Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - March 15, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Having Cassie and Michael home again is our top news of the day – or yesterday.  We had fun with our friends, cousins, and next-gen kids yesterday too, but welcoming Cassie and Michael home was the highlight of our day; and we even managed to spend a bit of time with them too.  We also spent a lot of time helping with kid control and the family-and-friends’ dinner that Mom and Dad hosted again for our weekend guests.  There actually isn’t really much news to offer beyond that we had fun, but we biked and played in the afternoon; dinner was outdoors because it was warm-enough to do that yesterday afternoon; and then our evening entertainment included video games and movies before our guests all headed to homes, cottages, or elsewhere; and we only kept our four best friends for a co-ed sofa sleepover.

The weather today is a story too because it started a lot warmer than it will end.  That allowed for Tai Chi by the river before breakfast; and then we had extra guests for that meal.  The teens in the house took care of the clean-up; the high of the day happened while we were walking to church – topping out at around sixty-six; and then it started cooling down from there and we got some rain this afternoon as the high dropped to around fifty and continues to go down from there as we’re writing this update now.  The church service and Sunday school were good – with a highlight being Shayne’s introduction to the community.  We didn’t have company for lunch, but then Ethan and I helped Cassie and Michael with the next-gen kids that they’ve had since after church – and they are keeping those kids for a sleepover tonight too.  Naomi and Aiden spent some of that time with us too, but Aiden helped out at the bakery for a while too, since this is the spring break and they were busy today.  We had some outdoor play time, but had some indoor fun too when it was raining; and now we’re split up while getting ready for the early buffet.  We’re going to that one today because our weekend guests need to head out after that meal – and we didn’t want to keep Jillian and Shayne out late either.

Ethan and I are doing this update now because we’re going to have Naomi and Aiden with us for the night – ahead of Dad’s week in the city; and we don’t want to save this for later.  We obviously don’t have a travel update for Cassie and Michael either; so let’s wrap this up.  While we should do a world news update, I want to stay happy; and Ethan is going to let me do that and skip another day of bad news from any of the favorite wars.  We do want to mention that we don’t love going from mid-sixties for the morning high to the overnight lows expected tonight that could dip below zero, but Mother Nature is probably having fun with the winter weather on our spring break; so we’ll try to have fun with whatever we get for the weather.  That is sure to be a story for tomorrow, so stay tuned for that; and we’ll get back to living the rest of our adventures of the day right now.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - March 14, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

This is going to be another quick update; since we need to get back to living our weekend adventures and have only stopped to get cleaned up from our chores morning before we get to the family-and-friends’ lunch.  We’re going to be busy for the rest of the day with a play afternoon and Cassie and Michael’s return home; and then we haven’t decided what we’re doing for the night – other than more help with kids and a co-ed sleepover are likely.

We had fun yesterday since our last update even with a lot of kid control work and babysitting.  There was some biking; park play time; and then video gaming and movies in the evening while some of our favorite parents were busy with weekend guests, Jillian, and her combined families.  We followed that up with a co-ed sofa sleepover with our four best friends after all of the guests went home with their kids – including the weekend guests staying at the cottages.  We stayed up too-late; had fun; and then we had a nap for four or five hours before getting started on our Saturday.

We were up on time for Tai Chi by the river; had extra exercise buddies because Brianna and Faith decided to join us for that workout; and then we had breakfast with Mom and Dad before getting to the chores part of our day.  That’s what we’ve been doing since then – including a last run-through at Cassie and Michael’s house; and now we’re going to be back on kid control for lunch and the afternoon and evening.  We’ll multi-task that with Cassie and Michael’s return once they get home later this afternoon; and maybe we’ll even get to spend a bit of time with them too – though they are going to have some issues with the time change for at least the next few days.

That’s all for now, but before we go; let’s mention that the top war news from the Middle East so far this weekend is that we’ve attacked Kharg Island in Iran – the location of the oil and gas facilities they use for ninety percent of their energy exports; and we’re sending thousands of marines into the region for what would definitely be a dangerous escalation if we put troops on the ground in any part of Iran.  We have been warned that attacks on Kharg Island could lead to open season on all Middle East oil and gas targets in the rest of the Middle East by Iran; so we hope that doesn’t happen.  Let’s save the rest of the world news for tomorrow night; since we really need to get going right now.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - March 13, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 19^th Birthday, Kara Johnson!

Hopefully having her special day on a Friday the 13^th won’t be scary for Kara, but we don’t have any news on that for her yet; so we’ll have to wait to find out.

Our Cassie and Michael update feels weird this afternoon because we’ve been used to writing about their adventures from a day ahead of us, but they are still flying toward the west coast as we’re doing this report; and their arrival time will be later tonight Pacific time – after midnight here at home.  That does mean that they get to have a second Friday – or at least two hours worth of a second round – plus the hours of the day they’re getting while still in-flight.  That also means that we don’t really have any news for them; since they’ve mostly just been stuck on a jet for most of our day-so-far.

As for our day, we went outside for Tai Chi this morning despite it still being chilly; we had a good day at school as we were all more-interested in getting started on our spring break; and now we’re getting ready to help with younger cousins and next-gen kids while our parents are busy with work or welcoming and entertaining weekend guests.  They’ll all mostly be here for Jillian and her new family, but we also need to point out again that Julian is leaving for the first of his spring breaks’ extreme adventure trips; so we’ll also be helping to support Jillian and Shayne while Julian is away.  Now we need to get out there and keep the younger kids entertained – including some of our favorite next-gen kids.  The rest of our story will need to wait; since we’re planning on a sleepover too for the first night of our school break; so we’ll have the rest of our story sometime tomorrow.  We want to have fun; so we are not going to get into a world news update at all; and will likely just save the next one up for Sunday night.  We really do need to go now; so we’re out of here and ready to get our week off started right now.

