Maxwell 53: Escaping the Borg by Marriage. Who'd Have Thought Sarah?

[Hane]

32 minutes ago, RachelDM said:

Aww man, I actually kind of miss the portrait posts! A prime example of Maxwells overly complicating things.

Yeah. I think of all the overwrought Maxhell family meetings that were meticulously scheduled so they could plan things like how much food to buy for a cookout, how many loaves of poppyseed bread (oops—I meant Poppy Seed Bread) to bake for caroling, and which baby names to choose. I could practically see the smoke coming out of Teri’s ears as she stressed over things like making sure the right people got Pepsi vs. 7-Up at Nathan’s rehearsal dinner. Hell, for me, planning my daughter’s wedding was a piece of cake—and I baked the actual cake!

[Bethy]

1 hour ago, RachelDM said:

Aww man, I actually kind of miss the portrait posts! A prime example of Maxwells overly complicating things.

I miss them...I think the last one we saw was 2019, wasn't it? It was fun to watch the kids grow over the years, and to see who the color-scheme nonconformist would be each year. When I first started following them only Nate and Christopher were married and Nate and Mel only had two kids so it's been a lot of change and annual pictures were a good way to keep up with that. In the time since they last checked in, Jesse and Anna could've had a whole kid and we wouldn't even know.

[ElizaB]

It kind of feels like a favorite tv show being canceled 

[Granwych]

1 hour ago, Hane said:

Yeah. I think of all the overwrought Maxhell family meetings that were meticulously scheduled so they could plan things like how much food to buy for a cookout, how many loaves of poppyseed bread (oops—I meant Poppy Seed Bread) to bake for caroling, and which baby names to choose. I could practically see the smoke coming out of Teri’s ears as she stressed over things like making sure the right people got Pepsi vs. 7-Up at Nathan’s rehearsal dinner. Hell, for me, planning my daughter’s wedding was a piece of cake—and I baked the actual cake!

I stand in awe of you baking your daughter’s cake.   I made my daughter’s reception centerpieces and favors, but the cake?   Oh, perish the thought (and most likely perish the guests too)

[SoSoNosy]

My daughter and I were running a couple of errands this afternoon and I was telling her about Sarah and the other girls, and how light-headed we all are that they are actually seeing some life.  She homeschooled because our local schools were abysmal and she wanted better education for her kids, but she went to a lot of meetings to check out curriculum types and she encountered the Maxwells at least once.  She said she got a weird vibe from them, and just avoided being in their area.  BTW, her two oldest have graduated undergrad, one of them has a Master's and the youngest is a Junior in college, so her SOTDRT was pretty good.

 

[luv2laugh]

I think the maxwells shut the blog down because they don’t approve of Sarah’s marriage. I can’t understand why they wouldn’t have announced it otherwise. 

[Bethy]

1 hour ago, luv2laugh said:

I think the maxwells shut the blog down because they don’t approve of Sarah’s marriage. I can’t understand why they wouldn’t have announced it otherwise. 

I think it's too soon to draw that conclusion. Remember that Joseph's entire courtship/engagement was hushed until a "Surprise! Meet Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Maxwell!" post, and, had a sharp-eyed FJer not stumbled onto Jesse and Anna's registry, that would've been a similarly shocking announcement; John and Chelsy's engagement was announced pre-wedding only after she and her parents had already broken the news. They seemed very unhappy to be announcing John's courtship/engagement prior to the "I now pronounce you..." moment and their post made it clear that they were only doing so because the Bonts already had...privacy, y'know. (That started to matter after the second broken engagement in the family.)

If, by the end of August, they haven't acknowledged Sarah's marriage, we can probably assume they're unhappy. Or that she took the blog passwords with her when she left.

[Paperplate]

10 hours ago, Granwych said:

I stand in awe of you baking your daughter’s cake.   I made my daughter’s reception centerpieces and favors, but the cake?   Oh, perish the thought (and most likely perish the guests too)

I made the cake at my own wedding! I got so many compliments from people saying it was the first wedding cake they tried that wasn't only nice to look at but that actually tasted good too. That made me very happy.

6 hours ago, luv2laugh said:

I think the maxwells shut the blog down because they don’t approve of Sarah’s marriage. I can’t understand why they wouldn’t have announced it otherwise. 

I wouldn't be surprised if Sarah's marriage wasn't even on the horizon when they shut down the blog. They made it clear that it was Sarah's decision to stop blogging since she was the one doing the work.

