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taylor price
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Origami Around
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@piratessa
Thoughts on statistics....
Thoughts on statistics...
Its been quite some time since I blogged. Not gonna make excuses…its just been really low on the priority list lately, just trying to survive work, kids virtual school, staying at home, surviving anxiety, and combating some health issues (not related to Covid, but made more difficult because of its presence). Some folks might know that IRL, I’m an industrial hygienist (IH). In UK-English…
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Saturday Evening in Bavaria Musings, Living room edition
Saturday Evening in Bavaria Musings, Living room edition
I’ve not done one of these in a while…
Rainy-day Playtime:
Sharkbait in the playroom, on the aerial hammock
Tea of the Day: I’m not sure. My son made a cup of tea for me this morning, and by the time it was cool enough to start sipping, the cat was drinking it. It must have been epic.
And in other news: One advantage of being in Germany at the moment is how very far away I am from the news in…
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Just over a year ago (the end of 2018 over the kids’ Winter Break), Scott (AKA: The Hubby) and I busted out one of the moldering skills of our misspent nerdy youth (before it was cool man!) and transformed our family into a costume-wearing, accent-wielding, foam weapon toting band of comedic adventurers of Faerûn.
Sharkbait takes his turn designing a one-off mini-campaign
Phee updates her notes
Multitasking…
Talking our way through bailing out an informant and fighting a notorious pirate lord
Today, we parent an adolescent half-elf druid and a pre-teen dragonborn barbarian. …Except when we parent a moon elf bard and a grung pirate. It gives the hubby and I no choice but to make household chores “taking the trash out from the keep to avoid the plague” or “dishwashing at the inn because you ran out of gold.” We watch shows like Critical Role like other families watch football and the kids watch YouTube animators like Puffin Forest and Dingo Doodles like the Saturday morning cartoons of my back-in-the-day.
More props (the fancy, more pricey kind)
Improvised scenery
Sharkbait’s battle map…
Props
Making up our own items for quest rewards
In our adventures, we have taken out a thieves guild, rescued small children from a troll, saved a village’s hunters from a roving band of evil goblins, and more. But more practically, playing Dungeons and Dragons (we play 5th edition) was a bit of a no-brainer as a family activity:
Players work together for a common goal with individual motivations and have to resolve conflict collaboratively, or they all potentially pay the price.
The game is heavily steeped in imagination and creativity as skills that are frequently overlooked in other games in both character development and during the progression of the game itself.
There’s a huge opportunity for customization and creativity outside of the game that gets them doing stuff they’d normally bypass as “not fun,” from painting tediously tiny minifigures, learning to sew making costumes, writing backstories and reading big fat books (in the immortal words of Sharkbait: “Who knew instruction manuals could be this fun, mom?!?”).
Playing and planning games teaches them strategic thinking, cause-and-effect, organization and planning (both in-game and out), conflict resolution, “public” speaking, storytelling, improvisation, and more; and
It’s a fun way to spend time together creating valued memories.
…As a parent, I value anything that gets my kids to read more, draw more, find ways to entertain themselves without having to hear the words “I’m bored,” and to enjoy spending time together. As the parent of a kid with ADHD, I value anything that helps teach him to appreciate the value of the tasks he often finds difficult (and therefore tedious) and encourages him to develop the social skills that he so often finds challenging. As a mom, whose creative outlets often feel stymied by adulting and parenting, I appreciate that I have the opportunity to engage in the former without feeling like I’m shirking the latter…also, I flirt with the hubby’s character, and there’s some good that comes from that as well when the kids aren’t around.
Lorelia, half-elf druid
Phee’s drawing of Lorelia
And…don’t just take my word for it…if it’s not something you’ve thought about or considered before… Anecdotal information and some preliminary studies suggest that kids that play RPG games like D&D do better in school, even when they have struggled in school and discuss the mechanisms by which such games may do so. It’s being used as a form of therapy, for teaching social skills to kids like mine, etc.
Don’t get me wrong, there are challenges to playing with kids vs. playing with other adults, especially when it comes to adapting to playing with kids for the first time, running an entire campaign of just kids (The Hubby and I hosted a campaign for our kids and their friends–6 to 8 preteens most sessions–until we moved to Germany over the summer), and in running a campaign with multiple kids with ADHD or other challenges (luckily there’s advice for that). There are simplified character sheets for kids, official books geared towards teaching kids the game (I’ve not gotten these because my kids love the official manuals, but I can see how they might be great for kids with reading challenges), and even choose-your-own-adventure style books.
And the best part about playing Dungeons and Dragons today, compared to 20-30 years ago, is that it’s more accessible and cooler than its ever been!
But (to quote another childhood favorite who has made a comeback), don’t just take my word on it!
the family that slays together… Just over a year ago (the end of 2018 over the kids' Winter Break), Scott (AKA: The Hubby) and I busted out one of the moldering skills of our misspent nerdy youth (before it was cool man!) and transformed our family into a costume-wearing, accent-wielding, foam weapon toting band of comedic adventurers of Faerûn.
So…
I don’t even know if I have anyone left who follows this little blog, but if so, welcome back.
If this is your first time here, hey there and welcome!
…don’t feel bad, it has been a while since I’ve been here too…
Life has its ebbs and flows, just like the tides, and when one thing rises to the forefront, others fall to the wayside.
This blog–really writing for pleasure in general–has been one of those things. I’m hoping that can change since we’ve become a bit more settled after some huge HUGE changes. The biggest change, the one that defines all of the other changes, is that we’ve moved (for at least the next 2 1/2 years, but hopefully for 4 1/2 years) to Germany (specifically, the Ansbach region in Bavaria).
This is our new home:
Ansbach’s historic downtown
our backyard mini-orchard
Bruce the Spruce, our Yule tree and the kiddos
Waiting on the bus, first day of school!
