Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - March 8, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 26^th Birthday, Luke Taylor!

We didn’t have anything to do with Luke’s special day, but know that Cassie and Michael will be with a gang of their high school friends for a dinner and party tonight.

Our weekend started out great with our co-ed teen night, and while we had extra friends with us for the after-school play, dinner, and into the evening; only our four best friends stayed for the night.  We biked some trails after school; followed that up with some video gaming in the lounge before dinner; and that meal included Pizzeria pizza along with a handful of finger food sides.  Teens were drafted for the clean-up; and then we had some live music fun and more video gaming before we watched a sci-fi space movie that most of our friends stayed for and then went home after it ended at around eleven o’clock.  Another movie went along with the co-ed cuddling for the remaining couples after that; we stayed up a bit too late; and the co-ed naps only lasted a handful of hours.

Tai Chi was more fun with the extra exercise buddies; we had a hot breakfast with Mom and Dad; and then we split up for the rest of the morning while working on chores with our own families.  Ehlana and I had work to do here and at two cottages; lunch was a mini-subs snack break at around one o’clock; and then we were set free to meet up with some friends for more play time.  It barely warmed into the fifties this afternoon, but we still went biking for a couple of hours – this time taking the trail south of town toward the rail trail.  We didn’t attempt to get to that trail link and back today, but we had a good ride; and now we’re home and getting ready for our respective plans for the rest of the day.

Since Eli is still hosting Zack tonight, Naomi is going to be here with me – and Mom and Dad – for dinner and the night.  Ehlana’s been invited to stay with Aiden and his family, and that is mostly because Saturday nights are the best time for his parents to spend with their kids; since their father doesn’t need to get up in the wee hours of Sunday mornings in the off-seasons to start the baking.

That’s why this update is early again; and we’ve also kept our daily computer checks to a minimum.  We don’t want to write about world or political news either; and can sum everything up by reporting that the stupidity continues for all of the most-important issues; our leaders continue to attempt to distract the people with pointless theatre; and bad things keep happening because there don’t seem to be an adults stepping in to explain reality to the children!

Yes, that’s harsh but basically-true; so we are not sorry for feeling that way.  Ehlana needs to get going soon and I still have a bit of work to do in the lounge before Naomi arrives; so that’s all for this report.  Feel free to stay tuned, but with a twin-free night ahead of us; the best story details probably won’t get written about tomorrow night! ;^)

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - March 7, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 41^st Birthday, Uncle Adam!

Our morning highlight was a special birthday breakfast for Uncle Adam complete with all of his family gifts before Aunt Leanne took him away for a west-coast vacation.  We still needed to fit that in before school, so there was a time limit, but we had fun with the meal and the work before and after we ate.  While our aunt and uncle were happily flying west, we had a good day at school; and now we’re free for the weekend and getting ready to host a co-ed teen night with our four best friends.  We’re partly doing that because Zack is with Eli this weekend while his parents are away, and while he’ll be doing other sleepovers too over the next week; that is a good reason for keeping Naomi with us tonight!  Brianna and Lady are with Faith this weekend too; so we aren’t being asked to help out with our cousins for at least the first couple of nights.

The weather is decent this afternoon with a high hitting fifty-seven now; so we need to get going so that we can go biking on the trails with our friends.  We’re going to enjoy the play time and adventures with our family and friends for the rest of the day, so that’s all we have; and Ehlana and I aren’t even going to take time for our usual, daily bad news reviews.  Staying happy definitely works for us, so stay tuned for our next update; and we’ll get out there a live those stories.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - March 6, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

We have an early morning booked; so this is going to be a quick update and then we’ll be off to dreamland.

The weather was a bit better today, but still around freezing this morning and only warmed into the mid-forties this afternoon.  Our school day was good and not newsworthy; we biked and played with our friends after that for a while; and then kept our four best friends for studying and dinner before going to the Inn for game night.  Mom squeezed in a group Magi lesson too; so we had fun with everything and didn’t end up doing any work because Mom and Dad didn’t want to work tonight either.

We’ve had a really good day; so let’s stop now and stay happy as we get some sleep.  There is a special birthday breakfast in the morning that we definitely don’t want to be late for; so we’re out of here and off to re-charge so that we’ll be at full-power again and ready for all of the fun!

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - March 5, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

The forecasted freeze, snow, and ice welcomed us to the day, but we also didn’t get the afternoon melt; so Ehlana and I ended up shoveling and salting driveways and sidewalks before and after school instead of Tai Chi before breakfast or playing at the lab or archives after we were set free from school for the day.  That ended up being our top story of the day – the outdoor snow work.  We had a good day at school too – including while writing a test and dissecting the President’s address to the joint session of congress; a story that we’ll cover in this report too.

