Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - June 6, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

***RESTRICTED UPDATE***

Philippe Montagne and Pamela Briggs are getting married today in her home town of New Orleans, and while that isn’t necessarily restricted news; Gwyneth has been there for the week; and we know that she isn’t the only Dark Magi Master there because she invited Rafael Thorne to be her date.  Mom and Cassie and keeping more of a mental eye on that story than we are, but we’ll also mention that Rafael is sixteen now; Gwyneth just turned fifteen; and they are both working for their respective family businesses as heir-apparent executives.  Cassie has advised us that Philippe and Pamela have some common college friends at the wedding too, but most of their new friendships have developed through Gwyneth and work.  They are having a major event because Philippe’s family in particular has some real regional power out of Indiana, but Gwyneth is helping a lot too; and taking care of her favorite interpreters with everything from wedding upgrades to an exotic honeymoon gift.  We’re all hoping that the big event will happen without any Dark Magi fireworks, but Gwyneth and Rafael are playing with fire having their frenemies relationship – especially when we are sure that Rafael’s great-grandfather wants to use Rafael to defeat the Hathornes.  Finally, Cassie and Michael want to be happy for their former college friends, but don’t expect that to really be possible while working for and being used by Gwyneth.  That’s all for this story so far; and if we learn more that needs to be reported; we’ll share that with you during our weekend update tomorrow night.

***END OF RESTRICTED UPDATE***

Let’s begin this report with the baseball news of the weekend that we have so far.  Ethan, Aiden, and Aaron are members of Landry’s Locusts this season; and they won convincingly last night over the Witch Falls Wasps by a score of ten-to-five.  The game wrapped up with time to spare before the rain rolled into town; and the boys had a big turnout for their cheer squad – including Cassie, Naomi, Sophia, and me!  We had fun with the biking, park play, and swimming yesterday afternoon; the barbeque dinner was just with some friends and a few aunts, uncles, and cousins; and then our co-ed sleepover was with our four best friends after the game.  We stayed up too-late; watched two movies; and enjoyed lots of co-ed cuddle time and teen chat along with the movies.

The rain we had overnight didn’t get in the way of Tai Chi by the river this morning or the chores we worked on all morning, but we did get a blast of rain roll through around lunchtime that wasn’t enough to even cause any baseball delays for the late morning or early afternoon games.  We did most of the chores with Naomi and Aiden and multiple homes; had a quick lunch with Mom and Dad by noon; and took our studying with our friends to the park so that we could also watch the ball games and enjoy the great weather.  We’re home from doing that right now because we’re booked to help Mom and Dad with the barbeque dinner they’re hosting between ball games; and I needed to get ready for my game tonight too.

While we’re doing that, Zack, Eli, Caleb, Sebastian, and their team is still playing their first game of the season.  We didn’t abandon them, but their Bakery Brigade team wasn’t doing very well through the first four innings against Connor’s Commandos; and we didn’t see any signs that ‘our’ team was going to change that trend while down by four runs when we needed to come home.  Zack and Eli could help to change that, but they have been too-busy showing off and entertaining the spectators; and would need to take the game more-seriously and actually start playing to win before it will be too-late for any comebacks.

Ethan and I are hosting another co-ed sleepover after the game tonight; so we’ll save my first game results for our next update.  Naomi, Sophia, and I are on the Grocery Glacier team this season; and we’re playing against Sapphire Ice tonight.  The barbeque we need to get to helping with now isn’t going to be a major event, but it might get drawn out a bit since some of us need to eat before our game while half of the guests won’t get here until after Zack’s game and any post-game fun they have with their team whether they win or lose.

We do need to wrap this up; so here’s just a micro world news report.  There have been more skirmishes between the United States and Iran with exchanges of missile and drone attacks; the fighting in Lebanon rolls on; and Gaza and the West Bank continue to get little coverage for the horrors happening there at the hands of the Israeli military as the Palestinian genocide continues.  Israel is taking that scorched earth policy into southern Lebanon; and we can only be amazed that the leaders and people in the rest of the world continue to ignore the atrocities and let Israel get away with what they are doing every day.  There certainly isn’t any serious talk of peace with all of that going on; so there is also no end in sight to the death and destruction in the region.

