Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - October 17, 2026

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 28th Birthday, Cal Jennings!

Happy 6^th Anniversary, Kyle and Erin Landry!

We weren’t involved in either celebration today, but Dad did check in with Cal and Anna Marie and deliver a gift; and we know that Cassie and Michael did vid-chats with both couples – one via Rowen and Tim at our breakfast time while it was around lunchtime for them.  We’ve spent our day to now on chores, and now we’re getting cleaned up before our late dinner and plan to head to the Pumpkin Patch farm for the night-time version of the Halloween adventures.  The after-dark version of their hayride is scary; the Haunted House is scarier and not really appropriate for younger kids; and there is more going on at other activities – like a scarier version of the corn maze.  We need to get started on all of that fun with a fathers-sponsored Pizzeria pizza dinner before we head out; so let’s get to the rest of our story from Friday before we do that.

The good news for Ridgeway is that they put up a pretty good defense against the run, but that was not true for the passing game.  Ethan had three touchdowns last night and Aiden had one, but while Ridgeway kept Aaron from the end zone and his total yards on the ground were low too; they gave up a short, scramble run for a touchdown to Miles.  Ethan and Aiden piled up a lot of yards too, but once our team was up thirty-five to three; we coasted to the fifty-to-six win with five field goals that were all short, easy kicks.

The victory party at Aaron’s house was great; so was the co-ed sleepover for six that followed after everyone else headed out; and we stayed up too-late watching a Halloween movie and enjoying the co-ed cuddle time and teen chat fun that rolled on to the wee hours of the morning.  Ethan and I took care of a group round of fatigue healing this morning before Tai Chi in Aaron’s back yard that was a bit too frosty for comfort but still fun; and then we split up to get started on our respective fall clean-up chores adventures.  We’ve mentioned that and don’t have any fun news to offer from that work, but Ethan and I did spend a fair bit of time with Naomi and Aiden when we did work together; kept busy at a total of four homes and three cottages; and we needed the showers by the time we wrapped up for the day a little while ago – especially since we will want our favorite cuddle buddies holding on to us during the scariest parts of the Halloween fun we’ll be having later this evening!  The rest of our story for today will need to wait, but we will mention that Ethan and I are hosting Naomi and Aiden overnight after we get home from the Pumpkin Patch; and Sophia made other plans for Aaron that didn’t include hanging out with us again overnight!  We’re also going to save the full world news report and make it a weekend update, but here are a few tidbits that we have been following and will write more about tomorrow.

We didn’t mention the school shooting in Oregon that happened on Thursday yet, but that was mostly because the early news had little actual information.  That story is turning out to be very ugly, but also inspiring for the differences to other school shootings; since there were definitely some heroes involved, and while five people died – including the gunman, and two more were seriously-injured; it could have been much worse.  Also in the news this weekend, there are wildfires in the Los Angeles area again this weekend; the protests and riots continue to expand in Europe; and both wars are continuing to go badly for everyone stuck in the middle of those battles and airstrikes.  We don’t have time for covering all of that news right now; so we’ll go with a full weekend report tomorrow night.  Now we get to start in on the Halloween – and pizza – fun; so we’re out of here and off to live the rest of the stories we’ll write about tomorrow night! ;^)

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - October 16, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 45^th Birthday, Aunt Leanne!

Celebrating our aunt’s special day started with a very-frosty Tai Chi workout by the river with extra exercise buddies; we followed that up with lots of work on both sides of the special birthday breakfast; and then we needed to hurry off to school while some of our favorite Moms went with Aunt Leanne on a girls-only weekend getaway that they’re doing in California with Barb.  They are already there and having fun that we might not want any details about; and this update is early because Ethan and I don’t have much time before he needs to be back at the school to get ready for our last regular season home game against Ridgeway.  We’re going to be busy for the rest of the day from here; and don’t plan on doing any bedtime computing at all while we will hopefully be busy with a victory party and co-ed sleepover that Aaron will be hosting this week.  Yes, that means that Dad will get a kid-free night without Mom, but he is planning on coming to the game tonight; and we’re sure that he and the other Mom-free fathers can come up with something to do while not getting to have a guys-only away weekend!  That doesn’t seem fair, but they’ll survive; and maybe they will do that sometime in the future!

