Heirs of the Magi News Flash!

***Heirs of the Magi News Flash!*** Your favorite Magi Master twins are back to school again and starting their high school adventures in academics, sports, and more! While they are busy with all of that and their friends, Cassie and Michael are getting ready for their now-annual fall work trip and enjoying the home time with most of their favorite people. They are all going to have a lot of fun as they head into the fall season and you won't want to miss a moment of the action; so... ...Visit Witch Falls often to keep up with all of our latest stories; and Happy Reading!

Sunday, August 31, 2025

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 31, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

It’s the last day of the month and the busiest day of the holiday weekend, but Ehlana and I are just home for a quick break from the park and need to get back there soon; so this is really just a placeholder report; and we’ll offer a full holiday update tomorrow night.

We loved getting to be a bigger part of the teen-led holiday weekend service this morning; and that was at the church instead of the park due to the expected rain we’ve been getting off-and-on all day.  That’s why Tai Chi was indoors this morning at various homes; since Ehlana and I were with Aiden and Naomi respectively.  We each had fun with our co-ed sleepovers; had fun with the Drapers or Seagers; and don’t need to write about the alone time we got to have with Aiden or Naomi!

This really does need to be a short update, so we’ll write about that service tomorrow night too.  The baseball games went ahead today despite the rain – mostly because the main breaks happened this afternoon and evening.  There were two short rain delays for the noon co-ed game and the spectator attendance was low, but ‘our’ Witch Falls Whirlpool team earned the seventeen-to-fourteen win over Sheldon’s Storm; and Miranda and Cassie led their cheer squad to the sidelines victory too.  We’ve had some fun with the game booths and other activities to now; many of us are taking breaks to get changed, clean, and dry again ahead of dinner and the family dance; and Ehlana and I also got the third floor ready to host some teens for the night once we are ready to come home for the night.  That’s why this update is early, and now we really are out of time because we’re being called now to meet up with our friends; so that’s all for this last report of the month.

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

Saturday, August 30, 2025

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 30, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

This is just a quick update that we’re writing as we switch from baseball to dinner; and it is early because I’ll be with Naomi for the night while Ehlana hangs out with Aiden and his family.  That probably sounds weird for a holiday weekend when we usually spend most of the time with our family, but our cousins are splitting up in smaller groups tonight, so while we had other options; we chose to be with Naomi or Aiden instead.  We have our overnight bags packed now and have gotten cleaned up from our ball games; so we need to join in late for the barbeque dinner that Mom and Dad are hosting; and then we’ll head out for the rest of the night.

Most of the details for today can wait for our next report, but the baseball highlights include three championship wins for our family and one loss – with Caleb, Sebastian, and their team being on the losing end of their game by two runs.  Brianna, Faith, and the Twist were happy with the two-run margin going their way for the win; Ehlana’s team cruised to the biggest win with a score of fourteen-to-two; and my team just wrapped up our eleven-to-four victory.  We still have the co-ed game to go, but that might be an issue; since the weather forecast is not looking good for tomorrow.  We’ll also report that some of our family missed parts of the baseball action while out at the ranch for a trail ride or corral adventure, but we couldn’t do that too while busy with our afternoon games.  We missed that a bit, but that could be more-normal for us through high school and college; so we’ll adapt.

Let’s stop there, since Ehlana and I are already late for the dinner that started soon after we got home from the park.  The rest of the news of the day can wait for tomorrow – and we’ll have more time for that too if we actually get all of the rain being forecast for us.  Stay tuned for that; and we’ll get back to living the holiday weekend adventures!

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 29, 2025

 

Aiden, Ehlana, Ethan, and Naomi:

Happy 9th Birthday, Faith!

I have been put in charge of writing this journal update because the girls in our little group insist that Ethan is too-modest to write about his amazing football skills in our first game of the season and our fledgling high school sports careers while Ehlana and Naomi don’t want to admit that they were the two most-popular cheerleaders at that game.  The last part of that is something that their boyfriends have mixed feelings about, but since I am drafted for this little job because of the football game; I’ll start with that part of this update.

Our sports adventures started with the final day of training camp as we got ready to play against Maple Valley.  We were happy to start with a home game; and worked extra-hard during the practice knowing that we’d have lots of family support at the game.  Coach Robinson had us as ready as possible to play our best after just a week of training; wrapped up our practice by three-thirty; and sent us home to rest up before returning to the school an hour ahead of game time.  Ethan and I met up with the girls for that break and to get in on the barbeque dinner at the Everetts for Faith’s birthday party.  Let’s pause to insert her party news while on that thought.

