Ethan and Ehlana:
Congratulations, Madelana and Stefan – you’re married!
We don’t have a lot of news from Chicago yet, but did watch the video stream of the wedding ceremony; and it was beautiful and heart-warming. Mother Nature hasn’t been cooperating in Chicago, but blasts of rain and thunderstorms have only caused some changes to the wedding plans while adding in comedic opportunities. So far, the jokes include Mother Nature crying over Stefan officially being off the market now or she’s been crying tears of joy for one of her favorite Chicago-born daughters. Cassie has kept Mom and Ehlana up-to-date for some of those wedding changes – like moving the wedding photo shoots indoors, but we’ll wait to get the rest of the story whenever that happens; since Cassie and Michael are going to be busy for the rest of the day and weekend – and next week while on their anniversary-vacation that they’re doing with Madelana, Stefan, Rowen, and Tim.
Here at home, we had a lot of fun last night with our cousins and friends; stayed up way too late with movies, video gaming, and more; and then we didn’t get to have any co-ed sleepovers because Zack and Eli kept the gaming going until near-dawn. That didn’t work out very well for them when going to church or not wasn’t an option for them, but then maybe they should have been left at home; since they fell asleep during the service anyway and didn’t go on to Sunday school at all. The rest of us didn’t get a lot of sleep either, but we were up early for Tai Chi by the river – and we could do that because the overnight rain ended before dawn. That worked for the ball games today, and after the major breakfast adventure; we headed to the park to support our cousins and friends with their games – and our family earned two wins by lunchtime. Brianna and Faith’s team had the close, six-to-four win and Sebastian and Caleb helped their team to coast to a fourteen-to-five victory.
While we still played this afternoon, we also had about half of the still-visiting cousins head home after lunch – including Naomi’s cousins. Two of those meet-ups were moved up a day for parental reasons; and that’s also why Ehlana and I helped with kid control and entertainment for everyone staying in town while some of the parents were away for three or four hours. It is hot this afternoon, so we spent a fair bit of time in the river after seeing those cousins on their way home, but we played some volleyball and other backyard games; did an ice cream treats run to the Emporium; and now we’re getting ready to head over to the Carringtons for a last barbeque dinner and campfire with the remaining cousins and the usual hometown family and friends. There is rain in the forecast later tonight, so we aren’t doing any camping too; so Ehlana and I only plan on a co-ed sleepover with Naomi and Aiden while the last of the visiting cousins stay with their closest hometown cousins.
That brings us up to now, and we need to get going again soon; so let’s go with a quick world news update and then we’ll be out of here. There is a new political theatre story trying to gain traction this weekend about President Obama and his national security council allegedly being behind the Trump-Russia collusion hoax and everything that happened because of that story in twenty-sixteen and then through President Trump’s first administration. Ehlana and I are ignoring the story beyond gathering the information, since none of this story should be news to anyone; nothing will come of the claims; and the people in power will continue to be above the law on both sides of the political aisle. It is another useful distraction from the Ukraine war; the new Israeli attacks in Syria; the horrors happening in Gaza to the Palestinians; and every other story that should get our attention and that everyone should be pressuring the leaders involved to stop the killing and destruction.
It is really tempting to offer another rant, but maybe we’ll do that a time or three next week as we get back to normal life after the last of our cousins head home tomorrow. For now, we really do need to go; since we really want to enjoy this last blast of family time – even when that’ll include helping with the cooking, clean-up, and kid control work.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
