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

 

Naomi, Ethan, Ehlana, Aiden, Sophia, and Aaron:

This update is coming to you from Cassie and Michael’s house; and we are all here while my future mother-in-law is in Crystal Springs for the night.  I am writing this instead of Ehlana because I can, and you’re welcome, future Magi reader; since I am a much-better story-teller! ;^)

Since I wasn’t there for Ethan and Ehlana’s Tai Chi by the river and breakfast with their Mom; I’ll instead advise you that I do my own morning workouts; that happened in my back yard this morning; and then my breakfast was standard school day fare while I tried to ignore the younger brother next to me while he demolished half a box of cereal; a pack of Pop Tarts; and three drinks before he took a snack to go and went to meet up with Zack for the walk to school.  Yes, I know that Ethan needs to eat a lot too – especially now that they’re into football season and he is burning a ton of calories every day, but he doesn’t look like a ravenous wolf while eating; and uses his manners even when nobody else is around.

Moving along, my academic adventures in Grade Eleven are only different from Ethan and Ehlana’s because I have more optional classes; and I’m not doing everything with Aaron this year either; since we’ve picked a few different classes.  Part of that change for us is interest-based, but I’m also looking to go to college for International Business to help Ehlana so that we can be future billionaires while Aaron is looking toward government management – which for our little town and district requires a skill-set that is related to what I want to do, but without the billionaire prospects!  Aaron thinks that’s funny and wants me to mention that President Trump is a billionaire; so I could be wrong about that!  Getting back to my point, I am taking the maths and sciences that will get me what I need for my future college programs; Aaron is doing the same; and then we’re each taking classes that we like and want to learn about for the rest of our optionals.  We like the variety this year; and I am never, ever going to take biology classes ever again – and yes, that is entirely because I do not want to even see something being dissected ever again.  I will leave that kind of studying and learning to the future doctors and scientists and animal experts to learn all about while I focus my future expertise elsewhere!

Ehlana, Sophia, and I had our cheer squad practice at noon so we could also attend the first school band practice of the year.  That’s where our top news story of the day happened; and we are officially going to start another marching band and start preparing and raising money for a band trip to Disney World for early 2028.  We won’t get that date until we apply for a spot and get invited again, but we’ve been told that is much-easier after the first approval – at least for the bands that do well in that first parade.  The first steps are going to happen fast; we’re going to start an evening practice for the marching band starting next Tuesday evening; and open invitations have been sent out this time not just to Maple Valley, but also to Brookbridge for students interested in joining our marching band for that trip to Florida.  We’ll see how many other students join right away, but they should want to start with us fairly-soon; since the fundraising is going to take time; since the costs per person will be significant.  We’re all very happy that we are going ahead with the plan; and I’m sure that Ethan and Ehlana will keep you posted on band news as it happens.  For tonight; I’ll only add that we will be starting the monthly fruit and vegetable boxes fundraiser orders by next week; the deal has already been worked out with the Bassetts; and we’re brainstorming for other fundraisers that will be added in the coming weeks and months.  All records from the last trip to Florida are available; so we also know what we need to do; and what did and didn’t work for raising money last time.

While the girls in our current little group were at band practice after school; the boys were at football practice; and they had to deal with a bit of rain and took a break while a thunderstorm rolled through town.  We were all done around the same time; split up to go home and round up overnight bags; and then we met up here for dinner with Cassie and Michael.  We still have time before their next trip, but we’ve also all been very busy; and haven’t spent as much time together as we’d all like – including right now as they are working downstairs and doing a couple of video conference calls along with the computer work.  We had fun with that meal; the teens took care of the clean-up; and then our evening entertainment included some live music; a movie; and lots of chat time as we traded stories about school, band, football, work, and more through until Cassie and Michael needed to get to work again.  We’re winding down toward the co-ed nap time that we’ll get to eventually, but we are comfortable; happy; and enjoying the teen chat time; so let’s get to my version of the world news report; and then I’ll get back to helping Ethan out with our personal co-ed cuddling fun!

The majority of our world leaders are either insane, idiots, or both; they continue to cause the vast majority of problems in the world; wars are bad; genocide is worse; and all of the bad and evil guys – and girls – need to be stopped!  Yes, I am including Gwyneth Hathorne in that group; and she does not get any mitigating points for having good taste in guys when the one she seems to like the most is mine and she can’t have him!  Since I do want to be a future billionaire business expert; I’ll focus the rest of my comments on the economic consequences continuing to develop because of the wars and destruction.  Most of those same leaders are oblivious or intentionally-ignore the reality happening all around them.  That isn’t unusual for politicians, and neither is the need to blame anyone and anything other than themselves for consequences to their actions, but both are becoming blatantly-obvious to everyone that wants to pay attention and see what is really happening.  We certainly see the problems in a small farming community like ours, and we’re adapting and working together to deal with the challenges.  Thanks to Sophia, we know that her father is getting together with other businesses and farmers to start an official co-op to consolidate their collective buying power for fuel and other products like fertilizer and petroleum-linked products.  That will take time to build and schedule for efficiency and cost-effectiveness, but that is one way we’re dealing with the increasing prices affecting our farms and stores; and other communities would do well to emulate us.

