Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - March 26, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 14^th Birthday, Natalie Morris!

Our classmate’s special day is our top story because we were also at her party and only got home from it a little while ago.  We had fun at school with added birthday fun for Natalie – especially at lunch; and then we were only home for long-enough to get changed and ready to go over to the Morris’ home with Naomi and Aiden.  We don’t write about most of our friends and classmates all that much, but we should do that more-often; since we actually aren’t the center of the universe in our little town; and a lot goes on that we don’t have anything to do with at all.

While that might sound shocking for junior Magi Masters, it is still true.  In Natalie’s case, we don’t spend much time with her family – though we have Spanish classes with her mother, Madeline, every week, and her father has helped to build some of our favorite homes – including the houses that Naomi and Aiden live in!  Mr. Morris knows some of our friends pretty well – especially the guys that are really into construction, and while he might not yet be considered a master carpenter; he is one of the best at Carter Construction.  Natalie’s younger brother, Mike, is twelve going on thirteen, and while he is only a grade behind us; we don’t know him very well either.  Don’t take that the wrong way, since we do know facts about everyone, but that isn’t the same thing as being close friends.  Finally, for Natalie’s personal life, she is currently dating Blair Benton.  He’s a classmate too, but they don’t hang out with us very often for the biking and park play, and that’s okay; since we don’t have a problem with friends that have other interests and prefer to do their own favorite activities.

The actual party was generally a lot of fun with only a few teen annoyances.  The social time before dinner included some video gaming, music videos, and chat time; dinner was grilled meat options with various sides; and then our evening fun included ‘live’ music that we led – along with Naomi, Aiden, Sophia, and Aaron; dancing was involved while we played; and then the party split up between the gamers and movie watchers.  We helped with some of the post-dinner clean-up too, but were among the first to leave right after the movie.  We picked Silkie up to take her for a walk first before seeing Naomi and Aiden home, and for the record, since we do get teased about that now and then; doing that works for us and it would just be weird if I walked Naomi home; Aiden did the same with Ehlana; and then he and I crossed paths on the way back to our own homes.

Since getting here, we did a bedtime visit with Mom and Dad; bath or Jacuzzi time followed; and now we’ve been doing extra work – including a bit of school homework – to go along with the usual computer checks and twin chat that has been all about the party recap.  We are really glad that Natalie has had a good day; enjoyed the time with her family ad our friends – especially getting to see her Mom outside of school for a few hours; and it was also nice to get through another party without any serious teen drama.  Maybe we’ll be done with that sooner than we expected, but probably shouldn’t jinx things by even writing about thoughts like that one!

Moving along, the political and world news of the day isn’t really worth writing about because the stories being focused on are pointless theatre while the real problems of the world still continue with no real progress in the right directions.  Everyone should have a problem with the daily killing, injuries, and destruction; so we just can’t help but to be annoyed when the ‘biggest’ stories are instead about pointless issues like whether the latest Disney movie is good or bad or having unauthorized people ‘accidentally’ included in on a not-so-secure, classified digital chat.  Mom could, by the way, help them out with that problem – though no computer system can totally overcome human stupidity!

There is certainly a lot of that going around with our world leaders, but we’ll continue to hope for better; and work in the background to clean up as many of the messes they create along the way for our own, personal journeys.  We need to get some rest now to be ready for another day of fun; so that’s it for this report.  We really hope that your day has been this good too – whenever your ‘now’ is in our near or distant future.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - March 25, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

We’ve pretty much had a repeat of yesterday for our adventures at school and the lab.  That’s really our news of the day in a nutshell; since we really did just continue both our new learning modules at school and our books or beakers work at the lab or archives.  Ehlana and I also took another picnic dinner with us to the lab; and the only changes were that we had a bit-less time phasing and wrapped up at ten o’clock.  The extra hours we’ve added to our days is catching up to us; so we’re tired and ready to get some sleep soon.

