Monday, May 24, 2010

Duggar Encouragement: Things the Duggars Have Taught Me

While there are some things the Duggars and I will never see eye to eye on, I will say that by watching the show and reading their book, I have learned a few things from them. I'll share mine, and you can share yours.

1) There is always a cheaper place to buy food--I was a bargain food shopper before the Duggars, but they've taught me to always look for a bargain regardless

2) Motels have a "walk-out" rate--you can actually negotiate with hotels/motels for a better rate and not just accept the rate they quote you--who knew? I've never been that bold, until my parents came to stay for a week, and it actually worked--we got them $10 lower than the lowest rate for the entire week by going in person and talking to them directly.

3) Potty training--this is something I am working on now that my daughter is 3--why did I wait? Well Michelle Duggar made a very valid point in their book...why try training them to use the potty before they are old enough to pull down and pull up their own pants by themselves? Otherwise you're in there every single time they have to go anyway, you may as well be changing nappies...we are still in the training phase and it's not going as smoothly as I'd like it to be, but hey, she can pull up and pull down her own pants!

4) Quiet praise and encouragement works better than ranting raving and screaming...even when ranting raving and screaming at your child is what you really feel like doing....

5) If you want your child to grow up in your Faith, have them see you practice your Faith...take them to your place of worship with you, see them read the manuscript your Faith follows and read it to them, pray with them and let them see you pray...

6) Simple meals really can be satifying (not necessarily theirs, but simple ones nonetheless :)

7) It's important to spend quality time with your spouse and share your feelings with him/her no matter how many kids you have or how busy your day has been

8) Children really ARE a blessing

I know there are many many more and will continue to be more as the Duggars continue to share their lives with us....

27 comments:

  1. #6 ha ha yes! While I'm not the uber-fan you are ;-) I hate the boxed stuff the Duggars eat. Tater tot casserole? Ick. Would LOVE to see them put in a huge garden and learn to prepare real food. Heck, they've got all that free labor just begging to be put to good use weeding and digging!
    Heidi

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  2. there was one episode where they did have a garden....a friend came from the "city" apparently he lived in an apartment and couldn't ahve a garden so he taught the kids how to grow one...and Jim Bob said they enjoyed all the fresh veggies and made pickles...but that was in season 1 i think, maybe season 2...it was a LONG time ago...we've never heard about the garden since...who knows if they are still doing it...that friend may still be growing it for his own personal use, since it was his idea and he wanted to do it for himself in the beginning and needed the space...would be nice to have a garden update wouldn't it? Michelle has commented that they aren't "green thumbs" ...i'm not either...i wish they would cook dried beans instead of opening all those blasted cans! it would probably save time in the end and it would certainly save money! i also wish they'd add some seasoning...opening 15 cans and heating and putting them in a bowl is not a recipe...seasoning is required as far as i'm concerned! :)

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  3. Ha Ha! MaryBeth I'm gonna have to side with the "cans"! To ME, it is faster to heat up canned food and of course add a little seasoning. :) The Duggars cook a lot of "kid friendly" dishes. Does anyone know if they ever cook "man-ly" food?? Just a thought...since the girls will be marrying MEN one day.

    I've been encouraged 1-8 as well! That doesn't mean I get to practice it on a regular basis.

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  4. Angie, you have a point for a family of 4, but I can't imagine opening all those cans for 20 some people! Maybe if they bought those huge #10 cans from a restaurant supply or something...but I do get your point :) I also see that with all those different palates that too much seasoning could be an issue--if half the kids like "plain" and the other 1/2 don't, what do you do?

    Can you imagine all those people eating all those beans? hehehe yikes! As for manly meals, I'm sure on a 2 person budget they can afford more "meat and potato" meals than they can on a 20 person budget...

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  5. I have learned that they could learn a thing or two from me about recycling, reducing and reusing! I guess the states is just not in the same place as Canada when it comes to throwing things in the trash! No offence to the Duggars, here. It's just a lack of knowledge that they have.

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  6. Hey Angie, how do you know all the girls will marry men? ;) Some people are born a little different than others and with so many children a few are probably gay. No offence to the Duggars, of course, this is just a fact of life here on earth.

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  7. I have another comment.........OH BOY am I on a roll today! It's about pottie training. My daughter was trained before her 1st birthday. Fortunately I had my mother babysitting while I worked and my daughter ran around in undies with plastic pants everyday. Who would want to run around in wet undies all day? Needless to say she was trained pretty darned quick. Imagine all those diapers the Duggars use and throw into their local landfill. Forget the zoo! Seems to me the Duggars should make a trip to their local landfill (and recycling depot if they have one) and see exactly where all that stuff goes that they use everyday!

