Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - September 28, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 14^th Birthday, Valerie Malloy!

We did a vid-chat with the Malloys at breakfast this morning and sent gifts, but that was our only involvement in her special day.  We can mention that they’ll be here for the fall festival weekend – including the extra day on Friday; so that will be fun - when we can spend time with them while not busy with football and chores.

The weather has been good today with another mid-seventies, so Tai Chi was by the river; and our football and cheer squad practices are always more-fun without any rain or worse.  Ethan and I were home with Mom and Dad for dinner; we took care of the clean-up; and then we headed for the lab or archives for the evening.  As usual, time phasing helped us with getting more done; I repeated two successful tests of one of my cancer cures; and Ethan had fun exploring ancient History while researching for a specific Magi training module that he’s been updating.  For the record, yes, he knows where Atlantis is; and no, the ancient Magi did not build the Great Wall of China, the Egyptian pyramids; or any other ancient wonder of the world!  We came home at ten-thirty; bath or Jacuzzi time followed a quick visit with Mom and Dad because they were done their work by then too; and now we’re winding down fast toward nap time.

That brings us to the world news of the day, and while the fighting and air strikes continue in Ukraine, Russia, and the Middle East; we’re going to cover other stories tonight.  First up is financial news, and while there is some media attention; rising interest rates are going to be a problem for the world economy – especially when debt levels are so high in most developed countries.  Yes, that will include problems for governments, but we’re including all debt in that statement; since all interest payments pull resources from everyone that can’t be used elsewhere.  We won’t bore future Magi with too many details, but rates are up significantly pretty much around the world; and every one-percent increase adds trillions of dollars to the total interest expenses.  Yes, it takes time for those increased to work through the system, but that happens faster than most people realize, since a large percentage of total debt is shorter-term while yet more is longer-term, but renewed and refinanced regularly.  Our point is that not only will governments need to borrow more money to cover expenses, but many businesses will become unprofitable as high debt loads and higher debt-servicing costs explode; and personal – or ‘household’ – debt cost will bankrupt people just as it did during the last economic and housing market crash.  Add this to the growing economic crises in the world; and we continue down a very ugly and dangerous path that our leaders continue to ignore at best and are intentionally-working toward at worst.

Moving on, President Trump really loves the spotlight, and recent stories include his ‘verious seriously considering’ an export ban on diesel fuel because he is unaware of the reality that attempting to control national prices while world prices skyrocket has never worked for long and would be another economic disaster for the world economy.  Considering his comments about the Ukraine war being responsible for high diesel prices due to the destruction of Russia’s refining capacity; that’s even-dumber; since the United States is the world’s largest exporter of diesel fuel and quite a bit ahead of Russia for that title.  We will predict that he won’t blame himself if he does order that export ban and then prices rise even-faster than they have this year since the start of the war with Iran!  If that isn’t enough, we are also being told that President Trump is going to really focus on ‘our’ northern border security, which is likely bad news for Canada as well as for Greenland.  We are not suggesting that there are not risks to the north of our country, but will claim that those risks could be lessened quickly if we’d simply stop making enemies with pretty much everything we do around the world!  Let’s also add that no sane military leader would choose to attempt a naval invasion through the arctic passages of northern Canada and Greenland in the age of satellites; since their fleets would be sitting ducks along all of those routes.  Spending billions of dollars to build defenses against that sort of thing would just be a waste of resources.

That does bring us to one Middle East story that caught our attention – about eight American Marines that were injured earlier in September during an Iranian anti-ship missile strike.  Details are not being provided, but we know it wasn’t an American naval ship that was hit; so we can only speculate as to why our Marines would have been on a civilian ship in the Strait of Hormuz.  It might be even more-interesting if Iranian intelligence knew about them and that was why the ship was targeted and hit, but then it could have also been in retaliation for something the Marines did before being attacked.  We’ll likely never know, but if we’re starting to use Trojan ships and similar tactics; that is a very bad precedent to set for our enemies – or anyone else in the world.  No, that isn’t new, and we’ve even had recent examples from the Ukraine war including the drone attacks out of modular housing transport trailers and using transport trailers to disguise missile launchers.  We really hope that doesn’t become a standard war tactic; since then nothing could be trusted to be safe anymore – and we already have enough to worry about with everything else going on in the world.

That’s enough for tonight.  Ethan and I have had a good, happy, and productive day; and now we’re going to go and get some sleep so we’ll be ready for an even-busier day tomorrow.

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 21^st Birthday, Jaimie Proctor!

