Heirs of the Magi News Flash!

***Heirs of the Magi News Flash!*** The annual fall festival is now behind us, and Cassie and Michael are heading out on their fall trip - this time to the South Pacific! They'll miss out on the Halloween fun at home and the rest of the high school football season, but all of that time in tropical paradises will likely be worth those little sacrifices! Some favorite grandparents will be away for adventures in Arizona or elsewhere too, but our favorite Magi staying at home are sure to have a lot of fun anyway. We'll have all of the adventure highlights from home and away right here for you each day; so... ...Visit Witch Falls often to keep up with all of our latest stories; and Happy Reading! P.S. Thank-you to everyone enjoying our stories from Witch Falls as we have passed five-hundred thousand views!

Monday, June 23, 2025

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - June 23, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

We are taking a night off from sleepovers or camping tonight – partly because we wanted to do some work in the office tonight; and we did that with Mom and Dad – along with the Magi lesson that Mom did with us after dinner.  We do have a double-update for you; so let’s get to it!

Ehlana and I had an awesome fourteenth birthday.  Our birthday adventures unofficially started on Saturday evening.  That didn’t include the kid control help we provided during the co-ed ball game that ‘our’ team won over Sheldon’s Solar Storm – though their team name is cooler than the Witch Falls Whirlpool.  It was still hot well into the evening, so we took the kids for a swim and the parents had cold drinks and even a round of frozen snacks for all of us; and the girls spent more time cheering for our team and favorite next-gen parents that included Violet, Dillon, Jake, and Stephanie.  We came home after the game; didn’t end up doing any babysitting because we weren’t asked; and the early birthday fun included a movie, co-ed cuddling, and the eventual co-ed nap time in the lounge.

Our Sunday started with Tai Chi by the river; a special breakfast that Cassie and Michael joined us for; and then the church service and Sunday school were not shortened for our special day the way Pastor Martha does for Father’s Day!  We still managed to have fun – including helping out with teen prep work for the Fourth of July service that we will help to lead because we’ve been asked to help out while some of the older teens are either busy or stepping back ahead of leaving for college in August.  You already know that our birthday adventures included a trip to Quarry Lake; and we headed there shortly after writing our micro-update and got straight to the play time with a swim before lunch.  That meal was quick and easy; and then we had fun with the rock wall climbing, zip line rides, paddling on Aqua Bikes; water slide action; and lots of swimming through until we headed home in time to get changed and ready for the late buffet at the Inn.  The weather was awesome too with a high in the nineties instead of triple-digits; and the buffet dinner was another amazing culinary experience that had the added bonus of Olde Bakery birthday cakes.  Having two of them wasn’t a twin thing – we just needed more cake to feed everyone at our party!  We aren’t going to write about birthday gifts and will only confirm that we appreciated all of those gifts; and we’re more-grateful for the family and friends that love us and help to make our lives so amazing.

We came home from the Inn with our four best friends; took turns with showers or Jacuzzi time; and there was some video gaming in the lounge that was mostly for the guys while the girls took longer with getting cleaned up and ready for bed.  We watched one or two movies after that – only one for those of us that fell asleep during the second movie; and we had fun with the co-ed cuddling and teen chat time until we crashed and napped for the rest of the night.  That brings us up to this morning.  Tai Chi by the river was great; we had an easy-breakfast; and then our friends headed out while Ehlana and I took care of some chores and then we headed to the lab or archives for the morning.  We play-worked there until lunchtime; had that meal with Mom; and then we spent the afternoon with our friends and some cousins where we mostly tried to stay cool on another hot day with lots of swimming, frozen treats, and lazy time in the shade of trees.  There was some canoeing and a short bike ride, but it was just too-hot to play too-hard; and we were ready to head indoors by dinnertime.  We didn’t have any friends with us for that meal; enjoyed the chat time with Mom and Dad; and we took care of the clean-up before getting to the charity and family business work in the office.  The Magi lesson and work were highlights of our day, and while we haven’t been able to help out with stopping wars or influencing other problems in the world; we got a lot done tonight; and have been able to help people in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Mom had us wrap up our work by ten o’clock – though we did have several time-phased hours mixed into that ‘real’ time. Bath or Jacuzzi time was needed again tonight after a hot, busy day; and now we’re winding down toward nap time that will feel a bit lonely after so many co-ed sleepovers!  Before we get to the sleep time; let’s get to the world and political news of the day and from the weekend.

As mentioned yesterday, the top story is President Trump’s decision to launch attacks on Iran.  They didn’t attack us first; so there are issues with attacking them without congressional approval; and then there are also problems with attacking nuclear facilities – a definite violation of international laws.  The premise put forward for doing this attack isn’t legal either; since no country is supposed to have the right to tell other countries what they can and can’t do internally – and our leaders are insisting that Iran not only eliminate all nuclear re-processing but also get rid of their ballistic missile programs.  That didn’t work out very well for Libya; and Iran has every reason not to trust our country – especially after the past couple of weeks when it seems that we’ve been faking diplomacy and peace talks while preparing for war.  That, by the way, is a violation of international law too, but why keep count when we are breaking so many of the laws we claim to want our enemies to follow?  Since that attack on Iran, they have retaliated with missile attacks on Israel and on our military bases in Qatar and Iraq – though they also warned those countries in advance; so there were no casualties and it doesn’t seem as though they used their best missiles so most were knocked out by air defenses.  Iran is also warning that it may close the Strait of Hormuz and some tankers have already turned around to avoid the risks of using it, but we’ll see how serious Iran is about that plan.  If they go ahead with it, though, while twenty percent of the world’s daily use of oil goes through that strait; it is closer to fifty percent of the exported oil; and that would definitely be a problem for the countries that import that oil.  What we are fairly-sure of, though, is that this is a war; and it won’t be over anytime soon unless our country and Israel back down and quit bombing Iran.

Moving on to the Ukraine war, it continues to go badly for Ukraine.  Russia is bombing them daily and pretty much hitting every target they aim at destroying; and the battles on the front lines are not going well for Ukraine either.  What nobody seems to know, though, is how long Ukraine can hold out before their army weakens to the point of collapse – especially now that there are no new weapons being approved for them by the United States.  Ukraine could also have issues with paying their bills unless the European countries step up to cover what our country had been paying so far since the war started.  Ukraine is currently demanding forty billion dollars; and we have no idea how much of that they want to keep the lights on and how much they want to spend on weapons – assuming anyone has the extra weapons to sell when so much is being used up on the Iran attacks and defending Israel.  Neither of these wars should have happened at all, but the war-mongers and profiteers are very happy – and that’s especially true right now after getting to show off some of their ‘best’ toys for the first time.

It is really too-bad that they couldn’t have instead took those billions of dollars in waste and destruction and instead spent that money on helping people to have better, happier lives.  Maybe if our leaders would try that instead of war; there might be no need to fight at all!

That’s enough for tonight.  We’re ready to catch up on our sleep after a busy handful of days; so we’ll do that now and get back to full-power to be ready for our next round of summer adventures!

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