Happy Birthday, Caleb!

Caleb turned 14 today!  We baked cookies and mini apple pies today, but we didn't bake a cake, so we just celebrated with ice cream!  We've been having the "week of Caleb" as far as meals go--he couldn't figure out one favorite for his birthday dinner, so he picked all the dinners this week.  He got a WSS t-shirt as well as a fleece vest.  We were going to get him a WSS water bottle to replace the one he dropped and shattered on his way to cross-country practice, but sadly they were out, and they said they weren't going to order any more until next summer.  So we just had to get a regular nalgene from amazon to get him through basketball and rugby seasons.  We also gave him a Lego Star Wars set I found at Costco (it's so convenient to shop for a birthday right after everyone rolls out all the new Christmas toys!).

I've discovered that Caleb is my least-photographed child.  I searched back to find another picture, but he has managed to slip out of most other kid ones.  I'm making it my mission to take more pictures of him this year!  He is thrilled to have grown several inches, as well as developed a deeper voice this past year, so I need to document that!

I did find this picture of him at a cross-country meet.  He and Jonathan both ran cross-country for the first time this fall.  We had heard several other people with asthma say that running had helped them not be so reactive.  Caleb's asthma has been pretty well-controlled the past few years, but it does seem to have a bit of an exercise trigger.  He was pretty wheezy at the beginning of the season, so he was using his puffers a lot, but we were sort of stumbling along in the dark as far as how to use them effectively, since they had always just been rescue inhalers that he didn't need too often.  Eventually his flovent one ran out, and I had to make an appointment to get a new prescription.  I'm so glad we went in!  The doctor was very helpful, as far as what he should be doing during seasons with lots of running.  He's supposed to use albuterol 20 minutes before running, since that helps open up the airway.  Then he take flovent daily--2 puffs, twice a day, actually--, which works more long-term to protect the airway so it's not so reactive.  It was good to have a definitive plan laid out for him!  I don't think running is Caleb's absolute favorite thing to do by a long shot, but he had a good season.  He improved a lot, and he had a good time.  Now it's on to basketball!

11 Year Anniversary

I was reminded by Timehop on my phone this morning that today is my 11th anniversary of blogging!  I started on Oct. 30, 2004.  I didn't know how to link articles, post pictures, or really do anything other than type words (not that I do anything all that exciting now, LOL).  

We had 4 boys at the time.  Nathan had just turned 7 a week before we moved to DC the July 4th weekend, and Jonathan had just turned 1.  I was so overwhelmed and busy!  How could I ever consider having any more kids?!  This picture is technically from 2005, but the faces look pretty familiar.  Cute boys!  Hard to believe Nathan is in college now.  Where does the time go?!

I have to laugh when I think that I had 4 kids 7 and under at that point--and now, 11 years later, I still have 4 kids 7 and under--plus 6 older ones.  Ay yi yi.  I didn't even have an inkling about what being busy really was!  Sure I dealt with messes, and it was hard to homeschool with toddlers around.  But they all went to bed around 8:00, and then I was done.  I wasn't staying up for hours trying to dredge my memory for how to use the chi square test to check results of a fruit fly genetic experiment or making up Latin practice sentences using 3rd conjugation verbs (present tense only!) plus selected prepositions and nouns from the vocab lists.  I didn't have to write exams and practice worksheets or search around the internet for alternative labs since I can't get the supplies for many AP labs as written.  Compared to now, there was no mental strain, and I know I got more sleep and exercise than I do now!  I never really dreamed that any stage could be harder than the toddler stage, but it turns out the "high schoolers plus toddlers" stage is 1000x more exhausting.

I'm so glad I started blogging.  It has always mainly been to keep in touch with family and friends, especially in the "pre-Facebook" world (remember that dim, dark epoch of time?).  I didn't realize that a few short years after I started blogging I would become way too busy to keep up with scrapbooking, and this blog has become a scrapbook, especially once I figured out how to post pictures (and got a digital camera in 2006, which was the first step--we are not early adopters of new technology, LOL).  It's really fun for me to look back and reread old posts from way back when.  I only regret now not having enough time to blog, so a lot of the fun little day-to-day things are getting forgotten.  Poor Drew is only going to be remembered for his "Autumn of Accidents", LOL. I need to do another month of everyday blogging, like I did in October 2013.  Maybe when things get easier . . . haha!  I crack myself up!  It is somewhat encouraging to think that in 11 more years, I should NOT have 4 kids 7 and under.  It is incredibly weird, however, to think that I could potentially be a grandma by then.  Well, I'll keep on blogging, and we'll see where we are then!

"Making Time"

The book I read while Bob and I were on our lovely Colorado trip (was that a month ago?  or just a dream, perhaps?!) was Making Time:  Lillian Moller Gilbreth--A Life Beyond Cheaper by the Dozen" by Jane Lancaster.  I read Cheaper by the Dozen as well as the sequel, Belles on Their Toes, for the first time back when I was in junior high, and I loved the books.  They were so funny!  They definitely made life with a big family seem so totally fun, and I would have told you I wanted 12 kids for sure had you asked me then (although when I was a much more mature high schooler, I realized it would be crazy to have more than say 4, which to me WAS a big family . . .)  Somehow I read about this book a few years ago (amazon reviews, maybe?), and I requested it for a present.  I did receive it, and then it sat on the shelf because I just didn't have time to read it.  The trip to Colorado was a perfect time for some pleasure reading, however, so I took it along and started reading it on the plane.

I was fascinated by it.  I finished it a few weeks back, but I've kept thinking about it, and about Lillian Moller Gilbreth, who is the mom in Cheaper by the Dozen.   We really have a lot in common, and I felt a real kinship with her.  I wish I could have met her!

First, some details about her that most people, even ones who read the books, don't know about her.  In the books she was mentioned as part of the "motion study" team, always trying to figure out the most efficient way of doing things, and they talked about her visiting factories, but that part of her life was definitely glossed over.  I had no idea that she was such a well-respected academic herself!  She received a master's in literature from UC-Berkeley before she even met her future husband, Frank.  She met him in Boston.  He had never gone to college, but he was interested in workplace efficiency, and Lillian became interested in that as well.  She got her first PhD from Brown in 1915 in industrial psychology (first one ever granted because it was a totally new field), already having 4 children.  She and Frank started a "scientific management principles" consulting business, where they worked on "time and motion studies" to make factories and businesses run most efficiently, and she worked right alongside him.  Because of her psychology background, she was able to help convince workers that these new ways were better for them, and she really pushed for better working conditions and incentives, since she was more interested in the "human element", rather than just the technical benefits of efficiency.  They developed the concept of "ergonomics", really, as well as the discipline of industrial engineering, a subject dear to my heart, since my sister-in-law and niece are both industrial engineers.

