Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - September 19, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 13^th Birthday, Eli Seager!

Ethan’s future brother-in-law is getting started on his birthday party fun as we’re writing this update, but other than a birthday breakfast; he’s also been put to work on a fall chores day because the work needed to get done anyway.  We’ve been having a chores day too – which is why Ethan and I are getting cleaned up and ready to help out with Eli’s birthday dinner.  We’ll be at the Seager’s home for that meal, the birthday fun, and the clean-up; and then we’ll bring Naomi and Aiden home with us to help her with escaping the gang of guys that will be at her house for the rest of the night.  We do need to cover the rest of our story from Friday, though, so let’s back up and do that right now.

For the record, I was right about my ‘prediction’ for the game, but Ayton did manage to score on our team six times thanks to a talented kicker who was able to handle some fairly-long field goals – at least by high school standards.  That eighteen points was no match for the sixty-nine that our team scored against them, and I was right about Ethan being fired up for the home game with Mom and Dad in the crowd; since he led the way with five of our nine touchdowns.  Ayton didn’t have much of a defense for our air game, since Aiden scored three touchdowns too, and while Aaron picked up quite a few yards on the ground with his running game; he only had one touchdown last night.  The two field goals we had at the end of the game were to keep from running up the score even more while trading field goals for the last two rounds of offensive and defensive drives.  Miles and the Sheldons hosted the victory party; we all attended and had fun through to a bit after midnight; and then Aiden hosted his five best friends for the co-ed sleepover at his house.  We stayed up too-late; enjoyed the teen chat and co-ed cuddle time; and eventually managed to have naps before needing to get up before dawn this morning.

Tai Chi was by the river – and with Cassie and Michael; we had breakfast with Hailey and Leah because they’d been together overnight too; and then it was time to get to work on the fall chores.  It feels weird to say that when it still feels like summer around here, but fall is on the way; and it is going to cool down a bit next week.  It was still around seventy-five this morning and we’re in the mid-nineties again this afternoon; so that was good for most of our work time.  We’ve had a sprinkle or two of rain, but not much; and that barely even managed to help with cooling us down from the work.  A couple of swim breaks helped – or possibly didn’t for some of us; since Ethan seemed a bit distracted after each opportunity to spend time with Naomi in a swimsuit and then knowing what she still had on under her shorts and tee!  I will not be shocked if they manage a bit of alone time later tonight – and don’t hate that idea at all for having that same alone time for Aiden and me!  Those would be stories for us not to write about tomorrow; since we need to wrap this up and get over to the Seager’s home soon.  We didn’t write about the actual chores, but they were standard fall clean-up fare; we did all of our work at multiple homes and cottages as a team with Naomi and Aiden while Sophia and Aaron were busy with their own work at their homes or elsewhere.  That’s something we’re not writing about very often either, but most of our friends have part-time jobs – just as we do; and that includes weekend work for more than half of them.  For Sophia, that’s helping her Dad at the gas station, and while Aaron was busy with fall clean-up today too; he does some part-time work with his Dad at Landry’s – and with the occasional home project too.

As for a world news update; we’re only going to cover a few quick stories and then get out of here.  President Trump put himself in the news for two of those stories.  The first is a claim that he’s made a deal that puts America in complete control of Greenland ‘security’ while apparently not transferring ‘ownership’ to us.  We have no idea what that means; since Greenland is not really at risk of invasion from anyone; it was already a territory of a NATO country and had protection from those non-threats; and this entire story is just a stupid distraction.  The second story is not at all amusing, and while we could care less about any of the mainstream media networks, President Trump’s ban of several major news outlets from the White House is definitely a problem for first amendment rights and free speech.  His reasoning is laughable; since the claims are that those media outlets don’t have the right to lie about him!  News flash, Mr. President – pretty much everyone in Washington lies – especially you!  On second thought – we agree with him and all liars should be banned from the White House and the Capital as a whole; so let the exodus begin! ;^)

