Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - May 27, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 9^th Anniversary, Violet and Dillon!

Happy 25^th Birthday, Reid Spencer!

It is late again tonight as we’re writing this, but that isn’t because of work tonight – unless you consider babysitting next-gen kids to be a job! ;^)

Before we get to that part of our story of the day, we started out with Tai Chi by the river with Mom and Dad; breakfast was standard school day fare; and then our academic adventures included prepping for final exams with a fair bit of self-study time that we got to do outdoors to enjoy the nice weather.  The high this afternoon hit the mid-eighties; so that was perfect for Violet and Dillon’s anniversary dinner party.  We helped with the prep work for that meal after school while multi-tasking next-gen kid control play time in the back yard.  Let’s also mention that a food highlight for that meal was the donation created by Jake Stone for his friends; and also explains why many of the women at that party are at least a little jealous of Stephanie for more than Jake’s movie-star looks!  Ethan, Naomi, Aiden, and I enjoyed the meal a lot while taking care of all of the next-gen kids; and then we were sent to the park with those same kids and some younger cousins and friends ahead of the co-ed ball practices while others took care of the clean-up.

The practices at the park were entertaining in-part thanks to the anniversary ‘cheer’ that was consumed with dinner by some of those players, and while we caught some of those cameo moments of silly fun; we spent most of our time playing with the kids and keeping them entertained.  After the park play time, we went home to Jake and Stephanie’s house to babysit the next-gen kids that they were going to keep for the night while Violet and Dillon – and Josiah and Christina – are getting a kid-free night.  We took care of the babysitting for a few hours while many of our favorite adults went to the pub to keep the anniversary celebration going; and we can report that Reid Spencer’s birthday celebration had the same move after his own ball practice.  The actual babysitting wasn’t really work for us since the kids were tired by then; and we pretty much just got them all ready for bed and off to sleep – or at least into their beds.  Some of the pre-schoolers stayed awake in pairs to chat themselves to sleep in their beds, but that wasn’t a problem for us; and the four babysitters in the house mostly enjoyed some quiet co-ed cuddle time while watching music videos and keeping ears open for any issues with the kids.

It is a school and work night, so the party didn’t roll on all night.  Jake and Stephanie came home by midnight; Ethan and I walked Naomi and Aiden to their homes while picking Silkie up and taking her for the walk along the way.  Mom and Dad were home too by the time we got back home; we had a quick wrap-up chat with them; and then bath or Jacuzzi time was needed after all of the play time with the kids.  That’s why it is getting so late now, and we won’t have time for much more than a nap, but we had a good day; and we’re happy as we wind down fast with a shortened version of our twin chat and bedtime computing.

The top world news is that there hasn’t been any big news to report for the top two war regions.  Russia has not yet launched their promised attack on Kiev; and western leaders do not appear to be taking their warnings to evacuate their citizens seriously.  That will prove to be a mistake, but we will have to wait to find out how bad that will be for everyone still staying in the Capital.  While that risk remains high; the Middle East dangers are on the rise again too.  Israel has expanded attacks on southern Lebanon, so that ceasefire is essentially destroyed; and ‘our’ leaders are back to talking tough about Iran with more threats.  The peace talks are going in circles and nowhere positive; and nobody is surprised that the claims of an imminent deal over the weekend have again been proved wrong.  There have been more attacks on Iran along the coast of the Strait of Hormuz; and the wait we have for this story is to see how long Iran will put up with these attacks before hitting back and doing that against similar targets on ‘our’ side of the strait and gulf.

There are also the usual distraction stories; and we were reminded today that those reports are sometimes revived years after the original stories.  For example, there was a COVID-related story in the media about a government cover-up related to the deaths of children caused by the vaccines.  That isn’t news to us or anyone who actually watched what was happening during the pandemic, and as a researcher; I know exactly what caused those vaccine-related deaths and injuries.  Ethan and I can appreciate having truths eventually come out, but nobody will go to jail for those cover-ups; and it does not help those kids and teens that were injured or died because of the rush to push a vaccine out to mass use so that a few billionaires could get richer and some narcissist could gain more power.

