Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - October 24, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 26^th Birthday, Jennifer Wingborough!

We haven’t been able to wish one of our favorite business owners the best for her special day, but we know that Cassie and Michael did a vid-chat with her – and with Garrett and their kids – from Tonga and despite the massive time zone difference.  We hope that she is having an awesome day – though birthdays are very different for most of our next-gen parents when they are also busy with work and keeping up with toddlers and babies!

As for our day-so-far, we’ve had rain issues and expect more for the game tonight, but Tai Chi was by the river and before the rain started around the time that we started first classes of the day.  We had fun with our classmates and friends through to now; and we’re only home for a little break and some food before we need to head for Meadowvale and the football game.  We’ll be late again and are hosting a co-ed sleepover again; so we want to get this report out of the way now.  That does mean that we really don’t have much more to offer for our own news of the day, since we really have only done the normal morning routine and academic adventures, but the rest of our story can wait for tomorrow.

Cassie and Michael are having another busy, island-hopping day in Tonga even with the rain, but we don’t have many details yet; since it is still Saturday morning there and they’ve spent as much time traveling as working so far.  While we’re on that topic, though, let’s mention that the project and partnerships they are making in Tonga are comparatively-small on the money side of the plans but will have big impacts in the region.

We aren’t going to get into a major world news update this afternoon, but do want to note that the newest round of sanctions on Russia that are also targeting China and India are already causing ripples in the economic force – and not in good ways.  There is no point in taking some reactions very seriously because things like spikes in oil prices will change over time depending on reactions to the new economic realities, but there is a lot of anger bubbling up in a lot of other countries; and that might not end well for our country or the rest of the ‘western’ countries in Europe and elsewhere.  Anger is a part of the problem in Central and South America right now too, and that isn’t only happening in Venezuela and now Columbia as both of their leaders and countries are being threatened by President Trump and our military and political leaders.  Do we really want to start one or two new Afghanistans there?  Sure, we can overwhelm with bombs and missiles and blow up a lot of stuff and kill a lot of people, but then what?  We did that in Afghanistan – and Iraq and other places – and then twenty years later we left the place in worse shape than when we started with an even-more radical Taliban back in charge!  Our leaders might want to think this one through a bit more, since the people of those countries that could be the next Taliban also have land routes to our country and nothing better to do than plot ways to get revenge if we do attack them!  We’re still not seeing anything good happening for the Palestinians in Gaza – or the West Bank; so that ‘peace deal’ isn’t happening on the ground yet.

The Ukraine war on the ground is getting less attention than the sanctions being applied because of it, but that is looking very grim for the Ukrainian army as more and more of their troops get caught up in cauldrons with no way to re-supply even for food let alone ammunition or more weapons.  If they have supply stockpiles that don’t get blown up in their faces they might be able to hold on in those cauldrons for weeks or even months, but then they’ll just die slowly for nothing; since those cities and towns are lost whether they fight to the death or surrender or are allowed to evacuate.  Thanks to the sanctions and other Ukrainian attacks and sabotage and assassinations against Russia, their army is not having warm and fuzzy feelings about their enemy; so this will not end well for those soldiers.  Finally, economic battle lines are getting more-entrenched with China – and maybe with India too thanks to those sanctions – and that theft by the Netherlands of the Chinese tech company.  The one bit of news that should get a lot of attention is that China is now going to implement a policy and plan to become entirely self-reliant for all technology.  We have to wonder what Taiwan will do once they no longer get to sell anything to China – currently around twenty percent of their total export market to the world!  Add in the pressures that might come after that when China can compete for that same business with the rest of Taiwan’s global customers; and this trade war could end badly for them – and for us!  On a smaller scale and note, there is a story out there about China putting together a deal with Russia to buy jet engines that they can’t get from companies in our country because of the tariff wars and a second story about the next steps in a new Russia-to-China liquid natural gas pipeline; and that all adds up to China’s ongoing plans to pivot away from the United States and Europe so that they can partner with countries that just want to do business with them for mutual benefits.  We hope that all of these tensions won’t lead to wider, hot wars; since our leaders really are threatening half the world with our ‘peace through strength’ idiocies!

