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

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Since our last update, we had fun with Sophia, her family, and the rest of our friends.  Dinner was a quick and easy meal; the co-ed ball game did not end happily for ‘our’ team as Sheldon’s Storm bested our Whirlpool team.  Some of our favorite next-gen parents decided to go out to the pub after the game, so Sophia hosted the babysitting; and that cut way back on our co-ed cuddle time since we traded that part of our plan for keeping a little gang of kids and babies entertained.  We still had fun with the work, and had the bonus of getting paid, but we were also ready for the break once the last kid was picked up and taken home.  It was past-midnight by then, but we still stayed up to watch a movie; enjoyed the cuddle time; and then we eventually got around to the co-ed nap time.

We got up early for Tai Chi by the river this morning; took care of making breakfast for ourselves – and Sophia’s family; and then we headed home to work on some indoor chores for the rest of the morning.  There has been some rain and a thunderstorm today, but as we’re writing this update; it has cleared up; and is fairly-humid because of the rain that has continually been evaporating between the little blasts of showers and that one, brief storm.  The weather was definitely a factor for our ball games this afternoon, but they went ahead despite the rain; and there was only one delay when we all took shelter during that little thunderstorm.  Ehlana’s game had some damp moments, but they played the full game and earned a thirteen-to-six win while Aiden, Aaron, and I had a slightly-shortened game because of that thunderstorm delay while still winning by a score of nine-to-six.  That worked out to two wins and a loss for our family teams this weekend, but we’re still doing pretty well for the season-so-far; and will likely have most or all of ‘our’ teams in the championship games.  Maybe it is a bit early for that claim, but we’ll stay optimistic and go with it.

Ehlana and I don’t have long to get cleaned up for the dinner we’re having with the Malloys soon; so we need to wrap this up.  In addition to a quiet evening with the Malloys; we’re hosting a co-ed sleepover with Naomi and Aiden; and they’ll be here soon too.  Valerie and Marcus won’t have hometown dates for tonight; and I won’t comment on why that thought seems scary to me when it shouldn’t be any different than summer connections that our cousins have had with local teens.  There really isn’t anything to add to our news of the day; so we’ll just stop here and get back to having fun with our family and friends starting right now.

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

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

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 7^th Birthday, Tamara Carter!

Happy 25^th Birthday, Vanessa Sparks!

We didn’t have any involvement in either of the local birthdays today, but we’re sure that Tamara is having fun with her family and friends out on the ranch; and Vanessa is likely having an interesting first birthday with a two-month-old daughter to share the adventures with!  Next-gen kids aren’t new to us, but we do still find it different to see Cassie and Michael’s high school classmates with their own kids now.  For the record, Cassie isn’t in a hurry to ‘cross over’ to the parent club with those friends, but then that’s normal for her compared to those friends anyway with the one exception of being among the first to get married!  Getting back to Vanessa’s special day, though, we did have a bit of fun speculating on what her birthday wish would be; since she might really ask for simpler things – like more than three hours of sleep at one time! ;^)

Moving along, we had fun last night with the anniversary dinner party at the Inn; the babysitting kept us hopping the rest of the evening; and there was no co-ed sleepover fun because we ended up keeping more than half the kids for the night – including Valerie and Marcus Malloy.  Aiden and I were up late with the younger boys thanks to the video gaming marathon, so the girls got more sleep; and it was tougher for some of us to get up this morning for Tai Chi by the river.  Let’s not detail breakfast, since some of the boys were in fine form for that meal; and then Aiden and I got to escape to the park for our football workout – though a few of the younger boys wandered over to check out the action for a while too before moving on to other plans with family or friends.  We had some rain move into the area by late morning, but by then, Ehlana and I were at the lab or archives; and we stayed there until the rain moved on a little while ago.  We went for a swim with some friends and cousins after that, and now we’re cleaning up and packing overnight bags before heading over to Sophia’s house for the night.  She’s hosting a co-ed sleepover – though we’ll all be at the park to help with kid control during the co-ed ball game tonight; and might get drafted for more babysitting if the next-gen parents decide to go out to the pub for a while after the game.  That hasn’t been confirmed or requested yet, but if we do that; Sophia will host the babysitting too – and then we’ll hope that we don’t lose another co-ed nap time opportunity!

Ehlana and I want to help Sophia and her Mom with making dinner, so we’ll save world news and Cassie and Michael updates for tomorrow – or maybe Sunday.  Stay tuned for that; and we’ll get back to living those stories we’ll write about tomorrow.

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

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

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 21^st Anniversary, Terry and Angela Malloy!

Happy 18^th Birthday, Ryan Bassett!

Happy 25^th Birthday, Serena Kendall!

