u/tourennatrix

Term 1 of my curriculum is a soft start as I explore (a) learning Obsidian, (b) trying to read some of my non-fiction that has been on my TBR for years, (c) keeping a workout habit tied into the same "dashboard," and (d) getting my spoony neurodivergent chronically overwhelmed self to be less overwhelmed by the kitchen.

The plan for the "Book" class is just to read, take lots of notes, and write some sort of essay towards the end, but I'm not going to be too upset if it don't finish. The other 2 classes are going to be 'rolling' or 'repeating' classes with different themes to keep them exciting.

Future classes are planned to be more like a full quarter, and maybe over time I'll learn to give the classes a topic rather than just 'read this book and learn something from it." lol

https://preview.redd.it/x6rul8jvpuih1.png?width=733&format=png&auto=webp&s=145c50e1ff36c819e2f8bde6d027a3e358430d2b

https://preview.redd.it/13xmpkdxpuih1.png?width=1547&format=png&auto=webp&s=421d1e524d70e53dd0f77525d83ac422ac71329c

https://preview.redd.it/soelqgz2quih1.png?width=719&format=png&auto=webp&s=9c8c9217fba848619f4c439a62a8fa39361d8cd8

https://preview.redd.it/nlrcrzg6quih1.png?width=718&format=png&auto=webp&s=3e72795b482a326f49500ad85797ccdf76610428

I've started a(another, shhhh don't worry about it) legacy in Brindleton Bay. I've got adeepindigo's home worlds to prevent most townies from cross-contaminating, and I'm finding myself really frustrated with the potential family for this new Sim. I want it to "feel right" and not forced, but all of the ones that seemed like good pairs ended up dating someone else? And the first guy to have a romance bar looks sleezie. The farthest I've gotten was with Clement Frost and while I think that would be hilarious, I don't know, he just keeps vanishing which is a major turn off 😂

Anyone have a favorite Brindleton townie to romance?

(I don't have any packs for clubs or dating apps)

Since I'm doing a heavily modified version of 100 Babies, I'm considering changing up the requirements for age-up a little bit. Having every toddler age up after reaching level 3 in all skills, and requiring every child and teen to get an A is very cookie-cutter and doesn't really honor the personality for each kid.

For children and teens, I'm thinking something like having at least a B in school, but also completing a certain amount of their aspiration (which is randomized on age-up)? I know of at least one teen aspiration that you can't even complete the first level as a teen (literally one requirement of the first level is 'become a young adult') so I'm not 100% sure how to implement this yet.

For toddlers... I'm wondering if having level 3 in all skills, but level 5 in one would be too hard? or if there are other metrics I could use (like the milestones for infants)

(also house-rule that when I start having multiples, they must be aged up together)

Currently my house is 2 parents, a child, 2 toddlers, and a newborn about to become an infant, plus four cats. The child will be aging up to teen soon based on current rules (we'll see if i settle on tweaks before aging her up), but once she becomes a teen, I'll be aging the parents from teen to young adult and the real (long lifespan) clock begins to tick. I'm nervous for that but also could really use another helper around the house XD

(did I just post the other day about an entirely different challenge? Yes, but don't worry about it, it's fine 😅)

So I've tried the 100 babies challenge in the past and I think I've gotten as far as like... 1 or 2 teenagers in the house but never aged anyone out of the house. I enjoyed some of the chaos, but I think the main thing that really made it challenging (in a not-fun way) for me was the baby daddies part. Like I'm sure that's like half the point of the challenge, but i'm curious how I would handle a... monogamous version. Will it end up being super boring having the same genetics all the way down? Who knows. But we'll see how it goes 😅 (also very much playing a lot of this by ear and changing things up as I go)

• playing on long lifespan (with 14 day seasons which is more for flavor), and starting my couple as teens (with mods to allow for teen pregnancy)
  • (yes, I do feel this will be a little weird when aging the babies out of the house- maybe when the teen hits their milestones, they'll just move out instead of aging up to be older than their parents?)
  • This will also make it a little weird since pregnancy pauses aging, that the spouse will age up to young adult first, and then it'll get *gross*...
    • So maybe when the first baby ages up into teen, both parents get aged to young adult and then I'll stop futzing with ages until the donor gets close to aging up again, then I'll revisit the age gap as the story unfolds)
• Keeping all the milestones for aging up the kids as they are based on the packs I have.
  • The one I'm not sure about is the newborn stage. Rules As Written, newborns can be aged up into infants after you get the notification that it's their birthday. On normal lifespan that's 1 day, but on long lifespan it's four and that just seems like such a long time to just be vibing with a newborn, not progressing on any of this baby's life goals. 😂
• Inspired by some of the more extreme rags to riches (but only slightly) - If I'm going to sell anything (garden produce, random frogs I found in the garden, whatever), I have to go into town during daytime hours. I was originally selling stuff directly to the kiosks in town, but they were being cheap, so I decided that selling from my inventory was allowed, as long as I was in town during the day when I did it. I might change my mind back on that later. The joys of making up your own rules 🙃

All that aside, meet Laurel & Kaydence- teens who ran away together because their parents Just Don't Understand their love. Kaydence's cool uncle had some land outside of Henford-on-Bagley that had an old toolshed they were welcome to stay in as long as they were able to make the property livable in time for winter. They managed to start a garden (gardening is so OP, this is crazy) and after a few weeks they were able to start construction on their new home. Also they adopted a cat.

https://preview.redd.it/hks63x7lqyyg1.png?width=1023&format=png&auto=webp&s=ceb7b8b3db7829cbd4dfe480add164002720c897

(I look forward to figuring out how to actually get decent pictures again. Laurel isn't always this grumpy looking, it was just the best screenshot I could get last night, lol)

Now, On the first day of Winter, they moved out of the toolshed and into the house that's still under construction. They just had their first baby (Eden), and Laurel will likely be quitting her Nanny job. Kaydence will probably try to keep their job until I figure out how gardening works in winter (we're not ready for a greenhouse yet). BUT... Both of them are staying in school until I decide to age them up. I do have a mod that looks like they can sign up for online school, so Laurel will 100% be doing that shortly.

I was also doing Off-the-grid while they were in the toolshed, and I like the idea of keeping it that way for a while longer, but the online schooling wouldn't work (it would, at minimum, require spending a looottt of time at a library lot every day, I'm sure). And I couldn't figure out how to get cooking to work even with off-the-grid appliances and I'm tired of the lunchbox... So now I'm on the grid but with minimal electronics in the house to attempt to mimic it I guess, lol.

Long term plans involve building the house out "slowly," and having a whole homestead operation type thing going on, which the kids can "totally help with," I'm sure, lol. But for now, the short-term goal is figuring out how long I want infants to stay infants (probably only 1-2 days).

Onward to more babby!