Lillian always deflected any praise away from herself and towards her husband, so it wasn't until after Frank died on June 14, 1924, that people started realizing that she was actually the one who had written most of the many books they had published.  She was able to keep running by herself the business they had started, and she also became a professor of industrial engineering at a bunch of prestigious universities.  She was awarded a boatload of awards and impacted our lives in dozens of ways that I don't think anyone really realizes anymore.  For example, she conducted a ton of research to help determine the most efficient way to set up a kitchen (the whole "work triangle concept" came from her), as well as the best standard height for stoves and sinks.  She came up with the idea for shelves in the refrigerator door and the foot-pedal trash can (something I appreciate very much!), and dozens of other things we just accept as common-place now.  She also worked to develop methods for physically-handicapped people to do common tasks.  She kept teaching and consulting until she was 90 years old, and she died when she was 93.

So . . . wow!  All that is amazing, but what I was really interested in was her family life.  She actually bore 13 children--her second child, Mary, died of diphtheria when she was 5, and Lillian also delivered a stillborn child for her 8th child--but there were only really 11 kids, although Frank and Lillian always referred to them as their "dozen".  Now here is where the bias of the author really shines through.  I have no idea about the author at all, except after reading the book, I have the mental image of a feminist spinster who definitely doesn't have any children of her own.  Through the whole book, the author is clearly astounded that anyone would ever *really* choose to have so many kids, even though Lillian herself says in many of her own writings that from a young age, she wanted a "strenuous life", rather than the life of ease she had grown up with.  Lillian was the oldest of 9, so she was used to a big family and for being responsible for a lot of younger kids.  From the get-go, Frank had wanted "6 boys and 6 girls", although Lillian later wrote, "This seemed an easy undertaking to a person who had practically been an only child, but was a little appalling to the oldest of nine".  It seems from her later writings that having a big family was definitely a part of their scientific management experimentation, as they wanted to see if there could possibly be "one best way" to manage a big household and raise a lot of kids.  After Frank died, though, a lot of his more regimented ideas went by the wayside.

Lillian was pregnant within 6 weeks of their marriage, and she continued to have babies pretty much every 15 months.  Now the author gives a few other reasons for Lillian continuing to produce these children, the last of which is "a sheer love of children".  The most insulting reason given is basically, Lillian was just too prudish to ever discuss birth control.  I find it hard to believe that such a strong, intelligent woman working in a man's field, in such an equal partnership with her husband, was just too delicate to ever bring up the subject!   More likely, as the author grudgingly alludes to, she just didn't like birth control and didn't want to use it.  I can relate!  I think that even for someone who was used to a lot of children, and knew what a lot of work they were, Lillian had children because she really did love each and every one of them.  There were several quotes throughout the book that show how much enjoyment Lillian got from her kids, and how much she enjoyed having them around her.  Plus, Lillian said herself that all the children were "planned", and the timing was so that during her "unavoidable delay" of post-partum recovery, which back then meant several weeks of lying in bed, she could proof galleys for whatever book was getting ready to be published, since that was a job she could do in bed.  The weirdest reason given for why Lillian and Frank had so many kids was that they were into "positive eugenics".  The book says, "Rather than calling for forcible sterilization of the less 'fit', they applied their theories to themselves and produced their own large family.  They also wanted to demonstrate by means of their family system that is was possible to rear and educate many healthy children, and do it economically and efficiently, while leaving time for the mother to be professionally active."  I can tell you very honestly that we did not have 10 kids because we thought our genes were somehow superior and because we wanted to demonstrate the superiority of our system of raising them!  Haha!  We were much less deliberate about the whole thing, and here is where we differ greatly--we have all our children because we believe God blessed us with them, in His perfect timing.  And believe me, we are very thankful for His grace as we raise them, since we know for a fact there is nothing remotely superior about any set of 2 sinful parents raising a bunch of little sinners!

It was also very interesting to consider Lillian's daily schedule and how she could accomplish so much.  She had help!  Live-in help!  (And I don't mean her kids, LOL.)  As the book says, "She neither cooked nor cleaned, and although she scheduled much more time with her children than most women who work outside the home usually manage, she had assistance with the children during the hours she spent on her professional work."  I can't imagine not cooking and cleaning.  Just not cleaning would be great!  I actually enjoy cooking, even in the vast quantities I must produce right now.  But I am constantly behind on cleaning, and one of my biggest frustrations is that I can't even get all areas of the house clean enough at once to get an estimate for a cleaning lady to come once a month.  If one just happened to walk in, she would run the other way screaming, or even worse, charge us a fortune, since at least some parts always look like a disaster area!

Ha, that reminded me of another part of the book.  In Cheaper by the Dozen, they describe this great big house in New Jersey that Frank bought for them, and that was where they had the foreign language victrolas in the bathroom, and all the charts, and so on.  I was hoping to see a picture of the house or something, but after all the kids were on their own, Lillian moved to a little apartment--and she had the house torn down!!  She said it was in too bad of a shape to ever be sold.  Well--I guess I can identify with that sentiment too, LOL, although I'm sure that was a drastic step.  Too bad!

As Lillian got older, she did more with simplifying household management.  She started to sound like me though, cautioning against using "sterling silver standards where stainless steel would be more appropriate".  She was not a fan of silver flatware as a wedding gift, because then the bride would feel obligated to get nice china, linen, etc. to go with it.  Her conclusion:  "The homemaker who holds a job has to be especially careful not to cling too hard to a set of standards that dates back to the time when the lady of the house was always at home and moreover had servants to help her."  Amen!  I would consider homeschooling to be a full time job, especially at the high school level!

The last thing that I found particularly interesting was the her kids were never interested in dishing out dirt on their mom (much to the disappointment of the author of this book, I think).  All she could get was that eventually Jane, the youngest, who was only 2 when her dad died, lamented her mom's "physical and emotional distance".  The author of the book says, "Most of the Gilbreth children, however, seem determined to put a positive spin on their upbringing."  I don't think she could ever believe that kids might possibly have enjoyed growing up in a big family.  It is telling, however, that none of her kids had very big families--Martha, who married last because she stayed around and helped raise the youngest kids for her mom, had the biggest family, 4 kids.  Lillian ended up with 30 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren when she died in 1972.  Their family system was more along the lines of the Duggars, with the older kids each being responsible for a younger kid, and it was a big responsibility since the older kid had to get the younger kid all ready for school each day.  I don't think we have as much of a reliance on the older kids to help parent the younger ones.  The older kids are pretty busy with school and extra-curricular stuff at this point anyway.  Honestly, the biggest thing I took away from the book is that I need a cleaning lady!