Before we get to the wars news, we should add that President Trump also signed the Russian sanctions bill in ‘honor’ of Senator Graham; and we are sure that it will be a disaster if actually implemented; since the world economy is already on the brink of disaster without adding in a tariffs war against China, India, and every other country that buys oil and energy from Russia!  As for the top two wars, Russia continues to decimate Ukraine every day; tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops are in imminent danger along the front lines; and the Ukrainian economy is on the verge of total collapse while their President has been happily hosting a summit for the all-new and pointless C-8 or Carpathia-8.  Maybe he’s read the Left Behind book series and now fancies himself as a real-life Nicolai Carpathia – or at least the best actor available to play the anti-Christ in the real-life reenactment of the books!  He really might want to think about reading to the end of that series before going down that road; since it didn’t end well for good ‘ole Nicolai!

Finally, the Middle East continues to be a mess; more ships are being hit; the Houthis continue to advance against the Saudi-backed mercenaries and government forces; and the energy infrastructure damage might be more-serious than what is being reported.  That could be a serious problem this winter for Europe if their energy supplies from the Middle East are stopped or significantly-reduced; and that doesn’t even get into the costs involved if refineries are idled and then need to be re-started due to lack of product to refine for weeks or months.  It is no wonder that a lot of people would rather be entertained by the stupid stories; since the serious problems seem too-big to fix.

Ethan and I can’t do that even though we wish that we could, so we’re going to do what we can now – and help to make Eli’s birthday dinner party amazing for him and his friends and family!  We’ll let you know how that goes for all of us sometime tomorrow night, so stay tuned for that; and we’ll go out there and live the adventures.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - September 18, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 5^th Anniversary, Cody and Caylee Carter!

We’re a bit busy today and will be tonight; so Ethan and I are not going to be involved in the anniversary celebrations that might not even be entirely at home for Cody and Caylee; since they might be doing more than just a party for their fifth anniversary.  We’ll let you know about that if we do get any special news about that over the weekend, but we need to do this update early because we won’t have time later tonight.

Tai Chi by the river and breakfast with Mom was good and included a vid-chat with Dad and Anna Marie while they were having breakfast too; and made for a happy start to our day.  Dad isn’t home yet, but will be by game time; and he and Mom will be attending.  The weather has been hot and sunny again with a high that has hit the mid-nineties now and will still be in the mid-eighties for game time.  We have a home game against Ayton, so we don’t need to head out anywhere and have a bit more time before we need to be back at the school, but we’re also going to be busy for the rest of the night; and Aiden will be taking a turn hosting our post-game co-ed sleepover.  Our academic adventures today included more outdoor time; we enjoyed the sun and heat while we can; and now we’re packing our overnight bags and getting ready for the game.  Mom will have dinner ready for us soon; so we need to move this along and join her in the kitchen soon.  Ethan doesn’t want to jinx our team, but since this won’t be read until sometime in our future; I’ll ‘predict’ a big win for our team tonight.  No, I am not using the Sight to do that – I’m just sure that Ayton does not have a strong-enough team this season to seriously challenge us.  I’ll add that Mom and Dad will be there; and that will motivate Ethan even more than usual.  We’ll have that news for you sometime tomorrow, but that’s enough for our own story-so-far.  Let’s cover the world news and then we’ll get out of here and started on our weekend adventures.

