Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - February 28, 2022

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

We have ended February on a warmer, happy note as the warming continued with a high around sixty degrees this afternoon.  Our last school day of February was uneventful; the nice weather had us biking the trails and playing with our friends after school; and those adventures were the highlights of our day.  Dinner and a work evening with Mom and Dad kept us busy for the rest of the day through to another round of bath or Jacuzzi time; and we continued to do what we can to help out in Ukraine – to help the people that are stuck in the middle of that conflict.

The fighting in Ukraine continues to be the top story in the news around the world, and we aren’t going to get into another commentary on that again tonight, but we do want to mention that this crisis is just one of many serious problems in the world.  It might not seem like that if you only look at the news highlights of the day, and when you think about that; it is a normal trend – one that is usually creating fear and exploiting crises for profit or power regardless of which side of the issue people are on.  We aren’t bringing that up for a rant – just to add that we don’t stop the rest of our charity or business work – we’re adding more help where needed just as we do with as many problems whenever we are in a position to offer our support.  We always wish that we could do more, but that isn’t an option anytime soon; so we will, as always, do what we can; and accept our limitations.

For right now, our limitations are related to being tired after a long, busy day; so we’re going to wrap this up and move on to nap time – just ahead of the start of March.  While we move on to do that; we’ll hope that the new month will also be a chance for improvements in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world.  That seems a bit optimistic tonight, but there is always hope even in the darkest moments; and we’ll choose hope and love over fear and despair.

Maybe our world leaders will start doing the same.

Until next time, this little blast from your near or distant past is written for you with love from Ethan and Ehlana Proctor – twin junior Magi Masters of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - February 27, 2022

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

We’ve had a good day, but don’t have anything exciting to report.  Tai Chi was indoors; we had another pancake breakfast with some of the new syrup from the festival; and then the church service and Sunday school  time included a lot of love and peace that we all needed as we also pray and hope for the same for the people around the world that need both the most right now.  While it was cold this morning, it warmed up into the fifties this afternoon, so after a quiet lunch with Mom and Dad; we went out to bike and play with Naomi, Aiden, and some of our friends while Dad worked in the office – or possibly didn’t; since Mom and Dad were fairly-happy when we got home again for reasons we don’t need to mention here! ;^)

Instead of going to the buffet dinner at the Inn tonight, we stayed home and had an easy-meal; followed that up with a bit of work and a Magi lesson; and then it was bath or Jacuzzi time.  We’re now ready for bed, and want to get a bit of extra sleep tonight; so that’s all we have for today.

Until next time, this little blast from your near or distant past is written for you with love from Ethan and Ehlana Proctor – twin junior Magi Masters of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - February 26, 2022

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Having an awesome day and weekend so far feels a little odd tonight after more family business work related to the war in Ukraine.  That is somewhat hypocritical when we know of many equally-awful problems elsewhere in the world happening every day while our own experiences are usually happy and awesome.  We won’t go on about this, and point it out because it is how we feel while also understanding that those worldwide problems can’t be fixed by despair and worse – we’ll do that by spreading love, joy, and hope.  That effort begins in our personal lives and spreads from there; so we’ll continue to do our very best to always be happy and help to make that happen for everyone around us and beyond! ;^)

We had fun last night, but actually covered the news ahead of time with the last update, so we don’t really need to add much more.  Dinner and one of the movies with Mom and Dad was great; they were our audience for the music play time; and we won’t comment on what they opted to do for entertaining themselves for the rest of the night while we moved on to more movies, cuddle time, and the co-ed sofa sleepover.  There were two more movies, but none of us lasted through both of them – and yes, I fell asleep before the end of the first one.

Naomi and Ehlana – in that order – had fun with that this morning.  That added to the entertainment while we exercised indoors and had a snack breakfast to hold us over until we got to the festival in Maple Valley.  It was still cold this morning, but that feels appropriate for a winter festival; so we were okay with that.  It has also been sunny; and warmed up into the low-forties this afternoon – though that’s just the start for this next round of warmer weather.  Maple Valley’s Winterfest needed this nice weather as they try to recover from the pandemic years and some tough crop years for maple syrup.  We were glad to support the festival; and it was great to be able to attend again.  There were dozens of games to play; several shows going on at the church, school, and community center; and the breakfast and food booths were amazing too.  As always, we picked up cases of maple syrup and other maple treats; and played there until around two o’clock.