That’s enough for today and we do need to get going soon – to the school and team bus for me and into the minivan for Mom and Ehlana so that they can pick up Naomi, Sophia, and two other girls on the cheer squad to head for Meadowvale too.  Dad might come to the game from Crystal Springs too, but that’ll depend on his work – and possible the weather; since he also needs to bring Anna Marie home.  I’ll guess no for him being there; since they have had a long, busy week; and it is going to be damp at the game.  We’ll have all of that news for you with our next report, but that’s it for now; and we’re out of here.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - October 23, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

We have had another long, busy day and need to rest up to be ready for our last school day of the week and Friday night football; so let’s get to the news of the day.

Tai Chi by the river was chilly this morning, but the weather was still decent and similar to yesterday; so that worked for our academic adventures and the after-school practices.  We’re ready for the game tomorrow night, but there isn’t much news from our classes or practices.  Aiden hosted our group dinner and study session; we had fun with that; and then only four of us headed to the Inn for game night while Sophia, Aaron, and the extra study buddies we’ve had this week opted for other fun.  Mom helped Miranda to win the senior title; Naomi and I won the junior title; and then Ehlana and I came home with Mom and moved on to just a bit of charity work and a Magi lesson that we multi-tasked to get done faster.

That pretty much brings us up to now.  It is already late, so we’ll only mention that Cassie and Michael have been having an awesome but often-damp Friday in Tonga and they are getting a lot of work done and enjoying a fair bit of bonus time on the water between islands even when they do get rained on!  I’d skip the world news report, but had mentioned writing about the ‘new’ Ukraine peace plan that European leaders are putting together with Ukraine; so we’ll do that and then call it a night.  We can boil the twelve-point plan down to one – Russia will surrender because they are the bad guys and we are the good guys!  That is not going to happen, so this plan – which is the old plan with smeared lipstick on it – is dead on arrival and the war will continue while those leaders don’t really care how much of Ukraine is destroyed or how many Ukrainians die as long as they stay in power and keep getting richer.

I’m getting angry about that, so we are going to stop there; since we are also sure that Mom won’t let us go over there and use our Magi talents to convince all of those politicians to stop the madness!  Yes, that would be fun, and maybe we could even do it, but we would also get a lot of the wrong kind of attention from all of the Dark Magi in the region too and that would not be good for us!  That is all we are going to write about now, though, so we’re out of here and off to dreamland soon.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - October 22, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Let’s start with the family travel news of the day.  Mom is home from Crystal Springs, and had fun, but we don’t want to know what she and Dad were doing for most of the time she was there beyond the shopping and dinner with the Malloys that we did get told about!  Cassie and Michael are well into their Thursday in Tonga; and their biggest challenge is the travel time needed to hop between islands.  They are not actually working with a lot of people, but what they are doing is important – including for the partnerships involving the islands and ocean ecosystems that are all about studying and conservation efforts led by locals who understand what really needs to happen to protect their own habitats!  Let’s also mention that some of our favorite grandparents are having fun in Arizona, and while we love those stories; we also don’t need all of the details about everything they do there! ;^)

Here at home, we’ve had a busy, quieter day by comparison.  Tai Chi was in Naomi’s back yard; we – the teens – took care of breakfast for everyone; and then our school day was good but uneventful.  The weather was cooler but still sunny with a high of sixty-eight this afternoon, so the football and cheer squad practices were good and then Aaron hosted our group dinner and study session with a couple of extra friends that are working on a project with Aaron and Naomi in their class.  We all had fun, but wrapped up early without bonus music practices or other fun because Ehlana and I needed to spend some time with Mom.  She gave us the travel update; did a Magi lesson with us; and then there was some time-phased family business and charity work in the office before the girls in the house decided that quality time with their Jacuzzis was needed.

