Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - February 8, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 25^th Birthday, Cassie!

Cassie’s birthday is over as we’re writing this and she has moved on to the work schedule with Michael in and around Bangkok.  We had a birthday vid-chat with them – a multi-way link while Ethan was at home with Naomi and our parents; I was with Aiden and his family; and we connected with Grandma, Grandpa, and the Carringtons too.  It was already evening by then in Thailand, so we got to hear all about their birthday sightseeing and diving adventures; and we are definitely jealous!

Here at home, Ethan and I had fun with our respective co-ed sleepovers and play evening adventures; stayed up too late; and Ethan does not want me to write about why he and Naomi had more fun than Aiden and I did!  We didn’t get together for Tai Chi either, but then we did that indoors anyway.  We enjoyed our respective breakfasts along with the joint vid-chat; and then church and Sunday school were great too.  Mom and Dad have been hosting a Super Bowl party, and we helped out with some of that work, but then we also spent more time keeping the kids and teens in the house entertained.  The lounge was video gaming central; the sunroom was for chick flicks, and while they waited for the football game to start; the living room ended up being for watching Winter Olympics highlights from Italy.  Ethan and I keep up with those stories, but don’t really watch the Olympics coverage because we’re too busy to do that day and night for the live feeds.

We’ve had a really good day; and I’m not just writing that because most of the girls in our town are happy that football season is finished until August if we don’t count the spring draft!  That brings us to the top sporting news report of the day; so we’ll do that even though I really don’t care about which teams win these championships – especially when all of the money that goes into these events could be used for much-better purposes!  We’ve previously mentioned in our journals that the Patriots and Seahawks were the conference champions; so their respective fans were happiest as the game started – if only one set of fans were still happy by the end!  Defensive fans might have loved the first-half of the game, but the Seahawks’ three field goals hardly inspired excitement – even among the game-watchers in our house!  Hope stayed alive into the second-half despite a halftime show that Ethan and I ignored.  The low score to that point brought out the inevitable commentary about a record-breaking low score for a Super Bowl, but that was a bit premature – even if that was another championship game that the Patriots played in.  For the arithmetically-challenged among our cousins, no, the Patriots could not have come back from nine-to-zero; win the game; and set another low-score record! ;^)

While we waited to find out who would win the game, Naomi and I convinced our boyfriends that co-ed cuddling in the sunroom watching a movie would be more-fun than either football or video gaming; we had fun with that; and still kept up with the game progress – if only from the rise and fall of the guy talk volume that allowed us to overhear every success and failure.  The defenses continued to win most of the time through the third quarter with only one more field goal for the Seahawks.  There were still four points to go to the low score record, but we expected it to be more-likely that there would either be a fourth-quarter comeback for the Patriots or that there would be a comeback attempt that came up just short!  The answer to that question took a while, since fifteen-minute quarters drag on endlessly, but the winner for our collective guesses was that the record was safe by less than two minutes into the last quarter thanks to a Seahawks touchdown; and then the Patriots began their comeback attempt with a touchdown a couple of minutes later for more points in three minutes than in the first forty-five!  This is starting to sound more like a play-by-play, but I should report that the spectators in our living room did get more excited after those touchdowns – even after the Patriots gave up an interception that the Seahawks turned into a field goal while managing to run time off the clock too.  The comeback threat still had five and a half minutes of life left in the quarter; so the Patriots’ fans had not yet lost hope!  Okay, they did lose hope about a minute later thanks to a sack and fumble recovery for a Seahawks touchdown to take the score to twenty-nine to seven with around four and a half minutes left, but all of the drama couldn’t have been set up better by a play writer for a Broadway production!  The game outcome didn’t appear to be in doubt then, but the Patriots still came back with a second touchdown – though they didn’t get the extra points attempt.  This really is dragging out, but maybe I’m channeling Ethan for this drawn-out game wrap-up!  As if the game hadn’t been long-enough already, the final two minutes dragged on – or maybe that was just me and all of the girls in the house feeling that way!  Maybe our future journal readers can relate by now; so I’ll report that while the Patriots had the last offensive possession of the game; they didn’t score more points and the Seahawks are the Super Bowl champions this year!  Yeah – now we can all call it a day and go to bed!

Okay, our guests needed to go home first and then we had to deal with the clean-up, but now we’re winding down fast toward nap time.  The world news report does not include winners as far as we’re concerned – only losers.  That’s especially-true for most of our world leaders; since both words and actions show how little they care for the people they are supposed to represent and protect.  Sanctions on Russia and Iran were top news stories over the past couple of days; there continues to be no serious progress for any peace talks; and even the bits of supposed good news eventually prove to be nothingburgers – though we will concede that the prisoners that Ukraine and Russia exchanged are likely all happy with being set free.  Actually, that might not be true for the Ukrainian prisoners; since life is fairly-awful for all but the elites there; and that’s assuming they don’t just get sent back to the front lines or face worse for being captured or surrendering.  The situation for Ukraine gets worse every day while their leaders refuse serious negotiations that should basically be a surrender to Russia; and the Middle East continues to be a mess with never-ending horrors for the Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese, Houthis, and Iranians.  We could say the same for Venezuela, Cuba, and other countries being targeted by our President; and we are continually sick of all of the tragedies that are happening at the hands of our elite and military forces.