I really enjoyed reading about her and her family though.  It was all just so interesting, and like I said, I really related to her.  There's a story in this book about a train trip she took to California from Rhode Island to visit her family.  She had 7 kids, ages 11 down to 11 months, and it was a nightmare.  Kids were sick, she was 7 months pregnant, and it was a long trip.  She had planned to get the kids all cleaned up before meeting her parents in Oakland, but her brother met them on the train in Sacramento, and found diapers everywhere, crying children, and just a scene of general chaos.  Lillian was mortified because she was trying to convince her family that "she had made the right choice in marrying her 'strenuous' husband, that she could cope with the children, and that Gilbreth, Inc. was prospering."  That was not the impression she gave, and boy, could I feel for her there, having been in  situations like that before myself!  The book also quotes a letter she wrote to Frank during one of his many business trips, saying, "I know I have made a million mistakes, but anyone would who typed against the clatter I do."  Ha!  I'm right there!  And another time she forgot to enclose something, so she wrote later, "It isn't any wonder I do strange things for I work in the midst of confusion all the time . . . and the children rampaging all over the place and asking a hundred questions a minute."  Good to know my kids aren't unique, and really it did encourage me that such an accomplished and brilliant woman could struggle with the same day-to-day issues that I do!

A Brief Breath

When I think about the school year, the mental image I get is of being underwater.  Every August I take a deep breath and dive in.  Now that it's October, I think we're finally getting in somewhat of a routine.  It's not easy, but I'm enjoying everything more than I thought I would back in August, when I was pretty much having panic attacks about starting Rivendell again. The 3 new moms we have this year have been *such* blessings.  It's actually 4 new teachers, because the mom of one mom just moved out here, and she is teaching for us too.  Having this much more coverage has meant Christine and I haven't been so stretched by our teaching responsibilities this year.

I am SO enjoying not having to teach both junior high and high school science. That has been such a burden lifted.  AP biology has still consumed a ton of my time--but I don't feel quite as much like I am fumbling around in the dark as I was the first time I taught it.  I am having to rework all the labs, and I didn't start giving the boys reading questions to help them get through the chapters until later in the year last time, so I've had to come up with those.  I usually work on these things late at night, since it's hard to get anything accomplished when all the littles are still up.  But there is a trade-off, because I'm really tired late at night.  For the last set of reading questions, here is how I numbered them:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 7, 7, 8, 9, 10 . . .  When he started working on them, Luke came downstairs to ask me if Micah or Drew had numbered them!  Ha!  I spaced them really weirdly too.  Maybe I was sleep-typing.  I am really enjoying the group of 3 boys I have.  They're a lot of fun, and they all have similar personalities.  It's an intense class, and we cover a ton of material each week though.  I think we are all looking forward to January, once we get through all the genetics/virus/new technology chapters and start on more population biology and ecology, which is just easier.

Latin is going well too.  It has taken me a ton of time to make up all the extra practice sheets for the kids, because I have to come up with sentences to translate that only use the vocab they have learned so far, and that emphasizes the new concepts they are learning with each new lesson, but I think the sheets are helping.  The kids seem much more confidant than they were last year.  I'm only a week or 2 ahead for making up the practice sheets, so anytime I have to go anywhere to wait (like the orthodontist's office), I bring Latin along and try to come up with more sentences.  Staving off Alzheimer's, I always say. My mental capacities have really been stretched this year though, with Latin and biology.  My poor brain is always so tired--no wonder I can't even count any more!

I'm always thankful when we get through another Tuesday.  It used to be that I could really relax Tuesday nights, but this year not only do Luke and Caleb have CAP Tuesday nights, Jonathan has cross-country practice, and Anna and Grace have gymnastics, so instead I'm driving a bunch of places.  Wednesday night is my relaxing "weekend" night, and I try not to do any school work that night.  Thursday night I'm prepping for lab on Friday, and then the weekend I try to get caught up (ha! never!) on laundry and everything else around the house that has gone to pot during the week, as well as prepare for Latin on Monday and Rivendell on Tuesday.   I guess that's why it feels like being underwater, with no time to come up for air.

Bob and I keep telling ourselves that it's going to get easier.  In 6 more years, Verity will be 7!  Surely there will be less messes then!  Her new trick is unrolling all the toilet paper in the bathroom, so that's super helpful.  She also likes climbing the stool and knocking everything within reach off the counter.  Bonus points if there's liquid in the cup!  I will say Drew has stopped making so many pee messes, so that is a relief.  I guess he's handed off liquid mess-making to Verity.  In fact, I had to actually make a point of cleaning the toilet today, because I didn't have to clean it the past few days while cleaning up a mess.  Yay!  In 6 more years, we will have graduated 3 more boys, so that will be weird.  I'll only be cooking for 8, and the oldest 3 will be girls!  Hopefully I won't be teaching any more new classes at that point either.  I think that is what really is wearing me out.  Six more years--surely I can make it that long!

A Good Day For Drew

Today was a good day for Drew.  No accidents, and not even a pair of damp underwear.  That is really good news because the rest of the week has NOT been a good one.  At all.

The whole week was one characterized by accidents.  Lots of pee. In pull-ups, on underwear, on the floor.

 Wednesday I had a dentist appointment first thing in the morning, and then I went to both Wegmans and Costco.  When I got home, I discovered that Drew had both peed and pooped in the pull-up, and in fact that pull-up was the same one he had worn to bed the night before. He had never even put on a pair of underwear, and what's more, he wasn't even bothered by it.  He was laughing when I wiped him up, and I was *highly* irritated.  He hadn't eaten lunch yet, so I put him straight in the high chair and put a bib on him.  He was not liking that, and kept saying that he was a "big boy", but I wowed him with my impeccable logic: "Does Micah poop in his pants?  No?  Does Verity?  Yes?  And is Verity a baby?  Yes?  Aaaand . . . you must be a baby too, because you are pooping in your pants."  

So I made him his sandwich and tore it up into little pieces, like I do for Verity (who was fortunately napping right then).  Oh, Drew cried and wailed.  He took off the bib.  Eventually he did settle down and eat a little bit, but he was not happy.  When I got him down, I told him he was going to take a nap soon, as babies do.  He wasn't happy about that either.  I got wrapped up in trying to get our ancient desktop computer to cooperate with me, so I didn't put him down right away . . . but soon Anna realized that Drew had peed on her arm as she was by the counter, and he was on a stool next to her!  What in the world?!?  Not puddles of pee, but enough to get his underwear wet, as well as the sister on whom he was leaning.  So after taking him to the potty, and having him clean the stool, he was indeed hustled off to a nap.  Good grief!

