Michelle Duggar's Newlywed Update on Jill & Derick

Question from a 19 Kids and Counting fan on Facebook: How is Jill adjusting to married life?

I think it’s been a very smooth transition for Jill and Derick. Jill had so much help from her siblings to make the transition, helping her pack up her stuff at our house, moving and unpacking at her new home. They have their schedule already -- they get up and off to work or Jill works on her studies. Sometimes she’ll pop by our place since it’s awfully quiet at her house. She’s so used to studying with noise. It’s really unusual for her to work in total silence.

But, yes, she’s got her house set up and she’s already had company over. It’s so sweet to see them starting their lives and their family together. We always make sure to include them in our family events in case they want to be a part of things. They’ll come over and celebrate birthdays and other events with us when they can.

It was truly the joy of her life to marry Derick and they both feel so blessed to have each other. They are just really, really happy to be married and enjoying married life.

It’s so special to watch these budding relationships blossoming. I know God’s going to use that love to help them stretch in ways that they might not otherwise try, because that’s the good thing about marriage. It really does stretch us and helps us to become the person that God would want us to be. You’re much more willing to get out of your comfort zone when it’s with somebody that you deeply love.

It’s just so sweet to watch these guys and girls that are really in love. Love is in the air and it’s good for all of us to be around that, even if the little siblings have to go, "Oh no, they’re kissing again, oh my!"

Checking in with Josie Duggar

Josie is doing so well; she’ll be five years old in December. It’s coming up so quickly! She’s working on phonics and starting violin lessons -- and she is just so excited about being such a big girl. She’s even riding a bike without training wheels.

The other day, we had one of her doctors and his wife over to the house for dinner. He was the one that actually delivered her when we were at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). The night before they came over, I told Josie, "Tomorrow evening we are going to have the doctor over who delivered you. God used him to save your life and my life. The skills that he learned in school, and all of the training that he got, allowed him to sustain your life and mine." I wanted her to know what a blessing it is and how grateful we are for all the doctors and nurses that took care of us.

When they arrived at the door the next day, you would have thought that it was the President of the United States coming in. As they were pulling into the driveway, Josie was standing at the window, jumping up and down looking for them. The minute her doctor stepped foot through the door, she hugged his leg and didn’t let go of him the whole time he was here. He picked her up and she hugged his neck, kissed him on the cheek and just would not let go.

He was grinning because he said this was really the joy of his work. This was the result of all those hours of work and he was just delighted to see how well she’s doing.

So, yes, Josie is doing miraculously well. You look at her and you’d never know there was anything different at the beginning of her life. She is excelling. She sings all the time; she has a song in her heart and if she doesn’t know the words, she just makes them up. It is so sweet to see this little one with so much joy and energy and love for life. I’m just so grateful to God and for all the prayers of our friends out there.

I still meet people to this day that say, "I prayed for that little girl." And Josie will go up and give them a heartfelt hug. We have such gratitude in our hearts that she’s here and we don’t take for granted a day that we get with her. It makes you look at all of your other relationships so differently and appreciate the time that you’ve got with the kids. They grow up so fast. We realize that even more at this stage in life.

Michelle Duggar on Her Daughters Leaving the Nest

Now that it’s actually happening, there are all of these wonderful mixed emotions. You get the joy of watching a loving relationship unfold. Jill and Derick, and Jessa and Ben, are becoming best friends and really getting to know each other in such a sweet way. When the right one comes along, it’s so exciting, shocking and surprising all at the same time!

Our entire lives, we’ve worked toward this, prayed about it, and encouraged our children to really just focus on becoming the person that God wants them to be. We’ve always urged our children to wait for the one that God has for them, and not to make compromises in their life in any way.

On the other side is the sadness that everything is changing at home. It’s good, not bad, yet change is sometimes hard. The other day the Seewald family was visiting, and Ben and Jessa were getting ready to leave with them. As Jessa and Ben were getting in the Seewald car my little Jordyn, who is five, realized what was happening and she just started to cry and cry. She was worried that Jessa was leaving for good. I had to comfort her and reassure her that Jessa wasn’t married yet, just going for a visit.

I took some time to talk with Jordyn and remind her that when Jessa and Ben get married, we get even more great adventures. Not only will Jessa get married, but we get Ben and the fun of spending time with them together. I reminded her that Josh and Anna got married, too, and how much she loves playing with Mackynzie, Michael and Marcus. We’ll be adding that much more love and that much more fun to our family.

Jim Bob is so excited, too, for Derick and Jill, and for Ben and Jessa. When he talks about the girls getting married, he gets a little teary-eyed; it’s a big deal for a dad to let go of his girls. He’s handing them over, but he’s handing them over to some really great guys.

Change can be difficult for all of us, but it is such a good reason to have change. It’s a joyful time.

Michelle Duggar on Homeschooling Milestones

Question from a "19 Kids and Counting" fan on Facebook: In lines of proms and graduations, do you have special events that you celebrate in the homeschooling calendar?

We sure do. Each year we give standardized tests in May to all the kids that are in third grade through ninth grade. For us, it’s really fun because we go over to the testing facility, the kids take their tests and then we’ll celebrate with ice cream after they finish. That’s a big milestone every year.

Later when they’re finished with their high school education, I’ll have them take the GED test. It’s not required in our state, but I like them to do it because it’s good for them to have that certificate. That’s their equivalent of finishing their high school education. Some of them will finish it at 16 years old, but everyone is different. We’ll always celebrate that achievement with our own special graduation ceremony.