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  8. Hey Rain Girl! :) Sorry I forgot that a few might be gay. MaryBeth and I have been guessing(wink, wink). The thing is...they have been cooking for kids most their lives. Do they even know how to cook "grown-up" food? Just wondering.

    I'm happy to say I've tried ALL the recipes in their book...and so far the tater tot dish is the only one my family gave 2 thumbs up for. We just like to try many dishes before it receives the YUCK award. But hey, as long as they like it!

    MaryBeth, I do recall seeing large family size cans. But I also remember a thousand small soup and veggie cans. I guess you're right about opening a lot of cans. :)

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  9. Angie, which ones do you think might be gay? I don't know the show well enough to determine. No problem if you don't want to post it here. It is a personal issue.

    As for all these cans, at least they break down in the landfill (after 50 - 100 years) Tin is a
    natural resource.

    It's the plastic I have a problem with. Our great grandchildren will be dealing with our ignorance when their great grandchildren are great grandparents.......sigh.

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  10. to be fair, we don't know if they seperate their trash into bins...plastic, tin, glass...most people do here in the states now adays...they haven't shown it that i'm aware of or spoken of it that i'm aware of, so at this point it's speculation whether they do or don't

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  11. You're right, we don't know. But you are wrong in saying most people recycle. You may and your neighbour may but how many people go to Starbucks and McDonalds and throw the plastic in the garbage? That is one example. What about all the packaging at Costco, Wallmart or Home Depot. A lot of people in Canada and the USA are still throwing it in the garbage. The next generation, your child's generation, will be more educated and then we can say MOST people throw it in the recycling. By the time our children are adults the plastic we recycled today will have been used over and over. We get smarter everyday. Right now I am wearing a t shirt made out of Coke bottles. tee hee. I have a new love for Coke now. :)

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  12. ok you got me there, we don't eat fast food so it slips my mind, but you made an excellent point, that is a huge waste there....they've made it easy to recycle at home, although not everyone does it...i remember 10 yrs ago having to train my mom and now she's vigilant about what goes in what bin...here where we live my husband takes all of it in and gets cash for it!

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  13. When we're in our our California home, we do recycle, but only because of social pressure and the fact that Wil Mar provides a very large rolling cart.

    Our vacation home, where we hope to live full-time is in a different state and recycling is decades behind. They do provide those little bins, but no one uses them.

    I'm not a stickler about recycling, and think the Duggars live like normal people. I would love to have a soda fountain (so much better than cans) but can't justify that expense!

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  14. I grew up in Oregon that was one of the first states to have the bottle deposit, so throwing away a soda can or bottle was throwing away money--growing up we'd collect them and turn them in to go to the movies! So living here in Cali, my hubby collects them and turns them in along with other plastics and things and gets money for them as well. I just don't do the 'bottled water' thing and it bothers me that all those bottles are going in the ground for no good reason--we have a Britta pitcher in the fridge--only because we have well water that is gross :) i miss living in central Oregon where the water came right off the mountain!

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  15. To rain girl - you were very fortunate to have trained your 1yr old but I do have to say that different toddlers naturally do it at different times. Also that especially with girls it seems trying to potty train too early can lead to problems with poo retention etc that are a nightmare to deal with. Also when Michelle talks about being trained she is talking being able to leave them to attent to the whole area themselves - not rushing them off to the toilet several times an hour, pulling clothes on and off for them. Jennifer was trained at the age of 2 I think the book says (too lazy to check i'm afraid).

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  16. We have two homes, one in rural Wi and another in rural Ar (Arkansas for those who think it is Ak). Both of our homes are on good size acreages and we burn almost all of our garbage. Tin cans that are burned deteriorate very rapidly and the plastics melt down to almost nothing. You can't do that in a big city, but the Duggars don't live in a big city, they live on 20 acres in Tonitown, Ar. They very possibly may burn a good share of their trash - after all it is a lot cheaper than paying a garbage service. If they don't then they ought to consider it!

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  17. One big issue with recyclying here in AR, is that there is not usually recycling pick up like there is in other states/larger cities. And the nearest recycling center can be over an hour away, which would end up eating up so much gas that it is just not worth it to try. :( I don't know if the Duggars recycle or not. Just sharing our experience.

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  18. When our friends lived in AR they were provided with color coded trash bags for trash/recyling and if they needed more (had too much trash) they were billed extra. This was several years ago, I was quite impressed. We all have areas where we can do better.

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  19. Probably depends on where you live, Melissa. Maybe in the larger towns. Not where we live for sure.

