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

Ehlana and Ethan:

It’s the last day of July; and we’re really happy that we’ll have Cassie, Michael, and May home for the start of April – if not for more than a couple of weeks.  They’re not home yet – Cassie’s just getting finished with her last exam of the day, but we’re doing this update early because we expect to be busy for the rest of the day.

The weather is better today, still nice; but cooler than most days so far this summer.  That has made the play time today more fun – and even the chores we did this morning so that we won’t have as much to do tomorrow.  We had a picnic lunch at the park today too; we’ve been swimming a couple of times too; and now we’re getting ready to set up tents for a camping night.  Mom and Dad are going to host a barbeque dinner; we’ll play and have a campfire after that; and then we’ll have the camping fun with some cousins and friends – though we don’t have that entirely worked out yet; so that’ll be news for the next report.

Cassie, Michael, and May could get back in time for the end of the campfire, but that’ll depend on the traffic; so we’ll let you know how that goes too.

Let’s skip the rest of the news of the day for one of our weekend updates, since we really need to get at setting up our camp before dinnertime, and you’re reading this sometime in our near or distant future anyway; so it really doesn’t matter if we delay some of the local or world news for a day or two now! ;^)

Stay tuned – we’re hoping for a fun weekend with our favorite collegians, our families, and friends!

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 - July 30, 2020

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 15^th Anniversary, Mr. and Mrs. Seager!

Congratulations, Lily and Reid Spencer – you’re going to have your first baby!

Those are the top two news stories of the day; and we only have the second news flash because Uncle Adam passed that to Mom so that she could let Cassie and Michael know about their high school friends’ happy news.

We also don’t have much to write about yet today because this report is early; and the best parts of our day are still ahead of us.  Look for the rest of the story for today with the next update, but we have an anniversary dinner party to get ready for – along with some chores before we have Naomi and Aiden here for a sleepover tonight.  We’re giving Naomi’s parents a kid-free night – though Eli with be with Zack instead of here because we didn’t want to camp in the rain tonight.  Aiden’s parents will be kid-free too, from what we’ve heard; but Hailey’s sleepover with Leah was something they set up on their own.

As for today-so-far; the rain kept us indoors most of the time; we played at the lab for most of the time; and went for a bike ride of the trails during a break in the weather that was pretty nice – even if everything was a bit on the damp side.  That isn’t a problem when swimming in the river; and that was our last activity before coming inside to get those chores done and dress up a bit for that dinner.  That’s going to be at the Inn, but we’ll write all about that tomorrow night too; wrap this up now; and get back to having fun for the rest of the 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 - July 29, 2020

Ehlana and Ethan:

Rain day!

We played at the lab or archives for most of the day; had dinner with Mom and Dad after that; and then our evening has been a near-repeat of last night.  Naomi and Aiden visited with us at the lab for a couple of those hours we spent there because they were bored with the indoors-time, but had other plans for the rest of the day with their own families; and that’s pretty much all of our news from home today.  Cassie’s wrapping up day three of her exams and studying tonight; and we can hardly wait for her to get home again on Friday – along with Michael and May too.

Finally, for this update, the coronavirus news around the world continues to be more bad than good as we’ve topped seventeen-million cases worldwide today; with four-and-a-half million of those cases here in our country.  We understand why so many people are frustrated and angry, but viruses don’t care about our feelings; and we collectively need to stop making the same mistakes that are making things worse when those actions lead to new outbreaks – like the problems we’ve seen in Spain over the past couple of weeks.  Those new clusters keep happening despite already having examples to learn from – especially here in our country; so we’re worried that the pandemic will continue to get worse for far-longer than anyone is prepared to accept.

That wasn’t a rant that we planned for tonight, so let’s wrap this up; and we’ll go and get some sleep.

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 - July 28, 2020

Ehlana and Ethan:

We have no major – or even any minor – news for today.  Lab or archives play time kept us busy all morning; we took a picnic lunch with us and had a play afternoon with Naomi, Aiden, and some of our friends; and that fun included biking the trails; swimming; hanging out at the park; and some back yard games.  Our friends went home by dinnertime; we had that meal with Mom and Dad; and then we had another work-study evening that included a Magi lesson and music practice for us to go along with some ‘real’ studying.  Bath or Jacuzzi time followed the music fun; and now we’re ready to get some sleep.

Cassie has successfully survived her second day of final exams; has three more days to go; and then will be home for a visit.  Barring any changes in the fall semester plans for their college; in-person classes will resume; though their start time will be a week later than normal; and then they’ll have a bit less time for their Christmas break.  We really hope that won’t change now, since May has her apartment already; and that would be a problem for a lot of the returning students, but there are risks too; so we hope that all of their fellow students will be safe and stay healthy.

Okay, that’s all for tonight.  It’s a bit quieter than we expected for the final week of July, but we’re happy and having fun; so we’ll be grateful – and enjoy the extra sleep while we can too! ;^)

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 - July 27, 2020

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 1^st Anniversary, Cassie and Michael!

They celebrated their special day with a full slate of final exams for Cassie; and work on May’s off-campus apartment for Michael.  For the latter; May was able to get her apartment a few days early, and while her roommates won’t arrive until mid-August; she’s taking care of getting it furnished for everyone – with Michael’s and Cassie’s help.  We’re sure that Cassie and Michael have had some fun today too, but other than lunch and dinner out; any other details are not being offered to the kids in the family!

That’s really all of the news we have for today.  Here at home, the rain and storms ended by mid-morning, but we spent the entire morning at the lab; picked up a picnic lunch; and then spent the afternoon biking and playing with our best friends.  We’ve followed that up with a quiet study or work evening here at home – just the two of us with Mom and Dad; and now we’re ready to crash again and catch up on our sleep.  We’ll get to that now; and save up our need for commentary or rants about world or national events for another time. ;^)

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!