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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 27^th Birthday, Luke Taylor!

We passed along best birthday wishes to Luke for Cassie and Michael while at church this morning, but that was the entirety of our involvement in his celebration with family and friends.  Ethan and I got to meet Skye Reynolds this morning too, but that was another cameo moment that didn’t last long; since the newest member of our town was in high demand while being introduced to everyone today.

As for our news of the day, Uncle Adam’s birthday dinner was fun along with a fair bit of work on both sides of the meal and the kid control help we offered for younger cousins and next-gen kids.  We had Naomi and Aiden with us for the meal and when we brought those cousins and kids home with us from the dinner; and then we were all kept busy for the rest of the night with keeping the kids entertained while our parents were collectively having fun at the pub.  Mom and Dad were not designated drivers last night; and they came home comparatively-early too; since they weren’t getting a kid-free night.  Mom managed to avoid any billiards challenges, but they did do a bit of dancing; and enjoyed the time out with their friends.  By the time they got home, we had the youngest kids in their beds; most of the girls were either sleeping or winding down toward nap time; and only Zack, Eli, and some of the other guys were still up and playing video games in the lounge.

Naomi and I left it up toe Ethan and Aiden to keep them out of trouble, but we all had a visit with Mom and Dad; and then we joined the girls and went off to sleep soon after Mom and Dad went to bed.  The boys stayed up later; Ethan and Aiden headed to their beds by around two o’clock; and Zack and Eli eventually just fell asleep in the lounge with the video gaming rolling on without them.

Our Sunday morning started with Tai Chi by the river; breakfast was an adventure; and we were kept busy getting everyone fed, ready for the day, and to the church on time.  We had a good morning with the service and Sunday school; Ethan and I were on our own when we went home with Mom and Dad; and took care of some clean-up chores through until we had lunch.  Ethan and I met up with some cousins and friends after that meal; we decided to bike to Quarry Lake; and had fun with the ride and a bit of wandering around at our favorite campground while enjoying the sunshine and the high that climbed into the mid-sixties.  Some of us needed to be home in time for one of the buffets at the Inn, but we didn’t do that tonight; and had a quiet dinner with Mom and Dad.  Ethan and I helped with the cooking and clean-up; and then we worked in the office and did a Magi lesson with Mom too.

While we kept busy with the family business and charity projects, we had a vid-chat with Cassie and Michael too – this time from Singapore for them on their Monday morning.  We’re happy about that because Singapore is their last stop before they head home; so it really feels like we’re close to the end of their trip!  They are going to be doing more business meetings this week; since this stop is all about finance, logistics, and shipping interests and projects that we are working on for multiple businesses and charities.  Cassie and Michael are getting a bit tired; so they’re looking forward to getting home again soon too.

That brings us up to the world news update; and there isn’t good news to share tonight.  The Iran war is expanding; the American and Israeli forces have started bombing oil refineries and storage tanks and desalination plants in Iran; and retaliations are starting in Israel and other Middle East countries.  This is a horrific change in tactics that will devastate the environment; risk the health of millions of civilians that won’t have clean drinking water, and cost tens of billions of dollars in economic harm – or more; since destroyed energy infrastructure can take years to rebuild.

Just to add a bit of a math lesson, we use around one hundred million barrels of oil per day worldwide; so every ten dollar per barrel increase in price costs the world a billion dollars a day – and that’s before you add in all of the pass-through costs to final use products that add much more to those extra costs.  On that note, first-week costs of the war are likely in the tens of billions of dollars between the cost of operations and weapons being expended on both sides along with the costs of what is being destroyed all across the Middle East.  For one example, Iran is reporting upwards of ten thousand buildings damaged or destroyed – most of them civilian homes and businesses; and none of the militaries are disclosing damage to their bases, equipment, or deaths and injuries for military personnel.  That isn’t a surprise during a war, but there are significant costs that go far beyond economic.

Before we move on from that war, we also want to mention that President Trump and others have been talking about expanding the war instead of trying to find a peaceful settlement – and we can assure you that Iran will not be accepting ‘unconditional surrender’ as an option for them.  The worries we have are because our leaders are considering sending in ground forces; and aren’t excluding the possible use of nukes against Iran if they can’t get them to capitulate with conventional warfare.  Both are insane; our leaders have not learned from history; and we will be on our way to another Vietnam or Afghanistan debacle if we continue down this path.

