Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - March 5, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

The forecasted freeze, snow, and ice welcomed us to the day, but we also didn’t get the afternoon melt; so Ehlana and I ended up shoveling and salting driveways and sidewalks before and after school instead of Tai Chi before breakfast or playing at the lab or archives after we were set free from school for the day.  That ended up being our top story of the day – the outdoor snow work.  We had a good day at school too – including while writing a test and dissecting the President’s address to the joint session of congress; a story that we’ll cover in this report too.

Thanks to the weather, we stayed indoors most of the time except when dealing with the clean-up.  Dinner with Mom and Dad was hot, but also an easy-meal; and then we worked in the office for a few hours – plus the equivalent, time-phased hours.  Some of the work was prepping for risks ahead if a trade war accelerates; and we definitely would have some impacts for some family businesses and charities.  Mom had us wrap up the work by ten o’clock; bath or Jacuzzi time followed; and now we’re ready to get some sleep soon.

Before we go there, we do need to comment on the top political news from last night.  It was obvious where the battle lines are drawn between the two parties in congress; and we’re mostly just ready to ignore all of the nonsense.  There are parts of the President’s plans and goals that we agree with; others that we don’t; and some that are just thrown out there for political theatre.  A lot of his plans are not going to go over very well in the rest of the world, but many of the issues are truly-serious, and we agree that we can’t help the rest of the world at all if we bankrupt our country in the attempt – though we would argue that our goals for the world haven’t been to help, but to rule and exploit.  Either way, the status quo won’t work and will destroy us, so while we have issues with these new plans too; any shake-up at all might at least get us going in the right direction – especially if we can actually negotiate what is best for all of us!

Yes, that quaint little dream is unlikely with current animosity, but then we’ll never understand choosing to hate everything because of the messenger while ignoring the validity of each message.  Okay, we also don’t understand hating anyone or anything, but you get the point.  We’ll keep you posted on the various stories if anything actually happens beyond the rhetoric, but that’s all we’re going to cover for tonight; and now we are definitely going to move on to nap time!

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - March 4, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

The weather was definitely the top local story again today – and this time it has been because of getting a serious rain drenching this morning and into the afternoon while now we’re heading into another freeze with snow and freezing rain expected overnight.  Since we’re expecting a messy morning; we’re going to keep this update short and get as much sleep as we can.

There isn’t really a lot to offer for our personal news.  Tai Chi and breakfast with Mom and Ad was good; we got damp on the walk to school; and our academic adventures were fun and not at all newsworthy.  The school band practice was a fun highlight – though we’re not being very serious about the music with so much time to get ready for the holiday weekend parades.  That practice also ended a bit early for most of us because some of the teens were volunteered to help out with Easter music for the church; so they were having a mini-practice to go over that music.

Getting home early allowed us to help Mom with making dinner and since it is Shrove Tuesday; we had pancakes and bacon.  We didn’t mention having Paczkis for lunch, and that was one of the food highlights of our day, but then there were still some of them available at home for dessert; and we really appreciate the Olde Bakery for having these special occasion treats!

Ehlana and I worked in the office after the post-dinner clean-up; Mom did a Magi lesson with us; and we used time phasing to get more done while still wrapping up the office time by nine-thirty.  We moved on to the twin chat and bedtime computing right away; and now we’re pretty much ready to crash and nap now.  There are world, political, and entertainment stories that we could write about tonight, but we really don’t want to do very much of that again tonight.  Ehlana does want me to mention that we have not enjoyed the teen chats at school related to the Academy Awards show that happened on Sunday.  Yes, we take in all of the stories, but we also don’t want to waste any time talking about any of that spectacle that has descended into celebrating the worst that humanity can be instead of the best.  We really don’t want to even comment on any of those most-talked about stories; so let’s move on.  For other news of the day, we should probably mention that trade wars are heating up as our President imposed new tariffs today on China, Canada, and Mexico; and retaliation tariffs have been levied too.  This really is just the start of implementing new policies and there are going to be wide-ranging consequences; so we’ll keep you posted on this story as the effects are felt in our country and around the world.  We see both sides of the political and economic issues, and our country definitely needs to deal with the problems that come with never-ending trade deficits, but it remains to be seen whether the pain that will come with hard choices will prove to be more than most people are willing to accept.

Our president also put a pause on funding or sending weapons to Ukraine, so that’s causing another uproar, but we’re always hoping for peace; and it is definitely past-time for a change in strategy when what the western countries have been doing for years now isn’t working while Ukraine is being destroyed.  European leaders are still promising to stand behind Ukraine regardless of the cost; so we can only hope that those costs won’t lead to the total destruction of Ukraine – or the world.

