Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - March 31, 2020

Ehlana and Ethan:

The last day of March didn’t exactly go out like a lamb when you include the ongoing, global crises that we’re living through right now, but the weather was good today; and that’s making it tough for some of our friends and neighbors to stick with the social isolation even when they’re outdoors but still staying away from their favorite people as much as possible.

Our day has been a near-repeat of yesterday except that we fit in an after-lunch bike ride around town on the way to the lab; and then Naomi and Aiden stayed and played in the archives with Ethan while I had fun working in the level-four lab with Uncle Adam and Dillon.  The studying and online lessons were at Naomi’s house again; we took a picnic lunch with us for the bike ride; and pizza was ordered in to the lab for dinner; since we stayed late again – though Naomi and Aiden went home after staying for the food fun break.  Mom and Dad joined us for dinner too – and brought it with them; Mom stayed so that we could kick up the work in the lab a bit with bonus Magi-powered help; and Dad did his homework in the archives while hanging out with Ethan.

That left Cassie, Michael, and May at home to do their studying after another day of online lectures, but they went with the pizzeria pizza dinner too; and then they had Rebecca and Lucas stay for the studying; since they’re dealing with online classes too.  They were gone by the time we got home, since Lucas is helping out around the farm every day too and needs to be in bed early to keep up with everything; so we just finished a bedtime chat and snack time in the sunroom; and now we’re ready to get some sleep.  In ‘real’ terms, our day has been about twenty-two hours long since our wake-up call for Tai Chi by the river, but thanks to the time phasing; we’ll still get a full night of sleep too.

With the home schooling, we don’t expect any major April Fool’s Day issues tomorrow, but that isn’t a sure thing; since Zack and Eli do have a lot of time on their hands right now to plan their pranks and practical jokes.  We’ll let you know how that goes with the next report, but tomorrow will likely still be a near-repeat of today with or without bonus entertainment; so we really should move on to the napping part of our day.

This is Ehlana and Ethan Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - March 30, 2020

Happy 25^th Birthday, Jake Stone!

Ehlana and Ethan:

This has been a busy, eventful day, but it is late too; so we’ll try to keep this as short as we can.

Tai Chi was the quiet start to our day; we followed that up with a ‘normal’ work day breakfast; and then it was time to get to work or studying for all of us.  As planned, we headed for Naomi’s house for our morning online lessons and studying; Aiden met us there too; and we kept busy until lunchtime while Cassie, Michael, and May used the office for their video lectures and to work on their assignments.  Lunch was at Naomi’s house too, but then we headed for the lab while our best friends spent the afternoon with their own families instead of coming along.  That choice was entirely because Uncle Adam and Dillon got the coronavirus samples delivered to the lab this morning; and access to the lab is even more-highly restricted than usual.

Don’t take this next part the wrong way, but getting to begin research on this virus is really exciting for one of us, and while we understand how serious the pandemic is for everyone affected by it around the world; it is still an amazing challenge for us too.  That’s why we ended up spending most of the rest of the day at the lab – including having dinner and working until an hour or so ago.  No, we haven’t found a cure or vaccine in a day – we’re just getting started, but we are learning a lot very quickly; and the work is really awesome!

Ethan spent some time in the lab with us, but he’s also gotten to work on reading everything he can track down about the coronavirus and passing along that data to the rest of us so that we get the information without needing to read through the useless information too.  There is helpful information in the ancient archives too, but that’s also different; since Magi from millennia ago didn’t have the science we have now to explain medical crises of any kind.  We do get ideas for our research from the archives, though; so that work is just as important as the research we’re doing in our labs.  That, by the way, included some play time in our level-four lab, and while May would have fun with joking about that if she knew we actually work in there now and then; our enthusiasm for doing that just proves that we’ve inherited the same genes as Cassie when it comes to finding dangerous situations thrilling and energizing. ;^)

Okay, we could go on about our day for quite a while, but we’re tired; plan on repeating our studying and work again tomorrow; and need to get some sleep – especially when we actually have hours more time into our day thanks to some time phasing this evening.  Before we wrap this up, though, we should add that Jake’s birthday celebration was either quiet or not kid-rated, and while we sent group gifts; not even Cassie and Michael spent much time with Jake and Stephanie today while they were all busy.  There was also a family business meeting tonight, but with only a few Magi invited due to the social distancing thing, and we don’t have the highlights yet because May was with us for the bedtime snack and chat we just finished before coming up to bed.  We’ll have more on that in the next update if there’s anything important to write about – though they likely just continued to work on plans to use the businesses and charities to help out wherever we can.

That’s it for tonight.  We fell more-involved now that we’re doing the coronavirus research at the lab, but don’t expect to read ahead whenever you’re doing this in our future to find a quick solution to the problem.  Even junior Magi Masters have limitations, and even if we could come up with a cure this week – which is seriously-unlikely; helping everyone in the world could still take years by the time we could treat billions of people.  It is way too-early to even think about that sort of thing, but we will do our best; and hope that we can make a difference.

This is Ehlana and Ethan Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - March 29, 2020

Ehlana and Ethan:

The top story for us today is that we each spent about half of the day away from home – with Naomi picking Ethan to spend the day with her – and her family – while I was with Aiden, his parents, and sister.  We still got teased about that, but at a distance when that did happen; and we had fun with those jokes.  We all had fun today with everything we did; though it was a bit weird to be apart too – especially when we were also nearby and outside at the Drapers’ or Seagers’ homes; on the trails; or at the park.

Let’s back up and cover the rest of the story for today in order.

