Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - February 28, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

What a shock – winter weather in winter!  Tai Chi was indoors, we had a hot breakfast, and the only outdoor work we needed to take care of was a bit of salting the driveway and sidewalks.  We didn’t get enough snow to need shoveling, but it was really cold with the wind chill, so a bit of freezing happened – even though that didn’t really last very long.  Our academic adventures were all indoors; we opted for lab or archives play-work after school; and then we got home late for dinner and Mom saved our food instead of waiting for us this time.  Let’s not comment on why Mom and Dad might have been so happy after sharing a dinner-for-two and some kid-free time.

We ate, cleaned up, and then did a Magi lesson with Mom and an hour of family business and charity work.  That was all of the time Mom would let us spend in the office, so we’ve come upstairs; gotten ready for bed; and have kept entertained with our bedtime twin chat and computing.  I haven’t written much about our lab or archives work, so let’s do that tonight.

My current research and experiments are mostly focused on cancer treatments and cures, and that is plural for both; since it doesn’t look as though I’ll ever find a cure that works on every kind of cancer.  As a researcher, you need to have limitless patience, since each success is usually-small, experiments fail far more-often than they succeed, and solving complex problems can take years, decades, or lifetimes.  I am sure that we will come up with better treatments and even cures; and I can report that with confidence because we are getting close to some solutions after years of focusing on this research.

Ethan isn’t doing anything that exciting, but he is currently having fun with the new additions to our archives that Cassie and Michael have brought his way.  He doesn’t need to translate anything from their most-recent trip – unless you count Aussie slang, but he definitely has some challenges with all of the digital books and documents out of China and South America.  Don’t be shocked by this, but Ethan’s reading speed is a bit slower in other languages – not to mention that Cassie needs to help him out with languages that he hasn’t learned; since she collected many of those books and documents in original languages and dialects where possible.  Mom also stays involved, and she makes final decisions on everything that gets officially added to the archives – including when it comes to who can access those documents.  Ethan still has the rest of his archives work, but as with my research, that is still going to be a decades-long process without including the continuing efforts to gather new and current events information.  We love our work, so even though most of our friends would find either job boring; we’re perfectly-suited for what we will be making our lifelong careers.

Okay, that’s enough for today.  It is going to start warming up again tomorrow and into the weekend; so we’ll rest up while we can and be ready for another round of fun with what we hope will be many more outdoor adventures!  Stay tuned for those stories; and we’ll move on to nap time now.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - February 27, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Weather is the story of the day for two reasons – another high in the seventies; and then the plunge below freezing that is also bringing a dusting of snow after some rain we got earlier this evening.  This little blast into winter isn’t going to last for long, and we haven’t gone outside to experience the cold yet, but that is a big drop from those highs this afternoon to now; and it is a safe bet that Tai Chi will be indoors in the morning.

Some of our teachers wanted to enjoy the warm we still got to have today, so we had bonus outdoor time again, and our school band practice was shorter than normal again so we were able to go for a short bike ride after that and before dinner.  Mom cooked that meal on her own, so we took care of the clean-up; and then our evening has been quiet with family business work and a Magi lesson in the office that Mom had us wrap up by nine-thirty; and now we’re winding down with the usual bedtime twin chat and computing.  That’s pretty much all of our news for today; so I’ll move on to my commentary of the night while Ethan goes along because he loves me and occasionally finds my rants entertaining.

First up, I just can’t resist mentioning one of the news stories from Ukraine.  Reports from a couple of days ago about the first Abrams tank being spotted near the front lines was celebrated, and then it only took a day – or possibly less – for the Russian army to find and destroy it.  We haven’t seen anything about whether the tank even managed to fire a shot against the Russians, but either way, that seems to be a very expensive contribution to the war effort with zero benefit.  In addition to losing the tank, if the crew was lost too, add in the wasted months and expenses of training them – along with those wasted lives and anyone else that might have been hurt or killed nearby.  To us, this is just another example of the stupidity of this war; and we really, really need some leaders to step up and find a peaceful solution instead of continuing to support Ukraine and encourage them to throw more lives away so pointlessly.

That brings me to our next story – the air force member that chose to set himself on fire outside of the Israeli embassy in Washington in protest of the genocide in Gaza because he refused to personally support the war against the Palestinians due to mandatory deployments to the area.  The spin on this story has been ridiculous; so I’ll simply suggest that we – and our leaders – should all get the message that we’re on the wrong side of this battle and the political and humanitarian issues; and need to fix that before it is too late.

