Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - June 4, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 10^th Anniversary, Isabelle and Andrew Jennings!

We delivered a card and gift for one of our favorite teachers this morning before first classes, but that was the totality of our involvement in that anniversary celebration.  Violet and Dillon are helping out with giving his sister and brother-in-law a kid-free night; and we do not need to comment on that story at all! ;^)

As for our own adventures, we’ve kept busy with our exams studies; Ethan and I hosted the after-school and evening study session that included feeding our gang of teens; and we missed out on game night at the Inn while busy with our friends.  That probably doesn’t sound exciting, but we are happy tonight; and we are glad that we can help our classmates with getting as ready for those exams as possible.  Since we didn’t have any major interruptions tonight, we wrapped up the work by around ten o’clock; our friends headed out for their own homes; and we took care of the clean-up while multi-tasking a post-gaming visit with mom and Dad after they got home from the Inn.

Ethan and I are busy with the wrap-up twin chat and computing; we’re getting tired fast; and our world news report is going to be short again tonight.  Let’s begin with the weekly oil reserves update, and our national reserves dropped by another eight million barrels last week.  That is a slower draw from the previous two weeks, but unless the reductions slow a lot more; we’ll be hitting new lows by the end of June; and could close in on minimum levels by the end of the summer.  That reality hasn’t hit market prices yet, but it will get there eventually; and it could take a decade or more to rebuild reserves – especially when that is going to be a problem for all of the major countries that are also depleting their stockpiles of petroleum products.

In the Middle East, Lebanon is still under attack from Israel; ditto that for the Palestinians and Syrians; and there is no sign that the Israeli military is going to stop their killing and destruction.  That stance will not make peace with Iran possible, but then our leaders aren’t really trying to negotiate for peace anyway; and threaten and bully instead of actually trying to negotiate anything.  The battles in Ukraine continue to rage along the front lines and beyond; there are multiple points of contact that are collapsing for Ukrainian defenses; and there are many reports of serious problems for the Ukrainian soldiers as supply lines collapse and Russian forces create new cauldrons and cutting off those troops even from chances to retreat.  Many people in the west would not know that is happening; since ‘our’ leaders and media do not report very much of the bad news from Ukraine while also pushing narratives that are often total nonsense.

I’m keeping this going longer than we wanted; so let’s stop there.  Ethan and I are looking forward to the weekend even though we’ll continue the exams studying along with the usual chores and the start of the baseball season.  We’ll try to have some fun to write about along the way too, so stay tuned for that; and we’ll go get some sleep so we’ll be ready for all of that work and fun.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - June 3, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 5^th Birthday, Ryan Jacobs!

Happy 15^th Birthday, Jenna Sparks!

Happy 4^th Birthday, Carson Carter!

Happy 20^th Anniversary, Pastor John and Stacey!

Happy 14^th Anniversary, Grandpa Grant and Grandma Eleanor!

That’s a lot of partying for one day in our little town, but then Ethan and I only did a cameo visit with Ryan for his party; and spent the rest of our late afternoon and evening at Jenna’s birthday dinner, party, and exams study session.  We’ve had fun today, but don’t really have much to report from our own adventures; since we really did do a lot of studying and fit in the rest of the fun along the way.  Jenna passed her driver’s license test and has already done some driving with her Mom; and she is very happy to join that club.  She liked her gifts and the parts of the party that weren’t study-related.  For the record, Naomi, Sophia, and I take care of ‘girl’ gifts for our friends; and no, that is not because Naomi is worried about what Ethan might choose instead or that those girls might like gifts he chooses better!  Jenna’s party and the studying rolled on until eleven o’clock; we were in the middle of the pack for departures; and our home time since then has only changed from Monday and Tuesday in that Mom did a Magi lesson with us while Dad was finishing up his own work; we did a bit of charity work; and now we’ve just finished up with bath or Jacuzzi time.  It is late; so let’s cover the world news with a quick report and then we’ll go and get some sleep.

Instead of writing about the wars in Ukraine or the Middle East; we are going to cover a couple of side stories that got our attention – though one of them is part of the bigger Iran war story.  The missile and drone attacks from last night included a news report that isn’t getting covered in ‘western’ media because it appears that damage at the Kuwait international airport was actually caused by an errant Patriot missile instead of an Iranian missile or drone.  One person was killed and several injured at the terminal that was hit; and videos do appear to confirm the defense missile miss-fire.  While that is a comparatively-small story; we’re mentioning it to point out hypocrisy of western media where propaganda is more-important than truth.

The other story we want to cover is from the United Nations, where, for the first time, Germany did not ‘win’ one of the temporary seats on the United Nations Security Council.  Austria and Portugal were voted into the seats being voted on, so there probably won’t be any significant changes for the security council, but it is noteworthy that Germany did not get those votes and it is a sign that their influence in the world is dimming.  Okay, that might be a bit unrealistic, since Germany is currently chairing the United Nations General Assembly where that vote happened today, and they are still a manufacturing powerhouse even with the problems they are having; and they do still have a lot of power in Europe and as a major player in the world economy.