Let’s move on to Ukraine, since we should learn from that disaster too – and haven’t; since western leaders still want to keep that war going too instead of negotiating for peace there.  We do need to mention that some oil sanctions on Russia are being paused because of the war in Iran; and that will just add a lot of revenue for Russia – especially as the price per barrel keeps going up!  So much for the plan to destroy their economy with the sanctions, but then Ukraine also has the new added problem of not having access to new weapons deliveries because everything is being diverted to the Iran war – especially when it comes to air defense systems and offensive missiles.  Russia does not have that problem; so they are continuing the non-stop attacks with missiles and drones every day.  The frontlines stories are all bad for Ukraine too; and that could get a lot worse soon once the spring thaw ends and the ground hardens up again by mid to late April.  That isn’t a prediction of imminent defeat – and that’s a lesson that we should keep in mind for the Iran war.  Ukraine started their war with upwards of a million soldiers and the vast weapons support worth hundreds of billions of dollars from western countries; and they are still having their country destroyed a little at a time over more than four years now.  Iran is larger with two or three times the population; so it makes no sense to believe that they can be defeated in a week or two.  Let’s also note that Russia does not look at war the same way that western countries and leaders do; since they definitely do not think that it is acceptable to assassinate or kidnap leaders of other countries.  Before we get off-track; we also wanted to point out that Russia has not won their fight with Ukraine in four years even with all of the bombing and a ground force of hundreds of thousands of soldiers.  Yes, that is partly because they do not want to kill civilians indiscriminately, but they are also having serious issues with changing modern warfare that includes tech and intel capabilities that have changed the look of battlefields and tactics.

Both wars are ugly, but then so are the economic and political problems elsewhere in the world.  Cuba and Central America continue to be dangerous hotspots; we really don’t think that President Trump should start another war with Cuba; and there was news over the weekend about a new ‘partnership’ with countries across the Americas to go to war with the cartels.  We wish that there weren’t any criminal groups at all, but that is not going to work – just as the war on drugs hasn’t really worked for the past fifty or sixty years.  That’s another can of worms that we should probably save for another update; since we’ve already done enough of a rant for one night!

Ethan and I are going to head off to dreamland soon; since we want to be back at full-power ahead of our last school week before our spring break.  We’re ready to have that week off; and hope that we’ll get some nice weather while we get the time to play with our family and friends.  We’ll have more on that when we get there, but that’s all for tonight; so we’re out of here right now.

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 42^nd Birthday, Uncle Adam!

Congratulations, Alexandria, Alex, and their families – it’s a girl!

Skye Reynolds was born last night at a bit after eight o’clock; Mom and baby are doing great; and they kept our doctors and nurse busy overnight as they took turns caring for them at the clinic.  We expect to meet Skye at church tomorrow, and she went home with her family early this afternoon, but if she’s not ready to make her first public appearance tomorrow; we’re sure to meet her sometime over the next week or so either at church or elsewhere.  Before we get to Uncle Adam’s birthday news-so-far; let’s cover the rest of our story from last night.

We had fun with the biking and park play time; came home in time to help Mom and Dad with the cooking prep work; and then we helped with kid control through dinner and into the evening.  As mentioned, Uncle Adam, Uncle Mark, and Aunt Deborah did not make it to that dinner, but Mom and Dad sent extra food to the clinic – and enough to help feed at least some of the family waiting there for the new baby arrival.  Our evening fun included movies, video gaming, and a bit of ‘live’ music fun; we kept some cousins overnight to help the medical experts and their spouses; and we didn’t get to have any co-ed sleepovers with our four best friends.  Everything was still fun; and we can even report that Zack and Eli didn’t give us a tough time last night.

The rain rolled in last night too; it cooled down to around freezing; and that’s why Tai Chi was indoors this morning.  We had extra exercise buddies; breakfast was a rush between cooking and clean-up and getting everyone ready for the day.  Ethan and I did not have best friends’ help for our chores day.  We worked indoors while it rained and stayed cold at home, Cassie and Michael’s house, and two cottages; we did some yard work this afternoon; and now we’re getting cleaned up and setting up the third floor for our babysitting plans for tonight.  We’ll be attending Uncle Adam’s birthday dinner first, but we’ll be on kid control for that too; and then we’ll host the kids here while most of our favorite adults continue that birthday party at the pub.  That’s why we’re doing this update early too and we need to get back to work before we head out to that dinner; so let’s wrap this up.

Cassie and Michael haven’t started their Sunday in Vietnam yet, but they will be doing that soon; and they are going to have an awesome weather day for their final hours in the Ho Chi Minh City area with sunny skies and a high in the mid-nineties.  They’ll be in Singapore before we get around to our next update; and we’re really looking forward to the countdown to their return home next Saturday.

We’re going to skip most of the world news report for today, but want to mention that there were reports today that Iran might be stopping their attacks on their ‘neighbors’ at least temporarily, but the commentary on that story is a bit useless; and Iran didn’t say anything about stopping attacks further away in Israel or elsewhere for non-neighbors.  We’ll predict that Iran is just adapting their war strategy, but we don’t know – and doubt that anyone else does either.