Okay, that’s enough for tonight – this morning.  We need to get all of the sleep we can for the time we have left; so we’re out of here and back to the ‘real’ world – and our beds.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - May 26, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Welcome to your Witch Falls family, Reyna Parker!

Congratulations, Sally, Joshua, and the Parker’ and Reynolds’ families!

Cassie and Michael have been involved in the baby adventures for their friends, but we don’t expect to meet Reyna until Sunday at church.

Our day has been busy enough between school and our music practices.  We’re prepping for final exams and wrapping up projects if needed; and the music has transitioned to getting ready for the next holiday weekend.  Ethan and Naomi will be with the teen praise team for the next parade; Aiden and I will play with the school band; and we’ll all be helping with the holiday weekend church service.  We had fun with all of that – and the rest of our adventures from Tai Chi by the river to now, but we don’t actually have any specific news of interest to add to that part of our story.  We had another Pizzeria pizza dinner between our practices by the river behind the pizza shop; and we missed out on the ball practices that kept our cousins and others in the family busy while we were keeping entertained with our music play time.

We met up with Mom and Dad at home after we were done at the church; Mom did a Magi lesson with us; and we did a bit of charity and family business work in the office before coming upstairs for bath or Jacuzzi time.  It was already getting late by then, but I really wanted the tub time; so Ethan went along with my plan and started in on the nightly computer checks while waiting for me to join him for the twin chat wrap-up.  I’ve done that, and now I’m running out of steam fast; so let’s get to the world news of the day and then call it a night.

The top two wars remain the focal points for world leaders and media.  In Ukraine, everyone is still waiting to find out what the Russian military will do for their imminent attacks on Kiev whenever they’ve decided that they have given enough time for evacuations after their warnings.  There have likely been some people leaving the city, but the warnings don’t seem to have been taken as-seriously as we think appropriate.  While we wait for those strikes; the situation in the Middle East remains stressed and chaotic.  Peace claims continue with no real action or even agreement on both sides.  While that talk rolls on, Israel is breaking their deal with Lebanon again; they continue to attack Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank; and they continue to threaten renewed attacks on Iran.  For ‘our’ part, the American navy attacked an Iranian port and some of their small naval attack boats, and while claims are made of those attacks being retaliatory; no details or proof has been offered to support those claims.  On the Iranian side; they have promised to retaliate; so we are waiting to see what form that response will take.  Media reports are also claiming that our navy is going to protect ships traversing the Strait of Hormuz; so we can expect more fighting if they actually try to do that and Iran fights back – or decides to totally close the strait using mines and missiles against all ships.  Finally for tonight, we want to point out that even if our leaders could bring both of these conflicts to an end tomorrow, the problems are not all solved; and there would be a lot more work to do before we can even get a serious start of recovery and rebuilding.

That’s enough for tonight.  Ethan and I need to get some sleep while we can; so we are going to get started on that nap time right now.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - May 25, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

It is getting late and we have had a long, busy day; so let’s get right to the news of the day.  Memorial Day is considered our local, unofficial start to the summer season, but it is also a mix of somber remembrance and celebration with the split coming between the morning parade and service at the cemetery and the afternoon picnic in the park.  We had to start our day early so that we could meet up for the parade with the rest of the school band, but Ethan and Naomi didn’t join us for Tai Chi by the river that Aiden and I did with Cassie and Michael; and we did our own thing for breakfast too either with the Drapers or Seagers.  Ethan and I had fun with our respective starts to today – just as we did last night with our respective family time and separate co-ed sleepovers after the family-and-friends’ buffet dinner at the Inn yesterday.

