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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

We are probably becoming cynics, but this early update is starting with the top world news stories of the day – and we are all supposed to believe that there is good news from the Middle East.  Israel and Lebanon are declaring a ceasefire – though there are still reports of fighting and bombings; and the Strait of Hormuz is supposed to be completely open for business – though the ceasefire between Iran and the United States still seems to be very tentative.  Maybe the fighting will stop – we’ll wait to see whether that actually happens or not, but the actual problems of the region remain without resolution; and the war has already led to hundreds of billions of dollars in damage that will drag on the world economy for months and years.

Ethan and I have a limited amount of time right now because we want to bike with our friends before the rain and thunderstorms arrive; we’re only here at home to pack overnight bags; and then we’ll be out of here and off to that play time and a co-ed night that Sophia is hosting.  The rest of our day included Tai Chi by the river and a hot breakfast with Mom; our academic adventures included extra outdoor time thanks to the nice weather; and now we’re going to enjoy the weather while we still can because the rain is going to move in sometime within the next few hours.

The rest of our story for today can wait for tomorrow, but before we wrap this up; we should at least mention that this is a travel day for Cassie and Michael as they head to Seattle for the next few days.  They’re going to have a play weekend on the west coast; and then get back to work on Monday.  We haven’t talked with them today because it was still early in Salt Lake City when we headed to school this morning, but we’re sure they’ll have fun while we’re doing our own thing here at home.  Stay tuned for our next update; and we’ll get back to those adventures with our family and friends right now.

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 31^st Birthday, Dillon!

The family-and-friends’ birthday dinner party was the top news of our day.  Naomi and Aiden were with us to help with the pre-dinner work and next-gen kid control; we all helped with the kids through the meal; and then we took them along to game night at the Inn after the clean-up.  We had fun with all of the work and play; Dillon’s had a good day too; and we won’t comment on the kid-free night he’ll be sharing with Violet – including some pub time with their friends while his parents have their kids for the night.

That’s really all we have for our own news today.  The academic adventures weren’t newsworthy – though we did have fun with project work time and a test this morning.  The weather was decent with a high around eighty this afternoon, but we didn’t have extra outdoor time at school; so we only enjoyed the outdoor time at lunch and during walks between homes, school, and the Inn.  We took Silkie for a walk after the game night fun while walking Naomi and Aiden to their homes.

Since we’d already had a long, busy day by then, Mom didn’t let us do any work in the office tonight or even a short Magi lesson.  Bath or Jacuzzi time was up next after we got home from that last walk; and now we’re winding down fast toward nap time.  Cassie and Michael have been working in Salt Lake City today; and they’ll be moving on to Seattle tomorrow and staying there for a few days including a play weekend.  Their work so far is a bit different than normal work trips, but that is mostly because many of our family business and charity partnerships in our own country have been developed differently – mostly because Mom started with those partnerships when she first began to take control of her inheritances when she was twenty-one.  Their meetings and site visits are easy-going and casual – though they will have higher stakes deals to work on for some of their stops in places like Chicago and New York City, but even those plans won’t be as-challenging as their international deals.

That brings us to the world news update.  We’re not sure what to include tonight; since fact and fiction from our world leaders blur the lines for what we can believe or distrust.  For example, one story is about Israel and Lebanon agreeing to a ceasefire, but details are sketchy; and Hezbollah appears to be out of the loop for those negotiations.  Since they are the actual fighters in that conflict; that ceasefire will be worthless if they are not part of the deal.  The Strait of Hormuz blockade is supposedly continuing, but ships are passing through and Iran apparently continues to get tolls paid for those passages.  Talk of extending the ceasefire with Iran roll on at the same time that our leaders are threatening a resumption of the war and bombing; so we doubt that peace is actually imminent.

Finally, in Ukraine, Russia has resumed bombing military and energy targets across Ukraine, they have suggested that targets in other countries might be added to the list because those countries are aiding Ukrainian military; and Ukraine has targeted more Russian oil tankers.  That last part is bad news for the already-stressed energy markets of the world; and the Russian retaliations are likely far-worse for the Ukrainian people.

