Remember Emily and Dna?

[lilah]

I think I must have blocked out a lot of emily's crazy. I forget how I got hooked on her, I had just lost my job and I was trying to figure out some frugal living tips. I quickly realized she was nuts. I used to read her blog every day and I still don't remember half of her ludicrous behavior, like not using free heat, or washing dirty diapers in cold water.

I do remember her poor kid passing out and she was all "ladidah" about him having severe speech problems after he was in a coma for several days.

[Constance Vigilance]

Kefir and Stevia were her big things as well, weren't they? I still don't even know what those are.

[Clementine]

Kefir and Stevia were her big things as well, weren't they? I still don't even know what those are.

And she had some... kind of mushroom (?) in a jar of water and she had to feed it... does anybody remember?

[Constance Vigilance]

Was the jar mushroom not the kefir? I have this memory of something weird in a jar in murky water.

[Wolfie]

It was Therese, the Kefir grains, not a mushroom.

[Jade]

I remember the keifer but I had forgotten she named it. Seeing those pictures again remind me of how crazy she was. I used to be hooked on her blog, it was a trainwreck I just couldn't turn away from

[purpleprincess]

I have the blog saved in its entirety. This is the explanation and diagram of how to fit 13 kids in the apartment.

[attachment=0]kids in the kitchen.png[/attachment]

[The Archivist]

The mushroom in a jar would have been kombucha tea probably.

Stevia is a type of sweetener. Kefir is sort of like fizzy yogurt you can make at home.

[dirtyhippiegirl]

She also says in that post that she makes a full time income by only working two hours a day. Can one really make any significant amount of money by setting up spammy websites?

She probably means this in the same way that she was also growing all the lettuce that she needed to feed her family of five. In two coffee cans. In Maine. In the winter.

(I really think that episode was what really made her flounce from the frugal, Christian SAHM scene. She bounced around for a bit after she basically had to close her blog d/t the cps investigation. But the lettuce post brought out questions from people who had at least passively accepted her before, y'know?)

[littlehouse]

Yup, Brad the moldy bathroom dog. Ah, the lettuce in the rusted out cans. Then there was the rubbermaids stacked to the ceiling. The wanting she boy to sleep on a pile of straw so there would be no off gasing.

The crazy...it hurts.

[Jessica]

I have the blog saved in its entirety. This is the explanation and diagram of how to fit 13 kids in the apartment.

[attachment=0]kids in the kitchen.png[/attachment]

I can barely see that. :(

[acheronbeach]

I can barely see that. :(

Is there any way to make it bigger?

[Wolfie]

The mushroom in a jar would have been kombucha tea probably.

Stevia is a type of sweetener. Kefir is sort of like fizzy yogurt you can make at home.

It was water Kefir grains, not a mushroom or mother, she used it with stevia to make "soda" for DNA. And she called it her pet, and named it Therese.

[formergothardite]

What was the name of the giant stuffed animal that lived in the bathroom?

[Clementine]

The mushroom in a jar would have been kombucha tea probably.

Stevia is a type of sweetener. Kefir is sort of like fizzy yogurt you can make at home.

Yes, you are right - I got it mixed up. Therese was Emily's pet kefir that lived in her window.

(I remember the kombucha jars from the 80's... scaaaaary. My cousins had one that they called Holger. I was scared of him.)

She probably means this in the same way that she was also growing all the lettuce that she needed to feed her family of five. In two coffee cans. In Maine. In the winter.

(I really think that episode was what really made her flounce from the frugal, Christian SAHM scene. She bounced around for a bit after she basically had to close her blog d/t the cps investigation. But the lettuce post brought out questions from people who had at least passively accepted her before, y'know?)

She wrote a lot of posts on a forum (?) for frugal advice, I think. At first, the others seemed quite impressed with her frugality and "skills". It was after the lettuce in the jars that they started to question her;

"Oh, you mean salad as in a lettuce leaf under your ham slice on the sandwich... when MY family say salad, we mean a big bowl of it with some fresh tomatoes and a splash of good balsamic vinegar..."

[oscar]

What was the name of the giant stuffed animal that lived in the bathroom?

BRAD!!!

[library_youth]

The lettuce coffee can post was on Frugal Hacks. It was titled "Leafy Greens are a Rip-Off" and the comments are hilarious! It was mostly people questioning how she could possibly grow enough for salad, and basically implying that her idea sucked.

frugalhacks.com/2010/03/10/leafy-greens-ripoff/

Isn't Frugal Hacks run by that Life in a Shoe lady? I seem to remember she was a pretty big Emily supporter.

[Jezebel]

Digging further into Google results for her "freeedomwriter" handle, I found this:

becomingeducated.com/4/about-me/

A snippet of text from the above post:

Translation: "I was a super-achiever in high school because I was good at hitting the books and doing everything I was told in order to get straight As. And I flourished in that environment because there were objective performance standards--I knew exactly what I had to do to get those As because the expectations were laid out in black-and-white. And I could do it without really having any of my odder beliefs challenged, or even having to get along well with other people. I was in control.

"Then I took my high grades and AP courses and went off to Bible college, because I knew that I'd get challenged too much at a state school and I don't like being challenged in any way. I probably also did it to annoy the piss out of my mother, the career woman, but she deserves it for not staying home and existing just to serve me. And after a year I realized there was no point in continuing and no point in getting a degree because I didn't want a career. I didn't want to be like my mother. I didn't want to deal with stupid people who disagreed with or mocked me me every day. I didn't want to develop the shallow interpersonal skills needed to succeed, or try to cope with a work environment where the expectations weren't always crystal-clear, and where I wasn't in control.

