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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

We do not have official baby news yet, but can report that Aiden will have a new Draper cousin sometime soon; since Katie Draper has gone into labor this afternoon.  Future jokes could be inevitable, but we really don’t think that missing a high school football playoffs game ranks very high on any list for that kind of teasing for the parents.

As for our day-so-far, it was below-freezing this morning and we still opted to go outside for Tai Chi by the river; the high this afternoon only reached the mid-forties; and we could get below freezing tonight during the game – though it will still be around forty at game time.  The second-round game was the top chat topic today; and we are ready for what should be a tough battle against Hillcrest.  Our defense will need to show up tonight, and since Ethan and his team worked on that a lot this week; we’ll hope that the focus on that side of the game will pay off tonight.  There really isn’t much to add from the rest of our day.  We’ve had fun at school; and now we really need to move on to have a quick dinner before heading back to the school so Ethan can warm up with the team and I can take a short turn with the marching band fundraiser booth – though that will mostly just be the set-up for me before I need to join the cheer squad for our own warm-ups.

While we’ll be busy playing tonight, Cassie and Michael are in Nigeria now and will be there for the weekend in and around the Capital of Abuja.  They’re going to get hot, sunny weather all weekend too, but have a packed schedule; so they won’t get much time to play or go sightseeing.  We’ll have more on that, but as a wrap-up for the South Sudan stop on their trip; they managed to fit in two site visits and four meetings during their Friday before hopping an evening local time flight to Abuja.

Finally, for a quick world news report, we can assure our future journal readers that our leaders have not suddenly changed course and embraced peace.  If anything, the further we get from the midterm elections, the less those leaders remember of what the voters were obviously telling them.  Republicans are talking about more war with Iran; Democrats are talking about more war with Ukraine as their proxy against Russia; and we can only feel disgusted when some of those leaders outright admit that they find ‘beauty’ in paying people in other countries to ‘kill Russians’ for them while suffering the destruction that is happening to Ukraine in retaliation.  That’s true for every American vassal country – as is becoming very clear in the Middle East too as our promised defenses are proving ineffective and costly to countries like Saudi Arabia.  Let’s stop there, but this could be a busy news weekend; since along with the ongoing wars; we expect to see more protests and riots in Europe and elsewhere – and those problems are expanding to the point where we can’t possibly cover every story happening around the world.  It isn’t a surprise that the uprisings are happening in both the countries with the most-entitled populations and the poorest countries; and some of those leaders are even being toppled as tensions rise.

That’s all we have time for this afternoon.  Ethan really does need to eat and run; so stay tuned for our next report while we get back to living the adventures.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - November 12, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Try not to be shocked, but Ethan and I have both run out of steam as we’re writing this and wrapping up our usual computer checks and twin chat time.  We’ve had a good day from Tai Chi and breakfast with Mom and Dad through our academic adventures and football or cheer squad practices to now after we had fun with game night at the Inn.  Any other news from Cassie and Michael or around the world can wait for a day; so we’re just going to wrap this up and call it a night.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - November 11, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Cassie and Michael have finished their visit to Ethiopia, and as we’re writing this; they’re getting started on their flight to Juba, South Sudan.  While they have bigger issues to deal with in South Sudan, we’re going to comment on the weather forecast because they aren’t supposed to get any rain at all while there; and the highs both days they’ll be there will be in the nineties.  Yes, that’s nothing compared to the needs of the people there, but they’ve had at least a bit of rain every day of this trip so far; so they are looking forward to that change!  Let’s add that they got a lot done in Ethiopia; and we hope that our new partnerships and projects will help a lot of people over the next few years.