The four of us wish that we could have gone to Quarry Lake with the rest of the gang that went there for that part of Faith’s party, but Ethan and I couldn’t go; and Ehlana and Naomi didn’t want to ask for anyone to drive them when they would have only been able to go out there for a couple of hours after their cheer squad practice.  Instead of doing that, they helped with the set-up at the Everetts that included tents for Faith’s camping tonight with some of her girlfriends and cousins – and the campfire that we could only make a cameo visit to after the game and minor team party that Will Carter hosted at his house.  We can report that Faith is having an awesome day; loved her many gifts including the group gift that we got for her; and isn’t getting bugged too-much by any of the guys – including the small gang that are camping with Zack in his back yard.  While we couldn’t spend much time with Faith and had to eat and run right at the start of her birthday dinner; we did at least add in a bonus gift of two campfire songs during our visit on the way home from the Carter’s home to here – music that was also used as an excuse by next-gen parents to call it a night and take their kids home from the party.

Getting back to football, many of the spectators at the game will credit Will Carter for the win, and he definitely should get some credit, but Ehlana and Naomi want me to make it clear here in this journal that Ethan was the true star and he’s responsible for making Will look so good tonight.  Ehlana wants me to take some credit too and point out that Aaron also had a really good game, but we all know that Ethan somehow managed to lead us while trying to avoid extra attention as he also earned two touchdowns and had double the yards gained compared to anyone else – not to mention getting an interception on defense and being part of the reason that Maple Valley only managed to earn ten points – with none of them directly against him.  Aaron and I each had one touchdown and gained some decent yards too, but most of that was thanks to Ethan because as he got more attention from the Maple Valley defense; we got more opportunities.  Our team scored thirty-eight points on the way to the win and kept the lead once we got the first touchdown, but we also didn’t cruise our way to the end and part of the reason for Maple Valley’s low score was because they chose to try for touchdowns for all of the second half of the game when field goals would no longer be enough to get them back into the game.  We stopped them on four fourth-down plays – including when Ethan got that defensive interception; and only kicked our one field goal near the end when it didn’t really matter anymore and Maple Valley ran out of time for a comeback.

Ethan and I are biased, but Ehlana and Naomi are the most-beautiful members of the cheer squad; they have the best gymnastic tricks in each of their routines; and we are so-glad that they picked us over all of the other guys that wish they were available!  I could try to make a joke about Ethan playing better than I did because of Ehlana being more-distracting, but the truth is that Ethan is better than I am – at least for now.  I may catch up eventually, and Ehlana’s telling me to add that I’m also still one of the best players on our team along with Will and Aaron; so let’s concede that’s true and move along with the rest of our story.

While we were focused on the football action tonight, most of the collective weekend guests arrived and joined in on the family fun at the Everetts or the game.  Faith made an appearance at the game along with the gang of family and friends that included our parents, grandparents, cousins, and more.  She didn’t stay for long, but we still had a large gang of supporters through to the end of the game – though the campfire started at the Everetts at dusk.  The post-game action at the school took a while; we all headed over to the Carters’ home once we were cleaned up and had dealt with our gear; and then the four of us stayed for about an hour to get in on the Pizzeria pizza and the victory celebration.  We’ve already covered our campfire contribution; and we came home from there – along with my future parents-in-law.  There is still a lot that I haven’t covered, but with so much going on in one day; I might need the rest of the night to write about everything.  Ehlana wants me to mention that the family cottages are all in use this weekend; and the guests include the Rice clan and about half of the Johnson-McEwan gang.  The Proctors are not here because Jaimie and Kaitlyn are at college, but the Malloys are here for the weekend and Valerie and Marcus opted to join in on the girls’ or guys’ camping tonight.

We did not want to do that too, since it has already been a long day; and we didn’t want to stay up half the night with our cousins and their friends.  It is late as we’re writing this now, and we have a busy weekend ahead of us starting with all of the championship games we have booked for tomorrow; so let’s finish this up.  Everything about our first football game was amazing; we hope that our baseball games will go as-well tomorrow; and I hope that I don’t get asked to take a turn at writing these journals very often; since Ethan and Naomi are having more-fun with their co-ed cuddling and I prefer it when that’s true for Ehlana and me instead!  We really do need to get some sleep, though, so that’s all for tonight.  Unlike Ethan and Ehlana, I’m okay with staying oblivious to most world news stories and don’t need to talk or write about them!  Okay, that’s a total fib, since two of my best friends do keep me informed and we talk about those stories, but we don’t need to do that tonight; and I’m good with moving on to a bit of quality cuddle time with Ehlana before we drift off toward nap time.  I expect that Ethan will be back in charge of their next update, so I hope their future journal readers have enjoyed my rare turn at helping out with this part of their daily routine and hope that I’ve done badly-enough that they won’t ask me for help again! ;^)

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

Thursday, August 28, 2025

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 28, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