While Ehlana did that, I took care of most of the computer checks and shared the info with her as I went along – telepathically; not in the bathroom with her!  If you went there; cut it out!  The world news of the day was bad for most of the important stories.  The peace talks from the end of last week have already been stopped; the European Union announced a nineteenth sanctions package against Russia; and our country is adding new sanctions against them too after also canceling the next peace summit that was supposed to happen in Hungary between Presidents Trump and Putin.  That is insane, but wait – there’s more!  Two refineries appear to have been hit by sabotage – not in Ukraine or Russia, but in Romania and Hungary and within hours of each other!  Since those countries are two of the holdouts still buying Russian oil and gas in Europe, that is more than a little suspicious; and should worry every other country that believes that they are allies of the United States and the European Union!  It appears that political and economic pressure aren’t enough so the powers that be wanting never-ending war are moving on to attacking their own allies to try and get what they want.  Oh wait – this isn’t really any different than when the Nord Stream pipelines were blown up – though we’ll find out whether Hungary and Romania will just take the hits or get mad and retaliate!  The front line battles in Ukraine continue to be horrific for the Ukrainian soldiers; and that is only going to get worse now that peace talks seem to be over and both sides are choosing to fight until somebody wins.

News flash – both sides lose even when one side declares victory!  Hundreds of billions of dollars have been wasted – along with millions of lives; and we have no way of knowing how much it will cost to rebuild Ukraine sometime after the war – though we can be sure that it will take decades.

Speaking of decades, a report from Sweden about a new deal for Ukraine to buy fighter jets made in Sweden made me laugh – not because of the jets or the proposed deal, but because Ukraine apparently wants to buy between one-hundred and one-hundred and sixty of these jets when the company that makes them has only built around three-hundred of them over the past thirty-eight years!  They also, currently, have other orders waiting to be built; and we’re fairly-sure that Ukraine won’t actually be able to have those jets or afford them after the war ends anyway – even if they could get them delivered over the next thirty years or so!  Let’s add this story to the pile with others that we have seen recently – like the Ukrainian order for twenty-five Patriot missile systems.  That story was a bit vague, but if they meant full missile batteries, that is a lot of launchers and missiles – as in one-hundred to one-hundred and fifty launchers for twenty-five batteries and then up to sixteen missiles per launcher – and that’s only enough missiles for one round of launches and no reloads!  To shorten this little part of the update – that would add up to somewhere between two and four years worth of current production with nothing left over for anyone else!  Yes, that is crazy, but then we feel the same way about actually using a missile defense system that costs upwards of ten times more to use than the cost of the missiles they can shoot down – and that’s an even-worse number because not every missile actually gets shot down even if you have enough patriot missiles to stop incoming missiles!  I’ll add in just one more bit of math and then move on – those patriot missiles currently cost between four and eight million dollars each depending on the bells and whistles – and that does not include the costs of the launchers, radar systems, and everything else that goes into a Patriot battery and training experts to use them!

Ehlana is glad that I’ve done the computing tonight, since we’re moving on to Israel and Gaza where the supposed peace deal to solve thousands of years of conflict is quickly falling apart with the Israeli Defense Forces doing all of the blaming and pretty much all of the bombing and killing too while the Palestinian people continue to suffer without even a true hint of actual relief.  We really didn’t want to be proved right, but all of the signs were there that this was just another round of talk with no action behind it to actually start solving all of the problems and protecting the Palestinians.  There are more uprisings happening in a lot of places around the world right now to the point where we can’t write about all of them; and there are more tensions growing in the Asian region – especially as China continues to stand their ground instead of caving to all of the demands from the United States and Europe that could only lead to imploding their own economy if they started to do as ordered!  We really don’t like this, but seem to be a bit closer to wider wars as tensions rise and positions harden.

That’s enough for tonight, but check out our next update; since we should cover the newest and dumbest-yet ‘peace’ proposal from Europe for ending the Ukraine war – a plan that has zero chance of happening – just as there is no chance that Ukraine is going to be allowed to buy all of the Patriot missiles and systems that are built over the next four years or the fighter jets from Sweden for the next quarter-century!  We are ready to move on and get some sleep soon; so that’s all for tonight.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - October 21, 2025

 

Ethan and the Haunted Harmonies:

Happy 14^th Birthday, Paige Spencer!

First up, no, I haven’t taken over as lead for our little band – that was just a joke!  We did have a practice tonight just a little while ago, but that was after an already-long and busy day.  Ehlana and I are doing this update with our four best friends because Naomi is hosting all of us while Mom is in Crystal Springs for the night with Dad; and we’re winding down fast toward our co-ed sofa naps time with some quality cuddle time.  I want to share more of that fun with Naomi; so this is going to be short update!

Tai Chi was by the river with Mom for two of us followed by breakfast for three that was standard school day fare; and then we headed off to school where the highlights of the day included special birthday moments for Paige.  The cheer squad still had a practice at lunchtime; and we had good football or band practices after school.