It is late now, so that’s all for tonight.  Stay tuned for more of our adventures in studying and more; and we’ll go have a nap to get ready for all of that work and fun.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - June 2, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Day two of our ‘enhanced’ exams study week didn’t include as much studying because of our band and praise team practices, but we did study all day at school; added in some more work along with the Pizzeria pizza dinner between the practices; and fit in two more hours of studying at Naomi’s house with about half of our friends after we left the church by around eight-thirty.  I walked Aiden over to his house while Ethan was busy saying goodnight to Naomi in a non-verbal sort of way; we came home by a bit after eleven o’clock; and only had a quick chat with Mom and Dad before coming upstairs for the usual bedtime computing and twin talk wrap-up to our day.

There has been a lot of news going on around the world, and while we would really love to offer good news now and then; our reality is that the same idiocies roll on endlessly while horrors continue to be inflicted on the people caught in the middle of the wars and conflicts.  Some stories that we took note of today included an apparent admission that Ukraine was responsible for a mid-May drone attack directed at Finland that was likely meant to be a false-flag event to blame on Russia – the one that caused a panic in Finland affecting nearly two million people.  We can also report new strikes on Kiev and other Ukrainian cities that are apparently the start of a new escalation; the targets included drone factories and power infrastructure; and there are reports of large-scale power outages.  There are also reports of frontline collapses occurring or imminent in multiple locations; so there could be more going on than is being reported – especially if Russia has decided to change their strategy and goals.

As for the Middle East, talk of peace is ‘on’ today without any proof of any real progress; the supposed ceasefire deal in Lebanon isn’t holding at all as the fighting continues; and Iran is not showing any interest in trusting any agreement with either the United States or Israel.  There have also been more missile and drone attacks on Iran and on multiple American or allied military bases in the region; there are definitely escalations in those attacks on both sides now; and that ceasefire might be finished now too.

Ethan and I are both tempted to offer a long rant tonight because we are really tired of watching our national and world leaders destroy countries, people, and the global economy all for the sake of more power and wealth for themselves and their families and friends without any care for the rest of the people that they are actually supposed to represent and protect.  That little blip of commentary would be a good start to that rant, but we need to get some quality nap time more; so that’s all for this report.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - June 1, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 1^st Birthday, Colleen Carter!

Happy 26^th Birthday, Allen White!

Our top news of the day is the official start for our extra exams study sessions with our friends; and Ethan and I hosted the first session after school.  We also fed dinner to our study gang; had a break while many of us had our ball practices tonight; and then we resumed the studying until around eleven o’clock.  We worked on exam prep all day at school too with a combination of review, self or group study time, and module quizzes and practice tests.  That is going to be our life all week; so expect rinse-and-repeat updates for that part of our adventures through until exams begin next Monday.  Let’s also add that our ball practices getting more-serious as we get ready for first games of the season – and those games begin this weekend.

Ethan and I didn’t do any work with Mom and Dad tonight – or even a Magi lesson, so after our friends headed out; we pretty much sped through the post-studying clean-up; multi-tasked a chat with our parents; and now we’re winding down fast with the usual twin chat and computer checks.  We haven’t spent time with Cassie and Michael today, but Mom did for a while; and we also know that they are already home from Allen’s birthday party because they had international video conference call work to do tonight.

We’re getting tired fast; so let’s get to the world news update.  Peace is off today in the Middle East; the fighting is escalating in Lebanon; and there have been more strikes on both sides between Iran and the United States.  Iran has paused all messages for peace talks due to both the situation in Lebanon and the American strikes along their coast; and a larger retaliation could be imminent along with a total collapse of the ceasefire.  The news from Ukraine continues to be ugly too, but while we still haven’t seen a major attack on Kiev yet; Ukraine has again used drone strikes on a nuclear power plant in a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine; that plant is the largest in Europe; and it is insane for the Ukraine leaders to risk that kind of disaster when they could cause another Chernobyl-level incident if they actually managed to succeed in destroying one or more of those reactors.  Western leaders and media are barely even covering that story – just as they ignored the drone attack on the Russian school that killed twenty-one teens; and the hypocrisy is stunning.  Finally for tonight, with peace being off today, commodity prices have reacted accordingly, but those prices are so manipulated now; the swings are mostly meaningless.  That will eventually change as shortages become serious; and we can only watch on in amazement as our world leaders continue to pretend that the consequences of their actions aren’t going to now be with us for months at best and years if we continue along the current paths.

