Ethan and Ehlana:
Our teen night with Cassie and Michael was awesome, and while we had to share them a lot; we were happy to have the time with them before they head out on their next round of adventures. That trip is going to start with spending a week in Chicago ahead of Madelana and Stefan’s wedding next Saturday, but we’ll have more on their travel stories as they happen; and don’t need to write about their plans today. In addition to the dinner that most of us helped out with, we had some music play time; the guys did some video gaming; and we watched two movies before getting around to the co-ed nap time that some of us got to enjoy for a few hours once we did get around to sleeping.
We had a gang for Tai Chi by the river; breakfast was semi-quick with pancakes and bakery treats; and then we needed to move on with most of us splitting up for various reasons ranging from checking out morning baseball games to work or chores to the kid control that Ehlana and I were booked to help out with for next gen cousins and some of their friends. Mom drafted us for that because we needed the afternoon off for our ball practices; and that’s what we’ve been busy with from noon until now. Ehlana, Naomi, and the Hair Hawks had a big win over the Eagles thanks to great pitching that only allowed two runs for the Eagles. Aiden, Aaron, and I led our team to a bigger win for total runs but worse defense; so we’ve had another good day for our family teams.
Ehlana didn’t wait for the end of the game and she’s nearly ready to head over to Aiden’s for the night, but I only grabbed a quick shower and pretty much had my bag packed already for my sleepover at Naomi’s house. We do not need to comment on what Mom and Dad might have planned with their kid-free night; and let’s not even discuss why they look so happy before we’ve even headed downstairs again to say goodbye – though they might be able to scare us a bit if they started offering to help with carrying our bags downstairs and outdoors! We should have mentioned that we had a couple of very short rain delays this afternoon, but those breaks were about lightning in the area; and we really didn’t have anything get too-close to us and only had a couple of light showers that didn’t even dampen our clothes as much as the exercise sweat did.
I’m with Naomi tonight for another evening with her visiting cousins. Ehlana is with Aiden so they can have a night with his parents and sister; and the rest of our cousins and friends have other plans in smaller groups. Cassie and Michael are taking on a gang of younger cousins and local, next-gen kids including their own nieces and nephews; and this last sleepover night before their trip is sure to have them ready for a vacation from the home-town vacation visits by our cousins. It is also the last night in town for most of the youngest cousins; and we’ll have less than half of the cousins still here for the second week. We’ll have our stories from the rest of today with our next update, but we need to get going soon; since Ehlana and I are both expected for dinner with the Drapers or Seagers soon.
On the world news front, one of the top stories today seems to be renewed weapons shipments for Ukraine, and if that is happening; it will only extend the conflict, death, and destruction for the best-case or lead to a wider or world war at worst. It is sickening to see that the talk of peace wasn’t really serious; and it is obvious that our world leaders really don’t care about the death and destruction as yet another country is turned to ruin for decades to come. There are also reports of new tariffs from President Trump – thirty percent for Mexico and the European Union for one example; and our leaders are again proving to be clueless by cheering on this stupidity. While we’re happily placing tariffs and trade barriers on our friends and so-called enemies – along with the usual military threats of force; countries like China, India, and Russia are developing partnerships and making deals that benefit other countries – and offer an appealing and stark contrast to our bullying methods for getting what we want. We have no idea how long it will take before most of the countries in the world just get sick of us and stop trading with us at all, but we do expect it could happen if we don’t start acting better soon – assuming it isn’t already too-late to repair the diplomatic damage. We won’t get into the political theatre going on that is only meant to distract the common people – and that isn’t just here in our country, but a favorite tactic with governments around the world. It would be nice if we could avoid all of those stories, since part of the problem is the time it takes to sift through the news overload every day – and that’s coming from a junior Magi Master with extreme speed-reading skills. That does explain why keeping up with news is a full-time job for so many people – though most of them waste their efforts pushing the nonsense while suppressing the real news and the truth.
We didn’t have time for that much of a rant and we really need to go now; so that’s all for this report.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
