequently cannot pray aloud with him while we drift off to sleep because I am already sleeping. Once I went to Costco alone, without asking him first. I watched the Beast there for awhile. I really enjoy those heathen Natl Geo programs.

 It's a slippery slope, I tell ya, and now I read freejinger--religiously (cause only I have the password to the internet searches, hehehe).

He will be so disappointed with me when he finds out how ungodly I am. I know he will weep and pray over me, like forever. He will  accuse me of lacking meekness and humility.

But of course grampyj will blame himself for not holding his umbrella of protection up higher over me. I guess I deserve hell for my sinful deeds.  So that's what's in store for you if you cast your eyes upon the Mens' Only Corners. Heed my warning.

 

 

[scoutsadie]

On 12/12/2019 at 3:03 PM, Giraffe said:

I agree with you on this, because I’m sure that’s what it is. I find it ironic though that he has no problem bringing other women into “the crew,” while not allowing his daughters the same. 

Ah, but that is obvious - he can be assured that the Maxwell sons will teach the correct theology and run their families the correct way... random fundy Christian men could lead his daughters astray.

[Bethy]

On 12/13/2019 at 8:55 AM, freejugar said:

three years ago

It's the same things every year with these 

It's not the same thing and you know it - not a single one of those girls is sitting in the same seat she was in three years ago!

20 hours ago, SPHASH said:

So much dann snark in the Random Life post...Amish Anna, enough with the matching frumpers! 

Honestly, I can't snark on the matching Mommy and Me stuff. I have a daughter younger than Ruthanne/Lydia and she still loves twinning. The difference between NR-Anna and me is that when my daughter tells me that she doesn't want to have matching outfits anymore, then we won't. NR-Anna's kids won't be allowed to veto the matchy-matchy stuff - if they do I'm certain they'll be punished. That's if they ever even figure our that they could have a dissenting opinion about anything their mom and dad dad and mom want.

Having said that, I do think the brown dresses are quite sad. More seasonally appropriate than that turquoise, but just an ugly print. Anna must've gotten a steal on fabric by the bolt, which is how much she'd need (at least) to make those frocks for her and the girls.

[smittykins]

17 hours ago, usmcmom said:

Oh I love that book so much. Until we moved to Tennessee, I read it once a year. I pulled it out during the first Midwest snowstorm each year and sat by the window, reading while the blizzard hit. I guess it brought it all home a little better, but it also made me so grateful for our warm house and pantry full of food. We don’t get snow down here; so I haven’t thought about it much since we moved. 

Yes, they twisted straw into “logs” and burned them. They also used a coffee grinder to grind the wheat for bread each day. Pa thought that green pumpkin pie was apple and asked Ma where she found apples that time of year (I think). 

Yay, another LIW fan!

Actually, the whole series makes me glad I don’t live in those times.  Working from sunup to sundown in the fields(or twelve hours a day, six days a week in town), having to do housework or chores from the time you’re old enough to hold a broom or farm implement(to this day, the passage in Little House in the Big Woods with a five-year-old Laura standing on a chair at the stove, stirring the pumpkin so it wouldn’t burn, still ooks me out), when going to school was a privilege, and the real possibility of dying in childbirth, from an accident, or from a now-preventable disease. 

Here’s a discussion I unearthed from Quiverfull of Words from 2012 if anyone’s interested:

(We now return you to your regularly scheduled snark, already in progress.)

Edited December 14, 2019 by smittykins

[SPHASH]

Little House fan here too even though I hated the racism towards the Osage and Sioux tribes and the anti-government attitude!  My favorites were Little House in the Woods, Plum Creek, Long Winter, and Little Town on the Prairie.  Didn't like Little House on the Prairie cuz Pa was in Indian Territory illegally and Shores of Silver Lake cuz it was a bit depressing, Mary had gone blind and Jack the dog died.

[Dandruff]

On 12/13/2019 at 2:04 PM, catlady said:

But Sweet Rufus on a Ricecake, Sarah!  YOUR NEIGHBORS provided the firewood, not God. God has better things to do than provide you with unnecessary luxury items.  Did He provide this morning’s mocha for you, too?  Assclown, just like your father.

Pity that's the only sort of wood their Lord sees fit to let them handle.

[theologygeek]

I hope everyone is almost done with their Christmas shopping because Christmas is less than two weeks ago!  

