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

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 14^th Birthday, Sophia!

Happy 30^th Birthday, Stephanie!

We haven’t been able to do much for Stephanie’s special day from Washington, but we did get in on a vid-call with Sophia’s cousins at breakfast – and with Cassie and Michael too.  That was a fun way to start our day – along with the Tai Chi by the hotel pool for six that was an option because the rain and storms didn’t start rolling through until this afternoon.  We have been doing our best to make Sophia’s birthday a best-ever even without Aaron here to help her with that, but then we did spend the day at the Smithsonian museums; so that’s quite a bit better than anything we could have managed at home on a school night!

The museums truly are a national treasure, and we loved everything we saw today.  After exploring the wonders of history, science, and nature, we went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant where we had a great meal; Cassie and Michael took care of having a cake for Sophia, and we had lots of gifts for her too.  We went back to the hotel after that meal; went for a swim during a break in the weather; and now we’re winding down toward bedtime with another chat that Aiden and Sophia are with us for and the usual computer checks.  We’ve had an amazing day, but should cover at least a few news stories tonight.

Israel conducted a major airstrike campaign into Yemen in retaliation for a Houthi missile strike on Ben Gurion airport; so the fighting is escalating again.  Talks are breaking down for pretty much everything in the Middle East, and there have been some hints of trouble between Israel and Turkey as they position themselves to take over parts of Syria while the new government there is busy killing off everyone that isn’t a radical Muslim terrorist.  Israel is happy to gobble up more Syrian land by claiming the need to protect the minority groups, but that’s transparent and they don’t care about those people anymore than they care about the Palestinians that they’re continuing to decimate in Gaza and the West Bank.  Iran is not going to cave to U.S. and Israel demands; so there could be war there; and tensions continue to ratchet up between India and Pakistan.  It looks as though the peace talks are over for the Ukraine conflict now too, and while Russia has called for a three-day truce at the end of this week while the eightieth anniversary of the end of World War Two is commemorated; we seem to be well on the way to escalating to the next world war anytime after that.  Add in new economic threats against China and other countries for everything from foreign-made movies to a trade ban for anyone buying Iranian or Russian oil; and our world leaders are truly making a mess of the world!

We want to stay happy, though – even here in the dark heart of our Capital, so that’s all for tonight.  Sophia is going to the room she’s sharing with Ehlana; I’m going to visit Cassie and Michael so that Ehlana and Aiden can have a bit of alone time; and then we’ll all get some sleep and get ready for what might be our toughest day of the week – our visit to the halls of power and with one or more of the congress-critters working there!  Wish us luck – even from our future; since we might really need it!

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

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

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 2^nd Birthday, Katie Reynolds and Liam Warren!

We didn’t get to help out with their birthday fun today, but Katie and Liam get attention every year for the distinction of being born on the same day in our little town.  The odds for that aren’t really very high when we only average between two and three births per month!

Our news is that we’re in Washington tonight as we write this update.  We had a safe flight; Cassie and Michael met us here with the rental vans already picked up and ready to go and our hotel rooms set up too so we only needed to get our keycards and go straight to our rooms.  WE had a good morning with Tai Chi by the river, breakfast with the gang that we had with us from the babysitting last night; and then we rushed around to get ready for the day and to church.  Ehlana and I had our bags ready to go for the trip; so we got a ride to church too so we’d have the luggage with us when we needed to go straight over to the school to catch our bus ride to the airport.

Before we get to the rest of our travel news, let’s mention that the babysitting last night was a lot of work and fun; we stayed up too late; and didn’t get much sleep thanks to the guys that Zack and Eli led for gaming until the wee hours of the morning.  That made for a bit of a challenge this morning too, but that didn’t slow us down – we just needed to push the tween guys into action.  Ehlana, Naomi, Aiden, and I would have liked some nap time while at church and Sunday school, but that wasn’t an option – and I wanted to be awake for that final few hours with Naomi anyway.

As already mentioned, our flight went smoothly, and so did the farewells and bus ride.  Yes, I was already missing Naomi, but we’re looking forward to having fun this week too – especially with Cassie and Michael as our personal and special chaperones.  While the travel time was uneventful, we’ve had fun since getting to the Capital.  After getting to our rooms and settling in for enough time to freshen up, we met up again to go out for dinner; Ehlana, Aiden, Sophia, and I enjoyed that meal with Cassie and Michael; and then we all went for an evening walk at the National Mall where we got to enjoy the view of that part of the city at night with everything lit up and looking very impressive.

We’re back at our hotel now, and Ehlana and Sophia are hanging out with Aiden and me while doing our chat wind down and our usual computer checks.  The decision has been made already for an indoor day tomorrow due to the forecast; so we are going to visit the Smithsonian museums and, hopefully, save the outdoor days for Wednesday and Thursday while hoping for better weather by then.  As for tonight, we’re nearly ready to catch up on our sleep after not getting much down time last night; so let’s skip the world and political news for tomorrow night too.  No, Ehlana, I am not trying to wrap this up early so that I can have a bedtime vid-chat with Naomi – though we will be doing that soon.  I’d offer to give you and Aiden some alone time for your goodnight hugs and kisses, but I might get into serious trouble if I both did that and then called Naomi from your room while alone with Sophia!