The biggest risks to the world economy in the coming year might prove to be food supplies; since problems for growing food extend beyond fuel and fertilizer prices in a lot of places around the world.  The heat this summer has led to lower crop yields; the Ukraine war is hitting exports of farm products from two of the world’s largest food exporters; and food insecurity is a potential flash point for new conflicts and migration as people get hungry and desperate.  While food is a major near-future risk for a lot of the world; I’ll add that the world economy is also at risk from ridiculous levels of debt; mal-investment that is often caused by lies and false information and greed; and by wasting so many resources of all kinds on all of the pointless wars.

I feel the urge for a rant coming on and don’t want to go there when cuddling with Ethan is a much-happier place to be; so I’ll stop here and have fun with that instead!  Stay tuned for Ehlana’s and Ethan’s next report; since I’m sure they’ll have more to write about that I don’t want to even think about tonight – like the report they were looking at tonight about an admission from the American Secretary of the Air Force that ‘we’ have military weapons in space.  We apparently aren’t doing enough stupid things here on earth; so our leaders think it a good idea to take our wars into space where it is so-cluttered with man-made junk that one stupid mistake in the wrong place could cause a chain reaction that would take out all of the tech that we rely on for everything from communications and the internet to keeping track of our transportation systems and supply chains.

I really don’t want to go anywhere else except closer to Ethan now; so I am out of here right now.

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

We started our day early seeing Dad and Anna Marie on their way to Crystal Springs.  We loved that start to our day; and had a second start with Tai Chi by the river and breakfast with Mom.  That was good too, and then our academic adventures with our friends kept us busy through until our football and cheer squad practices.  The high today hit the nineties, so those practices were on the warm side and tougher for the football players; since their practice was longer than mine was for the cheer squad.  That gave me time to help Mom with making dinner while we waited for Ethan to get home; we had that quick and easy meal; and then Ethan and I headed to the lab or archives to play for the evening.  Time phasing allowed us to get more done; we still worked until after eleven o’clock; and it was around eleven-thirty by the time we got home.  Mom did a little visit with us; bath or Jacuzzi time followed; and now it is getting late and we’re tired and ready to sleep.

Peace is supposedly on again today, but not really; since the claims and reality do not match up.  President Trump is claiming he’s made a deal between Russia and Ukraine that would have both sides cease attacks on ‘diesel’ infrastructure.  We haven’t seen anything confirming that from either Russia or Ukraine; so we’ll believe it when we see those attacks stop on both sides.  There was talk of peace for the Middle East too that moved markets again today, but nothing was actually said on either side; no talks are actually happening; and we do not know why anyone believes the same stories that get revived every few days or weeks – also to move the markets more than to actually get anything done to solve the problems on the ground.

While that is going on, the Houthis continue to take territory in Yemen; they’re exchanging air and missile and drone attacks with Saudi Arabia; and that war is intensifying with no end in sight.  The Ukraine war is still very hot on all fronts; Israel is still killing and destroying in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria; and the airstrike exchanges between Iran and America can happen on no notice while the two Straits are mostly closed and tensions remain high.  The world economy and supply chains continue to face growing pressures that are just waiting to blow up, but nobody can predict when that will happen or where it will start.  We can predict that supply scarcities will lead to economic contraction eventually, and when we have a lot of countries spending a lot of borrowed money; governments will be in for more trouble if tax revenues drop and they have to borrow even more money while already at record debt levels!

That’s all we’re going to cover tonight – this morning.  It really is late for us and our day included the time phasing has been close to twenty-four hours; so we are out of here and off to dreamland right now.”

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Happy 26tth Birthday, Karla Benton!

Other than offering our best wishes while at church; we didn’t have any involvement in Karla’s special day.  Our day wasn’t exciting by comparison either – though we had fun at church and Sunday school with our family and friends after Tai Chi by the river and breakfast with Mom and Dad.  We had lunch with Mom and Dad too; and then Ethan and I spent the afternoon work-playing at the lab or archives.  We came home on-time for a quiet dinner-for-four; there was a bit of family business work and a Magi Lesson while Dad finished getting ready for his week in Crystal Springs; and then it was bath or Jacuzzi time by a bit after nine o’clock because we want to be back at full-power to be ready for our first full week of the new school year.  Let’s cover the world news – or at least a bit of it; and then we’ll get started on that nap time.