We should mention the gang that went to Maple Valley with us – and we had quite a group of cousins and friends.  All of our local aunts, uncles, and cousins went on the trip – though Uncle Adam and Uncle Mark took turns so that they could also be in town if needed for medical emergencies.  Naomi and Aiden were far from the only friends with us – our cousins each had at least one friend; many of their parents and siblings came too; and it felt a bit like the shopping trips to the city as we drove to Maple Valley as part of a long line of cars, trucks, and minivans.  We also met up with other friends and neighbors while at the festival; and it was awesome to see that much support from our town for our Maple Valley neighbors!

Since getting home, we’ve been on our own with Mom and Dad.  There were some chores to do after unloading the minivan and truck; we helped out with making dinner; and our evening included the family business work that we already mentioned while Dad had his own work to do.  Mom did a Magi lesson with us; and then sent us upstairs for bath or Jacuzzi time at nine o’clock.  We got cleaned up first; followed that up with a music practice; and now we’re just winding down toward nap time.  That’s pretty much all we have for this report because we really don’t want to get into any of the bad news stories from around the world after such an awesome, happy day – so we won’t do that and go get some sleep soon instead!

Until next time, this little blast from your near or distant past is written for you with love from Ethan and Ehlana Proctor – twin junior Magi Masters of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - February 25, 2022

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

We’ve had another cold day, but it is going to warm up this weekend; so we have some nicer weather to look forward to over the next week or so.  We also have a fun night with our best friends starting soon; so this is an early, quick update.  Our school day was pretty good even with the test and another round of project presentations; and now we’re looking forward to a quiet night with Mom, Dad, and our best friends.  There isn’t a family-and-friends’ dinner and movie night because of the trip to Maple Valley tomorrow; we’re going with an easy pasta dinner; and then we are going to watch movies in the lounge and have some music play time before getting around to the co-ed sofa sleepover part of our night.

That’s pretty much all we have, and need to finish getting ready for dinner and our evening plans now; so we’re out of here and back to the real world.

Until next time, this little blast from your near or distant past is written for you with love from Ethan and Ehlana Proctor – twin junior Magi Masters of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - February 24, 2022

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 9^th Birthday, Robyn Johnson!

Other than being in on the hometown family gift for Robyn, we didn’t have any involvement in her special day; and have heard that her fun has included a video chat with the Carringtons; a birthday party; and sleepover with a few of her best friends.  Compared to that, our day hasn’t been that exciting, but we have had fun; and have been very busy.

The cold weather continued today with a bit of snow mixed into the weather tonight.  Tai Chi was indoors; our school day included a test and a science project that required in-class presentations; and the gossip network was buzzing with dating news for the Winterfest in Maple Valley this weekend.

Ehlana and Naomi had more fun with that than Aiden and I did – especially after asking us out on dates for the festival too even though we already had plans to go there with parents and cousins.  The guys in our class had a lot of fun with razzing us about that; and we’re sure to get more of the same again for the next few days.  That didn’t affect me after school, since we went to play at the lab or archives again.  We couldn’t stay there for too-long because we needed to have dinner early-enough to get to the Inn for game night; and then our evening adventures included more jokes and commentary from our friends over those dates that added to the gaming entertainment.  Yes, that’s also why Ehlana and Naomi had us paired up in couples for the games; Naomi really enjoys the bonus fun that goes along with all razzing that I get related to being her boyfriend; and those regular reminders seem to be very effective when it comes to reinforcing my status to all of the girls around our age.

We’re having a very late night because we’ve done a lot of family business work since getting home to do what we can to help out with the problems being caused by the conflict in Ukraine.  It is very tempting to go on a rant about the situation there that could have been avoided with honest and sincere negotiations and actions on all sides of the disputes.  Instead of doing that tonight, we’ll report that we are using our connections in the region to organize aid for Ukrainian citizens on both sides of the war; since it is obvious that none of the leaders involved actually care about them – just as they don’t care about the costs of this to the average people around the world that will be affected even if that is only through higher prices and basic needs scarcities.

Moving along, we didn’t get home from the Inn until around ten o’clock, and couldn’t do a lot of the family business work in a time phase because we needed network and worldwide access, so while we could do little blasts of time-phased work; we needed the hours of online time too.  We’ve done what we can for now, but Mom and others will keep an eye on the situation in Ukraine; and do more if needed and possible.  We’ll help too if we can, but might not need to do that – other than keeping up with our own, normal family business jobs.

That’s enough for tonight, and we are really tired now; so it is time to crash and nap now.

Until next time, this little blast from your near or distant past is written for you with love from Ethan and Ehlana Proctor – twin junior Magi Masters of the Light!