Before we do that, Cassie and Michael are already working as well as continuing with daily drive time that keeps them moving west; and they are having fun with their meetings and site visits.  We’ll keep you posted on their trip, but the details will be easier for future readers to check out in Cassie’s and Michael’s various archives and journals.  Finally, we’ll mention that there may have been some peace talks progress for the Ukraine war, but that was a baby step in our opinion; and we’ll see whether verbal agreements will actually turn into actual progress on the ground – or in this case; on the seas.  There isn’t any good news out of the Middle East, and if anything; tensions are still on the rise as destruction and death escalates in a handful of countries in the region.  We are beginning to think that the current talk of ‘peace through strength’ is really just another Orwellian phrase meaning ‘War is Peace’ as various negotiations also seem to be more like orders for surrender to everything that our government wants to do or impose on the rest of the world.  That hasn’t gone well over the past fifty or sixty years, but why should our leaders let facts get in the way of trying to rule the entire world?

That’s enough for this update and we really do need to get some sleep; so we’re out of here and back to the ‘real’ world.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - March 24, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 8^th Birthday, William Connor!

Hoppy 25^th Birthday, Ryan Cross!

Ehlana and I didn’t have anything to do with either birthday today, but hope they’ve each had a good day with family and friends.

While we got back to school today, or top hometown news is that Cassie and Michael have hit the road on their cross-country work trip.  They’ll head west all the way to the coast; go through the southern states when they’re ready to head east; and then head towards home again after spending five days with us chaperoning the Grade Eight trip to the Capital.  They’ll be away for around two months, and we’re going to miss them, but we are also glad that they are getting the chance to check out a lot of the work we do here in our own country through the family businesses and charities.  You might think that Cassie’s language skills won’t be needed this time, but we do work with most minority communities; and her talents for working with everyone and making them comfortable – including conversing in first languages will help a lot.  She’s also looking forward to working in some native-American languages; and they are both looking forward to some quality sightseeing along the way.

Here at home, Ehlana and I had a good first day back at school – especially when it came to visiting with friends we didn’t see very much of over the break; and then we picked up picnic dinners and headed to the lab or archives to get back to work again.  Including some time phasing; we put in the equivalent of twelve hours with our beakers or books; got a lot done; and feel pretty good about our accomplishments.  Dad came and brought us home at ten-thirty, and after a short visit with him – and with Mom; we have been winding down with our usual bedtime twin chat and computing.  Ehlana is fired up thanks to successes with her cancer cure experiments that continue to fine-tune her treatments for the different types of cancer.  There is still a lot of work to go and then decades more before her treatments can be scaled up to meet global demands, but that doesn’t take away from those successes; and my sister truly is brilliant!

We can’t say the same for most of our world leaders; since all of the talk of peace is not translating into action on the ground for any of the current conflicts.  If anything; all of the situations are getting worse and positions are hardening as atrocities, killing, and destruction continue in Ukraine, a handful of places in the Middle East, and elsewhere in the world.  Visiting aliens would think that we were all crazy, but basically every conflict boils down to fighting over who controls the natural resources where they are most-abundant; and the most-powerful and wealthy of the world do not care about the human cost needed to gain even more power and riches.  News flash for all of those power-hungry people – as junior Magi of the Light; we can assure you that you can’t take it with you and that God does not ‘keep score’ using human currencies or material wealth!

Moving along, yes, there are peace talks going on, but even deals that have been made aren’t being honored; so our expectations for any successes are low right now.  If we’re proved wrong about that between now and when we go to Washington; we’ll happily apologize to the President and his negotiating teams – not that they’d care or be interested in even meeting with us.  Okay, they might want to meet us if they knew about our Magi talents, but then that’s a scary thought; and it would not likely end well for us – or for them! ;^)

Okay, that’s enough for this report.  We’ve had a good day; feel great about our accomplishments; and aren’t going to think too much about how much we’re missing Cassie and Michael.  As expected; let’s add that Faith has Mandy with her for the first week or two, and while Mandy loves visiting with us too; she definitely gets more attention from Faith and doesn’t have to put up with any dogs at her house!  Sorry, Silkie and Lady, but Mandy is getting older; and isn’t really interested in playing with you or being best buddies!  That really is all for tonight and we’re ready to get some sleep now, so we hope that your ‘now’ is amazing too; and we’re out of here and off to re-charge so that we can do it all again tomorrow.