We typically try to make it a family thing and invite friends and family. In our area, there are some homeschool organizations that will graduate a bunch of kids together in one big graduation ceremony. They’ll have a ceremony with caps and gowns and diplomas, but we’ve never really participated in those events. Sometimes we’ll have 150 people at one of our family graduations. There’s a large enough gathering to constitute as our own big event!
We’ll decorate and set up a table with projects from their school years – things like their first grade papers when they were learning to write and all of the letters and words were written backwards. And then we’ll wrap it all up with a "This is Your Life" video presentation with images of them doing home school projects, or going on field trips, or sitting with me doing their phonics lesson, or maybe even working with Jim Bob on Mechanics 101.



It’s a wonderful thing to celebrate their lives so far and their education. They’ve accomplished a big milestone and they’re finished with taking standardized tests every year. But I let them know they’re not off the hook because I want my kids to never stop learning. There are opportunities to learn everywhere.

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Happy Valentine's day blog

Michelle Duggar on Celebrating Valentine's Day

FAMILY MATTERS on 02.12.14

Michelle Duggar19 Kids and CountingBIO

 

Question from a "19 Kids and Counting" fan on Facebook: How do you celebrate Valentine’s Day in your house? Is it just you and Jim Bob or does the whole family celebrate together?

We often celebrate Valentine’s Day as a family. It’s a really special time with the whole family getting around the table and spending time together. Last year, our older daughter, Jana, decided she was going to do a big Valentine’s banquet for our family. We had a beautiful spread on our table; everything was pink, red and white. We took pictures and made a special event of it. It was our way of expressing our gratefulness and our love for each other and the family, and celebrating how much family means to us. It’s so important to nurture that relationship. It was a day of love and fun and fellowship for the whole family.

Of course a lot of times for Valentine’s Day, Jim Bob and I will go on a date, but one of our favorite things to do as a family is to help throw a banquet for the single moms that we know. We want to bless the single moms; those that are widowed, divorced or abandoned, the women that are often forgotten during Valentine’s time.

My dear friend Debbie Query and her daughters teach our children music -- all the music ability that the kids have in violin is because of them. Debbie is a widow with four children; their father was tragically killed in a car accident. They have been amazing mentors and role models especially for my older girls.

Anyway, their family does an amazing widow’s banquet. They put it on, and our family participates in that. The children set the tables and serve as the waiters. They’ll put on black bowties, white shirts, black pants, and serve the meal. Sometimes we’ll have harpists or other musicians play beautiful music during the banquet. It’s very special.

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anniversaries with Jim Bob

Michelle Duggar on Anniversaries with Jim Bob

FAMILY MATTERS on 10.09.13

Michelle Duggar19 Kids and CountingBIO

 

Photo: DCL

Question from a "19 Kids and Counting" fan on Facebook: How do you usually celebrate your wedding anniversary with Jim Bob? Any particularly memorable ones?

It’s different every year depending on what we are able to do. Often we might get away for just an evening. Last year, our children surprised us and they planned a whole getaway overnight for us in a nearby hotel.

They sent us to supper -- they had gotten us a giftcard to pay for the meal. While we were eating our meal, a couple of our boys delivered us a flower bouquet. On the bouquet they’d attached a note that said that we had reservations at a nearby hotel for that evening. And so unbeknownst to us, when we had left the house to go out to dinner, my daughters had packed our suitcases and sent us away for the night!

The boys that came to deliver our flowers had a second set of keys for our car, so they put our luggage there and sent us off to the hotel. It was really funny: I’m sitting having an anniversary dinner with Jim Bob and the kids had planned everything. It was such a surprise and that made it so fun.

But other times, on our anniversary night we might just go out for dinner and have Grandma come over and babysit. So it just varies from year to year depending on what we can afford to do. And sometimes we’re surprised -- we don’t even have plans and so our children surprise us!

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back to school!

Back to Homeschooling with the Duggars

FAMILY MATTERS on 09.03.13

Michelle Duggar19 Kids and CountingBIO

 

Photo: DCL

Question from a "19 Kids and Counting" fan on Facebook: How do you monitor how the kids are doing with homeschooling? Do they have tests that they take every year? And how do the kids feel about going “back to school” in the fall?

In the state of Arkansas, we take tests every year just like the public school kids do, so at the end of each school year, we will go and take our standardized tests. Every state is different on how their homeschool laws work, but we file our letter of intent to homeschool at the beginning of each school year. We start in August and do a little through the summer, to keep up with things like music lessons and reading. My kids are always reading. They’re usually reading either science or history books -- keeping their minds busy with good reading material, a lot of biographies and that sort of stuff.

Our schedule changes depending on the season of life that we’re in. Right now, we’ve got a lot of older children that are working, driving, and coming and going. Often, I will have a schedule on the wall and then six months later, I’ll switch it up a little bit and change the times that they’re going to be practicing their music or doing their science, history, or law, etc. I switch it up just because it makes it a little bit more interesting than always doing the same thing at the same time. Usually we do breakfast, lunch and dinner about the same time, but all those other things can move around in the schedule. And that makes it more fun for them.

Their excitement about going back to school is probably the same as everyone else’s kids. When they’re young, it’s always so exciting to get back or at least get started on schoolwork. The first time, they feel like big kids and they’re in school. They’re just thrilled.

My bigger ones that have been through it year after year see it more like going back to the grind. Once we’re in that routine, I can tell everybody really is glad to be back -- even though they might not say it! There is the comfort of being in that routine again. We’re checking off our list. We’re accomplishing this stuff. And we’re actually remembering all this great stuff we have learned!

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