Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - September 26, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Congratulations, Scott Faulkner and Geraldine Sheldon – You’re Married!

For the record, they aren’t married yet, but will be soon; since we’re writing this update while getting ready for the ceremony at the church.  Ethan and I will be busy for the rest of the day, since after the ceremony; we’ll be babysitting with Naomi and Aiden at Cassie and Michael’s house while some favorite next-gen parents are busy at the pub for the dinner and reception.  That does mean that the best parts of our day are still ahead of us, but we do have news to cover from Friday and this morning; so let’s get to that before we need to go and meet up with our dates for the wedding.

After my latest football prediction, you won’t be surprised to find out that our team remains undefeated through the first five games.  The forty-four to three score was more than I expected, but our defense played well and Meadowvale made a fair number of mistakes that showcased why they aren’t having a good season.  They have some potential, but inexperience and one particular risk-taker made for a bad combination against one of the best teams in the small-school league.  Ethan held back a lot and only had two touchdowns; Aiden, Aaron, and Miles had one touchdown each; and we coasted to the end of the game on three field goals and trying to run out the clock to spare Meadowvale players any added embarrassment.  Ethan did host the victory party; we had fun with that and some of the girls even managed to get at least one slice of Pizzeria pizza for our snack time; and the entertainment included music, video gaming, and a lot of teen chat before most of our guests left by around midnight and we wrapped up our day with the co-ed sofa sleepover that our four best friends stayed to share with us.  There was a movie and more teen chat time, but we managed to get a handful of hours of sleep too before getting started on our Saturday with some indoor Tai Chi.

We should have mentioned that there was a shower or two last night during the game, but nothing serious; and the wet weather didn’t impact the game at all – though that risk-taking Meadowvale player might disagree and blame a wet football for his errors and turnovers.  It has rained off-and-on this morning and we expect more of the same for the rest of the day, but we’ll hope that it will be dry when needed for Scott and Geraldine – at least for the times they need to be outdoors.  After Tai Chi and breakfast; our friends moved on; we all had chores or other work to do this morning; and we wrapped up late, but in-time to get cleaned up and ready for the wedding ceremony.  Ethan and I already have our overnight bags packed, since we’ll be staying with Cassie and Michael tonight – and the kids we’ll be watching and keeping overnight too.  All of those stories will have to wait for our next report; since we need to wrap this up and get out there and live the adventures in weddings and babysitting.

Before we do that, I want to mention that the top world news story today might be President Trump’s rejection of the seven-day plan from Iran to basically return to the Memorandum of Understanding and a ceasefire and re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz.  That pretty much takes peace off the table again – yet another flip-flop; and the talk is again all about resuming the bombing of Iran with the added element of whether President Trump means using nukes for his threat to ‘annihilate’ Iran.

Let’s save the rest of the world news reports for tomorrow night and make it a weekend round-up.  Ethan and I do not want to be late for our dates – or the wedding ceremony; so we really need to get going right now.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - September 25, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 22^nd Anniversary, Nathan and Hannah Draper!

We – and Naomi and Aiden – had a gift for my future parents-in-law that we gave them this morning, but that could only be a cameo visit that we did at the bakery on the way to school.  We won’t get to help them with any celebrating beyond that visit – unless they come to see the game tonight.  We don’t think they’ll be able to do that, since that game will also bring more business to the bakery that all visiting fans know is the best bakery in the region! ;^)

Our day has been busy so far from Tai Chi by the river and breakfast with Mom and Dad through to now as we’re taking the break for dinner and to get ready for the game tonight.  The rain didn’t get here until around lunchtime, so we were glad to have the workout by the river; our lessons and studying today were good and not newsworthy as usual; and the best parts of our day are hopefully still ahead of us.  Okay, I’m confident that our team will do well tonight; since Meadowvale has one of the weaker teams so far this season.  I am predicting that we’ll get through the first-half of the regular season undefeated, and if that happens; Ethan will be hosting the victory party again.  For the record, we’re doing that because our team Captain is a ‘farm kid’ and it is much easier to host those parties in-town without the extra drive time.  We’re also going to host the co-ed sofa sleepover with our four best friends – in-part for the kid-free night that Aiden’s parents will have for their anniversary; and that’s also why we’re doing this update now instead of later tonight.  We need to go have our early dinner soon; so let’s wrap this up with a short world news report.

