Ethan and Ehlana:
Happy 25th Birthday, Roger Jennings!
We wished Roger the best while at church this morning, but left it up to his family and friends to take care of the celebration while we had a quieter day – or at least we did that after returning the younger kids to their parents this morning after our babysitting and sleepover with those kids and some teens. Last night was a blast of fun from our quick dinner to the co-ed ball game that ‘our’ team won and then on through the babysitting at our house that included video gaming; music, movies, and more before we eventually got the kids off to sleep for the night. Zack and Eli led a few of the guys into a video game marathon that lasted until after the rest of us were sleeping, but that was their choice; and they dealt with the lack of sleep when we all needed to get up this morning.
Tai Chi by the river was awesome with all of the extra exercise buddies and some spectators; breakfast was an adventure as we helped with the work to get all of the kids fed with help from some volunteer parents; and then it was a rush to get everyone to church on time for the service. Ehlana and I helped out again during Sunday school with the prep work for the holiday weekend service; and pretty much got everything done except the teen praise team practices a week early. Pastor John went with a slightly-shortened service due to the heat, but we ended up getting home at closer to normal time once we were finished what we were doing.
Our afternoon has been fun, but lazy as we opted to take it easy and spend lots of time in the river staying cool with some friends and cousins. Dad also did some work in the office to get ready for his week in the city, but we only did a bit of work in the office after dinner – along with a Magi lesson with Mom. We had easy-meals for lunch and dinner too; and aren’t having any overnight guests. We were happy to have the quiet time with Mom and Dad for dinner and the evening; and our best friends need time with their families now and then too! Our family business and charity work tonight was focused on Turkey and Georgia in support of Cassie and Michael; and Mom put a time limit on us to make sure that we didn’t stay up late again tonight. Bath or Jacuzzi time followed the work; and now we’re winding down toward nap time.
We’ll be up early to see Dad off on his trip; so let’s get to the rest of the news. Cassie and Michael are in Georgia already as we’re writing this update – and staying with May and Lee at their place in Batumi. They will be staying there until they start the trip home early on Thursday; and they’ll mix work with having fun with May and Lee. Their friends have picked an awesome place to live and work; and they get to enjoy being on the Black Sea coast while also being at the foot of a mountain range with all of the natural beauty and opportunities available from both in a sub-tropical climate! We wish that they lived closer to us so we could see them now and then, but maybe their location will work out for us if we ever decide to go on a European vacation or summer adventure!
While Cassie and Michael will be having fun in Georgia; the top news in the rest of the world continues to be the Alaska summit and the subsequent meeting that President Trump will be having on Monday with Ukrainian and European leaders at the White House. We’ll see whether anything real happens to actually bring the war to an end, but hope is tough to hold on to when those leaders always seem to choose war and hate over love and peace. Keeping the focus on Ukraine has been leaving Israel free to continue the destruction and death in Gaza and elsewhere; and we continue to be sickened by all of the human-caused horrors around the world. We really don’t want to get into a rant, but it is tough to resist when we understand how much better the world could be if all of the money spent on war was used to make better lives for people instead of destruction. Maybe we should add that the same is true for a lot of the money spent by politicians for everything from campaigns to pork spending and ‘favors’ for the elite that pay for their political careers and lifestyles, but doing that might just be more-impossible than ending war spending!
On that somewhat-silly note; let’s call it a night. We have a busy week coming up as we roll into the last two weeks of our summer break and we want to be ready for all of the work and fun; so that’s all for tonight.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
