Heirs of the Magi News Flash!

***Heirs of the Magi News Flash!*** Cassie and Michael are away on their first work trip of the New Year, and our favorite Magi will be busy with amazing adventures both at home and elsewhere in the world. You'll want to keep up with all of those stories over the next weeks and months; so... ...Visit Witch Falls often to keep up with all of our latest adventures; and happy reading!

Tuesday, March 17, 2026

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 48th Birthday, Mom!

We are going to start with pointing out that Mom does not care about public admissions of her age; and most people that don’t know her wouldn’t believe her age anyway; since she could still pass for being in her early-thirties.  She definitely loves getting teased about being Cassie’s sister; and she got some of that this morning while we were all at the Inn for her birthday buffet breakfast.  That’s been our top news and event of the day; and this update is extra-early because Mom has left for two days in Crystal Springs; and we’re getting ready to move over to Cassie and Michael’s house – and take Silkie there with us.  Ethan and I are going to work-play at the lab or archives after we stop in to drop off the dog and our overnight bags, but we’ll eventually meet up with our four best friends for dinner and the rest of the night with Cassie and Michael.

The rest of our story for today can wait for a double update, but we’ll assure you that we did our best to make the start of Mom’s special day awesome from Tai Chi through until she hit the road for the city; and we’ll leave it up to Dad and their friends to keep her happy and entertained for the rest of the day.  Some of those celebration details will not be shared with her kids; we’re good with that; and will include a kid-free getaway update for you soon without those unwanted details! ;^)

As for the rest of our day, it is going to still be cold today; we’re going to stay indoors and have fun with our beakers or books; and then we’ll play with Cassie, Michael, and our four best friends for the rest of the day.  Stay tuned for those stories; and we’ll head out and get started on those adventures right now!

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

Monday, March 16, 2026

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

We got the cold weather as forecast; so Ethan and I opted to stay indoors today with chores this morning; the rest of the day at the lab or archives; and then dinner and a quiet work evening at home with Mom, Cassie, and Michael.  The rest of our Sunday after the last update was good too with the early buffet at the Inn and then our co-ed sleepover with our friends, but we also don’t really have much news to offer from any of those adventures beyond reporting that we loved the time with family and friends.  We did get up early this morning for Dad’s trip to the city; followed that up with a nap; and then we got started on our day with Tai Chi that was indoors and a hot breakfast before our friends moved on to their own plans for the day.  We were tempted to have another co-ed sleepover tonight, but decided to stay split up and spend time with our own families – mostly because we’ll be doing a lot of sleepovers for the rest of our spring break.  Our evening work and quiet time included a full update on Cassie and Michael’s trip along with plans for the coming weeks and months; we did some charity work and a group Magi lesson; and now we’re winding down fast toward nap time after Cassie and Michael headed home and we took bath or Jacuzzi breaks.

That brings us to the world news update; and there might actually be a bit of good news from the Iran war.  President Trump has been demanding help from other countries to send their navies to help open the Strait of Hormuz; and those countries have been refusing to do that and be drawn into the war too.  Most people that actually understand the situation know that those warships would be sitting ducks in the strait and the gulfs; and that doesn’t even take into account the implications that would go along with either defending their ships or attacking Iranian forces.  On the other side of the stupidity factor for political leaders, we have more calls for ground troops and trial balloons about using tactical nukes on Iran.  Both ideas are insane – which is why we are worried about it; since at least some of our world leaders think that they could and should seriously consider those options.  While Iran is getting the media attention, we want to mention that Israel is continuing their genocide in Gaza; expanding attacks in the West Bank; and invading Lebanon and bombing their country day and night too while the rest of the world stands by and allows that to happen without consequences.  Their actions are criminal; and we cannot predict the long-term impacts as they earn more and more enemies with every person they kill or injure.

The Ukraine war isn’t getting much attention right now either, but the situation is still dire for the Ukrainian people; and their leaders continue the insanity by refusing to concede that their country is being destroyed and there is no chance for them to win the war.  We do think that our leaders should learn a lesson from that because the Iranian people will not give up either, but there are also huge differences in the leverage that Iran and Ukraine have on their respective sides.  Iran will eventually force their enemies to deal with the closure of the strait; while Russia no longer needs Ukraine for energy exports because they are moving it from Europe to China, India, and other Asian countries.  Thanks to Ukraine’s leaders, Russia also doesn’t need anything that they used to buy from Ukraine – especially since they control the parts of Ukraine where most of the prime resources are located.  That isn’t a suggestion that one war will end differently than the other – we don’t know that at all.  It does mean that our leaders are messing up in both conflicts for different reasons; and we really hope that sanity will return before we end up dealing with wider conflicts or a world war.  Those dangers are real and depressing, but then the rest of the world is rolling along with other issues that include problems and threats from western countries that include economic and political pressures.

That’s definitely true for Cuba, Venezuela, and other countries in the region, and while there might not be military action; the threats continue; and the people in those countries are not ‘appreciating’ the consequences of our actions on their daily lives.  Ditto that elsewhere – with China being a top example; and they are not interested in any ‘deals’ from our leaders when it is proven that our country cannot be trusted about anything at all.  That’s true for most European countries too; so the efforts toward neo-colonialism are not going to work.

Let’s stop there.  Ethan and I need to get some sleep; since we want to make sure that Mom’s birthday starts out with a lot of love and happiness; so that’s all for tonight.