We hope that her day has been good while away at school; and expect that Micah and their friends have helped to make sure that has happened for her.  We did talk to them this morning at breakfast, but didn’t get much time for that vid-chat; since she was very popular with calls coming in from the rest of her family and friends.

We loved starting our day with Cassie, Michael, Naomi, Aiden, and the gang of next-gen kids we’d kept overnight; Tai Chi was by the river because we could do that once the rain moved out of the area overnight; and breakfast with the kids was very entertaining too.  Getting them all fed and ready for the day and then to church on time kept us busy through until we gave them back to their parents at the church; the service and Sunday school were good; and then we came home for lunch with Mom and Dad – and without our friends; since they had other plans and we were heading to the lab or archives after that meal anyway.  Ethan and I had a lot of fun with our books or beakers; used time phasing to get more done; and managed to get home in time for dinner with Mom and Dad.  We enjoyed that meal too; took care of the clean-up; and then we worked in the office with Mom and Dad and did a Magi lesson with Mom for a few hours before heading upstairs for bath or Jacuzzi time.  There was some time phasing for that too, so it wasn’t that late when we came upstairs; and we still have a bit of time left in our Sunday before midnight – if not very much.

We haven’t covered the rest of our story from Saturday; so that’s next on this update to-do list.  The wedding ceremony was really special with a big turnout for two of the biggest families in the region – and certainly best-known; Scott and Geraldine are very happy; and we are all happy for them!  While they are in our local news, let’s also mention that they are happy with the life they’re building together.  Scott is an electrical engineer and has started his own business focused on designing and building custom products and systems for the local farms.  Geraldine is a freelance journalist and author; they both work from home; and they are each definitely taking a different path from pretty much everyone else in their families.

Moving along, Ethan, Naomi, Aiden, and I helped Cassie and Michael with getting next-gen kids to their house, and the post-ceremony congratulations at the church were kept very short due to the weather and trying to get other things done between the raindrops.  We had fun entertaining the kids with everything from games and movies to a bit of damp outdoor play time during one of the rain breaks; dinner was a finger foods adventure; and nearly all of the kids were sleeping by ten o’clock; so there was lots of time left over for co-ed cuddling before Cassie and Michael got home from the parts of the reception they attended last night.  No, they were not there for everything, but there were ‘open’ times for extra guests to stop in; and they spent a total of about three hours there over two visits.  That’s pretty much all of our hometown news; so let’s cover the world report and then Ethan and I will get some well-deserved sleep.

President Trump has publicly rejected Iran’s proposal to re-start the peace process while other reports again claim that the Strait of Hormuz is open while ships are still being attacked and a second American autonomous submarine drone has been captured by Iran.  The fighting rolls on between Saudi Arabia and their enemies; and Ukraine continues to get pounded while the news media tries to make a big deal out of a meeting between German and Russian foreign ministries that will mean nothing when the German leaders continue to warmonger in every other way that matters.

Aside from the wars, more news is coming out from the Presidential meetings between President Trump and President Xi, and we have no idea why anyone cares; since those details are minor issues that do nothing to deal with the big problems.  Thirty billion dollars worth of ‘tariffs’ deals might impress a few people, but we’re not even talking about the value of the tariffs, but the value of the products being traded – and that’s a fraction of the total trade between the countries and much-less for their respective, overall exports and imports!  An agreement to talk about rules for artificial intelligence is even more-vague; and will likely prove to be useless; since the tech is growing far-faster than any government can react to the changes.  We sound very cynical, but that visit and the meetings really do seem to be nothing more than a theatre show for the masses in both countries; and nothing will come out of it.  Ethan and I would have been impressed if they’d made a deal over Taiwan; stopped the trade war; and if we’d agreed to remove all of our military forces from the region.  None of that happened; and China is still included in the current version of the axis of evil with Russia, Iran, and any other country that doesn’t do what we tell them to do.

We’re going to stop there.  Our own weekend has been great; we’re looking forward to October as we wind down toward the end of September; and the fall fun is really going to get started with the Fall Festival being up next for major entertainment.  We want to rest up to be ready for all of those adventures when we can; so we’re out of here and off to dreamland right now.

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Congratulations, Scott Faulkner and Geraldine Sheldon – You’re Married!

For the record, they aren’t married yet, but will be soon; since we’re writing this update while getting ready for the ceremony at the church.  Ethan and I will be busy for the rest of the day, since after the ceremony; we’ll be babysitting with Naomi and Aiden at Cassie and Michael’s house while some favorite next-gen parents are busy at the pub for the dinner and reception.  That does mean that the best parts of our day are still ahead of us, but we do have news to cover from Friday and this morning; so let’s get to that before we need to go and meet up with our dates for the wedding.