I am going to use that in a sentence every day until Christmas so my children will think I have lost my mind.

This is all Under's fault.  

[Caroline]

On 12/12/2019 at 10:53 PM, raspberrymint said:

No anger towards Sarah here.  I've been a SAHD and live-in servant and I've been an overworked out-on-her-own single (and now married) woman.  I'd rather be overworked by a corporation any day, and I hate being overworked by a corporation.  At least my private life is mine.  At least my company isn't individual humans that can work me as much as they want and pay me nothing for it, answering to no one.

And eventually you can retire with (hopefully) a pension to support you in retirement instead of having to rely solely on the other person who may or may not be a good and reliable spouse.   (Or who might die prematurely, or a million other reasons to not rely completely on someone else.)

[JermajestyDuggar]

This four generations picture makes me sad. Because I think it’s pretty unlikely Sarah, Anna, or Mary will get to have a four generations that includes a child of their own and not a niece. It’s possible they could get married in the future. But I think it will be awhile. And Gigi is getting older. 

Edited December 15, 2019 by JermajestyDuggar

[raspberrymint]

1 hour ago, Caroline said:

And eventually you can retire with (hopefully) a pension to support you in retirement instead of having to rely solely on the other person who may or may not be a good and reliable spouse.   (Or who might die prematurely, or a million other reasons to not rely completely on someone else.)

Not me personally.  I'll probably work on and off until I die, like every generation in my family before me, unless my wife and/or I get some windfall of a pay upgrade.

My wife was homeless for years before moving in with me.  I was homeless after being a live-in nanny, until I found my a job which afforded my rent.  Now we have a mortgage.  My wife has a temporary job that pays over twice what I make, but it can't last forever or else I'd leave my job for the same position.  If we do go back to school, which she wants to for at least for herself, we'll have to take turns working and one of us will have to be making something substantial with a resume full of blanks while the other goes to school, which is why I'm not doing anything like that as far as my own education unless this is a trade school that's fully paid for -- and those are for careers that generally require physical abilities beyond what I consistently have and/or require being away from home for very long periods of time, even months.

If we hadn't been left for dead in our twenties, maybe we could retire some day, but that's often just not realistic for people leaving abusive situations.  It won't be realistic for Sarah if she leaves.  She would be a minimum wage secretary until she didn't show up to work one day and a mandatory police welfare check found her dead at 87.  One reason many don't leave.

I was trying to edit this again to say I'm not without hope.  My screen messed up and erased what I had written.  Anyway, we're still relatively young, I'm not yet 30, and our plans involve a succession of changing jobs and no traditional retirement (more something along the lines of having the funds to buy a restaurant someday and take a big step back from its operation after the first years), we do think we'll get to a point of living how we want to.

But we're two people.  I guess Sarah is only eight and four years our senior, respectively, but it seems like she's older because she's pushing 40 without any freedom and facing a world alone if she leaves.  I don't think she ever will, unless she's giving it until she hits menopause and then saying aw fuck it, but that doesn't seem likely at all.  She would rather "retire" from the bank of mom and dad into inheritance than face poverty.

One more edit to say that at my age right now, I don't think I'll mind not retiring since the women in my family get dementia and I think keeping my mind busy could help to prevent that.  But both of my grandmothers got dementia while still working in their 80s, so not foolproof.  Still something I'm already on the defense about.  (My mom isn't because she wants dementia so she can forget her daughters, meaning her failure to raise Christian bigots, exist.)

Edited December 15, 2019 by raspberrymint
Bitter honesty. Sorry for the downer, truly. New edit was last two paragraphs, newer was last one. I guess I have a lot to say.

[Ozlsn]

17 hours ago, smittykins said:

when going to school was a privilege, 

One of the parts I found saddest in Prairie Fires was an excerpt from a letter one of Laura's aunts wrote, in which she said that she was jealous of the educational opportunities her daughters and grandaughters were getting and how much she would have loved to be able to go to school for longer. And then I look at all these fundies deliberately not educating their children and I am so sad that those kids who should have those opportunities miss out because their parents are afraid they'll be contaminated or leave or something, I don't know.

[LurkerOverThePond]

On 12/13/2019 at 1:32 PM, Sops2 said:

Sarah is attractive, and on this trip to the Messiah, would look very appealing to any GYM- sorry, G Middle aged M.You can see her figure and accentuated waist - she looks lovely. Shame on you Steve for not letting her escape!

