Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - May 1, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 47^th Birthday, Nathan Draper!

We don’t have much time right now and will be busy for the rest of the day with my future father-in-law’s birthday dinner, some babysitting, and a co-ed night with our best friends; so this will just be a placeholder update.  Our start to May has been good – including a quick stop at the bakery to drop off a first gift for Aiden’s Dad on the way to school; and our academic adventures were fun and uneventful.  We really do need to get to Aiden’s house to help with the birthday dinner prep work; so we’ll save the rest of our own story until tomorrow night.

Cassie and Michael got to Chicago last night and they are working with Madelana and Stefan today.  They’ll wrap up their work soon; and then take most of the weekend off to have fun with their friends.  We wish that we could be there too, but will be busy here at home; and plan on having fun with our family and friends without the big-city adventures!

Ethan and I are not going to get into any world news today.  We want to be happy; so we are taking the day off from most of our usual daily checks – though a total, self-imposed blackout is a bit tough to do when we’ll be around adults for the next few hours; and they are sure to spend at least some time talking about world events.  Peace did not break out worldwide so far today; so we’re just giving you a break from the usual daily nonsense that is all talk while nothing ‘real’ changes.

We’re out of here now and moving on to the birthday work and play; so that’s all for this first report of May!

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - April 30, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

The last day of April included some showers, so Ethan and I were at the lab or archives after school; we had fun with that; and the game night at the Inn was our entertainment highlight of the day.  We really don’t have much news to offer for our own story, and while we had fun today; our adventures were normal and uneventful.  Let’s mention the rest of the normal from our day that included Tai Chi by the river before the rain; breakfast and dinner meals with Mom and Dad; and an hour of family business work and a Magi lesson in the office after the games at the Inn.  We had a vid-chat with Cassie and Michael too, and they are now in Chicago and with Madelana and Stefan – though they were still in-transit from Madison to Chicago when we talked to them.

They had a good day in Madison and got a lot done; worked there until around eight o’clock; and then they hit the road for Chicago.  We’ll have more on their news over the weekend, but while they are going to have some weekend play time with their friends too; they are going to do some work too that includes working with Madelana and Stefan that will transition two projects for them to take over for our family business.  Yes, quite a few of Cassie’s college friends have work sent their way through our family business and charities, but Madelana and Stefan can and do handle very similar work as a team; and they keep in contact more-often than pretty much everyone else except for May and Lee.

Finally, for this report; let’s deal with the world news of the day.  We really only need to advise that there hasn’t been any progress in fixing the biggest problems in the world.  The peace diplomacy isn’t anything more than theatre; the threats against Iran continue and expectations are still for more war being most-likely.  There was an interesting story out of Ukraine from one of their defense commanders, but we can’t confirm the truth of that story.  The commander apparently claimed that more than half of the Ukrainian anti-drone defense teams haven’t managed to stop even a single Russian drone in the past year and only around twenty percent have stopped ten or more in the same time period.  When you consider that those Russian drones are sent by the hundreds per day; that would suggest very low success rates for the overall Ukraine defense.  There have been some reports recently about American hypersonic missiles being tested and possibly used against Iran too, but we don’t really pay much attention to that when the details seem to strongly suggest that ‘our’ tech in that area is well-behind what Russia, China, and other countries already have developed.  Finally, there are more reports about high tech weapons being held back from use by Iran that they might use if the bombings resume, but we have no idea whether there is any truth to that story either.

That is enough for tonight.  We want to get some sleep; and be back at full power for the first day of May and the start of the weekend.  Stay tuned; and we’ll see what we can do about starting the new month out with more-exciting adventures that we can share with you over the next few days.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - April 29, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

This has been a good day, but we don’t have much news to offer from our own adventures.  Tai Chi was by the river and a bit chilly – though that was comparative; since even the morning low was decent for this time of year.  The high today only touched the sixties for a few hours too and it was dry and partly-sunny after school, but we opted to work-play at the lab; and had fun with our books or beakers until dinnertime.  That work was uneventful too, but then that’s normal for most of our work; and most of our friends would find what we do boring.  Dinner with Mom and Dad was a nice break; we took care of the clean-up; and then we all worked in the office for a couple of hours.  Mom did a Magi lesson with us too; we multi-tasked that with some of the work on a charity project; and we did a vid-chat with Cassie and Michael while they were on the road from Minneapolis to Madison.  They’d spent the day working in Minneapolis; they got a lot done; and wrapped up with another charity dinner before hitting the road for Madison.  The evening drives they’re doing this week make for long days, but not all that touch on Cassie and Michael as they take turns with the driving; and they multi-task the work along the way too.  They manage a bit of sightseeing too, but those moments are cameo breaks fit in with all of the work and travel time; and those stories were our favorites from their daily report.

