Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - June 30, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

The last day of June has not been filled with extreme adventures or much news for us, but we have had a good day and got a lot done with a few hours of play time mixed in to keep us happy and enthusiastic.  After Tai Chi by the river with Mom and Dad and breakfast, Ehlana and I played at the lab or archives for the rest of the morning; and then we had a play afternoon with friends and some cousins that included a picnic lunch, biking on the trails, swimming, and canoeing before we wrapped that up and came home to help Mom with making dinner.  We didn’t make plans for anything with our friends for the rest of the day because we needed to work in the office after dinner; and we’re saving up some points for extra sleepovers for the weeks that we’ll have cousins visiting us for the week or two after the Fourth of July holiday.

We enjoyed dinner with Mom and Dad; took care of the clean-up; and then our evening has included a Magi lesson and lots of time-phased family business and charity work.  We got a lot done; it has all added up to a very long day; and now we’re ready to nap for the rest of the night.  In real time, we wrapped up the work at ten-thirty; Ehlana and I got cleaned up and ready for bed; and now our computer checks and twin chat time is winding down fast because we’re really getting tired.  We do want to get our work done early this week so that we can enjoy the holiday.  That’s why we aren’t going to do a major world news report.  Instead of commenting on the top wars and news; let’s mention other problems in the world.  There are quite a few problems in Africa, for example, and while those stories aren’t getting a lot of attention here in our country; there are a lot of problems  in many of the African countries – many of them caused by western influences as western countries attempt to hold on to power in those countries – mostly for control over natural resources.  Add in the economic influences and pressures from China and Russia as they use different tactics to gain access to those resources too; and pressures are building in the entire region.  We really hate seeing all of that happening; and really want the exploitation of the people in those countries to stop.

There are social stresses building in Europe too, but most of those clashes are social as those countries are dealing with immigration-related issues that are escalating due to cultural differences.  As the population balance changes dramatically; power is shifting; and bad things are happening – whether that is local fighting among groups of people or national issues where policies are changed in dramatic ways.

Okay, that’s enough for this update – though we could write about problems pretty much everywhere else in the world.  We are tired, though, so let’s just wrap this up and call it a night right now.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - June 29, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Our evening with Sophia, Aaron, and her family was great from the late dinner through the music fun that her father and brother joined in on with us to the movies and co-ed cuddle time that kept us happy and entertained until we eventually got around to the co-ed nap time.  Tai Chi was by the river with just the six of us; we had a quick breakfast and got ready for church; and then the service and Sunday school kept us busy for the rest of the morning.  Sophia and Aaron had other plans for the rest of the day, but we had Naomi and Aiden with us for lunch; we biked trails and did a fair bit of swimming with family and friends this afternoon; and then Ehlana and I were on our own for dinner and the rest of the day with Mom and Dad.  We helped with the work on both sides of that meal; worked in the office after that; and Mom did a Magi lesson with us along with the charity work we got done until she had us wrap up by nine-thirty.  Bath or Jacuzzi time followed; and now we’re winding down toward nap time with our usual computer checks and twin chat fun.

The world and political news from the weekend probably seems quiet by comparison to recent weeks, but this lull is not good news.  Yes, the bombs are not dropping in Iran or Israel, but the underlying issues are not resolved; and in particular, the Palestinians continue to suffer without any sign of reprieve while the rest of the world watches on and does nothing.  The war in Ukraine is not slowing either; and the people on the ground on both sides continue to suffer while the destruction and killing continue and the leaders harden their positions.  To be blunt about this story, Ukraine has lost the war; so every day that goes by that they don’t accept that is another day where they will lose more and more until they lose everything.  They – and their western backers – really need to figure that out and accept reality instead of continuing to believe their own delusions!

Closer to home, our federal government is busy trying to pass the ‘big beautiful bill’ that President Trump is pushing despite the fact that it breaks most of his economic promises that got him elected; and will continue to expand government and the federal debt instead of reducing both.  So much for the department of government efficiency; and it is now-obvious that it was just a sideshow and distraction that means nothing while the ‘real’ policies continue.  That trend is not going to end well for our country, but our leaders obviously don’t care; so now we’ll just have to wait and see how long it will be until these choices come back to haunt all of us.  That can and possibly will take longer than anyone can imagine, but it will happen; and we can only hope that we’ll be able to help as many people as possible when that inevitable future arrives.

That’s depressing; so let’s wrap this up and call it a night.  Here in our little corner of the world, we’ll be grateful for everything we have; we’ll share the love and joy with as many people as we can; and continue to hope for better for the rest of the world – even while we move on to some quality nap time starting right now.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - June 28, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 25^th Birthday, Joshua Parker!

Cassie and Michael are helping out with their friend’s special day, but we haven’t even seen him today; and will save our best wishes up for when we see him tomorrow at church.  Our day has been very busy with a chores morning and baseball afternoon, but we don’t have much news to offer worth writing about.  We got our chores done in time for Ehlana’s ball game; we each won our respective games; and now we’re only home to get cleaned up before we head over to Sophia’s house for the rest of the day.  She’s hosting our co-ed sleepover – and the late dinner that we’ll be late for if we don’t get over there soon.