As for Ethan and me, we had a good day at school, but the birthday breakfast was the best part of our day-so-far; and Aunt Leanne loved her gifts – especially when many of them were travel and shopping related!  We might have a post-trip report for you – if they do anything that we can write about or want to know about at all!  For right now, though, we are going to skip the world news of the day; stay happier; and focus on all of the fun we want to have for the rest of the day with our friends and the football game spectators.  That might seem shocking to some of our future Magi journal readers, but the world will go on without our reporting or commentary for at least a day; and it isn’t as though our world leaders will ever get to read our journals and rants and advice anyway.  Enjoy the break – at least until you flip the digital page whenever you’re reading this in our future; and we’ll get going again – starting with the Pizzeria pizza dinner we’re going to do with our four best friends on the way back to the school ahead of the game.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - October 15, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Cassie and Michael are in the second country of their trip tonight, and they are getting a lot done even with a lot of travel time.  Weather is an issue for them, but while it is hot there; the mix of daily sun and rain is very different from home.  The focus for most of the work they’re doing so far is about partnerships that can become self-sustaining in the future; and there are many challenges – including dealing with governments and local crime and corruption that can end progress as soon as any successes are achieved and those projects become targets.  Dealing with all of that is part of the sustainability plans with the future goals of expanding those programs across the region so that everyone is lifted up.

Our day hasn’t been that productive or impactful, but we have had fun – even with the cooler weather and some showers that ended by late afternoon.  Tai Chi was indoors due to rain; we had a hot breakfast; and then our academic adventures were good and not newsworthy.  Ethan got a bit damp during football practice; and my cheer squad stayed dry because we had our workout in the gym.  We don’t mention other school activities that we aren’t involved in very often, but since I was thinking about that; I’ll add that we share the gym when we use it; since other teams and clubs use the gym pretty much every day of the school week.  Ethan and I hosted the dinner and study session between our practices and game night at the Inn; Mom added in a group Magi lesson; and then we all headed to the Inn for the games fun.  That was the entertainment highlight of our day; we went for an extended walk with Silkie after that while seeing Naomi and Aiden to their homes; and then we had a quick chat with Mom and Dad before coming upstairs for the night.  Now we’re winding down fast toward nap time and we need to get to that soon because we need to be up early for a special breakfast that Mom and Dad are hosting.  We’ll save that news for the next report, so stay tuned for that; and we’ll move on to a quick world news of the day.

There are stories going around about a ‘new’ peace proposal being worked out among the ‘western’ allies and Ukraine, but it doesn’t matter if that is true or not; since what is being suggested is the same old ceasefire proposal that Russia will not accept; so it isn’t worth the digital ink being used to write the articles.  As for the actual war, the exchanges of airstrikes continues; the frontlines battles rage on; and the only hope we see for a slowdown is the approach of winter.  While that will affect the fighting on the ground; that will only be off-set by the winter weather hardships for all of the people in the region; and those costs to the Ukrainians and Russians will be terrible.

The Middle East fighting rolls on too with top stories today including an attack by Ansar Allah on the Saudi-backed forces in the city of Aden where they hit the Presidential palace in an attempt to disrupt those forces and their leaders’ ability to coordinate the fighting in Yemen – and take out weapons depots.  More ships have been sunk in the region; and we are wondering how many ships can be sunk or damaged before that becomes a serious problem for global transportation networks.  Yes, there are thousands of the big oil tankers and tens of thousands of container ships, but utilization is also very high; transit times between continents require a constant flow of ships; and we don’t know what the number is for how many ships can be lost before the system is seriously disrupted.

Moving away from the wars, the European protests and riots continue to expand, and Albania joined that club with violent protests that have included setting fire to government buildings.  Their leaders are making things worse with their continuing bad decisions; and the anger among the people just continues to flare up as they get fed up and desperate.  We don’t want to start a rant about our next story – especially since it is just another of the never-ending distractions.  President Trump declared that ‘leakers’ should be shot, and while his extreme rhetoric is nothing new; that sentiment should be denounced by everyone – and wasn’t in this case just as he got away with threatening to destroy Iran in his United Nations speech despite the fact that the U.N. claims that even saying things like that is a crime.  Those distraction stories continue every day and we don’t like wasting time when sifting through all of the nonsense, but at least Ethan can do that at high speed; so we are only talking about wasting minutes instead of hours.

I’m dragging this out longer than planned and losing some sleep minutes while doing it; so that’s all for this report.  Our last school day and weekend are going to be amazing; so we’ll have all of those stories for you once we get around to living them!