I could see her simply not making a post about her wedding because she doesn't want to.

[SamanthasMom]

It says a lot about this family that one daughter going on a mission trip to majority Christian countries and another marrying seemingly the first guy she met at almost forty is seen as progress. I am happy for Sarah, but she definitely was not raised to know how to protect herself and set limits in a marriage. I hope this guy turns out okay.

[Captain Obvious]

8 hours ago, luv2laugh said:

I think the maxwells shut the blog down because they don’t approve of Sarah’s marriage. I can’t understand why they wouldn’t have announced it otherwise. 

She isn't married yet and they have form of not announcing engagements until the couple are actually married.

So I won't be suspecting anything until after then.

2 hours ago, Paperplate said:

I wouldn't be surprised if Sarah's marriage wasn't even on the horizon when they shut down the blog. They made it clear that it was Sarah's decision to stop blogging since she was the one doing the work.

I could see her simply not making a post about her wedding because she doesn't want to.

Given the shortness of their engagement, I highly doubt that the relationship would have started when the blog ended. They would have been married by now if it had. 

Edited July 11, 2022 by Captain Obvious

[Coconut Flan]

To me they made it clear that they were retiring the blog.  They haven't posted anything since that announcement.  I would be surprised if any further posts show up on the blog.  I don't think it's even on their radar any more.  

[anachronistic]

@ElizaB that’s it exactly! You have the reruns and occasionally you’ll talk about it when you meet another fan, or an actor will pop up on another show and you’ll be briefly excited and say hey! that’s so-and-so from such and such. But the days of long show recaps and being eager for new episodes are over forever.

[kpmom]

48 minutes ago, Coconut Flan said:

To me they made it clear that they were retiring the blog.  They haven't posted anything since that announcement.  I would be surprised if any further posts show up on the blog.  I don't think it's even on their radar any more.  

I agree.

But, the one reason I can think that they might make an announcement is to let their former followers know what's going on.  They had a big MOTH following back in the day and Sarah ran the MOTH board.  Everyone on the board knew her.  Plus, there are people who "know" her through her books.

Not all of their former followers might be as good detectives as we have here on FJ, and many might not even know she's engaged.

[Hane]

@Paperplate, major props for making and decorating your own wedding cake! Because I hadn’t yet learned how to decorate cakes, I baked the layers for a few big celebration cakes (my parents’ 35th anniversary, my second wedding, and the Catholic celebration that followed it several months later).

I only got into the major cake making gig when my baby sister got engaged. She asked me to make her wedding cake because she “didn’t want one of those stale ones from a bakery” (this was back in 1991, when small local bakeries often only baked big cake layers once a week). When I said, “But I don’t know how to decorate cakes!” she replied, “You could take a class.” So I did, every Wednesday night for weeks, on top of my 9 to 5 and teaching English on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And I made her bridal shower cake and my daughter’s junior bridesmaid dress. The things we do for those we love!

I gotta admit: I baked the Maxhellion poppyseed bread and it was really quite good! 

[Giraffe]

17 minutes ago, kpmom said:

I agree.

But, the one reason I can think that they might make an announcement is to let their former followers know what's going on.  They had a big MOTH following back in the day and Sarah ran the MOTH board.  Everyone on the board knew her.  Plus, there are people who "know" her through her books.

Not all of their former followers might be as good detectives as we have here on FJ, and many might not even know she's engaged.

I don’t think they actually care about their followers. The Maxwell hayday is long gone and anyone who the family decides deserves to know they’ll tell. The entire Maxwell “crew” is probably over MOTH and anything related to it at this point. Steve & Terri get to live a retired life doing non-fun things in 15 minute increments and the Maxwell daughters are living a life out from under Steve’s directly micromanaging thumb. 

[molecule]

I thought last year that they might come back with an update every year. I'm not so sure now, but I'd they do an update it will be after Sarah's wedding since they usually wait until after the wedding actually goes through to say anything.

[browngrl]

I don't think Sarah was in an official relationship when the blog closed and she moved out, but she might have met her fiancé and they might have been talking (behind Steve's back or with the pretence of it being a "church group"). Then, when  she felt restricted from progressing, she realized she needed to move out. So, she announced she was no longer going to run the blog and she was moving. Shocking changes to be sure but much less than announcing she was considering a relationship with someone her dad had not had a say in.  