Tai Chi was chillier but still by the river.  It was cooler during the rest of the day too, but still into the high-sixties this afternoon; which is why we were outdoors as much as possible.  Sure, everyone kept their distance from friends and neighbors, but that could be entertaining too.  That was true for our morning workout; we had breakfast in the sunroom; and then Mom and Dad led a little ‘small group’ meeting instead of the church service we couldn’t do today.  We headed for Naomi’s or Aiden’s homes by late morning; so we were with them for lunch and dinner along with the family play time.  There really isn’t anything newsworthy to add about our afternoon adventures, but we each loved getting to spend the time with our best friends and their families.

We came home after dinner; took Silkie for a bedtime walk; and then we had a long visit with Mom, Dad, and our favorite teens before we started taking turns with Jacuzzi or bath time.  Cassie, Michael, and May have also been getting ready for resuming their online lectures tomorrow, but we’re ready to head for bed now; so that’s all we have for tonight.  There aren’t any new plans for our town related to the coronavirus either; so week two of our semi-lockdown will just continue as the temporary new-normal.

The spread of the virus continues to grow at different rates around the country – just as is happening around the world, but the timing of when that’ll peak in our area isn’t something we can predict with any accuracy.  It does seem likely that the rest of our school year will be handled with the home schooling, though; so we are ready for that if needed; and will be happy for the surprise if that changes and we can get back to life as normal sooner instead of later.

We’ll keep you posted on how everything goes for us, but that’s all for now; so we’re out of here and moving on to the nap time part of our day.

This is Ehlana and Ethan Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - March 28, 2020

Ehlana and Ethan:

The changes in our lives continue to evolve – and that’s the story of the day for our little town.  After the rain last night, things were a bit damp outdoors this morning; and that included our shoes after the Tai Chi by the river start to our day.  That was still fun with nine of us – and weird as we had more neighbor-spectators; mostly because they also kept their distance and morning greetings were exchanged from afar.  A nice spring day was an outdoor chores opportunity too, but that had strange moments as well while doing our work around home without any real interaction with friends and family visitors.

Keeping that social distancing is still new for us, but we are doing it – each small group hanging out together while staying apart from every other group.  That was especially-obvious today when we were doing those yard chores and didn’t even have any hugging moments with our aunts, uncles, and cousins.  The doctors and nurse in the family need to lead by example, though; so we all understand.

Then again; that might not be true for Naomi and Ethan if they were included in those bans on hugs and kisses! ;^)

We are not, by the way, exceptions to the social distancing limits.  Most teens and kids here are allowed to have close contact with best friends or boyfriends and girlfriends – at least as long as there aren’t any coronavirus cases in our community.  That may change eventually; and the odds are high that we will begin to have cases here sooner instead of later.  Even with everything we’re doing, we’re not completely-isolated from the rest of the world; so we will eventually have the virus show up here.  We’re also sure that the Magi healers in our family can handle the challenge when it arrives.

This is getting off-track, but that is something we’ve talked about today – how to deal with those cases.  Sure, we could just heal everyone as soon as we know they’re infected, but that probably won’t be what we’ll do unless needed for serious cases.  That’s because Mom and Cassie think that if we do full healings; our patients won’t gain immunity to the coronavirus at all and could just get it again.  We don’t actually know whether virus survivors get that immunity or for how long it lasts either; so we’ll find out those answers first and then handle our treatments from there.  We can also report that some samples are on the way to our lab thanks to some friends of our favorite doctors; so at least one of us will get to work on a new project soon too.  That news might scare some of our neighbors, but we do have better labs than anyone – especially when you add in the Magi-powered protections; so there is no need for concern.

Instead of going on about that; let’s get back to the news of the day.

We worked in the house and out in the yard until one o’clock; had lunch out on the patio; and then we met up with Naomi and Aiden again for what feels like our daily bike rides.  They, by the way, headed for home or the bakery after breakfast; were busy with their families doing their own work or chores; and they’re home with their families tonight too.  The biking was fun, and the trails had mostly dried out by then; so it was only different from normal because we kept away from every other group on the trails or at the park while having our fun.  Sure, we could still talk to our friends from a distance and get the latest news from them, but that isn’t the same as hanging out in big groups and the interactions with everyone.  There also aren’t any football games at the park or school; and no basketball, soccer, or even baseball.

We still have a month and change to go, but life this summer really will be odd if we don’t have our little baseball league this year!

After biking and hanging out for a few hours, it was time to say goodbye to our best friends; we all headed back to our own homes; and it has been a quiet night around here since then.  We had a barbeque dinner in the sunroom; went for an after-dinner walk with Silkie; and then it was movie time in the living room.  Add in some bath or Jacuzzi time-sharing and bedtime chats; and that’s everything for today.  We didn’t add in anything from last night, but the last movie was a good action flick; we ended up watching it to the end; and then there were two co-ed sofa sleepovers because we were comfortable and were happy to keep the cuddling going while talking ourselves to sleep.

Finally, tomorrow is going to be very different without church for the first time in our lives – at least when it comes to that when we’re actually at home.  There will be a live online service instead, but there won’t be live music; so that’ll be more of a message or sermon from the Pastor; and there won’t be any Sunday school lessons for the kids and teens.  We might not even watch that live; since it will be available anytime; and won’t really be aimed at kids anyway.  There also won’t be buffets at the Inn; only a couple of stores will be open; and we don’t have any plans either; so it could be a very quiet day.

We can let you know how that goes with the next report, but that’s all we have for today, and it’s time to get some sleep even if we don’t need to get up early for church or school or work; so we’ll wrap this up and get to that napping part of our day.

This is Ehlana and Ethan Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!