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

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

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 45^th Birthday, Hannah Draper!

For a non-holiday weekend, we seem to be having issues with early updates, but we are going to be busy for the rest of the day; so this is another early update as we wrap up our spring break.  Before we get to the news from today-so-far; let’s cover the babysitting and party from last night.

We’ve heard that Claire’s barbeque dinner and barn dance were a major hit and event for the Norton clan and their friends.  While many of our favorite adults were having fun with all of that; we had a very long night from the Pizzeria pizza and finger food sides and snacks dinner through to when the last kids went to sleep by shortly-before some of us needed to get up again for Tai Chi by the river.  It won’t be a surprise to report that the guys stayed up gaming too-late; and some of them were in fine form with their games and competitions and pranks.  We still managed to help all of the kids and tweens to have fun; and the girls also enjoyed some mini-makeover fun led by Naomi and Ehlana while Aiden and I kept the boys out of their way for an hour or so.  The youngest kids did get to bed fairly-early; and the older girls had enough sense to head for their beds with enough time to actually get rested up for today.  There weren’t any co-ed sofa sleepovers; and the babysitters needed some fatigue healing this morning.

This is where our day diverts a bit and for a little while.  We stayed together for Tai Chi by the river, but then Ehlana and Aiden needed to head for his house to get a birthday breakfast ready for his mother.  Hailey went with them; so Mom and Dad were glad to get some parental support along with their two remaining babysitters to get our gang fed and ready for church.  The weather was mild today but didn’t change a lot from the low that started around fifty and then only barely topped sixty this afternoon.  Hannah got a lot of attention at church – as did Claire; we had fun with the service and Sunday school; and then Hannah had the day off from the bakery despite the last day of the break; so we helped Aiden and Hailey with a special lunch for her; and then her family and friends helped out with a play afternoon that included a salon visit, shopping, and some outdoor play time.  We had some play time too with cousins and friends; and now we’re getting cleaned up and ready for the late buffet at the Inn birthday dinner for Aiden’s mother.  He’ll also be here for the night as one of Hannah’s gifts; I’ll get away with having Naomi stay overnight too; and we’ll get to have one final co-ed sleepover before we go back to school tomorrow.

Ehlana and I are not going to do any news stories tonight, but need to mention that the Everetts got home just a little while ago and will be at that buffet birthday dinner party with us.  Cassie and Michael are getting ready to head out on their work tour of the central and southern areas of our country; and we’ll basically be saying goodbye to them tonight too – if we get more than a minute to do that while everyone else will want a turn to do the same at the Inn.  We are going to miss them, but their departure also starts a countdown to our Grade Eight trip to the capital; where they are going to be two of our chaperones.  As always, now, we’ll also take turns watching Mandy – though we also won’t be surprised if Faith wants the first turn starting tonight or tomorrow.

We’ll keep you posted on all of that, but we need to meet up with our dates for the birthday dinner soon; so that’s all for this report.

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

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - March 22, 2025

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 50^th Birthday, Claire Norton!

Ehlana and I had fun last night with our family and friends with dinner and a play night that included music, video gaming, and movies along with keeping quite a few teens and kids overnight too.  The girls got more sleep than the guys thanks to late-night video gaming; and then Tai Chi with extra exercise buddies was by the river thanks to a morning low that was still in the forties.  Despite the work yesterday, we still ended up having more work to do today – partly to clean up from last night; and also to get ready for the babysitting we’re about to do right now.

That’s why this update is wrapping up already.  Mom and Dad are two of our favorite parents going out to the Norton farms for Claire’s birthday barbeque and barn dance; and the kids we’re babysitting will start arriving any minute.  Ehlana and I had some biking and play time this afternoon, but needed to be back early too; and now we really do need to get going because Zack, Eli, and Brianna just arrived and we are officially on-duty now.  Naomi and Aiden will be joining us here; Sophia and Aaron are babysitting another group at her house; and that’s likely a trend for teens around the area; since that party is going to be an event and everyone knows the Nortons and will be at least visiting the party to offer best wishes.

We’re out of time; little footsteps are on the stairs now; and we are out of here.

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