Let’s stop there.  We need to get some sleep to re-charge ahead of our school week and the Valentine’s Day themed fun ahead of us – including the actual special day and the school dance on Friday night.  Stay tuned for those upcoming stories, but we’re done for tonight; and heading off to dreamland right now.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - February 7, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

This early update is coming to you now because I’m about to head over to Aiden’s house for the night while Naomi will be here with Naomi and our parents because it is their turn!  We had fun last night with our cousins and friends – including the family-and-friends’ dinner that Mom and Dad ended up hosting; and the co-ed sleepover that our four best friends stayed for was great too!  We don’t really have much news from today-so-far.  Tai Chi and breakfast were indoors; we said goodbye to our friends for a while and had chores to do here and at the usual houses and cottages; and then we had a couple of hours off since our late lunch break to bike and play with cousins and friends.  It wasn’t as-warm today, but still sunny and in the high-forties for the high that we’re just hitting now; so we still had fun and only needed warmer clothes and we work gloves while biking.  Let’s mention that the snow we had during that storm that hit much-harder elsewhere to the east is pretty much all melted except for some shaded spots in the woods, but the ground hasn’t softened up much except for where there are pools of standing water that hasn’t dried up yet too.

We mostly stayed clean, but hit the showers after getting home and now we’re ready for our respective sleepovers.  Cassie and Michael are already enjoying their Saturday night naps – or maybe they aren’t; since it is Cassie’s birthday already in Thailand!  They had fun with sightseeing and quality water and beach play time for their Saturday; and we are happy for them – even while still being jealous of the sun and mid-nineties highs they are getting to enjoy there!

Ethan and I do not want to get into a major world news update right before we’re going to have fun with Aiden or Naomi for the rest of the day, but we need to mention one story – the assassination attempt on a high-ranking Russian General who is also the Deputy to Russia’s chief negotiator for the trilateral peace talks.  That does not look good for building any trust in the negotiations; a likely attempt to derail those talks even though they aren’t going anywhere anyway; and Russia may have already retaliated with a massive overnight missile and drone attack across Ukraine.  There is also news that the assassin has been captured in the United Arab Emirates and may be on the way back to Russia, but we also doubt we’ll ever learn the truth about what really happened or which country or countries were behind the attack.  On a related note, we can also mention that the talks between the United States and Iran were followed up by new sanctions on Iran; and that won’t build any trust either – not that there is any to start with after the attacks on Iran last year that happened while our leaders pretended to be talking peace then too.

We are going to stop there because I’m getting the urge to rant for a while and don’t want to ‘make’ time to do that now.  Maybe we’ll do that with the next update, but for now; we’re ready to get back to the fun and are out of here!

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Cassie and Michael are in Thailand as we’re writing this early update and getting started on an all-weekend birthday celebration that we are sure will include lots of sun, fun on the beach and in the water, and other details that we will never hear about but might be the best parts of their days!  Okay, we might know more once we decide that we’re old-enough to read Cassie’s ‘adult’ journals in another decade or three, but we don’t need to let that get in the way of pretending that we know nothing about that sort of thing now! ;^)

As for our day, this update is early because we are about to go out to bike and play with our friends and then we are going to host a play night for some cousins and friends and a co-ed sleepover for our four best friends; so we are going to be busy for the rest of the day.  We had fun at school, and while it is a bit cooler this afternoon, the high is still a bit above fifty and that feels good by comparison; so we are going to enjoy the outdoor time while we can; since we are not likely to be done with winter quite yet.  While we’re thinking about the biking, we should mention that we are staying on the main trails when doing that, since the snow melt is happening fast, but making a mess of the dirt trails in the woods and they can also be on the icy side – as some of the kids and teens have found out this week in sometimes-painful ways.  We also prefer to stay a bit cleaner – and not only because Mom is not a big fan of mud in her house or laundry appliances!

Let’s stop there.  Our friends and cousins will be here soon and we still need to get our bikes out of the storage barn and grab some snacks and drinks to go, so we’ll do that; and you can read all about our adventures for the rest of the day with our next report!

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 5^th Birthday, Jonathan Bassett!

We didn’t have anything to do with Jonathan’s special day, but Sophia and Aaron went to his party; and were drafted to help with the work and keeping the kids entertained.  While they were doing that, they missed out on after-school biking with our friends that we chose to do thanks to a high that topped out in the mid-fifties this afternoon!  That’s been quite the change from double digits in the negative, so we had fun with that – and were a little less-jealous of Cassie and Michael as they’re wrapping up their visit to Laos and getting ready to fly to Thailand soon.  It is Friday there and they have a bit more work to do first, but then they will be moving on – and taking the weekend off for Cassie’s birthday adventures that will happen in and around Bangkok.

