Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - July 19, 2026

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 1^st Anniversary, Madelana and Stefan!

We joined in for the morning vid-chat with Cassie and Michael’s friends; they are on a work trip in Europe; and they were taking the weekend off for that celebration.  Along with missing out on their travel fun today; we’ve missed a busy day at home that included a Quarry Lake bike ride for cousins and friends; a play afternoon there with adults and next-gen kids that met up with them there for the hot, sunny play time; and then we also missed a late buffet at the Inn that Mom and Dad went to ahead of his week in Crystals Springs.

This update is coming to you while we’re on the road from Ottawa to Toronto.  We’ll have more on the imminent visit to the largest city in Canada and the Capital of Ontario, but we’re still a few hours away from arrival; so that part of our story can wait for our next report.  We have had a great final day in Ottawa with only two work-related activities mixed in with more sightseeing.  The more we see on this trip; the more we know that it would take a lot longer than a handful of weeks to visit more than a fraction of this country!  Just on this drive time between cities, we are just passing by amazing sites and natural wonders that we just don’t have time to check out.  This is a work trip, so we’re doing pretty well with mixing in the play time; and we’ll do our best to keep that trend going and be grateful for everything we are getting to do!

On the world news front, nothing has changed today as both of the top wars roll on at the new, higher levels; more American soldiers have been confirmed dead or injured; and we’re starting to see more reports of significant damage from the Iranian attacks including the loss of helicopters and weapons depots.  The missile and drone strikes in Ukraine have been devastating; there are more reports of faltering front lines as Russian forces push harder while the summer weather is comparatively-good; and we can’t imagine what summer must be like in Ukraine with ongoing power shortages for everything from air conditioning to simply keeping food cold or frozen when they have food at all.  The pressures on the world economy continue to grow, and while some leaders are oblivious; there are also new reports of protecting resources; China is leading the way for that trend as they add to the list of export restrictions for most-needed petroleum-based, refined products to ensure they have enough for their own internal markets and production.

Ethan and I are sure that those economic challenges will continue to develop; and there are new signs of social stresses growing too.  Reports of violence are coming in from many countries – and in new places; some leaders and politicians are promoting division and hatred to take advantage of the problems; and new fights over resources are more-likely every day.  We don’t want to start in on a rant tonight; and would love it if our assessments prove wrong over the coming weeks and months.  Instead of keeping this going, though, we’re going to stop there and get back to enjoying the quiet co-ed cuddle time and travel chat fun with our best friends – and Cassie and Michael.  Stay tuned while we do that; since we expect some awesome stories to share with future Magi as we make our way across Ontario over the coming week!

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

 

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - July 18, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

This is another afternoon update because we’re taking a break at the hotel before going out again for dinner and a night of sightseeing and fun – and expect to be out and up late tonight.  That’s why we don’t have any hometown baseball news yet – the first family game of the day is just getting started; and we haven’t been sent any reports yet.  We can mention that the forecast rain hasn’t gotten in the way of the baseball or chores today; and we’ve been teased again about the pay for those extra chores paying better for our younger cousins and their friends.  There hasn’t been much added news from home yet, but we do know that the visiting cousins are doing smaller sleepovers tonight for last visits with various members of our hometown family before they head home tomorrow afternoon.

Here in Ottawa, we’ve mostly had a sightseeing day with just one work site visit and a lunch meeting.  There has been more rain and thunderstorms to dodge here than at home, but that hasn’t slowed us down at all; and we’ve had a lot of fun with the work and play time.  We plan on keeping that trend going for the rest of the day and weekend, and want to get back to that fun soon; so let’s wrap this up with the world news update.

The Iran war is topping the media cycle again – this time because there have been American casualties in Jordan after an Iranian attack on military bases in the country and region.  Two soldiers have been confirmed killed with one still missing; more were injured; and the retaliatory attacks from Iran are now officially costing more than ‘just’ the destruction of our bases and equipment and supply depots.  Escalations are again near-certain; and our worries are for the people at risk on both sides of that fight.

In Ukraine, the missile and drone strikes continue on both sides, but the bigger, quieter story is that Ukrainian front lines might be starting to collapse.  Another significant defensive fortification town is either near-to or has fallen to the Russian forces.  That gives the Russian military an easier path to the last major defensive positions in the Donbass region; and we doubt that anyone except the Ukrainian troops know how long they can hold out against these non-stop drives along a lot of those front lines.  There are ongoing stories of starving and ammunition-limitations all along the front lines; and these losses can only add to the pressure and loss of confidence – if not to total defeatism for those soldiers.