"So I decided to get married to a guy who thought like I did (or at least had low enough self-esteem to be pushed into it) and be a housewife and SAHM. I could have lots of kids, raise them to believe the exact same things as me, and I'd never be lonely again. And I was okay with being poor and living in a dump because I would have complete control over everything in my immediate environment. Plus, being married to a sub-literate Wal-Mart janitor with bad teeth, being poor, and scraping by on the absolute minimum is also a great way to get back at my mom, the career woman. My kids will never have all the advantages I did while growing up, but I get to tell myself that I'm the superior mother--so I'm okay with that.

"And now I make my living as an Internet spammer. That way, I don't have to get a job and deal with other people; I can stay in my hermit-crab shell, unchallenged and in control. I make a pittance, but that's okay. I am in control, and that's my real passion (but I like to read books and look up info that confirms my odd beliefs online, so I'll say my passion is education so I don't look like a complete crazypants)."

She also says in that post that she makes a full time income by only working two hours a day. Can one really make any significant amount of money by setting up spammy websites?

Considering that she thought <$1000 was an adequate income to raise three (or more) children on, and she's constantly driven to reduce material needs to the barest necessities rather than feel any loss of control over her life, a "full-time income" for her means "just enough to keep gloodles on the table."

[LaydNimue]

DNA made a facebook page for their dog... I am now friends with a dog, gahahahhhhhhhhhh!!!

[Funky Chicken]

If her "real passion" is education, why doesn't she get some?

[JesusFightClub]

Jezebel summed this up awesomely :)

Fundie women boast about how superintelligent they are but they CHOSE not to get a degree because their "Mrs" was more important. Of course, if they hadn't taken this arduous but most worthwhile path, they are so fantastically brainy they could be whatever they want to be.

Trufax: my IQ is 82, I got high grades all through school and college, I received a good degree from a high ranking university and I am in the process of applying to do a Masters. And none of this is boastworthy (especially not the IQ in my case *blush*) and none of it is better than another person's decisions. You made a choice, fundies. You didn't win a prize.

[Visionoyahweh]

My intestines miss the lacto-fermentation.

[BlondeAgent007]

I've been snarking on FJ about the duggars for at least five years now, but Emily was definitely the first blog fundie I ever started to actively read. Her brand of crazy was so up my alley. Along with a lot of the things mentioned above, I loved how she was so all or nothing about everything. "The crockpot was a cheap heat source, so that meant that every single meal must be cooked in it, even bread and pizza." "I need to use the laundryroom for a bedroom, and the laundromat is so expensive. I think I will wash our clothes in a rubbermaid tub with a mixing stick until I get a better plan". i don't recall her having a washboard of any kind, I will double check though. And little Dan's sleeping situation, and her refusal to see it as a problem, was really scary. My ex was a chronic bedwetter as a little kid, and this is the first fundy story he ever took interest in. He was so disturbed that his mom would let him sleep on a pee soaked mattress on the floor next to a heater with no sheets, cloth or rubber. It sounded filthy and disgusting. No wonder he got sick... he was sleeping on the toilet. TW should read that saga.

[GolightlyGrrl]

Translation: "I was a super-achiever in high school because I was good at hitting the books and doing everything I was told in order to get straight As. And I flourished in that environment because there were objective performance standards--I knew exactly what I had to do to get those As because the expectations were laid out in black-and-white. And I could do it without really having any of my odder beliefs challenged, or even having to get along well with other people. I was in control.

"Then I took my high grades and AP courses and went off to Bible college, because I knew that I'd get challenged too much at a state school and I don't like being challenged in any way. I probably also did it to annoy the piss out of my mother, the career woman, but she deserves it for not staying home and existing just to serve me. And after a year I realized there was no point in continuing and no point in getting a degree because I didn't want a career. I didn't want to be like my mother. I didn't want to deal with stupid people who disagreed with or mocked me me every day. I didn't want to develop the shallow interpersonal skills needed to succeed, or try to cope with a work environment where the expectations weren't always crystal-clear, and where I wasn't in control.

"So I decided to get married to a guy who thought like I did (or at least had low enough self-esteem to be pushed into it) and be a housewife and SAHM. I could have lots of kids, raise them to believe the exact same things as me, and I'd never be lonely again. And I was okay with being poor and living in a dump because I would have complete control over everything in my immediate environment. Plus, being married to a sub-literate Wal-Mart janitor with bad teeth, being poor, and scraping by on the absolute minimum is also a great way to get back at my mom, the career woman. My kids will never have all the advantages I did while growing up, but I get to tell myself that I'm the superior mother--so I'm okay with that.

"And now I make my living as an Internet spammer. That way, I don't have to get a job and deal with other people; I can stay in my hermit-crab shell, unchallenged and in control. I make a pittance, but that's okay. I am in control, and that's my real passion (but I like to read books and look up info that confirms my odd beliefs online, so I'll say my passion is education so I don't look like a complete crazypants)."

Your translation could apply to a bunch of other fundies we discuss, like Kelly Crawford and her cheesy businesses (i.e. poorly written e-books).

[sera]

How do people like Emily make it through life like this? You know not accidently killing their family from bacterial contamination or the kid getting hurt with that death trap shelf set up. I feel so sorry for the kids, they don’t know anything better. I was very POOOOOOOR in college and I kept my place very clean. I bought thrift store finds and yes I would get curb alert stuff etc. However, it was always clean stuff or I clean and disinfected it etc. If I didn’t know better I would have thought her blog was some kind of fake joke site…. I need a tetanus shot just looking at these pictures.