Check out our next update; since we are definitely going to need to offer a full weekend world news update and rant, since even with our cursory check of the news highlights this afternoon; we are seriously disgusted by many of our world and national leaders with their complete disregard for the death and destruction they are cheering for while admitting that the real reasons are all about power, wealth, and controlling and exploiting the natural resources and people of the world.  I really want to take the time to rant now, but while we could do a time phase and ‘make’ time for that; we don’t want to wear ourselves out ahead of that babysitting; so we won’t do that!  We also need to go; so that’s all for this report.

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

It hasn’t gotten quite as warm as forecast, but the break in the rain is here; and the low-seventies is still pretty good for early-March; so we’re going to get out there and play and bike with our friends.  Some of the trails will be too-wet to ride on today, but we’ll manage to have fun with whatever we end up doing for the rest of the afternoon – and then beyond into the evening and night.  Mom and Dad are going ahead with hosting the dinner and movies night, but we’ve already heard that adjustments are being made because our favorite doctors and nurse are now busy with the imminent arrival of a new member of the Reynolds’ clan.  Alexandria went into labor very-recently; so they will be busy for however long it takes for baby Reynolds to arrive; and we’ll have those details for you with our next update.  That does mean that we’re going to be helping out with kid control tonight; and we could end up with extra overnight guests too – along with the teens we’ve already confirmed for what might not be a co-ed sleepover anymore.

While we wrap this up and get to living those stories; we’ll add that Cassie and Michael haven’t quite started their Saturday in Ho Chi Minh City, but they will be waking up in another hour or two; and then they have another full  day booked for work and a bit of sightseeing.  We are not going to do a world news update today; since we want to stay happy.  Sharing love and joy right here at home won’t solve the problems of the world, but this is what we want for everyone; so we can at least lead by example – starting right now!

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

The weather has been interesting today, but we still ended up getting to have some sun and warm to enjoy this afternoon in the middle between the morning showers and the overnight rain that we’re getting now as we’re writing this update.  Tai Chi was indoors; we got damp on the way to school; and stayed in for most of the day during our academic adventures.  While the ground was still damp this afternoon; we still went biking with our friends after school; added in some park play time; and then we kept our four best friends with us for dinner, studying, and a group Magi lesson before we all headed to the Inn for game night.  We had fun with that too; and then Ethan and I only did a bit of work in the office after getting home with Mom and Dad.  We had a vid-chat with Cassie and Michael then too; and they’re already half-way through their Friday work in Ho Chi Minh City.  They’ve had a lot of fun too – if not with much sightseeing so far beyond some cameo moments between work meetings and site visits.  They are getting a lot done too while making new friends along the way; and we still enjoy hearing about how they are changing perceptions of pretty much everyone they meet as they prove their talents to skeptics and share their joy and enthusiasm for their work.

It’s too bad that we can’t have that happen with them for our world leaders, but then Cassie might be more-likely to turn the lot of them into bugs instead of convincing them to be good!  Okay, we can’t actually do that, but that’s why we’re Harry Potter fans; since we really wish that we could! ;^)

That does bring us to the world news part of our report, and the destruction and casualties on both sides of the Iran war continues to rise; civilian and government infrastructure targets are being added to the mix in a much-larger way; and the economic risks are growing fast too as energy facilities are now being targeted and could lead to world market disruptions that could last for months or more instead of days or weeks.  Today alone, we’ve heard reports of oil fields, refineries, and two tankers being hit in different locations – and that’s despite the attempts by Israel and the ‘Gulf States’ to block all attempts to report what is actually happening through media or social media networks.  Add in the environmental impact of the fires and spills; and the clean-up is going to take months or years too.  Reports are coming out that the total death toll so far in now in the thousands, and since both sides are sure to be downplaying those statistics; we won’t know for months – or ever – what the real costs in human life will be.

Ditto that in Ukraine except that the deaths and injuries are in the millions, and while western media and political leaders have apparently forgotten about that war; the horrors continue.  Now we can add in potential new economic issues, since Russia may decide to divert what remains of energy sales to Europe to China, India, and elsewhere instead of supplying European countries when they are planning on cutting off all supplies of Russian energy by next year anyway.  This would not be a good time for Europe to lose those supplies along with the Middle East energy shut-downs!  Related to that story, China may be about to stop energy exports of refined products to adjust for the drop in energy imports from the Persian Gulf while Russia is diverting in-transit tankers to China and India.