We don’t know why anyone believes the reports of progress in peace talks when that’s all it has been for more than four and a half years with the Ukraine war, but the headlines keep coming; and the politicians and pundits keep spewing their idiocies.  Neither side has changed positions on their demands; so getting together to talk is pointless until that changes.  The Houthis continue to advance against the Saudi-backed forces in Yemen – mostly mercenaries that are surrendering en-masse instead of fighting; and we’ll add that there are reports that upwards of eighty percent of those forces being paid for by Saudi Arabia and other western backers might be fictional and nothing more than a big graft that has been enriching the leaders of that faction for years now!  That isn’t new for wars, but that would be a massive con if those numbers prove close to accurate!

Finally, for tonight, we want to write about some of the comments we caught up with tonight from the 9/11 Memorials that irritated us because the lies were just so blatant.  President Trump got the most attention for his speech, yet nobody called him out on the lies; and we do not understand how anyone listens to his nonsense!  News flash – Iran had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks in any way; and their government and religious leaders were enemies of the Sunni radicals that were behind those attacks.  It is common knowledge that Saudi Arabia absolutely had significant links and helped to fund Osama bin Laden – including links to the royal family; yet they are supposedly our allies while Iran is our enemy.  Many of the claims we saw and heard trying to link the current conflict with 9/11 is dumb – with the possible exception that there are continuing reasons for the peoples of the Middle East to hate our country and Israel – just as they did twenty-five years ago.  While we’re mentioning lies; let’s add in President Trump’s claim today that the energy price shocks are all President Zelensky’s fault for attacking Russian refineries.  We expect that those attacks have had an impact, but that is nothing compared to the problems in the Middle East.  Russia is still exporting near-normal or even higher amounts of oil and gas now – if not certain refined products; while the volumes out of the Middle East are down significantly and getting worse as more pressure is put on Saudi Arabia and they’ve had to close one of their major pipelines due to the damage caused by drone and missile attacks.  Oil reserves have been used to make up the difference, but those stockpiles are running low; and prices are sure to go higher if the conflicts continue.

We really do want to get some sleep now, so that’s all for tonight; and we hope that your ‘now’ is amazing – especially if you’re living at a time in our future where there might actually be peace and harmony in the world!

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

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

 

Ehlana and Ethan:

Our first weekend of the school year has felt a bit strange for us – at least for today; since we’re done with the summer baseball season and we haven’t had anything else on the schedule other than a chores day!  Now that we’re busy with school, studies, football or cheer squad, and more to come, the least we can do is help Mom and Dad when needed all day on our Saturdays; and that’s what we did today – after our friends moved on from our co-ed sleepover last night.  Before we get to the non-news, chores day report; let’s cover the rest of our story from last night.

After grabbing a snack dinner, Ethan headed to the school for the bus ride to Brookbridge with the team; I met up with Naomi and Sophia for the drive there with her father – and yes, Naomi got to drive both ways again this week.  She is also very happy about the game and our cheer squad efforts; and Ethan was again, in his always-quiet way – the team star thanks to four touchdowns and a lot of catches and yards earned after those catches.  We are biased, but it is also true; since everything else that our team did last night started with Brookbridge trying to stop Ethan and leaving other gaps that our team exploited.  The score ended up at seventy-seven to thirty-seven, so Brookbridge had some big plays and proved that our team still has work to do to get better, but along with Ethan’s points, Aaron had three running touchdowns; Aiden had two passing touchdowns; and Miles scrambled for two short touchdowns on the ground to go with his passes for touchdowns that made him the more-obvious star of the game to the fans.  Miles loves that, but we might need to keep an eye on him; since that could be a problem if his ego starts to exceed his actual abilities.  I’m not trying to take anything away from him because he does have talent, but without Ethan, Aiden, and Aaron; he’d likely just get crushed by the defenses.  As for our cheer squad, we had a lot to cheer about; the half-time routine was a hit; and we got a bit more of the wrong kind of attention than we wanted from a few guys that needed to be persuaded to leave us alone before they moved on to chase other girls that likely weren’t interested in that kind of attention either.  Naomi, Sophia, and I got back to Naomi’s house well-ahead of the boys; her father picked up a Pizzeria pizza order in-time to be hot for when Ethan, Aiden, and Aaron did catch up with us; and then the rest of our evening included that snack and drinks; a visit with Naomi’s parents; and some co-ed cuddle time and teen chat and music videos as we wound down toward the co-ed nap time.  Some of us stayed awake longer than others, but we won’t call anyone out on that; since we did all have a very long day by then.

