Michelle Duggar’s Budget Honeymoon

For our honeymoon, Jim Bob and I planned a trip near our home because that’s what we could afford. We were going to go to Mount Nebo and Lake Fort Smith, both in Arkansas. We chose state parks for our destinations because the cabins there were so reasonable.

When we arrived at our first destination, we couldn’t believe the difference between the photo on the brochure and the reality. We chuckle about this now, but I did not go and look at the places ahead of time. I just looked at the brochures and I thought "Okay, it’s a state park and what we see is what we’re going to get." The picture showed a lovely cabin right beside a beautiful flowing river, but when we got there, the cabin was really rundown with awful orange curtains -- and cobwebs everywhere! On top of that, the river was completely dried up; there was no water at all. So we opted instead to go into town and stayed at a hotel in Fort Smith. We didn’t get the setting we were anticipating for our first night together, but it was still sweet. Next, we went on to the incredibly scenic Mount Nebo and stayed for a few nights. At that point, our car started acting up and we were like, you know what? Let’s just go home to our house, to our new place, since we were looking forward to being there together.

It was a small fixer-upper house, about 900 square feet total, and Jim Bob got such a good deal on it. We spent the rest of our honeymoon fixing up our little house, which definitely needed a lot of work! Jim Bob had moved in a month before the wedding, but I didn’t move in until after we were married so this was our first time living together.

Before our wedding, we had ripped out all of the cupboard doors in the kitchen and sanded them down, but we didn’t have time to finish them before we got married. So when we got back after our honeymoon, there were no doors on our kitchen cabinets and the place needed a lot of work, but that was okay. We were living on love and it was so exciting.

It was just so precious to be in our own house together for the first time. Jim Bob was already being a husband and working on the car. I remember thinking, "Oh, how romantic. He’s at our house and he’s working on our car." It’s funny the little things that you just hold dear to your heart forever.

Michelle Duggar on Courtship Chaperones

Question from a "19 Kids and Counting" fan: How do you pick chaperones for each couple? Does it change depending on who is free that day or is there a designated chaperone for each couple?

Well, it has been very flexible so far. We’ve set an age limit of 10 years old and above. So we have a lot of potential chaperones with 15 kids over that age! With Derick and Jill, they wrote out their courting rules at the beginning of their official courtship. These were their commitments to each other. After they agreed on them, they shared with their chaperones and family members so that they would know what they want to be held accountable for. Ben and Jessa have done the same thing.

The chaperones then have clear guidelines for what is acceptable and what’s not. They’re the accountability. What that means is they’re allowed to say, “Hey, are you supposed to be doing that?” But the funniest things have come up. For example can they high five during a game? And so as they go along, the couples have made some tweaks and changed things up a little bit.

Sometimes with all of our busy schedules, we’ve had to call on other folks to be chaperones. When Jill and Derick were courting, everyone went on a trip and Jill had to stay back for her midwifery work. But she still wanted to see Derick when he got off work. So she called Ginny, a family friend, who was able to meet her and Derick at a restaurant and then they could all eat together. Ginny was at Jill’s bridal shower recently and she said, “I had the most fun. I got to be Jill and Derick’s chaperone and they treated me to lunch. What a deal!”

Grandma Duggar has also taken a few turns chaperoning, which is extra special for the girls. After a recent visit with Grandma as a chaperone Jill told me, “Grandma gave me some amazing advice. Derick and I were just so encouraged by her wisdom.” So you see, chaperones can take lots of forms and are quite helpful in many ways!

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.

Have a burning question for Michelle Duggar? Send it to her and it could appear in an upcoming post! Or catch up with all of Michelle's Blogs.

A Day in the Life of Michelle Duggar and Her Kids

FAMILY MATTERS on 04.29.13

Michelle Duggar19 Kids and CountingBIO

 

Photo: DCI

Question from a "19 Kids and Counting" fan: What’s your daily schedule like on school days?

7 a.m.: Wake up, everyone!

We’re not early birds. We tend to be more of a night-owl family so we aim to get up by 7 a.m. Everybody wakes up, gets dressed, makes their beds, and gives their rooms a quick clean up.

8 a.m.: Breakfast and chores

We have breakfast and then some quiet time around the table. We might do the proverb of the day, depending on if we’re all at the table together at the same time. It depends on the responsibilities that some of the children have going on. After that, we’ll do a quick tidy of the house. It’s not when we do our big stuff like scrub the toilets and mop the floor, it’s just a fast clean to empty the trash, gather the laundry, and clean the areas that they kids are responsible for.

