Ehlana and Ethan:
Before we get to our news for the last day of May; let’s begin with a quick update for our respective, separate adventures last night. Ethan would normally be suspiciously-quiet about his alone time with Naomi while she’d definitely share the highlights with me, but in this case; Ethan fell asleep early; so Aiden and I probably had more of that kind of co-ed fun than they did despite the rarity of that actually happening! They still had fun with the dinner and a movie they shared with Mom and Dad; they got to have some alone time too; and that ended early when Ethan fell asleep during their second movie of the night. For the record, that was not because my brother was bored – he just picked an inconvenient time to run out of steam. Aiden had some fun with that story this morning, but then we did actually have more fun last night too – partly because his parents went to bed early; and Hailey was with Leah last night. We had fun with our dinner and some quiet chat time with Aiden’s parents; and then we did not watch the movies that we pretended to watch while enjoying the make-out time opportunity. We didn’t get as much sleep last night, but Magi-powered fatigue healing was an option again this morning; and we also had more fun with our Tai Chi by the river that we were able to do with Cassie and Michael thanks to another well-timed break in the rain and storms.
Ethan and Naomi had their workout by the river with Mom and Dad too; we had our respective morning meals at home or Aiden’s house respectively. We met up at church for the service and Sunday school; Pastor John is beginning a new series of messages with supporting learning modules for the Sunday school classes that is about family and growing things. While there are sure to be farming themes involved, we know that Pastor John will weave together connections from strong foundations and fertile soil to strong communities and bountiful harvests.
The return of the rain didn’t arrive until later in the afternoon than we expected, and it warmed up into the nineties, but we still opted for work-play afternoon. Ethan did that at the archives; and I ended up going to the bakery with Aiden and helping out there instead of playing in my lab. We each had fun with our books or, for a change, my baked treats; and my work was definitely more-delicious! ;^)
We cane home in time for dinner with Mom and Dad; Ethan and I took care of the clean-up because they did the cooking; and then we all worked in the office for a couple of hours. Let’s not comment on why our parents had work left to do after a kid-free afternoon. We had fun with the work we did on charity and family business projects; Mom did a Magi lesson with us; and then we eventually moved on to bath or Jacuzzi time. While we’ve been busy, let’s also mention that Cassie and Michael have been busy today too. They switched out nephews and nieces from the Nortons to the Stones; and they are keeping Sierra, Stuart, and Samuel tonight. They did get a buffet dinner at the Inn out of that deal; and they do love spending time with all of their favorite next-gen kids. Ethan and I will not offer training-related commentary about all of that babysitting – and yes, that is entirely because they started that training with us!
As for the world news of the weekend; it has been another total mess of propaganda. For the Middle East conflict, while President Trump again continues to claim imminent peace with Iran while there are major issues still outstanding and he also continues to move the goalposts for that ‘deal’ that Iran doesn’t agree is close at all. Add in that the latest terms include ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ for that deal; and our skepticism is more-real than that supposed peace deal. Let’s also add that Israel has continued massive attacks on Lebanon and continue to push to take territory by force; and nobody should believe that peace is near – or that it would last if a deal was even reached when there is no reason to trust that ‘our’ side would keep to any deal at all.
On the Ukraine war front, there are two major defensive cities that are getting close to collapse as the Russian forces advance, and while everyone is waiting for and expecting a major attack on Kiev; losing two of the largest remaining defensive locations east of the Dnieper could prove more-significant to the Ukrainian armed forces – especially if they lose too many more troops as those cities are lost. There are sidelines stories related to NATO, the Baltic countries, and expanding nuclear weapons stockpiles and positioning in Europe. Some of those reports are distractions meant to keep western populations looking away from the disaster that Ukraine has become for their own people, but the stories about nuclear weapons and building up troop levels in the Baltics are true risks that Russia must assess and counter to protect themselves. We can only hope that both sides will come to their senses and stop even these verbal escalations; since nobody wants to see what happens next if that war expands and NATO gets directly drawn into the war. That would not end well for Europe; and worse for the world if nukes are used at any level. Ethan and I have mentioned this before as our leaders have wiped out all nuclear reduction treaties and talk of arsenal build-ups have developed; and we do not want to see a new nuclear arms build-up race. We are sure that there are many powerful people interested in the power and wealth possible by just that sort of military expansion and the potential for population control through another round of nuclear war themed fear m0ngering, but we’ll hope for the best; and maybe we’ll do a bit of Magi-powered research to work on ways to keep that kind of destruction from actually happening! For the record, no, we can’t do something like turn nukes into flowers or maybe something funny like in Harry Potter books, but maybe we can figure out a way to neutralize those weapons before they can be used.
That could be a fun thought to take into dreamland and explore for those solutions; so we’re going to do that and wrap this up right now! ;^)
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