Thursday was not much better.  I was getting so frustrated!  I was reminding him to go to the potty frequently, but even so, he peed all over the bathroom floor once, and then, right before bed, Faith realized that he had peed on 2 couch cushions.  He was put to bed immediately, after going potty and getting rinsed off in the tub.  I was so irritated!

When I got up this morning and looked at my TimeHop, this popped up from 6 years ago, when Grace was potty-training:

It's almost 2:30, and I still haven't taken a shower.  I have, however, cleaned up 2 poopy accidents, and 1 pee accident.  Not sure what is to blame for this day of bad pottying!

It was very depressing to realize that could potentially be the description of my day today, 6 years later.  How much things stay the same!  The different thing is that today I had AP bio lab, so I needed to prepare some solutions and generally think about things, not be constantly worried about reminding Drew to go potty.   It didn't help that today was the same miserable, cold, rainy weather that we've had for the past few days.  Certainly a day for lots of accidents!

But no.  Drew didn't have one accident at all!  He went on his own to the potty the entire day with no problems.  It was as if I dreamed the whole week.  He had asked for gum throughout the week, which I had refused ("Babies can't chew gum"), so I offered him a piece this afternoon, which he accepted happily.  "I'm a BIG boy!"  I still have no idea what caused this sea change, and it may or may not last.  It was a good breather for me, though.  I had to "go back to Colorado" in my mind quite a few times earlier this week!

I'm hoping I can look back on this week a year from now and laugh at this funny memory of all these accidents, since the memory had faded from my mind . . .

Some Interesting Random Conversations

*Thursday mornings Jonathan has a math class (because I realized my limitations last year, LOL).  I take him over to my friend Jenny's house at 8:05, and she drives him (such a blessing!), her 2 kids, and 2 other kids, over to Sara's house for the class (which Jonathan absolutely loves).  This morning Jonathan came downstairs complaining of having had a terrible night sleep and saying he would definitely take a nap later on today, if he could just stay awake through math class.  After the class he stays at Sara's house for 2 more hours while Jenny's daughter has his class, and then Jenny brings him back to her house around 1:00, which means I can get an uninterrupted morning of school done with the girls (well, as uninterrupted as a morning can be with Micah, Drew, and Verity still around).  So Jonathan and I were discussing what work he would take, and he said something about finishing reading "Beowulf", among other things.  After I dropped him off and came back home, I noticed that Caleb was reading what I assumed was our copy of "Beowulf", so then I wondered if someone else in Rivendell might have left their copy here.  When I picked up Jonathan, and we got home, he said he had indeed finished "Beowulf".  I asked him who might have left their copy here, since we had this other copy.  He looked at it with a very puzzled look--"That looks like our copy" [which I had bought used off amazon and definitely has some distinctive markings].  So then he started hunting through his backpack, but he couldn't find the book.  He looked out in the van, but it wasn't there either.  We were both really stumped.  Then Jonathan eventually came over to me, all excited, and said, "OH!  I remember what happened now!  I actually finished reading it really early in the morning when I couldn't sleep, but I forgot about that this morning.  And I fell asleep on the couch at Mrs. J's house, and I dreamed about reading the ending, where Beowulf kills this dragon with bees, but I thought I was really reading it!"  Ooookay.  Hopefully he'll get a good night's sleep tonight, LOL.

*Yesterday I had my teeth cleaned.  The hygienist is a really sweet girl, and we usually talk about the kids, homeschooling, etc.  Yesterday she mentioned she had gotten married 2 months ago, so I asked how they had met.  It was an arranged marriage!  She had gone back to Bangladesh with her family this summer to visit relatives there.  Her uncle owns a business that is in the same building as this guy who is a good friend of his.  The uncle mentioned to the friend that his family was visiting, and that they were looking for a groom.  The man said his younger brother happened to be visiting as well and would be a good groom for her (a girl he had never met)!  So the next night, the friend's family came over with the younger brother, and the hygienist was asked to say hi, which she did for about 3 minutes.  The next night the 2 sets of parents met for dinner and settled on a wedding date.  Wedding invitations went out starting the next day, and the wedding shopping began.  Two weeks later, they were married.  The first time they actually spoke to each other was on their wedding night!  Wow!  I asked her how it had turned out, and she said great!  She said she couldn't have picked a better match for herself if she had tried.  The only problem is that her husband, who is a computer engineer from New York, had already agreed to go on a 2-year assignment with his company to Australia, seeing as how he had no plans for you know, getting married or anything in the near future, LOL.  So he left a few weeks ago, but he's only going to stay a few months.   Still--what a fascinating story!

*Several days ago, I was doing stuff on the computer with our pictures from Colorado when Faith came up and launched into a completely random conversation.

Faith:  "So you're telling me that Nathan is going to college to learn how to be a dad?"

Me:  "Ummm, no??  What in the world?  He's going to college to be able to get a job later and support himself, and then hopefully support a wife and family."

Faith:  "Oh.  So where do you learn how to be a mom or dad?"

Me:  "Well, not in college.  You pray and ask God to lead you.  You watch other people and ask them questions, like we asked Grandma and Grandpa, and the L's.  You aren't taught it anywhere." (Although that is a shame, LOL.)

Faith:  "Oh.  Well, then--where do you learn how to do THIS?" [big dramatic finger-point to the computer screen]

Me:  "Umm . . . do what?"

Faith:  "Learn to put PICTURES from your PHONE to the COMPUTER."

I think Faith might be disappointed when she discovers college is not quite as practical as she is thinking it is.    

Happy Birthday, Verity!

Verity turned 1 yesterday!  I can't believe it was a year ago that she was born, one of my less eventful labors to be sure.  That was a gift from God, because having a baby the end of September for a homeschooling mother who also has a high school senior is the recipe for a mental breakdown right there, and a long, drawn-out, pitocin-induced labor with a hard recovery would have sent me over the edge for sure!  As it was, all her nursing troubles about did that anyway.  Bob and I thought for less than a nano-second about taking Verity with us to Colorado.  Hey, that's what happens when you decide to wean yourself back in August, way before Mom was ready to stop nursing!  So sorry (not really)!

Other than her nursing issues, Verity has been the most cooperative and happy baby ever.  She is so happy!  Her new thing she's started doing is nodding her head yes when you ask her something.  It is so cute!  While other unnamed kids have had "NO!" as their default response, Verity nods yes!  She's also started turning herself around to go down the stairs, which always makes me happy and relieved.  So mainly she just toddles around the house, babbling happily, totally content and secure that everyone who surrounds her adores her and dotes on her.  What a life.  Who wouldn't be happy?!  We're really thankful for her.  She is such a blessing!