It gets tedious to write about the flip-flop stories for peace and war, but that trend continued today as markets get manipulated by the minute or millisecond as needed; and nothing real happens on the ground anywhere that is for the good of the people.  For the Ukraine war, the peace talk is all about a ceasefire that Russia will never agree to without also getting everything they want first, but that’s mixed in with idiotic, warmongering stories ranging from ‘attacks’ on Europe from Russia with no proof at all that has actually happened and a new story about a ‘plot’ for a Russian drone attack on southern European countries that has purportedly been discovered by the CIA and warnings were sent to those European countries.  Versions of that story are so ludicrous that it is transparently-bogus; but then that’s true for the rest of those stories; and we’ve mentioned many times that Russia is not interested in ruling Europe and repeating the historic mess that was the downfall of the Soviet Union.

Here’s an idea for the United States and Europe – if you really want to defeat Russia; give them all of the European countries that are broke and taking the rest of Europe down with them and put that anchor around their necks and wait for them to drown!  You’ve pretty much finished exploiting those nations and people already; and that would be far-cheaper than turning each of them one-by-one into the next Ukraine!

Peace is the top news for the Middle East, but it is all theatre, since the demands on both sides remain the same; Israel and America will not agree to Iran’s terms in any real way even if they pretend otherwise for a while; and the conflicts in the Middle East will continue.  We should add that France has declared plans to send troops to Saudi Arabia, but that is a stupid plan for them; and is sure to end badly if they go through with it and actually try to join the fight against the Houthis and their allies in Yemen and Iraq and beyond.  ‘Our’ coalition there is becoming more ridiculous, since that now could have French troops fighting alongside ISIS and Al Qaeda terrorists while the Saudi Royal family pays the bills.  With all of that going on, Israel continues to get away with their ongoing genocides in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon without the media attention and outrage that is due – though there were protests at the United Nations that were crushed by our police because it is now illegal to protest against genocides when they are conducted by ‘our’ side.

This is getting far too-dark, so I’ll stop right now; and we’ll focus on love, joy, and happiness instead; since that truly is what will change our world for the better – even if that continues to mostly happen here in our little corner of the world.  Stay tuned for the rest of our story for today; since we really do expect the best parts of our adventures to begin right now.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - September 24, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

We have had another long, busy day from a chilly Tai Chi workout by the river through to now as we’re winding down toward bedtime.  Our classes and studies were good but not newsworthy; our football and cheer squad practices went well as we had our final workouts ahead of the game tomorrow night; and we were happy to have another decent weather day – even if we are still also getting used to the cooler temperatures that are only reaching highs in the mid-seventies.  There is rain in the forecast for the game and weekend, but maybe we’ll get lucky and get the bad weather when it doesn’t matter – like when we’re sleeping!  That wasn’t an issue today, and after the practices, Ethan and I hosted our four best friends for dinner and a study session; Mom did a group Magi lesson with us too; and then we all went to the Inn for game night.  Naomi won the junior title tonight with a bit of help here and there from Ethan that he might not have noticed thanks to all of the bonus hugs and kisses Naomi shared with him along the way.  We all had fun; Ethan and I did our third walk in a row with Silkie to see Naomi and Aiden to their homes; and then Mom didn’t want us to do any office work tonight.  She and Dad didn’t stay up late to work either; and we won’t comment on what they might have been more-interested in doing instead since sending themselves to their room for the night.  Ethan opted for a shower while I spent some quality time with my Jacuzzi; he’s done most of the computer checks and shared the news with me; and now we’re just having a shorter-than-usual twin chat while I multi-task writing this update.

That brings us to the world news report and today has just been more of the same theatre out of New York and from too many of our world leaders while tensions only rise around the top wars and elsewhere.  We don’t want to spend time on the details from the ongoing fighting and air attacks happening in both regions; and instead want to again write about the fact that both of these wars didn’t need to happen and everything that has followed shouldn’t have happened.  The Ukraine war could have been avoided entirely if their government had simply agreed to be neutral and stop persecuting the ethnic Russians that were, at the time, around forty percent of their population.  Yes, there are other issues, but those two simple steps would have kept the war from happening at all and the rest could have been worked out with a bit of honest and sincere negotiations.

