Temperance

Actually this is one of the best photos I've seen of Jeremy in long time. I can't tell why. I assume he's posing as usual, but it looks more natural. Felicity looks good too. Kids that age have short attention spans. It makes sense that sometimes she's distracted and looking away a lot of the time. I'm glad they haven't trained her to smile on command. Yet.

I will post about the Bates later. The exciting news of the week goes to..... the Mallys! Sarah Mally, age 40/41, who wrote Before You Meet Prince Charming is engaged. He proposed last week. She has been seeing this guy for a while. I'm surprised they actually dated/courted for a while before taking this step. Probably a June/July bride. Sarah's younger sister Grace Mally got married in November. Grace is 31/32. The Mally sisters were living at home, but seem to travel, hang with friends. Both women are involved with the family ministry and their guys seem to be age-appropriate men with similar interests. I wish them much happiness!

I don't know who that is. Would you please fill me in on the information?

She wasn't snarking, I think except on Michelle. I too find Michelle's baby voice which she uses all the time snarkworthy.

This is sort of repeat of the post I just did on Sweet Fellowship again, but the Bates boys seem content to be fundies and not interested in changing. If they want to meet women outside of the cult, then they need to prepare cultural changes. Zach did and it's working for him. Also Trace and Chaney met on a normal vacation skiing. Chaney has no known connection to IBLP. They were dating mostly in a normal way. Hopefully Chaney's family is mainstream enough that they aren't as obsessed with everyone marrying their first real relationship. Although my fundie-lite friends did a version of this, they certainly seem mainstream to everyone else.

Abbie's parents are as fundie and nuts as JB and Michelle; they just have better personalities. Her family is deeply involved in IBLP and they have been for a long time.

If the Bates boys want to date outside the cult or a cult, then they need to show they're open to some change. Most women do not want to have unlimited babies for Jesus no matter how cute the guy is. They don't want to give up the way they dress and they want more freedom than being Bates wife entails. Zach Bates is the only Bates boys who's married, because he was willing to change the most. The other brothers particularly Lawson and Nathan don't even seem to understand why they might want to change. Compromise can be key to a relationship, but these guys were raised to be headships and they make all rules and decisions and expect to be in charge.

I get the sense that the Bates boys don't want fundie girls. They want girls who are little more worldly and make them change into Bates women. The exception is Zach who found a more worldly girl and seems less into the Bates lifestyle. I agree with at @PikaScrewChu. I have certainly known lots of fundie/fundielite/Christian girls who intend to be homemakers and aren't serious about school or a career, but there's a big difference between being a stay-at-home mom to even a larger family and leaving it up to God and having a double-digits sized family. All three women are different I think. Sarah Reith was very fundie when she courted Zach. After their break-up, she underwent a make-over and became a different woman, more mainstream. She and her older sister have both had multiple engagement/relationships and then had them fall apart. Sarah got married last year to an older guy (about 10 years) and she seems happy. She was 30 when she got married. Ashley Sayler is a fundie from NYC. She seems fundie-lite to me. She's a city-girl and Nathan was country boy from Tennessee. It could work I guess, but it didn't. She's currently seeing someone new. Chaney also seemed fundie-lite to me. She and Ashley certainly aren't IBLP and wore all kinds of clothes the Bates girls wear after marriage. Her family seems to value education. Some women don't mind quitting school to get married and some want to finish their educations and have a career. She also may feel young to settle down. I certainly did at her age.

I really like the color of her shirt. I think the shirt would look better untucked.

I mentioned this on the Sweet Fellowship thread (Duggar forum), but I think Trace and Chaney are different levels of fundie. Chaney wears jeans, goes to secular parties, and probably wants to finish college before getting married. Trace is probably like the rest of his brothers who act like there's nothing wrong with how they were raised. It's back to the lonely Bates for Trace.

The Bates need to copy the Duggar playbook for marriages when it comes to their sons. Find single fundie maidens who raised the same way as them. Chaney was in college and probably Kelly was putting pressure on her to drop out and marry Trace this summer. They need girls like Kendra, Lauren, Anna and Abbie, who don't expect too much and don't have other life goals beyond stay-at-home babymaker. Suggested courtships: Alison Bontrager, Maggie Burnett, Lauren Caldwell, Jana Duggar, Sarah Waller (David's sister) and any number of Wissman daughters.

I'm not sure I could name five unique things about me or anyone else. My point was people have watched Jana on television since she was 17?. She was about 18 when the show started and younger when the first specials aired.

Gee I much rather watch 30 year old/30 something get married than a teenager. Also the audience knows Jana, as opposed to the future daughters-in-law who will be random fundie girls. The Ardnts aren't the right kind of fundie. If JB and Michelle were shaming Jana for being an older single woman, I'd be annoyed. There's nothing wrong with being older and single. If fundies think most/all women should be married younger, they're wrong about that just like they're wrong about a lot of things.

Chelsy had this to say when someone asked her about wearing jeans [with a long tunic] in the baby #2 announcement thread. The commenter pointed out isn't common in either Bontrager or Maxwell families, although the Bontrager girls do wear jeans sometimes when doing farm work. Chelsy says "But in short, our goal is to take biblical principles and apply them to every area in life. We are now our own family and are responsible before the Lord to do that for ourselves." This is how most people see getting married leaving your families and starting a new one, but it's unusual for the Maxwells and even the Bontragers.