Paige’s birthday dinner was up next and we had to put a bit of a rush on that for those of us that also had the teen praise team practice at the church.  We still did our best to help Paige with having an awesome day; and she continued her party after that practice with her own best friends.  When we came home with Naomi, we still had our studying to do, so we did that first; and then moved on to the band practice.  That took more than an hour to go through the set we’re going with on Saturday night for the Haunted Halloween Walk; and then we split up long-enough to get ready for the co-ed naps part of our plan for the rest of tonight.  We’re listening to music while doing the computer checks and teen chat fun – though some of us are not really all that interested in the world news.

That isn’t true for the Cassie and Michael update.  They are in Tonga now and already through most of their Wednesday.  Tonga put themselves into an odd time zone that makes them one of the first places in the world to start each day thanks to choosing UTC-plus-thirteen hours instead of going the other way like other nearby islands that are the last places in the world to end each day with a UTC-minus-eleven or twelve time zone!  Tonga also has a more even weather with little temperature change from day to night – at least that’s true for the forecast while Cassie and Michael will be there.  A mid-seventies temperature every day, all day might not seem very tropical, but we’d love that here – especially in the winter!  After flying to Tonga early on their Wednesday morning, Cassie and Michael already did one island hop visit; and they will be doing that nearly every day while there – though they are not scoping out uninhabited islands for a tropical getaway for Magi of the Light.  Maybe they’ll do that on a future visit! ;^)

I am supposed to be keeping this short and not really doing that; so let’s get to the world news.  In a nutshell, none of the worst problems in the world got better today; the politicians continue with never-ending and empty rhetoric; and actions on the ground prove that the fight for power, resources, and wealth are what they really care about with no regard for the people they are supposed to serve and protect.  That’s true at every point along the political spectrum too with the only difference being some of the ways they prefer to achieve their goals.  Let’s stop there or I will get going on a rant; and I am sure that cuddling with Naomi will be much happier for both of us!  We hope that you’re as happy as we are in your ‘now’ and it would be great if the world in general is a happier place for you too.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - October 20, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

We were up early to see Dad and Anna Marie off on their trip to Crystal Springs; and then our day has rolled along fairly-quietly since then – though we have been busy all day too.  Tai Chi was chilly, but by the river; we had a hot breakfast with Mom; and then our academic adventures were not newsworthy but good.  The weather was good after school for our football or cheer squad practices; and then Ehlana and I brought our four best friends home with us for dinner and a study evening.  Mom went with an easy, finger foods meal; she did a group Magi lesson with us that was multi-tasked with our studying; and then we had a music practice for everything we have coming up next from the set we’re booked to do at the Haunted Halloween Walk on Saturday night to the seniors’ Halloween luncheon and school dance next week.  We still managed to wrap everything up by nine-thirty and we were all ready to wind down toward bedtime after that; so we cleaned up a bit from last drinks and snacks; and now Ehlana and I are keeping our twin chat and computer checks to the minimum in favor of getting the extra nap time.

The news for Cassie and Michael is that they are wrapping up their last day in Fiji – their Tuesday; and will be moving on to Tonga for their Wednesday.  They’ve still had wet weather to deal with, but they did some island hopping anyway; and they will be doing more of that in Tonga; since there are around one-hundred and seventy islands that make up that nation.

As for the world news, the distraction stories continue and we are going to ignore all of them.  When it comes to the most-serious issues in the world, talk and action doesn’t line up; so the holes our politicians are digging just get deeper.  The Dutch government, for example, is finding out that taking over Chinese companies might be a bad idea when key parts of those companies are based in China and can just shut down the supply chain.  They will either need to fix the mess or watch the parts of the company that they took over close and go bankrupt – making the shares they stole from China worthless and leaving them on the hook for the employees and probably all debts and expenses while having nothing to sell or produce!

That is actually a happy story from our perspective as politicians get to learn an important lesson that is long-overdue – though we also doubt that they’ll suddenly see the light and change their ways anytime soon.  We do think that this is a happier way to wrap up this report compared to another round of ugly from Ukraine or Gaza, so we’ll save those next updates for another night and just go and get some sleep starting right now.

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