Modeling the winter look?
First snow!
Raking leaves for jumping at the park
Entry to the house (loft, tool room, and shed on the left)
the play loft and home silk/yoga studio above the garage
Moving into the kitchen…
Frozen fields
our back patio firepit
Bavarian farm roads outside our village
Cat’s eye view of the livingroom
Chickadee & Buddy play at the park across the street
We look forward to many new adventures, which I hope to share!
Greetings from Germany So... I don't even know if I have anyone left who follows this little blog, but if so, welcome back.
The Irreverent and Unconventional Guide to Holiday Tunes
The Irreverent and Unconventional Guide to Holiday Tunes
As a Pagan, I have a confession to make…
I love Christmas.
Ferreals.
I love it. I love the trees, the decorations, the lights, eggnog–I even love fruitcake. Sure, we have Yule/Solstice (Happy Belated, BTW, either way you celebrate it), but it’s still weird to celebrate a what amounts to a major cultural holiday on the wrong day (even if much of the iconology we associate with Christmas has its…
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I am not a football fan...but let's rant about protesting protest anyhow.
I am not a football fan…but let’s rant about protesting protest anyhow.
My grandfather (a WWII veteran, whom I was inspired by to join the Navy) and I once had a conversation about flag burning…I was in middle school, I think, and I remember exactly what he said to me (because I wrote it down afterwards, and I’ve reread it over the years from time to time)–“I hate the idea of someone burning the flag. I think its disgusting and disrespectful and that is why I would…
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raising a good loser
raising a good loser
Its always funny to me, when I hear the people around me that complain about participation trophies…its more often been my experience that the folks doing the complaining tend to emulate they very definition of poor sportsmanship whether they win or lose.
Often I hear “there were no participation awards in my day” from my contemporaries. Um, WTF? I have about a dozen or so that my mom saved…
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raising a good loser
raising a good loser
Its always funny to me, when I hear the people around me that complain about participation trophies…its more often been my experience that the folks doing the complaining tend to emulate they very definition of poor sportsmanship whether they win or lose.
Often I hear “there were no participation awards in my day” from my contemporaries. Um, WTF? I have about a dozen or so that my mom saved…
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Conversations with my Daughter
Conversations with my Daughter
Phee: The 1st amendment is the freedom of expression one, right mom?
Me: Yeah, why?
Phee: Nothing, I was just thinking about the story I’m writing.
Me: What were you thinking about?
Phee: Well, if the 1st amendment means jerks can say terrible and wrong things, it means the rest of us can tell everyone what jerks they are and tell them what we think of them right?
Me: Well, yes. But, you should…
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The fantasy beach body — Druid Life
The fantasy beach body — Druid Life
Oh, I would want retractable breathing membranes (not gills) and a third eyelid to act as built-in goggles and luminescent finger tips (flashlights, lol)for seeing underwater in the dark (or just in the dark)… And I would want to be able to photosynthesize in the sun. Also, leathery feet for better barefooting would be nice. And, just because, I want sentient hair, that only tangles intentionally…
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Praying for Clean Air
Praying for Clean Air
Aeolus, Keeper of the Winds1, I thank you for your part in maintaining the cycles of our home and the health and welfare of all creatures that share it. I ask you to hear this heartfelt plea.
I pray that I may draw a lifesaving breath. This is the most important element of health, to breathe clean and unpolluted air.2
Through ignorance and carelessness, we have poisoned your clean air. For…
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four quotes and a song
four quotes and a song
These may be repeats, but I like them…
“You have never answered but you did not need to. If I stand at the ocean I can hear you with your thousand voices. Sometimes you shout, hilarious laughter that taunts all questions. Other nights you are silent as death, a mirror in which the stars show themselves. Then I think you want to tell me something, but you never do. Of course I know I have written…
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On the Pulse of Morning by Maya Angelou
On the Pulse of Morning by Maya Angelou
A Rock, A River, A Tree Hosts to species long since departed, Mark the mastodon. The dinosaur, who left dry tokens Of their sojourn here On our planet floor, Any broad alarm of their hastening doom Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.
But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully, Come, you may stand upon my Back and face your distant destiny,
But seek no haven in my shadow. I will…
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Oh, the hells no...
Oh, the hells no…
1. THREAD. Yesterday, Friends of the BWCAW filed a suit against the federal government. The lawsuit challenges the administration’s arbitrary decision to put the interests of a foreign-owned mining conglomerate over the Boundary Waters. Here’s the scoop.
— Friends of the BWCAW (@FriendsBWCAW) June 26, 2018
2. SOME BACKGROUND: For several years, Twin Metals has been trying to open a sulfide-ore…
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The 5 Questions
Today, I ask both kids, for anything they do, to consider 5 questions. The questions have changed a bit, shifted in their complexity from when they were younger, but the idea behind them has been consistent since Sharkbait was in preschool and Chickadee was in kindergarten (now they are in the 4th and 6th grades, so it been a while). And sometimes I still make them tell me their answers…
But when…
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Rocketbook Scan - May 26, 2018 9:16 AM
Rocketbook Scan – May 26, 2018 9:16 AM
Attachment #clover saturday morning musings.pdf
This email is from hiking_fiend Delivered by Rocketbook.
Saturday Morning Musings.pdf
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A short garden blessing
A short garden blessing
A blessing to the ground beneath my bare feet, A blessing to the seeds that scatter, Where they fall upon the meadow, in the field, or in the woods Let Earth’s garden grow. I ask the Soil to nourish the seeds, I ask the Sun to warm the shoots, I ask the Rains to quench the roots. Help this garden grow. I give thanks to the bees that dance with the flowers, I give thanks to the worms digging deep…
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