I was thinking the same. This has to be the first time ever a Maxwell lady is showing some figure instead of their usual loose and very shapeless shirts and vests. Sarah looks lovely. I wonder what would happen if someone tried to flirt with her.

[anachronistic]

I honestly don’t think that she would recognize flirting. I wouldn’t either because I’m terrible with body language but I think Sarah would notice the behavior and characterize it as odd. If someone came right out and asked if she’d be free for coffee sometime, she might not know she is being asked on a date and would probably bring a family member along, not because she needs an accountability partner anymore but because it wouldn’t occur to her not to. “Oh, I was, um, hoping to spend some time alone with you,” Guy says, and Sarah would be really confused. “Why?” “To get to know you?” “But why would you want to know me by myself when I have virtually no personality that isn’t directly dictated by my father and my brother is right here and is so much more interesting because of being a man?”

 

Poor Sarah! She’s been brainwashed until her cluelessness just shines like a polished floor.

[Giraffe]

If Sarah recognized it as flirting she would probably feel incredibly uncomfortable and /or unsafe and immediately walk away. 

[louannems]

2 hours ago, Giraffe said:

If Sarah recognized it as flirting she would probably feel incredibly uncomfortable and /or unsafe and immediately walk away. 

Oh, most definitely!  Remember a year or two ago when Sarah wrote her missive on how single ladies can remain pure and safe while traveling alone in the airport?  Don't make eye contact, always look busy with a book so no one approaches, don't sit near other people!!!  I can't remember it all but that's my take on it.

[Sops2]

A "what might have been" moment to look back on fondly when she's in her 50s.

So sad

[Giraffe]

15 minutes ago, louannems said:

Oh, most definitely!  Remember a year or two ago when Sarah wrote her missive on how single ladies can remain pure and safe while traveling alone in the airport?  Don't make eye contact, always look busy with a book so no one approaches, don't sit near other people!!!  I can't remember it all but that's my take on it.

Haha, that the post that came to my mind when I responded. I couldn’t recall all the details but it was clear even being physically apart from Steve & Terri wasn’t going to change anything. That’s probably how she’s “earned the privilege” of traveling alone. ?

[CyborgKin]

The pics of Sarah on the previous page prompted me to ask: does Sarah habitually squint when she tries to smile for a photo, or does she need glasses?

[PennySycamore]

@CyborgKin, that's a good question about Sarah maybe needing glasses.  She is about that age where many people do need a little help with distance vision.  

[raspberrymint]

I found the Little House books depressing when Mary's blindness meant she couldn't do anything and Laura's parents forced her to become a teacher.  Laura thinking (or saying?  I was about 10 or 11 when I read this, so it's been a while) "I can't!  I can't!" followed by a little voice inside her saying she must, that was something that pissed me off and stuck with me.  I knew that wouldn't happen to me if I could help it.  I know Laura had more freedom than many women even now, but that still wasn't right.  The books depressed me after the characters stopped being little, probably just because most things did since I was depressed off and on from earlier in childhood than that.  I'm no longer depressed, just still irritable and rightly so. 

Sarah Maxwell was the writer.  I'm surprised she didn't have glasses long ago.  I also thought her eyes were just part of her face shape.  Older pictures also look like that.  She was writing when they were taken.

[Melissa1977]

5 hours ago, PennySycamore said:

@CyborgKin, that's a good question about Sarah maybe needing glasses.  She is about that age where many people do need a little help with distance vision.  

She's not even 40. The vision issues are common at 45 or older, not at late 30s. Anyway, it would be a problem for reading, not something that can be noticed while looking at a camera.

She does that blink often, I think Anna does too. Maybe they pose for pictures thinking on the background, no matter if the light goes to their eyes, disturbing them and causing that blink. Also, forced smiles don't help.

[fundiewatch]

God laid it upon Sarah’s heart to go pack with OCC in Denver. First of all, how are Anna and Mary not reeling with jealousy. That is their jam. Secondly, damn. She’s explained the whole pre-inspecting through taping up process multiple times over the years and even I, a heathen agnostic, knows the steps. She knows they don’t have a rash of new readers. She really posts the same things over and over. 

[Botkinetti]

She posts the same things over and over because she keeps living the same the things over and over. She has such a stunted life that the idea of a possibility of change must be terrifying. Rufus help them when Steve dies and change will be there whether they like it or not.