The physical damage and destruction happening in the Ukraine war is the more-obvious news again today, but there could be bigger problems growing in the Middle East that goes beyond Iran and Yemen because of the successes they are having in fighting back against our military, Israel, and ‘our’ allies.  Most American teens likely have no clue about the history of the region, but our knowledge includes Millennia of Magi information; so we know that even the history of the past century or so is just a small part of the whole that explains the people and societies of the region.  The current borders for the countries in the Middle East are recent; the leaders in most of the countries were selected and empowered by ‘western’ countries without the support of the people in those countries; and we believe that one of the current risks will come from those people deciding that they can fight back now and take back control of their countries and resources.  Let’s also mention that the defeat of those leaders – including the various ‘royal’ families – could lead to the end of some of those countries that were created after the World Wars so that the west could control the oil.  If that happens, the disruptions we’re facing for world energy supplies could take years to resolve – not weeks or months.  Maybe some of our dumbest leaders actually want that with the goal of starving China of energy, but we don’t think that will work; since China has the technology to adapt; they can make deals for energy from other sources that would just be diverted from other markets – like Europe and America; and we would likely lose that economic war.  We aren’t offering an opinion on what a major change in power in the Middle East would mean; since it is possible that the vast majority of the players vying for that power are all bad or even evil.  There definitely are not any Gandhi-like figures trying to offer a future prosperity based on love and community partnerships as a way to end the hatred and wars!

We would love it if that did happen, but doubt that it will.  That’s enough for this afternoon.  Ethan needs to focus on his game; I need to get happier to cheer my best for him – and Aiden and the rest of our team; and we’re going to have an amazing rest of the day.  Stay tuned; and we’ll have those stories for you sometime tomorrow.

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

Ehlana's and Etthan's Journals - September 17, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

This has been another awesome weather day with sun and a high in the nineties, and while that was a bit warm for our football and cheer squad practices; it was great for everything from Tai Chi by the river to the bonus outdoor time at school and the walks between home, school, and the Inn between all of our activities today.  Ethan and I had fun with Mom for the start to our day; we had a good day at school with our classes and practices; and then we were with Mom again for dinner between those practices and game night at the Inn.  Mom helped Miranda win the senior title again this week; there were no junior titles for our family; and we had a lot of fun with our top entertainment highlight of the day.  Silkie helped us out with walking Naomi and Aiden home after the gaming; Mom did a Magi lesson with us; and then bath or Jacuzzi time has helped us out with getting ready for bed.  That brings us to now and we’ve had enough fun for today; so let’s cover the world news and call it a night.

The Houthis are still ‘winning’ in Yemen; Russia continues to decimate Ukraine; and the world economic and supply chains crises continue to grow despite all efforts to manipulate the markets and pretend otherwise.  There are more and more examples of smaller stories popping up about unrest and violence all around the world as people get more-desperate and angry; and there seems to be new reports of imminent shortages – particularly for energy and food - that will make all of those problems worse.  There are costs that can’t be calculated – like all of the things that we can’t collectively do at all while focusing on survival and basic needs.

Finally, for tonight, we can’t resist offering one example of media distraction stories that do nothing more than divide and conquer the masses while making no difference to help solve the real problems of the world.  Ed Sheeran is a famous musician – and might still be whenever you’re reading this in our future; and he is in the news for cancelling one of his opening acts on his current stadium tour because the guy declared his support for Palestine at two of the concerts and angered the pro-Zionist backers of the tour.  Yes, that story has brought the Gaza and West Bank genocide back into the news, but it also isn’t changing anything on the ground to help the Palestinians while sparking more hatred.  That division and hatred doesn’t solve anything either, and we wish that everyone would choose love instead, but that isn’t happening; and things are sure to get worse before they get better.

That isn’t a cheery thought, so Ethan and I are going to stop there; turn our thoughts to happier places; and head off to dreamland.  Stay tuned, since we have a busy weekend ahead – starting with the next football game tomorrow night.

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

We stayed up too-late; were still up early; and this has been a long day so we’re going to make this a very short update.