Thanks to the weather, we stayed indoors most of the time except when dealing with the clean-up.  Dinner with Mom and Dad was hot, but also an easy-meal; and then we worked in the office for a few hours – plus the equivalent, time-phased hours.  Some of the work was prepping for risks ahead if a trade war accelerates; and we definitely would have some impacts for some family businesses and charities.  Mom had us wrap up the work by ten o’clock; bath or Jacuzzi time followed; and now we’re ready to get some sleep soon.

Before we go there, we do need to comment on the top political news from last night.  It was obvious where the battle lines are drawn between the two parties in congress; and we’re mostly just ready to ignore all of the nonsense.  There are parts of the President’s plans and goals that we agree with; others that we don’t; and some that are just thrown out there for political theatre.  A lot of his plans are not going to go over very well in the rest of the world, but many of the issues are truly-serious, and we agree that we can’t help the rest of the world at all if we bankrupt our country in the attempt – though we would argue that our goals for the world haven’t been to help, but to rule and exploit.  Either way, the status quo won’t work and will destroy us, so while we have issues with these new plans too; any shake-up at all might at least get us going in the right direction – especially if we can actually negotiate what is best for all of us!

Yes, that quaint little dream is unlikely with current animosity, but then we’ll never understand choosing to hate everything because of the messenger while ignoring the validity of each message.  Okay, we also don’t understand hating anyone or anything, but you get the point.  We’ll keep you posted on the various stories if anything actually happens beyond the rhetoric, but that’s all we’re going to cover for tonight; and now we are definitely going to move on to nap time!

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - March 4, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

The weather was definitely the top local story again today – and this time it has been because of getting a serious rain drenching this morning and into the afternoon while now we’re heading into another freeze with snow and freezing rain expected overnight.  Since we’re expecting a messy morning; we’re going to keep this update short and get as much sleep as we can.

There isn’t really a lot to offer for our personal news.  Tai Chi and breakfast with Mom and Ad was good; we got damp on the walk to school; and our academic adventures were fun and not at all newsworthy.  The school band practice was a fun highlight – though we’re not being very serious about the music with so much time to get ready for the holiday weekend parades.  That practice also ended a bit early for most of us because some of the teens were volunteered to help out with Easter music for the church; so they were having a mini-practice to go over that music.

Getting home early allowed us to help Mom with making dinner and since it is Shrove Tuesday; we had pancakes and bacon.  We didn’t mention having Paczkis for lunch, and that was one of the food highlights of our day, but then there were still some of them available at home for dessert; and we really appreciate the Olde Bakery for having these special occasion treats!

Ehlana and I worked in the office after the post-dinner clean-up; Mom did a Magi lesson with us; and we used time phasing to get more done while still wrapping up the office time by nine-thirty.  We moved on to the twin chat and bedtime computing right away; and now we’re pretty much ready to crash and nap now.  There are world, political, and entertainment stories that we could write about tonight, but we really don’t want to do very much of that again tonight.  Ehlana does want me to mention that we have not enjoyed the teen chats at school related to the Academy Awards show that happened on Sunday.  Yes, we take in all of the stories, but we also don’t want to waste any time talking about any of that spectacle that has descended into celebrating the worst that humanity can be instead of the best.  We really don’t want to even comment on any of those most-talked about stories; so let’s move on.  For other news of the day, we should probably mention that trade wars are heating up as our President imposed new tariffs today on China, Canada, and Mexico; and retaliation tariffs have been levied too.  This really is just the start of implementing new policies and there are going to be wide-ranging consequences; so we’ll keep you posted on this story as the effects are felt in our country and around the world.  We see both sides of the political and economic issues, and our country definitely needs to deal with the problems that come with never-ending trade deficits, but it remains to be seen whether the pain that will come with hard choices will prove to be more than most people are willing to accept.

Our president also put a pause on funding or sending weapons to Ukraine, so that’s causing another uproar, but we’re always hoping for peace; and it is definitely past-time for a change in strategy when what the western countries have been doing for years now isn’t working while Ukraine is being destroyed.  European leaders are still promising to stand behind Ukraine regardless of the cost; so we can only hope that those costs won’t lead to the total destruction of Ukraine – or the world.

That is definitely getting too-serious – which is why Ehlana has just started calculating the Magi power that would be required to protect the entire Ridge River district from a nuclear war with a dome-shield!  That just proves to me that we both really need to get some sleep; so that is absolutely all we have for this report.

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