Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 15, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Our top news of the day-so-far is that we biked to Quarry Lake for the day with some friends and cousins; enjoying a hot-weather day with lots of water play at our favorite campground.  We headed out on that adventure after Tai Chi, breakfast, and my football workout; some parents drove out there too with some of the younger cousins and their friends; and we all enjoyed the fun and games and a picnic lunch through until we needed to come home again.  The campground was busy, so we stayed away from the most-popular activities like climbing and the zip line, and since we hit triple-digits for the high this afternoon; we were okay with swimming and water slide play time anyway.

This update is coming at you now because we’ll be heading over to Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah’s house soon for the family-and-friends’ barbeque and campfire that they’re hosting tonight; and then I’ll be with Naomi for the rest of the night after that while Ehlana is with Aiden at his house.  The rest of our story for today can wait – and so can everything else; since we’re going to stay happy by not focusing any attention on world and political news.  Maybe we’ll miss out on some actual good news if anything positive actually happens in Alaska with the big Trump-Putin meeting, but we can write about that tomorrow too; and we really do have better things to do than sit around waiting for the news crumbs as they’re dribbled out for the rest of the day!

Hopefully that’s true for you whenever you’re reading this in our future, but then we’re hoping that all future news will be happier for you – especially if you’re reading this after the Ascension of the Light! ;^)

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 14, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Our second camping night at Aiden’s was fun.  We traded baseball for the teen praise team practice; caught the end of the co-ed ball practices in-time to help with getting next-gen kids home – or to our temporary campground; and then we kept entertained with a campfire, music, and scary stories until it was time to put out the fire and wind down toward nap time.  We got help with those next-gen kids, so co-ed camping was an option for some of us; and that made for a great end to our day!

Tai Chi was the quiet before all of the busy this morning; we packed up the campground; helped with getting everyone fed; and then Ehlana and I dropped off our gear at home while I was on the way to the park for the morning football workout.  I’m getting a bit tired of those workouts, but since I have committed to joining the team; that work will get tougher once training camp opens and through to the end of the season.  We had another chores day that was hotter today as the highs climb every day; and we hit the nineties this afternoon.  That’s why we had a few more swims along with the work and lots of liquids; and now we’re getting cleaned up and ready to host Naomi and Aiden for the night.  Sophia and Aaron have other plans with his family; so they declined our too-late offer to join us.  We don’t have any major plans for tonight.  Mom will likely do a Magi lesson with us and we’ll likely have some music play time too, but other than that; we’re looking forward to a quieter evening.

While we’re doing that, Cassie and Michael are wrapping up their Thursday; and they’ve reached Ankara; and will be there for another day before moving on to Istanbul for the final couple of days of their visit to Turkey.  They continue to get a lot done; and all is going smoothly with no serious trouble.  We’ll hope that’ll stay true for the rest of their trip.

Let’s skip the world news; since everyone is waiting for the big summit-meeting in Alaska; so we’ll wait to see what won’t happen to end the war in Ukraine – along with whatever gets announced after that by both sides.  Our expectations are very low, but our world leaders still have the capacity to make things worse; since they seem to have a real talent for making all of the wrong choices.

Instead of going there, we’re going to stay happy; and get back to enjoying the rest of the day with Mom, Dad, and our best friends.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 13, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Our house might be popular for camping and sleepovers with our friends, but Aiden would get picked every time if he could do that without being a problem for his parents and the bakery schedule!  He definitely gets top points for bakery treats snacks and breakfasts – though we will pretend not to know how expensive that is for his parents to feed large gangs of teens and kids.  We had fun last night with a quick barbeque dinner, our ball practices, and the outdoor video gaming and what ended up being one movie.  That was due to a time limit on outdoor noise for the neighbors on a work night; so we wrapped up on-time and kept the play time quiet after that while going for a late swim and hanging out around the tents and by the river.  Some of us got to have co-ed nap time too; so it really was an awesome night!

Tai Chi by the river this morning was fun with extra exercise buddies and spectators; breakfast was quick and easy; and then most of the guys went to the park for Miles’ football workout while the girls opted for anything else.  That didn’t include working on getting ready for cheer squad tryouts for Ehlana while the other girls were around, but then most of them moved on by the time Aiden, Aaron, and I got back to the back yard campground.  We took a quick swim break then, but got to work after that with a chores day that has kept us busy through to now.  The weather was great for an outdoors work day, and we’re a bit ahead of schedule this week due to the forecast for much-hotter weather by the weekend.  This time, we started with Aiden’s yard – and Cassie and Michael’s place; and worked our way out from there.   We didn’t get everything done today, but needed to stop now because we need to have another early dinner ahead of the teen praise team practice that is booked for us at the church.  We might catch part of the co-ed ball practices too, but aren’t sure of that; and then we’ll be having a second camping night at Aiden’s with a campfire instead of outdoor gaming and movies.  All of those stories can wait for our next report; since we’re only home long-enough to get cleaned up and grab fresh clothes for the camping and need to get back to help out with making dinner.

Cassie and Michael are mid-way through Turkey on their way to the northern cities; had a good day with three site visits along the way; and managed to fit in a bit of sightseeing too.  Their own work and personal journals are the best place to go for their travel details; so we won’t offer a recap here.

On the world and political news front, the media and political leaders seem to be collectively losing their minds.  Doing that over the meeting on Friday in Alaska is ridiculous for myriad reasons; and we’d suggest the top reason being that nothing will come of that meeting anyway!  It would be awesome to be proved wrong, but nothing has really changed – at least publicly – for what each side is demanding to end the war; so the most-likely outcome is that the battle will continue until one side or the other wins.  Let’s all hope that it doesn’t continue until everyone loses; since there are crazy leaders out there that believe they could win a nuclear war.  All of the diversions are helping Israel to continue destroying the Palestinians; and the only way for that situation to get worse would be if they go from killing hundreds of thousands to killing millions.

