So there have been a lot of changes in the last several months. One of the biggest has been that I've gone from being a pretty much full-time housewife and homeschooling mom with occasional side jobs of lit support, rulebook editing, and home organizing, to being a full-time HR person with a second job on weekends at the FLGS (shout-out to Game Preserve North! :) ) AND occasional side jobs of lit support, rulebook editing, and home organizing.
As you might well imagine, this has had a big impact on my kids, especially my youngest. I mean, honestly, my 16 year old is probably HAPPIER to have me NOT around - except of course when she wants me to fix food! :p But my 10 year old has really had a hard time adjusting from having mom available 24/7 to having mom available for a couple hours in the evenings. He's got a GREAT teacher at school who has been wonderfully understanding and sensitive to the emotions of a kid who's having a rough year, and he's made a lot of new friends at school too.
But what's really helped a lot is that my son and I share a real love for gaming. It's just such a good feeling to have something we can share to cheer ourselves up. Whenever one of us is feeling a little down, we just pull out a game and beat the stuffing out of each other for awhile and then we feel much better :D
Case in point - earlier this week he clobbered me at King of Tokyo
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image by deniseibase, on Flickr
This was a horrible beating - I just couldn't roll anything useful all game. I think I rolled 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3 more times in this game than I ever have, it was ridiculous! He had like 22 points and 9 health and I had 7 points and -3 health. TOTAL disaster.
However. I made my own back when we played Sorry!.
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image by deniseibase, on Flickr
Take a look at that! I was green, of course :D My son said I could have total gloating rights if he didn't get ANY pawns home, and it was close, but he managed to get the one blue pawn that you can't see onto home just in the nick of time.
We've also been playing Cube Quest.
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image by deniseibase, on Flickr
This was more of a self-inflicted slaughter :) I tend to get the scale & scope wrong on flicking games and either BARELY move the cube or send if FLYING across the room. Guess I don't know my own strength :p I didn't do TOO bad at first, I lost several of my peons due to flying across the room, but I managed to take a bunch of the other guys with me. Sadly, a rogue element in my own army went flying when he was a little too close to the king, and the resulting ricochet sent my own king flying off the table too...
My son had the gall to laugh at this! And point his finger and fall on the floor and everything! Can you believe how disrespectful some kids are these days?
My daughter rarely joins us for games, but she will hop on for UNO sometimes. This time she suggested a new rule she had seen in the interwebs - if someone plays a 7, everyone pass cards to the left; if someone plays a 0, everyone passes the the right. This actually adds a good bit of tactics as everyone gets to see all the hands and you can really mank each other up :)
So most of my gaming this week has been the simpler stuff for sure. It's been making me long for a heavier something - I've been hmmm-ing and huh-ing over Feudum, trying to decide if I want to back it or not. The game itself looks fairly interesting, and the comparisons to all these heavy, complex games that I enjoy both perks up that interest and makes me a little suspicious - first time designers and heavy games are an iffy proposition. Still, it worked for Trickerion, and I see about the same level of 'We've thought really hard about how to do this and make it work' with Feudum. I'll probably talk myself into it :)
And now I'm off for more gaming! While I typed this, my son set up Mystic Vale - I think that's a hint ;)
As you might well imagine, this has had a big impact on my kids, especially my youngest. I mean, honestly, my 16 year old is probably HAPPIER to have me NOT around - except of course when she wants me to fix food! :p But my 10 year old has really had a hard time adjusting from having mom available 24/7 to having mom available for a couple hours in the evenings. He's got a GREAT teacher at school who has been wonderfully understanding and sensitive to the emotions of a kid who's having a rough year, and he's made a lot of new friends at school too.
But what's really helped a lot is that my son and I share a real love for gaming. It's just such a good feeling to have something we can share to cheer ourselves up. Whenever one of us is feeling a little down, we just pull out a game and beat the stuffing out of each other for awhile and then we feel much better :D
Case in point - earlier this week he clobbered me at King of Tokyo
This was a horrible beating - I just couldn't roll anything useful all game. I think I rolled 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3 more times in this game than I ever have, it was ridiculous! He had like 22 points and 9 health and I had 7 points and -3 health. TOTAL disaster.
However. I made my own back when we played Sorry!.
Take a look at that! I was green, of course :D My son said I could have total gloating rights if he didn't get ANY pawns home, and it was close, but he managed to get the one blue pawn that you can't see onto home just in the nick of time.
We've also been playing Cube Quest.
This was more of a self-inflicted slaughter :) I tend to get the scale & scope wrong on flicking games and either BARELY move the cube or send if FLYING across the room. Guess I don't know my own strength :p I didn't do TOO bad at first, I lost several of my peons due to flying across the room, but I managed to take a bunch of the other guys with me. Sadly, a rogue element in my own army went flying when he was a little too close to the king, and the resulting ricochet sent my own king flying off the table too...
My son had the gall to laugh at this! And point his finger and fall on the floor and everything! Can you believe how disrespectful some kids are these days?
My daughter rarely joins us for games, but she will hop on for UNO sometimes. This time she suggested a new rule she had seen in the interwebs - if someone plays a 7, everyone pass cards to the left; if someone plays a 0, everyone passes the the right. This actually adds a good bit of tactics as everyone gets to see all the hands and you can really mank each other up :)
So most of my gaming this week has been the simpler stuff for sure. It's been making me long for a heavier something - I've been hmmm-ing and huh-ing over Feudum, trying to decide if I want to back it or not. The game itself looks fairly interesting, and the comparisons to all these heavy, complex games that I enjoy both perks up that interest and makes me a little suspicious - first time designers and heavy games are an iffy proposition. Still, it worked for Trickerion, and I see about the same level of 'We've thought really hard about how to do this and make it work' with Feudum. I'll probably talk myself into it :)
And now I'm off for more gaming! While I typed this, my son set up Mystic Vale - I think that's a hint ;)