War is always in the news and bad for everyone; so let’s wrap this up with something different out of China.  First up, China has successfully tested a reusable rocket similar to SpaceX, and while they didn’t have the cool giant robot to catch the rocket; they did land it on a platform, and if that is actually all that is needed to make those rockets reusable; then they don’t really need the bells and whistles of that robot to have the system work as-well as the SpaceX rockets.  Yes, our leaders and pundits needed to claim that ‘we’ are still years ahead in that tech, but that might not be true at all – just as we doubt a lot of what is claimed about China and their tech advances that often seem to be far ahead of western research.  The other story we saw of interest from China was about computer chips – though the article was more about the South Korean perspective and worry that China has caught up with their technology.  We expect that Chinese companies are passing them too – and Taiwan tech companies, so considering how much of their business exports go to China; they both have reasons to worry if their products are no longer superior.  Ethan and I know that those trends are going to continue and accelerate; China is gaining advantages over most competitors because of western leaders’ focus on war and other detrimental policies; and their longer-term thinking and planning is proving far more-effective than the never-ending mindset of neo-colonialism pushed by the United States and western Europe.

I could get into a rant about that and won’t; since we really do need to get going soon.  While we get back to our adventures here; we hope that your ‘now’ in our future is as-awesome! ;^)

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 5^th Birthday, Jacob Jennings!

We probably wouldn’t have helped with Jacob’s special day if we’d been home today, but he is a cousin to Ryan and Emma; and gets lumped in with the rest of our next-gen cousins and friends.  Violet and Dillon are definitely helping out with the kids’ party; and they are getting great weather for that – though there is rain in the forecast for later tonight and tomorrow.

That’s true for us here in Ottawa too, but the weather has been good so far today; and we’ve even managed to enjoy some outdoor time between meetings and site visits.  Most of the political work Cassie and Michael had today was related to government regulatory controls ranging from business to environment to charity partnerships; and the site visits were for business partnerships.  We’ve finished up the work for today, and we’re at the hotel getting ready for a play and sightseeing night.

Instead of writing more about our own adventures, we should mention that Mom and Dad are surviving at home without their kids; and we’ll pretend that they aren’t having way too much fun that we aren’t being told about and don’t want to know either!  Our cousins are having fun without us too – though they are also about to wrap up the hometown vacation time with Johnson clan cousins this weekend.  I get regular updates from Brianna and Faith; and they are also fairly-happy to have Zack spend a lot of extra time at Eli’s house while Naomi is with us and the Seager home is sister-free.  Let’s also add that Mandy is in high demand; Brianna and Faith are sharing her with Mom, Dad, Leah, and Hailey; and she is getting so spoiled that Cassie isn’t sure that Mandy will want to come home when we get back again!  Okay, that last part is just a joke, but facts are not required to have that kind of fun.

We need to get going for our play time soon; so let’s cover some of the world news stories.  The Iran war gets top billing today thanks to ‘our’ overnight attacks on Iranian bridges, power plants, and communications systems.  Iran has started escalated retaliations against power and desalination plants in other Gulf countries; and we are expecting worse through the weekend because that is being promised by leaders on both sides.  Politics are in the headlines for the Ukraine war thanks to a government shuffle including new military leaders and a new Prime Minister.  None of those changes are for the better for Ukraine or the world; the Ukrainian President is still in charge; and the war will continue.

We don’t want to cover the daily distraction stories, but will mention that every week brings a new low for our strategic petroleum reserves, and while there has been some slowing of the drawdown; that is another factor for prices that will rise as supply contracts again.  There was also a story out there today about ‘our’ leaders suggesting that Canada needs to be sanctioned because of the smoke from those wildfires we mentioned that are affecting parts of the United States now.  That is insane, since it would make more sense to offer fire fighting aide instead of sending economic threats.  Everything else can either be saved for another day or isn’t worth reporting here at all; so that’s all we have for today.  Stay tuned; since we are really hoping for another awesome weekend here in Canada!

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 15^th Birthday, Jennifer Byrd!

While we’re missing out on her birthday adventures, Jennifer’s best friends and family are making sure that her day is special; and she’s most-excited about joining the beginner-drivers’ club.  Okay, she’s having fun with all of the play time too, but we don’t actually have those details yet; and will include those stories soon if we hear anything interesting about that from home.

We are no longer in Montreal as we’re writing this, but our late-evening drive time to our next stop, Ottawa, will only take a couple of hours; and we’re about half-way there already.  The work we helped Cassie and Michael with today – and for the rest of yesterday after our update – kept us busy most of the time with cameo sightseeing and some comedy festival fun, but we wrapped up the work with a casual charity dinner and then we spent the evening enjoying more comedy festival and sightseeing fun before hitting the highway for Ottawa at around eleven o’clock.

We’re going to be in Ottawa – the Capital of Canada – through to Sunday evening; and the work schedule includes some government-related meetings that will also give us the chance to check out the differences between their center of national power with Capitol Hill and Washington.  We’ll have more on that over the next few reports, but as we head into Ontario, one story has gained our attention for the Province that seems very strange to us.  They are dealing with wildfires in the far northwest of the province, but the stories that are so interesting to us tonight are about air quality problems in southern Ontario caused by the smoke from those fires drifting into the region so-heavily that it is creating a heavy haze and fog with strong wood fire smell.  Parts of Michigan are affected too, and what amazes us is that that smoke and hazard is able to be such a problem hundreds of miles away from the actual fires.  We might actually experience at least a bit of that effect over the next few days, but conditions are supposed to improve by the time we get into the areas that have been most-affected over the past couple of days.