The parade, as mentioned, was solemn with appropriate music with the band; there was a good turnout thanks to the nice weather; and then the service at the cemetery that Pastor John led was heartfelt, beautiful, and personal – even for everyone that only had links to those sacrifices through our ancestors.  Ethan and I stayed with the Seagers or Drapers this year for the walk through the cemetery after the service so that we could hear their family stories while our grandparents led the story-telling for our own family.  Those walks always last longer on good weather years, but we still needed to move on to the park in time for the picnic lunch; and Ethan and I went home with Mom and Dad to help with the work there to load up our food contributions and day-camp supplies.  The picnic was awesome from the food to the games, biking on the trails, canoeing, and everything else we did.  Ethan and I helped out some of the time with next-gen kids; enjoyed the time with our cousins and friends; and eventually helped out with getting our gear home again and then helping with the load-up for some of our outgoing weekend guests.  There were some chores to help with after that; had a snack dinner with Mom and Dad; and moved into the office for some evening work and a Magi lesson.  We don’t need to cover the work details, but we were busy with some charity and family business projects work; the Magi lesson was defense-related and a bit experimental with something Ethan and I have been working on while not being ready for that to be anything usable yet in an emergency or Dark Magi Master fight.  Even with some time phasing, we worked until after eleven o’clock; and then we moved on to bath or Jacuzzi time.

That brings us up to now, but before we get to the world news update; we want to do a bit of a family recap for some of the general news that we don’t write about very often except during holiday visits.  As we get started on another summer season; there are some changes happening with our extended cousins; and we’re in the middle of the pack between the groups of teens and kids that are also part of gaps that technically span generations.  The teens that are older than us are already in college or will be starting soon; so they are transitioning to that next level.  The next group is younger by only a few years, but then they are closer with our own younger cousins including Leah, Brianna, and Faith while less-interested in hanging out with us.  The pre-schoolers that we think of as part of the next-gen group get our attention along with our own local kids, and we help with them, but they also hang out with those kids and their collective parents.  Cassie and Michael get tossed in with those parents while helping out with their own nieces and nephews; so we’re out of the loop for some of that fun too.

Since the Rice clan was away this weekend, we’ll save up news from them until their next visit home, but we can report that Jayden has his own changes happening – particularly since getting his driver’s license, and while he spent time with us too; he also mixed in spending time with his sisters, Micah and Jeremy, and his aunts and uncles.  Jaimie and Micah have another project that they are working this summer with Cassie and Michael’s college friends and their environmental clean-up company; they will be on that job site for most of their summer break; and headed back there tonight.  Kaitlyn is staying here and has her summer job with Aunt Leanne – and Dad; and she will start doing more legal work this summer as she works toward her future career in both real estate and as a future paralegal.  Let’s add a note about the jokes that Kaitlyn will spend most of her summer staying at her family cottage even though she is technically supposed to be staying with the Everetts, but we don’t know whether she will try to do that or not yet; so stay tuned for that future news story if it happens! ;^)

That’s enough for the family news; so let’s wrap this up with the world news report.  Ukraine is getting more attention, but not for good reasons.  Russian leaders have warned of imminent strikes on Kiev and told all countries to evacuate their citizens from the capital.  We don’t know specifically what Russia has planned, but it appears that they are taking the gloves off after the latest waves of Ukrainian drone strikes; and that will not end well for the Ukrainian people.  A smaller story from Russia was about a tanker ship returning to a Russian port from Europe that apparently had multiple magnetic mines attached to it – mines that were from NATO stockpiles.  They were disarmed, but the new risks for shipping in the Baltics are an escalation; and could be considered a direct act of war by NATO if one of the member countries has started to mine the Baltic Sea or directly target Russian ships.  As for the front lines for the Ukraine war, there are reports of new offensives along the lines at several locations, and if Russia is starting a new summer offensive; that’s more bad news for Ukraine.  We have no idea whether their armed forces can survive another year; since their last lines of defense east of Odessa and Kiev could fall over the next few months.