We took dessert to Bible study tonight to celebrate.  Anna made cupcakes in her little cupcake maker, and she and Grace did the decorating while I was in biology lab this afternoon.  We also brought cookie dough brownies and sweet chex mix, since we only had 28 small cupcakes, and we knew that would never ever be enough.  Sure enough, there were 34 kids at Bible study tonight--along with 19 adults!  We're a fertile bunch.

Verity was not sure what to think about the singing and the candle.  Big siblings had to assist with blowing out the candle.

Afterward, though, she turned into a real party animal, dancing on the table!  We're going to have to watch this one!  She also thoroughly enjoyed her cupcake and some brownie.  Yum!  She didn't get any real presents though.  We have "1 year" baby toys out the wazoo, and I wasn't about to get something else just so she could unwrap something that she won't even remember. We did get passport pictures taken of her last night, as a special way to celebrate, LOL.  We're hoping to take another space-a adventure sometime, and she'll need her own passport for that!

One last Colorado Post--Aspens and Views

Since I blog mainly as a scrapbook, and since I am quite anal-retentive in this area, I can't go on to anything else without posting about the last few days of our Colorado trip.  Then things would be out of order, you see, and that would be terribly bothersome.  Also, if I never blog about it, then I'll probably forget what happened, and 12 years later, when we go on another getaway and I'm trying to remember the last one, there will be nothing recorded, and that would be terribly sad, because it was such a great trip.  So here is one last Colorado post to wrap it all up.

Friday Bob had meetings in the morning again, but they got out before lunch.  I had been walking around the little shops looking for some souveniers, so Bob came back with me to help me make some final decisions.   We had a picnic by the stream while we talked about what to do with the afternoon.  We had to be back at 6:30 for a company dinner, so we didn't want to go far away.  We ended up buying tickets to ride the gondolas.  They were $30/person, but we got unlimited trips up and down both gondolas, and it was another beautifully gorgeous day.  I was a little nervous about the gondolas, but they were so smooth and quiet, and I ended up really enjoying the trips.  Saturday night, while we were watching that Vail documentary, it mentioned 1976 where 2 gondolas go caught up on a frayed wire and plummeted hundreds of feet to the ground, killing 4 people and injuring many others. Yeah . . . I was glad I watched that AFTER our fun afternoon, LOL.  I'm sure everything is much, much safer now . . .

It was neat to watch the village fall away.  Our hotel is the white one in the middle of the screen, by the base of the gondola.

The aspens were so beautiful.  We were there at the perfect time!

This is at the top of the Eagle Bahn gondola.  It had a stunning view of the Sawatch range that just went on and on.  We actually went up and down both gondolas a couple times, and the second time we came up here, there was a wedding getting ready to happen!  I can't imagine a more stunning place.

We hiked a mile across the mountain to the other gondola.  It was lovely--through meadows and forests.  The scope of Vail is so huge.  It has 5500 acres of ski-able terrain, which is pretty unfathomable.

As we walked back through Vail Village to the other gondola again, we went through Oktoberfest, where we listened to some rousing polka music.

Saturday the entire day was free, and so we went back over to Leadville.  I had made reservations for us on the Leadville Colorado and Southern Railroad for their special aspen-viewing train ride, which was 3 hours long.  Again, it was a beautiful day, and the aspens were stunning.  We sat in an outside car, which made it a little chilly in the shade (it was only about 40 degrees and a bit breezy), but we had unhampered views of the mountains and the gloriously clear blue sky, so it was okay to be a little cold.  Bob got us hot chocolate from the little concession stand in the middle of the train halfway through the ride.

We had a little break at this adorable water tower where we could all get off the train and stretch our legs.  Drew loves water towers, so we had to make sure we got a picture of it.  A couple actually got engaged during the stop, so that was really fun and sweet to watch.

After the train ride, we ate a quick lunch at Subway and then headed over to the Healy House and Dexter Cabin Museum.  I had thought about going to the National Mining Museum, which I'm sure would also have been great, but when I was reading reviews, this one sounded really interesting in a more personal way.  The Dexter cabin was built by one of those men who struck it rich in Leadville's glory days.  He had several other cabins in other towns, so he could check up on all his operations, as well as a nice house in Denver for his wife and daughters.

The cabin looks rough on the outside, but on the inside it was really fancy!

I loved this lockable pantry.  This would have actually been for mining camps.  It had all these little compartments for various staples, and they could be locked so that the supplies didn't walk off.

Next was the Healy house, which was built for a man who never really lived in it.  His cousin (?) ended up living there and managing it for him, and she ran it as a boarding house.  As many as 22 people lived here in one time, and it went back quite a ways.  The house was furnished in all period pieces, but it wasn't one of those stuffy museums where you have to stay behind a rope and peer into each room.  No, you could really walk around and see everything, and our guide would just pick up random things, like a pipe, off the side tables or whatever to talk about.  It had a really approachable feel, and it gave a really great sense of what it was to live back in the late 1800s/early 1900s.

They had a room decorated for children with all these neat toys and dolls in there, even though any children living in there would have been in with their parents.

There were lots of pairs of boots around, and they were the skinniest things ever!  I could not see any of our family's blocky feet ever fitting into anything like there, LOL.

They also had a ton of dresses and hats displayed everywhere.  This was a wedding dress in the late 180s.  Next door was one from the early 1900s, and it was a lot more elaborate.   Interesting to see how styles changed so quickly.  In one room you could even try on several different hats.  I am glad I didn't grow up in an era when ladies had to wear hats--they just don't do much for me, LOL.

The house eventually had one bathroom, with one of those nest gravity flush toilets, with the big rectangular chamber above for water to flush.  Only the women and children were allowed to use the inside toilet though--the menfolk had to use the outhouse "unless the snow was at lest 3 feet high".  This bathtub actually is like a "murphy" bathtub, in that the tub part folds up against the wall so it doesn't take up so much space.  Interesting!

I loved the kitchen.  It's hard to imagine cooking for 22 people on a stove like that, and with just a small icebox.  The stove looks neat though!

Then we drove back across the mountains to Vail, where we ate dinner and packed up.  We flew back Sunday, and I can definitely say we both felt rested and refreshed.  It was such a fun vacation!  It was really hard to leave Colorado though.  I had forgotten how much I really love it out west!  The big spaces and sky are so soothing to my soul.  Maybe someday we'll be back to stay . . .

Leadville Excursion Plus Some Research

Thursday morning Bob and I woke up pretty early (still on eastern time!), so we worked out in the (predictably) very nice fitness room before showering and eating a delicious breakfast buffet with the other employees.  (The cinnamon rolls were amazing--flaky like croissants!)  Then while they had meetings, I went hiking with 4 other wives.  This is again where you can tell the fanciness of the hotel--they drove us in a hotel SUV to the trailhead, and then picked us back up when we called at the end of our hike.  It was so good to get out in the fresh Colorado air and sunshine!