9 a.m.: School starts

We usually start the day with math, English, and spelling, and maybe a little music practice.

Noon: Lunch break

Jinger is my lunch lady right now, so around 11:30 a.m. she’ll start preparing lunch. At noon we eat and then we have a little bit of time around the table where we do "memory lane" (memory exercises) and we memorize scripture and hymns. This is one of my favorite times of the day; scripture is so important to my family.

We’ll do that for 30 to 45 minutes and sometimes I’ll read a little chunk of a book to my kids. We are still in that old-fashioned mode of reading books! I always tell my kids to pick up a book. That book could be their best friend and they can really learn a lot from reading.

1 p.m.: Back to school

After "memory lane" we’ll do book work, which is our science, history, law, and medicine resources. A lot of times we’re all studying the same information -- just reading it together, so we’re all on the same page. Then the kids break and do resources for each grade level. It's called "the bus stop method," where my little ones get off a little sooner and the bigger ones keep working. They’ll go to their separate desk areas where they can work on their projects individually.                 

After that, they finish their music practice. If they haven’t finished all their math, English, and spelling, they’ll go back and work on that, too. Typically, it's free time for them after they’re done with all their schoolwork and music practice.

5 p.m.: Dinner and family time

Jessa is my dinner lady now and she has her team of little helpers in there helping her get dinner ready. After dinner, we have family time. We’ll do work projects together and then we go outside to play volleyball or kickball. You name it -- we do all kinds of outside activities! Even in the winter the kids are outside with their gloves and their noses are pink, but they love outside time all year round.

8 p.m.: Baths, snacks, and prayers

Bible time is at 8:30 p.m. so we all have a snack and then get ready for bed first. We’ll meet in the boys’ room or down in the living room for time with dad. We read the scriptures and talk about what we’re reading. Then we all pray together and say goodnight. The younger ones go to their beds, but my older ones will usually come to our room and talk more until midnight or so. It just depends on what’s in their hearts or what they need to talk about. Then we go to bed and get up the next morning and start all over again!

Have a burning question for Michelle Duggar? Send it to her and it could appear in an upcoming post!

Michelle Duggar’s Snapshot of China

FAMILY TRAVEL on 03.28.13

Michelle Duggar19 Kids and CountingBIO

 

Image: DCL

Travel question from a "19 Kids and Counting" fan: What were some of your most memorable moments from your trip to China?

One of the most interesting things was the response we’d get from the crowds when we all walked around together. We’re a very unusual sight! We’re all blonde or fair-haired, and a really huge group. Our interpreter would try and tell people that this is all one family. And boy, I thought people were going to fall over. They just couldn’t even fathom having a family as large as ours. Even the double stroller was such an eye catcher for the Chinese. I don’t think many people had ever seen one before. They just don’t have much need for double strollers because typically most families have only one child. Every time that double stroller came out, people would crowd around and look in the stroller to see what was in there. Are there really two kids? And sure enough, Mackynzie and Michael would be in the stroller, and they’d all be going “Oh!” and “Ah!” A lot of people would come up and touch their blonde hair. In China, they were not the least bit afraid to come up and just touch your kids’ heads. It was really interesting!

The Great Wall was a really amazing destination to visit. Just going up those huge mountains, climbing the massive structure and hearing the history of the Wall was incredible. We got to experience the older part of the Wall one day, and then we went to the more modern tourist area the next day. On the way up, there is a market where they sell souvenirs, and you barter and try to get the best bargains. That was a lot of fun. The kids especially loved that, trying to get good deals and bargains on stuff to take home. I think the local people got the real bargains, though. We thought we were getting a deal, but really, they probably got the better end of the deal! But it was fun bartering. We came back with some wonderful treasures from China and fantastic family memories.

Trivia questions!

This week I am combining two blogs for one week of trivia so that way I am caught up. The first five questions are from Ask Michelle: How the Duggars pack for a trip? and the second set of questions (6-10) How Michelle Duggar keep her kids happy while traveling?
1. How long does it take for the family to get ready for the packing?
2. Who picks out the clothes?
3. What do the duggars have to do at the last minute?
4. What do Jessa and Jinger with the plastic  bags?
5. Where do they put their dirty clothes?
6. what do the little kids do while in plane?
7. Who teams up with Jennifer?
8. What are in the older kids bags?
9. What kind of snacks do the kids have in their bags?
10. do the duggars save money instead of buying snacks on the plane?

