Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - November 5, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Dad’s birthday dinner and party was a total success, and while we put in a fair bit of work; we had fun too – including with our respective co-ed sleepovers at Naomi’s or Aiden’s homes!  Mom had a full house for that meal and into the evening; all of the usual birthday fun kept us busy along with the actual meal and evening entertainment that we hosted for the kids and teens in the lounge; and then Mom and Dad were left on their own when the rest of us left for other homes or alternate destinations.  Ethan had more fun than I did with his sleepover with Naomi – as usual; and I don’t mind that; since Aiden and I have as much fun as we’re ready for so far and don’t need to follow the leaders.

Aiden and I were on our own for Tai Chi by the river while Naomi and Ethan opted to exercise in her back yard; our respective breakfasts were standard school day fare – which included bakery treats at the Draper’s home; and then it was time for our academic adventures – after the morning weight training for the boys that they might take a break from soon after our football season ends.  Our adventures at school weren’t newsworthy – though that is our opinion and partially because we did not enjoy the election day lessons when we don’t think that it will actually matter which of the main two parties win the various levels of government positions up for votes today.  Ethan and I had fun with our school band practice; with the top news there being that we got the music we’ll be using this year for Christmas parades, concerts, and parties.  We were on our own when we came home from that practice; dinner was an easy-meal; and then we’ve been working in the office since then while keeping up with the election results as they’ve happened so far.

The work on our parts of the family business and charities has gone well and we’ve gotten a lot done without the time phasing since we can’t speed up election results with a time phase anyway; and doing good with our work offset the political nonsense from both sides of the two-party aisle tonight.  As we’ve mentioned fairly-often, we don’t have any confidence in any national politicians, but it looks as though President Trump is going to win tonight for both the popular vote and in the electoral college votes; so we’ll hope that our incoming leaders will shock and surprise us by actually doing things that would be for the best of everyone in our country and the world.

Yes, that’s probably too-much to hope for, but it’s late; we’re tired; and we’ll find out how that story goes for all of us over the next months and years; so going to sleep now won’t change anything about that future – so we will.

Stay tuned, since there will likely be more on that election story to follow in the coming updates, and we’ll go have a nap now because we can and need the nap time before we get back to our regularly-scheduled life in the morning.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - November 4, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 46^th Birthday, Dad!

We’re not exactly sure what Mother Nature thinks of Dad’s special day; since the messages are a bit mixed.  It was still warm and in the sixties this morning for Tai Chi by the river and we’ve hit a high in the seventies this afternoon, but there is rain in the forecast to arrive soon – which is why Dad’s birthday dinner will be indoors.  Just for fun, we’ll go with the idea that Mother Nature is happy with Dad; and has moved on to crying because she knows what is going to happen with the elections tomorrow already – though we’re not sure whether those tears are happy or sad! ;^)

Moving along, we need to get to work helping Mom with the dinner and party prep work, and we’ll eventually be giving our Dad a kid-free night for one of his gifts; so we need to get this report out of the way.  Tai Chi by the river was awesome thanks to that warm weather; the breakfast birthday fun included a vid-chat with Cassie and Michael and some gifts for Dad; and then our academic adventures included starting new modules and a day-before-the-elections lesson that was mostly about election laws and processes that mixed civics with math and science.  No, we won’t bore you with the details; so let’s wrap this up.  Cassie and Michael were having a busy first full day in Algeria; there is a lot to love about the country and the people; and they are dealing with some issues that we all wish we could change but can only work through or around while doing as much good as possible for the people that really need our help.  Mom is always helping them from here at home, but Cassie and Michael shouldn’t need them while we’re busy with Dad’s dinner and party thanks to the time change; and we’ll guess that Cassie won’t interrupt the kid-free night either!

We seriously need to get going now; so that’s all for this update.  The birthday party report can wait for our next report, so stay tuned for that; and we’ll get back to living those adventures.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - November 3, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 13^th Birthday, Caroline Carter!

We’re winding down quickly toward nap time after another happy day; so let’s get to the news and then Ethan and I will catch up on our sleep – or I will; since he got more rest last night than I did!

Caroline’s early birthday party was a blast with teen-favorite foods for dinner and multiple bakery dessert options to go along with the usual birthday fun and gifts.  I am choosing to skip over the few birthday blunders from three different guys at the party because they were fairly-minor; and didn’t really mess with Caroline’s happiness.  In addition to the food, we had fun with providing some of the dance music; the co-ed cuddle time and dancing; and the movie time that helped to wind the party down until the boys were sent away and Caroline only had her girlfriends with her for the rest of the night.  We watched another movie and some music videos while enjoying the girls-only time; we stayed up too late; and only Naomi and I got up early this morning for Tai Chi by the river while the rest of the girls slept in as long as possible.  I’ll add that Ethan opted to go home alone and get the extra sleep – though he worked on his digital archives for a while before getting around to the sleep.