That’s true in Ukraine – though peace talks are supposedly on the table again this weekend.  Unfortunately, the premise for those talks haven’t changed at all for ‘our’ side of that war; and Russia will not agree to the terms being discussed in the west that are exactly the same as they have been since the start of the conflict.  The western leaders just can’t admit that Ukraine is losing the actual war on the ground; so we expect that Ukraine will fight until they are forced to surrender – however long that takes.  That’s very bad news for the Ukrainian soldiers; since they are generally being forced to fight to the death; and they are doing that for a lost cause and a country that will never be the same even if some parts of it survive beyond the war.

That’s enough for today and we really do need to go now; so we’re out of here and back to living our weekend adventures.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - June 5, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 5^th Anniversary, Paul and Vanessa Sparks!

The weekend has arrived and we have a lot on the go tonight; so this is an early update because Ethan has his first ball game of the season tonight; and we’re going to host a co-ed sleepover after the game.  Our day-so-far hasn’t been newsworthy, but we did have fun with our last teacher-supported exams study sessions.  The weather has been great with a high touching ninety; and we’re hoping that the rain in the forecast will wait until after Ethan’s game to roll into town tonight.  Those stories can wait for our next update; since we are going to meet up with our friends and cousins for some biking and park play – and maybe even a swim to cool down in the still-chilly river.

Before we go, we’re going to mention just one world news story that isn’t getting much attention in the west – the annual international economic forum being held in St. Petersburg.  While our leaders and media ignore that event, it is still one of the largest economic meetings; big deals and plans happen there; and it is incredibly stupid for ‘our’ political and business leaders to lose out on such a major opportunity while other countries take full advantage of the lack of competition!  There were other stories we could cover today, but let’s just save them up; since Ethan and I really are ready to take a break from the studying to hang out with our friends.  We will be back to that work tomorrow and Sunday – along with the usual chores and family ball games; so stay tuned for all of that news while we get out there and live the adventures starting right now.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - June 4, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 10^th Anniversary, Isabelle and Andrew Jennings!

We delivered a card and gift for one of our favorite teachers this morning before first classes, but that was the totality of our involvement in that anniversary celebration.  Violet and Dillon are helping out with giving his sister and brother-in-law a kid-free night; and we do not need to comment on that story at all! ;^)

As for our own adventures, we’ve kept busy with our exams studies; Ethan and I hosted the after-school and evening study session that included feeding our gang of teens; and we missed out on game night at the Inn while busy with our friends.  That probably doesn’t sound exciting, but we are happy tonight; and we are glad that we can help our classmates with getting as ready for those exams as possible.  Since we didn’t have any major interruptions tonight, we wrapped up the work by around ten o’clock; our friends headed out for their own homes; and we took care of the clean-up while multi-tasking a post-gaming visit with mom and Dad after they got home from the Inn.

Ethan and I are busy with the wrap-up twin chat and computing; we’re getting tired fast; and our world news report is going to be short again tonight.  Let’s begin with the weekly oil reserves update, and our national reserves dropped by another eight million barrels last week.  That is a slower draw from the previous two weeks, but unless the reductions slow a lot more; we’ll be hitting new lows by the end of June; and could close in on minimum levels by the end of the summer.  That reality hasn’t hit market prices yet, but it will get there eventually; and it could take a decade or more to rebuild reserves – especially when that is going to be a problem for all of the major countries that are also depleting their stockpiles of petroleum products.

In the Middle East, Lebanon is still under attack from Israel; ditto that for the Palestinians and Syrians; and there is no sign that the Israeli military is going to stop their killing and destruction.  That stance will not make peace with Iran possible, but then our leaders aren’t really trying to negotiate for peace anyway; and threaten and bully instead of actually trying to negotiate anything.  The battles in Ukraine continue to rage along the front lines and beyond; there are multiple points of contact that are collapsing for Ukrainian defenses; and there are many reports of serious problems for the Ukrainian soldiers as supply lines collapse and Russian forces create new cauldrons and cutting off those troops even from chances to retreat.  Many people in the west would not know that is happening; since ‘our’ leaders and media do not report very much of the bad news from Ukraine while also pushing narratives that are often total nonsense.

I’m keeping this going longer than we wanted; so let’s stop there.  Ethan and I are looking forward to the weekend even though we’ll continue the exams studying along with the usual chores and the start of the baseball season.  We’ll try to have some fun to write about along the way too, so stay tuned for that; and we’ll go get some sleep so we’ll be ready for all of that work and fun.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - June 3, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 5^th Birthday, Ryan Jacobs!

Happy 15^th Birthday, Jenna Sparks!

Happy 4^th Birthday, Carson Carter!

Happy 20^th Anniversary, Pastor John and Stacey!