We need to go back to the Iran war to comment on stories related to sending ground troops into Iran, since there are multiple options being proposed from arming regional factions like the Kurds to fight for us on the ground to sending American forces into the country.  Those are all very bad ideas; since that would end even worse for us than Afghanistan did over the twenty years we spent trying to ‘save’ that country.  Speaking of – Afghanistan and Pakistan are still a tinderb0x waiting to explode; and our leaders ought to try and remember that both countries have significant Shia Muslim populations that are not happy with western countries right now.  Yes, we know that the goal for some leaders is simply to destabilize the region and keep the factions fighting each other, but the risks of regional or world war are rising too.

Finally, though we could go on about a lot of other stories, we want to mention reports we’ve seen about American military leaders telling their troops to get ready for an end-times kind of fight with God on ‘our’ side.  While our leaders will never read our journals; Ethan and I can absolutely assure you that God is not on anyone’s side on this war; President Trump has not been chosen by God to do anything for HIM; and it is far more-likely that the Angel of the Abyss and the Dark Magi of the world are leading both sides to be evil!  Since we’re on that weird little tangent, let’s also add that we couldn’t stop what is happening there even if we went there and tried.  Yes, we could stop a few missiles and maybe a bit more, but that would just lead to other problems – including the possibility that we’d be found out by ‘normal’ people and end up in a classified lab somewhere as experiments instead of researchers!

That’s too-dark a thought for right before bedtime; so let’s wrap this up and Ethan and I will try to come up with happier thoughts before we head off to dreamland – like what will hopefully be another play day tomorrow with our family and friends once we’re set free from school for the weekend.  We’d love to have some more biking time, and Mom and Dad are hosting a dinner and movie night; so let’s hope that all works out for us.  Stay tuned to find out – after we get around to living those adventures!

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

We’ve gone with another work-play day from our academic adventures at school through the lab or archives after-school fun to the family business and charity work and a Magi lesson in the office.  Our plans for the rest of the school week might get messed up as the forecast might turn rainy at the ‘wrong’ times of Thursday and Friday, but we’ll just add in the extra work if the weather doesn’t cooperate with our play plans with our friends.  Ethan and I got a lot done today and feel great about that; so let’s stay with the happy and not get into a major world news update tonight.

Cassie and Michael have moved from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City as we are writing this and they’re already working and in meetings there while we’re winding down toward nap time.  Yes, they had the travel hours today too, but they worked on the jet along the way; and they have a packed schedule for the rest of the week and weekend.  We’re proud of the work their doing, but we’re also looking forward to them getting home – and we’re not only saying that because we’ll have fewer chores on Saturdays when they’re home and can take care of their own home and yard! ;^)

Okay, we can’t resist just a bit of world news.  American and Israel militaries are pounding Iran and Lebanon constantly right now; and we don’t know very much about the Iran retaliations because Israel and Gulf States are locking down information and arresting anyone trying to film and share what is happening in their countries.  What does that say about ‘our’ side when there is more freedom for that kind of information in Iran?  We do know that Iran is continuing to retaliate with drones and missiles, and there are still some reports leaking out about damage and destruction, but words are not as spectacular as the videos of the bombs blowing stuff up in Tehran and elsewhere in Iran.  There are a lot of stories coming out about shutting down energy facilities and ports; shipping companies are refusing to take cargo jobs in the region; and shipping has pretty much stopped in the Persian Gulf.  It will take time for that impact to hit the economies of the world, but that is coming, and even if the war ended tomorrow; it would still take weeks or months to recover from these economic interruptions.

Since I’ve gone there anyway; let’s also mention that any western leaders that stand up against this war in even the smallest way get demonized, and we’ll use Spain as our example of that; since they’ve been threatened with a total trade embargo with America by President Trump for denouncing the attacks on Iran.  Apparently, our leaders don’t think that we’re already making enough enemies; so we should get some of our allies to hate us too!  Let’s also repeat that launching this war in the midst of peace negotiations was horrific and taught the rest of the world that our diplomacy is duplicitous and un-trustworthy.  That should have already been obvious to the rest of the world by now, but it has become so overt and in-your-face that nobody can even keep the fiction going that our western leaders negotiate anything in good faith.

In our short lifetimes-so-far, Ethan and I have watched our leaders go from negotiate, make deals, and then break them to don’t negotiate or have any real diplomacy at all to the current policy of pretend to negotiate while plotting to attack, destroy, and kill our opponents.

Okay, that’s enough of a rant for tonight – though we could go on again with everything that is going on in the rest of the world that is so horrific in Ukraine and elsewhere.  Stay tuned, since there is sure to be more to come from all of the war zones, but we need to get some sleep; so we’re out of here and off to what we hope will be a happier dreamland.

By the way, yes, we are ‘normal’ when it comes to dreams; and that means that we sometimes have nightmares too.  Maybe we’ll write about that sometime too, but we prefer the happy dreams, and since we do remember all of them; they are much-nicer to think about too!  Now we really are done; so that’s all for this report.

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