Next up, let’s go back to Ukraine for the story about secret CIA bases that have apparently been there for the past eight or ten years and helping Ukraine with gathering Intel on Russia and feeding them info in support of attacks and assassinations within Russia.  All we have to write about that is that we are not surprised – and nobody else should be shocked either!  Ditto that for stories about the New York Times hiring Israeli propagandists to write some of the worst stories about what Hamas did on October 7^th that eventually proved to be flat-out lies.  We don’t need to get into the horrid details that weren’t true anyway, but once again, we are not surprised to find out that those worst atrocities were completely invented out of the twisted imaginations of people that want to see all Palestinians killed or expelled from Israel.

That’s enough for tonight, since we want to head off to dreamland on happier thoughts, so we’re going to wrap this up; listen to some music to get happier again; and then we’ll get some sleep so that we’ll be ready for the winter day ahead of us.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - February 26, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

This has been another awesome day!  Tai Chi was chilly, but by the river, and then our day got better as the temperature rose again into the low-seventies.  There were two outdoor classes to go along with the outdoor breaks; and that more than made up for the quiz and test that we wrote in science and math respectively.  Biking with our friends after school kept us busy until dinnertime and was the entertainment highlight of our day; and then we’ve been playing at the lab or archives after that meal and the clean-up.  Mom came along and let us use a time phase to get more done tonight while Dad was busy in the office; and then we came home at ten-thirty.  Bath or Jacuzzi time was needed thanks to the outdoor play time.  Now we’re winding down toward nap time and we are tired; so I am not going to add any bonus commentary on anything.

You’re welcome, but I’ll make up for that eventually; and really just need to get some sleep now – so I will! ;^)

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - February 25, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

In our little corner of the world, you have to love warm weather days in February, and that is especially-true when the highs reach the seventies!  Sure, it wasn’t that warm first thing this morning, but it was warm-enough for Tai Chi by the river; that made for a great start to our day; and then we had a hot breakfast before eventually heading off to church.  We’re into the lessons and messages leading up to Easter as normal for this time of year.  We had a good morning through the first part of the service and then during Sunday school; everyone was a bit happier thanks to the nice weather; and the lure of the great outdoors did not keep Pastor John from leading a longer service.  That’s why we didn’t get home until close to noon.  It was just the four of us again for that meal, but we really just had a snack; and then we had a gang of family and friends meet up with us for a group bike ride.  With most of the afternoon available, we decided to attempt a ride out to Quarry Lake and back; hit the trail; and enjoyed the exercise and social time while getting that full, round-trip ride accomplished.

Okay, that isn’t a major feat even for some of our younger cousins, and we’ve done the ride faster too, but we had the time; and enjoyed the adventure more thanks to the leisurely pace and extra stops along the way for exploring along the trail and at Quarry Lake.  Some of our fellow bikers needed to be home in time for one of the buffets at the Inn, but we weren’t doing that too.  That was entirely because Dad took the afternoon off for the biking; so he needed to work in the office tonight.  Ethan and I helped Mom with making a light dinner while Dad got to work; we enjoyed that meal in the sunroom; took care of the clean-up; and then we joined Mom and Dad in the office for some family business work.  Mom let us work for a couple of hours; bath or Jacuzzi time followed; and then Ethan and I had a short music practice before getting to the usual bedtime computing and twin chat.

There haven’t been any major changes for good when it comes to world news, and that’s basically-true for bad news too; so I won’t get into any rants tonight.  We’re definitely not happy with the status quo when what is happening is so awful, but there is no point in repeating the same stories over and over when nothing changes.  Don’t get too-excited; since there are still many topics that I can offer commentary on instead – and I’m in the mood to go there!

Scaring Ethan by writing about teen and tween girl issues is tempting, but I’ll save that for another night; and go with a local infrastructure update instead.  The moderate winter-weather has led to more outdoor work, and while the available hours of warm are limited; progress is happening that puts some of our favorite projects ahead of schedule.  At the top of our list is the new construction for the seniors’ community and cottages sections of town.  Work has resumed on main roads and the needed infrastructure that includes water, sewage, power, and gas lines.  Foundations may be started soon for the first batch of homes and cottages; and we could definitely get the first buildings finished ahead of schedule and in time for summer occupancy.  We are really looking forward to having some of our favorite people spending more time here once they have their cottages; so stay tuned for more updates on that story as it develops!

