5:03 p.m.

Wow. I haven’t done a 15/Five in a long time…I miss these short missives, but I’ve not written them simply b/c I haven’t been on the computer at these times on a routine basis…Perhaps I should change the name to 15 On the Hour…

What’s new?

~~Started The Phoenix Society at school today. It’s a club exclusively designed for Harry Potter readers who have read books 1-6 at least once. We’ll discuss our own theories of how book 7 will turn out as we re-read the books in order every 2-4 weeks after winter break concludes. The students are *extremely* excited, as am I. After finishing Half-Blood, I felt such a great need to pal up with any person who would discuss the books thus far…There’s a lot of 6-book readers out there, but there are too many that have not read all six books, and so it gets very frustrating having to be careful with what I do and do not share about the books…Hey, I understand. As of last week, I was in their place as well. I still can’t believe all that happened in the last 200 pages of HBP…

~~I talked with my sister Cindy today in Florida. She’s in the hospital for another day or two as they wait for her “numbers” to stabilize enough after this last round of nasty, nasty chemo. This ride on the other side of her surgery was supposed to be an easy one, and already she’s found herself teetering on the edge of life and death three times. She’s come to know the crash cart outside her room as “the happy cart” instead…Her spirit is of heroic proportions….

~~I’m looking forward to a great family weekend. With no papers to grade and the house looking clean, it should be a pretty relaxing time to sit back, drink our Guinness and Wassail, and look at all the frantic fools blowin’ their horns outside our house along the busy, busy roads….

~~I also get time this weekend to see if I can get images to load on my blog again. Flickr expired, for some reason (I didn’t know it was a trial thing), and I still cannot find a way to get my cool buttons on my sidebar. I’m telling you, I am not very bright when it comes to web stuff…

~~Oh! We had our first flurry of snow last night! It was just enough to kiss the green grass white, but it was a whirlwind of fun nonetheless. I had the good fortune of waiting outside my daughter’s gym when the snows came, and I was thrilled to see the delight in each child’s face as she came out the front door to find Mom or Dad waiting in the parking lot. Each one squealed with wander and then ran back inside screaming for her bestest friend (in the whole wide world) to come out and see the snow. of course, the natural question that followed was, Do you think we’ll have school tomorrow? Honestly…a flurry or two really sends this state into an emergency crisis. It’s embarrassing how the news media provide “team coverage” for such “winter weather events” whenever the temperature drops below freezing.

~~One final thing: we’ll be taking the Family VanWestervelt portrait this weekend for holiday greetings to one and all…if I am fortunate enough to be graced with the goodness and power to put a picture or two on my blog, I’ll share with all of you just how beautiful my three lovely children are!

5:19 p.m….Time to call this post a Wrap. 🙂