Temperance

It's really hard to tell when someone is pregnant (early term) and so the Duggars have kept it secret when they want to. Jessa has never announced a pregnancy before she was at least 3 months along. There's speculation, but then there was speculation for the year 1/2 or so after Henry was born, and she wasn't pregnant. They've also kept most of their courtships under the radar until they were sure they would lead to marriage (Si and Marjorie the exception). And then they kept Josh's scandals under the rug for years....

I like this one.🤗

The older SAHD who got married, is named Andrea Reins. She was 39 and married a widower with a large family. Tom is way more anti-government than the Duggars. He and his wife believe/believed all kinds of crazy conspiracy theories, many of them hateful and hurtful. I feel sorry for the kids.

If Pickles is to believed, Tyler has seen his mother and has some visitation with her. I don't trust Pickles, but that's what she says. Tyler was probably put into some long-term custody arrangement with JB and Michelle; maybe even one that would be hard to break. It might take some work and money to get him out and he may prefer to live with them. His mother lost custody many years ago, and it is definitely possible that she put her life back together in the gap years. The world doesn't see how crazy the Duggars are. If it did, they probably wouldn't have a television show. Tyler's mother may think he is safe enough and has enough food/basic needs met. She may not have had the best education herself and may not see the disadvantages to Duggars' custody like their homeschooling, etc. Topic (Jill/Derick): I wonder if Jill is watching her family on Counting On.

Her skirt and her necklace are nice; with a different shirt, it would be a cute outfit. I would also recommend a haircut.

There's nothing wrong with some lonely older woman remarrying a man with many children. Earlier this year a 39-year-old SAHD married a man with many children. His children were delighted and yes they even re-enacted parts of the Sound of Music (although it was his older daughters' idea.) That being said Jana will never marry Tom Mills. His beliefs are too hateful for TLC and JB won't let her sink the family brand.

Keep in mind Pickles is not necessarily a reliable source; Jill gave no identifying information about who the family is. It's a rumor whose family it is.

Jill apparently went to a funeral today and posted a picture of the coffin on Instagram. Is this a thing? It just seems awful to me!

Jana is three months away from her 30th birthday. JB will marry her off ASAP. Part of her joining social media is probably husband-hunting. I think Jana's wedding and first pregnancy will raise interest in the show for a while, but people will lose interest once it's just the brothers courting.

That pink onesie was so pale I wasn't sure it was pink. Maybe it's the way Lauren used the outfit, but the color seems morbid and lifeless to me.

That someone was Anna herself. She gave out the order of all the November babies and put herself last.

I feel like the biggest thing keeping the Duggars on TLC is that TLC is far less sucessful than it was in the 2000s and 1990s and it doesn't have too many hit shows to take the wind out of the Duggar sails. For some reason TPTB, overthere at TLC seem obsessed with fundies. They've tried the Bates, the Willises, the Putnams, all of whom never had quite the Duggar level of success and their own scandals and in the end weren't much better. Say Yes to the Dress has lost the kind of momentum it had earlier. Trading Spaces and While You Were Out were huge in the mid 2000s and TLC brought them back and they didn't do too well. The Duggars have fans who've invested long term with the family. A lot of their audience is people not in the small children season of life who want to see small children around. TLC had daytime shows before the Duggars where they filmed weddings and births and those were regularly successful for daytime cable offerings. Three ways the Duggars can off the air: 1. A network buy out where the programming all changes. 2. The network gets some new bigger hits and doesn't need them anymore. 3. The network leaves television altogether. One caveat about a bigger hit: It seems a lateral move if TLC find more fundies to film who aren't Duggars. For example, they have a new show Plathville about family named Plath who FJ already follows.

Except it includes Grandma Mary's funeral and that happened after Jessa had Ivy. I'm also surprised Jessa and Ben aren't in the promos. This show is Counting On and Ben and Jessa have the most kids after the unfilmable Josh.

So I was reading the Bates forum on FJ. They had a thread for Katie Bates and her special friend Travis Clark. Travis's grandfather has his own church Solid Rock Baptist Church. At least one of his uncles is a pastor there (and maybe his father? too). His church seems to have their own Christian college. (The college and church share an address and phone number.) It's called Vision Baptist College. From their Answers page linked from the Vision Baptist College website: "13. Are you accredited? We believe God and the Word of God give us the authority and approval to train Christ’s workers in local church ministry work. We seek no other accreditation." Travis, himself, wants to be a Christian music star. He's been playing and singing in his family's band. He plays piano, cello, and guitar. He goes to Vision Baptist College (his family's school). You can find him singing on Youtube.

Erin Bates Paine is due December 27th, but she's so used to giving birth a month early, she's calling her baby a "November" baby.