The rest of our news of the day can wait for our next report, so stay tuned for that; and we’ll get back to our summer adventures with our best friends.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - June 27, 2025

 

Ethan and Naomi:

I have not lost Ehlana for this report – she’s currently sleeping with her favorite cuddle buddy at his house; Naomi is here with me for our turn having a night with Mom and Dad; and I won’t be writing about the details for why we aren’t sleeping yet this late – or early; since it is closer to sunrise on Saturday morning than sunset on Friday!  The last day of our work week was a bit on the damp side, so Ehlana and I spent the day at the lab or archives and we took along a picnic lunch instead of stopping for that break, and while we got a lot done; there isn’t much news to offer from our work-play.  We did have a lot of fun on Thursday night with our four best friends – and Mom and Dad; since we did spend time with them too through dinner, a Magi lesson, and some live music play time; and then it was teen time for the rest of the night with two movies, lots of co-ed cuddle time, and not much sleep.  We were all up early and used some fatigue healing to get back to full power on Friday morning; Tai Chi was indoors and then breakfast was quick because we all had plans for the day – whether that was work or other activities.  Naomi wants me to mention that she had a chores morning at home yesterday followed by helping out at the salon in the afternoon.  That’s why she was up-to-date on the latest gossip around town; and had fun sharing that with Mom during dinner after meeting up with me here.

I was home from the archives in time to help Mom with dinner and some other chores; Naomi joined in on that work once with us too; and then the rest of our evening was similar to Thursday night except without the extra teens in the house.  Yes, Naomi, I’m reporting that without mentioning the best parts of our night-so-far; no, you don’t need to take over writing this for me; and yes, you are totally free to include whatever you want in your own journals – news that is sure to get some of the future Magi reading this choosing to look up your journals to check out too!  Without sharing specifics for that part of our relationship; I will mention that we – our group of six friends – are getting to the point where we do want to have co-ed time in pairs more-often; so that will likely be an adjustment that we are going to make over the coming summer and the rest of the year.  Naomi and I didn’t get around to having any alone time until after Mom and Dad went to bed for the night.  We didn’t watch a couple of movies; and this is an end-of-day update mostly because Ehlana and I didn’t have time to do this before she headed over to Aiden’s house.  We know that they’ve had fun too; I don’t need to write about any details for the best parts of their night too; and we do know that they did more work around dinnertime and had more alone time because Aiden’s parents went to bed early and Hailey is with Leah tonight.  Naomi and I are winding down toward nap time with music videos to listen to while we cuddle and chat, and we are very happy and content; so I am not going to mess that up with any world or political news.  Sometimes, it is just nice to take a break from all of that when we can’t control anything happening anyway.

We can control our drift off to nap mode, though, so that’s all for this update; and we’re out of here and off to dreamland soon!

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - June 26, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 4^th Anniversary, Jillian and Julian Sparks!

Geordie Johnson was born last evening to Gretchen and Marc; mother and son are doing well; and they are home as of the writing of this update.  We’ll again congratulate his family; and expect to meet him for the first time this Sunday at church.

Ehlana and I had fun last night with our respective sleepovers.  She and Aiden cooked dinner for his family; Naomi and I helped her father with our meal; and we all enjoyed our respective culinary adventures.  We met up for the co-ed ball practice at the park; helped with the next-gen kids while the parents played with their friends; and then we split up again for the rest of the night.  Ehlana reports that she and Aiden had some live music fun that they needed to keep quiet while his father was already sleeping by then; they had Hailey and Leah with them for a movie in the family room; and then they were left alone for their co-ed sofa sleepover.  I did not ask for or want details for the rest of their night!  Naomi and I did not play music; we pretended to watch a movie; and didn’t have any extra company because Eli was with Zack and they were camping by the river with some buddies.  That worked for us; and our co-ed details aren’t required here either.

Naomi and I ended up getting up early-enough to meet up with Ehlana and Aiden for Tai Chi by the river; we met up with Cassie and Michael to do that together; and then we ended up having breakfast together too.  Hailey and Leah were added to the mix, but Naomi’s parents opted to do their own thing after giving us permission for the change in plans.  Ehlana and I were booked for chores this morning, so we got to that work after the breakfast clean-up; we worked until early-afternoon; and then we took a lunch snack with us to the lab and got there ahead of the first bits of rain rolled into town.  We didn’t have a lot of time to work, but we did what we could and I was on my own and could do a bit of time phasing; so I got a bit more done than Ehlana could with most of the lab workers around her.

That brings us up to now.  We’re home; and getting ready to host a co-ed night with our four best friends.  They’ll be here for dinner too, so we really need to wrap this up so that we can help Mom with the kitchen work too.  We don’t have major plans for tonight, but some music fun is likely; Mom will probably do a group Magi lesson with us; and then we’ll watch a movie or two before getting around to the co-ed nap time.  We’ll let you know if anything else awesome happens, but that’s all for our news of the day-so-far.

As for world news, we’re not going to get into a major review of the top stories, but do want to mention that the Iran-Israel ceasefire seems to be holding for now; so maybe both sides have had enough of the damage and destruction in each country.  They are both claiming victory, but that just proves that all of the leaders are dumb; since nobody won anything and too-many people lost a lot for no real reason other than more plays for power and wealth.  There is no change for the better in Ukraine.  The bombing continues; the Russian military continues to advance along the front lines; and the only news of note is that the NATO summit that has been going on this week included a plan to double military spending.  We have no idea whether that will happen or not, but it is a dumb plan; since that just encourages Russia and other countries to build up their military even more and now we’re just looking at another cold war – or worse.  There have been new rounds of protests around the world in quite a few countries; and most of them are all about the people becoming fed up with their leaders – whether that is for national reasons or in support of other people or countries – like the Palestinians and Iranians.  Many of them are powder kegs just waiting to ignite; so we can only hope, as always, that cooler heads will prevail.

That’s all for now.  We really need to go and help Mom now and our friends will be here soon; so we’ll be busy for the rest of the day.  It is really too-bad that everyone else in the world can’t be as happy and loved as we are – yet!

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