After the meetings were over, Bob and I hopped in the car and drove down Rt. 24 to Leadville.  When we were stationed in Colorado Springs before, back in 1995-2001, I became very interested in Colorado history, especially of all the mining towns and colorful characters.  We made a trip to Telluride not long before we PCS'd, which was a real highlight of our time in CO for me, but we never made it out to Leadville.  It seemed overwhelming to plan a bunch of trips with (gasp) 2 little kids.  Haha!  In fairness, it was before the internet, and it was a lot harder to plan out trips.  But anyway, when I knew how close we would be this time, I for sure wanted to visit!

On our way over the mountains from Vail, we passed this big flat plain.  It dawned on me that this must be the place where Camp Hale used to be, where the 10th Mountain Division trained during World War II.  I have always been fascinated with that story too, so I bought a $3.00 booklet about them in one of the stores and spent a happy evening reading up on the unit.  Here is an account of their most famous battle to take Riva Ridge in Italy:

While the major elements of our attacking force were engaged in the darkness and bitter cold below Monte Belvedere, teams of picked rock climbers of the 1st Battalion of the 86th were assembling coils of ropes over their shoulders and clusters of pitons and other rock-climbing gear on their belts.

All the years of alpine training on Mount Rainier and Camp Hale, so publicized in newsreels and Hollywood movies, were now about to be tested. In fact, what developed was to be the only significant action in which the 10th had to use this most specialized kind of training. Nevertheless, no one in the War Department or in the 10th could later deny that this single exploit on Riva Ridge justified all the demanding training that had gone before.

A dusting of new snow covered the rock face and upper slopes of the mountains. The valley floor was a quagmire of freezing mud. Searchlights behind the combat area scanned the low—hanging wall of clouds and reflected a scattered, shadowy light over the terrain below. But the valley itself and the ridges were dark.

Climbing in the dead of night, members of the teams hammered steel pitons into the cracks in the rock, attached snap links to them, and then fastened ropes to the links which, hanging down, offered lines which those who followed could use to pull themselves up the vertical face of the ridge.

When the advance teams reached the top at approximately midnight, they signaled to the 1st Battalion units below that they could begin the ascent in force. These units advanced in a column of companies toward the foot of Riva Ridge and then split up, each taking a different route up the face of the cliff.

Fortunately, the haze which hung over the lower elevations of the ridge continued to help conceal the attacking mountaineers. With a biting and wet wind whipping them about, the climbers clambered cautiously up the wet rocks with the aid of the preset ropes, fearful that any dislodged rock that clattered down the cliff face would be followed by bursts of enemy machine guns and grenades.

Inevitably some rocks did fall, causing the climbers to halt in dread anticipation of the hail of death to follow. “Perfect fear casteth out love,” joked the Briton Cyril Connolly in his travesty of I John 4:18, and members of the 10th came to fully appreciate that remark in this introduction to combat.

By 4 A.M. on February 19, all three companies of the 1st Battalion, 86th, and Co. F of the 2nd had reached their separate objectives on top of the ridge unseen and had charged the holding units of the German 1044th Infantry Regiment with rifles and grenades. Surprise was complete.

“I don’t see how you did it,” one German defender stated. “We thought it was impossible for anyone to climb that cliff”

With the coming of daylight, the Germans began to launch the expected counterattack after counterattack, accompanied by heavy artillery fire on the ridge.

When accurate counterartillery bursts repulsed one attack, the Germans came back with their hands up, feigning surrender. After nearing the 1st Battalion positions, they dropped and began firing again, but were finally driven off with heavy casualties. One platoon alone, with the help of our supporting artillery, accounted for 26 Germans killed, 7 captured, and countless wounded.

Fascinating stuff!  Saturday night Bob and I watched a documentary on the history of Vail as we packed up.  Pete Seifert, one of the 10th Mountain veterans, was the one who bought the land and established the resort, which opened back in 1962.

In Leadville, we ate lunch at Subway and then we ended up just wandering through the little downtown shops, instead of going through the mining museum.  It was really fun.  We found a fascinating rock shop.  If I was teaching geology for my unit in the elementary co-op this year, I'm sure I would have spent all my money there!  We spent a good deal of time browsing through the whole shop.  It was so full of interesting rock and mineral samples.  It almost tempted me to start a rock collection!

As we drove back home, I totally missed the turn-off for Rt. 24, so we ended up going on 91 instead.  I realized my mistake a few miles down the road, but since we didn't have to be anywhere at any particular time, we decided to go this way anyway and see what there was to see.  What we found was the Climax Mine, at the top of Fremont Pass, which also had always interested me.  One of my chemistry professors in college had done a lot of research work with molybdenum, which is what is mined at the Climax.  It used to be huge, providing 3/4 of the world's molybdenum supply.  (Molybdenum is used to harden steel, among other things.)  It shut down for awhile, because molybdenum prices dropped, but it reopened in 2012, although not on such a grand scale as it used to be.  It used to be a regular underground mine, but at some point, they decided to convert to open-pit mining, so they blew up the mountain.  Now the pit is 1,000 feet deep.

As we continued on the drive, we saw this weird meadow with little ponds scattered throughout, and then further down, bigger bodies of water with a lot of weird crystallization in it.  When we got back to the hotel, I did some more research to figure out exactly what was going on there.  It turns out the whole area used to be tailing ponds for the Climax waste.  After the Climax stopped production, the few remaining employees turned their attention to reclamation of the ponds, because they sit at the headwaters of 3 major rivers, and because they receive about 25 inches of "surface water" a year, which is a lot of water in Colorado, where people are always fighting over water rights.  As this article from 2004 says, Climax spends millions of dollars a year to treat the water coming through the mine.  They were also able to transform one tailing pond into a small reservoir that meets drinking quality standards.

The picture above shows an even more interesting area.  It all used to be tailing ponds, which were capped by rock and soil to stabilize the surface.  Then a layer of topsoil was supposed to be added so that vegetation would grow, but since the area is at about 11,000 feet altitude, there's not much topsoil around.  So they contracted with the waste-water treatment plants to get their "sludge" (what is left after the water is treated), to which they add wood chips.  That lovely mixture is composted for a year, generating enough heat to kill off any pathological organisms, and then spread over the rocks.  The program used 5,000 tons of sludge a year back in 2004 when the article was written, and as you can see in the picture, most of the area has vegetation growing on it, so the program has been a huge success.  Climax has even won a bunch of awards for their reclamation efforts.

Here you can (barely) see some of the ponds that haven't been reclaimed yet.  They were the ones we originally noticed, since they look really mineral-y and weird.  Unfortunately there wasn't a pull-out closer to them, so there's no better picture.  I guess it wasn't considered a "scenic view", LOL.