Since we were out on the trails today, let’s also mention that the ‘southern’ trail has been worked on again too, and that’s actually an easier project because there isn’t any need to also install any piping or cables.  They are still building the trail to last, but the extra work time helps because they can dig up the path; put down the trail base; and leave it to settle until it is ready for the next layers.  As we’ve mentioned before, we are going to love the extra biking options once this trail is linked to the rail trail that is south of us and just in time for our teen years; so we’ll be even-happier if it gets finished ahead of schedule.  Finally, for tonight, and since we were at Quarry Lake today, let’s write about their expansion plans for this year.  Our favorite campground is expanding into a second quarry!  They’re adding a third lake and an all-new campground and campsites, and while that is everything they expect to have ready for this summer; that is just the start of the plan for the new quarry.  We know that a second, bigger rock wall is in the works – along with a zip line that might take the riders over the lake!  That will definitely be awesome; and we’ll keep you posted on that story too – especially whenever we get around to playing out there and checking out the new lake.

That’s pretty much enough for tonight.  This has been another awesome day, and we still have a couple of warm days ahead of us; so we’re going to wrap this up, get some sleep, and be ready for the next round of fun and adventures with our friends.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - February 24, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 11^th Birthday, Robyn Johnson!

We actually got in on a short vid-chat with Robyn, but that was with the Carringtons while they were doing that; and we really only offered our best wishes.  Robyn is having a good day and is celebrating with her family and friends; so let’s move on and get to our news of the day.

Sophia earned a lot of points with our friends yesterday, and while we always think that she is awesome; she is also one of our quietest friends; so that doesn’t get shown off very often.  The biking and play time at the park wasn’t anything new and we had fun with that, so Sophia wasn’t center-stage with our friends until she invited all of us to come home with her for dinner and the evening.

Sophia’s parents need credit for that too, since feeding an entire gang of tweens and teens should scare any parent, but they managed to survive the event and earned points too thanks to the Pizzeria pizza, finger food sides, and Olde Bakery desserts.  Ethan and I made sure that we helped out with the pre and post-dinner work and had some help from other friends; so we had fun with all of that and the meal.  There were some food and drinks games with some of the guys, but they didn’t get out of control; so that was mostly-fun too.  While feeding our friends always works for them, it was some of our evening entertainment that really impressed them – especially when Sophia’s Dad joined in on a jam session.  Not all of our friends know how-impressive Sophia’s – and Aaron’s – musical skills are amazing, but everyone had fun; and some of us do know that the ‘show’ we either watched or participated in included some seriously-awesome and technically-sophisticated music.

There was also video gaming for the boys; girl chat for the girls; and an action movie for everyone that kept us busy until near-midnight; and then most of our friends headed for their homes or elsewhere for the rest of the night while only six of us stayed for the co-ed sofa sleepover wrap-up for our night.  We stayed up for another couple of hours while enjoying some quiet chat time and another movie after also dealing with the clean-up from the rest of the evening fun; and then we crashed and napped for a few hours.

Tai Chi was still on-time; the kids in the house cooked breakfast for everyone and delivered an order to the gas station; and then we split up for our own homes and a chores morning that for Ethan and I was mostly indoors.  We got that work done by eleven-thirty; our four best friends met up with us at our house then too – along with a gang of family and friends; and then we all headed for Maple Valley to spend the afternoon at Maple Fest!  Hitting a high in the mid-fifties makes it more-comfortable for outdoor festivals, but we still think that it doesn’t feel the way it should – even if this could be closer to what will be normal for us in the coming years and decades.  Snowball fights or ice sculpting weren’t entertainment options, but we did enjoy the pancake lunch, the shows, and the rest of the festival highlights that included a market, game booths, and more that were mostly set up to support charities.  The parents in our group also picked up cases of local maple syrup and other treats like maple donuts; and we enjoyed quite a few maple-related treats while wandering around the festival.

We came home by late-afternoon; dropped off friends and treats at several homes; and then Ethan and I were on our own by the time we got home with Mom and Dad.  Food wasn’t really needed then, so we did some work in the office after unloading the van and truck; opted for an evening snack at around seven-thirty; and then it was bath our Jacuzzi time for the tweens in the house.  After a late night, we were okay with that; and we’re keeping our bedtime computing to the minimum too.  The first half of our weekend has been awesome, we’re getting tired; and catching up on our sleep is wanted and needed.  There also isn’t really anything that we need to add for our news and I’ll survive taking another night off from any commentary on world news or random topics.

Just thinking about that has me itching to do it anyway, but Ethan really doesn’t want me to go there tonight, so I won’t; and we’ll just call it a night right now and move on to nap time.

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!