We need to stop now and avoid another rant; so that’s all for this report.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 12, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Our evening with Sophia and her family was great, and for this update; we’re going to talk about spending time with Sophia’s family.  In particular, we want to write about Jessica and Patrick; since they headed back to college and their townhouse today and spent most of the evening with us last night because they will be away for most of the next nine months.  All of that is true for Ryan too as he’ll be starting his freshman year, but it feels different with him; since we have seen him a lot more-often up to now.  Patrick will be in his final year of college earning his Master’s degree; and Jessica is a senior and has two years to go before she’ll be done too.  Ehlana and I don’t think of this very often, but Sophia is in the same place with Jessica as we were with Cassie – though different too; since Sophia doesn’t have Magi links of any kind with her sister or brother.  Maybe that makes it harder for Sophia, since we do always know where Cassie is and how she’s feeling – at least generally; so we’re never really entirely apart.  We sat around talking more than usual last night, but there was some music play time with everyone getting in on the action – even Sophia’s Mom; and we watched a bit of television too as part of the evening entertainment.  We all stayed up later than we should have; and the extra time together was worth the lack of nap time – even when that got to be co-ed time for everyone in the house except Ryan!  For the record, Ryan hasn’t dated much so far and never seriously; so there will not be any romance issues as he heads off to college.  There is a reason for that that we do know about, but we wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise for anyone in the future; so we’ll keep what we know to ourselves! ;^)

Moving along, the rain moved out of the area, so we had a nice morning for Tai Chi today; followed that up with a last breakfast that we did the work for on both sides before the collegians headed off to their townhouses; and then it was time for football or cheer squad workouts that were better today without the rain.  Ehlana and I headed over to the lab or archives after that; worked until around one o’clock; and then we met up with our friends for some afternoon biking and swimming that included taking a picnic lunch along for the ride and park trail adventures.  We gained extra friends and cousins along the way; and made plans on the fly for a camping night that Aiden is hosting in his back yard.  That’s why Ehlana and I are doing this update now – while we’re getting cleaned up and packed for the camping.  We need to get our tents and gear over to Aiden’s house soon; so the best news of our personal day will have to wait for our next report.  It is going to be busy to get tents set up; have dinner; go to our baseball practices; and then keep friends and cousins entertained with outdoor video gaming and movies after dark; so we expect to be going non-stop between now and bedtime.  Some of us hope that’ll be co-ed camping, but we might end up with junior campers; so we’ll let you know how that goes for us.

Before we get out of here, Cassie and Michael have finished their second day in southern Turkey; and have already started to move north and out of the more-dangerous areas of the country.  That is relative for the entire region, but we’re sure they’ll be okay; and will be doing a lot of good in a country that really needs the support we can offer and a lot more that we can’t handle even with all of our resources.

As for the world and political news; let’s just take a break from all of it.  Focusing on having fun with our family and friends will keep up much-happier than spending any extra time on all of the bad in the world; and it is okay for us to do that more often than we usually do – a truth that Naomi reminds us of fairly-often.  I’ll admit to being too-serious compared to most of our friends, but Naomi loves me anyway; and I try not to disappoint her too-much!

We really do need to get going now; so that’s all for today.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - August 11, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 13^th Anniversary, Rob and Trish Johnson!

We didn’t have anything to do with any of the anniversary fun-so-far – and that will be true for the rest of the day too; so we’ll leave it up to Rob’s and Trish’s family and friends to help them out with making their day great.

Here at home, we’ve had another damp day with rain on and off and keeping everything wet.  Tai Chi was indoors again; we had a hot breakfast before I headed to the park and got wet during the football workout; and Ehlana got together with Naomi and Sophia for a workout too – for cheer squad.  They aren’t going to do that every day or with other girls, but they do want to work up some music and routines to impress with at tryouts; and they’re warming up and practicing some gymnastics tricks too.  Ehlana and I don’t write about our physical abilities very often, but we do have talent; and that includes pretty much all sports – including gymnastics.  We can’t show off what we could really do in public, but the girls can play a bit in the privacy of our home; and they can do a lot more than flips and twists!

Ehlana waited for me to get cleaned up after football before we went to the lab; I stayed with her for a while – and not just to offer a blood donation for her experiments.  I eventually spent most of our time there in the archives; we work-played through lunch and to now; and we’re only home to pack overnight bags before we head over to Sophia’s for the rest of the day.  She’s hosting the co-ed night for our little group of six; we’re cooking dinner for her family; and then we’re planning on some music fun; a movie or two; and then a bit of quality co-ed nap time.  The rest of our story can wait for our next update and we need to go soon; so let’s wrap this up.

Cassie and Michael are working in southern Turkey – or Turkiye, for the politically-current linguists – and will work their way north.  That puts them close to Syria right now, but they will be okay; and they are doing a lot of good work with all of the people in need in the region – including all of the war refugees.  Compared to that, even our work in the archives or lab seem mild, but then Ehlana disagrees with me; since she is working on her cancer cures and will save millions of lives in the coming decades.

We’re going to skip the world news report – and not only because we don’t need to offer a daily update about the big meeting in Alaska on Friday that we don’t expect to lead to anything changing on the ground in Ukraine anyway.  That focus by the media gives the bad guys another few days to inflict ongoing horrors in the Middle East, Ukraine, and elsewhere thanks to yet another distraction; so that part of the evil plan for our ‘elite’ world leaders continues to work great for them while being very bad for everyone getting in the way of their drives for wealth and power.  That is definitely enough of a rant for today and we need to go now; so that’s all for this report.

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