Okay, it is obviously time to end this before we head into the realm of me getting in trouble with Naomi through no fault of my own; so we are out of here!

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - May 3, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Congratulations, Adaira Wingborough and Tommy Reynolds – you’re married!

That ceremony just ended a while ago; and we’re getting changed and ready for our adventures in babysitting that will be starting soon.  Naomi and Aiden will be helping us with that at our house while another gang of kids will be with Sophia and Aaron at her house while some of our favorite parents will be busy at the big wedding dinner and reception.

Our news since the last update is that Leah had a good birthday despite some nonsense from the boys, but then the guys didn’t stay for the sleepover so Leah and her girlfriends had fun without them – and possibly while spending some quality time talking about how goofy the guys got during dinner and earlier in the evening.  Ehlana and I had more fun with our four best friends with our co-ed sleepover after our help with the party.  We played music together; watched movies; stayed up too-late; and eventually enjoyed the co-ed nap time.  Some fatigue healing was needed this morning, but Tai Chi was by the river for eight; Mom and Dad did a hot breakfast with us; and then four of us worked on chores at multiple homes all morning while Sophia and Aaron needed to move on to their own work or chores.  We worked through until done; had a quick lunch; and then we got cleaned up and ready for the wedding ceremony.

Adaira and Tommy are an adorable couple; there was a huge turnout at the church because their combined families are connected to pretty much everyone.  The ceremony was beautiful; and that was the end of our involvement in the celebration – except for the babysitting work.  We’re getting next-gen kids and cousins from our side of the family; and Sophia and Aaron are getting Bassett and White clan kids.  We’ll all have some overnight guests too, which works for me; since that’s one last night with Naomi before we head to Washington tomorrow!

We’d love to leave the world and political news un-reported for another day, but should at least mention that President Trump announced secondary sanctions on Iran against anyone buying petroleum products from them – with that being a trade ban for those countries or businesses.  Since China buys eighty percent of Iran’s oil products; that is obviously another shot fired for the tariff and economic war against them.  For those future Magi readers that might not know this bit of history; the Pacific front of World War Two basically exploded due to the American economic blockade on Japan.  Let’s hope that history doesn’t rhyme for us now and anytime soon.  On the Ukraine conflict, the vaunted minerals deal was finally signed between the Ukraine and our country, and while the details available so far seem to be a nothingburger; we’ve announced new weapons for Ukraine and the talk is about secondary sanctions on Russia too that would also be as-geared toward China as Russia.  None of that will lead to peace – it’ll lead to more war.  Nobody except the war profiteers have won any war in decades – or ever; since even the wars with a decisive victor caused more harm than good; and the hubris of all world leaders that expect a different outcome now is going to lead to even-worse horrors and outcomes.  The peace talks seem to be over and proved to be nothing more than theatre; and our actual foreign policies don’t seem to be actually changing at all.

We don’t want to be wallowing in all of that nastiness, so that’s all for this report.  We’re going to have fun with the kids tonight; and our next update will be coming to you live from our nation’s Capital!  Stay tuned for that; and we’ll get back to living the adventures!

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - May 2, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 12^th Birthday, Leah Ayres!

Happy 24^th Birthday, Diana Robinson!

We’re here doing another afternoon update – and that is again because we’ll be heading out to help with another birthday party!  We’ll do our best to help Leah and her friends to have fun through dinner and into the evening; and that’ll mean helping with the work before and after dinner.  Naomi, Aiden, Sophia, and Aaron are going to help us; and then we’re going to host a co-ed sleepover here while Leah has fun for the rest of the night with her friends.

Before we wrap this up and get over to Leah’s house with Mom, we had fun last night with Aiden’s family and his father’s birthday dinner and party – even with all of the work.  The co-ed sleepover was awesome too; and had everything to do with being so happy today at school.  Our last school day of the week was all about getting ready for our trip to Washington, so we had fun with that; and the only downside is that I am not going to like being away from Naomi for six days!  We still have time to spend together, though, and we might just stay together from now until we head out on that trip!  That’s a fun thought to wrap this up on, so we’re going to move on starting right now!

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - May 1, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 46^th Birthday, Nathan Draper – aka Ehlana’s future father-in-law! ;^)

We’ve had a good day so far with our academic adventures and despite the weather being damp off-and-on all day, and now we’re just taking a quick break between school and going over to Aiden’s house to help him out with the birthday dinner-party for his father.  The rest of our news can wait for another update, since we’ll also be bringing Aiden and Naomi home with us for the night – and we’ll pretend that a kid-free night is more of a bonus for Aiden’s parents even on a work night than the bonus co-ed sleepover will be for us!  I’m happier about that than Ehlana, and that is entirely because Naomi and I only have days left now before we’ll be apart for six days.  This is a game night at the Inn day too, but we’re not sure yet whether we’ll get to that tonight too; since it might depend on the party and getting all of the work done too before it starts this evening.  We’ll let you know about that too, but we really need to get going soon; so we’re out of here!

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