Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - October 13, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Cassie and Michael arrived safely in Gabon and got right to work pretty much from the moment they cleared customs at the airport.  it is warm there too – though our last hot day here was warmer as we flirted with triple digits for a little while this afternoon before dipping back into the nineties; and it is cooling down quickly from there as we’re writing this tonight.  The forecast showers held off until this evening and not until after the marching band practice; so we’ve enjoyed the last blast of summer-like weather before we head back into fall by morning.  We’re sure that Cassie and Michael are going to be very busy, but with the time change; they are currently sleeping and will be up soon to get started on their Wednesday in Libreville.  Let’s mention that Cassie and Michael have a very aggressive schedule for this trip; so they will also be doing a lot of driving between stops pretty much every day as they work their way across Central Africa for the west-to-east parts of their trip while most of the way back across the continent will be flight-hops between Capital cities back to the west coast.  We’ll have some of those stories for you as they go along, but you can read their journals and travel archives if you really want all of the details.

Here at home, our day started with Tai Chi by the river and breakfast with Mom and Dad were good; some of our teachers took advantage of the last hot day for extra outdoor time; and all of our practices went well from my cheer squad workout at lunchtime through the football and concert band practices through our evening marching band practice.  That one included doing the recording session for the Christmas ornament fundraiser; the song we picked was ‘When we’re together’ from Disney’s Frozen holiday special; and the first order will be ready by Thanksgiving.  Aaron hosted our dinner and study break between practices; his Mom opted for grilled burgers and hot dogs with cold salad sides; and we multi-tasked the studying to get everything done before we needed to be back at the school.  It was just starting to sprinkle as we left the school tonight, so we split up for our homes instead of adding in any extra walks with Silkie; and then Ethan and I did a bit of work and a Magi lesson with Mom in the office before coming upstairs for bath or Jacuzzi time.  Before we get to the world news update; I’ll add that we haven’t kept up with the post-festival action at the park; but have been advised that the work is done now; and the last of the rides have moved on to their next festival or fair destination.

Both of the top wars were getting political and media attention today.  In the Middle East, the airstrikes and fighting on the ground continues between Saudi Arabia and Yemen; more threats are being directed both ways – including from Ansar Allah with warnings against any country that joins to help Saudi Arabia and warnings to Aramco employees to evacuated company facilities because new strikes on oil infrastructure are imminent.  There are reports of some airstrike exchanges between Israel and Iran; and there are hints out there that Israel’s leaders might be attempting to provoke Iran in an attempt to resume that part of the war so they can have an excuse to cancel the elections that the current government is likely to lose if it goes ahead at the end of the month.  More ships are being attacked in the region; and the anger grows throughout the region.

For the Ukraine war, the top stories are that Ukraine is now targeting Russian data centers while they are also complaining that they are suddenly not getting advance warnings from their western ‘partners’ for incoming airstrikes from Russia.  That might be related to President Zelensky’s recent insults directed at President Trump, but it is more-likely just added theatre; since they are definitely getting help for those drone strikes on the Russian data centers.  We are sure that the new targets will just lead to worse for their own facilities and infrastructure; and we expect to read all about the next retaliations from Russia any day now.  Ukraine and European leaders are complaining about the ‘diesel deal’ with Russia, but others have been pointing out today that Europe has still bought more than three-hundred billion dollars worth of oil and gas from Russia since the war started; so it is hypocritical to complain about that much-smaller deal – if it actually even ends up happening; since Russia must have conditions for doing those exports, so if they don’t get what they want; the deal could end up going nowhere.  Finally, for Ukraine, President Trump was asked about his claim of an agreed energy ceasefire for Russia and Ukraine that both sides deny; and he declared that it was true and done because he said so and they’d better do as told.  That was a fairly-insane statement, but also makes it clear that he is living in a different reality from the rest of us if he actually believes that he has the power to make every other leader in the world bow to his whims.  Okay, that might be true for the weak and dependent countries, but it is delusional when attempting that kind of nonsense against countries like Russia and China.

We’ll only mention a bit of general world news tonight; and it is about growing unrest around the world.  The example we’ll write about is the small island nation of Mauritius, near Madagascar, where protests and riots are apparently the worst seen in nearly thirty years and entirely due to economic and social stresses related to rising prices that are much-worse for the people in a country that relies heavily on tourism and on an island that requires a lot of imports – especially for fuel and food and basic needs.  This is another canary warning for what is coming for the rest of the world if we don’t change course, and while the reactions will vary; fighting over resources is inevitable at this point and will only be mitigated if we stop all of the fighting.  That probably isn’t going to happen until things get much worse; so we’ll prepare; do what we can to help where we can; and that’s all we can do.