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

Sunday, March 15, 2026

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Having Cassie and Michael home again is our top news of the day – or yesterday.  We had fun with our friends, cousins, and next-gen kids yesterday too, but welcoming Cassie and Michael home was the highlight of our day; and we even managed to spend a bit of time with them too.  We also spent a lot of time helping with kid control and the family-and-friends’ dinner that Mom and Dad hosted again for our weekend guests.  There actually isn’t really much news to offer beyond that we had fun, but we biked and played in the afternoon; dinner was outdoors because it was warm-enough to do that yesterday afternoon; and then our evening entertainment included video games and movies before our guests all headed to homes, cottages, or elsewhere; and we only kept our four best friends for a co-ed sofa sleepover.

The weather today is a story too because it started a lot warmer than it will end.  That allowed for Tai Chi by the river before breakfast; and then we had extra guests for that meal.  The teens in the house took care of the clean-up; the high of the day happened while we were walking to church – topping out at around sixty-six; and then it started cooling down from there and we got some rain this afternoon as the high dropped to around fifty and continues to go down from there as we’re writing this update now.  The church service and Sunday school were good – with a highlight being Shayne’s introduction to the community.  We didn’t have company for lunch, but then Ethan and I helped Cassie and Michael with the next-gen kids that they’ve had since after church – and they are keeping those kids for a sleepover tonight too.  Naomi and Aiden spent some of that time with us too, but Aiden helped out at the bakery for a while too, since this is the spring break and they were busy today.  We had some outdoor play time, but had some indoor fun too when it was raining; and now we’re split up while getting ready for the early buffet.  We’re going to that one today because our weekend guests need to head out after that meal – and we didn’t want to keep Jillian and Shayne out late either.

Ethan and I are doing this update now because we’re going to have Naomi and Aiden with us for the night – ahead of Dad’s week in the city; and we don’t want to save this for later.  We obviously don’t have a travel update for Cassie and Michael either; so let’s wrap this up.  While we should do a world news update, I want to stay happy; and Ethan is going to let me do that and skip another day of bad news from any of the favorite wars.  We do want to mention that we don’t love going from mid-sixties for the morning high to the overnight lows expected tonight that could dip below zero, but Mother Nature is probably having fun with the winter weather on our spring break; so we’ll try to have fun with whatever we get for the weather.  That is sure to be a story for tomorrow, so stay tuned for that; and we’ll get back to living the rest of our adventures of the day right now.

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

Saturday, March 14, 2026

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

This is going to be another quick update; since we need to get back to living our weekend adventures and have only stopped to get cleaned up from our chores morning before we get to the family-and-friends’ lunch.  We’re going to be busy for the rest of the day with a play afternoon and Cassie and Michael’s return home; and then we haven’t decided what we’re doing for the night – other than more help with kids and a co-ed sleepover are likely.

We had fun yesterday since our last update even with a lot of kid control work and babysitting.  There was some biking; park play time; and then video gaming and movies in the evening while some of our favorite parents were busy with weekend guests, Jillian, and her combined families.  We followed that up with a co-ed sofa sleepover with our four best friends after all of the guests went home with their kids – including the weekend guests staying at the cottages.  We stayed up too-late; had fun; and then we had a nap for four or five hours before getting started on our Saturday.

We were up on time for Tai Chi by the river; had extra exercise buddies because Brianna and Faith decided to join us for that workout; and then we had breakfast with Mom and Dad before getting to the chores part of our day.  That’s what we’ve been doing since then – including a last run-through at Cassie and Michael’s house; and now we’re going to be back on kid control for lunch and the afternoon and evening.  We’ll multi-task that with Cassie and Michael’s return once they get home later this afternoon; and maybe we’ll even get to spend a bit of time with them too – though they are going to have some issues with the time change for at least the next few days.

That’s all for now, but before we go; let’s mention that the top war news from the Middle East so far this weekend is that we’ve attacked Kharg Island in Iran – the location of the oil and gas facilities they use for ninety percent of their energy exports; and we’re sending thousands of marines into the region for what would definitely be a dangerous escalation if we put troops on the ground in any part of Iran.  We have been warned that attacks on Kharg Island could lead to open season on all Middle East oil and gas targets in the rest of the Middle East by Iran; so we hope that doesn’t happen.  Let’s save the rest of the world news for tomorrow night; since we really need to get going right now.

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

Friday, March 13, 2026

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 19th Birthday, Kara Johnson!

Hopefully having her special day on a Friday the 13th won’t be scary for Kara, but we don’t have any news on that for her yet; so we’ll have to wait to find out.

Our Cassie and Michael update feels weird this afternoon because we’ve been used to writing about their adventures from a day ahead of us, but they are still flying toward the west coast as we’re doing this report; and their arrival time will be later tonight Pacific time – after midnight here at home.  That does mean that they get to have a second Friday – or at least two hours worth of a second round – plus the hours of the day they’re getting while still in-flight.  That also means that we don’t really have any news for them; since they’ve mostly just been stuck on a jet for most of our day-so-far.

As for our day, we went outside for Tai Chi this morning despite it still being chilly; we had a good day at school as we were all more-interested in getting started on our spring break; and now we’re getting ready to help with younger cousins and next-gen kids while our parents are busy with work or welcoming and entertaining weekend guests.  They’ll all mostly be here for Jillian and her new family, but we also need to point out again that Julian is leaving for the first of his spring breaks’ extreme adventure trips; so we’ll also be helping to support Jillian and Shayne while Julian is away.  Now we need to get out there and keep the younger kids entertained – including some of our favorite next-gen kids.  The rest of our story will need to wait; since we’re planning on a sleepover too for the first night of our school break; so we’ll have the rest of our story sometime tomorrow.  We want to have fun; so we are not going to get into a world news update at all; and will likely just save the next one up for Sunday night.  We really do need to go now; so we’re out of here and ready to get our week off started right now.

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