After my latest football prediction, you won’t be surprised to find out that our team remains undefeated through the first five games.  The forty-four to three score was more than I expected, but our defense played well and Meadowvale made a fair number of mistakes that showcased why they aren’t having a good season.  They have some potential, but inexperience and one particular risk-taker made for a bad combination against one of the best teams in the small-school league.  Ethan held back a lot and only had two touchdowns; Aiden, Aaron, and Miles had one touchdown each; and we coasted to the end of the game on three field goals and trying to run out the clock to spare Meadowvale players any added embarrassment.  Ethan did host the victory party; we had fun with that and some of the girls even managed to get at least one slice of Pizzeria pizza for our snack time; and the entertainment included music, video gaming, and a lot of teen chat before most of our guests left by around midnight and we wrapped up our day with the co-ed sofa sleepover that our four best friends stayed to share with us.  There was a movie and more teen chat time, but we managed to get a handful of hours of sleep too before getting started on our Saturday with some indoor Tai Chi.

We should have mentioned that there was a shower or two last night during the game, but nothing serious; and the wet weather didn’t impact the game at all – though that risk-taking Meadowvale player might disagree and blame a wet football for his errors and turnovers.  It has rained off-and-on this morning and we expect more of the same for the rest of the day, but we’ll hope that it will be dry when needed for Scott and Geraldine – at least for the times they need to be outdoors.  After Tai Chi and breakfast; our friends moved on; we all had chores or other work to do this morning; and we wrapped up late, but in-time to get cleaned up and ready for the wedding ceremony.  Ethan and I already have our overnight bags packed, since we’ll be staying with Cassie and Michael tonight – and the kids we’ll be watching and keeping overnight too.  All of those stories will have to wait for our next report; since we need to wrap this up and get out there and live the adventures in weddings and babysitting.

Before we do that, I want to mention that the top world news story today might be President Trump’s rejection of the seven-day plan from Iran to basically return to the Memorandum of Understanding and a ceasefire and re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz.  That pretty much takes peace off the table again – yet another flip-flop; and the talk is again all about resuming the bombing of Iran with the added element of whether President Trump means using nukes for his threat to ‘annihilate’ Iran.

Let’s save the rest of the world news reports for tomorrow night and make it a weekend round-up.  Ethan and I do not want to be late for our dates – or the wedding ceremony; so we really need to get going right now.

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 22^nd Anniversary, Nathan and Hannah Draper!

We – and Naomi and Aiden – had a gift for my future parents-in-law that we gave them this morning, but that could only be a cameo visit that we did at the bakery on the way to school.  We won’t get to help them with any celebrating beyond that visit – unless they come to see the game tonight.  We don’t think they’ll be able to do that, since that game will also bring more business to the bakery that all visiting fans know is the best bakery in the region! ;^)

Our day has been busy so far from Tai Chi by the river and breakfast with Mom and Dad through to now as we’re taking the break for dinner and to get ready for the game tonight.  The rain didn’t get here until around lunchtime, so we were glad to have the workout by the river; our lessons and studying today were good and not newsworthy as usual; and the best parts of our day are hopefully still ahead of us.  Okay, I’m confident that our team will do well tonight; since Meadowvale has one of the weaker teams so far this season.  I am predicting that we’ll get through the first-half of the regular season undefeated, and if that happens; Ethan will be hosting the victory party again.  For the record, we’re doing that because our team Captain is a ‘farm kid’ and it is much easier to host those parties in-town without the extra drive time.  We’re also going to host the co-ed sofa sleepover with our four best friends – in-part for the kid-free night that Aiden’s parents will have for their anniversary; and that’s also why we’re doing this update now instead of later tonight.  We need to go have our early dinner soon; so let’s wrap this up with a short world news report.

It gets tedious to write about the flip-flop stories for peace and war, but that trend continued today as markets get manipulated by the minute or millisecond as needed; and nothing real happens on the ground anywhere that is for the good of the people.  For the Ukraine war, the peace talk is all about a ceasefire that Russia will never agree to without also getting everything they want first, but that’s mixed in with idiotic, warmongering stories ranging from ‘attacks’ on Europe from Russia with no proof at all that has actually happened and a new story about a ‘plot’ for a Russian drone attack on southern European countries that has purportedly been discovered by the CIA and warnings were sent to those European countries.  Versions of that story are so ludicrous that it is transparently-bogus; but then that’s true for the rest of those stories; and we’ve mentioned many times that Russia is not interested in ruling Europe and repeating the historic mess that was the downfall of the Soviet Union.