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  20. The Duggars live right near the trash pick-up locations, and the town landfill and there would be recycle centers there as well.

    They also have a smaller dumpster that the trucks come by and dump to the side of one of their driveways.

    Last note, the #10 cans don't always come in the products, or the brands you would want. As an example my kids will not eat the "light" syrup fruits and all the #10 cans around me are all the "light" kind. On the other hand we do buy ketchup in the #10 cans and then transfer it to plastic ketchup bottles. Same thing applies to all the other foods they eat, the 10 cans of soup may be because the soup they eat doesn't come in the bigger cans, but the chili might....

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  21. I live in FL and it all depends a lot of homes can recycle and some counties even give you the recycling bin you would need one for glass and plastic and one for newspapers. But at the same time, not all apartments recycle. For instance I live in an apartment that doesn't offer recycling and wedont really hve a cash incentive because we live so far from the center. I don't even know if they have one. But unworkable for Disney and they definitely recycle there. They actually sort through the garbage to ensure that recyclables are recycled.

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  22. About the #10 cans...I know in normal places the selection can be limited, I've just always wondered if Jim Bob has ever looked into restaurant supply--where you can get whatever you need/want...and wonder if it would be cost effective. I still believe that since they do plan out their meals a week in advance (when at home, not necessarily in LR) that putting the dried beans in a crock pot the night before to soak and starting them the next morning would not be any more work than opening all the little cans, and it would cost less.

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  23. Where I live in South Atlanta there is a State farmers market bigger than 2 football fields. It's where the big rigs come to drop off and pick up produce for the grocery stores and local canneries.

    In that Farmers market there is a "sams club" type store that you do not have to have a membership to shop at. They carry restaurant supplies, including the bigger cans and jugs and spices.

    LOL I love the place because I buy different supplies in there, for example:

    We buy the little cups and lids (like you would get for a sauce on the side of a to go meal) bring them home and then make fruit cups, so instead of spending 3-5 for 6 fruit cups for packed lunches I spend less than 1.50 for the fruit, cups and all. AND the kids have the proper portion sizes. I buy the fry paper 'boats' (smaller ones) to use for afternoon snacks so they aren't eating an entire bag of chips in one sitting but are getting proper portion control.

    I have also discovered it's CHEAPER to buy the fruits and veggies there than it is to grow them when it's all said and done.

    People assume it's cheaper to grow your own and it's not always. Once you have bought the gardening tools, the fertilizer, the fencing to keep the animals and small children out, the seeds and the starter plants, paid for the water, and the canning supplies.... you could have bought it cheaper at a local farmers market or off a local farmer.

    Some will disagree with me on that point and that's fine, but I do know from experience having tried it last summer. We calculated it out, we paid (in total) about 1.50 PER tomato, and about .45 per potato, and so forth (I'd have to find the paper to give you the rest). Where as at the local farmers market I can buy 50 lbs (that's fifty pounds) of potatoes for $7.00 and the tomatoes are $1.50 for 2-3 lbs (depending on the size of the tomatoes)....

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  24. Yes, Cyn you do make another good point--if you buy everything new...that's why I am always trying to get people to read "The Complete Tightwad Gazette" ...there is a great article about how to garden for almost nothing. There is also an article on canning for almost nothing. Because few people can nowadays, you can find canning supplies for free if you just ask people--my mom for example or anyone in her generation probably has a basement full of canning jars just waiting for someone to haul them away. Things like that. Same thing with gardening supplies--time to think like a Duggar and find used, recycled, or alternative items to buying new ones. It can be done. Then you are buying seeds--and starting your own plants intstead of buying starter plants. Seriously--find the book at your library and your entire financial world will take a turn upside down!

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  25. Darling we did beg borrow and buy used, that's why the prices were so low.

    It's not worth the effort for my family.

    We gave all the canned food away because my kids wouldn't eat it. They wouldn't eat most of the veggies, so we gave those away as well. We'll buy food at the farmers market and go on with our lives...

    Something you might want to know that I couldn't post on the other boards because it didn't fit with most of the Duggar topics...

    My family of seven survives on less than 20K a year and has for YEARS. I make the Duggars looks like spend thrifts. We are in the process of owning our own home and other than the house have NO debt, and haven't for 10 years.

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  26. oops that last one went on the wrong blog post.... sorry

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  27. Ummm slight correction. Catholics celebrate the Saint days, Christians don't.

    And I know that will confuse the daylights out of some, but there is a difference in the sects.

    Christians do not believe in "saints" the way the Catholics do. Christians believe we will ALL be saints, Catholics think the Pope has to decree some one a saint after their death.

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