Ehlana and Ethan:
Happy 6th Anniversary, Brock and Karla Benton!
We offered our best wishes to the Bentons while at church this morning, but didn’t have any other involvement in their special day – though we did hear that Cassie and Michael had a short vid-chat with them at breakfast our time. While we’re thinking about them, Cassie and Michael have flown from Chiang Mai to the southern Thailand city of Hat Yai – their final stop in Thailand. We are not happy to see rain in their daily forecast, but then that is likely only going to be short afternoon bursts; and the rest of the day will be decent and the highs will stay in the nineties! They are not going to have much time for sightseeing in and around Hat Yai; they’ve already started their Monday work as we’re writing this; and they have full days booked through until they move on to Cambodia on Wednesday night.
Here at home, our adventures in babysitting were busy and challenging and not at all romantic, but all of the parents appreciated our efforts – especially the parents that also got to have kid-free nights for Valentine’s Day. The Pizzeria pizza dinner was a hit with the kids and tweens; the entertainment included video gaming on the third floor and movies in the living room and games in the sunroom; we all stayed up too-late – even the next-gen kids; and then nap time ranged from the little-kid max of around seven hours to the parents and babysitters minimum that was closer to three hours! Technically, there was some co-ed nap time too, but that included a next-gen kid for that lucky couple; so we aren’t counting that as holiday-romantic!
We still got up for Tai Chi and even went out by the river this morning because it was above freezing – though the ‘we’ didn’t include Mom and Dad. They didn’t end up sleeping in much; and were already working on the semi-major breakfast for all of the kids and teens in the house by the time we got back indoors again. We helped with that work; getting the kids up and ready for church; and the clean-up after we had everyone fed. We managed to get ready for church too; and then we had a good rest of the morning with the service and Sunday school that included helping with crafting for the primary classes while they created slightly-belated gifts for their parents or other loved ones.
The weather was awesome again today with the high topping out in the sixties, so after having lunch with Mom and Dad; Ethan and I went biking with some friends and cousins for most of the afternoon while Dad was busy working and getting ready for his week in Crystal Springs anyway and Mom might have been helping him more with having fun than with getting that work done faster! No details are wanted or expected; and we’ll pretend that we don’t know why they were smiling and so happy when we got home for dinner! We stayed at home for that meal; Ethan and I took care of the clean-up; and then our own work and Magi lesson in the office were kept fairly-short because Mom didn’t want us staying up late after not getting much sleep the past two nights. We’ll also be up early to see Dad and Anna Marie off to Crystal Springs; so we’re good with the comparatively-early bedtime. Bath or Jacuzzi time came first to get cleaned up from the biking and park adventures time; and now we’re winding down with the usual twin chat and computer checks.
There is so much that we could write about from the weekend world news. There was the Munich security summit that we thought was a disaster as the talk was all about more war and no peace – including the calls to destroy Iran and attempt a maritime blockade of Russia. There are reports that our country is already sending two more aircraft carrier groups to the Middle East – along with squadrons of F-35 fighter jets; so that hardly matches up with peace talks – and gives Iran no reason to trust us with those negotiations so soon after we used that peace talks ploy to launch a surprise attack last year. On the Iran side of that equation; reports are coming out that both China and Russia are sending high tech military support including next-gen radar and defense systems and possibly Chinese built fighter jets. We do not want to find out what will happen if we attack Iran again, but our leaders must know that it is unlikely that Iran will be surprised this time; and they have promised to retaliate if attacked. For the record, we – the western countries – are not on the right side of this story; and a lot of people are already getting killed for no real reason other than the fight for power and resources. Iran’s only ‘sin’ is that they refuse to do as they are told by the western powers. They understand that they really don’t have any good potions here, since capitulating to America means ending up like Libya or Syria or Iraq while standing up to them might at least give them a chance of survival – though ending up like North Korea isn’t exactly prosperity either.
While we wait to see what happens in the Middle East; the situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate while those peace talks go nowhere too. Russia is bombing the Ukraine power and energy systems ever day; the people of Ukraine are suffering through winter in horrid conditions; and the frontline battles rage on. There have been some reports of Ukrainian counter-offensives, but they seem to be more about grabbing headlines at the pointless expense of soldiers’ lives; and it really is stupid to fight your way into a town or village just for the photo op and then retreat again! On the Russian side; they are just grinding along as they’ve done since the start of the conflict; and they will continue until they either win on the battlefield or Ukraine accepts the inevitable at the negotiating table. Unfortunately, from what we saw from that Munich conference; it will be decided on the battlefield – and we can only hope that our western leaders will not escalate and turn that battlefield into a worldwide fight.
This update is dragging on a bit, but there is news on this side of the planet too. There are stories coming out about Russia and China offering Cuba help with breaking the American blockade and fuel tankers may already be on the way to the island; so there could be a flare-up if our navy and coast guard attempt to seize those ships. Our leaders are also making threats against Venezuela again; so it appears that kidnapping their President and First Lady hasn’t actually solved all of the problems in the country and brought peace and prosperity and democracy to the people! Greenland has been out of the news, but is apparently still a priority for us to take over despite the fact that Denmark and Greenland do not want that to happen, but maybe President Trump will be too-busy with all of the other conflicts to send a carrier group there in the dead of winter too! If we haven’t already been sarcastic-enough, maybe he could trade Ukraine to Russia for some of their state-of-the-art, nuclear-powered ice breaker ships to help with conquering Greenland!
Okay, that’s enough for tonight. We need the sleep and you, future reader, have learned enough to know that our world in our ‘now’ is fairly messed up; so we’ll be glad to be living here in our happy little corner where we are blessed with peace and love and joy! Stay tuned, since even with Dad away for the week; we’re expecting to have an amazing third week of February!
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