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - October 14, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Cassie and Michael will be sleeping by the time we do most of our updates while they’re in Africa – or possibly up early depending on their travel plans; and that’s true tonight because they worked all day; and then drove for four or five hours tonight to their first stop on the way between the Capital cities of Libreville and Brazzaville.  They had a good day; got a lot of work done; and got rained on a bit; since they had a mixed bag of weather with rain and thunderstorms rolling through the area with sunshine and heat and humidity between each blast of rain.

Here in Witch Falls, we’re definitely getting fall weather, but Tai Chi was still outdoors this morning and the temperature was fairly-normal and only a bit cooler; so it was really the lack of any warm-up for the rest of the day that we noticed the most as we went from an afternoon high yesterday that touched one-hundred to a mid-sixties high today.  We had a few showers this afternoon and evening too, but nothing major until what we’re just starting to get now; so a few showers didn’t get in the way of our football, cheer squad, or teen praise team practices.  They all went well, and the top news is that we’ve started work on the teen Christmas musical.  That isn’t exactly the right word, but what we’ve decided to do this year is somewhere between a Christmas Cantata and a musical; since it is one continuous story instead of skits and readings and music.  Naomi and Ethan are going to have starring roles this year, but Aiden and I – and Sophia and Aaron – will be in the band; and I’ll be playing the piano.  We’re splitting that practice, since we still need to prep for the Thanksgiving service and other Christmas music; so we’re also going to need to make more time for practicing.  We don’t mention that very often in our journals, but Ethan and I do make time for music practice on our own, together, or with our best friends – it just isn’t the same when we aren’t adding in practices for Naomi and the Haunted Holidays.  We’re too-busy this fall; and didn’t accept any offers to play at dances or other events.

Aiden hosted the after-practices dinner and study session; we had fun with his family even though that was just a cameo break; and we didn’t do any extra walking after we were done at the church for the night because we didn’t want to get caught in the imminent, heavier rain.  Ethan and I had a visit with Mom and Dad in the office, but didn’t do any work or a Magi lesson; bath or Jacuzzi time followed; and now we’re just about ready to call it a night and get some sleep.

Let’s start with the Ukraine war for the world news update.  There aren’t really any changes, but the airstrikes on both sides appear to be intensifying with Ukraine targeting Russian data centers and refineries and Russia bombing everything.  At the rate they’re going, Kiev might soon be a city that people can’t live in as they are having serious issues with power and water systems; their distribution systems are being destroyed, and they may have lost more than a fifth of their train engines; which will make getting food and supplies to the city a serious challenge.  The Russian attacks on bridges will only make it tougher for Ukraine to get supplies to the frontlines, and while re-supply of weapons is the obvious problem for fighting a war; an army can’t keep fighting for very long without food and fresh water.  Russia is taking hits too, but those are pinpricks by comparison; and they have the resources to repair and they adapt their defenses very quickly.

In the Middle East, the Saudi-Yemen war gets most of the attention, and escalations continue – though Saudi support from their allies seems to be a bit slow in coming; so there doesn’t seem to be a lot of interest in putting lives and money on the line for the crown prince; and he is now facing significant risks from his own people while getting a lot of the blame for the blunders that have led to the current situation.  Just a year or two ago, Saudi Arabia was on the verge of peace with Iran and Yemen; they were looking toward BRICS and partnerships with China; and then they chose to side with the United States and Israel for the attacks on Iran and broke their ceasefire deal with the Houthis.  They are now living with the consequences; and we’ll all pay some prices for their folly.  Israel continues their march toward destroying Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria; they are trying to get President Trump to re-start the war with Iran right now; and we know that will only end badly too – whether they resume fighting now or wait to do that until next month.  We are sure that Iran and their allies are ready to retaliate – and have promised to do so.  Let’s hope that Iran doesn’t take the hint from Yemen and decide that going on the offensive is the better option than waiting and retaliating.