That is definitely getting too-serious – which is why Ehlana has just started calculating the Magi power that would be required to protect the entire Ridge River district from a nuclear war with a dome-shield!  That just proves to me that we both really need to get some sleep; so that is absolutely all we have for this report.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - March 3, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Local weather is one of our news stories today.  After starting the morning with near-freezing lows in the mid-thirties, it warmed up to near-sixty; and now we’re starting to get rain overnight with quite a bit of it in the forecast for tomorrow.  We’ll take that over a snowstorm that would be measured in feet if it was going to be cold enough.  The incoming rain had everything to do with why Ehlana and I chose to go biking on the trails with our friends after school because the trails might be too-wet to use for the rest of the week.  Our academic adventures were good, but not newsworthy – though some people elsewhere in the country and world might have found our discussion about the political events of the past few days interesting.  Okay, they’d also likely laugh and call us naive, but we chose to ignore the personalities and theatre; discuss the issues; and decide that negotiating for peace instead of provoking expanded war is what should be done – contrary to what most European leaders and the weapons industry want in pursuit of wealth and power.

We really didn’t want to get into a commentary on the most-recent round of political insanity; so let’s move on.  We loved biking with our friends; some cousins met up with us and joined in on the fun; and then Ehlana and I came home on our own for an easy-meal dinner with Mom and Dad.  We went to play-work at the lab after cleaning up from that meal; used time phasing to help with getting more done; and wrapped up by ten o’clock after the equivalent of about seven hours of work with our beakers or books.  We did a little visit with Mom and Dad before coming up to our rooms; bath or Jacuzzi time was needed after the biking and park play; and now we’re hurrying through our computer checks because we’re getting tired and ready for some quality nap time.  We’re happy with the work we got done tonight; feel good from the exercise and fun with our friends; and we are choosing to stay happy tonight despite the never-ending stupidity being led by most of the world leaders.

Ehlana just made a joke about how lucky we are that our little town isn’t at the center of major rare-earth or natural resources; or we’d be getting the same wrong kind of attention and exploitation by our governments.  That’s funny and true, but then we likely really would have problems if our leaders knew about our Magi abilities!  The world is already scary-enough thanks to all of the Dark Magi that are happy to use politicians and other powerful people for their own gains and purposes.  We’d never help our leaders to do evil; and that would likely end badly for all of us if we were faced with that kind of fight.  We do all know that is one of the reasons for why we hide from the rest of the world – though the action movies based on that kind of story could be awesome! ;^)

Okay, I’m obviously tired and need to sleep now; so that’s all for this report.  Maybe your ‘now’ is enough better than those jokes are only quaint tidbits of history while you get to live openly with the rest of the world.  That would be awesome for you – and for us if we’re still around to see that happen, and since that’s a fun thought to take along to dreamland; I’m going to try to go there right now.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - March 2, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

My sister wants you to know that I had more fun than she did today, but while I definitely had more play time; she still had a lot of fun too – including while her afternoon adventures were in her lab and while running several experiments.  Mom and Dad also hosted the Drapers for dinner while I was with Naomi and her family; so they had some family-and-friends’ fun too.

It was around freezing again this morning, but then we split the difference between the Friday and Saturday highs and topped out in the mid-fifties; so the weather was pretty good.  Tai Chi was indoors; we had an easy-breakfast; and then we all enjoyed the church service as well as Sunday school for the teens in the house.  I stopped in at home to get changed for a play day before going on to Naomi’s house for lunch; so Ehlana had our parents to herself for that meal before going on to the lab.  Dad worked in his office and got everything done in-time to help Mom with making dinner – and I will only suggest that there might be a correlation between his productivity and Mom’s decision to spend part of the afternoon with Ehlana at the lab!  While the rest of my family was being more-productive than I was; Naomi and I had a lot of fun with her family – including the extended family that we were with for most of the afternoon and a family dinner.  I don’t usually think about the Ayres clan as Naomi’s family when they are grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins to both of us – although that is unofficial for me; so it does feel different to be there for Naomi when getting together doesn’t include my family too.  We had fun; there was some quality outdoor time that included a bike ride for some of us; and dinner was a pot-luck event that offered too-many choices – and I know that because I definitely ate too much!  Since it is a school and work night, we didn’t keep the non-party going until late.  I walked Naomi home along with her family; our goodnight hugs and kisses took a little while and we weren’t interrupted by Eli for any pranks; and then I came home in time to say goodnight to the Drapers as they were getting ready to head out by then too.

