A Mental Pause to Reflect . . .

There have been many goings-on that have created a strain on my brain in the past few weeks. They have ended; thus, I'm taking a mental breather to reflect and assess.

1. I finished reading The Golden Compass and now have its sequel, The Subtle Knife (both by Philip Pullman), to start (thank you, Michael). I also started reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. They're my choices for pleasure reading at the moment, but I haven't had much time for that the past few days. More on that next.
2. I've been reading for my Ph.D. program courses at UND. I've been enjoying such works as Breaking Ranks II: Strategies for Leading High School Reform by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, The New Principal's Fieldbook: Strategies for Success by Pam Robbins and Harvey Alvy, and Advanced and Multivariate Statistical Methods by Craig Mertler and Rachel Vannatta. Plus a bunch of 40(+)-page articles for both my principalship and Statistics II courses. They're interesting enough to me, but it's certainly a different kind of reading from a Philip Pullman novel!
3. I read and memorized and reviewed A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen--and then performed it. The play was this weekend, and it went well. I played the meanie, Nils Krogstad, and my three daughters played the Helmers' children. They did a great job, too, and looked very cute in their period Norwegian garb. My sister-in-law Cassie came from Fargo to see the play. It's always good to see her.
4. I participated in a two-day data retreat with about 20 colleagues: elementary teachers and principals, middle school teachers and principals, high school teacher and principal, and district administration. We looked at test score data for our school district and used it to plan for future school improvement.

Coming up:

1. My youngest daughter's birthday party tomorrow (well, this morning; it's the wee hours of the morning as I'm typing this). Her birthday was actually yesterday (well, two days ago, really) on Fathers Day, but the get-together with her friends will be tomorrow (well . . . oh, you get what I mean!). It'll be in our back yard. Running through the sprinkler, dragging grass into the kiddie pool, eating a turtle cake that my wife made out of cake and ice cream, opening presents. She's four now and definitely not a baby, no matter how much I wish she still were. *nostalgic sigh*
2. My weekend "incarceration" in PRACS. I normally use that time to catch up on reading for school, but I'm kind of done with that for now. So maybe I'll get to do some pleasure reading!
3. The Aune family reunion in a week-and-a-half. I'll get there (to my childhood farm/home outside McGregor, ND) a few days before my wife and kids in order to pack up some things to take back to East Grand Forks (MN)--although where in the world I'll store those boxes of things here I have no idea! Aargh!! The Saturday of the reunion, my wife and I expect to be entertaining little kids at my dad's house while the other adults are playing softball in town or bingo at my uncle's. That could be either very fun or very trying. Or both. Pray for us.
4. The Morey family reunion (on my wife's side) at Upper Eau Claire Lake in Wisconsin in August. Lake life for a weekend, during which we get to pretend we're carefree lake-goers. Aah!
5. My summer-long internship with an excellent administrator in our district. It means I'll be at the school all summer, but he will be great to work with.
6. Two workshops/seminars to attend in August. The Teaching American History workshop (a five-day event) requires a TON of reading beforehand of historical documents--primary sources (or facsimiles thereof) related to the overall topic.

The girls have been experimenting with various sleeping arrangements the past several nights. For three nights, they took turns sleeping on one another's floors. One night (the night before Fathers Day/Hillary's birthday), they camped out on the floor in Susan and my bedroom. They had the sleeping bags out for that, so they kept them out and are now doing the same, except in Abigail's room (for the past two nights). They're all so dang cute and innocent-looking when they're asleep.

Susan and they surprised me with a picnic on Sunday. I wasn't home much at all on Fathers Day because I had one class (yes, on a Sunday) from 9:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. and another from 3:00 P.M . to 10:00 P.M. They started the day by fixing a big breakfast and giving me lovely presents. Then, the bevy of beauties showed up on campus at 2:00 P.M. with a blanket and a cooler of food, so we had a picnic and visited, and Hillary and I got to enjoy some of our combined birthday/Fathers Day cake. I got to talk to my sister Sandy on the phone that night, which is a rare treat. Despite having to be in class all day, it was a fine day.

(Shh! Don't tell Hillary, but we're going to take her [and the other girls] to see the animated movie Madagascar sometime this week, too--probably Sunday. It will be a belated birthday treat for her and Fathers Day treat for the family.)

(Oh, and I'll be going to see Batman Begins with my friend Curt one night this week, too.)