The Middle East is more-complicated, since the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians preceded the current war and needed to be stopped too, but ‘we’ started the current war with Iran for no valid reason – and while pretending to negotiate with them in good faith for the second time in two years; and we shouldn’t have done that at all and the consequences since then are our responsibility.  Our leaders won’t admit to that; they only seem to be doubling down with the insanity; and that was made clear with President Trump’s United Nations speech.  For the record, let’s add that his threat to annihilate Iran alone is supposed to be a war crime according to the United Nations; yet not one of the other world leaders called him out on that or demanded his arrest for committing that crime right in front of thousands of witnesses!  That proves to everyone that the rule of law means nothing in the United Nations; since their own rules apparently don’t apply to the most-powerful leaders.

Let’s stop there.  Ethan and I have had a happy day; we want to stay happy; and need to get some sleep to be ready for the last school day of the week, the football game, and the weekend.  Stay tuned, since we hope that our last weekend of September will be another really good one – even if it rains all weekend!

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - September 23, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

The long days are adding up for us – even when we have a fair bit of fun to go along with the work and studying.  It definitely felt like fall this morning when Tai Chi was by the river but it was in the fifties for that workout.  The high today only hit seventy-three, but at least we hit that number at around the same time as our football or cheer squad practices and it was sunny too.  We’ve skipped over the academic adventures, but then we had fun and didn’t have anything newsworthy to offer from our lessons and studying.  That’s true for the study session we had between practices again today – though Naomi hosted the studying and dinner; and then we headed to the church for the teen praise team practice.

Ethan and I repeated the walk home with Naomi, Aiden, and Silkie after we left the church; we did a Magi lesson and some work with Mom and Dad in the office; and then bath or Jacuzzi time preceded the start of our current bedtime computing and twin chat fun.  We used some time phasing for most of that office work, so while it isn’t already Thursday morning as we write this, but it feels late and we’re tired.  We feel pretty good about the work we did tonight; and that helps a bit with keeping us from feeling guilty about how amazing our lives are here at home when that isn’t true for so much of the rest of the world.

That brings us to the bad news of the day for the world news.  We can barely stand to write about stories from the United Nations so far this week; since pretty much everything happening there is a waste of time and effort to even keep up with – not to mention the ridiculous expenses to put the show on for the masses.  There is no real talk of peace – unless you believe that unconditional surrender is a viable way to peace – and we mean that for all sides; since that’s true regardless of which side claims the victories.  While the world leaders offer stupid sound bytes and take photos and videos to prove they’re part of the cool kids group; Ukraine continues to get pounded and the front lines are a disaster for the Ukrainian forces.  President Zelensky is leaving the fighting to his military while focusing on begging for more money and weapons; he’s the top cheerleader for fear-mongering as he warns the rest of the world of Russia’s imperial ambitions; and the European leaders are happy to go along with the storyline; since it distracts from the economic destructions they’ve brought onto their own counties and people.  News flash – Russia does not want to rule the world at all; and nobody in their right mind would want to be in charge of the disasters that are most western countries right now!

The top news from the Middle East is supposedly the repair of the main east-west pipeline in Saudi Arabia with the caveat that it will still take six to eight weeks to get back to full capacity, but even if that’s true; that would mean nothing if the Houthis or Iraqi militias blow it up again.  Let’s add in that the Houthis control the strait and parts of the Red Sea closest to Yemen, so even if the pipeline comes online again; that doesn’t mean the Saudis will be able to sip anything from those Red Sea ports.  Reports are out again about new air force build-ups in the region for our military; and we can only guess at whether that is to attack Iran again or Yemen – or both.  President Trump does keep threatening annihilation of Iran if they don’t surrender; and it really is worrying that he keeps insisting that he’ll choose one path or the other the day after the mid-term elections.

Finally, for tonight, we want to write about news that isn’t getting much attention, but needs to be watched.  Japan is definitely posturing toward a military build-up that includes new missiles and hypersonic missiles that are sure to be pointed at Russia and China.  When we look at that in combination with the war-mongering out of Germany; we can’t help but notice historical similarities along with the changes that include the countries that are currently allied with Japan and Germany.  All of those leaders seriously need to crack some history books, since in addition to losing the last world war; Japan, Germany, and their allies back then were decimated and it took decades to recover.  Nobody with an ounce of sanity should want to see that happen again – especially when that would inevitably lead to the use of nukes on both sides.  Our point, though, is that the actual warmongers are definitely in western countries and Japan and a few other places, but not in most countries that just want to be left alone by all of the former colonial and imperial powers instead of exploited and controlled.

We manage to have that for ourselves here in our little corner of the world, but then we might not if even our own government found out about our special abilities; so we’ll stick to the current plans until we are ready for the Ascension of the Light!