Happy 14^th Anniversary, Grandpa Grant and Grandma Eleanor!

That’s a lot of partying for one day in our little town, but then Ethan and I only did a cameo visit with Ryan for his party; and spent the rest of our late afternoon and evening at Jenna’s birthday dinner, party, and exams study session.  We’ve had fun today, but don’t really have much to report from our own adventures; since we really did do a lot of studying and fit in the rest of the fun along the way.  Jenna passed her driver’s license test and has already done some driving with her Mom; and she is very happy to join that club.  She liked her gifts and the parts of the party that weren’t study-related.  For the record, Naomi, Sophia, and I take care of ‘girl’ gifts for our friends; and no, that is not because Naomi is worried about what Ethan might choose instead or that those girls might like gifts he chooses better!  Jenna’s party and the studying rolled on until eleven o’clock; we were in the middle of the pack for departures; and our home time since then has only changed from Monday and Tuesday in that Mom did a Magi lesson with us while Dad was finishing up his own work; we did a bit of charity work; and now we’ve just finished up with bath or Jacuzzi time.  It is late; so let’s cover the world news with a quick report and then we’ll go and get some sleep.

Instead of writing about the wars in Ukraine or the Middle East; we are going to cover a couple of side stories that got our attention – though one of them is part of the bigger Iran war story.  The missile and drone attacks from last night included a news report that isn’t getting covered in ‘western’ media because it appears that damage at the Kuwait international airport was actually caused by an errant Patriot missile instead of an Iranian missile or drone.  One person was killed and several injured at the terminal that was hit; and videos do appear to confirm the defense missile miss-fire.  While that is a comparatively-small story; we’re mentioning it to point out hypocrisy of western media where propaganda is more-important than truth.

The other story we want to cover is from the United Nations, where, for the first time, Germany did not ‘win’ one of the temporary seats on the United Nations Security Council.  Austria and Portugal were voted into the seats being voted on, so there probably won’t be any significant changes for the security council, but it is noteworthy that Germany did not get those votes and it is a sign that their influence in the world is dimming.  Okay, that might be a bit unrealistic, since Germany is currently chairing the United Nations General Assembly where that vote happened today, and they are still a manufacturing powerhouse even with the problems they are having; and they do still have a lot of power in Europe and as a major player in the world economy.

It is late now, so that’s all for tonight.  Stay tuned for more of our adventures in studying and more; and we’ll go have a nap to get ready for all of that work and fun.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - June 2, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Day two of our ‘enhanced’ exams study week didn’t include as much studying because of our band and praise team practices, but we did study all day at school; added in some more work along with the Pizzeria pizza dinner between the practices; and fit in two more hours of studying at Naomi’s house with about half of our friends after we left the church by around eight-thirty.  I walked Aiden over to his house while Ethan was busy saying goodnight to Naomi in a non-verbal sort of way; we came home by a bit after eleven o’clock; and only had a quick chat with Mom and Dad before coming upstairs for the usual bedtime computing and twin talk wrap-up to our day.

There has been a lot of news going on around the world, and while we would really love to offer good news now and then; our reality is that the same idiocies roll on endlessly while horrors continue to be inflicted on the people caught in the middle of the wars and conflicts.  Some stories that we took note of today included an apparent admission that Ukraine was responsible for a mid-May drone attack directed at Finland that was likely meant to be a false-flag event to blame on Russia – the one that caused a panic in Finland affecting nearly two million people.  We can also report new strikes on Kiev and other Ukrainian cities that are apparently the start of a new escalation; the targets included drone factories and power infrastructure; and there are reports of large-scale power outages.  There are also reports of frontline collapses occurring or imminent in multiple locations; so there could be more going on than is being reported – especially if Russia has decided to change their strategy and goals.

As for the Middle East, talk of peace is ‘on’ today without any proof of any real progress; the supposed ceasefire deal in Lebanon isn’t holding at all as the fighting continues; and Iran is not showing any interest in trusting any agreement with either the United States or Israel.  There have also been more missile and drone attacks on Iran and on multiple American or allied military bases in the region; there are definitely escalations in those attacks on both sides now; and that ceasefire might be finished now too.

Ethan and I are both tempted to offer a long rant tonight because we are really tired of watching our national and world leaders destroy countries, people, and the global economy all for the sake of more power and wealth for themselves and their families and friends without any care for the rest of the people that they are actually supposed to represent and protect.  That little blip of commentary would be a good start to that rant, but we need to get some quality nap time more; so that’s all for this report.

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