We didn’t set any school records today, but having four of the Grade Nine guys make the football team is close to that record; and Aiden and I are very happy to be joining Aaron on the team.  Miles and Joshua are happy too – though Miles is also a bit disappointed that he won’t be the starting quarterback.  He has talent, and might get there in another year or two, but he should be able to admit that Will Carter is significantly-better at that job and he’s also earned the Captain’s job and deserves both.  The announcements came this morning, so the hopefuls that didn’t make the team were done by mid-morning; and then we got to work on getting ready for our first game tomorrow night.  There is some pressure that comes with experiencing the time crunch, but there are advantages to being a junior Magi Master for memorizing all details thrown at us ranging from information on our opponent to offensive and defensive formations and plays.  We had some extra coaching from Lee Landry and expect to have more of that support from Kyle and Tim – and maybe even from Michael – during the season, but we’ll keep you posted on that along with the news from practices and all of the games.  Coach Robinson is very happy; so our expectations are high for our team’s chances this year.

Moving along, Ehlana’s cheer squad practice was only for the morning, and she had fun with that, but then she got drafted for yard chores for the rest of the day – and Naomi joined her to work together at multiple homes.  I feel a bit bad about not helping them this afternoon while busy with football, but then I got drafted to work after dinner through to dusk so that all of the prep work for the holiday weekend got finished today.  Ehlana and I won’t have time for that tomorrow with practices and that first game; and we also won’t even be able to welcome our weekend guests or hang out very much with our visiting cousins.  That will be a change for us every fall during our high school years, but then that’s just one of many changes as we all grow up and add next-gen kids to the family.

Ehlana and I didn’t book another co-ed sleepover celebration tonight, but that was mostly because Naomi and Aiden were booked to help their own families tonight while we were busy too; and we should all get more sleep tonight ahead of our first football game day!  That’s also why we’ll keep the world and political news report as-short as we can; so let’s get right to it.

Let’s start with one of the top national news stories of the past two days – the Catholic school shooting in Minneapolis.  There is a transgender component to this story, but we aren’t going to get into that the way the media is doing; since the true issue should obviously be the serious mental illness of the shooter.  We’re horrified by what this person did, killing two children and injuring seventeen others before killing himself; and our hearts go out to the victims, their families, and friends.  These shootings should never happen; and our leaders at all levels need to get serious about solving the mental health issues that are leading to all of these attacks.  Ehlana and I do not want to minimize this incident, but do want to point out that while this kind of attack is comparatively-rare in the rest of the world; bad things happen at schools in many other countries for other reasons – like fanatics attacking schools to keep girls from being educated at all for just one example.

That school shooting is also tiny compared to the ongoing horrors in Ukraine and the Middle East – though there are some links that can be pointed out.  Attacks on religion are one of those connections.  In the Middle East, Christians are being attacked from multiple sides – including from Israel while the Israeli army also attacks Muslims in a handful of countries while continuing the genocide in Gaza.  Western news won’t report on Ukraine’s crackdown on the Russian Orthodox Church as they’ve worked to destroy what had been the largest church in the country.  The Orthodox churches are related to the Catholic church even though they split and moved in different directions a thousand years or so ago; so it seems insane to us – or evil – for the Ukrainian leaders to persecute Christians in a supposedly-Christian country.  That’s minor compared to all of the war horrors in the country; so we shouldn’t be surprised that the insanity of continuing a war that is destroying your own country has spread to most facets of Ukrainian society.

Let’s stop there, since I’m feeling the urge to really get going on a rant.  Ehlana and I need to get extra sleep tonight, since we likely won’t get much down time through the weekend.  Sure, we can cheat with Magi-powered self-healing – and probably will, but why let facts get in the way of saving you from that rant?  Stay tuned, since we really hope that our summer wrap-up will be amazing; and we’ll get some rest and be back at full-power by morning to be ready for all of those adventures!

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

Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 27, 2025

Ethan and Ehlana:

Ehlana, Naomi, and Sophia are officially members of this season’s football cheer squad!  That’s our top news of the day; and we had fun with our respective football or cheerleading practices.  The official football team announcements will be made tomorrow, but Coach Robinson has mostly moved on from tryouts to practices now; and there shouldn’t really be many guys that haven’t figured out by now whether they’ll make the team or not.

Ehlana and I are taking care of this update now because we’re expecting to be busy for the rest of the day.  Dinner with Mom and Dad will be soon; we have the final teen praise team practice for the holiday weekend service after that; and then we’re going to keep Naomi and Aiden with us for the rest of the night for a mini-celebration co-ed sleepover.  The praise team practice is going to include a full rehearsal for the service with skits and everything else, so that will take a couple of hours; and then we’ll likely do a group Magi lesson with Mom and wing it for the rest of the night.  We’re going to have fun with all of that and don’t want to mess up our happy day with any world news commentary – so we won’t go there at all! ;^)

We need to go and help Mom with making dinner now; so that’s all for this report.

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