Actually I think Lauren has really scaled back her obsession with Asa since Bella was born. I'm sure Joy and Austin are thinking about their loss more than they tell us. It helps that they have Gideon to focus on.

They're still following IBLP. Gothard was forced out of IBLP due to the sex scandal, which the board originally helped cover up and then removed Gothard for. Erin is deliberately misleading people. I agree Erin needs to quit complaining about being pregnant. She doesn't like being pregnant she can stop having babies. On second thought, maybe Erin's complaining will help their fans realise some of the flaws in the Quiverfull movement.

No, I don't get this sense at all, although it is popular internet rumor. I think JB expects all of his children including Jana to marry. Michelle might appreciate having a daughter to do all the work. JB doesn't care about that since it's not his work. The other girls are old enough to take over Jana's duties. Even if it was partly true, the ratings for Jana's wedding would be great and JB won't be able to resist that. By "over" 30, she's a few weeks over 30. It's also an internet rumor that the only guys left are sex pests. There may be fundie guys out there we've never heard of. Also some men/male fundies may be putting off marriage for financial security reasons. The Duggar boys marry young, because their father is rich and they're famous "celebrities" with a tv show. Anna married at 20 and still married a sex pest. Keep in mind, JB was willing to look outside their fundie world for sons-in-law (not daughters-in-law). The Ardnts are fundie, but marrying an Ardnt would be still marrying out of the Duggar world. The Ardnts started out fundie Catholic and left the Catholics to become a unique blend of Catholic/Baptist theology. If I remember they haven't belonged to any formal church since they left the Catholics.

Sierra is 30 as well.

Chelsy Bontrager Maxwell still has her blog from her single days: Chelsy Renee. She just did a post about her holidays. She posts intermittently on her blog, so it took people a while to see it. This new post is from January 30, 2020. Chelsy had a great holiday. She spent lots of time with her family and John's. Lots of pictures. She saw her grandma, and her parents and siblings. They didn't do Thanksgiving with the Maxwells. They did Christmas with the Maxwells including the annual Christmas caroling. Chelsy spent New Year's eve with her family. Chelsy and John went to Vegas to celebrate their second anniversary! Her mother stayed with Axton. (He was 11 months on their anniversary and now he's a year old. She's pregnant with #2 due in June.) Her mother watched the baby while they were in Vegas. And they went to a rodeo in Vegas! Steve is probably shook. The Maxwells have a new blog post up of them spending time with kids from all four families.

I think Jana will get married if she finds someone to marry. JB was possessive of all his daughters before the other older ones married. JB has also stated he wants/expects all of his children to marry. I always no one gets married unless they want to including Jana.

Also there's a youtube channel for Joseph Maxwell's business.

If any of you are looking for a job, Swift Otter is hiring! Swift Otter is an IT company that helps businesses build websites that run on the Magento platform. The Magento Platform: "Magento is an ecommerce platform built on open source technology which provides online merchants with a flexible shopping cart system, as well as control over the look, content and functionality of their online store. Magento offers powerful marketing, search engine optimization, and catalog-management tools." So SwiftOtter assists on-line merchants trying to build website using Magento. From their website: "We assist online merchants in marketing (search-engine optimization, pay-per-click, design and copywriting) and development (adding features to your website). We are swift and responsive while also agile and capable, like an otter." So basically Swift Otter is a IT and tech support company. The director of Swift Otter is Joseph Maxwell. Joseph is one of Steve Maxwell's children. He was the first child born after Steve had his vasectomy reversed. (Something Steve is very public about.) Joseph employs his brothers Jesse and Christopher. He also has four other employees, all-male. In the past some of the Maxwell girls, have done some bookkeeping for their brothers, particularly Joe's sister Anna. Swift Otter seems to be booming! They have a shiny new website. They have 7 people working and are looking to expand. If you're interested, you can google Swift Otter to see the website and learn more about company culture and if the job is right for you. (Just remember it's fundie owned.)

I'm so sorry.. sending best wishes...

The Maxwells had a new blog post on Wednesday and it's still up. The Maxwells asked what kinds of post readers wanted. The readers wanted more random life seeing pictures of the family, and more about adult children living at home. So this is what the people wanted. This is about how they pay for groceries. Steve and Teri buy and pay groceries. The living at home children pay for add-ons, like coffee, snacks, and these days meat. Jesse is allowed to buy extra meat since he's a weight-lifting boy. The Maxwells are very controlling and demand their adult children to live at home until marriage. No Maxwell has ever moved out until marriage despite the boys owning their houses before marriage. Jesse owns his own house, but lives at home. All of the girls live at home, and none of the daughters are married. The comments are interesting. Some of the people are a lot like the Maxwells and some have children who work outside the home or attend school/college.

Yes it was Panera. Of all the small things to despise the Duggars for, this one still pisses me off for many reasons. Because he's a millionaire, pay for the damn soda. Because he makes fellow water drinkers look dishonest. Because it's technically stealing and Thou Shalt Not Steal. And because I don't like JB.