Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - May 5, 2020

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 25^th Birthday, Stephanie!

Happy 9^th Birthday, Sophia!

This is an early update – though only because we’re doing it before the ‘real’ studying and music plans we have for tonight.

While Cassie and Michael were more-involved in both Stephanie’s and Sophia’s birthdays than we were; today still felt a bit special for us even though our connections to Michael’s sister-in-law and cousins only extends to Cassie by marriage.  If life was back to normal, we’d have definitely been at Sophia’s birthday party, but that wasn’t an option; so we socially-distanced a visit with her while delivering our group gift late this morning; and she was having a small birthday party and sleepover with her best friend.  Our day to now has included a standard study and online lessons morning; we went with the biking and picnic lunch option for half of the afternoon; and then we played at the lab or archives until dinnertime – and Naomi and Aiden were with us through until we headed for our own homes by five-thirty.

Cassie and Michael were at a birthday dinner for Stephanie, but they’ll be back here soon to resume their exam studies with May.  Our dinner-for-five was good; we just finished the clean-up; and will get to our ‘real’ studying next because wrapping up our day with a music practice is more-fun than the other way around.  There is no family baby news yet, but that could change on no notice; and Uncle Adam doesn’t expect that it’ll be much longer before the Johnson clan gets their newest addition to the family.

It’s time to move on, and we definitely don’t want to get into any rants or major political commentary tonight; so we’ll just wrap this up; and get started on our unofficial doctoral theses.  We wouldn’t want to put you to sleep with those details; so we won’t go there – in these personal journals.

If you’re looking for sleep-aid reading options; there are lots of places in the archives that have material perfect for that purpose! ;^)

This is Ehlana and Ethan Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - May 4, 2020

Ehlana and Ethan:

The top family news of the day is that Rob and Trish Johnson have come ‘home’ because she’s due any day now; their local hospital has a small outbreak of coronavirus; and they don’t want to put Trish, the baby, or anyone else at risk of catching the virus at the hospital.  Most of us think that it’s a bonus that two of Rob’s cousins will get to deliver one of their children; and this baby will have birth stories to tell – or be told – in the future!

Our news for today is mild by comparison.  We had a quiet start to our day as usual with Tai Chi and a normal work day breakfast; our studying kept us busy for the rest of the morning; and then we had lunch before heading to the lab for the afternoon.  We didn’t have a biking or canoe adventure thanks to a rainy day, but we were happy to play in our labs or archives while our best friends opted for other fun with their own families.  For Aiden, that was hanging out with his sister while their parents were busy at the bakery; and Naomi helped her Mom out at the salon with some painting fun.

Cassie, Michael, May, and all of their college friends are busy this week getting ready for first-ever online final exams; so we’ve had a quiet study night since our easy-dinner break.  For us, that meant some ‘real’ studying; a music practice; and then just a bit of video gaming before getting to this bedtime chat and journal update multi-tasking.  That’s it for today, but thanks to that family baby news; we do expect our week to get more interesting than expected; so flip the digital page to read on while we move on to experience the next day or so in our lives – starting with some quality nap time.

This is Ehlana and Ethan Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - May 3, 2020

Ehlana and Ethan:

We’ve had another really good day, but we’re tired too; and will be making this a short update.

Tai Chi by the river and breakfast-for-five was great; though Cassie and Michael might have had the better food options at his house today.  Church-at-home just doesn’t feel the same at all, but we watched Pastor John’s message and the praise team song of the week; and then we got ready for a canoeing adventure – including getting a picnic lunch put together and packed into our ‘supply’ canoe.  We had a multi-family group for that outing while sticking to social distancing too; so that added to the fun – even if it wasn’t quite the same as normal for our family-and-friends gatherings.  Our departures were spaced out a bit, but we were all on the river by eleven; paddled upriver for an hour until we found a good spot for a spread-out picnic; and then we stayed there for about an hour before paddling home again.  Even with putting canoes and supplies away; we still had time for biking the trails and a park snack break; Naomi and Aiden stayed with us for that while the parents and collegians did some work or studying; and then we headed for our own homes in time for dinner.