Mom had us wrap up our work by ten; Ethan and I opted for bath or Jacuzzi time next; and now we’re dealing with the computer checks and twin chat.  We aren’t going to get into a major world news rant tonight – so let’s cover a few of the top stories; and then we’re going to call it a night and get some sleep.  Presidents Trump and Putin apparently had a phone call today, and while that call is getting a lot of attention; there was no real news and it appears that both Presidents were playing politics and not actually doing anything real.  There was a stabbing attack in the United Kingdom that is being reported as anti-Semitic, and that may be true, but we’ll point out that this is a risk we’ve pointed out as a risk related to the Iran war and everything else Israel is doing in Syria, Lebanon, and elsewhere.  Finally, for tonight, a report out of Ireland about canceling free housing for Ukrainian war ‘refugees’ is another sign that the citizens of some countries are standing up and refusing to keep paying for immigrants when they are only staying to exploit the system.

That’s all for tonight.  We’re ready to get some sleep now, and that is an option; 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 - April 28, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 24^th Birthday, Emma Sheldon!

Happy 1^st Birthday, Samuel Stone!

While we didn’t have anything to do with the top local birthdays of the day; Ethan and I have had fun while busy with school and music all day.  The weather was cooler today with the high barely topping sixty, but then we were indoors most of the day anyway; so that didn’t really matter.  There actually isn’t any significant news from our own adventures.  School and our music practices were all good; dinner with Mom and Dad was mixed in between the practices; and we haven’t done any work in the office tonight – though Mom did do a Magi lesson with Mom.  Now we’re winding down fast toward nap time; so let’s cover the travel and world news and then call it a night.

Cassie and Michael had a work day in Fargo, North Dakota; and they are still on the drive to Minneapolis after a charity dinner event in Fargo to wrap up their work there.  Yes, they are skipping over some places where we have family businesses or partnerships between the two cities, but they’d need half a year to visit all of our operations in this country even once.  They got a lot done today even with the time limitations; and multi-tasked some of the appointments by meeting with multiple partners at two of the stops.

As for the world news, peace is talked about without anything actually happening; so everyone is waiting and expecting the fighting in the Middle East to resume at any moment.  One related news story today is that the United Arab Emirates has announced that they are withdrawing from OPEC; and that seems to be political; since they aren’t shipping much oil right now anyway with the Strait of Hormuz still mostly closed.  OPEC still has some impact on world markets when they set production levels, and maybe that power will continue, but their numbers don’t matter at all right now when the Iran and Ukraine wars are causing the largest supply disruptions to hit the world supply chain in decades.

As for the Ukraine war, drone strikes on Russia oil and energy facilities and ships are getting attention and do affect markets too, but the strategy is also still mostly annoying Russian leaders and people; and retaliations are expected and will prove to be worse for Ukraine in the coming months.  We would like to mention that these changes in war tactics are a dangerous trend; and we’ll wait to see whether counter-measures will develop to block the current effectiveness of all types of drones.  Military companies probably still prefer the most-expensive ‘toys’ to sell to politicians and military leaders around the world, but the cost-effectiveness of drones will be very popular with smaller countries on military budgets if that gives them the ability to cause proportionate damage to bigger opponents – just as Iran has been doing to American and Israeli targets in the Middle East.

That’s enough for tonight.  We’re ready to sleep; so let’s do that starting right now.

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 3^rd Birthday, Christopher Palmer!

The next-gen birthdays aren’t a big part of our lives yet, and we didn’t have anything to do with Christopher’s special day; Violet, Dillon, and their kids were involved – along with the rest of their gang of friends.

While Christopher has enjoyed his birthday adventures; our day has been fun, but fairly-quiet.  Tai Chi and breakfast with Mom and Dad was good; our academic adventures were uneventful; and then we opted for work-play at the lab or archives because we were getting some rain and thunderstorms in the area by then.  We didn’t use any time phasing while at the lab today and kept the work shorter to be home on time for dinner with Mom and Dad; and then we worked in the office and did a Magi lesson with Mom after taking care of the dinner clean-up.  There was some time phasing involved in the charity work tonight, but that was still minimal; and we wrapped up by nine-thirty.

There isn’t much news for Cassie and Michael today – they drove from Billings, Montana to Fargo, North Dakota with some sightseeing along the way.  They are going to do a lot of long days this week with work and travel planned through to Friday.  We’ll keep you posted on their progress, but they are also looking ahead to spending a three-day weekend in Chicago with Madelana and Stefan.  We did a vid-chat with them tonight, but other than telling us about some of their sightseeing along the way that you can read about in their own journals; so we won’t repeat those stories second-hand here.

Ethan and I are wrapping up our evening now with the usual computer checks and twin chat, and while there is always a lot of news out there to keep up with; there really aren’t any changes in the top stories that we’re usually writing about most-often.  It should be funny that we are so pessimistic about world events while also very happy with our own lives and all of the love and joy we have here at home, but then wars, economic hardships, and all of the other problems of the world are not funny at all.  Yes, we should all be grateful for the pause in the Iran war, but the break won’t matter if this pause is only about preparing for worse in the near future.  Since there isn’t really any significant news beyond the usual daily political rubbish; let’s just stop now and wrap this up.

Stay tuned for our next report; and we’ll go and get some sleep and rest up for the adventures we’ll write about tomorrow!

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