While we were with Naomi overnight, we still ended up doing Tai Chi by the river – at Cassie and Michael’s house.  We do not need to know why Mom and Dad skipped the morning workout after a kid-free night, but we had fun with that early workout; returned to the Seagers for breakfast; and then split up for the rest of the day as Ethan and I went home to the chores day and our best friends had other plans for work or chores or other entertainment with their own families.  Yes, summer is definitely over and we have to share our friends more-often – especially with their own families!  The chores were standard fare yard work that we did at multiple homes and cottages; it really did take most of the day; and we dealt with a couple of short blasts of showers that really only helped to cool us down from the work – as did the two swim breaks and regular drinks to stay hydrated.  It warmed up into the nineties this afternoon, so some of the work was hot and dirty, and by the time we were done for the day; showers were wanted and needed before we sat down to the late dinner with Mom and Dad in the sunroom.  We didn’t help with the cooking, so we took care of the clean-up, and while some work and a Magi lesson kept us busy for an hour or so after that; we headed up to the third floor early and now we’re planning on an early bedtime to catch up on our sleep.

For us, the top world news of the day and weekend is the BRICS+ summit in India that continues to prove how different the rest of the world is approaching diplomacy and trade compared to America and the European Union and other ‘western’ countries.  They currently have eleven full members and ten partner countries in the economic bloc; they represent more than half the population of the world; and they want to create an environment for diplomacy and trade that builds everyone up instead of exploiting and bullying weaker partners.  So far, they’ve announced a deal to develop and implement a new payment system led by India and Russia that we expect will also connect to China’s digital version of SWIFT; they are trying to tell the rest of the world that they aren’t ‘against’ anyone, but instead would like to work and trade with everyone; and they are making economic deals with each other and sitting down to discuss all of the global challenges affecting everyone from the current wars to the growing resources challenges.  Let’s also note that Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the U.A.E. are all represented at the meetings; and at least two of those countries need to seriously decide whether they want a peaceful, cooperative future for their countries and people or the alternative of being among the exploited vassals of the west!  That’s a bit blunt, but when your countries are being decimated in a war that never needed to happen at all; a change in perspective is a very good idea – and at least some of their diplomats and business leaders are getting a taste of that this weekend!

We can’t totally ignore the wars; so let’s go there next and then Ethan and I will call it a night.  “The Houthis’ attacks and advances in Yemen against the Saudi-backed and funded forces continue to get a lot of attention – especially for the ports and islands they are taking over that give them total control over the strait leading into the Red Sea.  They’re attacking into Saudi Arabia too, but it appears that Iraqi militias have joined the fight and have seriously-damaged a primary pipeline in Saudi Arabia that is now shut down at least temporarily and had been the primary alternative to getting oil and gas shipped while the Strait of Hormuz shipping has been slowed and stopped over the past six months.  Saudi Arabia is a very expensive country to run; and they are going to be in extreme economic trouble if these attacks and this war continue – especially when they also have a significant Shia population that they’ve been exploiting for decades and would side with the Houthis and Iraqi militias without hesitation.  The hatred growing against America and Israel is always at risk of exploding; and we hope that the war won’t keep expanding as those forces against ‘us’ grow and consolidate power.

In Ukraine, while his country is being decimated, President Zelensky is busy trying to get more money and weapons from the rest of the world – and he’s in Canada this weekend where he is sure to get a token bit of both that will be meaningless to the outcome of the war and then he’ll be here to talk with our leaders in Washington and offer up more lies and idiocies that nobody should believe.  We’ll see what he gets out of that part of his fundraising tour, but the tens of millions of dollars he’s siphoning off for his own enrichment won’t mean anything if he loses the war and can’t get away from all of the Ukrainians that will be out to get him when that happens.  That’s a too-dark turn for this update, but it is a challenge to stay happy after reading so many horror stories about those wars and all of the death and destruction that we again remind our future Magi readers, didn’t need to happen.

That’s all we have for tonight, but stay tuned; since we still have almost half of the weekend to go; and maybe we’ll even get a miracle or two for the world news if there could be some political breakthroughs that start in India!  Okay, that might be a bridge too far, since none of the ‘western’ countries that oppose BRICS and are afraid of them have even considered joining and learning to play nice!  Ethan and I are ready to get some sleep, though, so we’ll stop there; work on having happier thoughts to take into dreamland with us; and be back again tomorrow night once we’ve lived all of those Sunday adventures!

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