 While I think a potential relationship was an important factor in Sarah's move I don't think it was the push that made Sarah even consider change. I think seeing Anna with cancer, Ellie's hysterectomy, her sisters going to school (something denied Sarah), a new church and her brothers moving and marrying all combined to give Sarah the courage to start thinking that if she wanted a husband she'd best find one herself.

I hope that at one point Sarah comes here and tells us her story, but I'm not holding my breath. I think she's free and she means to stay that way. I on the other hand will be opining about the Maxwell's for some time. After years of reading the blog I'm invested and can't let this go just yet.

[jakesykora]

2 hours ago, Hane said:

@Paperplate, <snip>

I only got into the major cake making gig when my baby sister got engaged. She asked me to make her wedding cake because she “didn’t want one of those stale ones from a bakery” (this was back in 1991, when small local bakeries often only baked big cake layers once a week). When I said, “But I don’t know how to decorate cakes!” she replied, “You could take a class.” So I did, every Wednesday night for weeks, on top of my 9 to 5 and teaching English on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And I made her bridal shower cake and my daughter’s junior bridesmaid dress. The things we do for those we love!

I gotta admit: I baked the Maxhellion poppyseed bread and it was really quite good! 

I am so impressed with the lengths you went to to do this. So much heart went into the cake, that is evident!

Edited July 11, 2022 by jakesykora

[louannems]

I admit I made the Maxwell pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting and it was delicious!

[Howl]

18 hours ago, ElizaB said:

It kind of feels like a favorite tv show being canceled 

Like Malcom in the Middle, but with Maxhells? 

Speaking of mind's blown, Sarah's future pregnancy announcement...

...and E. Botkin's pregnancy announcement any time now

and the ABC sister (Mary?) who will surely announce an engagement soon. 

Should we give up on the Arndt's or wait for a mass marriage announcement for all 13? 

Edited July 11, 2022 by Howl

[Bethy]

3 hours ago, louannems said:

I admit I made the Maxwell pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting and it was delicious!

Please help me find this pumpkin cake recipe - and please don't tell me to "Google it!"

I'll go ahead and admit that I made the burrito filling! 😱 Obviously significantly cut down from the size of their recipe as I wasn't aiming to feed an army. I am not a burrito snob (I grew up with spaghetti and lasagna being the extent of my family's forays into "food from other cultures than America") so maybe they were awful and I just didn't know? I froze them in muffin cups for a single serving. At that point we were childless and my husband's work schedule was very erratic to where he would often have to stay overnight at a job site unexpectedly, and it was really nice to be able to pop a burrito serving in the microwave and have a quick but filling meal (of something he would not want to eat himself) in his absence. There were usually some salad fixings in the fridge so I could cobble together a dressed burrito in a matter of minutes if I was eating alone. I never tried them with hamburger so I can't vouch for whether or not you can taste the difference 🤷‍♀️

I also bought a Cuisinart ice cream maker similar to the one they were making their birthday custards in, and I enjoyed it, but not enough to shell out the money a second time when I inadvertently melted the clear plastic hood by storing it too close to the stove - steam from pots and pans was enough to crumple it. That kitchen was not as spacious as the Maxwells'.

[fundiewatch]

That lemon poppyseed bread is fantastic. Their chocolate chip cookie and double chocolate chip cookie alternate were also great but a standard one IIRC. 

Random musing for long-time snarkers… Terri is allergic to chicken. When they were on their Jesus Junket and the church served something with chicken (and it happened, Sarah reported the food they were served often) do you think Terri went all martyr complex on it? I cannot imagine being a young adult on that bus. Poor Sarah and Christopher!

[JermajestyDuggar]

4 hours ago, louannems said:

I admit I made the Maxwell pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting and it was delicious!

My mom has a fantastic pumpkin cake and cream cheese icing recipe that is so moist and amazing. I should go find it and see how close it is to the Maxwell recipe. 

Omg this is not even close to my mom’s recipe but it looks so good! 
 

https://blog.titus2.com/2008/11/14/a-taste-away-from-home-pumpkin-cake/

[ElizaB]

I’m going to get downvoted for this but I’m going to say it : I think the maxwells get more snark for their food then they deserve. 

[Black Aliss]

On 7/10/2022 at 10:01 AM, ElizaB said:

Well yes, outdated by a couple hundred years. 

i wonder how much inventory they have - maybe they are trying to get rid of it. Also, Mary used to do the shipping - now Teri and Steve have Abby has to. 

Just speculating. Maybe Joshua as well.