Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - April 8, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Here at home, the weather was a top story of the day; and we enjoyed the mid-seventies high and regularly-sunny skies – at least until some showers moved into the area after dinner tonight.  Tai Chi was by the river this morning; we had a hot breakfast with Mom and Dad; and then our academic adventures included some bonus outdoor time.  We opted for biking and play time with our friends between school and dinner; and then we work-played at the lab or archives after taking care of the dinner clean-up.  We used time-phasing to get more work done with our books or beakers; so we put in about seven hours of ‘real’ time of work before we headed home at around ten-thirty.  We did a visit with Mom and Dad in the office as they wrapped up their work too; and then we all headed up to our rooms for the night.

Ethan and I needed bath or Jacuzzi time after the biking and work; he did more of the computer checks while I spent more time soaking in my tub; and now we’re winding down fast toward nap time with our twin chat and the rest of the world news checks.  As usual for the past month and a half, the Iran war is the top story; and the claimed two-week ceasefire might be nothing more than political theatre on both sides of the war.  Israel increased attacks on Lebanon while pretending to honor the ceasefire; Iran pointed out that the Pakistani mediators stated that the ceasefire was supposed to include Lebanon, Yemen, and the rest of the Middle East countries; and President Trump claims that Lebanon was excluded from the agreement.  Yes, there has been a reduction in the attacks everywhere except Lebanon, but that doesn’t mean the ceasefire is holding; and the Strait of Hormuz is still mostly-closed.  There are also insurance issues for the ships in the region; so at least some of those ships will not move until they can have their cargos and property insured.

There is definitely more pressure from world leaders to stop the war and get the Strait of Hormuz opened again; and Israeli armed forces are getting some serious pushback for endangering UN forces in Lebanon – including a team from Italy that was fired on while working in Lebanon.  Gaza and the Palestinians are being ignored, but an Al Jazeera reporter was killed in Gaza by Israeli forces; and they are getting condemned for that too – especially so soon after attacks and killings of a handful of reporters in Lebanon in recent weeks.  There are still too many leaders in Israel and America willing to ignore all of the ongoing war crimes, but the rest of the world is appalled; and ‘we’ are losing what little diplomatic reputation we have left as many other countries pivot away from us and make alternate economic and political connections and deals.

Let’s stop there; since it is still too-early to know whether the fragile ceasefire will hold or lead to a more-lasting peace deal.  Ethan and I are ready to sleep now; so that’s all we have for this update.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - April 7, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 5^th Birthday, Dustin Spencer!

We didn’t help with Dustin’s special day, but hope he’s had a lot of fun with his family and friends.

Our day hasn’t been that exciting, but we have had a good day between our academic adventures, the school band practice, and teen praise team practice.  There was a dinner with Mom and Dad between the practices that was pretty good too; and we enjoyed that time with our parents.  Mom didn’t have us do any work in the office tonight – mostly because we were tired and ready to wrap up our day after coming home from the church.  That practice, by the way, was the first to get ready for the Memorial Day holiday weekend service.  Now we’re taking care of the usual bedtime twin chat and computing; and the top news from the Iran war is more than a bit frenetic.

The top story is that a ceasefire has been agreed to for two weeks, but each side is claiming different concessions that aren’t matching up; and there have been ongoing missile and drone strikes exchanged between Israel and Iran even as we’re writing this update.  We’ll wait to see what happens, but market reactions have included a big drop in oil prices that won’t hold for long if the missiles don’t stop flying and the Strait of Hormuz remains semi-closed.  This ought to be good news, but we are cynical; since President Trump doesn’t exactly have a trustworthy record when it comes to peace negotiations – and Iranian leaders and people know that as well as we do.

Let’s stop there; and we’ll hope to see an actual pause in the death and destruction that has been going on in the Middle East for more than a month now.  Yes, that might be too much to hope for, but we can at least report that Iran isn’t getting ‘bombed into the Stone Age’ tonight and they are not retaliating against energy and civilian infrastructure in the region in return.  While we wait to see what happens, stay tuned for our next update; and we’ll get started on our nap time.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - April 6, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

The weather was decent today as we headed back to school, and we started the day with Tai Chi by the river, but then we spent most of the rest of the day indoors.  We had fun with our academic adventures; work-played at the lab or archives with our books or beakers between school and dinner; and then we had that meal with Mom and Dad and took care of the clean-up before we spent the evening working in the office and doing a Magi lesson with Mom.  Time phasing allowed us to get more done at the lab and in the office; so we’ve also had a very long day even though it is still reasonably-early now as we’re getting ready to crash and nap for the rest of the night.

