I wasn’t the only one thinking about last night when Michael
and I shared our good morning hug and kiss before Tai Chi this morning; and I’m
just as sure that our smiles were affected by those thoughts and memories
too. It’s a good thing that I had those
memories too because there wasn’t any alone time for Michael and me today. We spent lots of time together today, but had
lots of people around us too except for a few minutes here and there while we
were working at the Inn during the buffets.
We exercised with Ethan and Ehlana while Mom and Dad did
their own workout; and then Michael went home for breakfast while I stayed to
help Mom and Dad with making breakfast and getting Ehlana ready for
church. The Seagers and Ayres had the
spotlight at church today; and Eli was the little star. I didn’t even try to get a turn holding him
today, but that won’t be a problem in the future – my brother and sister are
best friends with Eli’s big sister; so we’ll be able to come up with lots of
excuses to spend time with them.
That’s the only news from church except that a
‘bring-what-you-have’ barbeque lunch was set up for family and friends at our
house; so after walking with Michael to the Inn
I needed to hurry home to get changed and help out with the work. We were busy for about an hour before the
tables were set up and the food was ready; and then it was mostly play time
while we ate through until I went to help out at the Inn. Rowen and I supervised the kids while we had
a lunch picnic on the dock or sitting along the riverbank; and then we were
sent over to the park to play with them while the adults took care of a quick
and easy clean-up.
Mom and Dad were among the adults that came over to the park
to play once they were done the work; and the park was a popular place to be
this afternoon. Dad was one of the guys
drafted for the ‘old guys’ football team when a pick-up game was put together;
and Patrick and Scott got to join Tim and some of the older boys to play
against the men's team. Ethan got to
have quite a few football moments, and he ‘played’ for both teams – first with
Dad and Uncle Adam; and later with Michael when he joined the game during his
afternoon break from the Inn.
Michael and I got to have some play time during his break
too, though with Ethan, Ehlana, Rowen, Tim, and a bunch of other kids and
parents hanging around the playground with us; it wasn’t anything like our play
time last night. That’s probably a good
thing, since while I’m not shy; I don’t plan on making any public displays of
nudity ever.
Call me old-fashioned, but it’s just the way I am.
We had fun at the Inn too,
though I spent more time working with Rebecca tonight while Michael spent most
of the time helping out on the cleaning crew because they were a bit
short-handed tonight. That was also why
we stopped to eat shortly after the second buffet started so that he could be
back and helping out again once the dirty dishes started rolling in after the
diners had finished the first round of trips to the buffet tables. I stayed until Miranda sent Michael and Rebecca
home for the night; though Michael grabbed his computer bag from his house and
came home with me so we could blast through the homework we hadn’t gotten done
yet this weekend. We did that in the
lounge, but Ethan and Ehlana came upstairs with us so we could all have a
telepathic chat while we worked. They
had fun helping us with our homework too, though it didn’t really take long to
get our work finished; thanks to a little Magi-powered assistance.
Michael headed home when Mom was ready to put Ethan and
Ehlana into the tub after a park play day, so we did our goodnight hug and
kisses on my front porch – cutting them short when Miranda started whistling at
us as she and Jacob turned the corner onto Riverview on their way home from
closing the Inn. That gave us an excuse
for one last goodnight kiss just because Miranda would find it funny, and she
did laugh a few times between then and when she put an arm around Michael and
they all waved goodnight to me before going inside for the night.
I helped Mom with the rest of bath time after that, and Dad
joined us for the snack and story time before we tucked Ethan and Ehlana in for
the night. Mom did a short Magi lesson
with me after that, and then we all went to bed. That let me get a comparatively early start
on my nightly computing and studies; though I multi-tasked the first part of
that with some quality Jacuzzi time too after my own park play time and the
work at the Inn. As expected, I had
extra email too, and while it was fun hearing about the latest college action;
there really isn’t anything new to report from Violet, Stephanie, Christina, or
Isabelle this week. They’re all pretty
much settled into routines now; having fun; and doing pretty well in all of
their courses.
My language studies are coming along slowly with the batch
of dialects I’m learning right now, but I sped through my archive homework; and
only had a bit of family business work that needed to be done by Monday. Since I was running ahead of schedule, I did
a full check of Hathorne Industries too.
There’s still no sign of anything we need to be immediately worried
about, but they’re still doing a lot of really bad things around the world that
I wish we could do more about to stop them.
Gwyneth’s public displays of brilliance continue to get attention; and
she’s continuing to follow a learning track that’s similar to those of other
child prodigies. The only thing we can’t
find out through the Hathorne systems is how her Magi training and development
is coming along. Gawain will be able to
teach her some things; but she’ll be at an even bigger disadvantage than Mom
was when it comes to learning the abilities of a Magi Master.
Of course, that might be a good thing; but could also be
more dangerous if she learns to do things without having control over her
talents. There aren’t any archive
records about that kind of thing with Dark Magi, but there are cases of
untrained Magi of the Light who weren’t able to be trained for one reason or
another; and most of those cases involved some very bad experiences. I don’t want to imagine what could happen
with an out-of-control Dark Magi Master.
That isn’t a great tone to end this update on; so let’s do a
quick check on the week ahead.
The main action will be on the weekend with Valerie’s first
birthday party in Crystal
Springs on Saturday and
Michael’s thirteenth birthday here on Sunday.
We haven’t made any plans for after school on Michael’s days off
tomorrow and Tuesday, but he and I should shoot for some more alone time before
we get back into the work part of our week.
Our football team is playing away games for the next three weeks, and
while Rowen and I don’t plan on going to any of those games; Tim wants to go to
all of them; and may drag Michael along with him. That third game is on the Fall Festival
weekend, so Tim may change his mind about that; and if I can actually swing
some more alone time for Michael and me I have a strong feeling that he’ll pick
that time with me over football with Tim.
If not, I’ll just take my clothes off again and convince him
– Michael – that he’s making the wrong decision. ;^)
That’s a much more entertaining way to wrap this up, so...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