We want to get all of the sleep we can tonight; so that’s all for this report.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - October 13, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Cassie and Michael arrived safely in Gabon and got right to work pretty much from the moment they cleared customs at the airport.  it is warm there too – though our last hot day here was warmer as we flirted with triple digits for a little while this afternoon before dipping back into the nineties; and it is cooling down quickly from there as we’re writing this tonight.  The forecast showers held off until this evening and not until after the marching band practice; so we’ve enjoyed the last blast of summer-like weather before we head back into fall by morning.  We’re sure that Cassie and Michael are going to be very busy, but with the time change; they are currently sleeping and will be up soon to get started on their Wednesday in Libreville.  Let’s mention that Cassie and Michael have a very aggressive schedule for this trip; so they will also be doing a lot of driving between stops pretty much every day as they work their way across Central Africa for the west-to-east parts of their trip while most of the way back across the continent will be flight-hops between Capital cities back to the west coast.  We’ll have some of those stories for you as they go along, but you can read their journals and travel archives if you really want all of the details.

Here at home, our day started with Tai Chi by the river and breakfast with Mom and Dad were good; some of our teachers took advantage of the last hot day for extra outdoor time; and all of our practices went well from my cheer squad workout at lunchtime through the football and concert band practices through our evening marching band practice.  That one included doing the recording session for the Christmas ornament fundraiser; the song we picked was ‘When we’re together’ from Disney’s Frozen holiday special; and the first order will be ready by Thanksgiving.  Aaron hosted our dinner and study break between practices; his Mom opted for grilled burgers and hot dogs with cold salad sides; and we multi-tasked the studying to get everything done before we needed to be back at the school.  It was just starting to sprinkle as we left the school tonight, so we split up for our homes instead of adding in any extra walks with Silkie; and then Ethan and I did a bit of work and a Magi lesson with Mom in the office before coming upstairs for bath or Jacuzzi time.  Before we get to the world news update; I’ll add that we haven’t kept up with the post-festival action at the park; but have been advised that the work is done now; and the last of the rides have moved on to their next festival or fair destination.

Both of the top wars were getting political and media attention today.  In the Middle East, the airstrikes and fighting on the ground continues between Saudi Arabia and Yemen; more threats are being directed both ways – including from Ansar Allah with warnings against any country that joins to help Saudi Arabia and warnings to Aramco employees to evacuated company facilities because new strikes on oil infrastructure are imminent.  There are reports of some airstrike exchanges between Israel and Iran; and there are hints out there that Israel’s leaders might be attempting to provoke Iran in an attempt to resume that part of the war so they can have an excuse to cancel the elections that the current government is likely to lose if it goes ahead at the end of the month.  More ships are being attacked in the region; and the anger grows throughout the region.

For the Ukraine war, the top stories are that Ukraine is now targeting Russian data centers while they are also complaining that they are suddenly not getting advance warnings from their western ‘partners’ for incoming airstrikes from Russia.  That might be related to President Zelensky’s recent insults directed at President Trump, but it is more-likely just added theatre; since they are definitely getting help for those drone strikes on the Russian data centers.  We are sure that the new targets will just lead to worse for their own facilities and infrastructure; and we expect to read all about the next retaliations from Russia any day now.  Ukraine and European leaders are complaining about the ‘diesel deal’ with Russia, but others have been pointing out today that Europe has still bought more than three-hundred billion dollars worth of oil and gas from Russia since the war started; so it is hypocritical to complain about that much-smaller deal – if it actually even ends up happening; since Russia must have conditions for doing those exports, so if they don’t get what they want; the deal could end up going nowhere.  Finally, for Ukraine, President Trump was asked about his claim of an agreed energy ceasefire for Russia and Ukraine that both sides deny; and he declared that it was true and done because he said so and they’d better do as told.  That was a fairly-insane statement, but also makes it clear that he is living in a different reality from the rest of us if he actually believes that he has the power to make every other leader in the world bow to his whims.  Okay, that might be true for the weak and dependent countries, but it is delusional when attempting that kind of nonsense against countries like Russia and China.

We’ll only mention a bit of general world news tonight; and it is about growing unrest around the world.  The example we’ll write about is the small island nation of Mauritius, near Madagascar, where protests and riots are apparently the worst seen in nearly thirty years and entirely due to economic and social stresses related to rising prices that are much-worse for the people in a country that relies heavily on tourism and on an island that requires a lot of imports – especially for fuel and food and basic needs.  This is another canary warning for what is coming for the rest of the world if we don’t change course, and while the reactions will vary; fighting over resources is inevitable at this point and will only be mitigated if we stop all of the fighting.  That probably isn’t going to happen until things get much worse; so we’ll prepare; do what we can to help where we can; and that’s all we can do.

We can also share the love and joy in our own lives with as many people as we can, and we need to be at full-power to do that; so we’re out of here and off to nap time right now.

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