Heirs of the Magi News Flash!

***Heirs of the Magi News Flash!*** Winter has, for the most part, been mild so far - or awesome for the month that Cassie and Michael spent in summertime-Australia! They are home now and will be working from home for most of the time until Easter. The hometown work will include getting ready for their next trip, but there will be a lot of fun to get in on and share with their favorite people - including their March Break trip to Florida adventure. All of your favorite Magi Masters will continue to work and play while their future plans unfold; so... ...Visit Witch Falls often to keep up with all of their latest stories; and Happy Reading!

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Cassie's Journal - November 18, 2013



There’s always a lot going on that I never get around to writing about in my journal; but there were two things that I haven’t discussed that hit my radar in a bigger way today that are going to get mentioned now.

The first, thanks to nearly every kid except me at school, is the new video game systems.  The Playstation 4 is out; the XBox One will be out soon; and the race is on to see which lucky kids and teens will get one from Santa this year.  The guys are also debating which system is better; and they’re happily talking about the new games that will be available along with the systems.

Yes, I’ve mentioned that the new systems were coming, but while the talk around school was big news today; there was something that Mom was able to do behind the scenes that’ll be a big deal for some of my classmates and friends.  She stopped in to have a little chat with Jesse Warren at the Fix-it Shop; and he was more than thrilled to accept her offer to get him five dozen of each system from one of her clients – especially since he wasn’t expecting to get any from his usual suppliers.  I’m sure that would sound like a tiny number of systems in nearly any city, but with two or three kids to most families here, that’ll put a new system in nearly every house; and Jesse will be the most popular parent and store owner in town this Christmas!

If that little story is news to you; it’s because Mom made sure that her name wouldn’t be mentioned – and Jesse doesn’t know that those Playstations and Xboxes came to him through one of our family businesses.  Please continue to keep that little secret for us.

The other story was family-related.  I found out tonight that Aunt Grace is looking for a new car at Landry’s.  She and Uncle Mark were away this weekend, and I should have mentioned that before now if only to recognize that they’d gone to Granite Park for Kaitlyn’s sixth birthday party on Saturday.  Happy belated birthday, Kaitlyn – though Mom, Dad, Ethan, Ehlana, and I did send gifts along with Aunt Grace and Uncle Mark; so we didn’t actually forget her big day.  Moving on to the new car search news, they didn’t have a major breakdown or anything with Aunt Grace’s car, but she was annoyed with it for a number of irritating reasons; and has decided that they won’t be taking it on any multi-hour drives ever again.  While she and Uncle Mark weren’t planning on having two cars anytime soon, they’re apparently also going to keep her ‘old’ one for him to drive at least for this winter; and use for things like emergency calls.

I wouldn’t dream of asking Aunt Grace whether that decision might have something to do with the thought of having a brand new car messed up by transporting injured patients in it, but since she’s even more squeamish about things like blood than Aunt Leanne is; I can take a good guess at what her answer would be.

Now that I have those prior omissions corrected, and the new news reported; let’s get started on the normal daily update.

Mom, Ethan, Ehlana, and I were up early to have a visit with Dad while he had breakfast; we saw him on his way to Crystal Springs; and then we had a nap together in Mom’s bed before needing to get up again and started on our usual weekday morning routine.  Michael came over for Tai Chi; went home to have breakfast with his parents and Rebecca; and then met up with Rowen and me for the chilly walk to school.  We really only felt the cold more this morning because of how far the temperature had dropped from the warm and beautiful yesterday afternoon, and while it did warm up a bit from those early morning lows; we were definitely back into late fall weather again today.