It rained overnight, but ended this morning, so while the grass was wet; Tai Chi was still by the river; and we loved getting to do that with Cassie, Michael, and our four best friends.  Breakfast was good and better than our normal school day fare thanks to Cassie and Michael; and then our academic adventures were fun with bonus outdoor time thanks to another warm day with a high around ninety.  There isn’t news from the lessons and studies; football and cheer squad practices were pretty normal and went well; and then Naomi and Aiden came home with us for dinner with Mom and to do our homework before we needed to go on to the church for the teen praise team practice.  We have a lot of time to go to the next holiday weekend, but we’re going to lead the music for a ‘normal’ Sunday in October; so we’re working on that music and have started to decide what we’ll be doing for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.  Ethan and I did the usual walk home with Naomi and Aiden with help from Silkie; we did a quick visit with Mom after that, and she didn’t want to do any lessons or office work with us; so we moved straight to bath or Jacuzzi time.

That brings us up to now, and we really are tired; so let’s make the world news report a very short one.  Nothing has changed with the top stories; the peace talks are circular nonsense; and the actual shortages we’ve been expecting are starting to show up in more-obvious ways; so we will eventually see that price manipulations won’t matter once we get to the point that there just aren’t enough of certain products to sell into the demands around the world.

We’re going to stop there.  It’s been a good, happy day; we want to stay happy; and we’ll simply continue to hope for better everywhere else where people can’t be as happy as we are here at home.  Our happiest thoughts right now are sleep-related; so we’re off to dreamland and out of these digital archives.

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

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

 

Naomi, Ethan, Ehlana, Aiden, Sophia, and Aaron:

This update is coming to you from Cassie and Michael’s house; and we are all here while my future mother-in-law is in Crystal Springs for the night.  I am writing this instead of Ehlana because I can, and you’re welcome, future Magi reader; since I am a much-better story-teller! ;^)

Since I wasn’t there for Ethan and Ehlana’s Tai Chi by the river and breakfast with their Mom; I’ll instead advise you that I do my own morning workouts; that happened in my back yard this morning; and then my breakfast was standard school day fare while I tried to ignore the younger brother next to me while he demolished half a box of cereal; a pack of Pop Tarts; and three drinks before he took a snack to go and went to meet up with Zack for the walk to school.  Yes, I know that Ethan needs to eat a lot too – especially now that they’re into football season and he is burning a ton of calories every day, but he doesn’t look like a ravenous wolf while eating; and uses his manners even when nobody else is around.

Moving along, my academic adventures in Grade Eleven are only different from Ethan and Ehlana’s because I have more optional classes; and I’m not doing everything with Aaron this year either; since we’ve picked a few different classes.  Part of that change for us is interest-based, but I’m also looking to go to college for International Business to help Ehlana so that we can be future billionaires while Aaron is looking toward government management – which for our little town and district requires a skill-set that is related to what I want to do, but without the billionaire prospects!  Aaron thinks that’s funny and wants me to mention that President Trump is a billionaire; so I could be wrong about that!  Getting back to my point, I am taking the maths and sciences that will get me what I need for my future college programs; Aaron is doing the same; and then we’re each taking classes that we like and want to learn about for the rest of our optionals.  We like the variety this year; and I am never, ever going to take biology classes ever again – and yes, that is entirely because I do not want to even see something being dissected ever again.  I will leave that kind of studying and learning to the future doctors and scientists and animal experts to learn all about while I focus my future expertise elsewhere!

Ehlana, Sophia, and I had our cheer squad practice at noon so we could also attend the first school band practice of the year.  That’s where our top news story of the day happened; and we are officially going to start another marching band and start preparing and raising money for a band trip to Disney World for early 2028.  We won’t get that date until we apply for a spot and get invited again, but we’ve been told that is much-easier after the first approval – at least for the bands that do well in that first parade.  The first steps are going to happen fast; we’re going to start an evening practice for the marching band starting next Tuesday evening; and open invitations have been sent out this time not just to Maple Valley, but also to Brookbridge for students interested in joining our marching band for that trip to Florida.  We’ll see how many other students join right away, but they should want to start with us fairly-soon; since the fundraising is going to take time; since the costs per person will be significant.  We’re all very happy that we are going ahead with the plan; and I’m sure that Ethan and Ehlana will keep you posted on band news as it happens.  For tonight; I’ll only add that we will be starting the monthly fruit and vegetable boxes fundraiser orders by next week; the deal has already been worked out with the Bassetts; and we’re brainstorming for other fundraisers that will be added in the coming weeks and months.  All records from the last trip to Florida are available; so we also know what we need to do; and what did and didn’t work for raising money last time.