As for our day, Tai Chi was indoors; our academic adventures were a bit more-fun thanks to the nice weather and some bonus outdoor time; and then the biking was followed by studying, dinner, and a group Magi lesson that we did with Mom, Dad, Naomi, and Aiden before we all headed to the Inn for game night.  Thanks to that Bassett clan party, the turnout was a bit low; and that had nothing to do with why Ethan and Naomi won the junior title tonight!  Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne won the senior title; so both are in our family for the week!  We all had fun; Ethan and I took Silkie for a walk while seeing Naomi and Aiden to their homes; and Silkie got more bedtime hugs and kisses than the rest of us did combined.  Mom didn’t want Ethan and I to do any work after getting home again – and we are going to ignore why she had those same orders for Dad!  Bath or Jacuzzi time was allowed, so we moved on to do that; and now we’re winding down fast toward nap time.

As for the world news, politicians and media seem more-interested in the latest round of Epstein-related scandals that are coming up on a decade old, but we think that the worst news of the day is that our leaders allowed the New-START or START-2 treaty to expire overnight; and now we officially do not have any nuclear arms treaties for the first time in more than fifty years!  We can only presume that our leaders didn’t want to extend that deal or expand on it because they plan on building up their nuclear weapons capacity – and Russia, China, and other countries will need to come to that same conclusion and respond accordingly.  That is insane; and nobody should want to start up a new round of arms races and the fear that goes along with the risks of global-level destruction!  Ethan and I will not be distracted by the political sideshows while ignoring the truly-serious problems in the world, but it also sometimes feels like we’re unable to do anything to stop what is happening – even when we help out with all of the good we do through the family businesses and charities.

The end of the last nuclear arms treaty was far from the only story in the world, but there still isn’t any good news for Ukraine or the Middle East.  The rhetoric playing at peace talks is nonsense; since the ‘western’ demands basically boil down to having both Russia and Iran completely capitulate and allow the United States to rule and exploit their countries and the rest of the world too.  That isn’t peace – it is conquering, and while we wouldn’t suggest that western powers can’t continue to do that for longer than anyone can predict; we are sure that there will be wars over those resources if we keep going down this road!

That’s another depressing thought to end our update on, but we’ve had enough for tonight; and we’ll move on and try to come up with happier thoughts to take into dreamland.  That might be easier for Ethan, since he just needs to replay that victory kiss with Naomi after their game night win, but either way; that’s all for this report and we’re out of here starting right now.

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

This has been a good day, but not newsworthy for our personal adventures.  Tai Chi was indoors; breakfast was standard school-day fare; and our academic adventures included a test, some classmate presentations, and the usual daily lessons and work.  Ethan and I worked at the lab or archives with our books or beakers doing mostly-boring jobs.  Okay, that would just be boring for most people including our friends while we have fun getting into the weeds of our projects.  We came home for a slightly-late dinner; worked in the office with Mom and Dad after the clean-up – including a Magi lesson with Mom; and now we’re ready to wrap up our day and get some sleep.

Along with the work tonight, we did a vid-chat with Cassie and Michael at the start of their Thursday in Savannakhet; we’re still jealous of the sun and hot weather, and it is even-warmer there than in Vientiane!  They are having more fun than we are even with all of the work, but we’ll cut them some slack on that this week; since Cassie’s birthday is just days away now!  They have all-weekend plans for that and we’ll cover that news eventually too, but that’s all we have for them tonight.

On the world news front, peace talks are on-again – or they aren’t; and that could be said for pretty much every major conflict right now.  The ongoing destruction of Ukraine rolls on while politicians accomplish nothing; that’s true in different ways in a handful of Middle East countries; and stresses in Europe, here, and elsewhere continue to fester and grow; just waiting for the next spark to set off future fights.  We haven’t mentioned recent, renewed calls to place nuclear weapons in more European countries, but that’s because we can only hope that those leaders won’t be allowed to be that stupid.  That would likely lead to nuclear war, and with the last of the big nuclear treaties, the START-2 agreement, due to expire tomorrow without our leaders even trying to negotiate an extension or renewal; we’re already moving a step closer to that kind of conflict.

That’s a terrible note to wrap this up on, but we’re tired; and I don’t want to really get started on a rant that our leaders will never read or hear anyway – and would ignore if they did!  Cassie and Michael would never want to live in Washington, but President Cassie Stone does have a nice ring to it; and we – the people of the world – might have a chance with a Magi Master there to clean up the swamp! ;^)

Okay, that’s a happier note to end on; so we’re out of here and off to dreamland right now.

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