I definitely had the busier morning while having breakfast with everyone at Caroline’s house and taking turns getting ready for the day.  The church service and Sunday school were fun with bonus birthday fun for us to share with Caroline; and then thanks to a sunny and warm afternoon; we ended up biking the trails for a few hours with a gang of family and friends before we split up ahead of dinner and returned to our homes or elsewhere.  We were on our own for dinner with Mom and Dad, but the Inn was likely full – including the gang of family that was with Caroline for a bonus birthday dinner.  She only had a couple of friends with her for that meal – including Miles; since that part of her birthday adventures were meant to be mostly for her family.

Ethan and I were happy to have the quieter meal with Mom and Dad; we moved on to some work and a Magi lesson in the office; and then it was bath or Jacuzzi time by eight-thirty because I really was getting tired by then and Mom ordered us to wrap up our day and weekend.  Our bedtime computing has been minimal, but Ethan and I will be ready for the usual teen chat in the morning when it comes to sports and entertainment gossip; and none of our friends will care much about world news – including the elections that are now imminent on Tuesday.  Honestly, that’s true for most of the adults in our town; since we generally have little use or faith in any of our national politicians.  We will need to deal with election politics this week in some of our lessons, but we are mostly going to hope that whatever the results; we don’t have any serious problems anywhere in our country from the people on whichever side ends up losing the election.

Finally, before we move on to nap time, Cassie and Michael have survived a tough week in Chad and Libya without any injuries that they couldn’t co-heal; and now they’ve moved on to Algeria; where they will be working their way from the south to the north of the country while dealing with a variety of challenges and opportunities.  We hope that they’ll do a lot of good in Algeria; and will offer details as they come in from Cassie’s regular reports.  We haven’t mentioned this very often, but should occasionally add that Cassie and Michael do regular vid-chats with his family, Rowen and Tim, and others while away; so they need to fit in quite a few of those daily vid-chats and other communications while already busy with long work and travel days.  Our days seem easy by comparison because they are, but we’ll enjoy that while we can; since we will have to grow up soon-enough and don’t need to rush it.

We can wrap this up and hurry on to nap time now because there isn’t really anything else to add to our report tonight, so we’ll do that; and you can stay tuned or read on in our future while we re-charge and get ready to live the adventures we’ll write about next! ;^)

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - November 2, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

The top teen news of the day is that our football team lost the game last night to Pinehurst.  It was a close game, and Aaron had two touchdowns, but our defense couldn’t hold at the end and Pinehurst earned a close, come-from-behind victory.  The good news, though, is that our team still made it into the playoffs; so we’ll be on the road again next Friday for that game – though we still need to find out the match-ups for those first-round games.  We had fun at the game; Sophia kept us entertained once we got home to her house – including while four of us waited for Naomi and Aaron to catch up with us; and we watched a movie and wound down with quality cuddle and chat time until we were ready to crash and nap for a handful of hours.

We’ve had a fall clean-up chores day so far today, and got a bit damp along the way, but it was mostly-decent for the work; and now we’re getting cleaned up and ready for a night out with our friends.  Caroline’s birthday is tomorrow, but she’s having the party tonight, and while that is going to be co-ed; she’s only keeping the girls for the sleepover.  That’s why we’re offering this update early again; since I’ll be away and Ethan will likely just come home and be on his own for the night instead of doing anything with Aiden or the other guys.  As usual, we got a lot done today at all of the homes we worked at as a crew with our friends and some cousins and parents, but some Magi-powered fatigue healing has been needed to be ready to play tonight.

We’re pretty much there and ready to move on now; so that’s all for this report.  Stay tuned, and we’ll have the party highlights for you sometime tomorrow night – once we’ve lived those adventures with our friends.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - November 1, 2024

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Let’s chalk today-so-far up to an adventure due to sugar-rush, since while Halloween is over; there were a lot of kids and teens running on high speed thanks to all of the candy and chocolate.  Our teachers didn’t bother trying to start new learning modules today, so we mostly just wrapped up the lessons we’ve been learning with Halloween themes; cleaned up; and got ready to move on again on Monday.  It was just a bit warmer today with a high hitting the sixties; and it will still be decent at game time tonight.  There isn’t really any news to offer for our academic adventures beyond the treats overload that we didn’t really get in on at all beyond a bonus treat or three in our lunches.  We’re only home long-enough to get ready to leave for Pinehurst and the last game of the regular season, and while our team isn’t guaranteed to make the playoffs win or lose; the odds are good – though that isn’t true for the actual game because we are definitely the underdogs against Pinehurst.  Sophia is going to host the six-teen co-ed sleepover tonight; so we won’t be home again until sometime tomorrow.

We’ll have all of the details for the rest of our day sometime tomorrow, but that’s all for today and we need to get going soon to meet up with Sophia, Aiden, and the rest of the gang going to the game with us; so that’s all for this report.

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