Abigail of the Alcove had a seventh baby and began an M.F.A. program in 2019

[scoutsadie]

Today I finished reading the many the archived threads about Abigail Benjamin, fundy Catholic convert and lay Carmelite, mother to many poorly homeschooled kids, self-described co-dependent and spiritually-abandoned-in-youth blogger living in "poverty" (with more privilege and access to financial resources than many people in the world will ever have).

She has a gift for hyperbole and a persecution complex the size of the Washington, DC Basilica. 

I figured I'd google her to see who she is harassing blessing these days. I learned from her most recent blog post (which is from early 2019) that she:

• delivered a seventh baby (late 2018 or 2019, couldn't be sure), despite the warnings of her high risk OB that further pregnancies could be life-threatening (because CATHOLIC!)
• in 2017, founded an environmental law firm (I haven't confirmed this, so it might be as real as the advertising agency she supposedly launched a few years back, which somehow never got mentioned again)
• was planning to undertake a Master of Fine Arts program to become a fiction writer (insert snark here regarding the fiction she blogged about for a decade prior, in which she chronicled her suffering in daycare as a baby just like kids in an Eastern European orphanage, and as a 40-something, risked arrest for standing up for Catholicism in line at a Goodwill when a guy wouldn't let her have a puzzle he was buying)

She included a family photo in her most recent post, though it must have been taken before Blessing #7 - a boy - arrived.

I guess once she began working for her Master's degree while running an environmental law firm while being a lay Carmelite while homeschooling and raising seven children while being a wife while being the best daughter Mommy Mary (the BVM) ever had, she didn't have time to blog any longer.

http://www.abigailbenjamin.net/abigailsblog/2019/5/15/you-come-too-a-journey-to-get-an-mfa-in-fiction-at-age-44

ETA: Oh boy. For the first time, we have several videos of Abigail, in which she discusses clean water issues. (Apparently before she launched that law firm.)

http://www.abigailbenjamin.net/green

Edited January 13, 2020 by scoutsadie
moar info

[scoutsadie]

Gems from her public social media accounts and blog posts that Abigail published after the last thread died out include:

•  "I'm probably the only artist from West Virginia that you will ever meet" - ??
• Is living in so much poverty that she had to take two daughters on a trip to France
• Apparently her pregnancy with the most recent baby (which docs advised against for the sake of her health) required bedrest and a few hospitalizations; good thing she survived, or her husband would have had to raise the other six kids alone #prolife
• From a blog post she called At Ease Homeschooling: "This August marks my eighth year as a homeschool teacher. I'm starting a part-time environmental law practice the same year that I'll be teaching four different grades, along with a 4 year old who wants to be in the academic mix and a nutty 18 month old who has a knack for finding trouble the exact moment that an older sibling makes progress with multiplying fractions...I make sure that we're following a plan that is legal for the State. Basically that means, even though no one likes it, we do long division, spelling and lessons on passive voice. The this is what we have to learn is pretty light." Great.
• From the same post as above, but this gets its own line because it made me LOL: "They write the reports and I nag them about grammer [sic] rules and standardize their spelling."
•  "This was the week that I decided to self-nurture myself with a gym membership. We don't have a lot of money, yet my health is worth a small piece of our grocery budget." What about your kids' health?!? Do all seven of them get enough healthy food every day?!?

Okay, I gotta go to bed.

Edited January 13, 2020 by scoutsadie
riffles

[Bethella]

Luke was born in mid-August 2018.

[Caroline]

Ok, this is interesting.  My daughter graduated from college last May and started a full-time MFA in creative writing at a college with a well-known program in a major city not too far from where we live.   It is not cheap, and she is getting a lot of financial assistance to do it from a family member as well as a place to live because it is expensive to live in the city she's in.   She works about 25 hours a week and is taking a full load of grad classes.  She investigated low-res programs, but even they were pricy and she decided that she really needs the constant input of others to do her best work.  (I'm sure she would have been happy in the right low-res program though.)   Where does Abigail get the money for these adventures?  We told our daughter we did not want her to go into a lot of debt with any grad program.  So far she loves it and is writing like crazy because she is constantly critiquing and being critiqued by others.  I also think she's a superb writer.  Biased, I know, but I'm a reader,  and think I know quality.  Abigail has never impressed me with her ability despite her obvious brilliance in every other area of life.

[Pleiades_06]

She’s running for a local office

https://www.friendsofabigailb.com/

[singsingsing]

On 2/4/2020 at 6:46 PM, Pleiades_06 said:

She’s running for a local office

https://www.friendsofabigailb.com/

Oh Lord. I mean, of course she is! I wonder how much scorn she’ll encounter along the way? This is the woman who thinks every stranger who happens to glance in her general direction is an evil heathen judging her for being a Catholic/having children. She nearly had a breakdown at the Goodwill when some monster refused to let her have a puzzle she wanted that he’d already put in his cart. It was a catholic puzzle and he was obviously a bad man because he had a Hooters plate as well (or something like that)!!!

Godspeed, Abigail. Godspeed. May Mommy Mary ever be with you. ?

[Jellybean]

Is she still playing cello? That was another necessity that came out of the grocery budget!

[zee_four]

Now she's Erin Brockovich. She has a BA in American Studies and then got a JD at University of Wisconsin in the late 90s and never used it. She finally passed the bar a couple years ago and without any additional training or working at a large law firm to learn or any training under anyone, but instead she started her own firm as an "environmental law and mineral law expert" oh a a real estate law expert too.

Methinks she doesn't understand what a true expert is. With no experience, no scientific education (I have a BS in Geology/Hydrology with a Snow Hydro certificate and I eoukd never claim to be an expert in those areas) she also has never had any legal experience before starting her own firm. No experience researching, working litigation, working under trial attorneys, but don't worry guys she's an expert!! Eek.

I just can't with this woman. I guess I can say I wish I had her self confidence?