Here’s an idea for the United States and Europe – if you really want to defeat Russia; give them all of the European countries that are broke and taking the rest of Europe down with them and put that anchor around their necks and wait for them to drown!  You’ve pretty much finished exploiting those nations and people already; and that would be far-cheaper than turning each of them one-by-one into the next Ukraine!

Peace is the top news for the Middle East, but it is all theatre, since the demands on both sides remain the same; Israel and America will not agree to Iran’s terms in any real way even if they pretend otherwise for a while; and the conflicts in the Middle East will continue.  We should add that France has declared plans to send troops to Saudi Arabia, but that is a stupid plan for them; and is sure to end badly if they go through with it and actually try to join the fight against the Houthis and their allies in Yemen and Iraq and beyond.  ‘Our’ coalition there is becoming more ridiculous, since that now could have French troops fighting alongside ISIS and Al Qaeda terrorists while the Saudi Royal family pays the bills.  With all of that going on, Israel continues to get away with their ongoing genocides in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon without the media attention and outrage that is due – though there were protests at the United Nations that were crushed by our police because it is now illegal to protest against genocides when they are conducted by ‘our’ side.

This is getting far too-dark, so I’ll stop right now; and we’ll focus on love, joy, and happiness instead; since that truly is what will change our world for the better – even if that continues to mostly happen here in our little corner of the world.  Stay tuned for the rest of our story for today; since we really do expect the best parts of our adventures to begin right now.

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

We have had another long, busy day from a chilly Tai Chi workout by the river through to now as we’re winding down toward bedtime.  Our classes and studies were good but not newsworthy; our football and cheer squad practices went well as we had our final workouts ahead of the game tomorrow night; and we were happy to have another decent weather day – even if we are still also getting used to the cooler temperatures that are only reaching highs in the mid-seventies.  There is rain in the forecast for the game and weekend, but maybe we’ll get lucky and get the bad weather when it doesn’t matter – like when we’re sleeping!  That wasn’t an issue today, and after the practices, Ethan and I hosted our four best friends for dinner and a study session; Mom did a group Magi lesson with us too; and then we all went to the Inn for game night.  Naomi won the junior title tonight with a bit of help here and there from Ethan that he might not have noticed thanks to all of the bonus hugs and kisses Naomi shared with him along the way.  We all had fun; Ethan and I did our third walk in a row with Silkie to see Naomi and Aiden to their homes; and then Mom didn’t want us to do any office work tonight.  She and Dad didn’t stay up late to work either; and we won’t comment on what they might have been more-interested in doing instead since sending themselves to their room for the night.  Ethan opted for a shower while I spent some quality time with my Jacuzzi; he’s done most of the computer checks and shared the news with me; and now we’re just having a shorter-than-usual twin chat while I multi-task writing this update.

That brings us to the world news report and today has just been more of the same theatre out of New York and from too many of our world leaders while tensions only rise around the top wars and elsewhere.  We don’t want to spend time on the details from the ongoing fighting and air attacks happening in both regions; and instead want to again write about the fact that both of these wars didn’t need to happen and everything that has followed shouldn’t have happened.  The Ukraine war could have been avoided entirely if their government had simply agreed to be neutral and stop persecuting the ethnic Russians that were, at the time, around forty percent of their population.  Yes, there are other issues, but those two simple steps would have kept the war from happening at all and the rest could have been worked out with a bit of honest and sincere negotiations.

The Middle East is more-complicated, since the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians preceded the current war and needed to be stopped too, but ‘we’ started the current war with Iran for no valid reason – and while pretending to negotiate with them in good faith for the second time in two years; and we shouldn’t have done that at all and the consequences since then are our responsibility.  Our leaders won’t admit to that; they only seem to be doubling down with the insanity; and that was made clear with President Trump’s United Nations speech.  For the record, let’s add that his threat to annihilate Iran alone is supposed to be a war crime according to the United Nations; yet not one of the other world leaders called him out on that or demanded his arrest for committing that crime right in front of thousands of witnesses!  That proves to everyone that the rule of law means nothing in the United Nations; since their own rules apparently don’t apply to the most-powerful leaders.

Let’s stop there.  Ethan and I have had a happy day; we want to stay happy; and need to get some sleep to be ready for the last school day of the week, the football game, and the weekend.  Stay tuned, since we hope that our last weekend of September will be another really good one – even if it rains all weekend!

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