I got teased about missing out on Olde Bakery desserts while having dinner with Naomi and her family, and I let them have fun with that for a while before admitting that two of the pot-luck contributions had been from the bakery too.  While Ehlana and I are together most of the time, we enjoyed our respective adventures today; and everyone else around us did too; since the larger gatherings can sometimes get overwhelming.  Mom, Dad, and Ehlana definitely enjoyed a few quiet hours with the Drapers; and we were all in a great mood as we moved on to early bedtime plans.

 

For the teens, that started with bath or Jacuzzi time; and then we met up in the lounge for the twin chat and computer checks wrap-up.  We’ve been sharing our stories and Ehlana is enjoying teasing me; so let’s not off-set all of the happy we’re feeling with another round of bad news commentary.  Lines are definitely being drawn more-firmly between the war supporters and peace seekers this weekend; and there is no way to know which side will ultimately prevail – no matter how much we continue to hope for peace and love and happiness for everyone in the world!

That sentiment seems like a good place to end this report.  We’ve had a great day and weekend; hope that your ‘now’ is amazing too; and will be back with our next report after some quality nap time and then living whatever adventures are ahead of us for tomorrow.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - March 1, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

March didn’t roar in like a lion for us today, but waking up to the cold again after the warmest afternoon still felt like a shock; and it only warmed into the mid-forties for the high today.  We had a lot of fun with the start of our day anyway with Cassie, Michael, and our four best friends – including indoor Tai Chi and a hot breakfast; and then we all moved on to a chores day or other work.  For Ehlana and I, our chores were at home, two cottages, and Grandma and Grandpa’s house; we stopped for a late lunch with Mom and Dad; and then we play-worked at the lab or archives until dinnertime.  While we might have had some play time had the weather been nicer; our friends ended up having plans with their own families instead – which is why we aren’t doing any co-ed sleepovers tonight.  Dinner with Mom and Dad was nice; we took care of the clean-up; and then our evening included a Magi lesson; family business and charity work; and early bath or Jacuzzi time.

Now that we’re down to the bedtime computing and twin chat; getting some extra sleep is high on our to-do list, but before we go there; let’s cover the news from our night with Cassie and Michael.  The biking on the trails eventually expanded to a fairly-large group, but we also stayed on the main trails; since most of the side-trails are not in good condition yet.  There was playground time that we mostly did with some younger cousins and kids; and then we eventually enjoyed a Pizzeria pizza and sides dinner.  The evening entertainment included live music play time; video gaming, and two movies; Cassie and Michael told us travel stories; and we definitely stayed up too late and needed some fatigue healing this morning.  We loved the co-ed cuddle time and naps; so pretty much everything about our visit with Cassie and Michael was amazing.

It is tempting to wrap up this update with those happy thoughts, but before we call it a night; some world and political news needs to be commented on because there have been new problems.  President Trump was very busy last week with a handful of meetings with other world leaders, and while most of them didn’t go well; the worst happened yesterday with a nasty confrontation between the president of Ukraine and our president and vice-president.  We didn’t like anything about what happened in that press-covered meeting – other than it became obvious to everyone that the differences between the sides that want to continue the Ukraine war and our new administration’s policy to negotiate for peace even when that requires concessions and basically admitting defeat.  We had doubts about getting peace; and that proved out as it became obvious that President Zelensky does not want peace – or at least what he wants in exchange for peace will never be accepted by Russia.  We won’t try to predict what will happen next – especially when there are European countries offering to step up their support for Ukraine and even send troops, but there definitely won’t be peace as long as the Ukrainian people and their allies continue to fight while their country is destroyed.  We don’t understand that at all – especially when Ukrainians are already looking at decades of hardship ahead to rebuild and that will only get worse as the destruction continues.

There are other stories in the news too, but the inter-governmental fighting is still more about theatre than actual results.  The idea of making government smaller is very popular among most Americans, but how to get there and where to cut does create fighting points.  Our favorite economist could tell our leaders how to solve their problems, but then there would be zero support for taking those steps; since the short-term hardships would need to hit pretty much everyone.  That has Ehlana suggesting that Michael should go with us for the school trip to D.C.; so we’re going to wrap this up and have a bit of fun coming up with scenarios for arranging a meeting for him with President Trump.  I didn’t include Cassie in that thought, and don’t want to go there either; since we know that Cassie got a lot of attention during her last visit to the Capital.  No, we didn’t even joke about Cassie and Michael meeting with President Biden – and not only because he likely wouldn’t have remembered a visit from them within hours or days.

Cut that out, Ehlana!  Now she’s teasing me about what might have been possible if they’d met him and Cassie had helped him out with a bit of Magi healing!  If that twist is boggling your mind, have fun with all of the possibilities that might have changed history since their visit was months before the last election, and while you do that; we’ll go and get some sleep that I really, really want to get to now thanks to Ehlana!

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