We can also share the love and joy in our own lives with as many people as we can, and we need to be at full-power to do that; so we’re out of here and off to nap time right now.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - October 12, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 13^th Birthday, Zack!

Zack’s birthday is a top family story today, but for Ethan and me; the departures of our grandparents, Cassie, and Michael were a bigger impact – even though we weren’t up that early to see them off toward the airport – and their flight times were close enough that they left town within a half hour of each other; and they got to say a final goodbye once at the airport.  Grandma and Grandpa had the much-shorter trip to Arizona, and Cassie and Michael won’t get to Libraville, Gabon until tomorrow, but they’ve fit in some bonus fun with a stop in Washington D.C. where they had a visit with Serena and Shayne before the overnight flight to Lome, Togo.  They’ll have a hop-flight from there to Libraville; and then they’ll get started right away on their work.  We’ll have more on Cassie and Michael’s adventures as they work their way across Africa and then back again through the central region, but before we move on; let’s add that Grandma and Grandpa have family and friends joining them in Arizona today or this week – including Grandpa Duncan and Grandma Mercy and Grandpa Richard and Grandma Carrie.  They have more fun getting to enjoy the sunny south together; and we’ll be jealous once we get past these last hot days and head back into the ‘normal’ fall weather around here.

That wasn’t an issue today, since the high was in the nineties again; we had bonus outdoor time beyond our practices this afternoon and Tai Chi by the river this morning; and we loved getting to be outside when we know it really is going to feel very cold by the end of the week compared to the nineties; since we could be down to a high in the fifties by Friday if the forecast holds true.  Ethan and I definitely had fun all day; we moved on to Zack’s birthday dinner after the practices; and he’d picked Pizzeria pizza and finger food sides for that meal.  Naomi and Aiden were with us for that meal; we only helped with the clean-up; and then Ethan and I headed for the lab or archives because this will be the only day we’ll be able to work there for the rest of the week.  We used time phasing to get more work done, but that’s helped to make this a very long day; and now we’re tired and ready to get some sleep soon.  We came home at eleven o’clock; did a quick visit with Mom and Dad; and then it was Jacuzzi time for me while Ethan opted for a shower and he then took care of most of our computer checks and shared the info with me telepathically.  Now we’re winding down fast; so let’s get to the world news of the day.

The Ukraine ‘energy ceasefire’ seems to be off before it started; so that war continues with no changes other than maybe even more intensification.  In the Middle East, the biggest non-stories are happening behind the scenes as Israel continues their attacks in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, and Lebanon while the world is distracted by the fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen.  We still keep track, though, and know that they are doing evil as-bad or worse than anything else happening in the Middle East or Ukraine.  Ansar Allah continues to attack Saudi infrastructure; and we’re all waiting to find out how much firepower will be brought against them if Saudi Arabia gets enough help to actually stop the attacks and advances being made in Yemen.  Let’s not skip the problems with Iran; since they are still around and continuing to choose most of the ships that are or aren’t allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.  They are certainly preparing for another escalation and return to the fighting and air attacks; and we really hope that doesn’t happen; since we already have enough trouble in the world without making everything worse.

As always, we could cover a lot of other stories, but for tonight; we’re going to point out that while there are so many terrible stories out there from the wars to the natural disasters and aftermaths of earthquakes, hurricanes, and more; we see more written about distraction stories that today ranged from raiding the home of a congresswoman to market fluctuations that are just the new-normal and meaningless for most people.  We really wish that there could be nothing but happy world news stories, but ignoring the realities of the world is a recipe for disaster.

That is enough for this report, so we will stop there; call it a night; and go get some sleep while we can.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - October 11, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 4^th Birthday, Hannah Sinclair!

We weren’t really in on Hannah’s birthday fun today, and we have a lot to write about; so let’s get to the rest of our festival weekend news.

Ethan and I had a lot of fun from dinnertime on Saturday that we did with a gang of family and friends through the dance and our co-ed sleepover that really didn’t end up including Jayden and Lori for the co-ed nap time – though they had fun with the co-ed cuddle time, teen chat, and music videos that we had fun with through until we were ready to sleep.  The family dance and more rounds of thrill rides and games and snacks were all great; and it was sharing everything with our favorite people that is most-important – as always.  We haven’t specified many of the details for all of the cameo moments that go into the overall fun, but we really can’t write about everything; since that would fill books to do that all of the time.  We’ve joked about just turning our memories into videos, but nobody would have time to watch all of our memories all of the time; so that would be very impractical – not to mention very expensive if we all did that for our journals!  That would be a lot of data storage space; so we’ll stick with the written reports.