As for the Iran war, while the talk is still about peace today; there is still no true sign that the ‘deal’ being touted by President Trump this weekend is more than smoke and mirrors.  Iran is certainly not suggesting that they’ve agreed to anything at all; so it doesn’t matter if all of ‘our’ allies in the region agree to anything if Iran doesn’t confirm anything.  We’ll continue to note that Israel does not seem interested in peace at all; and they rotate their own military actions and continue to take territory and destroy everything in their way whether that is the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank; Syria, Lebanon, or Iran.  Any peace deal will be meaningless if Israel doesn’t stop their actions too; since they are gaining new enemies every day with their horrific actions.  The world economic impacts continue to build thanks to both wars; so we also need to watch for stress breaks elsewhere in the world as costs rise and critical resources become scarce.  While our future readers might be getting bored with those regular warnings when we don’t follow that up with actual stories for those consequences; we can’t cover every story; and there are daily reports already out there related to countries and businesses dealing with those problems.  Unfortunately for everyone; many of those solutions are just temporary fixes that will cause more problems in the future.  For just one example, our leaders are draining the strategic petroleum reserve; the draw-down last week was ten million barrels; and that mostly only suppresses market prices short-term while it will be a future problem when and if we are in a position to fill those tanks again.  That doesn’t even take into consideration a future risk of need for those supplies in the event of a true emergency instead of one that our leaders created by going to war with Iran; and we were already running those supplies at barely-more than half of the reserves capacity.  We don’t want to go on about that topic, since it really is just one, comparatively-small story, but our national daily use of oil products is around twenty-million barrels per day; so our current reserves would only last for around three weeks if we needed to rely on them entirely without also implementing severe restrictions.  Yes, it is more-complex than that simplification, but that’s enough and we need to wrap this up.

This has been a really great weekend, and as we head into the final week of May; we are looking forward to the wind-down to our school year.  We’ll be focusing on exams now for the next few weeks, but then we are planning an amazing summer too; so we are going to have fun along with the work!  We are ready to get some sleep now; so we’re out of here and off to dreamland.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - May 24, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 26^th Birthday, Stefan Reardon!

We joined in on the breakfast vid-chat with Stefan and Madelana this morning – along with the rest of the teens at Cassie and Michael’s house; had fun with that; and hope that Stefan has had a good day.

Ethan and I didn’t have a lot of time for birthday adventures today – we were busy-enough with our own plans.  Tai Chi was by the river and that vid-chat was the highlight of our morning meal, but we also needed to help with the cooking and cleaning; take turns getting ready for the day; and then getting to church early for the teen praise team set-up ahead of the holiday weekend service.  As always, this service is, by nature, one of the most-solemn, so our music and messages are appropriate to the occasion, but our efforts still have an impact on the congregation; and our music was heartfelt and emotional for everyone.  The service and follow-up social time was great – though we spent most of that post-service time packing up gear and hanging out with our friends; we moved on to one of the handful of smaller family lunches that for us was again with Cassie and Michael; and then we’ve had a play afternoon since then while enjoying a sunny, warm day in the great outdoors.  Biking, canoeing, and park and yard play has kept us busy for most of the afternoon; and now we’re getting cleaned up and ready for the late buffet at the Inn with family and friends.  Ethan and I are also packing for sleepovers with Naomi or Aiden respectively; and we’ll be with their families for the rest of the day while Mom and Dad will hang out with some of the other parents along with getting another kid-free night.

The rest of our news for today can wait for the holiday weekend wrap-up tomorrow night, but we should add that we had fun last night with Cassie, Michael, and the gang of teens they hosted and entertained.  There was ‘live’ music, video gaming, and movies; we stayed up too-late; and enjoyed sharing that time with them after weeks of only being able to trade messages and see them through vid-chats.  We’re going to skip most of the world news of the day, but want to mention that Russia has at least started their retaliation against Ukraine for that drone strike on a school dorm, but details are limited beyond agreement that they’ve again used one of their multi-warhead hypersonic missiles against unspecified targets near Kiev.  We expected this and it had been promised, but we’ll also mention that more destruction and death will not solve anything; and certainly won’t bring back those twenty-one teens from the dead or heal the forty-plus teens that were injured in that drone strike.  This story hits us harder because they were or are teens around our own age; and we can’t imagine having something that awful happen here and to us and our own friends.