So it was fun to fill my mind with something other than Latin and AP biology--and remember that I once had other interests, like the mining history of Colorado.  Maybe when I have time someday, I'l reread my stories of Baby Doe Tabor, et al.  One of my all-time favorite gifts was from my brother one Christmas when we lived in Colorado Springs--a book called Colorado 1870-2000, where a modern photographer, John Fielder, stood in the exact same places that a photographer named William Jackson stood in 1870, and you can compare the pictures side-by-side.  I thought it was fascinating back when Dan gave it to me, and now I can't wait to go through it again, especially now that I've been to more of the places in it!

Vail Getaway

Once upon a time, back in 2003, Bob and I got away for the weekend with Amy and Jason.  Amy and I were both pregnant, me with Jonathan (#4) and her with Jacob.  We went to Amish country in northeastern Ohio and had an absolute ball.  That is where Bob and I ordered our wonderful 10 foot long kitchen table and chairs (although who ever thought we would fill it up?!), and we bought our coffee table and little wooden kids table and chairs.  The lesson we learned from that weekend is that it was a good thing none of us were born Amish, because we all looked rather dorky in Amish hats.  Thankfully, that was before the digital age for us, so no pictures will appear in this blog!  Anyhow, that was the last time Bob and I got away, except for 1 night after Grace was born, when we stayed in a local hotel and then spent the next day looking at dishwashers.  Whee!

But then Bob started working for a new company the end of June.  This company is owned by a wonderful Christian family, and the owner is an extremely generous man.  To celebrate a special anniversary for the company, he paid for all the employees and their spouses to fly out to Colorado and stay in a super-fancy hotel for 5 nights.  Wow!  This was so alien of a concept to us that it really didn't even seem like it would really happen, so I didn't even tell a lot of people about the trip.  But we left Wednesday and flew to Colorado--just the 2 of us!  My parents drove in from Ohio Monday night, and they held down the fort back here with all the kids.

It was heavenly.  We read on the airplane and didn't have to worry about keeping any little person quiet and occupied.  We rented a 4 door sedan, which seemed so small and quiet (also low to the ground and uncomfortable--remind me to not ever buy a Kia--the seat did NOT work for me!), and then we drove off into the mountains to Vail.  The company owner actually provided a bus to take everyone else to the hotel, but we rented a car because we were leaving a day earlier so I could come back and teach Latin, but also because we were going to have a lot of free time, and we wanted to explore!

The hotel (the Arrabelle) was amazing.  Quite a step up from the Comfort Inns we usually stay at!  Our room was huge and so uncluttered.  The staff was so helpful and attentive.  This was the kind of place that turned down the bed each night and left chocolates on the pillow.

Our room was in that corner tower on the 3rd floor.  It looked down into this little courtyard, which even had a skating rink, but I never did get a good picture of that view.

We had this little ipad thing instead of a clock.  When the maids turned down our bed at night, they would turn on the classical/jazz station.  I had to throw a t-shirt over it because it never really went dark, and I could never sleep with a screen lit up beside me!

There was even a TV in the bathroom, not that we ever used it.  The hotel provided big fluffy robes, and we used those to go to the rooftop hot tub Friday night.

The tub was really fancy too, although we never used it.  Had we so desired, we could have paid $50 for the maid to draw us a fancy bath with all sorts of extras.  Ha!  We are definitely not the usual clientele!  I guess this is how the upper .1% live.  Pretty swanky--but easy to get used to being spoiled, LOL.  I still can't believe that the company paid for us to stay there.  It was so relaxing!  

Bob had to go to meetings Thursday and Friday mornings, but the afternoons, plus all day Saturday (and Sunday, although we left that day) were free.  Having all that time that no one needed me and that I didn't really have to be anywhere or have anyone waiting for me was so wonderful.  The whole time was so refreshing to my soul.  

I was not totally enthusiastic about going because it seemed to me that it was too much hassle to actually get there.  When Bob first started talking about it back in July, I couldn't even deal with thinking about it.  As it got closer, I had to do a lot of shuffling to be able to go.  I had to switch a TNT aiding time, so I could teach biology and do lab all on last Tuesday, since I'd be gone on Friday when we normally do lab.  I had to make sure I was ahead in Latin, since we were getting back the night before the next Latin class.  I had to make sure I was ahead on bio too, since I knew I couldn't do everything Monday night after we got back.  And all of us dealt with some kind of cold/fever thing the week before we left, which was stressful.  I was still coughing and snuffly as we flew off.  But boy, oh boy, I had no idea really how nice it all would be.  No idea at all!  When we checked in, we received a new really nice backpack that was filled with stuff--new fleeces for both of us, company polos and t-shirts for both of us, snacks, and other odds and ends with the company logo.  It was amazing!  Then we had an amazing buffet dinner Wednesday night after we arrived (including beef tenderloin and all sorts of delicious desserts), delicious breakfast buffets Thursday and Friday, and another delicious company dinner on Friday.  The food was all so very good.  I can't even imagine how much it all cost!  We missed a really fancy dinner Sunday night at the restaurant on top of the mountain--you ride the gondola to get there.  Honestly, I've never dealt with a gov't contracting company who pampers their employees like that!  No wonder I couldn't imagine how nice it would be!  I am soooo glad I went.  It was so relaxing, which I really needed, and just so much fun.  Plus, I really enjoyed getting to know other people in Bob's company and their wives.  They were all really nice people!  One couple we were surprised to find out are our neighbors!  Bob and I were checking out the rooftop hot tub Thursday night to see if we wanted to go in when we ran into them.  We started chatting, and we found out we both lived in the same town.  Then Tony mentioned the neighborhood they lived in--and it was the same one as us!  We live in a really small neighborhood with only a few streets, so that was a total shocker!  We enjoyed getting to know them, and we sat at the same table with them during the Friday night company dinner too.  We also sat with a couple whose kids are in the elementary co-op with our kids.  Their daughter was in Jonathan's class!  Such a small world.  I really enjoyed the social aspects, which was surprising to me, since I am not as a rule exceptionally social, especially with strangers.  But I guess the family atmosphere and generous attitude of the owner really rubbed off, and everyone was really friendly.  

I'll have to post more later about what we did during our free time, since I'm pretty tired now, and I'm back to reality, including school and Latin tomorrow.  Sigh . . . it's like it all was wonderful dream . . . .

Diving Back In

We finished up our second Tuesday of co-op classes for the year today.  Only 30 more to go!  It's no secret that I was so tired and burned out this summer.  Even contemplating the huge AP bio book was overwhelming.  The last time I taught it was such a hard year--Drew was born, the test had just been redesigned, and it was just so much work trying to get even a small handle on what needed to be taught.