Answers from Michelle's tlc blog!

1. 8 months
2. yes.
3. their friend's kids seem so mature and well-rounded
4. at the age of Four
5. that you can't keep them from learning

On Tuesday we will have the answers from this week's episode trivia... be sure and check it out

trivia from Michelle's blog!

In Michelle's recent TLC blog "How the duggar family got hooked on homeschooling?" Blog which was posted March 1, 2013. Don't forget to tune in on Tuesday March 12, 2013 for brand new epsiodes of 19 kids and counting.
1. How old was Josh when they first found out about homschooling?
2. Did Michelle go to public school?
3. Why were Jim Bob and Michelle impressed with their friend's families?
4. What age did Michelle start learning phonics with Josh?
5. What did her friend say to her?

We will have trivia for this week's episode on Wednesday and a recap summary! Be sure to check out the blog on Wednesday! 

How the family pack for a trip?!

Ask Michelle: How the Duggars Pack for a Trip

FAMILY TRAVEL on 03.08.13

Michelle Duggar19 Kids and CountingBIO

 

Photo: DCL

Travel question from a "19 Kids and Counting" fan: What’s it like to pack for such a large family?

Packing begins quite a bit earlier for us so that we can get all of the details down. We start weeks in advance. Usually, we try to make sure that we've got enough socks and underclothes for everybody for seven days. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but when you have to have seven pairs of socks for everyone, you multiply that. At home, we wash every day because we just have enough for a few days. Three of my boys are in the same size right now, so that means I’ve got to have 21 pairs of the same size sock to make it through a trip. For starters, we had to get more socks and undershirts to make sure that everybody had enough of the basics.

And then it’s time to start packing! The kids will go down and pick out the clothes that everyone needs for our trip. Sometimes, we’ll find out that someone’s leggings have holes in them, and someone else’s shoes have a big hole in them. We have to do some last minute thrift shopping to find just the right size shoes and clothes for everyone.

My daughters have figured out this amazing system for packing. They’ll get a day's worth of clothes laid out. They stack the largest size at the bottom and they just work their way up, making a stack with all of the boys' shirts in it for each day. And then they just roll each bundle up and slide it inside of a plastic bag with a label on it for that day. At the end of the day, they can use the plastic bag as the dirty clothes bag for all of that day’s items.

If we're in a hotel room, all of the dirty clothes and socks go under the sink in the bathroom so that when it's time to gather all the laundry, we just go from room to room putting everything in the bag. The bag is already labeled, and we’ll just mark "dirty" over the top of the label. It helps us to keep track of everyone’s clothing and see what we have left for the week!

Travel along with Michelle and the Duggars as they take their first trip to Japan and China. Starting March 12, tune in Tuesdays 9|8c, for 19 Kids and Counting: Duggars Do Asia. See a sneak peek of the trip in the family's photo slideshow and preview video. Don't forget to check out on Monday, March 11, on the Today show! 

Bedtime with the duggars

Question from a "19 Kids and Counting" fan: Did any of your children have issues with settling down at bedtime or staying in their own bed for the night?

There’s a difference between a little one with a bad attitude who doesn’t want to stay in their bed for bedtime versus a little one that wakes up in the middle of the night and wants to cuddle up with daddy and me.

I am not a stickler about them staying in their own rooms at night; I’ve never been really rigid about it. If one of mine wakes up in the middle of the night and comes pitter-pattering down the hallway to climb into bed with daddy and me, I love it. I don’t mind that a bit. I just let them come and snuggle with dad and me, and we all wake up in the morning smooshed all over the bed. Usually there are two or three in there by the morning. At night, you’ll hear all these little feet pitter-pattering across the floor.

If it’s more of an issue of having an attitude about going to bed, I like to practice with them during the daytime. It helps them learn to obey mama and understand when it’s time to be quiet -- we call it happy nappy time. We don’t just do nappy time. We do happy nappy time.

I’ll announce to Josie and to Jordyn, “It’s happy nappy time in 15 minutes, so we’re going to have a snack and then get ready for happy nappy time.” Sometimes their little faces aren’t so happy about hearing naptime’s coming, but I tell them, “We’re going to be happy.”

I don’t let them whine and I don’t let them grumble and complain and pout. I also let them sing to Jesus as they go to sleep, which they really like. They are allowed to sing quietly to themselves. They can’t be real loud or obnoxious, and they have to keep their head on the pillow. They know the rule is head down. And they know that if they don’t follow the rules, mommy will come and scold them. They don’t want to be scolded, so they listen to mommy!