We should mention the supposed peace talks for the Iran war, but that seems to be yet another flip-flop; and President Trump’s claims seem to be based on talks that weren’t actually with Iran at all but with other Arab and Gulf countries allied with ‘our’ side.  If that is all that is happening, then getting our vassals to agree with our demands is not diplomacy at all; and we already know that Iran will not agree to our primary demands.  We’ll wait and see what or if anything happens; and won’t be at all surprised if a resumption of the war becomes more-likely again by tomorrow – though we’d hope that our leaders would not celebrate Memorial Day with a new round of air strikes or even a ground offensive on Iran.

It’s time for us to go to the Inn soon; so that’s all for this report.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - May 23, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Our holiday weekend adventures are amazing so far, but this update is coming to you early again; we don’t have a lot of time for it; and we are only going to offer a few quick highlights before we need to get going again.

We had a lot of fun last night with the next-gen kid control and welcoming our weekend guests; family dinners were held at a handful of homes; and we were at our house for that meal with those kids and our best friends.  For the record, most of the Johnson clan is here for the weekend; the Proctors are here including Jaimie and Micah; and the Rice clan is away for this holiday.  Jonathan, Savannah, and their kids are here; they are mixing this trip with an anniversary vacation; and that’s why they’re staying in our family cottage.  The Malloys are here for the weekend too; and Valerie was hanging out with us last night while Marcus opted to hang out with Zack, Eli, and the rest of the guys hanging out with them last night – and for most of today-so-far too.  Ethan and I also hosted cousins and friends for a teen night here at our house; the Carringtons and Ayres ended up with a group of guys or girls at their homes; and the various parents kept themselves entertained at various homes and cottages with many of them staying up late while enjoying those first visits of the weekend.  The teens in our house stayed up too-late; the fun included video games and movies and lots of teen chat time; and then some of us wrapped up our day with co-ed sleepovers while the rest of the teens filled most of our guest rooms.

Our Saturday started with Tai Chi by the river and a busy breakfast blast while we took turns getting ready for the day.  Most of our guests moved on to other plans for the rest of the morning, but Ethan and I were drafted for chores until lunchtime.  That work wasn’t newsworthy, but then we met up with everyone for the picnic lunch that the Ayres hosted for everyone; and then we’ve spent the afternoon to now playing with our family and friends.  The fun has included biking, canoeing, and back yard games; and now we’re getting ready for the barbeque dinner that the Carringtons are hosting and then the teen sleepover that Cassie and Michael are hosting after that.  Ethan and I need to help Mom and Dad out with getting our dinner contributions over to our aunt and uncle’s house and in-time for the prep work and cooking; so we really need to get going.

Before we do that, we want to mention the Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian school dorm.  The casualties are now around twenty killed and forty injured; and Russian retaliation is likely imminent as the Russian people express their anger over the atrocity.  There could be new actions in the Middle East, but we don’t know what is going to happen – only that President Trump is apparently missing his son’s wedding supposedly because of the Iran ‘crisis’ that just can’t wait even another day to deal with the imminent dangers that don’t exist.  We’re still looking for new reports related to Tulsi Gabbard’s announced resignation yesterday from Director of National Intelligence; since we are not convinced that the family health emergency is more than an excuse to quit or avoid being fired by President Trump.  There isn’t much doubt that all opposition to the Iran war is being eliminated from this administration; and that won’t end well for our country – or the rest of the world.

That’s all we have time for now, but stay tuned; since we expect to have a lot to write about four both our own adventures and the news from around the world.  We really need to go now; so we are out of here and back to the real world!

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