#edit to add: There is actually a 3 energy double bed i forgot about

[vivalasthedas]

sims 4 released another overpriced kit consisting of content you can get better of for free, and it's called Modern Luxe. So it's meant to be like fancy and luxury.

The bed has an energy recovery rate of 5.

[mythfact]

A day in the life- lockdown edition

Today is another gorgeous day. My mom has taken on cleaning the drawers and all of their contents in the kitchen, washing everything by hand. I’ve been playing a long game of War with the kids, a game I only taught them last night after a little too much Go Fish for me, and trying to get them to go to bed. Teaching them War was a way to shift the energy and get them closer to bed, rather than hitting a total roadblock.

A bit short-sighted, since of course, it’s a game that takes forever, and eventually I had to convince them to park/pause it for the night, and that we could just continue playing the next day. They’re basically addicted now.

Today, the gingko tree is finally putting forth a burst of leaves. Prior to that, I didn’t even know what kind of tree it was. My mom could only tell me that it “only had leaves, and then in the Fall they become yellow and fall down” and that was it. She is miffed that whoever planted it didn’t give this house a tree that flowers, like the neighbors’, but one with only leaves.

The gingko tree is so pretty though, I think she will come to appreciate it one day.

I’m drinking matcha this morning, after a failed matcha smoothie with bananas and milk earlier. And honey. It was too sweet, I somehow forgot that bananas sweeten things before I added the honey, and anyway, it was too much dairy for me, and I ended up letting half of it go. I lay on the hot trampoline and let the first half digest first. Not recommended.

What I really want is to make a non dairy matcha latte, but a) no nondairy milk here and b) no ice. I can’t find the ice cube tray in this house, and apparently there is one, but no one knows where it is.

Today was trash day because of a holiday earlier this week- Monday’s Victoria Day. Pushed the whole week forward I guess.

Even though restrictions are slowly easing up here, we are still taking them very seriously and not making moves to socialize more.

The only thing is that the kids got to meet their friends in the park last week and play outside. They mostly just rode their bikes around in a big bike gang, but the dads who got together played soccer, which I think they enjoyed just as much, if not more.

Everyone lately has been grilling. On any given night you can smell it outside. The epitome of suburbia.

After matcha, and catching on some of my favorite vlogs on yt, I was lying on the bed enjoying the lazy “Saturday morning” feeling, when Ngawa came up and wanted to just hang out, and talk, so we did that for a little bit. His eyes still looked a little sleepy, and these early morning or late night chats are some of my favorite moments of living with a 6 year old.

Later, we collected our card stacks and headed out to the front steps to play 3 way War. The kids love it because it’s fast, there is absolutely no strategy and they “win” frequently. Also they love the “battles” and a few times we had “double battles” which they find extremely exciting.

I lost all my cards pretty quickly, so now I’m here writing, and they’re still playing.

(Later)

I taught them another game, Egyptian Ratscrew, otherwise known as Egyptian Rat Slap, or maybe also just Slap? Involves, as you can probably guess, a lot of slapping. They loved it, but then started fighting over cards, and who slapped first. Elkanah does this thing when he wins where he gloats too much, and when he loses he sulks, so either way it isn’t really fun. There were tears on both their counts, and eventually I had to just call off the game. Ngawa needed some cuddling, and we talked about how to be good winners and losers.

I took them to the trampoline to do a little meditation, requested by Ngawa when he saw it on my phone, and after a 10 minute calm down period, for the kids mostly involving lying down on the trampoline and not talking, I left to have some quiet time while they played one of their favorite trampoline games involving a lot of chasing and a soccer ball. They basically just like to hurt each other a lot. They find it hilarious.

I got to talk to a few friends, and watch some really cool videos on Vimeo, as well as on Mbira for Worldwide Mbira Day which was 3 days ago- mbira being an instrument from Zimbabwe that has a strong tradition and one I’ve played as part of an ensemble in college.

Dinner made by my brother in law of pasta and sauce and then I took off on a walk to catch the last of the sunlight and warmth of the day. It feels good to just get out and have a little bit of alone time every day, observing the other people in this neighborhood, and clearing my mind. The light is gorgeous, and it really feels like Spring now.

The kids are taking their showers, and when they’ve changed into pajamas we will start bedtime routine. Sometimes it means stories, sometimes listening to music while they work on coloring sheets. When we complete them, they go up on one of the walls in the upstairs hallway, a sort of “exhibit” and they’re very proud of it. At first, I didn’t want to add the pages I did, but they insisted, and seem to really like my coloring pages being there amongst theirs as well.

There will also be teeth-brushing, something they also insist I do with them, and then when it’s actually time for bed there’s usually a few rounds of Rock Paper Scissors, sometimes thumb wars, and mostly just more hanging out and talking before I realize the time and decide to do lights out. They are geniuses at prolonging bedtime. It’s really amazing how it can end up being so late by the time I turn out their light- sometimes up to 11 pm.

Then, I go to sleep or have insomnia, and then we wake up in the morning and do it all over again.