Elsewhere in the world, Russia has launched new, massive missile and drone attacks focusing on Ukrainian ports including Odessa; drone production facilities; and ongoing hits on energy infrastructure.  Ukraine continues drone attacks on Russia, but the most-disturbing story we saw today was purportedly from a Ukrainian spy ‘mastermind’ behind the bombing attack in Morocco against a Ukrainian oligarch and his family that critically-injured the man, his wife, and their teenage son.  We didn’t write about that story previously, but seeing a report of the bombing planner bragging about international terrorism tactics is sickening; and our leaders should be horrified for supporting Ukraine when that also means supporting civilian bombings and intentional targeting of civilians in Russia and elsewhere in the world.

Infrastructure is in the news for the Iran war, with the Iranian leaders promising retaliation in kind against the other Gulf States for American and Israeli attacks on infrastructure in Iran and Lebanon.  The attacks on both sides continue tonight; the threats continue; and peace is still off with no negotiations happening or planned.  We continue to believe that our leaders are on the wrong side of this war, and we have one example to offer to support our assertion.  Yesterday, our central command reported targeting an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf that was en-route to an Iranian port and disabling it in international waters; and then they reported missile strikes on Iran four or five hours later that they claimed were launched to keep Iran from illegally targeting civilian ships in the Strait of Hormuz or Gulf!  The idiocy of that hypocrisy is amazing, since if part two of that sequence of events is valid; then other countries should have every right to attack us to stop us from doing the same – and for all of the ships we’ve pirated both in the Middle East region and previously elsewhere in the world.

That’s enough for tonight.  Ethan is enjoying more cuddle time with Naomi while my cuddle time with Aiden is too one-sided; so I am out of here and back to the real time and quality co-ed share time with my boyfriend! ;^)

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 22^nd Birthday, Lindsay Faulkner!

Happy 3^rd Anniversary, Martin and Kimberly Rice!

We did a short vid-chat with our cousins and gifts were sent, but that was our only involvement in those celebrations; and we left it up to family and friends to take care of making today special for Lindsay, Martin, and Kimberly.

Our day started before dawn again for the drive to Montreal; and we again got right to work with a multi-tasked breakfast once in the city.  While Cassie and Michael had a lot of work to do today; we are also happy to be in town during the world-famous, Just for Laughs comedy festival.  The Montreal Comedy festival runs for the entire month of July too; so there are a lot of comedy entertainment opportunities and brings millions of comedy fans to Montreal.  That, by the way, would have been a problem for us for accommodations if Cassie and Michael hadn’t booked early for our stay in the city.  We’ll have more on that part of our story over the next couple of days, but will mention that the teens in our group will not be able to attend any of the club events for those festivals, but there are outdoor, free events that we will be able to check out during some of our breaks between the work.  We haven’t done that yet today, but do plan on doing that a few times between now and when we move on again late tomorrow night.

We’re currently writing this while taking a work break to get checked into our rooms.  This will be a short stop and we need to get going soon; so let’s speed this up a bit.  After that breakfast-work meeting, we had a morning site visit to a logistics warehouse; a finance meeting in a downtown tower; a charity lunch; and then another site visit to an inner-city clinic and health and social services center.  The need for those services is different in countries like Canada because they have a social safety net that we don’t have in the United States, but there are still many needs that either aren’t covered or take too long to get through basic government services; and expertise is also needed to help low-income people navigate the hurdles and paperwork often required to access those medical and social services.  That was my favorite stop of the day thanks to the clinic side of that facility, but we all had fun with the tour; talking with the staff and clients; and learning a lot about a social services system that is very different from ours but also one that has unique challenges related to scarcity and regulated costs.  This hotel stop was next on our schedule, but we still have another meal meeting to get to soon and more work and fun to enjoy this evening; so we need to get going soon.

On the world news front, the Iran war rages on again, and we did not like seeing reports of attacks on Iranian food infrastructure like grain silos and flour and bread storage and production facilities.  That is a new kind of war crimes that only targets the poorest civilians, since the elites and military will always have food first; and we hate seeing our leaders making those choices.  President Trump is again threatening to destroy Iran’s power plants and energy infrastructure; that would be yet another terrible mistake; and ‘we’ obviously haven’t learned from horrors our country committed in the past along those lines – like the major hydroelectric dam in North Korea that led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people downriver from that dam when it was destroyed.  There are very good reasons why these acts are supposed to be war crimes now, but if the top world military powers can’t be held accountable; then those international laws are meaningless.

We need to stop there, so we’ll save the Ukraine war updates for tomorrow; and we really need to offer other news from around the world too – even if those stories don’t get much media attention.  Stay tuned for that – and our next personal news update; and we’ll get out there and live the adventures we’ll write about tomorrow starting right now.

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