The lack of Sunday night buffet dinners at the Inn are another downside to our local lockdown rules, but the nice weather and barbeque opportunities makes up for that a bit; so we enjoyed that meal; and then it’s been another quiet evening as we’ve mixed some work or studying with watching shows in the lounge and taking turns in the Jacuzzi or tubs while winding down and getting ready for another busy work week.  That’s all of the news for our day, but we have one added note to make about birthdays.

Our special day isn’t until late-June, but we do think about the chances for a non-celebration every time there are other birthdays around town or with our extended family.  That’s more-obvious on Sundays because birthdays were noted each week at church and Sunday school; so we don’t even have that happening for anyone – unless you include the online announcements.  We’re not even mentioning birthdays in our journal that we normally would include – and in this past week; that’s included Leah’s 7^th and Nathan Draper’s 41^st birthdays.  We still have gifts for our favorite people, and Aiden’s parents got a kid-free night for his father’s special day, but we feel sad for the kids and teens that don’t get to do anything special while most entertainment businesses are closed and social distancing keeps parties to the bare minimum.

Take that as meant – and not in any connection to the earlier mention of kid-free nights! ;^)

We’ve written more than planned, so let’s just wrap this up; and we’ll go and get some sleep.  The first full week of May could get interesting for virus-related reasons, but if the restrictions begin to ease soon; we’ll hope that we collectively find the right mix of trying to get back to a more-normal daily life with keeping everyone as safe and healthy as possible.

Maybe we should re-phrase that to suggest that we hope that we’ll do the second part of that while making our new ‘normal’ better than before for everyone too!  It’s a concept that might be too much to hope for, but it would be refreshing to have our leaders use this crisis to fix some of our biggest problems in the world instead of just helping the already-obscenely-wealthy to get more for themselves at the expense of everyone else and without regard for the costs and damage.

We don’t want to get into a rant, so we’ll call it a night; and go get some sleep.

This is Ehlana and Ethan Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - May 2, 2020

Ehlana and Ethan:

We had a really great night with the barbeque dinner; evening play time; campfire; and co-ed camping adventure with our best friends.  The fun highlights included the group bike ride after dinner; the music and stories around the campfire; and the cuddle and chat time in the tent that kept us awake too-late – and explains part of the reason for us being tired tonight.  Tai Chi and a hot breakfast kept the happy going this morning, but then the chores around the house and yard weren’t very exciting, but kept us entertained until we had a late lunch – and d kept us busy until Naomi and Aiden could hang out with us again after spending the morning working around their own homes.

We had another outdoor meal at lunch; went biking and explored the park again for most of the afternoon; and then it was time to split up and spend the rest of the day with our own families.  Dinner-for-seven was quiet; and that pretty much describes the rest of our night.  We watched movies in the lounge; took turns having baths or Jacuzzi time; and now we’re ready to crash and get some sleep – or at least three of us are.

Let’s not comment on what the couples in the house might be interested in doing now instead of sleeping. ;^)

We stayed away from most of the news of the day, but will include anything interesting from the weekend with the next update.  Right now, we just want to move on to the napping part of our day – so we will.

This is Ehlana and Ethan Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - May 1, 2020

We’ve had a good day so far; the weather has been awesome; and we’re going to do a camping night with Naomi and Aiden tonight – which is why this is an early update and we won’t be playing with our computers tonight.  Our morning was uneventful, but we enjoyed everything from Tai Chi through to the end of our online lessons and studying for the week by lunchtime.  Another picnic lunch was an option; and we took two canoes out onto the river instead of biking today; though we still went to the park and walked some of the trails after having our lunch there.

The fun level will be going up soon, but that news will have to wait for tomorrow; since we need to meet up with Naomi and Aiden again to get our tent set up before helping Mom and Dad with the pre-dinner work.  One bit of news that we’ll add before going is that our collegians are again uninterested in camping with us tonight.  We know that Cassie and Michael will still camp now and then, but they aren’t choosing a camping night in the back yard over the comfort of their bed in the house; and May hasn’t really shown any serious interest in camping at all.  They will join us for a campfire at dusk, though, and we’ll spend some of the evening together; so we’ll still have fun with them – and Mom and Dad – for most of the best parts of our night.

Okay, it’s really time to get out into the back yard again, so we’re out of here; and back to the real world.

This is Ehlana and Ethan Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!