Here at home, we’ve had a fairly-normal Wednesday.  Tai Chi by the river was chilly and we had a hot breakfast after that before heading off to school.  There isn’t anything newsworthy from our academic adventures, but it is Veteran’s Day; so we did have a ceremony and minute of silence this morning to go along with the classwork and lessons.  Football and cheer squad practices went well after school and we still got one more warmer day – if cooler and only in the mid-sixties; so we’ll appreciate those moments when we can.  Ethan and I hosted our four best friends for dinner, studying, and a group Magi lesson with Mom between those practices and the teen praise team practice this evening; and we love those group lessons a lot.  The food was really good too; and we multi-tasked the dinner clean-up with the studying and lesson; and then we headed to the church for that practice.  We mostly worked on the Thanksgiving music tonight, but covered some of the Christmas songs too at the end of the practice; and then we came home to get Silkie for another walk while seeing Naomi and Aiden to their homes.  That wasn’t an extended walk, but we didn’t do any work in the office after we got home for the night either.  Bath or Jacuzzi time followed a short chat with Mom and Dad; and now we’re ready to wind down fast to nap time while doing the bedtime computing and twin chat fun.

The top world news of the day was again all about the Ukraine war peace talks that wrapped up in Abu Dhabi today, but while the talk continues; we haven’t seen any reason to believe that anything has changed on the ground as the fighting and airstrikes continue and the Ukrainian and European leaders are still looking for more war unless Russia surrenders to everything they demand.  That won’t happen, and Ukraine probably won’t surrender either until they have no choice; so we aren’t holding out hope for better.

As those teams of negotiators leave the region, the Middle East conflicts roll on with more ships getting hit; more fighting and airstrikes between Saudi Arabia and Yemen; and more horrors for the Palestinians and Lebanon at the hands of Israel.  We have gone another day without a return to the hot war with Iran, but those threats are still ongoing; and we still expect the worst from our leaders – or from Israel if they can’t goad our military into doing those new attacks for them.  There are other stresses in the region that could blow up too; so new attacks on Iran are far from the only risks for escalation.

Here at home, top distraction stories include multiple firings of President Trump’s staff from both the White House and beyond.  Those political ‘casualties’ include his Chief of Staff and a highly-paid lawyer; and we’ll point out that he’s mostly firing women while keeping some of the most-despicable men – like the Secretaries of State and War.  Is that sexist?  Probably; since there have been quite a few women fired from his ‘team’ over the past year and more.  These stories really are more of the daily distractions from the real issues that should be important to everyone; and they continue to work well – and will until it all collapses under the weight of the rot.  We’re not hoping for that collapse and crisis, but it is likely; so we’ll also be prepared for anything.

Let’s stop there.  Ethan and I need the sleep; so that’s all for tonight.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - November 10, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

We’ve written about Cassie and Michael’s work trip across Africa, and they are continuing their adventures in Ethiopia, but tonight we’re going to write a bit about Africa in general; since a lot of the news we get fed to us in the western countries gives most of our citizens a very wrong basis for our beliefs.  Most Americans likely don’t even know that Africa is the second most-populated Continent behind Asia with around double the population of North America.  That fact alone should be considered important; since the days of exploiting larger populations simply because of warfare technology advantages is coming to an end – and the people of Asia and Africa are figuring that out very fast.  That’s a relative term, and it could take decades for the transition that is inevitable, but we will be happy to use our talents and family business resources to help where we can to help all of our fellow world citizens to have a better life.  Okay, we don’t want to help the evil people to do that in the way they’d consider to be ‘better’ for them, but then we do want to save their souls too; and that would require major sacrifices and life changes for them to move from the Dark to the Light! ;^)

Ethan and I have had another happy, fun day – though very busy.  Tai Chi by the river and breakfast with Mom and Dad were good; we had fun with our classes and lessons; my cheer squad practice was at noon and outdoors because the weather was nice with a high that touched seventy for a few hours; and then we split up the after-school football and music practices with a dinner and study session that Naomi hosted and her parents helped to cook up for us.  I thought that our marching band practice was the best of the day for me, and while we’re still really just getting started; we are excited about working toward a major band trip to Florida in early twenty-twenty-eight.  The weather was still decent after that practice, so we went for a walk with Silkie, Naomi, and Aiden.  We were out doing that for nearly an hour; so Mom decided to skip a Magi lesson; we didn’t do any office work; and went straight to bath or Jacuzzi time.  Now we’re wrapping up our day with the usual twin chat and computer checks; so let’s get the world news report finished and then we’ll head off to bed.