We started the morning with eight school days left until the Thanksgiving break; and since it will mostly be fun and games next week; this is a major testing week that is only slightly offset by the ongoing Thanksgiving themed lessons and activities.  With twelve classes, that means two or three tests a day, and since this is a Day Two schedule Friday week; we wrote three tests today – Art, Social Studies, and History.  The other three Day One schedule tests will be on Wednesday; and we’ll take two tests a day on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

That’s why Rowen and I played football at lunchtime with Michael and Tim.  They didn’t have enough guys available to play because some of the regulars were busy trying to cram for the History test – or other tests that kids in other grades were writing today.  So much for being done with playing football this year now that it’s colder; but it’s pretty much impossible for me to turn Michael down in situations like that; and Rowen and I always manage to have fun – even if we’d rather be doing something else.

Tim would have rather been doing anything else other than studying after school, but with Music and Geography tests to take tomorrow; he grudgingly conceded his personal need to spend extra time getting ready for both.  Mom’s going to be in Crystal Springs tomorrow night, and I’ll be at Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam’s; so Michael and I did family night at his house tonight – and had our study session there too.  We started with music, practiced for our playing tests, and then studied for the theory test too before moving on to Geography.  Neither subject is at the top of Tim’s best classes list, so he and Rowen ended up getting dinner invitations too; and we studied right up until dinner was ready, and for another hour after we finished eating and taking care of the kitchen clean-up.

While Michael, Rowen, and I didn’t need to work nearly that long, we had fun trying to drag Tim along into academic achievement; and he may even manage to impress our teachers tomorrow – if everything he learned tonight doesn’t dribble out of his head while he sleeps the way he joked to us that it might.  There are always comments going around about Michael, Rowen, and me, and Michael gets razzed by the guys about being one of the class brainiacs; but Tim is really very smart too – he just hasn’t put much effort into his studies before we all started doing homework together this year.  His parents will certainly be pleasantly shocked if he starts coming home with a lot of A’s on his report cards from now on.

Rowen and Tim headed out at a bit after eight o’clock, and since that was mostly because they thought that Michael and I might like some alone time; we were okay with saying goodnight to them and taking advantage of the opportunity.  That little blast of fun was even worth getting teased about by Miranda when we joined Michael’s parents in the living room for our usual visit and chat before I headed home.  Tonight, she wanted to know why the music part of our guitar lesson only took less than fifteen minutes; while ‘practicing the rests’ lasted three-quarters of an hour.  I thought the use of our alone time was perfectly balanced; but then my perception of that might be different than Miranda’s.

I don’t mention this enough, but I really love just getting to sit and talk with Jacob and Miranda.  They get underestimated all the time because all some people can see is a cook and server – or a pair of small business owners.  They’re two of the smartest people I know; and not just because they’re content to work in a business they love while staying in their home town with the family and friends they love the most.  Miranda is a talented businesswoman, but her insights into people and society in general are deep and fascinating.  Jacob is quiet and easy-going; and he could also be an amazing philosopher with his own unique perceptions of the world around him.  I guess that’s probably true for many artists; and his culinary skills are art; but his ideas and convictions are solidly rooted in simple, practical truths and honest, relatively un-biased evaluation of the world as he sees it.

This might be the point where you would expect me to write something about getting people like our parents in politics; but Jacob would just suggest that would be a waste of time, and that the majority of people in the world are better off expending their efforts on minimizing the impact that politicians and other social elites have on them and forget about trying to fight the system from within.  I really get that because we basically end up doing that nearly every day with our family business.

I won’t bore you with a diatribe on the current events idiocies with governments around the world; but anyone reading this in the future will know that Jacob’s advice is going to be worth following until we start coming up with real solutions to all of the global problems.

Moving on, I went home in time to do the bedtime story and phone chat with Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana; Mom did a long Magi lesson with me after we finished tucking the twins in for the night; and then I came up to my room to get started on my usual bedtime studies and work.  I wrapped up the studies by shortly before two, but then I needed to deal with some family business email work that kept me going until after two-thirty before I was able to finish up my nightly computer checks.  We’re closing on three very fast now, and there isn’t anything else to add to my journal for tonight; so I’m going to put my computer to sleep and crash for a few hours – right...about...now.

Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!