For now, that means working on happier thoughts and heading off to sleep; so we’re going to get started on that right now.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - September 22, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

We’ve been working on our plans for a band trip to Disney World since before we started back to school, but it feels more-real tonight after our first marching band practice this evening.  Our group is still fairly-small, but we did get a few students from Maple Valley and two more from Brookbridge, but word will get around; and we expect more to join.  While we’re on that topic, let’s add that Brianna and some of her classmates are looking to start learning to play instruments a year early so they can join the band at the start of their Grade Seven year and be able to go on the trip with us; and we’ve started the fundraising – or at least some of us have started to do that for the monthly fruit and vegetable boxes that we’ve partnered with the grocery store for again.  We’ll get our first deliveries on the first Tuesday of October and final orders need to be in to the Bassetts soon; so the first delivery will be smaller than what we hope to have each month after that and for the coming year and change.  We’re working on other fundraisers, including for the fall festival, the Haunted Halloween Walk, and then for the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons, but those are works in progress; and we’ll keep you posted as they develop.

While the marching band practice was our highlight of the day, we were also very busy from a chilly Tai Chi by the river through our academic adventures; cheer squad practice at lunch; football and concert band practices after school; and then the little break we had between practices for dinner and a study session that Ethan and I hosted for our best friends.  There wasn’t really much news to offer from the rest of our adventures, but we had fun; got a lot done; and then Ethan and I eventually got home after the evening practice and a walk with Silkie to see Naomi and Aiden to their homes.  Mom did a Magi lesson with us after that; she didn’t want us working in the office too; and we’ve just finished bath or Jacuzzi time before getting started on our usual twin chat and bedtime computing.  That brings us to the world news report, so let’s get through that chore; and then we’ll call it a day and get some sleep.

The United Nations meetings in New York and President Trump’s speech there had top-billing for the news cycle today; and we continue to be amazed that anyone listens to him at all – let alone believe anything he says!  Highlights include his assertions that he has all of the God-like power to decide the fate of the world and every nation in it; he will ‘decide’ after the mid-term elections whether to make a deal with Iran or destroy them if they don’t choose to surrender to him.  They won’t do that; and we can only hope that President Trump isn’t going to destroy Iran; since he probably couldn’t do that even if he used nukes.  While our leaders continue to spout their idiocies to distract the masses; the Middle East economy remains strangled; very little oil is getting out of the region compared to what is needed; and nothing changes to make life better for the people suffering through the fighting and hardships.

We definitely want to mention the ‘new’ sanctions that we’re threatening the rest of the world with that include banning countries from the SWIFT payment system if they ‘help’ Iran or Russia.  That will just push those countries into the alternative systems in China and elsewhere; and will rush the American dollar toward its inevitable demise as world reserve currency.  We’ve also announced that Iranian airlines can no longer travel to any other airports in the world or those countries will be cut out of SWIFT too; so the insanity continues and spreads with no end in sight.

The Ukraine war barely got a mention from President Trump during his U.N. speech, but that disaster rolls on and Ukraine continues to be destroyed.  Russia’s retaliation for the election weekend drone attacks has included, according to the Ukrainian energy company that owns the facility, destroying an oil and gas facility with a major missile strike.  Russia has closed another cauldron and is on the verge of another frontlines victory with no hope in sight for the Ukrainian soldiers caught within the encirclement.

President Zelensky is away from Ukraine as usual and in New York to try and get more money and weapons for the war, and it seems to us that as long as he gets his cut of the money; he doesn’t care about whether his country is destroyed as long as he gets rich along the way.  That’s crass, but probably true – just as self-enrichment is the true goal for a lot of the ‘western’ leaders at all levels.

The political talk that is in high gear this week really is just a distraction for the people; and that is getting less-effective as actual consequences of the wars really start hitting where it hurts the most – in the pocketbook or bank account.  I only want to add one more thing to this part of the story – if President Trump really had the power to stop all of the wars the day after the mid-term elections; why wait?  The ugly answer for that would be a plan to do things that are so-awful that the political fallout would be terrible for him, but then if that’s true; then he shouldn’t go down that path at all!

Let’s stop there.  We’ll have a lot of political news fodder to choose from all week while the United Nations is in session and we’re waiting for President Xi’s visit with President Trump too, but we’ve had enough for tonight; and it is definitely time to get some sleep starting right now.

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