When they wake up, it’s the cutest thing. I’ve taught them, “When you wake up and you’re all done with happy nappy time, then you get to play.” When they’re done, sometimes I’ll hear them wake up, and they’ll be singing to me: “Mommy, I’m all done. Happy nappy time’s all done.” Then they get rewarded for being so good.

How the Duggars Share Love on Valentine's Day

FAMILY MATTERS on 02.08.13

Michelle Duggar19 Kids and CountingBIO

 

Photo: DCL

Question from a "19 Kids and Counting" fan on Facebook: Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day, and if so, how?

Our family celebrates Valentine’s Day a little differently with our friends, the Query family. My dear friend Debbie Query is a widow with four children. Her husband was tragically killed in a car accident when their youngest child was 2 years old. Every year, she puts together a special luncheon for women who are on their own because of tragedy, divorce or even abandonment. She felt like it was a time of year when single women needed to be encouraged and loved. It’s common to feel like a fifth wheel when you are alone, especially at Valentine’s Day. It’s a time when couples will usually be getting gifts for each other or going out for a Valentine’s meal. Debbie and her family reach out to women that don’t have a Valentine, and host a special Valentine’s banquet just for them.

The banquet is a lovely luncheon and tea. The Querys make all of the food: little sandwiches, beautiful green salads and fresh fruit salads. The children dress up in white shirts, black bowties and black dress pants, and serve as waiters for the banquet. The boys are true gentlemen; they escort the ladies to their seats and then give them each a little gift. The children also bring their instruments and play music for the event. Violin and harp music makes the event really beautiful. Often, we’ll have a special speaker that will come and give a speech to the guests. The banquet actually used to be at the Query’s home, but it got so big that we moved it to a larger building. One year we had close to 100 people!

Debbie Query has organized this for a number of years now, and our children have really enjoyed being a part of this unique Valentine’s Day event. They like being able to show the ladies that they are special, that they’re loved, and that this is a special time of the year for them, too. These special ladies are cared for, even though they may not have their own Valentine with them. They are loved, God loves them and we do, too. 

Favorite Indoor Activities at the Duggar Home

FAMILY MATTERS on 02.01.13

Michelle Duggar19 Kids and CountingBIO

 

Image: Mark Karrass/Corbis

Question from a "19 Kids and Counting" fan on Facebook: How do the kids keep entertained inside during the long winter months, do you have favorite family activities?

My kids love to play games. Recently, they’ve become four-square champs! We’ve got a tile floor on the downstairs level of our home, and there’s an area by the front door that doesn’t have anything on the floor – no furniture, just an entryway. My children have put up a small four-square court. They put masking tape on the floor and have sectioned off a little play area. I tell you what, we have played more four square right there in our house than outside. Typically, I’m the one who says, “No balls in the house because you’re going to break something,” but we’ve had so much fun with only a few casualties: They knocked over a cup of hot cocoa when a ball bounced, but that’s it. We’ve done pretty well with it so far, and the kids love it. They have had so much fun.

They play board games a lot; they have recently discovered a fun game called “Layers.” Everybody gets three little strips of paper, and they write a person, place or a thing on each one. Then, each person turns in his or her papers. You pull out a piece of paper and someone has to guess what’s on it. The first round, you get to describe it with words and hand motions. Then, the second round is just a one-word description. For the last round, you can only use gestures. That’s it. So it gets harder and harder every round. It’s a lot of fun.

Another thing the kids really enjoy doing together is playing music and singing. We all have instruments and we practice our music every day. I’ve noticed that they’re getting out their instruments more often because it’s so cold outside. They can’t go out and do their usual activities outdoors. So they’ll get their instruments down, and they’ll all sit around in the living room and just play music – piano, violin, guitar and mandolin -- a real jam session. They’re practicing, singing and enjoying playing music together. It’s a very special family activity.

Have a burning question for Michelle Duggar? Send it to her and it could appear in an upcoming post!

A Warm Home on a Budget

DOLLARS & SENSE on 01.25.13

Michelle Duggar19 Kids and CountingBIO

 

 Image: DCL

Question from a "19 Kids and Counting" fan on Facebook: With such a big family to care for, how do you work to save money on things like water, electricity and heating?

We have two things that really help keep our heating bills down in our house: a radiant heat floor and a tankless water heater.

