Ehlana and Ethan:
There have been jokes today about Mother Nature commiserating with the students in town for our return to school with the rain and snow we’ve gotten, but that storyline doesn’t really work for us; since we were happy to be back again and spending time with friends that we didn’t see very often over the holidays! Ethan and Naomi don’t have quite as much fun because they aren’t in the same class, but that is only for a handful of hours and we still get to spend time with Naomi at lunch and breaks. The rain didn’t transition to snow until mid-afternoon, and there wasn’t enough of it to mess with the school bus schedule; so we still had a full school day and were set free at normal time. There wasn’t enough snow for after-school play time either, and it was really just a mushy mess for hours before it was white and fluffy instead of slush; so we stayed indoors and did that at our house with Naomi, Aiden, Sophia, and Aaron. We had a music practice for both our band and the school band; and we’re getting ready for Valentine’s Day for both – though we won’t officially get the school band music until our first practice of the New Year tomorrow afternoon.
We had fun with that; kept our friends with us for dinner; Mom did a group Magi lesson with us; and then we bundled up and went out to play with a first round of snow shoveling at four homes. Ethan and I can officially say that because we’ve already had a second round of shoveling that we finished not that long ago and after we worked in the office with Mom and Dad for a couple of time-phased hours. Dad joined us for the second round of shoveling; there was another inch or so of snow by then; and we’re keeping ahead of the snow that should wind down within the next couple of hours. That’ll mean another round of shoveling in the morning; so we should get to our nap time soon. No, Ethan, that doesn’t mean that I’m ready to wrap this up; so relax and try to contribute more to our actual update news!
While the weather has been a top story around town, we need to mention that Grandma and Grandpa managed to escape town before the snow arrived – and that’s true for the region – though they did have rain issues for their first travel day to Texas. No, they didn’t use any Magi talents to hold off the snow around them, but Grandpa might come up with a good story that would be movie-worthy for out-running the ‘storm’ today! While we’re thinking about travel, let’s also mention that Cassie and Michael are very busy getting ready for their trip; and the weather forecast still looks better for the end of the week for a second day after the earlier warning of blizzard-worthy snowfall was dropped down to a few flurries instead. I’ll try not to mock that, but it is really a challenge not to do that when forecasts are so-wrong that they shouldn’t be offered at all.
While I battle the urge to make fun of weather forecasters; let’s move on to the school gossip from the holidays. I don’t want to offer any specifics, and we – the girls – loved the ‘happy’ holiday stories a lot, but there were some holiday dating disasters too; and those stories usually got more attention. Sure, watching the train wrecks syndrome is part of that, but those stories also get more attention because of the ongoing drama from fights and break-ups. All Magi girls reading this in the future will likely guess that it was the guys in those relationships messing up on a holiday, but for the record; we did have one case where it was the girl on the wrong side of the break-up – and the rest were because of the guy! I don’t want to mislead anyone, since we are talking about just a few problems out of a small total number of teen and tween couples, but in a way, that likely makes them seem like a bigger deal; since those break-ups or fights can affect everyone in one or more grades. Ethan definitely doesn’t want to go on about this topic, but I’ll still add that it is amazing how many people never learn from history or choose to ignore it even in their personal lives. We’re part of a community with deep roots in faith and family; yet we’re not immune to normal human problems and weaknesses. I’m not trying to turn teen and tween drama into any cosmic truths; so let’s just concede that we sometimes do dumb, selfish things; hopefully learn from those mistakes as we get older and wiser; and change the subject.
Ethan is once again not helping by suggesting that we go get some sleep instead; so maybe I should comment on the jokes directed his way for all of the sleepovers he did with Naomi over the holidays! Yes, Aiden and I – and Sophia and Aaron – did that a lot too, but for some reason; we didn’t get teased about it as much. That could be because the gossip at the salon mentions Liz’s little girl more than the rest of us, but whatever the reason; Naomi had a lot of fun with the jokes and Ethan still blushes if too-many details are included in those conversations. I should also mention that co-ed sofa sleepovers are not catching on with our friends yet – or more-specifically they aren’t being allowed by other parents. We understand that; and think that those choices for parents and teens need to be worked out to be whatever is best for each of them. What we do works for us; our parents trust us for this and a lot more that is certainly more-important than our physical relationships that are definitely only tween-rated; so the jokes and commentary are really just a bit of sidelines entertainment.
Switching to politics, which Ethan will go along with just to change the subject, the story about the Secretary of Defense being in the hospital without the President or White House knowing about it is still a big news issue today. We don’t really agree that it should be compared to the wars and other world events, but can relate to having questions about how that is even possible or whether we’re getting the truth; since the Secretary of Defense is a fairly-important part of the federal government – including being sixth in line for succession in the event of a political catastrophe. In case that isn’t the same in our distant future, that means that he is supposed to be kept track of all of the time in case of emergency; and there are contingencies that should have been enacted while he was dealing with his medical crisis. If none of that happened; then that is a definite problem; and that doesn’t even get into the issues about who was making military decisions while he was out that were his responsibility. I would have been happy to help him out if he’d asked, but then nobody would do that if they knew me; since I’d promptly end our involvement in all wars; take about eighty percent of the military budget and re-allocate it to peaceful economic and social programs; and transition the military-industrial complex into businesses that build anything else other than weapons of any kind. We have enough of them already; and it would be really great if we just stopped using them and learned to live peacefully and share and care about each other instead of allowing hate and greed to rule the world! Sure, that idea is still a dream, but have faith, fellow Magi; since we will get there eventually! ;^)
Morning will be here a bit sooner than when we started this update, and we really will need to be up early for more snow work; so I guess that I’ve kept Ethan up late-enough now and can call it a night. The countdown seems to be speeding up to Cassie and Michael’s departure, but we’re going to be nearly as busy as they will continue to be all week; so we’ll see how much time we get to spend with them. We’ll keep you posted on that – along with all of our daily adventure highlights; so stay tuned for all of that while we go and re-charge now and get ready for that next round of fun!
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