Before we do that; the world news was all about the Iran war again today – no surprise; and the political nonsense rolls on with President Trump getting most of the highlights in the media for comments and claims ranging from claims of wanting to take all of Iran’s oil and impose American tolls on the Strait of Hormuz to assertions of imminent victory and a delayed deadline to tomorrow evening at eight o’clock before he will order the destruction of Iran’s power plants and all bridges in the country.  While the threats to Iran are international crimes even before being acted on; few leaders in the rest of the world are even trying to stand up and protest against our country and Israel.  They should; probably won’t; and we fully expect the situation to escalate and get worse in the coming days.

As usual lately, there isn’t much news being discussed or reported from the Ukraine war, and we are sure that Russia is happy with that; since they can keep grinding on the front lines and with their daily missile and drone attacks; and that will not end well for Ukraine – especially once the ground hardens again after the spring thaw.  European leaders collectively seem to be unable to do anything politically beyond posturing while their economies are being hit by the Iran war impacts on energy prices and shortages that are really barely beginning to hit them.  A slowdown will make it impossible for them to implement plans for military build-ups or support for Ukraine; so we are sure that the near future for the European Union will keep their leaders busy trying to survive internal economic and social challenges.

Ethan and I want to get some sleep now; so that’s all for this report.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - April 5, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy Easter, everyone!

Our day started very early, but the Easter Bunny had visited our house while we slept; so starting the day with a sugar rush was an option – at the expense of our chocolate bunnies’ ears! ;^)

Ethan and I skipped Tai Chi; got ready as soon as we woke up; and headed for the church an hour and chang3e before sunrise to help with the final set-up for the teen-led service.  While we’re still junior members of the teen praise team, we were still involved in leading some of the music along with Naomi, Aiden, Sophia, and Aaron.  We aren’t going to brag about our contributions to the sunrise service, but the congregation loved the celebration of the true meaning of Easter; and we loved sharing the joy of the day with everyone.  We loved working the pancake breakfasts with the rest of the teens and volunteers – even the dishwashing time; and then the delayed, regular service was amazing too – including the reprise song that we shared with the members of the congregation that didn’t make it to the early service.

It was past-noon before we got home from church; and the work continued there because Mom and Dad hosted the family Easter dinner.  They booked that to be early, so the oven had been busy while we were at church and Mom and Dad checked in on the food between church services; so we mostly got the rest of the cooking and set-up done while our guests began arriving.  We sat down to eat by one-thirty; Ethan and I were with the teens and kids in the sunroom while the dining room was full with adults and some next-gen kids.  That hour or so of food fun was great; we had more work with the clean-up crew; and then we had a couple of play hours that included outdoor play time and biking on the trails before we came home to get started on a quiet night.

Mom did a Magi lesson with us; we had a later snack dinner; and then we did some charity and family business work in the office until around nine-thirty.  Bath or Jacuzzi time followed the time-phased work; and now we’re winding down toward nap time with the usual twin chat and computing wrap-up to our day.

It is tempting to start in on a world news rant tonight, but the nonsense from our world leaders has mostly been rhetoric and posturing ahead of what most people expect will be another escalation in the Iran war.  We can wait a day or two while that imminent future arrives; and you, future reader, can just flip digital pages to find out what happens while we live our local adventures and keep up with the world news as it happens.  For now, we just want to get some sleep so that we’ll be ready for the next weeks of school that will take us from Easter to Memorial Day.

Let’s all hope that an Easter miracle is still possible and our leaders will choose a different path from the one we seem to be on tonight.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - April 4, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 13^th Birthday, Hailey Draper!

My future sister-in-law’s official transition into the teen club and her birthday party and dinner were highlights of our day, but she also competed with the annual Easter Egg Hunt at the park too; and we all had a very busy day!

That was true for the rest of our Friday from the last update.  Naomi and Aiden were with us to help with the babysitting while many of our parents were at Rowen and Tim’s house for Owen’s birthday dinner and party, but that’s changing now anyway, and while we were babysitting some next-gen kids; our cousins were mostly with us to hang out together with little need for supervision.  Okay, Zack and Eli are still challenging at times, but they played nice last night – pretending that they needed to be good ahead of the Easter Bunny visit.  That worked for us, but then we were busy too for most of the night between cooking and cleaning up around our Pizzeria pizza and sides dinner; entertaining everyone with options varying from video games to movies, music, and board games.  Owen’s party was not a wild and crazy event on Good Friday and Saturday was a work day for many of the guests; so our ‘work’ with the teens, kids, and toddlers started to wrap up by around ten o’clock.  It was past eleven by the time all of our guests were gone; and heading toward midnight by the time the clean-up of the house was finished and we could wrap up our day with a co-ed sleepover.  There was some co-ed cuddle time and we watched some music videos too, but by then; we really just needed to get some sleep.