When we built our current home, we installed a radiant heat floor before we poured our concrete. The hot water runs through pipes in it during the winter, and it heats the whole house. Installing that was really something! Everybody that was old enough to help got out there and laid that PEX pipe -- even the little ones were out there tying down the pipe in the floor before we poured the concrete.

We have furnaces and the ability to turn those on when we want them, if we need them. But the radiant heat floor saves us a lot, because it’s just circulating that hot water under the concrete. It keeps our house nice and warm in the winter. We have some cold days here -- we don’t get as much snow as the children would like -- but it does get pretty cold. The radiant heat floor has really come in handy.

This year, we also installed an instant tankless water heater. For a while, we were using a wood-burning furnace to heat the water for our home. The boys would cut the wood for it and fill it up. The problem with that was that the water took quite a while to heat between showers. The new system isn’t reliant on a hot water tank. It supplies hot water for the floor at a fraction of the cost, and it also provides all of the hot water for our showers and baths. We don’t have to wait 30 minutes for the next person to get their shower. We’re never without hot water anymore and it’s not such a scramble to figure out a schedule for baths and showers!

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New blog from Michelle Duggar on TLC!

Meal Plans and Involving the Kids

CHOW on 01.18.13

Michelle Duggar19 Kids and CountingBIO

 

Image: DCL

In our house, organization is very important in everything we do and that of course includes meal planning. Our family works with a large master menu to plan our food for the week. Whoever is going to cook for that week gets to pick what meals they want to prepare. Usually, we plan two weeks at a time: that way we're not going to duplicate the same recipe too often. It also helps us when we plan our shopping list so we can make sure that we get all the ingredients that we’re going to need. Menus and lists are a huge help with that.

Because we're cooking for a lot of children, we tend to make the same family favorites a lot. We’re not going to try out too many crazy recipes that young palates won't be interested in. We eat a lot of green salads and veggie trays. Of course, ours are giant trays! A lot of times we’ll slice up a big tray of tomatoes, sprinkle them with salt and pepper and top with a spritz of vinegar. That’s a favorite snack around here.

All of the kids take turns in the kitchen. I always let each one of them take a turn at learning how to prepare a meal. Usually, they'll start off with breakfast or lunch before diving into dinner. And it's not just for the girls! Some of the boys are really good cooks. They have lots of fun getting in there and being creative. Jason and Justin are particularly enjoying being in the kitchen lately. Of course, the little ones love to help, too. Johannah, Jennifer, Jordyn all love lending a hand. They’re always in the kitchen asking, "What can I do? Can I open this? Can I help?"

We usually have teams of three or four kids that’ll work together on the cooking. If you get more than that, there are really just too many cooks in the kitchen! There’s a leader and then the rest of them follow the instructions of the leader. We label everything so that whoever is in there can find things and know where they belong when they're doing cleanup. The kids truly enjoy their time in the kitchen and it’s a huge help to the family. It really works out well for everyone.

Teaching your toddler to communicate with Signning

Teaching Your Toddler to Communicate with Sign Language

FAMILY MATTERS on 01.11.13

Michelle Duggar19 Kids and CountingBIO

 

Image: DCL

Our little ones can get frustrated as they’re learning to talk because they understand more than they’re able to communicate with speech. They get what you’re saying, but they’re not able to really respond with words right away. Imagine how frustrating that would be! One way to help our little ones communicate while they learn to talk is through sign language. Instead of screaming for what they want, they learn a little sign language to help ask for things. Even though they might not be able speak yet, they can easily learn to sign. Toddlers are sharp! They know more than we give them credit for. It really doesn’t take them long at all. In our home, we’ll teach the toddlers some basic words like: more, please, all done, yes, no, thank you, mommy, and daddy. It really helps us all to communicate.

As I’m teaching Josie a sign with her hands, I’ll sign it back to her and speak the word out loud. We just keep repeating it until she’s got it. It helps to make a game out of it with little rewards, like cereal bites. As Josie reaches for more cereal, we’ll work on learning a sign like “More.” I’ll do it first, say the word and then show her how to make the sign with her little hands.

If she screams or grabs for the cereal, she won’t get it until she asks for it. I just always make that a rule. If you cry or scream, you won’t get it. So you have to try it again. We’ll practice three or four times, so she’ll realize that the squeal just didn’t get her what she wanted. But the sign language did. This is why the little ones get the reward. It’s because they signed it. And they all practice it and learn they can get what they want when they ask the right way. It really doesn’t take long at all and often turns into a skill that the kids keep with them into adulthood.