That isn’t a happy thought to end on, but we need to get some sleep; so that’s all for this report.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - May 31, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Before we get to our news for the last day of May; let’s begin with a quick update for our respective, separate adventures last night.  Ethan would normally be suspiciously-quiet about his alone time with Naomi while she’d definitely share the highlights with me, but in this case; Ethan fell asleep early; so Aiden and I probably had more of that kind of co-ed fun than they did despite the rarity of that actually happening!  They still had fun with the dinner and a movie they shared with Mom and Dad; they got to have some alone time too; and that ended early when Ethan fell asleep during their second movie of the night.  For the record, that was not because my brother was bored – he just picked an inconvenient time to run out of steam.  Aiden had some fun with that story this morning, but then we did actually have more fun last night too – partly because his parents went to bed early; and Hailey was with Leah last night.  We had fun with our dinner and some quiet chat time with Aiden’s parents; and then we did not watch the movies that we pretended to watch while enjoying the make-out time opportunity.  We didn’t get as much sleep last night, but Magi-powered fatigue healing was an option again this morning; and we also had more fun with our Tai Chi by the river that we were able to do with Cassie and Michael thanks to another well-timed break in the rain and storms.

Ethan and Naomi had their workout by the river with Mom and Dad too; we had our respective morning meals at home or Aiden’s house respectively.  We met up at church for the service and Sunday school; Pastor John is beginning a new series of messages with supporting learning modules for the Sunday school classes that is about family and growing things.  While there are sure to be farming themes involved, we know that Pastor John will weave together connections from strong foundations and fertile soil to strong communities and bountiful harvests.

The return of the rain didn’t arrive until later in the afternoon than we expected, and it warmed up into the nineties, but we still opted for work-play afternoon.  Ethan did that at the archives; and I ended up going to the bakery with Aiden and helping out there instead of playing in my lab.  We each had fun with our books or, for a change, my baked treats; and my work was definitely more-delicious! ;^)

We cane home in time for dinner with Mom and Dad; Ethan and I took care of the clean-up because they did the cooking; and then we all worked in the office for a couple of hours.  Let’s not comment on why our parents had work left to do after a kid-free afternoon.  We had fun with the work we did on charity and family business projects; Mom did a Magi lesson with us; and then we eventually moved on to bath or Jacuzzi time.  While we’ve been busy, let’s also mention that Cassie and Michael have been busy today too.  They switched out nephews and nieces from the Nortons to the Stones; and they are keeping Sierra, Stuart, and Samuel tonight.  They did get a buffet dinner at the Inn out of that deal; and they do love spending time with all of their favorite next-gen kids.  Ethan and I will not offer training-related commentary about all of that babysitting – and yes, that is entirely because they started that training with us!

As for the world news of the weekend; it has been another total mess of propaganda.  For the Middle East conflict, while President Trump again continues to claim imminent peace with Iran while there are major issues still outstanding and he also continues to move the goalposts for that ‘deal’ that Iran doesn’t agree is close at all.  Add in that the latest terms include ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ for that deal; and our skepticism is more-real than that supposed peace deal.  Let’s also add that Israel has continued massive attacks on Lebanon and continue to push to take territory by force; and nobody should believe that peace is near – or that it would last if a deal was even reached when there is no reason to trust that ‘our’ side would keep to any deal at all.

On the Ukraine war front, there are two major defensive cities that are getting close to collapse as the Russian forces advance, and while everyone is waiting for and expecting a major attack on Kiev; losing two of the largest remaining defensive locations east of the Dnieper could prove more-significant to the Ukrainian armed forces – especially if they lose too many more troops as those cities are lost.  There are sidelines stories related to NATO, the Baltic countries, and expanding nuclear weapons stockpiles and positioning in Europe.  Some of those reports are distractions meant to keep western populations looking away from the disaster that Ukraine has become for their own people, but the stories about nuclear weapons and building up troop levels in the Baltics are true risks that Russia must assess and counter to protect themselves.  We can only hope that both sides will come to their senses and stop even these verbal escalations; since nobody wants to see what happens next if that war expands and NATO gets directly drawn into the war.  That would not end well for Europe; and worse for the world if nukes are used at any level.  Ethan and I have mentioned this before as our leaders have wiped out all nuclear reduction treaties and talk of arsenal build-ups have developed; and we do not want to see a new nuclear arms build-up race.  We are sure that there are many powerful people interested in the power and wealth possible by just that sort of military expansion and the potential for population control through another round of nuclear war themed fear m0ngering, but we’ll hope for the best; and maybe we’ll do a bit of Magi-powered research to work on ways to keep that kind of destruction from actually happening!  For the record, no, we can’t do something like turn nukes into flowers or maybe something funny like in Harry Potter books, but maybe we can figure out a way to neutralize those weapons before they can be used.

That could be a fun thought to take into dreamland and explore for those solutions; so we’re going to do that and wrap this up right now! ;^)

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