Uncle Terry and Aunt Angela and their kids are here for a little cottage work-vacation; and we’ll be at the Inn for part of their anniversary celebration – a culinary adventure that we’ll be getting to as soon as we’re ready to go and have this update wrapped up.  That won’t take long, since we’ve mostly been working on yard chores at multiple homes and cottages today; and then we’re booked to babysit after dinner while some of our favorite adults take that anniversary party over to Sheldon’s Pub for a few hours.  I had another football workout this morning too, but Ehlana opted to get started on our chores right away; and Naomi and Aiden worked with us when they could – while we also had chores at their homes so that we could all get our to-do lists finished before the rain moved into the area.

There really isn’t anything else we need to add for our news-so-far, and while Cassie and Michael are hours ahead of us on their Thursday; we don’t have an update from them yet – though we know they were going to do some local sightseeing today and have a play day by the sea booked for tomorrow.  We’ll have more on their adventures as we get the news, but we’re not going to offer any world news rants or commentary today; since we really just want to get back to the fun with our family and friends.

Stay tuned; and we’ll be back again tomorrow with the latest on our amazing adventures here in Witch Falls!

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

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

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 27^th Birthday, Erica Palmer!

Ehlana and I didn’t help out with Erica’s special day, but Sophia and Aaron were at the dinner party with most of the Bassett and Palmer clans; and we’re sure that they’ve done their best to make Erica’s day awesome.

As for our adventures, after Tai Chi by the river and breakfast, we headed to the park for my football workout, and since we haven’t mentioned this yet, Ehlana and Naomi are among the ‘fans’ that hang out at the park while our slowly-growing group of guy-friends are joining in on Miles’ daily workouts.  Aiden, Aaron, and I won’t be doing any public bragging, but Ehlana wants me to mention in our journals that we are the three best players doing these workouts with Miles.  That’s true, but then the three of us also need to hold back from what we could do; and we’re probably pushing the limits a bit to do as-well as we are doing; since we definitely can’t play at full-speed that would be good-enough for pro football teams.  We don’t need to go on about this, and I’ll only add that we are planning on playing well; since it would be pointless to join the football team and not try to win games for our team and school.

Moving along, Ehlana and I worked at the lab or archives after the football fun; we stayed there until around two o’clock; and then we went home for a snack lunch before meeting up with our friends for some afternoon play time.  We had another triple-digit high, so we spent more time in the river or under shade trees than we spent playing games or biking, but we did a bit of everything; and then we only had Naomi and Aiden with us for dinner with Mom and Dad.  That was an easy-meal with burgers, jumbo hotdogs and cold salad sides; the teens took care of the clean-up; and then we headed to the park for the co-ed ball practices because we were booked to help with next-gen kid control.  Sophia and Aaron were there for the same job with some of her next-gen cousins; we all had fun together for nearly two hours; and then Ehlana and I came home without overnight guests.  Mom did a Magi lesson with us, but didn’t want us to stay up late for charity or family business work; so we came upstairs for bath or Jacuzzi time.  Mom wants us to have an earlier bedtime; and we’re okay with doing that – which is why we’re keeping our computer checks short.

Cassie, Michael, and their friends enjoyed their day on and in the water; loved the tour and diving; and we’re glad that they are enjoying the adventures with their friends before they’ll get back to work next week.  Their break is more than half-way done now; and will wrap up with their anniversary on Sunday.

As for world news, the top political story of the day was probably supposed to be the Russia-Ukraine ‘peace’ talks that happened today in Turkey.  Since you’re obviously reading our journals, you won’t need to take two guesses to know that the talks led to nothing important again; and the so-called negotiations only lasted about forty minutes.  Just for a bit of a reference, Cassie and Michael spend months or even years putting together business or charity deals or projects; so we have no idea why anyone would think that a war could be ended in under an hour – unless one side was offering unconditional surrender.  While that meeting ended with nothing useful decided, our media and political leaders are busy wasting time on another round of document releases from eight and nine years ago related to the first Trump election.  That’s a total waste of time too, since even if laws were broken; we’re sure that nobody with real power will face any serious consequences such as an actual conviction and jail time.  Even more-ridiculous is the fact that most of those political power players have done far-more-serious things that will never even be talked about let alone garner criminal charges.

Once again, we don’t want to start a major rant, so we are going to wrap this up; call it a night; and go get some sleep starting right now.

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

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

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 18^th Birthday, Jeremy Green!

Our future cousin-in-law probably had a normal work day, and we didn’t even see him today, but Kaitlyn and his parents and their friends are making sure that he’s having fun with whatever they planned for his birthday adventures that we know included a barbeque dinner party.  We’re fairly-sure that he’ll be happier to be with Kaitlyn than with us – though maybe the four-year difference won’t seem like such a big deal once we’re all adults.