Okay, that’s enough for tonight.  We’re tired and ready to get some sleep so we will starting right now.

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Mom is home from Crystal Springs and we did a Magi lesson and family business work with her after dinner, but it also seemed quieter tonight after her city adventures and our comparatively-boring academic adventures.  No, we do not want or need details for the best part of her time with Dad; so let’s move on!

While Mom was still in Crystal Springs this morning, Ethan and I had a happy start to our day with Tai Chi and breakfast with Aiden, Naomi, and her family.  There have been some thunderstorms in the area today, but not a lot of rain; and there have been sunny breaks too along with an afternoon high in the mid-seventies.  The rain and storms still had us opting for lab or archives play after school – and after a quick check-in with Mom along the way from school to the lab; we came home in time for dinner with Mom; and we’ve already mentioned the Magi lesson and office work that followed that meal and clean-up.  Cassie and Michael did a vid-chat with us tonight, and after their work day in Denver on Tuesday; they moved on to Salt Lake City today with some casual sightseeing along the way that was mostly to enjoy the natural wonders.  They are happy, and while they are getting some work done too; this is a more-casual work trip with a lighter schedule most days.  There are jokes about Cassie needing to interpret local dialects of English for Michael, but her skills come in handy fairly-often just in casual situations ranging from local ethnic communities to speaking with tourists in their first languages.

Here at home, our school day was good; we got a lot done with our books or beakers; and then the charity and family business work in the office was mostly related to global supply chain disruptions that are beginning to affect some of our business partnerships.  We don’t write about it much, but our businesses are impacted by prices and inflation, and while Mom is brilliant when it comes to protecting our resources; we do adapt as needed and that can limit what we can do when prices are too high or products or services simply aren’t available at all.  We all focus on basic needs for the people we want to help first; so trying to ensure food security is currently high on our to-do list for all of our food-related charities and businesses.  Time phasing helped us to get a lot done tonight, but we’re also tired now; and need to wrap this up and get some sleep soon.

On the world news front, the Iran war ceasefire is holding in some places – but not Lebanon; the Strait of Hormuz blockades on each side are tough to assess when the information is so erratic and tough to confirm; and the political threats continue.  There are also a lot of stories about major efforts to restock weapons and send more troops into the region; so we have little hope that the ceasefire will hold or that an actual peace deal will happen anytime soon.  The Ukraine war may be ramping up again after the Russian-only Easter ceasefire ended; and that is bad news for Ukraine as their military forces continue to be weakened every day.  There are ‘smaller’ stories getting our attention because they are symptoms of bigger problems building around the world.  There have been two school shootings in Turkey; a handful of ugly stories from Africa related to protests and attacks on both governments and against ‘rebel’ leaders and forces in several countries; and growing unrest in European countries.  That trend is sure to continue – especially in countries being hardest hit by price inflation and shortages caused by the wars-related supply chain disruptions.  We wish that we could do more to help everyone, but that isn’t an option; and we hope that the growing anger and frustration around the world will not explode into something much-worse.

That’s a dark note to end this report on, but we really do need to get some sleep; so that’s all for tonight.

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

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

 

Ehlana, Ethan, Naomi, and Aiden:

This has been a good day, but we don’t have much actual news to offer; since this has been a very normal Tuesday for us.  Tai Chi was by the river this morning; we had a hot breakfast; and then headed off to school where we had fun with our academic adventures, the school band practice, and then we came home long-enough to pack our overnight bags before going to Naomi’s house for dinner with her family and Aiden.  Mom’s in Crystal Springs tonight, so we’re staying with Naomi overnight too.  We took care of the clean-up after dinner; headed to the church for the teen praise team practice; and now we’re back at Naomi’s and winding down toward our co-ed nap time.