Actually, what year hasn't been hard since we started back in 2010?  In the past 5 years I've had 3 babies, taught 6 new classes, gotten Nathan off to college . . . no wonder I've just been feeling so fried!

Christine, Michele, and I have been faithful about praying for Rivendell during our lunchtime, and the Lord has been so faithful to answer our prayers.  This year he sent in the cavalry--3 new families!  Karen is teaching the junior high science, which has taken a huge load off my plate, as I now only have to teach the high school.  Emily is teaching high school literature, and Kelly is teaching junior high lit.  Karen's mom is teaching junior high lit, so we really got a great deal there!  Having all this extra help has meant Christine was free to teach algebra, which our second wave of kids really needed, since they have not been the motivated self-taught learners our older boys were.  What a huge blessing these new families are.  I really can't say that enough!  We are so thankful for them!  Having some fresh new enthusiastic moms has been a real encouragement especially for Christine and me, who were just so tired.

This year is still not going to be easy, although I keep telling myself, at least I'm not having a baby!  But I'm beginning to think we might actually get through it, so that's positive.  And once my Latin class is over, I'm not planning on teaching that again for a few more years, so that will be a nice break.  Maybe next year I'll only teach one class!  Now THAT is something to look forward to!

A Brief Pause

 Last weekend we were able to get away.  We got up early and drove to PA, first to see Bob's parents.  We were able to spend a few hours with them, as well as Bob's sister Jane.  Jane and Bob's brother Paul have been doing yeoman's work in taking care of Bob's parents, and we are really thankful for their hard work.  Not many people can say that their 90 and almost 89 year old parents are still living alone, in a house with one bathroom only, which is on the second floor!  It's because of all Bob's siblings that his parents are still able to do this.  

 Next it was on to White Sulphur Springs, one of my favorite places on earth.  I so needed to the peace and refreshment from a weekend here!

 We were there with my parents Bible study/chapel group.  The fellowship was wonderful, as always--we always thoroughly enjoy seeing old friends--and the speaker, Lt. Gen. Loren Reno, was excellent and practical.  The weather was perfect, so we got to enjoy all sorts of other activities, like horseback riding, ultimate frisbee, a lovely walk for Bob and me, and rock wall climbing.

 Micah was a little monkey!  He almost got to the top of this wall a few times, but he just got scared about being high up, LOL.

 The weekend exhausted poor Verity.  I think she is still making up for it here at home!

 The girls ran around with their 3 little friends who were also there last year.  They had so much fun together!  It was a real miracle that one of the girls was able to be there this year (they were supposed to be PCSing, but then they couldn't go to their next duty station yet, even though all their stuff is en route, so they came to WSS!), so that made it all even more special.  There were some other kids there too, and everyone played so well together.

 No family picture on the wagon this year!  Maybe we can photoshop Verity into last year's one, LOL.  I'm not even sure why Faith is not in this one!

All too soon it was time to say goodbye and head back home, since all our co-ops started the next day.  I spent a good deal of my free time working on those pesky Latin practice worksheets.  I'm through chapter 10--only 14 more to go . . .  I also was able to finish the last of the books I recommended for AP biology--Inheritance, by Sharon Moalem.  It took me longer to get into it, compared to his first one, Survival of the Sickest, but I did enjoy it.  I think the genetic side of biology is so fascinating!  So it was a lovely weekend, not long enough, but all too soon it was back to real life.

Latin

Once again I'm teaching a Latin class this year, and we had our first meeting yesterday.  It went well, although that's probably because what we did was really basic review for most of them.  It's for the same kids I taught last year, plus 2 new kids.  Last year we made it almost all the way through unit 3 of  Henle 1, which was enough to have the kids take the Intro to Latin exam.  None of these kids had the foundation that Nathan, Luke, Isaac, and Caleb had when we did this class before, so they wouldn't have done as well on the Latin 1 exam had we tried that.

So then a new family was interested in a Latin 1 course this year, and the younger brother of one of the boys was as well, so I decided to teach Latin this year too.  The only problem was what book to use, since we had already done the beginning part of Henle 1 with the other kids, and the new kids really needed to start at the beginning too.  I looked around and found Latin Alive 1.  It looked a lot more "fun" than Henle, and it incorporates a lot of history and cultural details, so in that it lines up better with the NLE.  The scope and sequence also lines up much better with the Level 1 exam.

 Henle has a terrible sequence--he introduces all 5 declensions before ever starting with verbs.  He gives a very few verbs just as vocab words, not teaching how to conjugate, so he can make sentences to translate.  Because he apparently loved Caesar's Gallic Wars, the vocab really comes from that, so the verbs are ones like "they slaughtered" and "they prayed".  This means you can translate uplifting sentences like, "The mothers prayed while the soldiers slaughtered the chiefs and leading men of the tribes."  Now I don't actually mind the focus on war--the sentences are funny in a ghoulish sort of way, and it keeps boys entertained for sure.  And a lot of the vocab is introduced through all the lower levels of the Memoria Press Latin materials, like Prima Latina and Latina Christiana, so it feels very familiar to me.  But that kind of vocab is not used on the NLE for sure!

The thing I really do love about Henle is that he has loads of practice exercises.  Loads and loads.  Too many, probably.  We did some in class, and there were still plenty more to assign as homework. If you work diligently through Henle, you should be able to do well on NLEs simply because you so thoroughly know the grammar, and you can guess the answer to the questions even if you don't know the vocab because you recognize the endings. And because I'm not totally confidant about everything, having all these exercises with answers was very helpful to make sure I was on the right track.

Which brings me back to Latin Alive.  This curriculum does NOT have too many exercises.  It doesn't even have enough exercises, in my opinion!   Each chapter has maybe 6 exercises, of which the first one is always to go through the vocab words for the lesson and write out the syllables and accents for them.  I could not care any less about that, since the whole reason I love Latin so much is that there are no Romans walking around, seeking conversation and correcting pronunciation.  Also, I generally fall back to ecclesiastical pronunciation, since that's what MP uses, while Latin Alive is definitely classical.  And finally, I don't think any of these students are going to study Latin 4 or so more years, so be able to get to Latin poetry, and that's where the syllable marks come in.  So that leaves 5 exercises or so, with maybe 7 sentences or whatever in each exercise.  It's just not enough practice.  So I'm making up extra review sheets with other sentences and practice exercises, which is taking up a ton of time.  I got through the first 8 lessons pretty quickly, but then it got to areas I'm just not as confidant in, plus with new vocab to master. Gah!  Why do I do this to myself?!  Juggling this and AP biology, plus just the general teaching of all the little kids, is going to be a challenge this year.  I'm staving off Alzheimers--that's what I keep telling myself.  Although if I drive myself insane, it's hard to say that is any better!