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - March 12, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Cassie and Michael have started their final day in Singapore – their Friday; and they will be heading home by the time we get started on our final school day of the week and ahead of our spring break!  That’s our top local news of the day that isn’t happening here at all; and we’re counting down the hours now until Cassie and Michael will be home again.

As for our actual news of the day, it was around freezing this morning, but the damp weather had moved on and we didn’t get any snow or ice.  The high of the day hit the mid-fifties, but Ethan and I opted for lab or archives work-play time after school – mostly because we didn’t get to do that much this week and we won’t be at the lab through the weekend while our family supports Jillian, Julian, and their new baby.  We had fun at school and then with our beakers or books; came home in time for dinner with Mom and Dad; and then we all went to the Inn for game night.  That was the entertainment highlight of our day, and while we didn’t win any titles for our family tonight; we loved sharing the adventures with our family and friends.  Ethan and I took Silkie for a walk while also seeing Naomi and Aiden to their homes; and then we did a Magi lesson and some family business work in the office with Mom and Dad.  Some time phasing allowed us to do that without staying up half the night, but it was past-midnight by the time we headed up to the third floor; got ready for bed; and now we’re dealing with the bedtime twin chat and computer checks.

That brings us to the world news update; and there is no good news on the peace front.  Instead of getting into another report of the bombing and destruction on both sides; let’s go with some stories that we found interesting tonight.  First up, there are reports of fire-related injuries to sailors on the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier, and we think that it might be more-interesting if the claims of a fire in the laundry facilities is true; since that newest carrier seems to have so many problems that they don’t need help from our ‘enemies’ to damage it!  Yes, that’s the carrier that has all of the non-functional bathrooms and other issues; and fires on any ship can be critical and dangerous regardless of the cause.  The second story is about a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker that crashed in Iraq – and that is also claimed to be due to a mid-air accident instead of being shot down by Iran or other opponents.  As with the first story, if that’s true and this is the fourth American jet to be destroyed by accident or friendly fire; we apparently don’t need enemies if we can so-successfully destroy our own war toys!

Ethan and I need to get some sleep; so that’s all for this update.  Stay tuned; since this is going to be a fun weekend – especially once Cassie and Michael get home!

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

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - March 11, 2026

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Welcome to your adopted Witch Falls family, Shayne Sparks!  Congratulations to Jillian, Julian, and their families too!

That is our top story of the day for here at home.  Jillian went into labor this morning; Shayne arrived at ten-fifty and apparently in a hurry to be born; and both Mom and baby are doing well and already home as we’re writing this update – possibly because Mom helped Jillian out a bit while having an afternoon nap because we love her a lot! ;^)

Shayne’s birth had a lot to do with the shape of the rest of our day; since we were drafted to help out with next-gen kids after school; through dinner; and into the evening while our family was busy with Jillian, Julian, and their baby and family.  Jillian convinced her family and friends to wait for the weekend to come for a visit, but we’re out of the loop for that – at least until we’ll be asked to help out more with babysitting this weekend too.  It was cooler today after the rain that ended late this morning, but we still took the kids out to play after school; and then we hosted keeping them entertained at our house because the doctors and nurse in the family were busy; so Mom and Dad hosted an eat-when-you can dinner while we kept the cousins and next-gen kids busy in the lounge or elsewhere pretty much until they headed for their homes at around the same time that Julian took Jillian and Shayne home from the clinic.  Pizzeria Pizza was involved in the dinner menu, but there were other finger food sides; and we won’t scare you tonight with the Zack and Eli show report because they were in a mood to annoy and entertain with feats of food and drink that were fairly-gross.

After our guests left, Ethan and I did a bit of clean-up work – or a lot of it that required some Magi power to get done in under an hour; we had a wrap-up visit with Mom and Dad in the office along with a bedtime snack; and that brings us to the bedtime twin chat and computer checks wrap-up to our long, busy day.  Cassie and Michael are already into their final full day in Singapore – Thursday there; and now we’re really getting excited about having them home on Saturday.  They might not be feeling quite as excited, since they will be having a last work day in Singapore on Friday and then they’ll have a very long trip home, but we’ll help them out with getting happier once they are back!

As for the world news update, it seems as though the news of the day is all about energy wars.  In Ukraine, a top story is about the Ukrainian forces attacking Russian gas pipelines to stop the flow of natural gas to Europe – a bad idea considering the current problems in the Middle East; and we’ll guess that at least some of their European war backers will not be happy if they succeed.  As for the Middle East, there have been more attacks on oil and gas facilities; ships have been targeted when attempting to traverse the Straits of Hormuz; and some countries are starting to release oil from their strategic reserves already – a temporary measure that will depress prices while causing long-term problems if they do that for more than a few weeks.  Add in the actual losses from storage destruction around the Middle East; and our leaders should be looking at what could be a long-term economic disaster.  On a related note to that, we also want to mention that the Middle East is a significant player in the fertilizer production business.  Natural gas is needed to produce the ammonia for the fertilizer; so if natural gas isn’t being pumped or converted to LNG; they also aren’t making ammonia or fertilizer.  Add in the oil needed to transport the millions of tons of fertilizer around the world; and that will become another problem for spring planting for farms everywhere.  Yes, we know that won’t be an availability issue here in our country anytime soon, but it will be a price and cost issue for the farmers and transport companies and producers as all fuel prices go up.  We could go on about the economics for all related products and supply chains for everything from plastics to clothes and electronics, but that’s enough for tonight.

The death and destruction rolls on in the Middle East, Ukraine, and elsewhere with no end in sight; and we can only continue to hope for better even when that seems very unlikely.  For now, we’re tired and ready to get some sleep – so we will.

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