Ethan is happy that I’m writing our update while he gets to cuddle with Naomi right now, but then Aiden can still cuddle with me while I’m typing and leading the computer checks.  We’re all more-interested in having that cuddle time fun; so we’re going to skip the world news report and get back to watching music videos and enjoying the quiet teen time.  There isn’t any major news to offer anyway – just more of the same political nonsense and posturing on all sides of the various wars and economic and diplomatic insanity.  Maybe we’ll see some changes for the better by tomorrow night – though that isn’t very likely; so we’ll focus on the love and joy here in this room and be grateful for our blessings.

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Our day started early with seeing Dad and Anna Marie off to Crystal Springs; Tai Chi and breakfast with Mom was good; and then we all went to see Cassie and Michael away on their work trip.  Aiden and Naomi met up with us for that; we said our goodbyes; and then moved on to our school day while Cassie and Michael finished getting ready to go and headed west by mid-morning.  They’re in Denver tonight and will have a work day there tomorrow, but other than enjoying some sightseeing along the way and a couple of good meals; we don’t have any major news from their trip-so-far.

Here at home, we’ve had a good day.  There was bonus outdoor time at school thanks to the awesome weather; we biked and played with some cousins and friends after school; and then Mom came with us to the lab for a work evening there after we had dinner with her and the teens in the house took care of the clean-up from that meal.  Mom split her time between my lab and the archives – though she did some work on the lab computer systems too; we all had fun and got a lot done; and then we came home at around eleven o’clock.  I’ll take the blame for the timing, since I worked until finishing an experiment that took nearly seven hours including the time-phased parts of that work while Mom and Ethan stayed busy with their own projects until I was ready to come home.  Bath or Jacuzzi time was needed once at home, so we did a quick bedtime snack before splitting up again; and now Ethan and I are wrapping up a long day with the usual twin chat and computer checks.

As has been the case every day since the Iran war started, those stories topped the news cycle; and ‘our’ navy has apparently begun a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.  There are conflicting reports on what they are going to blockade and how, but it doesn’t really matter if they only stop ships bound for or returning from Iranian ports, since if they do that; Iran will just stop the rest of the ships from all other ports in the Persian Gulf in retaliation.  As mentioned, that is a dumb plan, but why should our leaders do anything smart when they’ve proven incapable of that?

Some top distractions include President Trump’s verbal sparring with Pope Leo over the war; and we can only shake our heads in disgust over his comments and a picture he posted of himself as a Jesus-like figure healing a sick man as if he now believes himself to be some kind of deity.  For a person who claims to be Christian and Catholic; our President appears to have a deep lack of understanding of his faith – and we had previously thought that he couldn’t take that kind of thing lower than he had on the Easter weekend when he ended one of his social media posts with ‘Praise Allah’ when he was supposed to be celebrating Jesus’ Resurrection!

In other news, Hungary has a new leader-elect; and that will mark a significant change to a pro-European government that will no longer block European Union efforts to fund and support the Ukraine war and sanctions against Russia.  It may take some time for the fallout from this to take effect, but we predict that this will prove to be very bad for the Hungarian people – just as the current policies are terrible for the rest of Europe for everything from economic policies to immigration and military plans.  As for the Ukraine war, Russia will be ending their Easter truce soon, but then Ukraine didn’t join in or agree to honor the offer; tried to take advantage of the break; and failed miserably while angering all Orthodox Christians in both countries and the region in general.  Russia will soon be able to begin another offensive soon as the ground dries up from the spring thaw; and the Ukrainian leaders should be worried about that instead of continuing to make terrible choices for their people.  We understand why they don’t want to surrender and make a peace deal after all of the death and destruction, but the alternative is much worse for them and they should salvage what they can of their country before it is too-late.  We are not predicting imminent collapse here – only pointing out that all alternatives are worse – including any options that expand the war to other countries or globally.

That’s enough for tonight.  It is getting late and we need some sleep; so this update is done and we’re heading off to dreamland right now.

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