That got a bit off-track, so some of our personal highlights from those cameo moments included fun with the next-gen kids; our grandparents; and Cassie and Michael.  We haven’t mentioned it yet, but Grandma and Grandpa head for Arizona tomorrow too; and we definitely didn’t get to spend enough time with them while busy with everything else we have on the go.  We do, by the way, see them fairly-often, but those are mostly cameo moments around town or home; so they don’t get mentioned in our journals very often right now.  After our co-ed sleepover; we woke up at normal time for Tai Chi by the river; Lori didn’t join us, but was awake and enjoyed the show from the sunroom with Jayden; and then we had a hot breakfast that the teens helped to cook and clean up after while taking turns getting ready for church.  Jayden and Lori went along with the rest of us when we needed to be at the park for the service set-up; and we can report that Lori both appreciated our music and has musical talent too; since she played along with us a bit during set-up and warm-ups.  Jayden loves music, but isn’t really interested in learning to play an instruments and only sings for fun; since he is more-focused on his art talent that will help him a lot with his future plans to be an Architect like his Dad.  Since we’re writing about Jayden, let’s again mention that he also isn’t interested in high school sports teams, but is a decent athlete; and plays some court sports and golf and swimming and more – just not on any teams.

While we helped with the music for the service, the teens didn’t do a full holiday service with skits and more; so Pastor John led more of the service and his message was a mix of harvest thanksgiving and celebrating our blessings.  We moved on from there to some midway play time; lunch was not a sit-down event and we snacked while we played and shared more cameo moments with family and friends.  Ethan and Naomi took one turn at the fundraiser booth; Aiden and I took a different time slot; and we had some next-gen kid time when not all together – including helping Cassie and Michael with the nieces and nephews they’ve entertained a lot this weekend before they’ll be gone for around six weeks.  The weekend guests at cottages or elsewhere headed home by late afternoon – unless they stayed for the early buffet, but we came home and helped Mom and Dad with cooking a family dinner that was mostly for Cassie and Michael and Grandma and Grandpa before they head out tomorrow.  Since they’ll be gone, we multi-tasked an early birthday celebration for Zack; and we mostly did that with the kids and teens in the sunroom while the adults were mostly in the dining room to have room for everyone.  That meal was a highlight for all of us; the clean-up was not as much fun; and we didn’t have a lot of help for that; since most of the dinner guests headed home soon-after the meal.  Cassie and Michael needed to get their next-gen kids to their homes – including a drive out to the Norton farms.  Grandma and Grandpa headed home to finish packing for their trip and get to bed early; and after the clean-up; Ethan, Silkie, and I walked Naomi and Aiden to their homes for a last blast of fun with them before we moved on to bath or Jacuzzi time.  Mom didn’t want to do any family business work or a Magi lesson with us tonight, and while the fun level will drop a bit for us next week; we’re still going to be busy – and busier; since we’ll be adding in help to take care of Cassie and Michael’s house while they’re away.  That’ll be true for Grandma and Grandpa’s house, but that isn’t much work for us by comparison; and they don’t have the added help needed for pets.  The clean-up time was needed by then; and we’ve been doing a longer computer check tonight to go along with all of the twin chat that has included a weekend recap and plans for the coming week.

Western leaders and media are focused on President Trump’s latest claims of an ‘energy ceasefire’ for Ukraine on top of the previous ‘diesel deal’ he’s claimed to have made with Russia.  We’ll predict that this is another nothingburger, since Ukrainian leaders are claiming that no such deal has been made; and European leaders are continuing to back Ukraine while denouncing any American deals with Russia.  That news might move market prices for a while – we’ll see, but we think that the bigger story from the top two wars is the Ansar Allah missile attacks on Riyadh’s international airport that have now targeted two of the passenger terminals with at least twelve people killed and hundreds wounded.  That will only lead to more escalations in that part of the Middle East war; and the people in the region will continue to suffer more and more for however long it takes for the leaders to figure out that they are only destroying their own futures – as well as the futures for everyone in their countries.  More tankers are being hit in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend; and claims from American leaders about total control of the strait are obviously nonsense and flat-out lies.