While the girls in our current little group were at band practice after school; the boys were at football practice; and they had to deal with a bit of rain and took a break while a thunderstorm rolled through town.  We were all done around the same time; split up to go home and round up overnight bags; and then we met up here for dinner with Cassie and Michael.  We still have time before their next trip, but we’ve also all been very busy; and haven’t spent as much time together as we’d all like – including right now as they are working downstairs and doing a couple of video conference calls along with the computer work.  We had fun with that meal; the teens took care of the clean-up; and then our evening entertainment included some live music; a movie; and lots of chat time as we traded stories about school, band, football, work, and more through until Cassie and Michael needed to get to work again.  We’re winding down toward the co-ed nap time that we’ll get to eventually, but we are comfortable; happy; and enjoying the teen chat time; so let’s get to my version of the world news report; and then I’ll get back to helping Ethan out with our personal co-ed cuddling fun!

The majority of our world leaders are either insane, idiots, or both; they continue to cause the vast majority of problems in the world; wars are bad; genocide is worse; and all of the bad and evil guys – and girls – need to be stopped!  Yes, I am including Gwyneth Hathorne in that group; and she does not get any mitigating points for having good taste in guys when the one she seems to like the most is mine and she can’t have him!  Since I do want to be a future billionaire business expert; I’ll focus the rest of my comments on the economic consequences continuing to develop because of the wars and destruction.  Most of those same leaders are oblivious or intentionally-ignore the reality happening all around them.  That isn’t unusual for politicians, and neither is the need to blame anyone and anything other than themselves for consequences to their actions, but both are becoming blatantly-obvious to everyone that wants to pay attention and see what is really happening.  We certainly see the problems in a small farming community like ours, and we’re adapting and working together to deal with the challenges.  Thanks to Sophia, we know that her father is getting together with other businesses and farmers to start an official co-op to consolidate their collective buying power for fuel and other products like fertilizer and petroleum-linked products.  That will take time to build and schedule for efficiency and cost-effectiveness, but that is one way we’re dealing with the increasing prices affecting our farms and stores; and other communities would do well to emulate us.

The biggest risks to the world economy in the coming year might prove to be food supplies; since problems for growing food extend beyond fuel and fertilizer prices in a lot of places around the world.  The heat this summer has led to lower crop yields; the Ukraine war is hitting exports of farm products from two of the world’s largest food exporters; and food insecurity is a potential flash point for new conflicts and migration as people get hungry and desperate.  While food is a major near-future risk for a lot of the world; I’ll add that the world economy is also at risk from ridiculous levels of debt; mal-investment that is often caused by lies and false information and greed; and by wasting so many resources of all kinds on all of the pointless wars.

I feel the urge for a rant coming on and don’t want to go there when cuddling with Ethan is a much-happier place to be; so I’ll stop here and have fun with that instead!  Stay tuned for Ehlana’s and Ethan’s next report; since I’m sure they’ll have more to write about that I don’t want to even think about tonight – like the report they were looking at tonight about an admission from the American Secretary of the Air Force that ‘we’ have military weapons in space.  We apparently aren’t doing enough stupid things here on earth; so our leaders think it a good idea to take our wars into space where it is so-cluttered with man-made junk that one stupid mistake in the wrong place could cause a chain reaction that would take out all of the tech that we rely on for everything from communications and the internet to keeping track of our transportation systems and supply chains.

I really don’t want to go anywhere else except closer to Ethan now; so I am out of here right now.

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