Our day hasn’t been birthday-adventures great, but we have had fun.  After the anniversary dinner yesterday, Naomi and I – and Ehlana and Aiden – ended up doing a bit of babysitting that was more like simple kid control while some of the parents stayed at Naomi’s house for a few hours of card games.  We did that in pairs at two homes; and mostly just needed to keep the younger cousins and their friends entertained with outdoor play time until dark and then some video gaming for the guys or other options for the girls after that.  Naomi and I did eventually get around to the best part of our day – to co-ed cuddling and nap time at her house while Ehlana and Aiden did the same at her home; and we do not need to write about those respective stories beyond reminding our future journal readers that we are healthy, young teens; and we love that part of our lives more than most teens our age while also not doing anything that would mess up our parents’ trust in us.

We had separate Tai Chi workouts and breakfast this morning; met up at the park for Miles’ football workout session; and then Ehlana and I went to play-work at the lab or archives until we stopped for lunch at around one o’clock.  We had another triple-digit high this afternoon and lots of sunshine; so we went with a lazy play and swim afternoon while trying to stay cool.  Ehlana and I kept our four best friends with us for dinner with Mom and Dad that was an easy-meal that we helped to cook; and then we took care of the clean-up before heading to the park for our ball practices.  It was still too-hot for that, so our coaches didn’t push us too hard; we went for a swim with most of our team mates after that; and then Ehlana and I came home without any overnight guests so that we could do some work in the office – and a Magi lesson with Mom.  She loves us a lot, but didn’t appreciate everything about us when we first got home, so going to grab showers and get cleaned up and changed came first; and yes, that was partly due to a Magi Master’s enhanced senses that includes smell! ;^)

We got to work in the office by nine-thirty; used time phasing to get more done including the Magi lesson and charity projects work.  Let’s also mention that we do some Magi lessons in time phases for multiple learning reasons that include being able to multi-task and because Cassie has learned from experience how important that is in a fight – as well as the fact that time phasing has an effect on the use of other talents.  You also would not want to have some lessons get out of control while in a time phase, since, for example, a lot of damage could be done in the blink of an eye if you let working with one of the elements get out of hand.  It would be really hard to explain to the neighbors how your house caught fire or flooded in under a second!

Moving along, we put in about six hours of work between nine-thirty and eleven o’clock; Mom had us wrap it up then; and now Ehlana and I are winding down toward nap time with our usual computer checks and twin chat fun.  Starting with our Cassie and Michael update, they had a day trip to Tangiers, Morocco; and they loved their tour and some shopping before returning to their hotel in Portugal and another play evening with their friends.  We should mention that Cassie is the only member of their group able to speak fluently in Portuguese, but Madelana has the skills to understand a fair bit of the language; and Rowen is happily playing around with some translation and interpreting tech that allows the rest of them to deal with some tasks like reading menus and signs with apps and their smart phones.  While we sleep tonight; they’re going to be out on another day trip – this time on a boat for a combined tour cruise with two dives.  We wish that we could do that with them, but that isn’t an option; so we’ll just have to try and have a bit of normal fun around here instead.  We need to get some sleep to be ready for that sonn, but before we go there; let’s offer a quick news update.

All is bad with the top wars in the world, but we should mention that Ukraine and Russia are booked for another round of talks in Turkey tomorrow – though we don’t really know why when the two sides are getting further apart on their demands for ending the war.  Yes, it is possible that there is something going on behind the scenes, but none of the peace talks so far over what is really the past decade and more have led to anything real on the ground; and we don’t expect that to change tomorrow.  We really don’t want to get started on any news rants; so maybe we should wrap up with yet another political theatre distraction story that made the news cycle again today.  President Trump’s administration has apparently decided to stop support for UNESCO – apparently because having the United Nations involved in education, science, and culture is a danger to our country’s power in the world!  The excuse that China has too-much influence in the organization is laughable, since maybe they should have influence that matches their percentage of the world population, but that just makes sense; so our leaders can’t let facts get in the way of stupid policies!  We saw another report today suggesting that President Trump has already dropped more bombs in six months than President Biden dropped during his entire term, but that’s another nonsense story; since the only way to make that kind of comparison fair would be to include all of the bombs dropped by all of our war proxies too; and we have no doubt that the name of the President doesn’t matter for that metric.

Okay, we need to stop now because I feel the rant building fast; and I’d rather wrap this up and head of to dreamland where I’ll be much-happier with some subconscious help from Naomi!  Stay tuned for our next update; and we’ll get back to full power now so we’ll be ready for another work-play day.

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