Thank you all for your advice and tips. I am very overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information that’s been given and I’m going to spend some time digesting and reading up on these things. Lots of terminology is over my head at this point and I have a lot of learning to do.

Hahah hello friend. No, I don’t want Google to have my calendar entries. I’m just trying to achieve baby steps peacefully with the family. If it were my choice, we’d cut off Google without a second thought, but ooooh no. We’ve been using Google Calendar for 20 years. We don’t WANT to change. 🙄

Thank you for the tip, but this does not allow writing events to the Google Calendar from other clients. Google iCal links, including the secret link, are read only which is the problem I’m trying to solve.