While the wars continue to get top headlines, there have also been a lot of natural disasters over the weekend too.  We’ve mentioned the Hurricane that hit Florida and the remnants of that storm continue to dump rain on the eastern States; the Panama earthquake and aftershocks have been worse; and now we can add major flash floods to the mix in Chile and Nepal.  In Chile, rivers of mud blasted through a suburb of the Capital, Santiago; and the videos coming out are wild as cars, trucks, and buses were shoved down the streets in torrents of water and mud that blasted down out of the Andes mountains with little advance warning.  They are heading into spring in Chile, so we really hope that won’t be a first of worse to come over the next month or two as the usual spring melt in the mountains begins.  The last thing Nepal needs is more flash flooding, but even with winter on the way; they are apparently still in danger of more glacier collapse and rock slides and flash floods; and the devastation for the locals will only make winter much harder for them.  Mom will be looking to send more help that way, but even with our resources; we still have limits.

That is far from all of the news of the weekend, but we’ve thought about all of that enough for tonight and really want to get a good night of sleep; so we’re going to wrap this up and get to the nap time right now.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - October 10, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

This update is coming to you during an afternoon break so that we can get ready for dinner and the evening at the park, and we’re also getting the third floor ready for another teen night that will only be co-ed for some of us; since we’re sure that Jayden and Lori will not be joining in on the co-ed naps whenever we get around to those adventures.  We have a lot of news to cover since the last report, though, so let’s get started.

Ethan led his team to another win last night over Westburg with three of our seven touchdowns and a lot of yards after his catches.  Yes, Miles threw the five touchdown passes, but he doesn’t need help with his ego; and has his record thanks to very talented receivers.  Aiden had the other two passing touchdowns; Aaron had two more on the ground; and our team coasted to the end of the game with four field goals while Westburg only managed one touchdown and two field goals.  We loved the great game-time weather; had a decent turnout despite the fall festival action; and then we wrapped up at the school as quickly as we could so that we were at the park while the teen dance was really just getting going.  There were a lot of Westburg teens there too; we mixed in some dancing with another round of midway thrill rides; and there were a lot of cameo moments – especially for the football stars on our team.  Ethan got more attention that Naomi liked, but then she’s very popular too; and Ethan is very glad that he will never have to worry about that sort of thing – even when Naomi appreciates the attention from some of those guys with no problem related to her personal double standards!  We stayed until the park closed for the night; and then we brought our four best friends home with us for a co-ed sleepover.  We watched a Halloween movie and wound down with some teen chat and cuddle time first; didn’t get to sleep until very late; and were tired when we woke up this morning.  Magi healing was an option, but we should mention that Jayden and Lori stayed at his family cottage last night; since we didn’t get around to inviting them to join us until after they already had their own plans.

After the fatigue healing session, Tai Chi by the river and a hot breakfast worked for us; we did some morning chores, but just the minimum needed to get us through to next weekend; and then we’ve spent the rest of the day at the festival with family and friends.  We’ll add that Aiden was at the bakery for those chores hours; since they are having a busy weekend at the store and he’s back there while we’re doing this too – though he isn’t being drafted for full-time weekend work yet.  That will likely change after football season, but we’ll let you know about that if he starts working there the way that Cassie and Michael used to work at the Inn when our age.  As for the actual festival fun; we checked out the exhibits tents; caught two stage shows; and spent the rest of the time with thrill rides and midway games.  There was a bit of kiddie rides time with next-gen kids, but we haven’t done as much of that this year; and we also spent an hour at the marching band fundraising booth.  We’ll be doing another hour tonight during the family dance, but we’ll still have lots of time for more rides, dancing, and cameo visits with family and friends.  Those stories can wait for our festival weekend wrap-up report tomorrow night, and need to get back to the park soon; so let’s do the world news report and move on.

Western media seems to have chosen the ‘diesel deal’ between Presidents Trump and Putin as the top story of the weekend, but we think that will be a nothingburger – especially if Ukraine continues to attack Russian refineries and ports and tankers as they continued to do just hours after President Trump announced that deal.  We think that the Ukraine and Middle East wars are still bigger stories; Hurricane Isaias is leave a mess behind as it blasts through the southeast on its way to the northeastern States; and the major earthquake in Panama and severe aftershocks have devastated yet another Central American country as the entire region has been an extremely active earthquake zone this year.  Add in the protests and riots in France and Europe and all of the economic and social stresses that continue to grow around the world; and it really does seems silly for our leaders and media to make such a big deal over a deal that is also for amounts that are relatively-small compared to world daily demand while also being contingent on capacity to deliver when the refineries and infrastructure are under attack every day.  Let’s also add that Ukraine couldn’t launch those attacks without the support of America and the rest of their western allies; so the entire story could just end up being another political game and attempt to manipulate markets instead of actually solving any problems.

That’s cynical, and we need to get back to being happy; so that’s all for today.  Stay tuned, since there is still a lot of fall festival fun to be had; and we’ll get back to living those adventures!

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