The first day of trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi started today; it seems to be nothing more than a circus; and more time is being spent on trying to sabotage the negotiations than in actually trying to work out an actual deal that would lead to ending the war.  A European delegation arrived despite not being invited; and this just seems to be an attempt to bully and gang up on Russia – a ploy that has no chance of succeeding.  We expect that the outcome of these meetings will be nothing beyond Russia agreeing to continue talks while the war continues; and they won’t stop until they get what they want – which is a neutral Ukraine with a minimal, defensive-only military; no NATO involvement at all or European forces in Ukraine; and security agreements with Europe and NATO that protect Russia.  These leaders are really only wasting more millions of dollars while not being serious about making a real deal that solves anything; and that’s proving true on the ground as the missiles and drones keep flying; the battles along the front lines continue; and Ukraine continues to lose major infrastructure and economic systems.  Nobody is even really talking about just how much it will cost to rebuild Ukraine regardless of who ‘owns’ the land whenever the war does end; and the future for all Ukrainians will be terrible for decades to come – if the majority don’t just give up and flee to other countries.

While the talks are happening in the Middle East, the war there continues; and the top news for today is another strike on Saudi Arabia’s main east-west pipeline – the same one that was knocked out a month or so ago.  We might not know for a while whether the damage is as-significant as the last attack, but we are sure that those attacks on infrastructure will continue until the Houthis achieve their goals or are defeated; and the former seems much more likely right now.  More oil tankers have hit sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz while trying to evade Iran deals for safe passage; nobody should believe any data for what is actually happening for all transportation in the region; and that skepticism is true for stock markets and commodities trading.  Yes, oil prices are down since the midterm elections, but that isn’t based on anything real and is manipulated; so it will continue to be volatile – not to mention that the price of the actual oil is only part of the costs that go into the supply chain through to end-users; and all of those other costs are going up a lot too.  We don’t need to get into a major rant about economics tonight, but the level of what has to be intentional stupidity about the economy by our leaders is scary and dangerous.

That’s enough for tonight.  We’re ready to get some sleep and need to be ready for another busy day; so we’re out of here and off to dreamland starting right now.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - November 9, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 25^th Birthday, Jillian Sparks!

Happy 11^th Birthday, David Burroughs!

As we’re writing this update, Cassie and Michael are starting their Tuesday with an early flight from Somalia to Ethiopia; and they’ll be in and around Addis Ababa for their Tuesday and Wednesday.  They had a challenging work day in Mogadishu and walked away from one deal that was another case of bad guys trying to take over a legitimate project; and they also quietly dealt with the goons sent by those bad guys when they wouldn’t accept the loss of what they thought would be easy money.  Losing opportunities that can help people is sad, but Cassie and Michael can’t be pushovers and get taken seriously; so they took care of themselves both in the conference room and on the ‘mean’ streets.

Here at home, we had a little gift for David and best birthday wishes while at school, but left it up to his friends and family to help him out with the main celebrations.  Mom had a visit with Jillian today, but we didn’t see her; and left it up to Mom to pass along our best wishes for her too.  We’ve been busy-enough with our academic adventures, practices, and a work-play evening at the lab or archives.  There isn’t really much news to offer from any of that; and we’re tired after a long day that included extra time-phased hours.  The weather was still nice today with a nigh near-seventy, but the next cool-down is only a day or two away from returning us to more-normal temperatures.  I’ve skipped over the meals and morning Tai Chi, but that wasn’t newsworthy either; so let’s wrap this up with the world news report.

Everyone is waiting for the trilateral talks between America, Russia, and Ukraine that will be starting soon local time in the Middle East, but we don’t expect anything and hope that nothing worse will happen – like having those talks get disrupted by the conflicts in the Middle East.  There are risks for that – especially when the threats continue to fly between America and Iran, but there is so much anger in the region that we don’t even know why they’d choose any city in the region for those peace talks.  There is certainly no talk of peace with Iran, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, or with the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.  Saudi Arabia continues to be on the wrong end of missile and drone attacks – including one against an Aramco office skyscraper.  It continues to be a challenge to get decent information; since many of those countries have very restrictive laws against media and social media sources.  We do know that the damages and costs continue to rise; and recovery after these conflicts eventually end will take longer and be more-expensive.

Let’s stop there.  We’re tired; our week is only going to get busier; and we need the sleep when we can get it.

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