We needed to be up early this morning, but we skipped Tai Chi and went to the park to help with hiding the eggs for the hunt.  We did that work before breakfast this year; returned home for that meal with Mom and Dad; and then went back to the park to rejoin the volunteer crews.  Ethan helped with one of the prizes booths; I was at the table for kid registrations and handed out the baskets and wristbands that doubled as identification for parent-kid matches; and we both had fun with our friends, family, and everyone that joined in on the fun for most of the morning.  There hasn’t been a major expansion of the hunt, and it was cooler this morning, but there was still a good turnout; and there is a bit more to do now thanks to some charity fundraising games and food and drinks booths.  We got in on some of those treats and a couple of games while taking breaks from our work, but it was seeing the kids having fun and happy that made the efforts worth it for us.

Ethan and I were on our own when we went home with Mom and Dad; we took care of a few chores there; and then we had a quick lunch before heading over to Aiden’s house to help with Hailey’s birthday party.  Aiden’s parents couldn’t take the day off from the bakery on a holiday weekend when Easter treats are in high demand; so Aiden and I were technically in charge of the party.  Ethan and Naomi were our primary ‘crew’ members, but we also had some family support from both sides of Hailey’s family.  The high today only reached the mid-fifties, but Hailey and her friends still had some outdoor time that included a bike ride and back yard hang-out time by the river.

Aiden and I set up the family room for video gaming; there were music videos in the living room; and the kitchen was hang-out central for most of the adults and older teens.  Aiden would suggest that his top news of the day was that some of Hailey’s classmates and friends have crossed over and joined the couples’ club, but then he also seems happy that she hasn’t crossed over too.  That isn’t exactly true, since I know that Hailey and Leah have both crossed over, but while they are interested in the guys around their age; they haven’t started spending time with any specific guys – and Aiden can stay in denial until that changes! ;^)

While we did a lot of work at Hailey’s party, we had fun too.  Highlights included the dinner that we cooked for everyone, but let’s also mention that half of the dishes were also pre-cooked and only needed to be heated up.  That meal was a hit with Hailey’s guests; she loved the gifts she opened between dinner and dessert; and then we held dessert back until her parents got home from the bakery and could join in on the wish, song, and cakes and ice cream fun.

The party rolled on into the evening, but not late because we all need to be up early for the sunrise service in the morning – and some of us need to be at the church even earlier to warm up and deal with the final set-up.  None of us want to mess up with the Easter Bunny either; so the party wrapped up by around nine o’clock; we had the final clean-up done by ten; and Ethan and I were home by ten-thirty.  We did a visit with Mom and Dad as they were wrapping up work in the office for the night; ignored the gaps in the recap of their afternoon and evening; and we all headed up to our rooms by eleven o’clock.

Ethan and I opted for quick showers; and now we’re taking care of the usual twin chat and computer checks.  The Iran war continues to get most of the media attention in our country; and the news is not good.  The countdown declared by President Trump is now down to less than forty-eight hours until his deadline for Iran to basically surrender or face ‘being bombed into the Stone Ages’ by our military.  We’re fairly-well versed in history and didn’t know that there had been more than one Stone Age, but maybe our President has some classified information that the rest of the world is unaware of before now!  While we are sure that Iran will not surrender; we are more-concerned with the ongoing escalations in the war without the threats still being promised.  Iran’s nuclear plants have been attacked again; civilian targets are being hit ranging from homes to factories to energy infrastructure; and Iran is retaliating against Israel and the other Gulf countries.  The horrors are continuing in Lebanon too; and Israeli forces are also expanding operations in Gaza and the West Bank – taking advantage of the Iran war distraction to attempt grabbing up land in all regions.  We don’t want to go on about this, but do want to mention that many of those other Gulf countries ought to be looking at what is happening now with an eye to what might happen to them in the future.

Let’s stop there.  Ethan and I do not want to risk being up when the Easter Bunny comes to town; so we’re off to dreamland now – possibly to dream about cute, chocolate – I mean cuddly – bunnies!

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